Terry Goodkind - The Third Kingdom

“Let’s cut through this field. Maybe we can find a trail used by animals to go through the woods. Deer runs often make a usable path, then at least we wouldn’t have to fight our way through dense brush.”

“All the way?” she asked, incredulous. “You think we should follow deer trails all the way north? Lord Rahl, deer trails usually run hither and yon. Deer aren’t looking to make time and get somewhere. They just wander around looking for forage.”

Richard was nodding as she was talking. “I know, but what I’m thinking is that if someone is lying in wait, they would be right up there, waiting to catch anyone unsuspecting who follows the trail into the woods. I’m thinking that if we can make our way through the woods and around the path for a while, then we can finally catch back up with it farther north, in a few hours, maybe, and then make time on the regular trail.”

“But if someone is waiting in ambush on the trail, they could be waiting in ambush all along the trail.”

“Possibly, but if these half people are as desperate for souls as Naja says, then they wouldn’t want others to get the first chance when people follow the trail north into the woods. They have probably already learned from the planted fields and animals that people live here, and they have probably been watching, so they know that very, very few people travel north like this.”

“So? What good does that do for us?”

Richard rested the palm of his left hand on the hilt of his sword, still surveying the lay of the land, looking for an opening they could use.

“Well,” he finally said, “if their pickings are slim, if there are few souls for the taking, then they aren’t going to want to leave those souls to other half people who are waiting right at the trailhead. If the first in line caught anyone happening by on the trail, then there wouldn’t be anyone left for other half people lying in wait farther north. It seems to me that half people would be eager and want to be first to get any soul.”

Samantha nodded as she thought it over. “That makes sense. They would be jealous of others getting first chance at any souls, so they would all want to be right here, like a pack of hungry wolves, where they can hide in the woods at the beginning of the trail north.”

“That’s what I’m thinking.” Richard turned, looking back the way they had come. “I bet that fellow back there by your animals got the idea that he would wait even closer. He probably thought that he would get first pick of the souls living here. By the looks of him, he was desperate and not a very clear thinker. Being alone like that didn’t give him as good a chance at success as some of them working together to overpower people.”

“Well then, it seems that you’re saying that you expect them all to be waiting just up ahead.”

She started to lift her hand to point. Richard pushed her hand down.

“Don’t point. If there are half people out there, they will be watching us.”

Samantha was looking alarmed again. “So, what do we do?”

“I think we should try to go around them and pick up the trail farther north.”

“Maybe we should wait until dark, so they wouldn’t see us doing that. I mean, if you’re worried about pointing where we are thinking of going because they might be watching us, they will certainly be able to see where we head off to skirt the trailhead unless it’s dark out.”

“That certainly makes the most sense, and I’d rather wait until dark, but there’s two problems with that.”

“Like what?”

“First, it’s overcast. That means there won’t be any moonlight or even stars to help us navigate through strange countryside in the pitch black. It’s dangerous enough when you know where you are and you’re following trails you know. In the dark, in unfamiliar country, trying to cross trackless woods, it’s really dangerous.

“It only takes one mistake in the dark and your journey is done. You could hit dried branches that could blind an eye, or step in a split in the rock and snap the bone in your leg, or you could even fall over a cliff. Even a small cliff, not much higher than I am tall, is enough to kill you in the dark.”

“I could heal you if you got hurt like some of those things.”

“And what if it was you who fell and split your skull open on a rock?”

Samantha made a sour expression as she thought it over for a moment. “What’s the second reason?”

Richard started off across the field to the left. “The second reason is that we can’t afford to lose any time. Every moment we’re delayed could mean the lives of the people we’re on our way to help could be lost.”

Samantha hurried to follow after him across the rough, plowed ground, stepping high over clods of dirt to keep from tripping.

“Well, I know that I would hate to arrive the day after my mother was killed and for the rest of my life wish I would have hurried just a little faster.”

“Exactly,” Richard said as he steered a course across the rough, open ground for a small opening into the woods that he had spotted off in that direction. It looked like a small deer trail, but it was their best option.

The only problem was that if there were half people back at the trail, they would be watching and know where the two of them were headed. It wouldn’t give the two of them much of a head start.

It couldn’t be helped. It was the best of a bad situation.

CHAPTER

39

As they made their way as quietly and swiftly as possible across the field of broken ground, the half people began to emerge from the woods. At first there were only a dozen or so, but in short order they were emerging from of the woods in droves. It was not only alarming to see them breaking cover and coming out onto the open ground, it was alarming to see their numbers growing so quickly. What was only a moment before a handful that Richard could have handled had become a crowd that could easily overwhelm him on open ground.

Richard could see that he and Samantha weren’t going to make it to the woods in time. The people running across the plowed field were going to cut them off before they reached the tree line.

Richard didn’t see any weapons being carried by the half people—they looked like a ragtag mob—but as they ran, rapidly closing the distance, they began to howl like demons hungry for blood. A chill ran through Richard knowing that was exactly what they were hungry for.

At that point, Richard wasn’t exactly sure what to do. They would have a better chance in the woods because it was easier to fight large numbers in confined spaces. With limited room they couldn’t all attack at once because it would be too hard to crowd in around their prey. Out in the open Richard and Samantha stood almost no chance. The howling masses could pile in from all sides at once. Richard’s sword could only cut down so many, and could only cut them down so fast. It couldn’t stop an avalanche of people descending on him and Samantha out in the open.

More than that, though, these were people in only a limited sense. He couldn’t expect them to think like an ordinary enemy in a battle. From what Naja’s account had warned and from what Richard had seen of the man back by the animal pens, these people, if they could be called that, didn’t seem to fear for their own lives the way an ordinary enemy fighter would, or any ordinary human, for that matter. In the war, Richard had seen enemy troops making a mad charge without regard for their own lives, but this was different. These people were this way by their nature.

Since they weren’t going to be able to make it to the woods, Richard slowed and finally came to a stop. He looked back the way they had come as well as off to each side. None of those other choices were a good option because on open ground these unholy half dead would likely be able to run them down in short order. Now that these beasts had two souls in sight, they were unlikely to stop for anything.