Into Darkness

71

Richard motioned frantically to get Vika to go around the glowing lines rather than run straight toward him and through them. She had no idea how dangerous they were, but fortunately she instinctively avoided anything having to do with magic, so as soon as she spotted the glowing lines she dodged to the side and changed course to avoid going into the gold ring altogether. He breathed out a sigh of relief.

She skidded to a stop beside the stone. She put a hand on it for support as she panted.

“Lord Rahl—”

Richard pushed her hand off the stone. “Don’t touch it. It’s active. I don’t know what it could do if you touch the wrong thing.”

She drew her hand back as if she had touched fire. “Lord Rahl, the Glee are not at all happy about what they’re seeing.”

Before she could elaborate, Sang raced up behind her. “Lord Rahl! You must not do this,” he shouted in Richard’s mind. “You said that you intended to destroy the device. That is what you must do. The others, the others who were followers of the goddess, are growing angry. They consider this device a sacred gift from the gods.”

Richard frowned up at Sang. “Then why didn’t they object when I came up here to destroy the thing?”

Sang looked back at the massive throng of Glee among the rocks on the other side of the white sand. They were all waving their arms, apparently arguing among themselves. He looked back at Richard and bent down as if to speak confidentially, although the Glee had already proven their ability to have others hear them selectively. Or maybe it was only an ability to make Richard and Vika selectively not hear them.

“They did not know that you intended to destroy the device.”

“What?” Richard rose to his feet. “You mean you didn’t tell them what I intended to do?”

Sang shook his head. “No. I dared not. You must understand that we have only just been reunited with them after you struck down the Golden Goddess. I thought you would come up here and do the same thing with the device and it would be over before they realized what you were going to do, and in that way have it ended once and for all before they could object.”

“What did you expect them to do once had I destroyed it with my sword?”

Sang hesitated. “I thought that since it would then be over and too late for them to do anything about it, we could more easily convince them that it was for the best. With the Golden Goddess dead and the device destroyed so we could no longer go to other worlds, I thought they would then realize they had no choice but to go back to our traditional ways and then they would come to be at peace with it. I thought they would even realize that the fighting and violent death of so many was finally ended and be pleased.”

Richard realized that even though they had the ceremonial eating of the water weed from Iben’s body, they hadn’t fully committed to giving up all their beliefs or using the device to go to other worlds. They had enjoyed the sport of hunting, and they had developed a taste for the flesh of people. There were probably Glee among those watching who craved power and were waiting to later use the device to win followers to themselves.

“This is more complicated than I realized,” Richard told Sang. “I can’t simply use my sword to break this stone apart. It’s not just a piece of rock. If it were, I could shatter it. But it’s a powerful device that uses magic to send you to other worlds. If I use my sword to try to destroy it, it could end up killing us all, or even killing everyone in this world. I need to disable it in another way.”

“Do what you must, but hurry,” Sang urged. “If you do not destroy it quickly, you may never get another chance.”

“I will go as fast as I can, but it will take some time. I need you to go back and convince them that they need to stay away because these lines you see above the sand are dangerous.”

Sang looked across the sand toward the Glee for a moment and then back to Richard. His third eyelids blinked across his large, glossy black eyes.

“What lines?”