The Third Kingdom

“She said that because the Grace was corrupted and twisted within you both by that infection, if they tried to remove it outside a containment field, then the call of death would draw the Keeper of the dead to you and both of you would die. She said that they could heal your other injuries, though, and they should do that right away to keep you alive until they could get back to the containment field.”

Sammie was astonished by such exotic tales. “I would love to see a palace. I bet it’s magnificent. I never heard of a containment field before. What does it look like?”

Richard gestured overhead. “This particular one at the People’s Palace is a beautiful garden with a glass roof and—”

“Glass roof!” Sammie’s jaw fell open. “I’ve never even dreamed of such an incredible thing. I’d give anything to see such a grand palace.”

“Maybe someday you can,” Richard said. He was impatient for Henrik to go on with the story. “Then what?”

“Zedd said that they needed to hurry back to the palace, because you were both hurt so bad. He bent in over Kahlan, worried about the terrible wound on her stomach. Bouncing in the wagon made it open up and it was bleeding a lot. While he started to heal her, Nicci walked along on the other side of the wagon and reached down to start healing you, Lord Rahl.

“Cara was relieved to see that Zedd and Nicci were finally working on healing you both, so she got up into the wagon’s seat and sat next to her husband, General Meiffert. She helped pull me up to sit next to her while Zedd and Nicci worked.”

“So why didn’t they finish healing us?” Richard asked. “What happened to everyone?”

Henrik looked like he wished he didn’t have to tell that part of the story.

CHAPTER

12

Henrik’s face turned grim as he stared off into his memories.

“Well,” he said at last as he went on with the account, “we were going as fast as General Meiffert said he dared push the horses. Everyone was worried about you and the Mother Confessor and they all wanted to get you out of the Dark Lands and back to the palace.

“Zedd and Nicci both had to climb up in the wagon so they could work on healing you. Zedd cursed, then, and told them that they were going to have to slow down because the Mother Confessor was hurt bad and he needed to close up the wound, but he couldn’t do it when the wagon was bouncing around.”

“Did they say anything at all about what they were going to do to heal them?” Sammie asked the boy as she eagerly leaned in. “Did they say how they were able to do it with that touch of death in them?”

Henrik shook his head. “I don’t know anything about healing or how magic works. I only know that I heard Nicci say to Zedd that they could heal the injuries, but would have to leave the touch of death in them until they got to the palace and the containment field.”

“That much of it is good news,” Richard told Sammie. “It confirms what I thought, that you can do a healing of the other problems even with what you saw in us.”

She nodded in thought as she listened to Henrik go on.

“It was getting dark. Zedd and Nicci bent over you both, using their gift to heal you.” As he stared off into his memories again, his voice occasionally broke. “As they worked, everyone else was keeping a close watch on the surrounding countryside. The Dark Lands are a dangerous enough place in the daylight, but everyone knows that out here you don’t want to be outside at night if you can help it.”

Henrik idly fingered the edge of the coarse carpet they were sitting on. “I guess we couldn’t help it.”

“I guess not,” Richard said, feeling guilty for being the one responsible for bringing his friends into the Dark Lands to help him.

“We were going along for a while without talking, going pretty slow as Zedd had instructed so he and Nicci could concentrate on trying to heal both of you. Then, all of a sudden, they both looked up.”

“At the same time?” Sammie asked.

Henrik nodded.

“If they both looked up at the same time it must be because they sensed something through their gift,” Sammie said to Richard.

Richard only nodded, not wanting to interrupt Henrik’s story.

“Zedd whispered to the general, up on the wagon seat on the other side of Cara from me, that there were people out there in the darkness. The general asked how many people. Zedd paused a moment, and then said, ‘A lot of people.’ I looked around but I couldn’t see anyone.”

Henrik stared off into the distance, as if seeing it in his mind’s eye again. “Even though I couldn’t see them, it seemed as though I could feel their eyes watching us from back in the darkness of the trees. There was forest all around, and it gave whatever Zedd and Nicci sensed plenty of places to hide.

“With the clouds, the moon didn’t provide much light. It was hard to see much of anything. Whoever was back in those dark woods, we couldn’t see them.”