Naked Empire (38 page)

Zedd could hardly contain his own rage. Were it not for the collar stifling his gift, he would have reduced the entire place to ash by now.

“Once this Nicholas becomes adept at what he can do, you will find that he will want revenge of his own, and a price you may find far too high.”

Jagang spread his arms. “There, you are wrong, wizard. I can afford whatever Nicholas wants for Lord Rahl and the Mother Confessor. There is no such thing as a price too high.

“You may think me greedy and selfish, but you would be wrong. While I enjoy the spoils, I most relish the role I play in bringing heathens to heel. It is the end that truly concerns me, and in the end I will have mankind bow as they should to our just cause and the Creator’s ways.”

Jagang seemed to have spent his flash of intensity. He leaned back and scooped walnuts from a silver bowl.

“Zedd be wrong,” Adie finally spoke up. “You have shown us that you know what you be doing. You will be able to control your Slide just fine. May I suggest you keep him close, to aid you in your efforts.”

Jagang smiled at her. “You, too, my dried-up old sorceress, will be telling me all you know about what is in those crates.”

“Bah,” Adie scoffed. “You be a fool with worthless treasures. I hope you pull a muscle carrying them with you everywhere.”

“Adie’s right,” Zedd put in. “You are an incompetent oaf who is only going to—”

“Oh, come, come, you two. Do you think you will throw me into a fit of rage and I’ll slaughter the both of you on the spot?” His wicked grin returned. “Spare you the proper justice of what is to come?”

Zedd and Adie fell silent.

“When I was a boy,” Jagang said in a quieter tone as he stared off into the distance, “I was nothing. A street tough in Altur’Rang. A bully. A thief. My life was empty. My future was the next meal.

“One day, I saw a man coming down the street. He looked like he might have some money and I wanted it. It was getting dark. I came up silently behind him, intending to bash in his head, but just then he turned and looked me in the eye.

“His smile stopped me in my tracks. It wasn’t a kindly smile, or a weak smile, but the kind of smile a man gives you when he knows he can kill you where you stand if it pleases him.

“He pulled a coin from his pocket and flipped it to me, and then, without a word, turned and went on his way.

“A few weeks later, in the middle of the night, I woke up in an alley, where I slept under old blankets and crates, and I saw a shadowy form out by the street. I knew it was him before he flipped me the coin and moved off into the darkness.

“The next time I saw him, he was sitting on a stone bench at the edge of an old square that some of the less fortunate men of Altur’Rang frequented. Like me, no one would give these men a chance in life. People’s greed had sucked the life out of these men. I used to go there to look at them, to tell myself I didn’t want to grow up to be like them, but I knew I would, a nobody, human refuse waiting to pass into the shadow of oblivion in the afterlife. A soul without worth.

“I sat down on the bench beside the man and asked him why he’d given me money. Instead of giving me some answer that most people would give a boy, he told me about mankind’s grand purpose, the meaning of life, and how we are here only as a brief stop on the way to what the Creator has in store for us—if we are strong enough to rise to the challenge.

“I’d never heard such a thing. I told him that I didn’t think that such things mattered in my life because I was only a thief. He said that I was only striking back from the injustice of my lot in life. He said that mankind was evil for making me the way I was and only through sacrifice and helping those like me could man hope to be redeemed in the afterlife. He opened my mind to man’s sinful ways.

“Before he left, he turned back and asked me if I knew how long eternity was. I said no. He said that our miserable time in this world was but a blink before we entered the next world. That really made me think, for the first time, about our greater purpose.

“Over the next months, Brother Narev took the time to talk to me, to tell me about Creation and eternity. He gave me a vision of a possible better future where before I had none. He taught me about sacrifice and redemption. I thought I was doomed to an eternity of darkness until he showed me the light.

“He took me in, in return for helping him with life’s chores.

“For me, Brother Narev was a teacher, a priest, an advisor, a means to salvation”—Jagang’s gaze rose to Zedd—“and a grandfather, all rolled into one.

“He gave me the fire of what mankind can and should be. He showed me the true sin of selfish greed and the dark void of where it would lead mankind. Over time, he made me the fist of his vision. He was the soul; I was the bone and muscle.

“Brother Narev allowed me the honor of igniting the revolution. He placed me at the fore of the rise of mankind over the oppression of sinfulness. We are the new hope for the future of man, and Brother Narev himself allowed me to be the one to carry his vision in the cleansing flames of mankind’s redemption.”

Jagang leaned back in his chair, fixing Zedd with as grim a look as Zedd had ever seen.

“And then this spring, while carrying Brother Narev’s noble challenge to mankind, to those who had never had a chance to see the vision of what man can be, of the future without the blight of magic and oppression and greed and groveling to be better than others, I came to Aydindril…and what do I find?

“Brother Narev’s head on a pike, with a note, ‘Compliments of Richard Rahl.’

“The man I admired most in the world, the man who brought to us all the hallowed dream of mankind’s true purpose in this life as charged by the Creator himself, was dead, his head stuck on a pike by your grandson.

“If ever there was a greater blasphemy, a greater crime against the whole of mankind, I don’t know of it.”

Sullen shapes shifted across Jagang’s black eyes. “Richard Rahl will be dealt justice. He will suffer such a blow, before I send him to the Keeper. I just wanted you to know your fate, old man. Your grandson will know something of that kind of pain, and the additional torment of knowing that I have his bride and will make her pay dearly for her own crimes.” A ghost of the grin returned. “After he has paid this price, then I will kill him.”

Zedd yawned. “Nice story. You left out all the parts where you slaughter innocent people by the tens of thousands because they don’t want to live under your vile rule or Narev’s sick, twisted vision.

“On second thought, don’t bother with the sorry excuses. Just cut off my head, put it on a pike, and be done with it.”

Jagang’s smile returned in its full glory. “Not as easily as that, old man. First you have some talking to do.”

“Ah, yes,” Zedd said. “The torture. I almost forgot.”

“Torture?”

With two fingers Jagang signaled a woman to the side. The older Sister standing wringing her hands flinched at seeing his gaze on her and immediately rushed off behind a curtain of wall hangings. Zedd could hear her whispering urgent instructions to people beyond, and then the thump of feet rushing across the carpets and out of the tent.

Jagang went back to his leisurely meal while Zedd and Adie stood before him, starving, dying of thirst. The dream walker finally set his knife across a plate. Seeing this, the slaves sprang into action, clearing away the variety of dishes, most having been tasted, but that hardly made a dent in them. In a matter of moments the entire table was emptied of the food and drink, leaving only the books, the scrolls, the candles, and the silver bowl of walnuts.

Sister Tahirah, the Sister who had captured Zedd and Adie at the Keep, stood to the side, her hands clasped before her as she watched them. Despite her obvious fear of Jagang, and her servile fawning over the man, the knowing smirk at Zedd and Adie betrayed the pleasure she was deriving from what was to come.

When half a dozen grisly men entered the room and stood off to the side, Zedd began to understand what it was that pleased Sister Tahirah. They were unkempt, brawny, and as merciless-looking as any men Zedd had ever seen. Their hair was wildly tangled and greasy. Their hands and forearms were spattered with sooty smears, their fingernails ragged and foul. Their filthy clothes were stained dark with dried blood from the labor of their profession.

These men worked at torture.

Zedd looked away from the Sister’s steady gaze. She hoped to see fear, panic, or perhaps sobbing.

Then a group of men and women were ushered into the dim room in the emperor’s tent. They looked to be farmers or humble working folk, probably picked up by patrols. The men embraced their wives as children huddled around the women’s skirts like chicks around hens. The people were herded over to the side of the room, opposite the line of torturers.

Zedd’s eyes suddenly turned to Jagang. The dream walker’s black eyes were watching him as he chewed a walnut.

“Emperor,” said the Sister who had brought the families in, “these are some of the local people, people from the countryside, as you requested.” She held an introductory hand out. “Good people, this is our revered emperor, Jagang the Just. He brings the light of the Imperial Order to the world, guided by the Creator’s wisdom, that we might all lead better lives and find salvation with the Creator in the afterlife.”

Jagang surveyed the cluster of Midlanders as they awkwardly bowed and curtsied.

Zedd felt sick at seeing the timid terror on their faces. They would have had to walk through the encampment of Order soldiers. They would have seen the size of the force that had overrun their homeland.

Jagang lifted his arm toward Zedd. “Perhaps you know this man? This is First Wizard Zorander. He is one who has ruled you with his command of magic. As you can see, he is now shackled before us. We have freed you from the wicked rule of this man and those like him.”

The people’s eyes darted between Zedd and Jagang, unsure of their role in the emperor’s tent, or what they were supposed to do. They finally bobbed their heads, mumbling their thanks for their liberation.

“The gifted, like these two, could have used their ability to help mankind. Instead, they used it for themselves. Where they should have sacrificed for those in need, they were selfish. It is criminal to behave as they have, live as they have, with all they have. It makes me angry to think of all they could do for those in need, those like you poor people, were it not for their selfish ways. People suffer and die without the help they could have had, without the help these people could have given, were they not so self-centered.

“This wizard and his sorceress are here because they have refused to help us free the rest of the people of the New World by telling us the function of the vile things of magic we have captured along with them—things of magic they scheme to use to slaughter untold numbers of people. This selfish wizard and sorceress do this out of spite that they could not have their way.”

All the wide eyes turned to Zedd and Adie.

“I could tell you people of the vast numbers of deaths this man is responsible for, but I fear you would be unable to fathom it. I can tell you that I simply cannot allow this man to be responsible for tens of thousands more deaths.”

Jagang smiled at the children then and gestured with both hands, urging them to come to him. The children, a dozen or so, from six or seven to maybe twelve, clung to their parents. Jagang’s gaze rose to those parents as he again motioned the children to come to him. The parents understood and reluctantly urged their children to do as the emperor bid of them.

The clump of innocence haltingly approached Jagang’s outstretched arms and wide grin. He embraced them woodenly as they shuffled in close around him. He tousled the blond hair of a boy, and then the straight sandy hair of a girl. Several of the younger ones peered pleadingly back at parents before cringing at Jagang’s meaty hand on their backs, his jovial pat on their cheek.

Silent terror hung thick in the air.

It was as frightening a sight as Zedd had ever witnessed.

“Well, now,” the smiling emperor said, “let me get to the reason I have called upon you people.”

His powerful arms gathered the children before him. As a Sister blocked a boy wanting to return to his parents, Jagang put his huge hands on a young girl’s waist and set her upon his knee. The girl’s wide eyes stared up at the smiling face, the bald head, but mostly at the nightmare void of the dream walker’s inky eyes.

Jagang looked from the girl back to the parents. “You see, the wizard and sorceress have refused to offer their help. In order to save a great many lives, I must have their cooperation. They must answer honestly all my questions. They refuse. I’m hoping you good people can convince them to tell us what we need to know in order to save the lives of a great many people, and free a great many more from the oppression of their magic.”

Jagang looked toward the row of men standing silently against the opposite wall. With a single tilt of his head, he commanded them forward.

“What are you doing?” a woman asked, even as her husband tried to restrain her. “What do you intend?”

“What I intend,” Jagang told the crowd of parents, “is for you good people to convince the wizard and the sorceress to talk. I’m going to put you in a tent alone with them so that you can persuade them to do their duty to mankind—persuade them to cooperate with us.”

As the men began seizing the children, they finally burst out in frightened crying. The parents, seeing their red-faced children bawling in terror, cried out themselves and rushed forward to retrieve them. The big men, each holding one or two little arms in a fist, shoved the parents back.

The parents fell to hysterical screaming for the children to be freed.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that,” Jagang said over the wails of the children. He tilted his head again and the men started carting the twisting, screaming children out of the tent. The parents were wailing as well, trying to reach in past big filthy arms to touch what was to them most precious in the world.

The parents were bewildered and horrified, fearing to cross a line that would bring wrath down on their children, yet not wanting them to be carted away. Against their urgent pleading, the children were swiftly whisked away.

As the children were taken out, the Sisters immediately blocked the doorway behind them, keeping the parents from following. The tent fell to pandemonium.

With the single word “silence” from Jagang, and his fist on the table, everyone fell silent.

“Now,” Jagang said, “these two prisoners are going to be confined to a tent. All of you are going to be in there, alone, with them. There will be no guards, no watchers.”

“But what about our children?” a woman in tears begged, caring nothing about Zedd and Adie.

Jagang pulled a squat candle toward him on the table. “This will be the tent with these two, and you good people.” He circled a finger around the candle. “All around this tent with you and the criminals, there will be other tents close.”

Everyone stared at his ringed finger going round and round the candle. “Your children will be close by, in these tents.” Jagang scooped up a handful of walnuts from the silver bowl. He dribbled some onto the table around the candle and put the rest into his mouth.

The room was silent as they all stared at him, watching him chew the walnuts, afraid to ask a question, afraid to hear what he might say next.

Finally a woman could no longer hold her tongue. “Why will they be there, in those tents?”

Jagang’s black eyes took them all in before he spoke, making sure none would miss what he had to tell them.

“Those men who took your children to those tents will be torturing them.”

The parents’ eyes widened. Blood drained from their faces. One woman fainted. Several others bent to her. Sister Tahirah squatted beside the woman and touched a hand to the woman’s forehead. The woman’s eyes popped open. The Sister told the women to get her to her feet.

When Jagang was satisfied that he had everyone’s attention, he circled a finger around the candle again, over the walnuts around it. “The tents will be close around so you can all clearly hear your children being tortured, to be sure that you understand that they will not be spared the worst those men can do.”

The parents stood frozen, staring, seemingly unable to believe the reality of what they were hearing.

“Every few hours, I will come to see if you good people have convinced the wizard and the sorceress to tell us what we need to know. If you have not succeeded, then I will go off to other business and when I have the time I will return again to check if these two have decided to talk.

“Just be sure that this wizard and sorceress do not die while you convince them to be reasonable. If they die, then they can’t answer our questions. Only when and if they answer questions will the children be released.”

Jagang turned his nightmare eyes on Zedd. “My men have a great deal of experience at torturing people. When you hear the screams coming from the tents all around, you will have no doubt as to their skill, or their determination. I think you should know that they can keep their guests alive under torture for days, but they cannot work miracles. People, especially such young, tender souls, cannot survive indefinitely. But, should these children die before you agree to cooperate, there are plenty more families with children who can take their place.”

Zedd could not halt the tears that ran down his face to drip off his chin as Sister Tahirah took his arm and pulled him toward the doorway. The crowd of parents fell on him, clawing at his clothes, screaming and crying for him to do as the emperor asked.

Zedd dug in his heels and struggled to a stop before the table. Desperate hands clutched at his robes. As he looked around at their tear-stained faces, meeting the eyes of each, they fell silent.

“I hope you people can now understand the nature of what it is we are fighting. I am so sorry, but I cannot dull the pain of this darkest hour of your lives. If I were to do as this man wants, countless more children would be subjected to this tyrant’s brutality. I know that you will not be able to weigh this against the precious lives of your children, but I must. Pray the good spirits take them quickly, and take them to a place of eternal peace.”

Zedd could not say more to them, to their desperate gazes. He turned his watery eyes to Jagang. “This will not work, Jagang. I know you will do it anyway, but it will not work.”

Behind the heavy table, Jagang slowly rose. “Children in this land of yours are plentiful. How many are you prepared to sacrifice before you allow mankind to be free? How long are you willing to persist in your stubborn refusal to allow them to have a future free from suffering, want, and your uninspired morals?”

The heavy gold and silver chains around his neck, the looted medallions and ornaments resting against his muscled chest, and the rings of kings on his fingers all sparkled in the candlelight.

Zedd felt the numb weight of a hopeless future under the yoke of the monstrous ideals of this man and his ilk.

“You cannot win in this, wizard. Like all those who fight on your side to oppress mankind, to allow the common people to be left to cruel fate, you are not even willing to sacrifice for the sake of the lives of children. You are brave with words, but you have a cold soul and a weak heart. You don’t have the will to do what must be done to prevail. I do.”

Jagang tilted his head and the Sister shoved Zedd toward the door. The screaming, crying, begging crowd of people closed in around Zedd and Adie, clawing and pawing at them in wild desperation.

In the distance, Zedd could hear the horrifying screams of their terrified children.