The Third Kingdom

Samantha turned back to him, her brow drawing together. “Do they teach you this language of Creation in Hartland, where you are from?”

Richard smiled at the notion. “No. I learned it not long ago, as a matter of fact.”

The language of Creation was what the ancient machine Regula, or the omen machine as some called it, used to communicate or to set down prophecy. Regula issued prophecy by using focused beams of light to burn the symbols composing the language of Creation onto metal strips. There was part of a book, also called Regula, back at the People’s Palace. Not all of it was there. Part of it, the part explaining the purpose of the machine, had long ago been removed and sent to the Temple of the Winds for safekeeping.

Regula seemed to be an instruction book of some sort for the device. With the help of the book Richard had learned to translate the symbols and in the process learned the language of Creation.

The language of Creation was a condensed, efficient form of writing. It used symbols representing concepts, rather than words. Once Richard caught on, he had come to realize that for years he had used parts of the language of Creation without realizing it. Many symbols in the Keep as well as spells drawn by the gifted used elements of the language of Creation. In many small ways, the language of Creation influenced all that came after it.

“I don’t see how such a thing is possible,” Samantha said with a frustrated sigh. “I don’t see how something can be communicated merely with symbols and designs.” She swept a hand past the wall. “How do circles, triangles, and all these different kinds of squiggly emblems and elements and such really tell us anything? At least anything complex?”

“The Grace is a symbol, isn’t it?” he asked as he scanned the writing on the wall.

“Well, yes.”

“It’s a symbol from the language of Creation.”

Her eyes grew big again. “It is?”

“Sure. And it’s a pretty complex concept, don’t you think? Look here.” With a finger he revealed a circular element nested in one of the symbols on the wall. “Here is a symbol that talks about life, and the dangers to it from what lies beyond the barrier. See how it contains some elements of the Grace?”

Samantha’s jaw dropped as she came closer and touched the motif of life. “I’ve never noticed that before. I always came here with my mother to look out through the opening into the distance to check the wall. Since I never knew what any of the things carved on the wall meant, or that they meant anything, I’ve never really paid much attention to any of it. I walked past it all the time without ever really looking at it.”

“It’s all the language of Creation,” Richard said.

“You are the one,” she said, staring up at him again with awed conviction. “Only the right one, the one who can help us all, would understand this writing and be able to tell what we must do about the third kingdom breaking through its barrier.”

“Just because I understand the language of Creation, that doesn’t mean I understand the problem or I know what to do about it. I have my own problems to…”

Richard turned back suddenly to the opening that looked out at the wall between the mountains in the distance.

“Dear spirits,” he whispered aloud, “I think I might know where they are.”

CHAPTER

24

Samantha looked puzzled. “You know where who is?”

“My friends who came to the Dark Lands to rescue me and Kahlan,” Richard said, distracted as his mind raced, trying to fit together the pieces of the puzzle. “My friends were attacked much like your parents were attacked.”

“What are you talking about? How do they connect to this?” she asked as she swept a hand out toward the expanse of symbols.

“Barrier spells,” Richard said, turning back to the description on the wall. “When I first woke, there were a couple of men there standing over us. I was only just regaining consciousness, but I remember some of what they were saying. They were speculating about who might have attacked the soldiers and my friends who had been taking Kahlan and me back to the People’s Palace.

“One of the men said that he thought our group had been attacked by people called the Shun-tuk—”

“Shun-tuk? I’ve never heard any such people in the Dark Lands.”

Richard looked toward the opening out through the wall. “I don’t think the Shun-tuk are from the Dark Lands. The other man was skeptical about it being the Shun-tuk. The first said ‘With the barrier wall now breached, what better place to hunt for people with souls? The Shun-tuk would go anywhere, do anything, to find such people.’”

Samantha looked horrified. “So, then, you think these Shun-tuk came from beyond this barrier?”

“Sounds like it. The second man said that they had a vast homeland of their own. He wanted to know why they would come this far. The first man said, ‘Same as us. Hunting for those with souls.’”

Samantha’s nose wrinkled as she made a face. “Hunting for souls?”

“That’s what he said. I don’t think their homeland is on this side of the barrier. I think it’s out beyond.”