The Third Kingdom

by Terry Goodkind

  Richard had thought that might have had something to do with it. “I know how you feel. I really do. I promise you that if she is being held captive, I will fight to get her safely out the same as I will fight to get my people out. But I’ll handle it. I can’t allow you to come along.”

  She stood and faced him.

  “All right. You are the Lord Rahl. You do what you think best.” She planted her small hands on her narrow hips and cocked her head with a serious look. “But you know, of course, that if you don’t let me go with you, I will simply follow you. You can’t stop me from following you. Being separated like that, each of us alone rather than traveling together, will only be more dangerous for both of us. It would be better if we were to travel together. You could do what you can to protect me that way, and in turn I could do what I can to protect you.

  “But one way or another, with you, or following in your footsteps, I’m going. That’s all there is to it.”

  Richard pressed his lips tight as he appraised the determination in her dark eyes.

  “You are one stubborn little girl.”

  “Not a girl,” she said with conviction. “Samantha, sorceress serving the Lord Rahl.”

  Richard couldn’t help but to smile. “So you are. Well, I guess you give me no choice in the matter, and what you say does have some good points.” He shook his head to himself. “All right, I’ll take you with me.”

  Samantha smiled. “You won’t be sorry, Lord Rahl.”

  “I hope not, and I hope you won’t be sorry. Let’s hurry and get supplies together for the two of us, then. And I want someone to watch over Kahlan while we’re gone.”

  “Ester will watch her.”

  Richard nodded. “Why don’t you go get her. Before we leave, we need to tell Ester a little bit of what we learned so that she can warn the others and then tell Kahlan when she wakes.”

  CHAPTER

  35

  “I’ll get Ester,” Samantha said on the way across the room. She turned back from the doorway, looking a bit suspicious. “Don’t forget, if you leave without me, I will simply follow you. I hope you know better than to try to trick me.”

  “I told you that you could come with me,” Richard said in an earnest tone. “I keep my word.”

  “All right, then.” She looked just a bit sheepish for floating the accusation.

  He didn’t want to put her young, inexperienced life in such terrible jeopardy, but he knew that she was right about her potential value to him. With the touch of death lurking within him, he didn’t know how long it would be before it might start to become a real problem that could slow him down. If he didn’t succeed, then everyone was going to be at the mercy of whatever could now escape from the third kingdom.

  He could already feel the drag of that sickness making him feel unusually drained and weary. He could feel himself being inexorably drawn toward the darkness of death within. The inevitability of dying had always existed in the background of his mind, but it was a distant reality that most of the time went unnoticed. Now, death felt close, and coldly real.

  In a way, that darkness trying to draw him in was beginning to feel appealing, inviting him to cross the veil of life into the unfeeling eternity of nothingness. It offered the comforting release of all effort, all cares, all fears.

  Richard might very well need Samantha’s help before their journey was over. Even if she was a small help, it might be enough to make a difference.

  Richard remembered his grandfather once telling him that wizards had to use people. He didn’t like the feeling that he was using Samantha, even though he knew she was willing, and even if she was not really giving him a choice. He knew in his own mind that it was really by his choice, not hers, and that she very well might lose her life on such a dangerous journey. They both might.

  “I’ll need a pack as well,” he told her. “I don’t have any supplies with me. Most everything I had, except my sword, was in the wagon.” He checked in his pocket. “Wait, I’ve got a flint and steel for starting a fire, at least.”

  Samantha nodded. “I’ll tell the men that we need just about everything else, then.”

  “We need traveling food so that we don’t have to spend a lot of time hunting for something to eat, but we should have some small items in case we do need to hunt. Some line and fishhooks, things like that. If someone has a bow, that would be a big help as well.”

  “I’m sure that one of the men would be honored to provide a bow and arrows to help in the effort of stopping the threat. We have supplies of food that keeps well for traveling. It doesn’t taste very good, though.”

  Richard smiled a little. “It never does.”

  “The gifted kept journey supplies—dried meat, fish, hard biscuits and such—in case they ever had to go to warn … well, I was going to say to warn the wizards’ council, but I guess they’re long gone.” She gestured to the hall. “The travel supplies are kept in the second room to the right, in a cabinet. Take what you think we’ll need. I’ll be back as soon as I get Ester and gather up some of the other things we’ll need.”

  When Richard nodded, Samantha dashed out the doorway. After she was gone, he knelt back down beside Kahlan, lifting her limp hand to hold it in his for a moment. He wished she would wake so that he could tell her where he was going and about the threat from the third kingdom. The last thing she knew about had been the threat from Jit.

  He watched her steady breathing, watched her peaceful expression. He wished she would wake, but wishing couldn’t make it happen. She was going to need help if she was to live. They both were. He had to try to get that help.

  In the quiet stillness before the storm that he knew was about to break, he leaned down and gently kissed her soft lips, hoping it would last him, and that it would not be the last time he ever kissed her. He knew that if she were awake, she would tell him not to worry about her, but to go do what he needed to do.

  Knowing that time was short, he rushed to the second room and found the journey supplies. He collected what he thought they could carry without slowing them down, piling it neatly in the front room. In short order, Samantha, carrying a second pack for him and two hooded traveling cloaks over her arm, hurriedly ushered Ester into the outer room.

  “Some of the others are getting some supplies together for us,” Samantha told him as she closed the door.

  “Lord Rahl, what is it?” Ester asked, looking back and forth between the two of them as she squeezed one hand with the other. “Sammie said it’s important, but she wouldn’t say what it was about. Is the Mother Confessor…?”

  “She’s all right for the moment,” Richard said. “But we need your help. Samantha and I have to go—”

  “Samantha?” the woman asked with a puzzled look.

  “Sammie. You called her Sammie,” Richard said. “I call her Samantha because I think she is growing into a woman, and she now has to face some very grown-up challenges. Samantha seems a more appropriate name. Like I was saying, I have to go and Samantha is going with me.”

  “Going with you? Where?” The woman looked more bewildered than ever. Richard didn’t want to add to her sense of confusion, but he needed her to be aware of what was going on. She needed to be able to let everyone else know of the threat and she needed to tell Kahlan about it when she woke up.

  “There is trouble,” Richard told Ester. “You know those two men who were attacking me? The ones you helped save me from?”

  Ester nodded. “Of course.”

  “Well, those men were cannibals.”

  “Cannibals!”

  “Yes. Don’t you remember how they were attacking me with their teeth? Biting me?”

  “But, but, I don’t—”

  “I don’t have time to explain everything. The important part that you need to understand is that this village was put here long ago, in ancient times, to watch over the barrier—”

  “The north wall,” Samantha told Ester. She looked over at Richard. “Everyone in the Dark
Lands knows it as the north wall.”

  Richard nodded. “The north wall. The problem we’re all facing now is that the north wall was keeping some very dangerous threats locked away to prevent them from harming the people of the New World. It has kept everyone safe since the ancient war, the great war thousands of years ago.”

  Ester nodded with a troubled look. “I know some about that history. I’ve heard tales since childhood about otherworldly dangers lying in wait beyond the north wall. No one ever knew what was on the other side, but we all knew it was evil.”

  “Those tales probably fall well short of the reality. With the barrier breaking down, what was on the other side is now getting out. What no one knew was that Jit was only the beginning of that evil escaping from beyond that north wall.”

  Ester leaned forward a little. “What is it that’s on the other side?”

  “You remember those creatures that looked like walking corpses that came up here the other night and hurt so many people, killed so many?”

  Her knuckles were white. “How could I forget such a thing?”

  “They were corpses animated by occult magic from beyond the north wall. They were the walking dead.”

  Unable to speak, Ester stiffened with a look of horror.

  “The people from beyond that wall aren’t like us,” Richard said. “They’re a kind of cannibal.”

  She frowned in confusion. “A kind of cannibal? What do you mean? How can there be different kinds?”

  “They eat living people, eat them while they are still alive, to try to steal their souls,” Samantha said.

  Ester gasped but said nothing. She looked at a complete loss for words.

  “Those from beyond the wall,” Richard told the woman, “attacked my friends who were taking us back to the People’s Palace. They were also the ones who killed Samantha’s father and likely took her mother. I think that my friends and Samantha’s mother may still be alive. We’re going in there, beyond the north wall, to try to get them back out.”

  Ester looked at Samantha before looking back at Richard. “Are you serious? Do you so soon forget Henrik’s story? They attacked a whole column of your elite troops, your personal guard from the palace, and overpowered them, and you think that you two can go in there alone and not be slaughtered the moment you step through the north gate?”

  That same thought had occurred to Richard.

  “He won’t be alone,” Samantha said. “I’ll be with him.”

  “Sometimes it’s safer to be few in number,” Richard said. “We won’t be noticed the way a whole column of troops would be.”

  “Lord Rahl, far be it from me to tell you your business, but you were alone when those two men attacked you, and had we not come along when we did you would be dead now.”

  Richard sighed as he rose up from beside Kahlan. “I know. But there’s no choice. It’s something I have to do. This threat could kill people in numbers beyond your ability to imagine. I’m the Lord Rahl. I have to do what is necessary to protect all the people of the New World.”

  Ester dipped her head. “I can’t argue with the word of the Lord Rahl.” Ester gestured at Samantha. “But why is she going?”

  “Because she is stubborn,” Richard said.

  For the first time, a small smile touched Ester’s lips. “I see you have gotten to know her.”

  “I have the gift,” Samantha said in her own defense. “Lord Rahl and the Mother Confessor are sick with Jit’s touch of death in them and their magic doesn’t work. I can at least help Lord Rahl with my gift. And if we can get my mother out, then she can help him, too.”

  Ester considered briefly. “I see. That’s very brave of you … Samantha. Well, what can we do to help, Lord Rahl?”

  “You can watch over Kahlan for me and when she wakes up tell her what’s happening. I’ll be back as soon as I can get my friends out. Then we must rush back to the People’s Palace so that they can cure us of the Hedge Maid’s deadly touch. After that, I will deal with the threat from beyond the north wall.

  “When she wakes, tell Kahlan what I’ve told you, and that I said it’s important for her to wait here for me. I will be back for her. I will be bringing help.

  “I need to briefly explain some of what I’ve learned so that you can tell the others here about the threat that is now loose. The people of Stroyza need to stay up here as much as possible. They shouldn’t go out alone, only in large groups. Keep a watch at all times. The unholy creatures from beyond the north wall may try to get up here to attack your people.”

  “You mean, to eat us alive?”

  Richard took a breath. “I’m afraid so. From up here you have a better chance of holding them off. Hopefully I’ll be back before you have any trouble.

  “We need to leave right away,” Richard added. “There’s still plenty of light left. We need to get as far as we can before dark.”

  “It’s a pretty long way to the north wall,” Ester said. “It will take you days to get there.”

  “I know. That’s all the more reason I have to hurry.”

  CHAPTER

  36

  The climb down the side of the mountain in the damp drizzle was harder than the climb up had been. As he led the way, Richard idly wondered how many people from the village of Stroyza, over all the time the cave village had been up there, had slipped in the wet on the narrow trail and fallen to their death.

  Looking up at one point, Richard saw crowds of people lining the rim of the cavern, gazing down at him and Samantha as they made the treacherous descent on the way to an even more treacherous unknown land beyond the mysterious barrier they knew as the north wall. They were probably wondering if the two would ever be seen again.

  Richard dared not entertain such doubts. Kahlan was up there and he needed to bring help back for her. If he failed, he was failing her and she would die.

  As Richard and Samantha had swiftly put together their supplies, he had briefly explained the dangers from the barrier failing to those gathered around helping. With no time to explain things to all the people of Stroyza, Richard told Ester and those gathered around that they would have to be the ones to let all the rest of the people know what had happened with what they called the north wall and fill them in with more of the details of the new dangers.

  The Dark Lands were already a dangerous place. With the menace of the Hedge Maid recently appearing out of nowhere and mysterious hordes attacking, killing, or carrying off all the soldiers and gifted who had been with the Lord Rahl, to say nothing of the grotesque creatures that had attacked and killed so many people up in the caves, the people of Stroyza were already on high alert. He had no doubt that they would take the warnings seriously.

  While he’d had the chance, Richard had impressed on those gathered around the previously unknown sort of threat that those from the third kingdom represented. Like him, none of them had ever imagined people, or half people, who thought they could steal another person’s soul by eating them alive.

  He had told the people listening to come down the mountain only for something essential, and then only in groups prepared to fight off an attack. He’d been glad to hear that they had already avoided coming down ever since the attack by the walking dead. They told him that groups of men had quickly rushed down to tend their animals as necessary, but they didn’t linger. They feared that more of those corpselike monsters might be lurking down below. Richard had told them that they could very well be right. That was before they knew of the threat of the half people. Fortunately, as of yet, they had not encountered any more of the awakened dead.

  He was glad that the trail up was so strenuous. The difficulty of coming up that mountainside trail to attack the cave village was probably the best defense these people had, now that they were properly on alert. They had been careless in keeping watch before, but he doubted that they would be that inattentive again.

  As he paused to gaze out over the gloomy wilderness, the thought occurred to him that those back in Naja
Moon’s time probably planned the cave village high up in the mountain with defensive safety in mind. It was even possible, if not likely, that they were the ones who had constructed the cave homes in the first place for just this eventuality. The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed.

  Still, whether it was by initial intent or the village had come to be this way over time, these were not a people who were schooled in the art of fighting. They had, after all, fought off his attackers with a rock, even though they carried simple knives. He had to admit, though, that in that instance it had been pretty effective. He had told them that they shouldn’t depend on such methods in the future, and told them that when they went down to tend the animals to always have knives on them. A rock was all well and good, but a blade would serve them better in a fight for their lives.

  These people, though, were meant to wait and watch. They were sentinels, watchers, the ones who were supposed to raise an alarm. It was clear to Richard that it was never intended that they would be the ones to be the first line of defense and fight the war they were here to warn about. Now that the ancient war had flared anew, they were going to have to defend themselves as best they could until Richard could do something to stop the threat.

  Henrik had seen all the rushed preparations and had wanted to come with Richard and Samantha. Richard asked the boy to instead stay and help watch over Kahlan. When she woke, Henrik would then be able to fill in a lot of the blanks for her about what had happened after Richard had killed Jit. Ester could fill Kahlan in on what Richard had since learned about the barrier failing, and what he and Samantha had gone to do.

  Kahlan had rescued Henrik from the Hedge Maid’s clutches. Because of that, he had a special kind of loyalty and attachment to her so it hadn’t taken a lot of convincing for Richard to get the boy to stay behind and help Kahlan.

  Richard hiked the bow up onto his shoulder before negotiating a particularly treacherous turn on the steep trail. Between frequently looking down to watch his footing and looking ahead for handholds, he scanned the forest spread out in the distance below, looking for any sign of half people lying in wait. He didn’t see anyone or anything out of the ordinary, but that didn’t allay his concern. The unseen threats were what worried him the most.