Terry Goodkind - The Third Kingdom

“Fortunately, Naja and the people back then seem to have been able to at least create this barrier and contain some of the most menacing creations of his makers. It has protected the world for a very long time.

“But those half people in the third kingdom, locked away for so long behind the barrier, have over the centuries likely continued growing in numbers. Now they are loose in the world of life. They are now again a problem.”

Samantha, looking more than a little bitter, folded her arms. “You mean they’re our problem.”

“Our problem,” Richard agreed with a nod. “All that really matters now is that the creations of Sulachan’s wizards in those ancient times have now once again been unleashed against the world. If we don’t figure out how to stop them, then we will be the ones who are wiped out.”

CHAPTER

28

Samantha paced in nervous agitation while Richard read ahead in Naja’s account on the wall. He could sense the anguish in that account by the way the mysterious woman from so long ago went to great pains to ensure that future generations would understand the reasons behind the fears of the people back in her time and their horror at what had descended on them at the hands of so evil a man.

They knew that life for the people of the New World would become one long dark night of terror if the half people were not stopped or somehow contained. It was obvious that she wanted to make sure that all those who came after her would also appreciate the danger that was locked away behind the barrier.

“Dear spirits,” he murmured to himself.

“What?” she asked, having heard the comment he hadn’t realized he’d said aloud.

Richard took a deep breath at the description of the grim specifics. “Well, Naja says here that the half people began hunting for souls to replace the one they no longer had.”

Samantha paused in her pacing and turned back to him. “Hunting for souls? What is she talking about?”

Richard squinted in concentration, making sure of the translation before he went on with the account. “According to this, not having a soul drove the half people into a form of insanity that compelled them to hunt those who did have a soul in the hopes of taking that soul for themselves.”

Richard abruptly paused in surprise.

“And…?” Samantha asked when he fell silent.

“And … they ate any living people they could catch in an attempt to take possession of their soul. Such an effort was futile, according to Naja, but that didn’t stop the half people from continuing to try.”

Samantha rushed closer. “They eat living people? Are you sure that’s what it says?”

Richard nodded. “It was an unintended consequence of the process used in creating the half people. The unanticipated behavior developed suddenly, Naja says, not long after they were stripped of their souls to make them into these living weapons for Sulachan. They unexpectedly became so compelled by a deranged need for a soul to replace the one they had lost that it overrode everything else. Although they had been created as weapons, they became uncontrollable. Despite all the efforts by the wizards who had been in charge, the half people were driven by a frenzied need for a soul.

“Driven by this mad, single-minded lust to consume the living, they can’t comprehend that this thirst for a soul is impossible to quench. She says they would hunt alone but often they would congregate in order to coordinate a more effective attack on the living.”

“You mean they started hunting in numbers? Like packs of wolves?”

“So it would appear,” Richard told her. “Naja says that at first they rampaged out of control, in the beginning attacking those who had created them and then the troops they had been assigned to serve with before escaping out into the population at large. The half people tore through the ranks of makers who had created them. The wizard makers who hadn’t been eaten were terrified of their own creation. Many fled.

“For a time, they had no way of stopping them. For a time, the half people owned the night. People quickly learned to lock themselves inside once the sun went down and hope those without souls didn’t come for them in large numbers.

“Fearful whispers called these demonic hunters of souls the unholy half dead.”

“Unholy half dead. That sounds like a pretty good description of them to me,” Samantha said.

Richard agreed. “Naja says that Sulachan’s makers were eventually able to come up with a solution. They modified the magic they had used to create them and directed this need to kill against their enemies—the people here in the New World.”

“Against us?” Samantha asked in alarm.

Richard nodded. “I’m afraid so. She says that the half people, although no stronger than a normal person and nowhere near as strong as the awakened dead, are more dangerous because they are quicker, but more importantly because they still have the ability to think like a predator and hunt those with souls.

“Although stripped of their higher reasoning functions, they learned to amass and attack in overpowering numbers. After the makers gained control and were able to modify the magic used create them, their savage nature and their ability to think was finally turned against Sulachan’s enemies.”

Richard was weary from the effort of translating such complex symbols, but he couldn’t afford to miss anything or to stop. He rubbed his eyes and went on reading.

When he was silent for a time, Samantha shook his sleeve. “What does it say? What are you reading? Speak it out loud.”

Richard let out a deep sigh as he straightened. He gestured vaguely, dismissively, at the wall.

“There’s no new information in this part. It’s just some material describing how the half people kill their victims.”

“I need to know,” Samantha said when he fell silent. “They will come after our people, after me. Don’t try to protect me by keeping me in the dark. It’s no help to be ignorant of the truth. I need to know.”

Richard glanced briefly to the determination in her eyes. He supposed that she was right. He gestured at the description.

“They tear people open, believing the soul they crave is inside. The half people often eat the victim’s insides first because they think the soul resides in them. They drink the blood, fearing that the soul might escape by leaking away. When they aren’t satisfied because they still haven’t been able to get what they crave, they strip all the meat from the bones, devouring every bit of it in an attempt to find and consume the soul they think is hiding somewhere in the still-warm flesh.

“Groups of them will compete for scraps, each hoping to get the soul for themselves. They eat everything—muscle, blood, organs, even the face. They suck the brain out of the skull, or crush it with a rock to get at it. They leave only some of the bowels and the bones, but often crack open larger bones and devour the marrow, still trying to find the elusive soul.”

Samantha looked dumbfounded. “How do they possibly think they can get a soul by eating people?”

“It’s a madness that drives them. It doesn’t make sense to us, but it does to them. They think that souls reside within a person or hide in bodily tissues. They’re looking for that moment when the spirit departs the dying body. They think that at that moment they can devour it, pulling it into themselves for their own. So, they eat everything, hoping to get it while it is hiding in the body, before it can escape the warm flesh.”

Samantha’s eyes grew more liquid. “They are unholy demons.”

“Soulless demons,” Richard agreed. He gestured to the symbols as he went on. “Failure to gain the soul they seek only makes them more frantic, more enraged. The more they kill, the more they fail to be sated, the more obsessed they become to possess a soul.