“I’m positive. The procedure for creating a duplicate is completely different. This is the original from the Glee’s world and there is no duplicate left behind. The Glee are going to be trapped in their world. They can never again travel to other worlds. I think Sang and his friends will be happy about that.”
“And only you can ever do that with this one?”
Richard nodded. “Only a Rahl, yes, with fail-safes to prevent just anyone from figuring it out and using it. The knife I used is only used by special people. The gateway will recognize only it, the same way it was set to recognize the claw of a Glee, before. That’s one safeguard. My blood created another protocol so that the gateway will only recognize Rahl blood.”
“That should be specific enough, shouldn’t it?”
Richard shook his head. “With something this dangerous, you can’t be too careful. It needs something more, another fail-safe that no one would likely know to use. Something that only the right person would know.”
“Like what?”
Richard flashed her a smile before squatting down before the stone. Most of the symbols in the language of Creation glowed a soft blue. One of them in the series of final emblems still glowed red, indicating that the reset was still open. He knew that once he touched it, the protocols would lock in and set.
Before he put his hand on the pulsing red symbol, he reached down to another series of emblems designed to accept additional properties. He recognized that this was a way he could set a fail-safe protocol.
He tapped that lower emblem once each time he counted out loud.
“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.” Each tap elicited a soft chime along with a pulse of brighter light. He tapped the emblem one last time. “Nine.”
He spread his fingers to touch two green emblems at the same time. The gateway stone made a soft dull sound as it recognized and accepted the new fail-safe.
Finally, he pressed his palm against the glowing red, pulsing symbol. He felt it make a soft vibration to confirm that the fail-safe was set and all the new protocols he had initiated were locked in.
Vika leaned close, looking at the symbols as the light within them gradually faded away and finally went out. The gateway stone once more looked like the inert stone it had seemed to be the first time they had seen it. It now appeared to be nothing more than a smooth but not polished stone, with symbols inscribed on it.
Vika looked puzzled. She gestured at the gateway stone.
“What were you counting?”
“This thing is obviously dangerous. As dangerous as the most dangerous magic. I’m not sure how to destroy it, or what harm it could cause if I tried, so instead I decided to make sure that it will be incredibly difficult for anyone to ever use.
“To make the gateway work, I locked in protocols that one now has to use a special knife like the one I’m carrying, and Rahl blood. But it’s always possible that those requirements could be met, even against the will of a Rahl, by using a knife like this to kill him. This kind of knife, with Rahl blood on it, would meet the initial procedures. But it’s too dangerous to leave it at that.
“So I set into the gateway a protocol that, in addition to this kind of knife and Rahl blood, the Law of Nines is also required for the gateway to work. Without the Law of Nines, no gateway. It will remain an inert piece of stone.”
Vika rose up. “You are a devious man, Lord Rahl.”
Richard let out a deep breath now that it was finalized. “You’ve said that before.”
“It bears repeating.”
He looked to the path out of the Garden of Life. “We need to get to the Wizard’s Keep. Kahlan was about to give birth back when we left her there.”
78
“It was a long and difficult journey getting to the Keep the last time,” she reminded him. “We had better get some fast horses.”
“I have a better way,” Richard told her.
“Another crazy idea? Please tell me you don’t intend to use the gateway to get us there.”
Richard shook his head at the very notion. “Dear spirits no. I’m not sure that would even be possible. But I know a better way, and it’s not crazy at all. Let’s go.”
As they went through the double doors and out of the Garden of Life, there was a very surprised knot of men of the First File standing right there. They all stepped back, stunned at seeing the Lord Rahl and Vika.
It looked as if they had heard sounds and were all gathered by the doors. At seeing him, all of them snapped to attention after stepping back and clapped fists to their hearts.
One of the Lord Rahl’s personal guard stepped forward. The man was even bigger than the men of the First File. He was armored with fitted leather and had metal bands around his massive arms, just above his elbows. Those bands had razor-sharp projections on them that were used in close-quarters combat. They could tear an opponent apart with ease in short order.
The big man blinked in astonishment. “Lord Rahl, we weren’t … expecting you.”
“I suppose not,” Richard said. “To tell you the truth, I wasn’t expecting me to be here ever again.”
When the man only frowned in confusion, Vika showed him a smile. “We went into darkness to get here.”
He clearly didn’t have a clue as to what she could mean.
“We’ve been keeping extra guards on this place since you told us to before you left,” the captain of the guard said. “Not a soul has gone in there, but we heard noises and thought that maybe it was more of the Glee.” He leaned over to look around Richard and through the open doors into the Garden of Life. The man looked painfully puzzled. “How did you get in there?”
“I just returned from the world of the Glee,” he told them. The eyes of all the men widened. “They were killing people in our world, and they killed a lot of people here, at the palace. I had to make sure they can never come here to harm anyone again.”
The captain looked grim. “There was an attack not long after you and the Mother Confessor disappeared, some time back, but none since then, thank the Creator.”
“That wasn’t the Creator’s doing,” Vika told them. “It was Lord Rahl’s.”
Richard ignored her and addressed the captain. “I’m sorry to hear about that, but at least there is no longer any need to ever again have to worry about attacks from those monsters. They will never be able to come here to our world again.”
The captain frowned his concern. “Lord Rahl, how can you be so sure of that? Those demons could just show up out of thin air—we never knew when or where. How can you be sure they will not come again?”
Richard gestured back through the open double doors. “Because I stole the device they used to travel to our world and brought it back with me.”
Jaws dropped. “Weren’t they angry you did that?” the commander asked.
“Well, yes, actually they were, but the ones who objected are now dead.”
They all looked at Vika, like maybe she could explain the incomprehensible to them. “I know, it sounds crazy,” she told them, “but Lord Rahl sometimes does crazy things. If he didn’t, we would be the ones who were dead by now.”
The captain cleared his throat. “We are certainly happy to hear that you are safely back in our world with us, Lord Rahl. But what of the Mother Confessor? You were going to the Keep for her safety.”
“Yes, well, and therein lies the problem. I wanted to bring the device I stole from the Glee here, where I know it will be safe under the protection of the First File. Now that I’ve done that, I need to get to the Keep as soon as possible.”
“What can we do to help?”
“Get me to the sliph.”
At that command, he sensed Vika tense up, and he saw her glance down at the Sword of Truth.