Severed Souls by Terry Goodkind Page A

What sort of talents?”
    The man’s eyes turned up to the old wizard. “Some of us are spirit trackers. It is an ancient ability passed down to us from the first half people that Emperor Sulachan created. Now that he has returned, he has use of us. He sent us to track you.”
    Richard paced as he thought about the unusual claim. “You expect me to believe that you can track people by sensing their spirits?”
    â€œI do not expect you to believe anything,” the Shun-tuk prisoner said. “You asked, I told you. We are spirit trackers. It does not matter to me what you believe.”
    â€œSo you’re saying that some of you can track spirits,” Richard asked, “that some of you have that ability to sense them and follow them?”
    â€œThe Shun-tuk are not all the same. Some of our ancestors were created with abilities forged into them. Among the Shun-tuk there is a variety of abilities.”
    â€œAbilities,” Richard repeated in a flat tone.
    Kahlan knew that such abilities created out of people were all too real. After all, she was a Confessor, an ability that had been created in the first Confessor, Magda Searus. That ability had been passed down to all the offspring of Confessors.
    â€œSome of us were born with different abilities than others among us, just as some of you are gifted, while others of you are not.
    â€œSpirit trackers can sense the presence of souls. Because we can sense souls, we can track them, much like a wolf can smell his prey and follow its scent. And like a wolf following a scent of a particular animal, we can distinguish between spirits. We can sense individual spirits and follow their essence. Once we found you, we did as we were commanded.”
    â€œNot exactly. You failed,” Richard pointed out. “You failed even to kill the one man you had down and by himself. How does your spirit king treat those who fail him?”
    â€œWe did not fail. We tracked your spirits as instructed.”
    â€œTracking us would only be part of your orders. I’m sure you were instructed to kill us or bring captives back, much as you captured all these people here once before and brought them to Sulachan.
    â€œThis time, you failed. You didn’t kill any of us, steal any souls for yourselves, and you don’t have any captives to take back to Sulachan. Knowing how he treats those who fail him, I would say that you are fortunate you will never see Emperor Sulachan again.”
    The man lifted his chin indignantly. “I will see him soon enough. When the world of the dead is brought together with the world of the living, I will be with my king again. In the meantime, the spirit trackers have not yet failed. We found you. We will continue coming after you until we succeed. We can fail many times and still keep coming. You can fail only once, and then we have you.
    â€œSooner or later you will be ours. We will have the souls of those with you, and bring you back so that Lord Arc can send you to the world of the dead with his own hands.”
    â€œLord Arc.” Richard frowned. “So you were instructed to bring only me back with you?”
    â€œThat’s right, our king sent us at the request of Lord Arc. But he sent us to bring back only you, for Lord Arc.”
    â€œSo you are not to bring back any other captives?”
    The man looked over at Kahlan with lust in his dark eyes. “No. Just you. The rest he no longer needs. The rest we can eat. We can have their souls for ourselves.”
    He smiled up to Richard. “Your soul belongs to my king and Lord Arc to do with as they will. That is their business, not ours. Our trackers are free to do what they will with the rest of your people.”
    â€œAnd where are your spirit king and Hannis Arc? Where were you to bring me?”
    The man’s brow lifted with a dismissive expression. “They head to the southeast.”
    Kahlan didn’t like the sound of that.