Terry Goodkind - The Third Kingdom

“So then it sounds like these Shun-tuk might be the ones who have our people,” she said after some thought. “How will we find them?”

“From what the men were saying, the Shun-tuk live beyond the barrier in a distant land.” Richard carefully ducked under a partially uprooted tree that was pulling up a section of the forest floor. “The men were surprised that the Shun-tuk had traveled so far. From what I overheard them say, the Shun-tuk nation is vast.”

“Great,” she muttered under her breath. “So, you’re saying that the half people who are likely holding your friends and my mother captive are going to be deep into the third kingdom.”

“It seems likely,” Richard said as he entered the shadowy world of the forest. He gestured back toward the ruins of the woods. “I don’t think that these half people here would be the kind to take captives. I think if they caught someone they would eat them on the spot. The Shun-tuk seem to be different. They act out of larger motives.”

“That means we need to look for the Shun-tuk, and when we find them we’ll face even bigger problems than we did here.”

“I’m afraid so.” Once farther back into the dark shadows of the still forest, Richard paused and turned back to Samantha. “The part that worries me the most is the occult magic Naja says they have. It may have been growing stronger as they were locked away behind the barrier.”

Her nose wrinkled with her frown. “Why would it grow stronger?”

“Nature seeks balance.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like all of nature, predators and prey seek balance. If there are too many rabbits, for example, more wolves will be born and they will have an ample food supply. Wolves will grow in number and cut down the overpopulation of rabbits. If there are too many wolves, then they overhunt the food source and they run out of prey. So, fewer wolves survive starvation. Then more rabbits are able to survive, and so on, as nature seeks balance.”

“But that’s just with animals.”

“All of nature seeks balance. Even within the wolf population, such as the balance between male and female. Additive Magic is balanced with Subtractive Magic. Free will is the balance to prophecy.”

Samantha pushed some of her hair back from her face as she walked close behind him. “Well, that much of it makes sense, but what does balance have to do with occult magic?”

“Occult powers may be the balance to the gift.”

She stopped in her tracks and stared at him. “That’s a frightening thought.”

“I’d have to agree.”

“But why would magic need balance?”

“Maybe it has multiplied too much and nature is seeking to balance it by letting occult power grow.”

Samantha tilted her head toward him a little. “So are we the hunters or the prey? Who’s hunting who?”

“Good question,” Richard said before he turned back to the slightly open, low, mossy area that led back into the deeper woods. “The trail should be this way. It shouldn’t be far, and then we can make better time.”

CHAPTER

45

Richard was right. Before long they picked up the remote forest trail. It was a dark burrow of exposed rocks and roots tunneling through the thick vegetation. Over the centuries it had seen only random, occasional travelers, but lately it served hordes of half people coming down it to hunt souls. Now it was cloaked in a threatening silence.

Richard stood for a long moment, listening, watching, trying to pick up any sign that would indicate trouble. Samantha stood silently beside him, waiting for him to pass judgment.

“You said before that the gifted people can sense others,” she whispered. When he nodded, she went on. “So, do you think you could explain it to me, like you explained how to make trees explode, so that I could help us by sensing if anyone is out there? I could at least try my best.”

Richard pressed his lips tight in frustration. “I wish I could, but I’m afraid I don’t have any idea how they do it. I just know that they can. No one has ever explained it to me, like with the trees, so I can’t explain it to you.”

She looked dejected at the news that she wouldn’t be able to learn the trick so she could help them.

Richard laid his hand on her shoulder. “Come on. We’ll just have to find your mother and get her away from whoever has her, and then she can teach you how to do it.”

Samantha returned the smile. “You seem to have a way of making me feel better, even right in the middle of a terrible situation.”

“As long as we have choices in life and use our heads, there is always the possibility of turning around the worst situation.”

Her smile widened a little. While he returned the smile, he was concerned because he could see the exhaustion in her eyes. She obviously didn’t want to admit how much it had taken out of her to do what she had done with the trees when back in that split in the rock.

“I’m dead tired from fighting off the half people with my sword. How about you? You must be worn out from the effort of using your magic back there. I know that, for me, using any kind of magic is tiring, even the magic of my sword.”

“Well,” she admitted, “I guess a little. But I won’t slow you down. I promise.”

Richard pulled his pack off his shoulder and flipped back the flap. He dug around a moment until he found some dried meat. He pulled out two pieces and handed one to Samantha.

“Here, chew on this as you walk. It will help build your strength back up.”

Richard tore off a piece between his teeth. She took a bite of her own before following him as he started up the trail.

He hated to use the trail because it was such an obvious ambush point. When there was this kind of manifest danger, he would much rather make his own way through the woods than follow the choke point of a trail. The problem was, cutting their own way through the woods any more than they needed to would slow them down considerably. They had a long way to go to reach what Samantha’s village knew as the north wall, and the trail went only part of the way. With every passing moment being a threat to the lives of those they were going to try to rescue, Richard knew they had no time to waste.

The choice was a hard one, though. They couldn’t rescue anyone if they were killed on a trail by half people waiting in ambush. But on the other hand, Richard was terrified of being too late. Being a moment too late meant Kahlan would die, claimed by the touch of death lurking within her. He would soon follow her into the dark forever. It likely meant that untold numbers, if not the world of life itself, would die.

Magda Searus and Merritt had told him that he had the power to save the world of life, or destroy it. If he made the wrong choice, and was killed in an ambush on the trail, then that might be the cause of the end of life that the first Confessor was talking about. If he didn’t take the trail, the delay might mean they lost their chance, and that could mean the end of all life as well.

In the end, he reasoned that the half people who had been chasing them would probably have all been together. It didn’t seem likely that some of them would have hung back. They were driven by the lust for a soul, so it was reasonable to think that they were all dead back in the blasted forest.

In light of all that, Richard chose to use the trail in order to make the best time they could. His sense of urgency was too well founded to ignore. Of course, he was well aware that other half people, different kinds of half people from other parts of the third kingdom, could very well come down the trail or be waiting in ambush. All the more reason to stay alert.

Decision made, he forged ahead, determined to make the most of the time the trail saved them. The path through the woods was similar to secondary trails Richard knew back in Hartland. It wasn’t a well-groomed trail that made for swift travel, but it was still much easier than pushing their own way through virgin forest. It also wasn’t wide enough for them to walk side by side, so he led the way and Samantha followed, sometimes having to trot to keep up with his pace. Richard constantly scanned ahead and to the sides as he moved as quietly as possible.