The Third Kingdom. Terry Goodkind
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of the underworld. She said that Hedge Maids were vile creatures who use a kind of occult conjuring that is directly linked to the world of the dead.
“She said that such powers were a perversion of the Grace and as such not able to be touched by regular gifted ability. She said that was what made a Hedge Maid so dangerous, that Lord Rahl and the Mother Confessor would have no power against her.
“Nicci explained to them, then, how you both were touched not just by the Hedge Maid’s occult conjuring and the things she was doing to you, but more importantly you were both touched by her scream. She said that through that scream you both were touched by death itself and therefore infected with it.”
Sammie gave Richard a look, as if to say “I told you so.”
Richard rolled his hand for Henrik to go on.
“Well, Zedd didn’t exactly believe everything Nicci was telling him about the power of such a scream born in the underworld and death infecting you both.”
“Sound familiar?” Sammie asked under her breath.
Richard gave her a sideways look but didn’t say anything.
Henrik was involved in his story and didn’t hear her. “So Nicci put two fingers on Kahlan’s head. She told Zedd, ‘Here, see for yourself.’ He leaned in and put two fingers on Kahlan’s head next to Nicci’s fingers. She asked if he felt it.
“Zedd said that he felt some kind of frightening, deathly darkness. Nicci told him that what he was feeling was the touch of death from the Hedge Maid that you both carried in you.”
“Just like I said,” Sammie noted.
Richard nodded. “You were right.”
She smiled at the triumph as Henrik continued his story.
“Zedd was really afraid because of what he’d felt in Kahlan. Cara got scared, too. She asked if you both were going to die because you had death hiding in you. Nicci said not if she had anything to do with it.
“Nicci said that you both were only alive because the wads of cloth you had stuffed in your ears blunted the full sounds of death’s call, but it still had infected you both.”
“Did they say how to heal them?” Sammie asked, suddenly excited about the possibility of having an answer to the riddle.
“Nicci said that she thought she could do it, but that it had to be done in something called a containment field.”
Richard felt as if the floor fell out from under him. It was no longer a simple matter of being healed by a gifted person. This was no simple injury. It was going to take more than a simple healing if the real threat within them was to be addressed.
“A containment field?” Sammie’s nose wrinkled up. “What’s a containment field?”
Henrik shrugged with the discomfort of not having the answer for her.
“It’s a place that keeps any foreign spells out while you work on or open up dangerous forms of magic,” Richard told her. “More importantly, though, it also keeps contained those things you unleash—either intentionally or accidentally. Things you wouldn’t want escaping.”
Sammie looked stunned by the description. “Where can we get one of these containment fields? How do you make one?”
“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.
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.”