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By now infected with Laurie's obvious sense of alarm, Je
The tomb was open.
The great granite monument to Nathan Rahl had been slid to the side. Light shone up from under the ground, creating a softly glowing beacon in the dark heart of the starlit night.
Je
Back when Nathan and A
Je
She and the people with her down in Bandakar were all pillars of Creation. In ancient times it had been learned that when the pristinely ungifted mingled with normal people, all of whom possessed at least a small spark of the gift, every child of such unions would be pristinely ungifted. Roaming free in the world they forever carried the latent potential to breed the gift itself out of mankind. In antiquity the solution to the ever-growing numbers of the pristinely ungifted had been to gather them all together and banish them.
The pristinely ungifted trait originated in the offspring of the Lord Rahl. Pristinely ungifted births were exceedingly rare, but once those with the trait became adults, the anomaly was spread forth into the general population. After the ancestors of these people in Bandakar had been banished, every child of a Rahl was tested. If found to be born pristinely ungifted such a child would immediately be put to death to prevent the trait from ever again spreading into the general population.
Je
But Richard found the very thought abhorrent and would not do such a thing. He believed that Je
Richard had broken the banishment and freed these people to live their own lives. Since Richard had become the Lord Rahl, they were no longer banished but welcomed into the world, as was Je
Since the barrier had come down, many of the people from Bandakar had been captured by the Imperial Order and taken away to be used for breeding stock to hasten the end of magic. After the Imperial Order had been driven from Bandakar, most of the rest of these people had chosen to remain in their ancestral homeland for the time being. They wanted to take some time to learn about the outside world before deciding what they would do.
Je
Laurie obviously felt a sense of dread that their world was again being threatened. But with the Imperial Order on the march everyone's world was threatened. In that sense there was nothing especially unique about the pristinely ungifted.
Je
Je
She realized, though, that it could be someone else-someone who could harm them all. It was that thought that kept her from rushing down into the tomb.
Despite how much she wanted to go and see if it was Richard, Je
Mockingbirds in the distance repeated calls into the still darkness, trying to outdo one another in a kind of endless nightly argument. As she idly listened to the strident calls, Je
Before Je
"Laurie!" Je
Laurie ignored the command, instead skittering off through the dry grass. Je
Some distance ahead in the darkness, Laurie gasped in fright.
Je
Laurie suddenly rose up on her knees as she let out a wail of horror that sent a ripple of goose bumps up the nape of Je
In the dead of night, such a scream would carry great distances. No longer having to worry about giving herself away, Je
The body of a man lay sprawled in the grass before her. Even though it was too dark for Je
Je
Just as she did so, the dark shape of a big man, sword in hand, loomed up out of the darkness. He had probably been the one who had killed Laurie's husband. After that he'd likely crouched somewhere nearby to be on watch for anyone else who might approach the open tomb.