Richard, hanging his head, tapped his fingertips together. He didn't think the man had heard a word he'd said. They needed rest. He needed to translate the book. They needed to get to where they were going. At least he didn't have a headache.
"Owen, I'm sorry," he finally said in a quiet voice. "I can't help you in so direct a manner. But I would like you to understand that my cause is to your advantage, too, and that what I'm doing will also cause Jagang to eventually pull his troops out of your homeland as well, or at least weaken their presence so that you can throw them out yourselves."
"No," Owen said. "His men will not leave my land until you come and..
" Owen winced. "And destroy them."
The very word, the implication, looked sickening to the man.
"Tomorrow," Richard said, no longer bothering to try to sound polite, "we have to be on our way. You will have to be on your way as well. I wish you success in ridding your people of the Imperial Order."
"We cannot do such a thing," Owen protested. He sat up straighten "We are not savages. You and those like you-the unenlightened ones-it is up to you to do it and give us freedom, I am the only one who can bring you. You must come and do as your kind does. You must give our empire freedom."
Richard rubbed his fingertips across the furrows of his brow. Cara started to rise. A look from Richard sat her back down.
"I gave you water," Richard said as he stood. "I can't give you freedom."
"But you must-"
"Double watch tonight," Richard said as he turned to Cara, cutting Owen off.
Cara nodded once as her mouth twisted with a satisfied smile of iron determination.
"In the morning," Richard added, "Owen will be on his way."
"Yes," she said, her blue-eyed glare sliding to Owen, "he certainly will be."
What is it?" Kahlan asked as she rode up beside the wagon.
Richard looked to be furious about something. She saw then that he had the book in one hand; his other was a fist. He opened his mouth, about to speak, but when Jennsen, up on the seat beside Tom, turned back to see what was going on, Richard said to her instead, "Kahlan and I are going to check the road up ahead. Keep your eye on Betty so she doesn't jump out, will you, Jenn?"
Jennsen smiled at him and nodded.
"If Betty gives you any trouble," Tom said, "just let me know and I'll take her to a lady I know and have some goat sausages made up."
Jennsen grinned at their private joke and gave Tom a good-natured elbow in his ribs. As Richard climbed over the side of the wagon and dropped to the ground, she snapped her fingers at the tail-wagging goat.
"Betty! You just stay there. Richard doesn't need you tagging along every single time."
Betty, front hooves on the chafing rail, bleated as she looked up at Jennsen, as if asking for her to reconsider.
"Down," Jennsen said in admonishment. "Lie down."
Betty bleated and reluctantly hopped back down into the wagon bed, but she would settle for no less than a scratch behind the ears as consolation before she would lie down.
Kahlan leaned over from her seat in the saddle and untied the reins to Richard's horse from the back of the wagon. He stepped into the stirrup and gracefully swung up in one fluid motion. She could see that he was agitated about something, but it made her heart sing just to look at him.
He shifted his weight forward slightly, urging his horse ahead. Kahlan squeezed her legs to the side of her own horse to spur her into a canter to keep up with Richard. He rode out ahead, rounding several turns in the flatter land among the rough hillsides, until he caught up with Cara and Friedrich, patrolling out in the lead.
"We're going to check out front for a while," he told them. "Why don't you fall back and check behind."
Kahlan knew that Richard was sending them to the back because if he took Kahlan to the back under the pretense of watching anything that might come up on them from behind, Cara would keep falling back to check on them.
If they were out front, Cara wouldn't worry about them dropping back and getting lost.
Cara laid her reins over and turned back. Sweat stuck Kahlan's shirt to her back as she leaned over her horse's withers, urging her ahead as Richard's horse sprang away. Despite the clumps of tall grass dotting the foothills and occasional sparse patches of woods, the heat was still with them. It cooled some at night, now, but the days were hot, with the humidity increasing as the clouds built up against the wall of mountains to their right.
Up close, the barrier of rugged mountains to the east was an intimidating sight. Sheer rock walls rose up below projecting plateaus heaped to their very edge with loose rock crumbled from yet higher plateaus and walls, as if the entire range was all gradually crumbling. With drops of thousands of feet at the fringe of overhanging shelves of rock, climbing such unstable scree would be impossible. If there were passes through the arid slopes, they were no doubt few and would prove difficult.
