Into Darkness

by Terry Goodkind

  “After a time, she would stand here, where we stand now, and in that way send her followers to the places she had found where they would hunt for food. That eventually evolved into sport for them.”

  Richard knew that when the gods, or whoever it was, had brought the gateway to Sang’s world and left it where it now stood, it had to be adjusted so that the Glee could use it. It had protocols, shown in the symbols, that had to have been set so the Glee could use a single claw to activate it. From what Richard had read, once it had been set for the new use, such as had been done when it had been left here in this world, nothing else would work.

  Until the gateway was reset.

  From what Sang had just told him, the Golden Goddess was the first to finally figure out how to make the gateway work successfully. Now, all the Glee knew.

  The implications were racing around in Richard’s mind as he tried to piece together all the things he had so far been able to read on the stone.

  “Thank you, Sang. That explains a lot.” Richard lifted his sword halfway from its scabbard to show it to Sang. “You better go stand back there with the others where it will be safe.”

  Piecing together what he had read so far, and what Sang said, Richard knew just how dangerous this gateway was in the hands of the Glee. It had to be destroyed.

  Sang nodded, having seen the destructive power of the sword before, and rushed out of the circle of sand to stand back with the others among the rock formations.

  Richard stood staring at the symbols on the stone gateway for a long moment. He let the sword slide back down into its scabbard.

  Vika frowned at Richard and lowered her voice. “Lord Rahl, what’s going on? Are you going to destroy this terrible thing or not?”

  Richard rubbed his chin as he looked from her to the stone and back again. “I’m getting an idea.”

  Her brow tightened. “What kind of idea?”

  “The crazy kind.”

  “Is it going to get us killed?”

  “Probably.”

  68

  “What kind of crazy idea is it this time?” she asked, sounding weary of such ideas and the likelihood that it would get them killed.

  Richard waved off the question. “Do me a favor and keep making sure the Glee stay back. I need to be left alone for a while to study these symbols. They’re complicated.”

  Vika waggled a hand at the stone. “What do you think all those are for? What is their purpose? You said before that they’re instructions, but instructions for what?”

  Richard looked into her blue eyes. “Instructions to reset the gateway.”

  “What do you mean, reset it?”

  Richard wiped a hand across his face. He was already weary of this damp world. He dreaded the thought of living out his life among the Glee in this hot, red, often wet world. He supposed he wouldn’t have to live too long until one of them eventually got the idea to eat him.

  “Well, when whoever brought this gateway here left it for the Glee to use, they had to reset it so that it would work for the Glee.”

  “Maybe they didn’t really intend to leave it here,” she suggested. “Maybe the Glee captured them and forced them to reset it so they could use it. After all, we know all too well how vicious they can be.”

  Richard pulled his lower lip through his teeth. “I suppose that’s possible, too. There is no real way to tell for sure.”

  “So, what are you considering?”

  He waggled a finger at the stone. “I’m thinking that if I can figure out enough of the symbols to activate it, I may be able to reset it.”

  Vika cocked her head as she suspiciously scrutinized him with her left eye alone. “Why would you want to reset it? For what purpose?”

  “Well, think about it. If I’m able to reset it so that it works differently, then they could never again use it to go to our world—or any world for that matter. They wouldn’t have the means to reset it to work for them, so that would render the gateway inert.”

  Vika’s mouth twisted as she tried to follow his train of thought. “Why bother with all that? Wouldn’t it be a lot simpler to just break it apart with your sword? If you did that, they certainly wouldn’t be able to ever use it again, right? I mean, you wouldn’t need to understand the symbols to do that. If you simply break the stone apart with your sword, that would be the end of it. Forever.”

  Richard glanced over at the stone before looking back at her. “We don’t know what this thing really is.”

  Vika was giving him a wary look, like she was trying to figure out what he could really be thinking. “You said it’s called a gateway. Obviously, it’s a gateway to other worlds. That’s what it is.”

  “Yes, but what I mean is we don’t know what powers it, what makes it work. How does it send people”—he gestured with a hand in the direction of the throng of Glee watching them—“or Glee, or whatever, to another world? What if it uses some kind of magic, or what if inside it has mechanical components powered by magic like the omen machine used to have?

  “I’ve found things in our world that are incredibly powerful and in many cases I have no idea exactly how they work or who could have made them or, for that matter, even where they came from. But I learned that they were profoundly dangerous, and had I tried to simply destroy them with my sword so that no one could ever use them, it could have caused unimaginable consequences. Some of those devices could have destroyed the world of life. In some things involving unknown magic that has the potential to be profoundly dangerous, such as this, here, you have to think it through before you do anything that can’t be undone.”

  Vika glanced over at the stone in a new light. “So, you’re saying that it could be so dangerous to try to destroy it that you think it might kill us all?”

  Richard shrugged. “I don’t know. From what I know about magic that’s a possibility. If I hit it with my sword it could kill me, or, for all I know, it might even unleash enough power to destroy everyone for miles around, or even render this entire world a dead rock.” He leaned closer to her. “Or, for all I know, it might even act as a weapon and send that destructive power to the last place the Glee used it to visit—to our world.”

  Vika flipped her braid forward over her shoulder and held it in her right fist as she considered.

  “You mean, you think it could possibly be dangerous to try to destroy it, even dangerous to our own world, so instead you are thinking it might be safer for us, and our world, if you try to reset it so that the Glee can’t possibly use it, and that would accomplish the same thing. It would render it useless and prevent them from ever harming our world again.”

  Richard gave her a firm nod. “That’s right. For all I know, it could kill me if I try to destroy it, and then it would still be here and still work and remain a threat to our world.”

  “Well,” she said with a deep sigh, “that’s not crazy, so it’s obviously not what you are actually thinking of doing. What is the crazy thing you are really considering doing?”

  Richard showed her a small smile and gestured off to the other side of the ring. “Would you please go keep an eye on them. Once I start, I think I may need to keep going and I don’t want to have any nosy Glee interrupting me.”

  Vika studied his face for a moment. “What are you not telling me?”

  “I’m not telling you what you don’t yet need to know.”

  Vika folded her arms as she looked at him from under her brow. “I’m here alone in this world with you. Forever. I’m going to grow old and die in the world along with you—if we live that long. We are in this together. Tell me.”

  Richard pursued his lips. “We are starting to sound like an old married couple.”

  She kept the look leveled on him. “Tell me.”

  He sighed. “All right. Well, first of all, if I simply reset the gateway, it’s always possible that someone else could come along, figure it out, and reset it back again. If that happened, then they could use it for who knows what purpose. There’s mor
e to it, though.”

  “Like what?”

  Richard gestured toward the gateway without looking over at it. “These symbols are starting to look to me like they could actually be a constructed spell.”

  69

  With her arms still folded, she shrugged. “That’s the big deal you couldn’t tell me? That it might be a constructed spell?”

  “If you mess with them and accidentally do the wrong thing, some constructed spells can kill everyone within dozens of miles.”

  Her arms came unfolded. “Oh.”

  “They can also be incredibly dangerous in other ways as well. Unexpected ways. If it really is a constructed spell, or even if it isn’t but it functions something like one, it’s not any kind of constructed spell I’m familiar with, and yet it has many of the routines and protocols I recognize. On top of that, not all the symbols are close to the same as those in the version of the language of Creation that I’m familiar with. That makes it hard to know precisely what each of those protocols means, how they function, and if there is a specific order to using them.

  “Some constructed spells have fail-safes built into them that can kill you if you do the wrong thing at the wrong time. I will need to study it some more, first, before I can say for certain exactly what we are dealing with, here.”

  Vika looked at the stone and then back to him. “But if it really is the language of Creation, you should be able to understand it, shouldn’t you?”

  “I believe that the language of Creation may have different dialects. The markings here might simply be one of those different dialects, and that’s why I’m having trouble understanding it. That makes it a little more difficult to translate all these symbols. It won’t prevent me from translating what they say, but I first need to be sure of what some of the more familiar ones mean. Once I’m sure of the meaning of the symbols in those, that will help me translate others. That’s going to take me some time. I don’t know how much time, but I need to be left to it.”

  She shrugged. “All right, so study it.”

  He gave her a meaningful look. “I would appreciate it if you went over there and watched the Glee to keep them from getting too curious so I can concentrate in this.”

  “Oh. All right. Well, why didn’t you just say so? But if you really think it is a constructed spell, wouldn’t that mean this thing is powered by magic?”

  Richard shook his head, feeling frustration that he had a hard time explaining all the technicalities. “I don’t know. Maybe. I understand constructed spells, and I know how they function. I’ve even made a number of them myself. This looks in many ways like it could very well be a constructed spell, but in other ways it’s different, so I’m not yet entirely sure.

  “It may simply share some aspects with a constructed spell. It may be a coincidence that it looks like one to me in part because I’m not able to read all the symbols. I might also be reading too much into it. I just don’t know yet. But these symbols are the key to learning how this thing functions, and if it actually is a constructed spell, so that’s why I need to study it. Got it now?”

  “What difference could that make?” She frowned at him. “If you simply reset it so they can’t use it, that’s all you really need to do, right?”

  “Sure, unless someone comes along who can recognize the symbols or figure them out and then reset it for themselves so they could use the gateway. I’m trying to figure out if there is a way to lock in the reset, or better yet, use a fail-safe. So, unless you know how to work a constructed spell or you understand the language of Creation, would you please go over there and watch those Glee? And be prepared in case something happens.”

  Vika glanced to the Glee and then back at him. “Something like what?”

  “Are you going to ask questions all the time for the rest of our lives in this awful world?”

  Vika only smiled.

  Richard looked over at the Glee out of the corner of one eye. “I don’t know for sure what might happen, but if this thing really is a constructed spell powered by magic and something happens, they may become alarmed.”

  “What should I be prepared for?”

  Richard let out a weary sigh. “Vika, Sang is going to soon grow impatient that I am not destroying this thing. I don’t know what the other Glee will do if this stone starts making noises or something. After all, they seem to regard this thing as some sort of sacred object given to them by gods.”

  Vika finally relented. “All right. That makes sense. But if I have to start using my Agiel on them, things could get messy.”

  “Well, I don’t want you to do that. Just keep your eye on them. Strike up a conversation or something. Divert their attention. Ask them about their offspring. Parents love to talk about that.”

  As soon as he said that, he wished he hadn’t.

  “I’m not all that experienced at small talk, but I’ll give it a try.”

  “Is life with you in this world always going to be this difficult?”

  Vika smiled again. “You wouldn’t want life here to be boring, would you?”

  Richard shook his head before turning back to the stone as Vika walked over to Sang.

  70

  Richard glanced over to check and saw Vika talking to the Glee. Things seemed peaceful enough. They looked interested in whatever she was telling them. He turned his attention back to what he was doing, bending close to continue studying the series of symbols and emblems on the stone, trying to figure out what the parts he didn’t recognize meant.

  He rubbed a temple with a finger as he worked to understand the connecting links. They were in fact different in a number of ways from the language of Creation he had learned, but he hadn’t told Vika everything he already knew about them. He wasn’t sure she could understand it—or would care to. Mord-Sith were famous for their dislike of anything to do with magic. Richard wasn’t yet positive that this gateway stone really did possess magic, but the symbols certainly did have a lot of the characteristic elements of magic as expressed through constructed spells. He almost had a hard time believing it could be something other than magic.

  In large part, they did comply with the precepts of a constructed spell. And yet, in some ways, they didn’t.

  He had created constructed spells before, and in his studies, he had learned a great deal about their complexities and how they functioned through principles of magic, both Additive and Subtractive. He knew a number of their key provisions. But that hardly meant he knew everything about them.

  While this was in many ways the same element he knew, and understood, there were differences he couldn’t yet fathom. He traced components of things he knew, struggling to identify exactly how this was different so he could fill in the blanks.

  In his studies of books of magic and in working with constructed spells he had access to, he had also learned a lot about his own gift. For reasons that eluded him, he had an easier time using his gift with constructed spells, perhaps because they were so technical, and the steps made sense. When he followed the steps in constructed spells in the proper way, the spell came to life. In other situations when he needed his gift, it didn’t always respond, so he naturally gravitated toward the type of magic with structure he could analyze.

  He also suspected that those technical aspects that required him to concentrate distracted him enough to call upon his gift without really thinking about it when his magic was needed in procedures along the way. When he was relieved of the conscious pressure to call forth his gift, it simply naturally worked as required to assist him. Importantly, one of the things he had learned in his studies was that it took his gift not only to work with constructed spells, but to understand them.

  It had always been difficult for him to call up his gift consciously, except in a certain kind of crisis, but here, with these emblems, he could sense them with his gift. It seemed like here, in this world, with this complicated spell he was able to touch his gift in order to understand elements in ways that were difficult or impos
sible to do back in his home world.

  He realized that it felt to him like he was having much the same kind of ease with using his gift as he had experienced before, only in the underworld.

  Because constructed spells were so rare, he hadn’t been able to study a lot of them. Having seen only a relative few, that left a lot of questions in his mind with the gateway.

  He came to realize that, rather than trying to decipher every element of every symbol along the way to understand all of the language of Creation the way it was written on the stone, if he simply assumed it was a constructed spell and treated it as such, that very well might be the best way for him to come to grasp the entirety of what all the writing meant.

  As he became more familiar with the symbols he hadn’t seen before, he began to learn by their context that it wasn’t really all that different from the language of Creation he already knew. This simply said things in a slightly different way. It might use the symbol for a bat to express flight, rather than the bird symbol he was familiar with. But it suddenly clicked in his mind that the larger concept was really the same. They were both referring to the concept of the air, or the sky. That realization helped him start to make faster progress in deciphering the overarching meaning of what he was reading.

  When he glanced up, he noticed that the Glee across the sand were starting to look restless. Vika was walking back and forth, talking to them, distracting them. He certainly couldn’t afford to have the Glee suddenly decide that they didn’t want Richard messing around with their device, as they called the gateway.

  But what was worse, he now realized that he was going to need to ignite a verification web if he was to learn more of how the gateway functioned, and he didn’t know how the Glee might react to that. He finally decided that there was no other way around it. He was simply going to have to do it.

  Richard finally located the sequence of symbols that would initiate the verification web. He touched those symbols with a finger in the proper order, letting his gift flow into each of them to begin to unlock the constructed spell. It should work if the symbols were what he believed they were.