Terry Goodkind - The Third Kingdom

Richard was only now starting to realize just how isolated the village of Stroyza was from the rest of D’Hara, not just in distance, but in knowledge of the outside world. He felt sorry for these people, thinking they were serving a vital mission for wizards who no longer existed.

He spread his hands in regret. “I’m sorry, Samantha, but there is no such council there at the Keep. There used to be, but that was long ago. There is no longer a wizards’ council at the Keep, or anywhere, for that matter.

“It’s not like it used to be. Those gifted born as wizards have become extremely rare. There aren’t many left today. I’m one of those who was born with that gift, but I grew up without knowing anything about it, so I’m afraid that I’m no expert on the subject.

“My grandfather is First Wizard and knows a great deal about such things as the history of the wizards at the Keep, but he’s missing. If I can find him and the others with him, maybe he would be able to tell you more.”

While Zedd probably knew a great deal about the history of the wizards’ council, Richard didn’t think that he knew anything about a north wall in such a forgotten place.

On the verge of panic, Samantha grabbed a mass of black hair in each fist. She looked out the opening through the rock wall as if looking for an answer. She looked like she wanted to pull her hair out. He could see that her world, her duty in life, was coming apart at the seams.

Richard laid a hand on her shoulder. “Slow down, Samantha. Take a deep breath and then why don’t you tell me what happened next.”

She nodded and then swallowed to help slow her breathing. “Some of our people found my father’s remains not far from here. My mother’s things—her pack and traveling supplies—were found scattered about on the ground nearby. There were drag marks, they said, that looked like she had fought them. Our people couldn’t find her anywhere. The ground was rocky and they couldn’t follow the trail.

“After that, with the north wall breached, and me being the only gifted person left, I knew that it was up to me, now.” She flung her arms up. “But I didn’t know how to get to a distant Wizard’s Keep. I don’t even know where it is, except I think it’s far to the west somewhere. I hadn’t yet learned the things I still need to learn. I didn’t know what to do.”

She looked up at him. “Fortunately, you showed up. I don’t know if it was coincidence, or fate, or if it was the good spirits themselves intervening to send you here when I needed you most.”

Richard cast her a sideways look. “I don’t believe much in coincidence.”

“Well, all I know is that you’re the one meant to hear about this—especially since you tell me there is no longer a wizards’ council. After all, you said yourself that you’re one of those who is gifted in that way.”

Richard let out a deep breath of his own. “I’m not so sure.”

“I think that it all happened this way because you’re the one.”

“The one.” Richard cast her a skeptical look. “I’m glad you think so. I’m not so sure.”

Some of the tension eased out of her shoulders as she let out a deep sigh. “I am.”

He arched an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t you think that if I was ‘the one’ I would know something about all this? I’ve never heard of any of it. I only recently heard of the Dark Lands for the first time.”

“You killed Jit. Only you could have done that. Only the person we needed could have done that.”

In frustration, he gestured out the round opening. “Yes, but I don’t know anything at all about this north wall. This is the first I’ve ever heard of it. I killed Jit because she had captured Kahlan, then me, and she was going to kill us both if I didn’t stop her. I was just trying to survive, to live. That’s all there was to it. Kill or be killed.”

Richard paused as a thought occurred to him. He wondered why Jit had gone to so much trouble in the first place to draw them both in.

She had first gotten her hands on Henrik, then cast some kind of spell over the boy. Making him helpless to do otherwise, she had sent him on a mission to deliver her occult conjuring to Richard and Kahlan in order to get both to come to her in Kharga Trace. Because of the calculated intent of that spell, the Hedge Maid had been able to draw Kahlan to her lair and imprison her there. That, in turn, had drawn Richard to her.

Now that he thought about it, he couldn’t really imagine, living as she did way back in the depths of that forlorn swamp, that she would have had any way to know anything about Richard and Kahlan off in the distant People’s Palace. It didn’t make any sense, unless she had merely been looking to take down anyone who was a leader and that just happened to be Richard and Kahlan.

Unless someone else had a motive and they had directed her to do it in the first place.

“That’s what we’re all doing,” Samantha said. “We’re all just trying to survive.”

He put the distracting thoughts of Jit’s intentions out of his mind and returned to the matter at hand. Samantha was still looking up at him, waiting.

“I understand,” he said, “but that doesn’t mean that I’m the one you need to tell about all this north wall business. Like I told you, I never heard of it before.”

“Well, you are the Lord Rahl,” she said with simple logic. “To my mind, that makes you even more important than a wizards’ council. You rule all of the D’Haran Empire, don’t you? This is part of your empire.”

Richard grudgingly had to concede her point. “I guess you’re right about that much of it, but that’s not enough to make me the one you need to tell about the north wall.”

“But that’s only a small part of it. The main reason is that you are of that place beyond the north wall.”

Richard put his hands on his hips as he looked down at the wisp of a girl. He tried to keep the frown off his face. He couldn’t imagine that it was comforting to have a big man, and the Lord Rahl besides, towering over her.

“I’m from Hartland.” He aimed a thumb back behind him toward the west. “That’s a small place in Westland, on the far side of the Midlands. That’s a very long way from here. I’m not from beyond that north wall.”

“I don’t mean it in that way,” she said in a calm voice as if he were dense and she was trying to be patient.

She was showing that exasperating side of sorceresses that made them all tend to talk in circles and riddles in a way that never failed to make him feel ignorant. He had once surmised that such a demeanor was a product of age and wisdom. But he could see now that it wasn’t. That inborn nature of a sorceress was showing in Samantha even at a young age, much like the color of her hair or her small frame. He found it annoying the way it made him feel a bit dim-witted.

“When I say that you are of that place, I don’t mean that you grew up there,” she said, patiently, when she saw that he wasn’t following her meaning. “What I meant is that you are from there … well, inwardly. You are of the place.” She tilted her head as if to ask if he finally understood.

He didn’t. “Of the place? What place?”

“The third kingdom,” she said in simple explanation.

“The third kingdom?”

“Yes,” she said as she dipped her head in a single nod, seeming to think that it was now as plain as could be. “The Grace explains the way it is all supposed to be.”

“Samantha,” he said, trying to be calm, “I don’t know what you’re getting at.”

“There are two kingdoms represented in the Grace, right? The kingdom of life starting with the inner circle, and the kingdom of the dead beginning at the outer circle.”