Severed Souls

CHAPTER 46

“What are you doing up?” Zedd asked as Richard stepped closer in the darkness.

The flickering light from the low fire in the distance made Zedd’s wavy white hair look a little like it was made of flames.

“I was asleep all day,” Richard reminded him. “I’m not really tired. I want to check on the men standing watch.”

“Ah,” Zedd said with a nod.

“What are you doing up?” Richard asked his grandfather.

Zedd stroked a finger along his lower lip. “I confess that I saw you go by, and I wanted to talk to you. Alone.”

“Ah,” Richard said with a nod. “Maybe something about the bringer of death?”

Zedd smiled in a way Richard knew well. Ever since he had been a boy, when Richard caught on before his grandfather had finished explaining, Zedd would give him that particular smile.

“Well, yes, that was one of the things I wanted to talk to you about. Would you like to tell me about it, or am I going to have to drag it out of you one question at a time?”

Richard held up a hand in surrender. “No, I’ve been wanting to tell you what I’ve learned in the hopes that maybe you could shed some light on it.”

“So what was written in the language of Creation on those walls you found in Stroyza?”

“I found an account written by Naja Moon. She was a sorceress who worked with Magda Searus and Merritt.”

Zedd arched an eyebrow in wonder. “Remarkable. I’ve never read anything from anyone so close to them.”

“It was remarkable to read her account of that time,” Richard said. “She explained how Emperor Sulachan had conjured weapons out of people during the great war, and in the process learned how to animate the dead—in part by drawing their souls back out from the world of the dead.”

Zedd shook his head with a troubled look. “Crossing the boundaries between the worlds of life and death in such a way requires powers I can’t begin to fathom. Had I not seen the dead reanimated with my own eyes I would not believe it true.”

“Naja said that when the half people were originally created, he instilled occult ability in some to enable them to revive the dead, the same as Sulachan and his wizards were able to do. In the process of creating them, the spirits of those original half people were discarded and left to wander forever between worlds.”

Zedd lifted a finger with a sudden thought. “Those people that you said snuck up on you when you were on watch, and then vanished. Do you think…”

Richard was nodding. “I think they very well might have been some of those lost souls who wandered back into this world, looking for where they belong.”

Zedd shook his head. “The poor souls.”

“Indeed. Naja mentioned that some of them show up in this plane of existence and cause trouble. Sometimes they even harm people here.”

“Much like the half people.”

Richard nodded. “The half people want a soul and think that they can get one by devouring the living to get one, and the lost souls want to be able to find the place they belong. Sulachan doomed both to never being at peace.”

The wrinkles in Zedd’s face deepened with a troubled frown. He idly rubbed a hand back and forth across his mouth as he considered it. His hazel eyes finally turned to Richard.

“And what does the bringer of death have to do with all that?”

Richard rested the palm of his left hand on the hilt of his sword. “According to Naja, despite everything they tried in order to stop Sulachan’s creations, in the end all they could do to keep from being annihilated was to build the barrier to lock that evil away.”

Richard smiled. “I guess they did much the same as you did long ago when you created the boundaries to lock D’Hara and the House of Rahl away so that the Midlands and Westland could live in peace.”

Zedd nodded in thought. “Yes, except that, by comparison, I built a little fence out of sticks while those people back in the great war built a fortress wall out of stone. Mine lasted decades, while theirs lasted thousands of years.”

Richard nodded. “But both were still fated to eventually fail. Naja knew that the barrier, much like the boundaries you put up, wouldn’t last forever and then the people of the New World would once again have to face the evil they had locked away. She said that they could do no more than leave people to stand watch.”

“I know the feeling,” Zedd said, deep in thought. “That’s all I had been able to do—lock evil away for a time. Sometimes, you can’t eliminate evil; you can only keep it contained.”

“Naja also explained, much the same as that Shun-tuk prisoner told us, that Sulachan’s plan is to dissolve the boundary between life and death in order to rule a united world where life and death exist together. It wouldn’t be the world of life anymore, or the world of death, but a third kingdom.”

Zedd looked up from his thoughts. “That’s crazy.”

“Yes, but because of the forces he is using—occult powers that can not only bend but break the elements of the Grace—the mere attempt, no matter how crazy, could very well destroy the world of life.”

Zedd peered at Richard. “Do you think him more powerful than the Keeper of the underworld? That’s like saying that one man is more powerful than all of Creation and he can take over and dictate everything in life, from how fast grass grows to how high birds can fly to how people must serve him. Thinking he can rule life and death is the very definition of delusional.”

“Look, Zedd, I’m not arguing that the man can do what he wants, and neither was Naja. The point is that by the things he has done—creating the half people, animating the dead, and pulling spirits out of the world of the dead into this world—Naja’s people were sure that he has the wherewithal to rip the veil. That’s all that really matters.”

“I still say it’s delusional.”

“It may be delusional to think you can steal a man’s thoughts by breaking his head open with a rock to have a look at them, but the man with the head full of thoughts is dead either way.”

Zedd grunted unhappily. “I suppose you’re right. Did she offer any solution, any answers?”

“She said that Sulachan’s scheme could only be stopped by the bringer of death.”

Zedd shot Richard a sharp look. “What is the bringer of death supposed to do to stop such powers?”

Richard’s gaze wandered across the dark woods. The low clouds had drifted silently back overhead and blanketed the heat of the day, so that it wasn’t as cold as Kahlan said it had been the night before, when he had been at death’s door.

“Have you ever heard of something called ‘the Twilight Count’?” he finally asked his waiting grandfather.

“No, I can’t say that I have. What is it?”

“I don’t know. The way Naja talked about it makes me think it might have something to do with the chronology of prophecy, like a calendar of prophecy, or something. It involved some kind of formal calculation, but she didn’t explain it—I guess because people in her time knew all about it. She did say that they were able to determine from this Twilight Count that prophecy holds the key to stopping the threat.”

“Prophecy.” Zedd’s face twisted with a sour expression. “It would have to be prophecy.”

“Actually, you may be surprised to hear that she said the threat can only be ended by ending prophecy.”

Zedd’s frown deepened. “Ending prophecy? How in the world are we supposed to end prophecy?”

Richard looked over at his grandfather. “We? Naja said that according to the Twilight Count, prophecy can only be ended by the bringer of death. That means it can only be ended by me.”

“Samantha called you ‘the one.’ What’s that about?”

Richard shrugged. “In many different ways, books of prophecy have all identified me as the bringer of death. In the same way they say I’m the one who is supposed to stop Sulachan by ending prophecy. I think that’s why Samantha and the sorceresses of Stroyza have always expected ‘the one’ to come along and solve the problem they are there to watch over. It could be that they have been taught that the right person would come along at the right time.”

“Or it could be something as simple as them knowing that the barrier would eventually fail, and they assume that when it did someone would come along and set things right.”

“That makes sense, too,” Richard said. “People are always looking for a simple answer, looking for ‘the one’ who will solve their problems.”

Zedd clasped his hands behind his back. “Sounds simple enough.”

It was Richard’s turn to frown. “Simple?”

“Certainly. The barrier comes down, as Naja’s people knew it would. The people of Stroyza were meant to watch for that event. Even if over the centuries they lost the ability to read Naja’s message, they probably continued to pass the general concept down from generation to generation, teaching their children that when the barrier failed they had to report it and someone would stop the threat. Over time, the gifted of Stroyza might have simply come to think of that person as ‘the one.’”

Richard shot his grandfather an unhappy look. “It may sound simple, but the problem is I’m the one named in prophecy and I don’t have any idea how to end prophecy.”

Zedd’s sour expression returned. “Yes, that part does sound tricky.”

“That isn’t all,” Richard said as he showed Zedd his ring with the Grace on it. “Magda Searus and Merritt left it for me.”

Zedd frowned. “The first Confessor herself?”

“That would be the one.”

“How do you know it’s for you? Was there a message with it?”

Richard nodded. “There were three emblems written in the language of Creation hidden in a shielded door along with this ring. They have been hidden there, undisturbed and undiscovered, for three thousand years.

“The first of the three emblems said, If you are reading this it is because you are the bringer of death and the barrier has been breached. What we could not stop you now face. War is upon you.”

“Well that certainly seems to confirm the business with you being ‘the one.’ What about the other two emblems?”

Richard squinted in thought, making sure he got the words right. “The second said, Know that you are the only chance life has, now. Know, too, that you are balanced between life and death. You have the potential to be the one to save the world of life or end it. You are not destined for anything. You make your own destiny.”

“That sounds like it’s referring to the poison in you,” Zedd said. “That touch of death you carry means you are balanced between the world of life and the world of the dead.”

“That’s what I thought,” Richard said. “But the problem is that the combinations of cause and effect that result in me being the one to save life, or to end it, are so complex, and there are so many variables, that I don’t know how what she said is supposed to do me any good.”

Zedd made a sound of agreement deep in his throat. “What about the third part? Did that shed any light on it?”

“Not really. The third emblem said, Know that you have within you what you need to survive. Use it. Seek the truth. Know that our hearts are with you. Make your own destiny and make it true, for life hangs in the balance. We leave you a reminder to keep with you, of all that is important.

“Magda Searus and Wizard Merritt wanted me to have this ring as a reminder of what we all fight for.”

Zedd considered the words in silence.

“Do you have any idea what I should do?” Richard finally asked.

Zedd’s face turned away to stare off into the darkness. “As a matter of fact, my boy, I do.”