The Third Kingdom

Richard tapped the next symbols. “This is alarming. She says that hopefully by then, the wizards’ council will have come up with a way to eliminate the threat once and for all.”

“Well, we pretty much know that never happened,” Samantha said. “And now there is no longer even a wizards’ council.”

“I’m afraid you’re right. She implores people here to keep watch, for when that barrier finally fails those without souls will come for the living and the world of life itself will again be at risk.”

Richard leaned in a bit, studying the next symbol. “She says that it’s important to know that the half people will seek those with the gift.”

“The gifted?” Samantha asked with a frown. “She said before that the gift doesn’t work against these walking dead and the unholy half dead, so why would they bother to come after the gifted?”

Richard shook his head. “I don’t know. She doesn’t explain.”

His anger boiled just beneath the surface thinking about what had happened to the First File troops and to his friends. He couldn’t afford to wait any longer. He needed to know what he could learn from Naja’s account, but time was running out.

Samantha was still frowning in thought. “Why would the half people want the gifted? I can see that in their madness they would want to steal a soul, crazy as that notion is, but why would they seek out the gifted?”

Richard sighed in frustration as he scanned the rows of symbols. “It doesn’t say. Maybe they think the gifted have some way to give them souls.” He glanced over at Samantha out of the corner of his eye. “Or maybe these half people, in their deranged obsession to possess a soul, think that there is something special about a gifted soul. Maybe they think it’s easier to get, or maybe they even think that if they got a gifted soul, then besides having their soul they would also possess the gift.”

CHAPTER

30

Unable to fathom why the half people would seek out the gifted, Samantha leaned in closer, examining the symbols carved in the wall as if maybe by studying them more carefully she might somehow suddenly be able to read them. Unable to learn anything, she finally turned to Richard.

“Lord Rahl, are you sure of everything that you told me it says, here? That the half people really would eat people? That their souls and the souls of the awakened dead are really lost and left to wander between worlds? I mean, it’s all pretty hard to believe.”

“I know what it says, Samantha.”

“But these”—she waved a hand at the wall—“these symbols all over the wall are pretty complicated. I don’t doubt your knowledge of such things, Lord Rahl, but are you sure that you got the whole translation right?”

He scanned the symbols he had just finished translating for any little thing, any clue, he might have missed. While there were a few elements he wasn’t completely positive about, they were minor points that didn’t alter the meaning or essence of Naja’s frightening story.

“I translated it accurately.”

Samantha’s nose wrinkled with a look of skepticism. “Isn’t it possible, though, that you could have gotten some of it wrong? Or that maybe you misunderstood the intent of some of the things it says? Don’t you think that with a language this old and strange and complicated that you might have interpreted at least some of it wrong?”

He looked down at her, wishing there were some legitimacy to her doubts. “What about the barrier being breached for the first time since it was put in place? And what about those wounds on me that you healed? They were bite wounds. Those two men, come from beyond that barrier, were trying to eat me alive, just as it is described here.”

Her mouth twisted a little as she struggled with the idea of it. “But do you really think their intent was to steal your soul? Maybe they were cannibals from beyond the barrier. Maybe they have a famine there and they have to eat people to survive.”

“They were both healthy, strong, and looked well fed. They weren’t suffering from starvation. Just ask Ester if you doubt my memory. She was there, she saw them. The only thing they were hungry for was my soul.

“What I heard them talking about when I was waking up is still a bit fuzzy, but as I read what’s written here about the barrier, some of the strange things I heard the two men saying started to make sense. They talked about eating me and taking my soul for themselves. Ester and the others arrived just in time to stop them and save my life.”

Samantha pressed her lips tight in resignation. “Well, I’m glad they got there in time.” She tipped her head toward the wall. “After all, you’re the only one who knows how to read this. I guess you must have the translation right. I don’t really doubt you, Lord Rahl, it’s just that…”

“I know, I wish I was wrong about it, too,” he said before going back to working the translation to the next part of Naja’s account.