The Third Kingdom

It was all coming to an end before his journey of rescue had even begun. They hadn’t even made it beyond the outskirts of Stroyza. The hadn’t even made it safely across the fields and into the forest.

“Don’t be sorry,” Samantha whispered back from the darkness behind him. “Don’t be sorry, Lord Rahl. You had the idea. It’s not your fault. It’s mine.”

“What?”

Samantha put her hand on the top of his head and pushed it lower. “Keep your head down,” she whispered as if from some distant, dreamlike place.

Richard frowned and was about to ask her what she was talking about when her small fingers tightened on his head, keeping it down.

And then the ground suddenly shook with a thunderous explosion.

An instant later a deep shock wave hammered his chest. He couldn’t make out its source.

Three more deafening explosions came in rapid succession, almost on top of one another. The earsplitting cracks of the detonations were like lightning hitting a tree right beside him. Each booming blast made him flinch. The explosions being so close left his ears ringing.

There was a brief moment of silence before another series of explosions, only there were more this time. All around the wallop of explosions shook the ground like a thunder and lightning storm gone crazy. The staggering concussions, one on top of another in rapid succession, sent shock waves ripping through the air. They shook the ground so powerfully that it made his head hurt. Dirt and small rocks rained down.

Again there was a preciously brief pause in the deafening thumps, and then the thunderous explosions erupted again, coming so close on top of one another that it reminded him of the sound of canvas ripping.

After the briefest of pauses, another series of explosions began, the echoing booms in a measured pace, one right after another, like some celestial blacksmith hammer raining down mighty blows on the anvil of the world. The very air shook with the power of those blows.

Then Richard heard clattering against the rock over his head as a rain of debris began falling. Some of it struck the rock with astounding violence. Other sharp impacts sounded like the crack of a whip. Some of it sounded like it might fracture the rock over his head.

And then pieces of wood began cascading down. Splinters of wood, some no bigger than sewing needles, pelted him while other pieces as big as oars crashed into the rock, bouncing back into the air to eventually come raining down all around. Richard saw that many of the pieces were covered in blood. Some even held skewered pieces of mangled flesh.

He could hear tree limbs under great weight snap in rapid succession, then the sound of massive trunks fracturing as trees crashed down through the forest canopy. The colossal trees shook the ground when they hit. The rumbling sound of trees toppling to the ground boomed all around them.

One of the enormous trunks smashed down with a jarring impact onto the rock they were cowering in. Richard thought that the rock might shatter from the blow. Instead, the impact of the great weight snapped the trunk in half above where Richard and Samantha crouched. Trees in the forest all around upended, ripping great limbs off as they fell. The ground shook with loud, booming blasts that reverberated through the woods.

As the tumultuous explosions continued at an unabated pace, the detonations moved ever outward, ever farther away, the ground shaking with each powerful blow until it all joined together to feel like an earthquake. It felt powerful enough to bring down mountains.

It seemed like it went on forever, but Richard knew that it had all happened in a mere moment in time, a thunderous, violent, murderous moment that had ripped through the forest with incredible brute force and merciless violence.

Almost as soon as they had started, the explosions came to an abrupt end.

Though the explosions stopped, trees continued to fall, each giant monarch snapping limbs of other trees on the way down, even splintering the trunks of neighbors that in turn were knocked over. Richard could hear the muffled sound of roots popping under the tremendous pressure as toppled trees fell against others. The ground shook with the impact when each one finally came to ground.

Giant splinters still rained down for another long moment. Tree trunks cracked in long ripping splits before they came crashing down. Gradually, the noises of all the destruction came to an end as one last tree smashed down not far away, making the ground rumble.

When the world finally went silent, Richard still didn’t move. He wasn’t sure he should, wasn’t sure it was really over. Samantha still had her hand protectively over his head, holding it down.

Samantha slowly withdrew her hand. “Lord Rahl?” she asked in a soft voice choked with tears. “Are you still alive? Are you all right? Dear spirits, please be alive.”