The Third Kingdom

“Dear spirits,” she whispered. “Lord Rahl, you just stepped right out of the underworld.”

Richard looked down at himself. He appeared to be in one piece. He was all there. He wasn’t bleeding. He wasn’t in any pain. He felt normal, other than the persistent touch of death that still festered inside him.

“How could you do such a thing?” Samantha asked.

“I have death in me, remember?”

Samantha nodded her head of bushy black hair, clearly not understanding. “But how could you step right out of the world of the dead?”

“Do you remember what you told me?” he asked as he checked ahead and behind into the darkness. “You said that I was of that world—the third kingdom. Life and death together. Because I have death in me I’m of both worlds.”

“So you figured that if you are the world of life, and could exist here with death in you, at least for a while, then you could exist there, at least for a while, with life in you?”

Richard nodded. “At least for a short time.”

She seemed to remember her overriding urgency, then looked around and pointed. “The other voices I heard were down that way. We have to get them out. We have to get my mother out. Hurry before any of the Shun-tuk come back this way.”

Richard was nodding even as he was already moving. Samantha ran beside him.

“This way, Lord Rahl,” she said as she raced out in front of him and then cut down another passageway to the right.

It was dark in the rough, crooked tunnel, with distant greenish light reflecting off the rock in places, enabling him to at least see where they were going.

Richard raced past human bones. They lay discarded, piled up against the walls and drifted into irregular depressions to the side.

Panting from the short run, he stopped when Samantha skidded to halt and thrust out her arm to point. “There.”

“Your mother?” he guessed.

She nodded. “Hurry.”

Richard took a deep breath and then without delay stepped into the darkness beyond the flickering green curtain. It was the same timeless, black void as the first time. It was no easier to endure the uncomfortable, lost feeling of the timeless world. In a way, it felt as if he had never left.

As the wall dissolved back into the reality of the world of life, he saw a woman with black hair standing speechless before him, staring with big, dark eyes.

Samantha raced through the now-clear opening into the room where the woman stood in silent shock. She threw herself into the woman’s outstretched arms. Samantha looked like a small, frail, miniature version of her mother. Richard had expected her to look like her mother, but the striking similarity was more than he had expected.

“Sammie,” the woman said with profound relief. “Dear spirits, I never thought I would see you again.”

“This is Lord Rahl,” Samantha said with a nod as she tugged on her mother’s hand, pulling her toward the opening of the room.

“Lord Rahl…?” The woman’s mouth dropped open.

“Yes.” As she dragged her mother, Samantha waved a hand, urging Richard to come along after her. “Hurry, Lord Rahl. We need to get the others out.”

Not needing the urging, Richard was right on their heels, following them out. Samantha raced down the tunnel a short way before again skidding to a halt. She thrust out her arm, again pointing at a green curtain.

“There.”

Richard didn’t pause to question. Without slowing he raced through the green veil and into the coldly frightening void. As the darkness dissolved, and the inner cell came into view, he found himself standing before a number of the shocked faces of men of the First File. They were packed in, filling the room. The ones sitting, leaning against the wall, jumped to their feet.

“Lord Rahl?” one of the men said in surprise.

Suddenly, Cara raced through the men, pushing them aside to make way. She flew into his arms. “Lord Rahl! You’re alive! You’re alive!”

Her husband, Ben, the general in charge of the First File, was right there behind her. He looked as relieved to see Richard as Cara did, if more shocked.

Cara, as frazzled as she appeared, had never looked so good to him.

“Lord Rahl,” Cara said, “you look terrible.”

“Probably because a Mord-Sith has been using her Agiel on me.”

“What!”

“Long story, no time,” he said as he started pushing soldiers toward the now-clear opening and out into the tunnel.

Richard caught General Meiffert’s arm, stopping him, and spoke in a low voice. “Ben, where are the rest of the men?”

With a haunted look, Ben glanced over his shoulder at his men racing out of their prison. “They’ve been coming and taking them, one at a time. Lord Rahl, I know it sounds crazy, but they’ve been taking them out and eating them alive. We could hear it. We could hear the screams before—”

“I know,” Richard said. “I know.” He let out a distraught sigh as he shared a look with the man. “I’m so sorry. I wish I could have gotten here sooner.”

Ben shook his head as he looked Richard in the eye. “We are here to protect you, Lord Rahl, not the other way around.”

“Richard?”