The Third Kingdom Page 8

  “She leaned close again and asked if I saw the path into the woods. I didn’t see it, but I was afraid to say so. She said that she wanted me to run for that path and get away.”

  “Run?” Sammie asked. “If there was a place where there were no people, then why didn’t all of you go that way and try to escape?”

  “I asked her that. I begged her to come with me. She said that carrying Lord Rahl and the Mother Confessor would slow them down and not only that, but they couldn’t see to run fast enough in the woods. She said that with that many of them running to try to escape they would be spotted and chased. She said they would be caught in there, and then the enemy would have Lord Rahl and the Mother Confessor.

  “She said that above all, saving you, Lord Rahl, and the Mother Confessor was what mattered to D’Hara and to the future of everyone.

  “She told me that Benjamin was right, that this was the only chance they had to save you both, but they had to act fast. She said they would run in another direction making it look like they were trying to get away so that the people would chase after them and hopefully not even realize that the two of you had been left hidden in the abandoned wagon.

  “I asked what was going to happen to her and the general, and Zedd and Nicci, and all the rest of the men.” Henrik paused briefly to choke back a sob. “Cara gritted her teeth and said they were doing what they had to do to protect you.”

  Henrik dissolved into tears, choking back sobs. Sammie put a hand over his and softly told him that she understood. Her eyes, too, brimmed with tears. She told the boy that the same thing had happened to her father, and that her mother was missing. She told him that she knew what it felt like to hurt inside from losing people you loved.

  Henrik was surprised to hear about her parents. He told her that he was sorry. Sammie squeezed his hand and told him that there was grave trouble at hand, and they all had to be brave.

  When she asked, Henrik finally went on with the story. “Cara lifted me down over the side of the wagon and set me on the ground. The general yelled back to her from the other side of the wagon, telling her to hurry. She nodded then turned back to me.

  “She pointed her Agiel at my face again and told me to run like the wind and get away. She told me that I had to get away so that I could find help for Lord Rahl and the Mother Confessor. She said that they were all counting on me. She said that they would try to lead the enemy in the other direction to buy me time so that I could slip away through the woods and find help.

  “I was terrified. I didn’t want to leave them. I asked what was going to happen to her and the others.

  “She said not to worry about them. She said that my job was to run, to get away, and to find help. I stood there trembling, staring at her, unable to believe it was happening. Cara grabbed my jaw and said, ‘Run. Don’t look back. Don’t stop for anything. Get help for them. Understand?’ I nodded that I did. I couldn’t answer because I was too afraid to talk.

  “Cara pointed off into the darkness with her Agiel and said, ‘Go!’ I turned to go, but then she grabbed my arm.

  “I turned back and she was real close, looking right into my eyes. She said, ‘Don’t let us die for nothing, Henrik. Find them help no matter what. Make our lives count for something. Get them help.’ I said, ‘I promise, Cara.’

  “As I turned to run, I saw her race around the wagon to join the others. And then they all ran, the howling enemy right on their heels.”

  Henrik’s words dissolved into sobs.

  Richard was in so much pain that his hands shook. His breathing was ragged. But the pain seemed distant in the numb haze of his grief.

  He rubbed the boy’s shoulder, understanding his emotions, feeling great sorrow for his ordeal. His own heartache felt as if it would crush his chest.

  “As I ran toward the woods, I finally spotted the trail,” Henrik said, trying mightily to pull himself together enough to finish the story. “I heard the howls around me. I raced onto the trail without slowing to look back. Before I had taken ten strides down the dark trail, I saw someone moving back in the trees. I froze. They didn’t spot me. I saw dark shapes moving through the brush. I realized that the enemy was in the woods and remembered that Zedd had said that they were all around us. They had been lying in wait in case anyone tried to escape in that direction.”

  “It was a trap,” Richard said. “They made it look empty and inviting as an escape route to draw people in. They were waiting in ambush.”

  Henrik nodded. “I guess. Because I’m small, or maybe it was because I was alone there in the dark and there was so much noise going on back the way I’d come, they didn’t spot me. Once they realized that the cavalry and the others were running to try to escape in the other direction they all went crazy, howling as they raced out of the cover of the woods to join the chase.

  “When I saw them coming I knew that if I kept going down the trail they would soon have me. I was trapped and there was nowhere to run, so I dove behind a fallen tree. I clawed through the soft moss and decayed wood to squeeze in under the trunk.

  “I lay as still as I could, holding my breath where I hid. I could just make out dark shapes moving through the trees. Closer in a lot of legs ran past me. More and more people kept running by all the time. Thousands, it seemed, ran past. I could hear the sound of all their feet rumbling through the forest.

  “I was terrified that any moment one of them would spot me and then reach down and pull me out. I knew that if they did, they would tear me apart with their teeth the way they had the man I saw pulled off his horse and killed.

  “I stayed hidden a long time, too afraid to move. I could hear them making that awful shrieking sound as they charged through the trees like a pack of wild animals on the scent of blood.”

  Henrik looked up at Richard. “The general and the others were right not to have tried to take you and the Mother Confessor back through those woods. If they had, you would be dead now.”

  Richard knew that he owed his life, Kahlan’s life, to his friends. It didn’t seem fair that he should live at the cost of their lives. He desperately wanted to find a way to help them … if they were still alive.

  “Finally,” Henrik said, “after what seemed forever, I didn’t hear any more people running past. I could hear all the howls and cries from them as they went after Cara and the others. That noise kept getting farther away.

  “After it was quiet in the woods for a time, I finally dared to crawl out and take a careful look around. The woods were dead still and I didn’t see anyone. I started running.”

  “So then, as you were running along the trail, you came to this place?” Richard asked.

  Henrik nodded. “I found people here caring for their animals. I begged them to come help you. Thankfully, they did.”

  CHAPTER

  14

  “After Cara told me to run, I never saw what happened to all of them.” Henrik’s head hung as he cried quietly in sorrow for those he had left behind to their fate.

  Sammie put a comforting arm around Henrik’s shoulders. Her eyes glistened with tears as well. With her father murdered in the same way as Henrik described and her mother missing, very possibly a victim of the same grim end, she clearly empathized with Henrik’s misery.

  Ester turned to Richard as she spoke into the silence, taking up the rest of the story. “When the boy showed up here we couldn’t understand what he was talking about. He wasn’t making much sense. He was frantic to get help, that much was clear, but we were having a hard time of getting him to slow down enough so we could understand what kind of help he needed. He kept pointing and telling us to hurry.

  “When we began to grasp that he had been with people who had been attacked, and that there were two injured people who needed help, we knew that we couldn’t wait for him to tell the whole story. It’s dangerous in the Dark Lands at night, and it was evident that your party had somehow fallen victim to something awful. We knew that we had to go right away to find you and get
you both out of danger. We figured we could get all the details later.

  “As reluctant as we were to venture out into the wilderness at night, we also feared what would happen if we didn’t help. The Dark Lands are sparsely populated. There are dangers, to be sure, and it can be especially dangerous at night, but we had never heard of so many people as it seemed Henrik was describing attacking them.

  “We thought that maybe he was imagining things because he was so afraid. It was not only difficult for us to believe what we thought he was telling us, he was having trouble telling us the whole story because he was frantically concerned with us hurrying to go help you. We had no trouble believing, though, because of his panicked state, that you had been attacked by someone and the situation was serious.

  “Henrik didn’t know where you were, exactly. We finally got it out of him that you had come from Kharga Trace, from the Hedge Maid. That was enough to tell us what we needed to know. There is only one, seldom-used road that goes in the direction of that swampy place, so we had a good idea where to look. We left the boy up here where it was safe while we went out to look for you.”

  “You did good, Henrik,” Richard told the boy. “You saved our lives.”

  Henrik managed a small smile. “Just returning the favor, Lord Rahl. You and the Mother Confessor saved my life.” He gestured toward Kahlan. “The Hedge Maid had me. Jit would have bled me dry like the other poor souls who were trapped like I was, but had no one come in time to help save them. They died in her lair. The Mother Confessor got me out.”

  Richard nodded. “That’s the kind of person she is. She has always fought for life.” He rubbed his forehead as his gaze sank. “Now she’s fighting for hers.”

  He was feeling dizzy, both from his injuries and from fear for his friends and loved ones after what Henrik had told him about the mysterious attack. The long war had ended. He had thought they were finally at peace and that life was returning to normal. He guessed that there was no such thing as normal out in the Dark Lands. He knew, though, that even for the Dark Lands this was out of the ordinary.

  Sick with worry for the fate of his friends, his bite wound throbbing painfully, and his head pounding with what might be a developing fever, he needed to lie down.

  After learning a little more about Zedd and Nicci beginning to heal them despite the Hedge Maid’s vile touch of death, he needed to have Sammie see to helping Kahlan. He needed help as well, but he knew that he could wait a bit. He didn’t know if she could.

  Richard was about to ask Ester if she knew anything at all about the people who had attacked his friends, when he saw the cat across the room suddenly turn to the doorway and arch its back.

  Teeth bared, the cat hissed. Its dark gray fur lifted until it was all standing on end.

  Richard felt the hair on his own neck stiffen.

  “Does it do that often?” he asked in a quiet voice.

  Sammie pulled a long lock of curly black hair back from her face as she frowned at the cat. “No. Just when it’s frightened for some reason.”

  The flames of several candles withered and died out, leaving a wisp of smoke to curl up into the still air.

  Richard heard other cats out in the corridors beyond the doorway let out feral yowls.

  Ester started to get up. “What in the world…”

  Richard caught her arm, pulling her back, keeping her from going to the door. Henrik’s eyes widened at the chorus of feline screeches. Sammie’s frown deepened.

  And then, someone in the distance let out a bloodcurdling scream.

  Richard sprang up. Dizzy and light-headed, he struggled to to keep from falling over as he focused his attention on the sounds outside in the corridors.

  His hand instinctively found the hilt of his sword resting in its sheath at his hip. His fingers tightened around the wire-wound hilt as sudden cries of terror and pain rang out and echoed through the halls. At first there was only one scream, but others soon joined in a chorus of terror.

  The sword’s anger instantly inundated him. The suddenness of it felt like being abruptly dropped into an icy river. The shock of it made him draw a sharp breath.

  His own anger rose up out of those dark waters to join with the rage spiraling up from the ancient weapon. The icy shock turned hot with rage as a storm of power from the sword called forth its twin from somewhere deep within him.

  With his hand on the hilt of that ancient weapon, whatever sickness he felt, whatever pain, whatever exhaustion and weakness weighed on him, it melted before the heat of rage that had sparked to life. The sword’s power, its anger, crackled within him, hungry for violence in reaction to the screams of terror and pain he was hearing from out in the passageways.

  The unique sound of steel rang through the room as Richard drew his sword.

  It felt exhilarating having it out, intoxicating to hold it in his fist. With the blade free, with the sword’s anger awakened, the Seeker and the Sword of Truth were now forged together in purpose and fierce intent.

  They were now a singular weapon.

  Ester shrank back at seeing him with his sword to hand. Distantly, Richard realized that his grim expression, and especially the look in his eyes, was probably frightening her.

  Henrik scooted back toward the wall, wanting to be out of his way.

  Sammie crouched protectively over Kahlan, ready to protect her from whatever might come through the door.

  Richard didn’t intend to let anything come through the door.

  He pointed the sword back at Kahlan as he spoke with quiet fury to Sammie. “Stay here and protect her.”

  Looking determined, Sammie nodded.

  Richard flipped the sheepskin covering up out of the way as he ducked under it and out into the hallway, headed toward the sound of the screams.

  CHAPTER

  15

  As Richard raced out into the hallway, he heard not only terrified screams, but a kind of animalistic growl that could not have sounded more out of place in the world of life. The malevolent roar, a manifest threat to the living, reverberated through the dark passageways.

  Richard didn’t know the layout of the labyrinth of corridors excavated through the soft rock of the mountain, or where all the passageways led and connected, but he knew the direction the screams were coming from, so he raced to follow the sound. He knew that the kind of cries he was hearing only came from people in mortal terror. Other screams he recognized as coming from those who were grievously injured or dying. He had heard those dreadful, primal shrieks before. With the war over, he had hoped never again to hear such gut-wrenching cries.

  As he raced down the passageways, he began encountering clumps of people racing away from the screams of the injured and bone-chilling bellows of the attackers. Many of the people he ran past were screaming as well, but they were crying out in panic, not the kind of screams that people let out in the throes of death.

  As he ran, Richard realized that he was getting lost in the confusing maze of passageways, but it wasn’t hard to follow the agonized cries toward their source. It didn’t really matter if he knew where he was, only that he knew where he was going, and the screams marked the route all too clearly. With his own pain and sickness forgotten for the moment—a distant concern banished by the rage of the sword—his only need was to get to those being hurt.

  The part of the rage that came from his sword wanted to get at the ones doing the hurting. That part of the rage wanted the blood of the attacker.

  Some of the people saw him coming with his sword to hand and flattened themselves against a wall to stay out of his way, but many others didn’t see him coming and he had to shove them aside. Women hurriedly herded children past, paying attention only to their charges. A few men helped older people. At times, as people desperate to escape the threat came racing past Richard, he had to use an arm to shield them from running into his sword. Other people, men and women, old and young alike, stampeded through, too terrorized by what was behind them to care about what
was in front of them.

  Before he saw the threat, he encountered a smell that was alien to the cavelike village of Stroyza. It was the unmistakable stench of decomposing flesh, a smell so sickening, so repulsive, that it made his throat clench shut to lock his breath in his lungs. He had to force himself to breathe.

  As he rounded a curve in the passageway, Richard saw a broad open area out ahead. It was the entrance cavern of the village, the place where he first came in after he had climbed the narrow trail up the side of the mountain. Out the opening a gentle rain fell through the dark night.

  A few lamps hung on pegs in the walls to one side and a fire burning in a pit to the other side provided the only light. In that dim, flickering light he could see people trying to stay out of the clutches of two big men. Both of the dark shapes stormed clumsily around the room, charging first one way, then another, swiping at people trapped in the room. Both of the big attackers glistened in the lamplight, wet from the climb up in the rain.

  Some of the people cornered in nooks and crannies around the broad cavern pressed themselves back against the walls, hoping not to be noticed. Others inched toward openings, hoping for a chance to escape. Men keeping what they hoped was a safe distance waved their arms and threw stones, trying to distract and confuse the attackers.

  In the center of the chamber the two figures, like bears in a cage, raged at the people around them, their thunderous roars echoing off the domed ceiling of rock. The smell of death and decay was overpowering.

  Men popped out of dark passageways from time to time to pelt the attackers with rocks, trying to keep them from attacking. Most of the rocks missed or glanced off, though sometimes it did distract one of the two into taking a swing at the stones. A man on the right side raced in closer to heave a good-sized rock at one of the intruders. The rock hit the big man in the back of the head and bounced off, but it sounded like it had succeeded in cracking the man’s skull, yet the man wasn’t slowed and didn’t show any evidence of being harmed by the blow.