Free Faith of the Fallen by Terry Goodkind Page A

have been worried discussions about Lord Rahl. We trust in him, of course,” he was quick to add. “We really do. It’s just that…”
    “So what are your concerns, then, Captain?” Cara put in, her brow drawing tight. “If you trust him so much.”
    He stirred his wooden spoon around the bowl. “I was there in Anderith through the whole thing. I know how hard he worked—and you, too, Mother Confessor. No Lord Rahl before him ever worried about what the people wanted. In the past, the only thing that mattered was what the Lord Rahl wanted. Then, after all that, the people rejected his offer—rejected him. He sent us back to the main force, and just left us”—he gestured around himself—“to come here. Out in the middle of nowhere. To be a recluse, or something.” He paused while searching for the right words. “We don’t…understand it, exactly.”
    He looked up from the fire, back into their eyes, as he went on. “We’re worried that Lord Rahl has lost his will to fight—that he simply no longer cares. Or perhaps…he is afraid to fight?”
    The look on his face told Kahlan that he feared reprisal for saying the things he said, and for asking such a question, but he needed the answer enough to risk it. This was probably why he had come to give a report, rather than send a simple messenger.
    “About six hours before he cooked that nice dinner pot of rice and beans,” Cara said in a casual manner, “he killed a couple dozen men. All by himself. Hacked them apart like I’ve never seen before. The violence of it shocked even me. He left only one man for me to dispatch. Quite unfair of him, I think.”
    Captain Meiffert looked positively relieved as he let out a long breath. He looked away from Cara’s steady gaze and back into his bowl to stir his dinner.
    “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