The Third Kingdom

CHAPTER 47

Richard was exhausted after a day of difficult travel over rough terrain. The farther north they went, the more uneven the ground became, and the darker and gloomier. At times the clouds were so low that the tops of the trees vanished in the gray overcast.

It was tiring to climb up steep, rocky rises only to have to descend the far side, and then do it all over again when the next steep ascent appeared through the trees. It was made worse in places by stretches of brush so dense that it was tiring to get through it and it bogged down their progress. In other places they encountered underbrush with tangled layers of thorny vines that were impassable and had to be skirted.

Richard hadn’t slept well the night before, after talking with the soulless man they found drinking at the brook who wanted to eat them alive. Richard wished he could have killed the man twice.

Samantha looked tired as well. She had been uncharacteristically quiet the night before and then all day as they trudged through the trackless forests of the Dark Lands. When Richard had asked if she was all right, she’d said that it had unnerved her to hear such an evil man say such terrible things—to have him look her in the eye and tell her that he wanted to eat her warm flesh, drink her blood, and take her soul.

Richard knew that what probably unnerved her the most was knowing that others with the same sentiment had murdered her father and were likely holding her mother captive.

At least, he hoped they were still holding her mother captive, and that they hadn’t harmed her. Richard hoped that Zedd and Nicci and Cara and Benjamin and the rest of the soldiers were all still alive as well, and that they hadn’t been slaughtered. He knew what a dim hope that really was, though. It had to be terrifying to be in the hands of such merciless cannibals. He couldn’t help being constantly haunted by fear for their safety. That fear kept him pushing forward as swiftly as he could.

Besides wanting to rescue his friends—to save the lives of those people he loved and cared about—he always had in the back of his mind that the only way to save Kahlan’s life as well was to get her back to the containment field at the People’s Palace along with Zedd and Nicci so that they could remove the Hedge Maid’s touch of death.

Richard glanced around when he noticed that the woods were growing darker all the time. It was still only late in the afternoon, not yet late enough for it to be getting dark. He looked up from time to time but the dense forest canopy was closed in so tightly overhead that he couldn’t see any sky, so he couldn’t tell how cloudy it was. He felt warm even though there was still a cold mist.

Moving along a narrow, marshy low area, Richard went to a knee. Overwhelmed with how weary he felt, how exhausted, he couldn’t seem to take another step. He had to stop, had to pause to rest a moment.

“Lord Rahl, what is it?” Samantha asked as she rushed to his side. “What’s wrong?”

Richard pulled a deep breath as his head hung. “I’m just so tired, that’s all.” He dismissed it with a gesture. “It’s nothing. It’s just that it’s been hard traveling and I didn’t sleep well.…”

Samantha laid her small hand against his forehead. “You have a fever.”

He wasn’t at all surprised. “Feels like it.”

She pushed against the front of his shoulder with one hand while gesturing with the other. “Here, sit back on that rock for a minute.”

Richard looked around behind and then sat back on the leaf-covered rock she was pointing to. Samantha stood in front of him, her face almost even with his. She pressed her fingertips to his temples. He could feel the slight but familiar tingle of magic.

She finally pulled her hands back. “It’s the darkness in you,” she told him in a quiet voice. “The touch of death. It’s what the Mother Confessor has in her, too. It’s the same dark evil that is trying to claim you both. It’s getting worse, as I told you would happen.”

“You did,” Richard said as he nodded. “Is there anything you can do?”

She was a long moment in answering. “I’m sorry, Lord Rahl. I’ve already healed you all I can. I wish I knew more about healing. I wish I knew of some trick or something to help, but I don’t. It will take your grandfather now if you and the Mother Confessor are to be truly helped.”

“What if you try to use the gift to strengthen me, rather than healing me?”

She thought it over and then put her fingertips to his temples. He again felt the warm tingle of her gift. He could hear birds in the distance, and feel a soft breath of damp air on his face. Inside him, he could feel the warm glow of magic. He felt the familiar suspension of time in the grip of that magic.

She removed her hands. “Did it help?”

Richard stood and rolled his shoulders, trying to sense if he felt stronger. At least he was able to stand.

“I think it helped. I do feel a little stronger. Thank you.”

“I wish it was more, Lord Rahl, but I’m afraid that it isn’t the real solution you need, just a temporary boost. Rest would help more until you can be healed properly.”

He nodded and managed a small smile to reassure her. “I think I can walk, now. Let’s get going. Getting more rest will have to wait.”

Richard forced himself to move despite how much he wanted to slow down or stop to rest. He knew, somewhere deep down inside, that if he gave up and lay down, he would die, much the way people caught in winter storms would get tired, lie down, and go to sleep, and never to rise again.

When he died, he told himself, he would have all eternity to rest. If he wanted to live, if he wanted others to live, it was going to take effort.

As they came to the top of each new rise he wished that he could see through the dense green leaves, pine boughs, and dark shadows among the endless tree trunks to what lay beyond. He wished he could get to a vantage point so he could see how much farther, but there was no such vantage point in the endless, dark, forbidding forest.

As he walked, he glanced up at a tree, thinking that if he climbed up high, he might possibly get a view of what was ahead. But he didn’t have the energy to spare, much less the time, to go climbing trees. He supposed that he knew where he was going, and he knew that they were going in the right direction, so he simply needed to put one foot in front of another and they would eventually get there. Looking out from a high vantage point wouldn’t get them there any faster.

As the day wore on, he realized it was getting a little brighter. At first he thought the overcast might be breaking up, but then, coming over a rise, through an opening in the thick layers of limbs, he finally saw a patch of light.

He trotted toward a narrow opening in the trees and in the misty distance was rewarded with his first glimpse of the barrier. He had been impatient to get to it for days, and now, suddenly seeing it, he was stunned. He stopped dead in his tracks and stared. Samantha stood beside him, staring as well.