In slack-jawed attention, Berdine impatiently rolled her hand. “So, what do they look like once they finish appearing?”
Richard appraised all the eyes watching him. Kahlan could see that he was reluctant to tell them. After having been attacked by one, she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear the terrifying reality that all of those dead people below had faced.
“Bigger than me,” Richard said, holding his hand up high above his head to illustrate. “Muscular, long arms, each with those three claws, with almost black skin that … I don’t know. They didn’t have skin like us, and they didn’t have scales. The best way I can describe it is that it reminded me of the skin of a newt, or salamander, or even a tadpole. They were wet and slimy-looking, with globs of gelatinous material that slid down off their lumpy, amphibious-like skin.”
Berdine wrinkled her nose. “That’s disgusting.”
Richard nodded his agreement. “Some kind of steam or smoke rose up off of them as they became solid. I suspected that was somehow a consequence of traveling to our world.”
Berdine hooked her first two fingers. “Do they have fangs? Like snakes?”
Richard shook his head. “No. They have long, sharp white teeth, all about the same, and a whole lot of them in a row across the top and the bottom jaw.
“I asked Dori what her kind was called. She said they were called the Glee. Except that when she said it, it came out like a long, croaking hiss. I can’t pronounce it the way she did. But I can tell you, it ran goose bumps up my arms to hear her say it.”
“So then when happened?” Kahlan asked when he fell silent, staring off into the memory of it.
He gave her a look with a smile, which she thought was a little odd.
“Then she told me that she was the Golden Goddess, the bringer of the tide that would wash over our world and drown us all. All of those creatures were packed into the room, gathered around, all leaning in toward me, all snapping their jaws full of those long, sharp teeth, all eager to tear into me once she gave them the word.”
“And then what?” Berdine asked, impatiently rolling her hand yet again to urge him on when he paused.
“When she told me that she was the Golden Goddess, the bringer of the tide that would wash over us, I smiled at her, and asked if she knew who I was. Her eyes narrowed, and for the first time she looked uncertain.”
Berdine leaned in. “What’d you tell her?”
“I said, ‘I am the bringer of death.’”
Berdine laughed with excitement at that.
“And then what?” Kahlan asked.
“And then,” Richard said in a quiet tone, “along with everything else alive in that room, I had to kill that child.”
He paused for a moment before looking back at them and going on.
“I unleashed the full fury of that which I had been holding inside. In essence, I filled the containment field with an explosive discharge of Additive and Subtractive Magic linked together. Those two things don’t mix. Without the containment field, it would probably have taken out this whole floor of the palace, possibly this whole wing.”
“Did it catch them in time while they were still in our world? Did it kill them?” Kahlan asked, expectantly.
“Yes. That greasy black soot in there is all that’s left of them. The goddess thought she had learned from Dori’s mother that magic isn’t anything to fear. I wanted to show her just how mistaken she was, so I unleashed my hate on those hateful creatures, the kind of hate that only a war wizard can unleash. I have only just begun to show them my wrath.”
Berdine thrust a fist into the air. “Yes! That’s my Lord Rahl.”
The other Mord-Sith looked equally pleased, if less animated about it.
Kahlan leaned forward hopefully. “So, then you were able to kill the Golden Goddess as well.”
Richard looked from the Mord-Sith back to Kahlan as he slowly shook his head. “I killed the little girl who was hosting her. But the goddess wasn’t really there, in her. It’s something like the way the dream walkers used people. Remember when you once tried to kill the dream walker by touching someone he was using, but he was gone as soon as you unleashed your power? This was much the same. She was only using the girl to look through her eyes and use her voice. The goddess wasn’t physically there, in Dori. I only had an instant to act when she gave Glee the command to take me or they would have all torn into me or escaped. I had no choice but to kill Dori along with all those hateful things.”
He let out a long sigh. “But it accomplished two things. First, I learned that I don’t believe that the goddess is able to enter the mind of a gifted person.”
“Why do you think that?” Shale asked.
“Because she would have if she could have. As weak as Dori’s mother’s gift was, the goddess couldn’t get into her mind. That is why she had to use Dori. That was as close as she could get.”
“What’s the second thing?” Kahlan asked.
“It takes them a second or two to materialize here, in our world. Then, when they get here, they have to grasp their surroundings, look for any threat, and take in their target. It’s only an instant, but in that instant they are vulnerable.
“But to kill them after they were here and before they could escape back to their world, and more importantly to strike fear of us into the hearts of their kind through the eyes of the Golden Goddess, I had to kill Dori, too.”
Kahlan put her arms around his neck, holding his head to her shoulder. “You had no choice, Richard. You had no choice.”
“I know. I am fuer grissa ost drauka. I am the bringer of death.”
21
“Are you sure they can’t enter the mind of a person with magic?” Shale asked.
“I can’t say I know that with absolute certainty,” Richard told her, “but after talking to the goddess through Dori, I’m convinced that she isn’t able to use the gifted—or she would already have done that. I believe she isn’t able to enter our minds for the simple reason that her ability isn’t compatible with our gift. Simply put, our gift won’t allow her in.”
Shale squinted with uncertainty. “Won’t allow it?”
“While the goddess and the Glee can do what seems unfathomable to us—traveling to other worlds—I think that magic must block their ability to get past it and into our minds. That’s why they were leery of the gift.
“They are predators. They hunt, which proves they have the ability to think and plan. And from the evidence of the dead we found down below, they work together. There are plenty of animals that are very dangerous, that stalk their prey and work together, but can’t fathom magic. It stymies them.”
“But you can’t say with absolute certainty that they can’t use the mind of the gifted,” Shale pressed.
“Their primary goal is to eliminate me and Kahlan, right? So why not use you? If they could do it,” Richard insisted, “then the goddess would have chosen to enter your mind, don’t you suppose? You are close to me.” He swept an arm around. “Or the mind of one of the Mord-Sith. They are even closer. If she was able to do that, then why choose a little girl? Because the minds of children are weaker, that’s why,” he said, answering his own question.
“But Nolo was an adult,” Shale argued.
Richard smiled. “He was a diplomat, through and through. All of Nolo’s people are bred to be diplomats, raised as diplomats.”