The Third Kingdom

Richard came to a halt in front of the doorway closed off by the first shielded stone they had passed on their way in.

“Open this, will you?” he said as he flicked a hand toward the metal plate on the wall. “My gift doesn’t work, remember?”

“I remember.” Samantha grumbled as she moved close to slap the flat of her hand to the metal plate. “Which is why it’s crazy for you to go in there.”

Richard snatched her wrist, stopping her before she could touch the metal plate. He thought he saw some hint, some glimmer, of something in the center of the stone.

“Wait,” he said.

She frowned up at the stone and then him. “Wait for what?”

Instead of answering, Richard reached out and pressed the flat of his hand to the metal plate. The massive stone shielding the doorway did not move, but in the center of the round stone, where he thought he’d seen something glimmer, stone dust started to crumble away. Powdery silt poured out of incised lines in the center of the stone. It was as if from centuries of rolling back and forth into the slot in the side wall, the engraved lines had become packed with dirt and dusty, crushed stone. Only now, as it spilled out, did the engraved symbols reappear.

“Would you look at that,” Samantha whispered in amazement.

There, linked in a circle in the center of the stone blocking their way out, was a small triangular assemblage of symbols in the language of Creation. The three emblems formed a complex message. Richard squinted at the small designs as he worked the translation.

The first of the three emblems said, If you are reading this it is because you are the bringer of death and the barrier has been breached. What we could not stop you now face. War is upon you.

The second of the three emblems said, Know that you are the only chance life has, now. Know, too, that you are balanced between life and death. You have the potential to be the one to save the world of life or end it. You are not destined for anything. You make your own destiny.

The third of the three emblems said, Know that you have within you what you need to survive. Use it. Seek the truth. Know that our hearts are with you. Make your own destiny and make it true, for life hangs in the balance. We leave you a reminder to keep with you, of all that is important.

Richard felt an icy chill run across his skin when he saw that it was signed Magda Searus, Mother Confessor, and Wizard Merritt.

They had been speaking to him personally. He half expected to see his own name engraved in the stone.

He stared for a long moment at the symbols, at the names. He had read a number of ancient texts and accounts. This was the only thing he had ever seen from the very first Confessor.

He touched the name, imagining the time so long ago when she must have stood in this very spot as they engraved the words meant for him. His fingers on that name felt like a connection from Magda, across the ages.

Perhaps more than anyone alive, Richard understood what it meant for a woman to be a Confessor. His life was devoted to a Confessor, as had been Merritt’s. Richard knew precious little about the legendary figure of Magda Searus, but he knew Kahlan, and so in that way he knew Magda. In a way, by loving Kahlan he knew Merritt. In that way, he felt a personal connection to Magda, and to Merritt.

As his fingers brushed the names in stone, he looked again at the words saying they left him a reminder.

His fingers drifted to the center between the three symbols, where there was a slight depression. He rubbed with his fingers and the stone dust there began to fall away until it revealed that underneath there was a piece of ancient leather tightly stuffed into a hole in the stone.

He pulled the leather out and opened it in his palm. There, in the center, rested a ring. He and Samantha stared at the silver ring. On the top face of the ring was a Grace. It looked like a ring used for sealing wax on messages.

The message they had sent him was the ring itself. It was a Grace he was to wear to always remind him of what was at stake. He slipped it onto the ring finger of his right hand, the hand he used with the sword. It fit perfectly.

Samantha gave him a look that said more than words could. She was as amazed as he. She knew well the importance of the Grace.