"That news will be well received. Thank you for telling me, Mistress Cara."

"He can't issue orders," Kahlan said, "because he unequivocally believes that, for now, if he takes part in leading our forces against the Imperial Order, it would bring about our defeat. He believes that if he enters the battle too soon, we will then have no chance of ever winning. He believes he must wait for the right time, that's all. There's nothing more to it."

Kahlan felt a bit conflicted, helping to justify Richard's actions, when she wasn't entirely in favor of them. She felt it was necessary to check the advance of the Imperial Order's army now, and not give them a chance to freely pillage and murder the people of the New World.

The captain mulled this over as he ate some bannock. He frowned as he gestured with the piece he had left. "There is sound battle theory for such a strategy. If you have any choice in it, you only attack when it's on your terms, not the enemy's."

He became more spirited as he thought about it a moment. "It is better to hold an attack for the right moment, despite the damage an enemy can cause in the interim, than to go into a battle before the right time. Such would be an act of poor command."

"That's right." Kahlan laid her arm back and rested her right wrist on her brow. "Perhaps you could explain it to the other officers in those words-that it's premature to issue orders, and he's waiting for the proper time. I don't think that's really any different from the way Richard has explained it to us, but perhaps it would be better understood if put in such terms."

The captain ate the last bite of his bannock, seeming to think it over.

"I trust Lord Rahl with my life. I know the others do, too, but I think they will be reassured by such an explanation as to why he is withholding his orders. I can see now why he had to leave us-it was to resist the temptation to throw himself into the fray before the time was right."

Kahlan wished she was as confident of the reasoning as the captain. She recalled Cara's question, wondering how the people could prove themselves to Richard. She knew he would not be inclined to try it through a vote again, but she didn't see how else the people could prove themselves to him.

"I'd not mention it to Richard," she said. "It's difficult for him-not being able to issue orders. He's trying to do what he believes is right, but it's a difficult course to hold to."

"I understand, Mother Confessor. `In his wisdom we are humbled. We live only to serve. Our lives are his. » Kahlan studied the smooth lines and simple angles of his young face lit by the dancing firelight. In that face, she saw some of what Richard had been trying to say to her before. "Richard doesn't believe your lives are his, Captain, but that they are your own, and priceless. That is what he is fighting for."

He chose his words carefully; if he wasn't worried about her being the Mother Confessor, since he hadn't grown up fearing the power and the rule of such a woman, she was still the Lord Rahl's wife.

"Most of us see how different he is from the last Lord Rahl. I'm not claiming that any of us understands everything about him, but we know he fights to defend, rather than to conquer. As a soldier, I know the difference it makes to believe in what I'm fighting for, because. ."

The captain looked away from her gaze. He lifted a short branch of firewood, tapping the end on the ground for a time. His voice took on a painful inflection, "Because it takes something precious out of you to kill people who never meant you any harm."

The fire crackled and hissed as he slowly stirred the glowing coals.

Sparks swirled up to spill out from around the underside of the rock overhang.

Cara watched her Agiel as she rolled it in her fingers. "You. . feel that way too?"

Captain Meiffert met Cara's gaze. "I never realized, before, what it was doing to me, inside. I didn't know. Lord Rahl makes me proud to be D'Haran. He makes it stand for something right…. It never did before. I thought that the way things were, was just the way things were, and they could never change."

Cara's gaze fell away as she privately nodded her agreement. Kahlan could only imagine what life was like living under that kind of rule, what it did to people.

"I'm glad you understand, Captain," Kahlan whispered. "That's one reason he worries so much about all of you. He wants you to live lives you can be proud of. Lives that are your own."

He dropped the stick into the fire. "And he wanted all the people of Anderith to care about themselves the way he wants us to value our lives.

The vote wasn't really for him, but for themselves. That was why the vote meant so much to him?"

"That's why," Kahlan confirmed, afraid to test her own voice any further than that.

He stirred his spoon around to cool his dinner. It no longer needed cooling, she was sure. She supposed his thoughts were being stirred more than his dinner.

"You know," he said, "one of the things I heard people say, back in Anderith, was that since Darken Rahl was his father, Richard Rahl was evil, too. They said that since his father had done wrong, Richard Rahl might sometimes do good, but he could never be a good person."

"I heard that too," Cara said. "Not just in Anderith, but a lot of places."

"That's wrong. Why should people think that just because one of his parents was cruel, those crimes pass on to someone who never did them? And that he must spend his life making amends? I'd hate to think that if I'm ever lucky enough to have children, they, and then their children, and their children after that, would have to suffer forever for the things I've done serving under Darken Rahl." He looked over at Kahlan and Cara. "Such prejudice isn't right."

In the silence, Cara stared into the flames.

"I served under Darken Rahl. I know the difference in the two men." His voice lowered with simmering anger. "It's wrong of people to lay guilt for the crimes of Darken Rahl onto his son."

"You're right about that," Cara murmured. "The two may look a little alike, but anyone who has ever looked into the eyes of both men, as I have, could never begin to think they were the same kind of men."

Captain Meiffert ate the rest of his rice and beans in silence. Cara offered him her waterskin. He took it with a smile and his nod of thanks.

She dished him out a second bowlful from the pot, and cut him another piece of bannock. He looked only slightly less mortified to be served by a Mord-Sith than by the Lord Rahl. Cara found his expression amusing. She called him "Brass Buttons" and told him to eat it all. He did so as they listened to the sounds of the fire snapping and water dripping from the pine needles onto the carpet of leaves and other debris of the forest floor.

Richard returned, loaded down with the captain's bedroll and saddlebags. He let them slip to the ground beside the officer and then shook water off himself before sitting down beside Kahlan. He offered her a drink from a full waterskin he'd brought back. She took only a sip. She was more interested in being able to rest her hand on his leg.

Richard yawned. "So, Captain Meiffert, you said the general wanted you to give a full report?"

"Yes, sir." The captain went into a long and detailed account on the state of the army to the south, how they were stationed out on the plains, what passes they guarded in the mountains, and how they planned on using the terrain, should the Imperial Order suddenly come up out of Anderith and move north into the Midlands. He reported on the health of the men and their supply situation-both good. The other half of General Reibisch's D'Haran force was back in Aydindril, protecting the city, and Kahlan was relieved to hear that everything there was in order.