Naked Empire

by Angreal

  The hair at the nape of his neck prickled as if lightning was about to strike. Richard scanned the dark, empty room.

  "Where's Kahlan and Jennsen?"

  "They went outside before," Cara said.

  "Good. Let's go!"

  Just as Richard reached the top of the stairs, a fiery blast from back in the room knocked him sprawling. Cara fell on his legs. The stairwell lit in a flash of yellow and orange light as the entire basement filled with flames. Gouts of fire rolled up the stairwell.

  Richard seized Cara's arm and dove with her through the open doorway. As they burst out into the night, the building behind them erupted in a thunderous roar of flames. Parts of the building broke apart, lifting in the billowing blaze. Richard and Cara ducked as flaming boards fell all around them, bouncing and flipping across the ground lit by the glow.

  Finally away from the burning building, Richard made a quick appraisal of the alley, looking to see if there were any soldiers about to set upon them. Not seeing anyone he didn't recognize, he started the men moving down the alley to put some distance between them and the burning building.

  "We have to get away from here," Richard told Anson. "Nicholas knew we were here. The fire will draw attention and troops. We haven't much time."

  Looking around, he still didn't see Kahlan anywhere. His concern rising, he spotted Jennsen, Tom, and Owen running up the alley toward him. By the looks on their faces, he immediately knew that something was wrong.

  Richard seized Jennsen's arm as she ran up close. "Where's Kahlan?"

  Jennsen gulped air. "Richard—she, she—"

  Jennsen burst into tears. Owen waved a square-sided bottle and a piece of paper, as he, too, wept uncontrollably.

  Richard looked at Tom, expecting an answer, and fast. "What's going on?"

  "Nicholas found the antidote. He offered it in trade... for the Mother Confessor. We tried to stop her, Lord Rahl—I swear we did. She wouldn't listen to any of us. She insisted that she was going to get the antidote and then stop Nicholas. After you have the antidote, if she fails to stop Nicholas and return, she wants you to come for her."

  The leaping flames lit the grim faces around him.

  "Once her mind is made up," Tom added, "there's no talking her out of it. She has a way of making you do as she says."

  Richard knew the truth of that. Amid the roar and crackle of the fire, the building groaned and popped. The roof began to fall in, sending showers of sparks skyward.

  Owen urgently handed the square-sided bottle to Richard. "Lord Rahl, she did it to get the antidote. She wanted you to have it so you could be well. She said that comes first—before it is too late."

  Richard pulled the cork on the bottle. It had the slight aroma of cinnamon. He took the first swallow, expecting a thick, sweet, spicy taste. It didn't taste that way at all.

  He looked at Jennsen's and Owen's faces. "This is water."

  Jennsen's eyes went wide. "What?"

  "Water. Water with a little cinnamon in it." Richard poured it on the ground. "It's not the antidote. She traded herself to Nicholas for nothing."

  Jennsen, Owen, and Tom stood in mute shock.

  Richard felt a kind of detached calm. It was over. It was the end of everything. He now had a limited amount of time to do what had to be done ... and then everything was at an end for him.

  "Let me see this note," he said to Owen.

  Owen handed it over. Richard had no trouble reading by the light coming from the fire. As Cara, Tom, Jennsen, and Owen watched, he read it over three times.

  Finally, his arm lowered. Cara snatched the note away and read it for herself.

  Richard gazed up the alleyway at the burning building, trying to figure it out. "How did Nicholas know that someone was coming for the antidote? He said we had an hour. How did he know we were here, this close, and coming for it, in order to write in the note that he gave us an hour?"

  "Maybe he didn't," Cara said. "Maybe he wrote the note days ago. Maybe he just wrote that to make us rush without thinking."

  "Maybe." Richard gestured behind him. "But how did he know we were here?"

  "Magic?" Jennsen offered.

  Richard didn't like the idea that Nicholas apparently knew so much and was always one step ahead of them.

  "How did you know that Nicholas was about to set this place ablaze?" Cara asked him.

  "I woke suddenly," Richard said. "My headache was gone and I just knew we had to get out at once."

  "So your gift worked?"

  "I guess so. It does that—it works sometimes to warn me."

  He wished he could somehow make it more dependable. At least this time it had been, or they would all be dead.

  Tom peered out into the night. "So, you think Nicholas is close? That he knew where we were and set the place afire?"

  "No. I think he wants us to believe he's close. He's a wizard. He could have sent wizard's fire from a great distance. I'm no expert on magic; he might have used some other means to set the fire from a distance."

  Richard turned to Owen. "Take me to this building where you hid the antidote, where Nicholas was when you first saw him."

  Without hesitation, Owen started out. The rest of the small group followed after him.

  "Do you think she will be there?" Jennsen asked.

  "There's only one way to find out."

  By the time they reached the river they were out of breath. Richard was furious to find the bridge gone, with stone blocks from it scattered on the banks far below; the rest of it had apparently vanished beneath the dark water. Owen and some of the other men said that there was another bridge farther to the north, so they took off in that direction, following the road that twisted along beside the river.

  Before they reached the bridge, a knot of soldiers rushed out from a side street with weapons raised, yelling battle cries.

  The night rang with the distinctive sound of Richard's sword being drawn. While the blade was free, its magic was not. With the heart-pounding threat, it didn't matter. Richard had anger to spare and met the enemy with a cry of his own.

  The first man lunged. Richard's strike was so violent it cleaved the burly man down through the leather armor over his shoulder to his opposite hip. As Richard spun without pause to a soldier coming at him from behind, he brought the sword around with such speed that the man was beheaded before he had cocked his sword arm. Richard drew his elbow back, smashing the face of a man rushing in to stab him from behind. A quick thrust took down another man before Richard could turn to finish the man behind, who had dropped to his knees, his hands covering his bleeding face. A moonlit flash of Richard's sword brought measured death.

  Tom slashed through the men at the same time as Cara's Agiel took others down. Cries of surprised pain shattered the quiet of the night. All the while, Richard swept through the enemy like a wind-borne shadow.

  In mere moments, the night was again silent. Richard, Tom, and Cara had eliminated the enemy squad before any of their men could react to the threat that had come out of the darkness. Scarcely had they caught their breath when Richard was already charging onward to the bridge.

  When they reached it, two slouching Imperial Order soldiers stood guard, pikes standing upright. The guards seemed to be surprised that people would be running toward them at night. Probably because the people of Bandakar had never before dared to cause them any trouble, the two guards stood watching Richard come until he pulled his sword from behind and took them down with a rapid thrust to the first man and a powerful sweeping slice that cut the second in two along with the pike standing at his side.

  The small company raced unopposed across the bridge and into the darkness among the crowded buildings. Owen directed Richard at every turn as they rushed onward toward the place where Owen had hidden the antidote and where he had recovered, instead of the antidote, the note demanding Kahlan in exchange for Richard's life, in exchange for the lives of an empire naked to the dark talents of Nicholas the Slide.

&nbs
p; In the somber heart of the city made up of small, squat, mostly single-story buildings, Owen pulled Richard to a stop. "Lord Rahl, down here, at the corner, we turn to the right. A short distance beyond is a square where people often gather. At the far end of the square will be a building taller than those around it. That is the place. Down a small street to the side of it, there will be an alleyway that runs behind the building. That is the way I got in, before."

  Richard nodded. "Let's go."

  Without waiting to see if the tired men were with him, he started out, keeping in close to the buildings, to the shadows cast by the moon. Richard moved around the building at the corner. Hung over a small front window was a carved sign displaying loaves of bread. It was still too early for the baker to be at work.

  Richard looked up and froze. There before him was the square with trees and benches. The building across the open square was in ruin. Only smoldering timbers remained. A small crowd had gathered around, watching what had hours ago obviously been a large fire.

  "Dear spirits," Jennsen whispered in horror. She covered her mouth, fearing to speak aloud the worry on everyone's mind.

  "She wouldn't be in there," Richard said in answer to the unspoken fear. "Nicholas wouldn't take her back here just to kill her."

  "Then why do this?" Anson asked. "Why burn the place down?"

  Richard watched the wisps of smoke slowly curling up into the cool night air, at his hopes disappearing. "To send me a message that he has her and I'll not find her."

  "Lord Rahl," Cara said under her breath, "I think we had better get out of here."

  From the darkness around the building that had burned down, Richard could just start to make out the sight of soldiers by the hundreds, no doubt waiting to catch them.

  "I feared as much," Owen said. "That's why I brought us in by such a circuitous route. See that road over there, where all the soldiers are? That's the road coming from the bridge we crossed."

  "How do they always know where we are, or where we will be?" Jennsen whispered in frustration. "And when?"

  Cara grabbed Richard's shirt and started pulling him back. "There are too many. We don't know how many more are around us. We need to get out of here."

  Richard was loath to admit it, but she was right.

  "We have men waiting for us," Tom reminded him. "And a lot more coming."

  Richard's mind raced. Where was she?

  Finally he nodded. The instant he did, Cara took him by his arm and they dashed off into the darkness.

  * * *

  CHAPTER 59

  Under the sweep of stars, Richard willed himself to stand up straight and tall before all the men gathered beneath the spreading branches of the oak trees at the forest's edge. A few candles burned among the gathering so they could all see. By the time they charged into the city of Northwick to make their attack, it would just be light.

  Richard wanted nothing more than to get into the city and find Kahlan, but he had to use everything he had at hand to help, or he might waste the chance. He had to do this, first.

  Most of these men had never really fought before. Owen and Anson's men from the town of Witherton had been there at the first attack on the sleeping houses and had taken part in the skirmishes there. The rest of the men were from Northwick, where Richard had gone to see the Wise One. They had been in on the clashes with the soldiers who weren't poisoned. There had not been a great many enemy soldiers to fight, but the men had done what had to be done. If anything, those minor but bloody encounters had served only to make the men more determined, showing them that they could win freedom themselves, that they were in control of their own destiny.

  This, though, was different. This was going to be a battle on a scale they had not experienced. Worse, it was in a city that had, for the most part, willingly joined with the Order's cause. The populace was not likely to offer much help.

  Had he more time, Richard might have come up with a better plan that would have chipped away at the enemy's numbers, first, but there was no time. It had to be now.

  Richard stood before the men, hoping to give them something to help them carry the day. He had trouble thinking of anything but finding Kahlan. In order to have the best chance to save her, he put her from his mind and focused on the task at hand.

  "I had hoped we wouldn't have to do it this way," he said. "I had hoped we could do it in some manner like we've done before, with the fire, or the poisoning, so that none of you would be hurt. We don't have that option. Nicholas knows we're here. If we run, his men will come after us. Some of us might escape ... for a while."

  "We are finished running," Anson said.

  "That's right," Owen agreed. "We have learned that running and hiding brings only greater suffering."

  Richard nodded. "I agree. But you must understand that some of us are probably going to die, today. Maybe most of us. Maybe all of us. If any of you choose not to fight, then we must know now. Once we go in, we'll all be depending on each other."

  He clasped his hands behind his back as he paced slowly before them. It was hard to make out their faces in the dim light. Richard knew, too, that his time was running out. His sight would only get worse. His dizziness would only get worse.

  He knew he was never going to get better.

  If he was to have a chance to get Kahlan away from the men of the Order, it had to be at once, with these men or without them.

  When none said that they wanted to quit, Richard went on. "We need to get to their commanders for two reasons: to find out where the Mother Confessor is being held, and to eliminate them so that they can't direct their soldiers against us.

  "You all have weapons, now, and in the limited time we've had, we've done our best to teach you how to use them. There's one other thing you must know. You will be afraid. So will I.

  "To overcome this fear, you must use your anger."

  "Anger?" one of the men asked. "How can we bring forth anger when we're afraid?"

  "These men have raped your wives, your sisters, your mothers, daughters, aunts, cousins, and neighbors," Richard said as he paced. "Think about that, when you look into the enemy's eyes as they come at you. They have taken most of the women away. You all know why. They have tortured children to make you give up. Think about the terror of your children as they screamed in fear and pain, dying bloody and alone after being mutilated by these men."

  The heat of Richard's anger seeped into his words. "Think about that when you see their confident grins as they come at you. These men have tortured people you loved, people who never did anything against them. Think about that as these men come at you with their bloodstained hands.

  "These men have sent many of your people away to be used as slaves. Many more of your people have been murdered by these men. Think about that, when they come to murder you, too.

  "This is not about a difference of opinion, or a disagreement. There can be no debate or uncertainty about this among moral men. This is about rape, torture, murder."

  Richard turned and faced the men. "Think about that, when you face these beasts." He tapped a fist to his chest as he ground his teeth. "And when you face these men, men who have done all these things to you and your loved ones, face them with hate in your hearts. Fight them with hate in your hearts. Kill them with hate in your hearts. They deserve no better."

  The woods were silent as the men considered his chilling words. Richard knew that he had rage enough, and hate enough, to be eager to get at the men of the Imperial Order.

  He didn't know where Kahlan was, but he intended to find out and to have her back. She had done as she had to in order to get the antidote to save his life. He understood what she had done, and couldn't fault her for it—that was the kind of woman she was. She loved him just as fiercely as he loved her. She had done what she had to do. But he was not going to let her down. She was depending on him to come for her.

  The terrible irony was that it had all been for nothing. The antidote she had made such a sacrifice to obtain
was no antidote at all.

  Richard looked out at all their faces, so intent on what he had to tell them on the eve of such a momentous battle, and remembered, then, the words on the statue at the entrance to this land, the words of the Wizard's Eighth Rule: Taiga Vassternich.

  "There is one last thing to tell you," he said. "The most important thing of all."

  Richard faced them as the leader of the D'Haran Empire, an empire struggling to survive, to be free, and told them those two words in their language.

  "Deserve Victory."

  It was just turning light as they charged into the city. Only one of them had remained behind: Jennsen. Richard had forbidden her from joining the fight. Besides being young and not nearly as strong as the men they would come up against, she would only create a tempting target. Rape was a sacred weapon of the wicked, and one this enemy used religiously. The men of the Imperial Order would rally for such a prize. Cara was different; she was a trained warrior and more lethal than any of them except Richard.

  Jennsen hadn't been pleased to be left behind, but she had understood Richard's reasons and hadn't wanted to give him anything else to worry about. She and Betty had remained behind in the woods.

  A man they had sent out to scout because he knew the area well emerged from a side alley. As they reached him they all moved up against the wall, trying to remain out of sight as best they could.

  "I found them," the scout said, trying to catch his breath. He pointed to the right of their route into the city.

  "How many?" Richard asked.

  "I think it must be their main force within the city, Lord Rahl. It's where they sleep. They seem to still be there, as you expected, and not yet up. The place they've taken over contains buildings for city offices and administration. But I bring troubling news, as well. They are being protected by the people of the city."

  Richard ran his fingers back through his hair. He had to concentrate to keep from coughing. He gripped the window frame of the building beside him to help himself stand.