The Third Kingdom

“Then what are we to think of Naja’s account? I mean, parts of it, like the part about ending prophecy, are pretty confusing to me. But those corpses who came in here and killed so many people are all too real.” She pointed toward light coming from the opening. “That’s what matters most. I’m not sure about all the things that happened back in Naja’s time, but I know what’s happening now. Does all this help us or not? What are we to do about it? What are you going to do about the barrier being breached and about ending prophecy?”

Richard’s gaze scanned across Naja Moon’s account of that ancient war before he went to the opening overlooking the barrier standing before the third kingdom, a barrier that had stood for near to three thousand years, holding back an unspeakable evil. A barrier that had now been breached.

“I’m going to do what I thought I would never have to do again.”

“What would that be?” she asked as she watched him glaring silently out into the murky morning light.

Richard lifted his sword a few inches to make sure it was clear and then let it drop back into its scabbard.

“I’m going to war.”

“Going to war?”

“Yes, with a madman who has been dead for three thousand years,” Richard said as he marched away.

CHAPTER

33

Samantha hurried to catch up with him. “What do you mean you’re going to war?”

Richard, his mind lost in a jumble of thoughts, started back through the corridor the way they had come in. Samantha was right on his heels by the time he reached the opening with the round stone that had been blocking the passage on the way in, but now stood open.

“Shut this,” he said as he marched through without pause.

Samantha growled, slapped the metal plate, and then rushed to catch back up with him. Richard could hear the stone grinding across the floor as it slowly rolled back in front of the opening to block off the corridor to the portal for viewing the ancient barrier to the third kingdom.

Samantha grabbed his wrist and dragged him to a halt. “Lord Rahl, what do you mean you’re going to war?”

“I’ve read everything Naja wanted us to know. There is still a lot I don’t understand, but the one thing that’s clear is that if we have any time left, it’s rapidly running out—for everyone. I have to do something to stop what is happening, and I have to do it now or it will soon be too late.”

“Like what?” Samantha sounded as exasperated as she looked. “What are you going to do? What can you hope to do?”

Her voice echoed back from the distance through the simple stone corridor. What she meant, but didn’t say, was what could he possibly hope to do without the help of his gift. He didn’t have an answer to that unspoken question. He only knew that he had to stop what was coming after them all.

He had not told Samantha all the gruesome details written on the wall. He had wanted to spare her the anguish of some of Naja’s words. But those words echoed in his own mind and he knew the ghastly extent of what the people back in the time of the first Confessor had faced and what the world of life now faced again.

Samantha’s black hair looked even darker in the spectral glow of the light sphere she was holding. “Lord Rahl, answer me. What are you going to do?”

Richard clenched his jaw a moment before answering.

“I have to go in there.”

“Go in there?” She leaned toward him with urgency. “Go in where?”

Richard flicked a hand back in the direction of the portal looking out over a barrier that had for thousands of years held back an unspeakable evil.

“I have to go in there, to the third kingdom. Knowing, now, what’s beyond that barrier, I fully expect that I will have to fight a war to do it.”

She snatched a quick look back the way they had come. “Go into the third kingdom? Are you crazy?”

“It’s the only thing I can do, the only answer I can come up with.”

“Answer? Answer to what? How to get yourself killed?”

Richard ignored the sarcasm as he started out again. “No, the answer to how to stay alive, how to keep us all alive.”

“Lord Rahl,” she said, her mass of black hair bouncing softly as she jogged along beside him, “you can’t go in there.”

He tapped his chest. “What do I have in me?” he asked without slowing.

Samantha pushed some of her hair back out of her face. “In you? You mean that touch of death?”

“That’s right.”

“What of it?”

“You can’t remove that touch of death from me or Kahlan.” Richard glanced down at the concern on her face. “If we don’t rid ourselves of this link to the world of the dead, then it will claim us both. You said yourself that Kahlan didn’t have much time, and I have precious little more than she does.”

“I still don’t think—”

Not in the mood to argue, he jabbed a finger toward her. “You’re the one who told me that I would soon start getting as sick as she is. You know very well that once I get to that point, I won’t be able to do anything to help myself, much less anyone else. Would you have me lie down and wait for death?”

She rushed along beside him in silence as they made their way back through the hauntingly empty tunnel.