Richard dismissed the idea with a casual, if irritated, gesture. "The Order would grant no peace terms. Maybe long ago, in the beginning, they would have accepted our surrender, allowed us to bow and kiss their boots, allowed us to put on the chains of slavery, but not now. Now they want only a victory bought and paid for with our blood. But what difference would it have made? Either way, the end result would be the same: the murder and subjugation of us and our people. How we lose, for the most part, is irrelevant. Surrender or defeat ends with the same result. One way or the other all is lost."
"Then… what?" the man stammered in a heated voice. "Fight on until we are finally killed or captured?"
The men stared at the red-faced officer who had spoken. These men had been fighting the Order for a long time. They were not hearing anything they didn't already know. Still, fighting the invaders was all they could do. It was their duty. It was the only thing they knew.
Richard turned and took in Cara. Standing there in her red leather, her feet spread, her hands clasped behind her back, she looked like she believed she could take on the Order all by herself.
Richard gestured to the woman standing beside Cara. "Nicci, here, once served on their side." When he heard the whispers about an enemy among them, he added, "Much the same as all of you were once in the service of tyranny when you served Darken Rahl, and some of you even his father, Panis Rahl. You had no choice. Darken Rahl did not care what you wanted to do with your lives. He only cared that you followed his orders. Now, when given a choice, you have committed to our cause. Nicci has as well.
"The men of the Order are different. You were fighting because you were made to under threat of violence or even death. They are fighting because they believe in a cause. They hunger to fight. They want to be a part of their war effort.
"Since she was there, with Jagang, Nicci has firsthand knowledge. She has seen things that may help put it into perspective for you."
Richard turned again to Nicci. She looked like a statue, her skin smooth and fair, her blond hair tumbled down over her shoulders. There was nothing about her face, her figure, that Richard would have changed if he were the one to carve a statue of her. She was a picture of beauty, who had seen ugliness beyond imagining.
"Nicci, please tell these men what will happen to them if they are captured by the Imperial Order."
Richard had no idea what she would say, what she knew, but he did know, especially from the things Jebra had told them, that the Order had only contempt for life.
"The Order does not execute their captives immediately." With deadly calm, Nicci glided one step closer to all the men staring at her. She waited at Richard's side until the silence was painful and she had the undivided attention of every man before her. "First," she said, "every man captured is castrated."
A collective gasp went up from the assembled men.
"After that, after they have suffered unendurable agony and humiliation, the ones still alive are put to torture. The ones who survive the torture are finally put to death in one brutal fashion or another.
"Those who surrender to the Order without a fight are spared such treatment. That is the design behind the cruelty toward captives — to strike fear into a potential adversary so that they will surrender without a fight. Their treatment of civilians in captured cities is just as brutal and it has the same goal in mind. As a result, many cities have fallen to the Order without a fight.
"You men have fought them long and hard. You would not be spared any of it. If you are caught by Jagang's forces there is no hope for you. You will be made to wish with all your hearts that you had never been born. Death will be your only release.
"Not that it matters. Life under the Order is not much different than waiting for death at the hands of the Order. Life under the Order is a slow, grinding death in itself. It just takes longer; the misery of it stretches out over years.
"Only those who hate life, and everything good, prosper. The Order, in fact, fosters and encourages those who hate the good aspects of life. Their teachings are, after all, formed from a bitter hatred for the good. The environment such beliefs create is one of universal misery. The haters relish the misery of others, since the good angers them. If captured, these haters would be your masters."
The men stood in stunned silence. In that silence, Richard heard the gentle patter of rain on the awning stretched overhead. The storm was rolling in on them.