Into Darkness

64

Late in the afternoon, the Glee took turns using their claws to dig a grave. When it was finally deep enough, they gently placed Iben’s body in it and covered him over.

After they had put Iben to rest, they then slashed the body of the Golden Goddess until it was covered with ribbons of deep cuts. Richard and Vika couldn’t imagine what they were doing. Once satisfied, they threw the body and the head into one of the swampy lakes. The body floated for a short time among standing reeds before small creatures Richard couldn’t see began tearing at the flesh. After a few hours most of it had been eaten, leaving only bones. It was apparently a disrespectful burial to show their displeasure with what she had brought to their kind.

The strange celebration and socializing went on into the evening. As it grew dark, the Glee began finding places to sleep. Some curled up in thick beds they made from fronds. Others laid their heads down on the banks of ponds and let their legs float out into the water. Whatever had eaten the body of the goddess apparently didn’t bother with living Glee. They slept peacefully with half their bodies in the water.

Richard and Vika found a place nearby beside a beautiful bush that was more like a small tree. They gathered fronds to make sleeping mats. Neither one of them liked the idea of both of them sleeping at the same time, so they took turns taking naps while the other stood watch. Richard wondered how long they were going to have to do that in their strange new world.

By late morning of the next day the odd reunion was still going strong, with the Glee mingling together and talking with one another. Richard and Vika weren’t aware of much of what was being said, because while they occasionally heard some of the talk, most of the Glee chose not to have their voices, or possibly their confessions, heard by these strangers from another world. Richard wasn’t overly concerned, though, because everything appeared to be friendly enough, but he did wish he possessed that talent to deny others the ability to hear his words. It could come in handy at times.

As he casually watched, he remained vigilant and ready to draw his sword at the slightest sign of trouble. He didn’t think it looked like there would be trouble, but he felt it best to be ready just in case. He saw Vika idly spinning her Agiel on the end of the gold chain around her wrist as she, too, watched.

He and Vika stood out of the way, not wanting to intrude. From time to time many of the Glee slipped into the water, where they seemed most at home. Groups congregated in the water as they floated together. Others would periodically bring bundles of water weeds to the banks, where yet others could take some to munch on. Others, apparently tired from the reunion and celebration, rested their chins on a pillow of their folded arms while the bottom half of their bodies floated in the water. Yet others sat cross-legged on the banks to talk. Richard supposed they had a lot to talk about.

Richard had been to a number of fancy banquets and gatherings of officials. This seemed very much the same, other than the trappings of power and social standing, and of course the claws and needle-sharp teeth. Other than those trappings, he recognized the body language and the interplay of different personalities. The whole thing was, in a word, weird.

Richard was getting hungry himself. He wondered what he and Vika were going to be able to eat in this strange world. He certainly didn’t have any cravings for the smelly water weeds. He supposed he might be able to catch some fish, or he could hunt wild boar. There might even be fruits and berries that they could eat. Fortunately they still had some travel rations in his pack, but not a lot. As they watched the Glee, he and Vika idly chewed on strips of dried meat.

It occurred to him that as time went on maybe the Glee could provide the meat of some muscle snails for him and Vika to roast over a fire or smoke. He glanced around and realized that he didn’t see much that they could use for firewood.

All the Glee Richard had brought through the drylands were easy enough to spot, because their skin had the green iridescence. They seemed somewhat somber that Iben had died, but also recognized that his death had resulted in the end of the reign of the Golden Goddess. Iben had been the catalyst that had brought all the Glee together again. Richard didn’t know if, or how long, that would last. He hoped it did, but he worried that it wouldn’t.

He was also all too aware that at some point after those former raiders of other worlds ate enough water plants, it would give their skin the same green iridescence. He worried that once that happened, he wouldn’t be able to tell the formerly hostile Glee from the peaceful ones. If they ever turned hostile again and decided they wanted to eat Richard and Vika, he would have no way of telling them apart. That would put surprise on their side.

Richard supposed that, while he didn’t want to die, he didn’t really have much to live for anymore, except the one thing that he was growing impatient to finish.

As he and Vika watched, some of the former followers of the goddess came up to them and made a point of telling them that besides ending the tyranny of the Golden Goddess and her oppressive rule over their lives, what Richard had done had lifted them from a terrible future in which they abandoned their traditional ways and instead went to other worlds to hunt for food where many of their kind had been killed.

Some told him of beloved offspring that had been eager for the adventure of going off to other worlds and had only ended up dying there. Richard wondered if he had killed some of those Glee, or offspring. They had been vicious killers and had died as such. He hoped their minds didn’t turn to revenge.

Those engaging him in conversation explained that they had done what they had done because the Golden Goddess made them do it. Richard didn’t necessarily believe a word of it, but he let them have their excuses in order for things to remain friendly. If that was what they wanted to claim in order to soothe their consciences, he didn’t really care as long as it meant an end to the fighting.

At this point, stuck in their world with Vika, never to be able to return home to Kahlan, he didn’t really care how they justified to themselves what they had done. He only cared that it stop. Now that it had, he was relieved that he didn’t have to face yet another protracted war in which he and Vika would be vastly outnumbered.

But this new peace still had to prove to him that it could last. It was possible, or even likely, that there were Glee among them who harbored very different sentiments and they simply hadn’t come forward to express them. He realized that he might never again be able to sleep with both eyes closed.

He had always been skeptical that when the time came, those Glee who came across the drylands with him would actually fight. Now, he didn’t need to fear that bloody conflict, or all of them being slaughtered. If, that was, a new leader didn’t rise from the ranks of the former followers of the goddess.

Richard’s patience finally came to an end. He pulled Sang aside to talk to him privately.

“Before any of these former followers of the goddess start to think that maybe they might like to have the power she had and be in charge of a vast army that could raid other worlds, we need to destroy the device so that can never happen again.”

Sang nodded, looking apologetic that he had forgotten all about it, and handed the long piece of the float weed he was munching on to one of the others passing by.

“Everything is back to the way it was, thanks to you and Vika. I don’t think we could ever adequately express our gratitude. With peace restored, we have nothing to fear, now. We can take care of the device any time. There is no longer any worry or any rush.”

“There is to me,” Richard said in a firm voice. “I want it taken care of now. I don’t want to have to worry that I might have my throat torn out in my sleep by followers of the goddess who decided to resume their ways and will then go to my world and kill the people there.”

“I don’t think you need to worry about—”

Richard held up a warning finger. “I came here to do what was necessary to protect my world. I sacrificed my life with my kind, my wife, and my offspring to do this—both for my people and for your kind. I have nothing left for me, now, other than a lonely future here in this world where Vika and I don’t really belong.

“I made that sacrifice to be able to destroy that device that made all of the terror and bloodshed possible. That job is not yet done. I want it finished.”

Sang could see the determination in Richard’s face and hear it in his voice. He nodded.

“Of course, Lord Rahl. I understand. Of course you are right. We will go there now. I will show you the way.”

Richard would simply have left the days-long celebration and gone there on his own, and he actually would have preferred to do that, but with the clouds obscuring much of the landscape, he wasn’t sure exactly how to find the place up in the mountains. They had come into the territory of the Golden Goddess via a long, roundabout way through the confusing maze of rocky spires in the drylands in order to surprise the goddess and her followers. With the clouds, the wind-driven sand, the maze of rock towers, and not being able to see exactly where the sun was in the sky, he wasn’t confident that he had been able to keep track of direction or distances.

He had a general idea where he could find the mountain where the device was located, but with visibility so poor, and the low clouds always obscuring mountain peaks, he feared that if he looked for the site on his own it could end up taking him days to find the small trail. He knew that Sang could show him the way and then he could destroy the device much sooner.

He worried about the possibility that in the meantime, if it wasn’t quickly destroyed, it might be used again without him being aware that some of the Glee had snuck away to travel to his world. He didn’t want to risk it existing any longer. Better to destroy the device once and for all. That was the only way to make sure Kahlan and everyone else would be safe.

Sang spoke with some of his followers, apparently letting them know that they were leaving to go to the mountain where the device was located. But as they started out, Richard saw that a large number the Glee were following behind—both Sang’s followers and many of the followers of the goddess. He didn’t know why, but as long as Sang got him there so he could use his sword to destroy that strange square block of stone, that was all that mattered.

His sword had cut through steel before. Not all that long ago his blade had cut through massive stone pillars and blocks to get at Moravaska Michec down in the complication.

Neither steel nor stone ever proved to be any obstacle to the Sword of Truth, so he had no doubt that it would cut through the stone device.

Although, in the back of his mind, he realized that it was possibly neither steel nor stone. It was, after all, a device that allowed travel to other worlds, so it was possible that it only looked like stone and would in reality prove much more difficult to destroy than he had at first thought.

When he looked back over his shoulder at the line of Glee following him, it reminded him of a funeral procession.

In a way, that’s exactly what it was.