Phantom: Chainfire Trilogy Part 2

"I'm here to show you what has already happened to many so that you will understand what is is going to happen to everyone else if you don't do something to stop it.

"A precise understanding of how the soldiers of the Order came to be, the choices they have made in their lives that brought them rampaging into the lives of innocent people, and the reasons behind those choices, are beyond being our concern. They are what they are. They are destroyers, killers. They are here. That is all that matters, now. They must be stopped. If they are dead, they will cease to be a threat. It's as simple as that."

Richard wondered how in the world she expected him to accomplish such a «simple» thing. She might as well be asking him to pull the moon down out of the sky and use it to crush the Imperial Order army.

As if reading his mind, Nicci spoke up again. "We may all agree with you, with everything you have come here to say — and in fact we didn't need you to tell us what we already know, as if you think us children and only you are wise. But you don't understand what you're asking. The army that Jebra saw, the army that marched up into Galea and so easily crushed their defenses and killed so many people, is a minor and rather insignificant unit of the Imperial Order."

"You can't be serious," Jebra said.

Nicci finally withdrew her glare from Shota and looked at Jebra. "Did you see any gifted?"

"Gifted? Why, no, I guess not," she said after a moment's thought.

"That's because they didn't warrant having their own gifted to command," Nicci said. "If they had gifted, Shota would not have been able to so easily get in there and then take you right out of the place. But they had no gifted. They're a relatively minor force and as such they're considered expendable.

"That's why the supplies took so long to reach them. All supplies first went north to Jagang's main force. Once they had what they needed they then allowed supplies to go to other units, like the one up in Galea. They are only one of Jagang's expeditionary forces."

"But you don't understand." Jebra stood. "They were a huge army. I was there. I saw them with my own eyes." She dry-washed her hands as she glanced around at everyone in the room. "I was there, working for them month after month. I saw how massive their numbers were. How could I not grasp the extent of their forces? I've told you about all they accomplished."

Unimpressed, Nicci shook her head. "They were nothing."

Jebra licked her lips, distress settling into her expression. "Perhaps I have not done an adequate job of describing it, of making clear just how many soldiers of the Order invaded Galea. I'm sorry that I've failed in making you understand how easily they crushed all those determined defenders."

"You did a very good job of reporting accurately what you saw," Nicci said in a gentler tone as she squeezed the woman's shoulder in sympathetic reassurance. "But you only saw a part of the whole picture. The part you saw, frightening as it surely was, was insignificant compared to the rest of it. What you saw could not begin to prepare you for seeing the main force led by Emperor Jagang. I've spent a great deal of time in Jagang's main encampments; I know what I'm talking about. Compared to their main force, the one you saw does not qualify as imposing."

"She's right," Zedd said in a grim voice. "I hate to admit it, but she's right. Jagang's main army is vastly more powerful than the one that invaded Galea. I fought to slow their advance up through the Midlands as they steadily drove us back toward Aydindril, so I ought to know. Seeing them come is like watching the approach of uncountable minions of the underworld come to swallow the living."

He looked stoic in his simple robes, standing at the top of the five steps, watching, listening to what others had to say. Richard knew, though, that his grandfather was anything but indifferent. Zedd's way was often to listen to what others had to say before he had his say. In this instance there was no need for him to correct anything that he'd heard.

"If the Order troops in Galea have no gifted," Jebra said, "then perhaps if some of those with the gift were to go there you could eliminate them. Perhaps you could save those poor people who are still alive, who have endured so much. It is not too late to at least save some of them."

Richard thought that what she was really asking, but feared to speak aloud, was if this was only a minor force with no gifted among them, then why hadn't some of those present done something to stop the slaughter she'd witnessed. Before Richard had ever left his woods of Hartland, he might very well have harbored the same vague sense of resentment and anger toward those who had not done anything to save them. Now he felt the torment of knowing how much more there was to it.