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“The Grace is a symbol, isn’t it?” he asked as he scanned the writing on the wall.
“Well, yes.”
“It’s a symbol from the language of Creation.”
Her eyes grew big again. “It is?”
“Sure. And it’s a pretty complex concept, don’t you think? Look here.” With a finger he revealed a circular element nested in one of the symbols on the wall. “Here is a symbol that talks about life, and the dangers to it from what lies beyond the barrier. See how it contains some elements of the Grace?”
Samantha’s jaw dropped as she came closer and touched the motif of life. “I’ve never noticed that before. I always came here with my mother to look out through the opening into the distance to check the wall. Since I never knew what any of the things carved on the wall meant, or that they meant anything, I’ve never really paid much attention to any of it. I walked past it all the time without ever really looking at it.”
“It’s all the language of Creation,” Richard said.
“You are the one,” she said, staring up at him again with awed conviction. “Only the right one, the one who can help us all, would understand this writing and be able to tell what we must do about the third kingdom breaking through its barrier.”
“Just because I understand the language of Creation, that doesn’t mean I understand the problem or I know what to do about it. I have my own problems to…”
Richard turned back suddenly to the opening that looked out at the wall between the mountains in the distance.
“Dear spirits,” he whispered aloud, “I think I might know where they are.”
CHAPTER
24
Samantha looked puzzled. “You know where who is?”
“My friends who came to the Dark Lands to rescue me and Kahlan,” Richard said, distracted as his mind raced, trying to fit together the pieces of the puzzle. “My friends were attacked much like your parents were attacked.”
“What are you talking about? How do they connect to this?” she asked as she swept a hand out toward the expanse of symbols.
“Barrier spells,” Richard said, turning back to the description on the wall. “When I first woke, there were a couple of men there standing over us. I was only just regaining consciousness, but I remember some of what they were saying. They were speculating about who might have attacked the soldiers and my friends who had been taking Kahlan and me back to the People’s Palace.
“One of the men said that he thought our group had been attacked by people called the Shun-tuk—”
“Shun-tuk? I’ve never heard any such people in the Dark Lands.”
Richard looked toward the opening out through the wall. “I don’t think the Shun-tuk are from the Dark Lands. The other man was skeptical about it being the Shun-tuk. The first said ‘With the barrier wall now breached, what better place to hunt for people with souls? The Shun-tuk would go anywhere, do anything, to find such people.’”
Samantha looked horrified. “So, then, you think these Shun-tuk came from beyond this barrier?”
“Sounds like it. The second man said that they had a vast homeland of their own. He wanted to know why they would come this far. The first man said, ‘Same as us. Hunting for those with souls.’”
Samantha’s nose wrinkled as she made a face. “Hunting for souls?”
“That’s what he said. I don’t think their homeland is on this side of the barrier. I think it’s out beyond.”
Richard returned to the wall, scanning the progression of symbols and designs, looking for something about souls. As he read in silence, Samantha walked on ahead, her footsteps echoing through the hall as she dragged a hand along the stone, gazing at the symbols she couldn’t understand, but was now starting to see in a new light.
“Lord Rahl,” she called back.
Richard, concentrating on the symbols, glanced back to where she had a finger pressed to the wall. “What is it?”
“I think there’s a name here.”
“A name? Are you sure?”
“Well, I don’t know,” she said as she leaned closer to the wall, “but it’s not a symbol. I think it must be a name carved into the stone. It says ‘Naja.’”
“Naja?” Richard was surprised that she could read something on the wall.
“Yes, right here. I can’t believe I’ve never seen it before. I guess I never noticed it because it’s so small, and it’s almost lost in the crazy swirl of designs.”
Richard scanned the wall off to the right of where Samantha stood holding a finger under the name. The area was slightly different than the rest of the carving on the corridor walls. The lines etched into the smooth stone of the wall stood out in stark relief in the glow of the glass sphere.
They were packed tighter, into their own section, creating what was a block of symbols unto themselves. The section created a core among the expanse of symbols flowing out around it.
Richard looked above Samantha’s slender finger resting on the wall. There was indeed what looked to be the name Naja carved into the wall. After the name he saw a crescent with three rays below it cut into the stone—the symbol for the word “moon.”
“What do you suppose it means?”
Richard quickly translated some of the other symbols. “You’re right. It is a name. The first part can’t be written in the language of Creation, only the second part can.”
“So what’s the name, then?”
“Naja Moon.”
“That’s a beautiful name,” Samantha said as she considered the sound of it, “but what do you suppose it’s doing here?”
Richard was only half listening. He was already looking for the answer to that very question. He scanned the symbols to confirm his initial impression.
“This is a personal account,” he said half to himself, half to Samantha.
“A personal account?”
Richard straightened. “That’s right.”
Gazing at all the symbols, Samantha slowly shook her head in wonder. She pointed, then, a little farther into the maze of symbols.
“Look over here—there’s another name. Magda Searus.”
Richard’s knees grew weak under the weight of meaning behind that name. Goose bumps rippled up his arms at seeing it written there in the stone, written in such a far-off, lonely, forgotten land.
Samantha frowned with concern when she saw the look on his face. “Lord Rahl, what’s wrong? Does that name mean something to you?”
“Magda Searus was the first Confessor.”
“The first Confessor. You mean Magda Searus was a Confessor like your wife?”
Richard touched his fingertips to his temples as he stared at the name from legend.
“That’s right,” he said at last. “Magda Searus was the very first of her kind, the first woman to become a Confessor. It all began with her.” Richard pointed after her name at another: Merritt. “Merritt was her wizard, her protector, much like I am Kahlan’s protector.”
