Soul of the Fire (59 page)

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I swore a covenant that I was dead, and could only be returned to life when the men who committed those crimes were punished. The men with me gave up their lives too, to live again only if we succeeded. One in five of those young men returned to the living with Chandalen and me. But before we did, every one of the men who murdered the people of Ebinissia, died.

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I understand such an oath as you have given, Du Chaillu. Such a thing is sacred and not to be ignored. You and the blade masters may come with us.”

Du Chaillu bowed to Kahlan. “Thank you for honoring my people’s ways. You are a wise woman, and worthy of being wife to my husband, too.”

Richard rolled his eyes. “Kahlan—”

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The Mud People need Chandalen and his men. Cara is doing as you ask of her, and going to General Reibisch and then on to Aydindril. Until the general can send men to join with us, we will be alone and vulnerable. Du Chaillu and her men will be valuable and welcome protection.

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With so much at stake, Richard, our pride is the last thing we need to be considering. They are coming.”

Richard took in Cara’s blue eyes, icy cold with resolve. She wanted this. Du Chaillu’s dark eyes were iron hard. Her mind was made up. Kahlan’s green eyes … well, he didn’t want to even think about what was in her green eyes.

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All right,” he said. “Until the soldiers can reach us, you may come along.”

Du Chaillu directed a puzzled look at Kahlan. “Does he always tell you, too, things you already know?”

Fitch, his head bowed, could see Master Spink’s legs and feet as he walked among the benches, his boots making a slow thunk, thunk, thunk against the plank floor. Around the room, a few people, mainly the older women, sniffled as they wept quietly to themselves.

Fitch couldn’t blame them. He, too, was occasionally reduced to weeping at penance assembly. The lessons they learned were necessary if they were to fight their evil Haken ways—he understood that—but that didn’t make listening any easier.

When Master Spink lectured, Fitch preferred to look at the floor rather than by chance meet the man’s gaze. To meet the gaze of an Ander as he taught the horrors of what was done to his ancestors by Fitch’s was shaming.

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And so it was,” Master Spink went on, “that the Haken horde came by chance upon that poor farming village. The menfolk, with frantic concern for their families, had gathered together with those other simple Ander men from farms and other villages around. Together, they prayed to the Creator that their effort to repulse the bloodthirsty invaders might succeed.

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In desperation, they had already left nearly all their foodstuffs and livestock as a peaceful offering for the Hakens. They had sent messengers to explain the offerings, and that they wished no war, but none of those brave messengers ever returned.

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So it was a simple plan these men had, to go to the crest of a hill and wave their weapons overhead to make a show of strength, not to invite a fight, of course, but in an urgent effort to convince the Hakens to pass their villages by. These men were farmers, not warriors, and the weapons they waved were simple farm tools. Their didn’t want a fight; they wanted peace.

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So, there they were, those men I’ve taught you about—Shelby, Willan, Camden, Edgar, Newton, Kenway, and all the rest—all those good and kind men who you have come to know over these last few weeks as I’ve told you their stories, their loves, their lives, their hopes, their simple and decent dreams. There they were, up there on that hill, hoping for no more than to convince the Haken brutes to pass them by. There they were, waving their tools—their axes, their hoes, their sickles, their forks, their flails—waving them in the air, hoping to keep those wives and children you’ve also come to know safe from harm.”

Thump, thump, thump went Master Spink’s boots as he came closer to Fitch.

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The Haken army did not choose to pass those simple men by. The Hakens instead, laughing and hooting, turned their Dominie Dirtch on those gentle Ander men.”

Some of the girls gasped. Others wailed aloud. Fitch himself felt a twist of fear in his gut, and a lump in his throat. He had to sniffle himself as he imagined their gruesome death. He had come to know those men on the hill. He knew their wives’ names, their parents’ names, and their children.

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And while those murderous Haken bastards in their fine, fancy uniforms”—Fitch could see the boots halt right beside him where he sat on the end of the bench near the center aisle—“stood laughing, stood cheering, the Dominie Dirtch rang out with its terrible violence, tearing the flesh from those men’s bones.”

Fitch could feel Master Spink’s dark-eyed glare on the back of his neck as the women and many of the men sobbed their grief aloud.

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The wails of those poor Ander farmboys rose into the Ander sky. It was their last scream in this life, as their bodies were torn apart by the excellently dressed, laughing, jeering Haken horde with their weapon of heartless slaughter, the Dominie Dirtch.”

One of the older women cried out with the horror of it. Master Spink still stood over Fitch. Right at that moment, Fitch wasn’t as proud of his messenger garb as he had been earlier, when the other people had whispered to each other in astonishment as he took his seat.

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I see you have yourself a fine new uniform, Fitch,” Master Spink said in a voice that made Fitch’s blood go cold.

Fitch knew he was expected to say something.

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Yes, sir. Though I was a lowly Haken scullion, Master Campbell was kind enough to give me a job as a messenger. He wants me to wear this uniform so all Hakens might see that with Ander help we can do better. He also wants the messengers to reflect well on his office as we help in his work of spreading the word of the Minister of Culture’s good work for our people.”

Master Spink cuffed Fitch on the said of the head, knocking him from the bench. “Don’t talk back to me! I’m not interested in your Haken excuses!”

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I’m sorry, sir.” He knew better than to get up from his hands and knees.

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Hakens always have excuses for their crimes of hate. You’re wearing a fancy uniform, just like those murderous Haken overlords enjoyed wearing, and you enjoy it the same as they, and then you try to make it seem as if you don’t.

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To this day, we Anders suffer grievously under the unceasing scourge of Haken hate. Without question, every look from a Haken conveys it. We can never be free of it. There are always Hakens in uniforms they enjoy wearing to remind us of the Haken overlords.

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You prove your filthy Haken nature by trying to defend the indefensible—your self-centered arrogance, your pride in yourself, your pride in a uniform. You all hunger to be Haken overlords. Everyday, as Anders, we must suffer such Haken abuse.”

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Forgive me, Master Spink. I was wrong. I wore it out of pride. I was wrong to let my sinful Haken nature rule me.”

Master Spink grunted his contempt, but then went on with the lesson. Knowing he deserved more, Fitch was grateful to be let off so easy. He let out a sigh.

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With the menfolk murdered, that left the women and children of the village defenseless.”

The boots thunk, thunk, thunked as the man started out again, walking among the Hakens sitting on simple benches. Only after he had started away did Fitch dare to get up off his hands and knees and once more take his seat on the bench. His ear chimed something awful, like when Beata had struck him. Master Spink’s words bored through that hollow ringing.

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Being Hakens, of course, they decided to go through the village and have their wicked fun.”

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No!” a woman in back cried out. She fell to sobbing.

Hands clasped behind his back, Master Spink walked on, ignoring the interruption. There were frequently such interruptions.

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The Hakens, wishing a feast, went to the village. They were of a mind for some roasted meat.”

People fell to their knees, trembling with fear for the people they had come to know. Benches all over the room scuffed against the floor as most of the rest of the people in the room also went down on their knees. Fitch joined them.

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But it was a small village, as you know. After the Hakens slaughtered the livestock, they realized there wasn’t enough meat. Hakens, being Hakens, didn’t want for a solution for long.

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The children were seized.”

Fitch wished for nothing so much as he wished for the lesson to be over. He didn’t know if he could bear to hear any more. Apparently, some of the women were of the same mind. They collapsed to their faces on the floor, hands clasped, as they wept and prayed to the good spirits to watch over those poor, innocent, slain Ander people.

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You all know the names of those children. We will now go around the room and you will each give me one of the names you have learned, lest we forget those young lives so painfully taken. You will each give me the name of one of the children from that village—little girls and little boys—who were roasted alive in front of their mothers.”

Master Spink started at the last row. Each person in turn, as he pointed to them, spoke the name of one of those children, most beseeching after it that the good spirits watch over them. Before they were allowed to leave, Master Spink described the horror of being burned alive, the screams, the pain, and how long it took for the children to die. How long it took for their bodies to cook.

It was so grisly and sinister a deed that at one point, for just the briefest moment, Fitch considered for perhaps for the first time whether the story could really be true. He had trouble imagining anyone, even the brutal Haken overlords, doing such a horrific thing.

But Master Spink was Ander. He wouldn’t lie to them. Not about something as important as history.

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Since it’s getting late,” Master Spink said, after everyone had given a child’s name, “we will leave until next assembly the story of what the Haken invaders did to those women. The children, perhaps, were lucky not to have to see their mothers used for such perversions as the Hakens did to them.”

Fitch, along with the rest of the assembly behind him, burst through the doors when they were dismissed, glad to escape, for the night, the penance lesson. He had never been so glad for the cool night air. He felt hot and sick as the images of such a death as those children suffered kept going through his head. The cool air, at least, felt good on his face. He pulled the cool purging air into his lungs.

As he was leaning against a slender maple tree beside the path to the road, waiting for his legs to steady, Beata came out the door. Fitch straightened. There was enough light coming from the open door and the windows so she would have no trouble seeing him—seeing him in his new messenger’s outfit. He was hoping Beata would find it more appealing than did Master Spink.

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Good evening, Beata.”

She halted. She glanced down the length of him, taking in his clothes.

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Fitch.”

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You look lovely this evening, Beata.”

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I look the same as always.” She planted her fists on her hips. “I see you’ve fallen in love with yourself in a fancy uniform.”

Fitch suddenly lost his ability to think or speak. He had always liked the way the messengers looked in their uniforms, and had thought she would, too. He had been hoping to see her smile, or something. Instead, she glared at him. Now he wished more than anything he had just gone home straightaway.

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Master Dalton offered me a position—”

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And I suppose you’ll be looking forward to next penance assembly so you can hear about what those Haken beasts in their fancy uniforms did to those helpless women.” She leaned toward him. “You’ll like that. It will be almost as much fun for you as if you were there watching.”

Fitch stood with his jaw hanging as she huffed and stormed off into the night.

Other people walking down the street saw the tongue-lashing she had given him, a filthy Haken. They smiled in satisfaction, or simply laughed at him. Fitch stuffed his hands in his pockets as he turned his back to the road and leaned a shoulder against the tree. He brooded as he waited for everyone to move along on their own business.

It was an hour’s walk back to the estate. He wanted to be sure those returning there had gone on so he could walk alone and not have to talk to anyone. He considered going and buying himself some drink. He still had some money left. If not, he would go back and find Morley, and they would both get some drink. Either way, getting drunk sounded good to him.