Page 12 of The Third Kingdom (Sword of Truth 13)

“They’re ancient,” Richard said. “As far as I know, they were made ages ago by powerful wizards. I only know of a few, and they’re thousands of years old.”

“There’s one at the People’s Palace,” Henrik said.

“That’s right,” Richard said as he nodded. “The Garden of Life is a containment field.”

Henrik squinted as he tried to recount it all accurately. “Nicci told Zedd that she needed a containment field to shield you and the Mother Confessor while she did what was needed. She said that she had to remove the touch of death lodged within you both.

“She said that because the Grace was corrupted and twisted within you both by that infection, if they tried to remove it outside a containment field, then the call of death would draw the Keeper of the dead to you and both of you would die. She said that they could heal your other injuries, though, and they should do that right away to keep you alive until they could get back to the containment field.”

Sammie was astonished by such exotic tales. “I would love to see a palace. I bet it’s magnificent. I never heard of a containment field before. What does it look like?”

Richard gestured overhead. “This particular one at the People’s Palace is a beautiful garden with a glass roof and—”

“Glass roof!” Sammie’s jaw fell open. “I’ve never even dreamed of such an incredible thing. I’d give anything to see such a grand palace.”

“Maybe someday you can,” Richard said. He was impatient for Henrik to go on with the story. “Then what?”

“Zedd said that they needed to hurry back to the palace, because you were both hurt so bad. He bent in over Kahlan, worried about the terrible wound on her stomach. Bouncing in the wagon made it open up and it was bleeding a lot. While he started to heal her, Nicci walked along on the other side of the wagon and reached down to start healing you, Lord Rahl.

“Cara was relieved to see that Zedd and Nicci were finally working on healing you both, so she got up into the wagon’s seat and sat next to her husband, General Meiffert. She helped pull me up to sit next to her while Zedd and Nicci worked.”

“So why didn’t they finish healing us?” Richard asked. “What happened to everyone?”

Henrik looked like he wished he didn’t have to tell that part of the story.

CHAPTER

12

Henrik’s face turned grim as he stared off into his memories.

“Well,” he said at last as he went on with the account, “we were going as fast as General Meiffert said he dared push the horses. Everyone was worried about you and the Mother Confessor and they all wanted to get you out of the Dark Lands and back to the palace.

“Zedd and Nicci both had to climb up in the wagon so they could work on healing you. Zedd cursed, then, and told them that they were going to have to slow down because the Mother Confessor was hurt bad and he needed to close up the wound, but he couldn’t do it when the wagon was bouncing around.”

“Did they say anything at all about what they were going to do to heal them?” Sammie asked the boy as she eagerly leaned in. “Did they say how they were able to do it with that touch of death in them?”

Henrik shook his head. “I don’t know anything about healing or how magic works. I only know that I heard Nicci say to Zedd that they could heal the injuries, but would have to leave the touch of death in them until they got to the palace and the containment field.”

“That much of it is good news,” Richard told Sammie. “It confirms what I thought, that you can do a healing of the other problems even with what you saw in us.”

She nodded in thought as she listened to Henrik go on.

“It was getting dark. Zedd and Nicci bent over you both, using their gift to heal you.” As he stared off into his memories again, his voice occasionally broke. “As they worked, everyone else was keeping a close watch on the surrounding countryside. The Dark Lands are a dangerous enough place in the daylight, but everyone knows that out here you don’t want to be outside at night if you can help it.”

Henrik idly fingered the edge of the coarse carpet they were sitting on. “I guess we couldn’t help it.”

“I guess not,” Richard said, feeling guilty for being the one responsible for bringing his friends into the Dark Lands to help him.

“We were going along for a while without talking, going pretty slow as Zedd had instructed so he and Nicci could concentrate on trying to heal both of you. Then, all of a sudden, they both looked up.”

“At the same time?” Sammie asked.

Henrik nodded.

“If they both looked up at the same time it must be because they sensed something through their gift,” Sammie said to Richard.

Richard only nodded, not wanting to interrupt Henrik’s story.

“Zedd whispered to the general, up on the wagon seat on the other side of Cara from me, that there were people out there in the darkness. The general asked how many people. Zedd paused a moment, and then said, ‘A lot of people.’ I looked around but I couldn’t see anyone.”

Henrik stared off into the distance, as if seeing it in his mind’s eye again. “Even though I couldn’t see them, it seemed as though I could feel their eyes watching us from back in the darkness of the trees. There was forest all around, and it gave whatever Zedd and Nicci sensed plenty of places to hide.

“With the clouds, the moon didn’t provide much light. It was hard to see much of anything. Whoever was back in those dark woods, we couldn’t see them.”

Henrik swallowed. “I was afraid. Really afraid. I think everyone kind of knew that we might be in some kind of trouble, but no one knew what to expect. I saw some of the soldiers get a better grip on their lances while others touched their swords, all of them making sure that their weapons were ready.

“Then, all of a sudden, we saw movement off at the tree line to the right. Even as dark as it was, there was still enough light that we were able to see masses of people as they poured out of the woods. None of them made a sound as they came rushing out of the trees. They weren’t yelling battle cries or anything. That silence from those people made it even more frightening to watch them coming. There were so many that it looked like the ground was moving. I was scared to death.

“Cara asked her husband if we shouldn’t try running with the wagon. Before the general could answer, Zedd spoke up to say that we couldn’t outrun them. He said that they were out ahead of us as well as behind. He said we were surrounded.

“The soldiers pulled their horses around to shield the wagon. All the lancers formed an outer ring and lowered their lances toward the advancing horde. It was hard to imagine anyone trying to run up on those lancers.

“At the same time, other men, in an inner ring behind the lancers, drew their swords. Yet others pulled battle-axes from hooks on their weapon belts. There weren’t a lot of soldiers with us and seeing how many people were rushing in toward us I wished there were more, but they were D’Haran soldiers, after all. Seeing all those big men draw their weapons made me think that maybe we had a chance.”

They would not have been regular D’Haran soldiers. Richard knew that the men who had come from the palace with Zedd, Nicci, and Cara would have been men of the First File. The First File, led by General Meiffert, were the Lord Rahl’s personal guards at the People’s Palace. They weren’t simply the biggest and best of the D’Haran troops, they were the elite fighters. They were disciplined, skilled in combat, and prepared to fight. They lived for just this sort of duty. They had competed all their lives to earn their place at the point of the spear.

“Zedd stood up in the wagon trying to see better,” Henrik said. “Nicci stood up too, growling in anger over having to stop working on healing you, Lord Rahl, saying that she needed more time. As people kept streaming out of the woods, all of them running toward us, Zedd told her that it looked to him like their time had run out.

---