Hateful Things

14

As they quickly made their way down the elegant corridor, Richard spotted the group of people assembled in the distance. Most were sitting on the ugly orange-striped chairs outside the library. There was a group of soldiers there as well, to watch over the guests in the restricted area.

As they got close enough for the group to see that it was Lord Rahl approaching, in his war-wizard outfit, gold cape and all, along with the Mother Confessor in her white dress, the guests all shot to their feet.

When Richard and his group were close enough, all the people, except the soldiers, went on to a knee, bowing forward, as was the old tradition when meeting the Mother Confessor. Richard saw a number of those people trembling. He didn’t know if it was out of fear of him, or the Mother Confessor. He remembered after he had first met Kahlan, when they crossed the boundary into the Midlands, he saw people of every kind, including kings and queens, fall to their knees before Kahlan. Many of those, too, had trembled. Many people believed that a Confessor could steal their minds if she chose. In a way, that was true, but not in the way many people feared.

Kahlan came to a halt before the bowed, silent people.

“Rise, my children.”

Everyone returned to their feet, but none of them looked any more at ease. None of them would look up into either Richard’s or Kahlan’s eyes.

“I want to thank you all for coming,” Richard said in as friendly a tone as he could muster. Below the surface he was boiling with rage over the murders of so many people down in the dark recesses of the palace, but he knew he couldn’t show that anger to these people. “It’s an honor for me to finally get the chance to meet the gifted living here at the People’s Palace.”

One woman, with frizzy faded brown hair and in a plain, straight tan dress with no belt, held up a hand. When Richard nodded to her, she spoke in a meek voice.

“I am gifted, Lord Rahl.” Her other hand settled on the shoulder of a girl with her back up against the woman. “But my daughter, Dori, is not. Also, we don’t live here. We are merely visitors to the palace, come to watch the audiences you granted in the great hall the other day.”

Richard supposed she wanted to make that clear just in case the Lord Rahl suddenly took on the disposition of Richard’s father and decided to imprison the gifted who lived at the palace, or at least restrict their lives in some way.

Richard smiled at the woman. “I’m sure your daughter is no less of a handful, and no less of a joy, for being ungifted. The Mother Confessor and I are grateful that you came to visit the People’s Palace.”

That brought a smile to the woman. The smile looked to have surprised her at its unexpected arrival, causing her to blush.

The daughter, Dori, seemed to be even more shy than her mother. She wore a faded blue dress dotted with little white flowers and cinched at the waist by a thin woven cord belt tied at her hip. Her straight brown hair, parted in the middle, hung just short of her bony shoulders. She seemed too fearful to be able to bring herself to look up at the Lord Rahl towering above her. Richard studied her a moment as she turned her head, looking away to the side to avoid eye contact.

He finally clasped his hands behind his back as he strolled before the rest of the group, getting a good look at them all, and they at him. There were two older men with white hair and beards, one very old woman with short, wavy white hair, half a dozen young men and women still in their teens, and all the rest in a variety of years in between.

“You all are gifted in some way?” Richard asked.

Many of their eyes shifted to the half-dozen Mord-Sith standing off behind him before looking back and nodding, some slowly, some enthusiastically. Some even smiled with confident pride.

“Good. I’m truly honored to finally have the chance to meet all of you.” He smiled again. “Perhaps some of you have known your gift as far back as you can remember. I was shocked, myself, when I first learned that I’m gifted.”

That brought broader smiles to most of them and seemed to at least put others at ease to know he was human.

“Are there any among you who have been formally trained in the use of your gift?”

One of the older men, and three of the middle-aged women, lifted a hand.

“Can you tell me how?” Richard asked, pointing at the man.

He cleared his throat. “I was trained in prophecy, Lord Rahl. By an uncle who has long since passed away,” he hastened to add.

“Are you gifted in any other way?”

The man winced a little, as if afraid to disappoint Richard. “No, Lord Rahl. Just with prophecy, I’m afraid.”

“Are there any others among you who are gifted in prophecy?”

Everyone shook their heads. Richard turned back to the older man.

“And have you had any prophecy recently?”

He looked abashed. “I used to be visited by prophecy regularly, Lord Rahl, but I’m afraid that since the end of the war, I’ve no longer had any prophecies.”

Richard didn’t want to tell the man that he had ended prophecy, so instead he offered a smile. “All right, thank you for coming. If prophecy returns to you, please be sure to send word to me and perhaps I will call on you again, but that’s all that I need for now.” Richard held a hand out toward nearby stairs that led down to the public area. “Sorry to have asked you up here for nothing.”

As the man thanked Richard and dipped a bow, Shale came up behind Richard to speak in a confidential tone.

“Lord Rahl, I think I can be of assistance.”

“What do you mean?”

“I can very easily test each of these people for the scope of their ability and the specific talents of each. I believe it would make things go much faster, but more importantly we would get a true accounting of their actual ability, untainted by exaggerated boasting or imagined abilities.”

“That makes sense. I’ve seen people before who thought they were gifted when they really weren’t.” He turned back to the waiting group. “Shale, here, is a talented sorceress. She is going to assist me by testing each of you to see if you have a specific ability I’m looking for.”

Richard didn’t really have a specific ability he was looking for, as he had already found exactly what he sought.

But he was interested in knowing if anyone gifted with considerable power was among the group. That kind of person would worry the Golden Goddess and might possibly be useful.

Shale started in the back and worked her way among the group. As she approached each person, she smiled and told them to simply relax. She then placed a hand to each side of their head, in much the same way a mother might hold the face of a beloved child. She tested Dori’s mother, the woman who was visiting, last. Dori looked down and away, as if too shy to watch a sorceress at her craft.

Shale finally returned, taking Richard’s arm on the way past and leading him back a number of paces, out of earshot of the group. Kahlan went with them, wanting to know what Shale had discovered.

“Well?” Richard finally asked when they came to a stop. “What did you learn?”

Shale looked disappointed. “There are a variety of talents among these people. One man started training in the craft of wizardry. His gift is weak and not adequate enough that it could be developed into much of anything. A few of the women have a talent for sorcery, but it is a bit hard to call it a ‘talent.’ It’s more like a shallow hint. A number of them have minor healing ability. Some have a variety of other talents, but those talents are only latent, at best, and profoundly weak.”

“Who is the strongest among them?” Kahlan asked. “Who has the most power?”

Shale briefly cast a glance back over her shoulder before turning a frown on her and Richard.

“In all honesty, I don’t think that the whole lot of them have enough combined power to be able to light a candle.”

“Really?” Richard was mildly disappointed, because he had been hoping, along with his true interest for calling them all together, to maybe find among them some who were gifted enough to possibly help defend them. “None of them have even a modest amount of gift?”

Shale shook her head regretfully. “I’m afraid not, Lord Rahl. I think the strongest healer among them might have the power to pull out a splinter, but that’s about it. Many of them are quite proud of their gift, but not for sound reason.”

Kahlan’s attention was focused on Richard. “You don’t look very discouraged.”

Richard showed her a brief smile. “I’m not. I found what I was looking for.”

Before she could ask what he had been looking for, he returned to the group. Shale and Kahlan followed, Shale looking puzzled, Kahlan with a look of growing concern.

Kahlan leaned in close from behind. “Richard, are you having one of your crazy ideas?”

“He gets crazy ideas?” Shale asked in a whisper.

“You don’t know the half of it,” Kahlan whispered back. “Trust me on this one.”

Richard ignored them both and instead paused to take hold of Vika’s arm and pull her close. He tipped his head down toward her and spoke with quiet meaning. “I want you to look after Dori’s mother for me.”

Vika understood the look and so didn’t question the order. Her expression hardened. “Not a problem, Lord Rahl. I will take care of it.”

Richard returned to stand before the group, hands again casually clasped behind his back. “I would like to thank you all for coming. We have everything we needed to know. We have learned that your abilities are all quite special. For now, you may go back to what you were doing. If we discover that we have need of your unique talents, we will contact you.”

He held an arm out, indicating the stairway not far down the corridor, which was guarded by four soldiers with pikes.

Before the mother and daughter could leave with the rest of the group, Richard held a hand up to signal the woman to remain behind.

She frowned. “Yes, Lord Rahl?”

“Actually,” Richard said, “I would like to speak to your daughter, Dori.”

Dori’s head was bowed, her gaze cast down at the floor; she was too afraid to look up at the big, scary Lord Rahl.

Richard went to one knee and leaned close. He put a finger under her chin to lift her face up toward him. She turned her eyes away, still afraid to meet his gaze.

“What is it you want?” she asked in a small voice.

“I would like to surrender,” Richard said in a quiet, confidential tone that only she could hear.

The girl’s eyes suddenly looked up at him from under her brow, and then she slowly smiled in a way that no innocent little girl ever could.