Richard gave her a look she understood all too well. “Could we have done that with the boundaries before? The ones between our lands? Could we have gotten around it that way? Their nature is to be a boundary, to restrict passage, so while I can’t say for sure, but knowing what the boundary from before was like, it isn’t likely that it has an end we could simply travel around. It completely blocks us from our plan of going south to get around the worst of the mountains.”
Kahlan searched around for a solution. “Can’t you find us a way through, like you did before?”
Richard had obviously already considered that and had an answer ready. “That boundary was failing. This one isn’t. It’s much more powerful than the last one I saw. We aren’t going to be able to get through it.”
“Then what are we going to do?” Kahlan asked, feeling a rising sense of panic at the thought of having her children exposed, out in the middle of nowhere.
The Glee were likely to be somewhere behind, looking for them. They needed to get to the safety of the Keep before they found her and the twins. Every moment they were out in the open increased the danger.
Richard averted his eyes and reluctantly gestured to the west. “We have no choice but to go west, directly over that imposing mountain range. We have no choice.”
“Well,” she finally said, trying to find a reason for optimism, “if we can find a way over the mountains, that would be a shorter route to get to Aydindril.”
The sorceress wasn’t about to be placated. “Show me this boundary thing.”
34
Richard reined in his horse and pulled it sideways to block the others. “It’s too dangerous to ride our horses any farther,” he told them. “We need to get off here and go the rest of the way in on foot.”
Once they had handed the reins of their horses to the Mord-Sith, he told them that he wanted them all to wait where they were and take care of the horses. They weren’t happy about leaving Richard and Kahlan without their protection, but because it involved dangerous magic, they were happy to keep their distance. Only Vika insisted on coming with them. Richard agreed with a nod.
Richard led Shale, Kahlan, and Vika on foot forward through an eerie stand of dead spruce. The silver-gray skeletons stood in dried, cracked, black ground that had once been thick mud. The grove of spruce were devoid of all but a few stubby, bare branches draped with long trailers of dull green moss that hung motionless in the dead-still air. The place smelled as dead as it looked. Kahlan walked behind with Vika, gazing warily around at the dead trees.
The ground descended gradually into a wet area growing thick with bog weed that now had died off until next spring. The long reeds around the open water had previously been blown over by heavy gusts of wind and were likewise brown and dead. It was difficult to slog their way through the tangled mat. Small, unseen things darted away in the murky water.
Bugs buzzed around their heads. Kahlan had to use her fingernails to pull out biting flies crawling on her neck under her hair. From time to time Richard and Vika tried to swish the cloud of insects away. It did little good. They all swatted at the flies that bit them. Shale held her dark cloak tightly closed against the insects. That morning there had already been a frost, so she knew that while the bugs were a nuisance, they would all soon be gone with the first hard freeze.
Kahlan didn’t hear any other sounds, but she kept looking around for anything unexpected. She was sure the place had to be full of snakes so she was careful of where she stepped.
As they came up through thick grasses onto higher ground, Richard lifted a hand to bring them all to a halt.
“This is the place.”
“This is what you’re worried about?” Shale looked off in both directions. “I don’t see anything.”
“Stay where you are and watch,” he said.
He walked forward cautiously. As he did, Kahlan could see a green glow, at first hardly perceptible, form around him. It grew brighter in the area immediately around him until after a few more steps it brightened to a sheet of glowing green light that looked like it was pressing in around him. The ominous, wavy, distorted green wall grew larger with every step he took. The green light was stronger close to him and faded away to the sides and above.
Kahlan was able to see the forest and sky beyond the lighter portion of the wavering green light. As Richard finally turned and walked back to them, the green glow faded until he was far enough away, where it vanished completely.
Kahlan folded her arms, feeling a little sick at seeing such a thing again. She never thought she would. She did her best to force the terrible memories it brought back from her mind.
“What does it feel like when you get close like that?” Shale asked in a low voice, finally concerned. “I don’t see why you say it’s an opening to the underworld. I admit, it’s strange-enough-looking, but it doesn’t look like a wall of death, as you described it to us. It’s just that unusual green light.”
“You would know why if you got close to it,” Vika told her.
Shale stared at the Mord-Sith a moment, then turned back to Richard. “I need to get closer. I need to be as close as possible if I’m to try to sense the nature of its magic.”
Richard nodded his agreement. “Now that I’ve shown you that much of its characteristics, I’ll take you in so you can see it and feel it for yourself.” He gestured to Vika. “Why don’t you wait here.”
The Mord-Sith nodded. “Seeing it once is enough for me.”
Shale didn’t look the least bit reluctant to see what didn’t look all that frightening from where they were. When Richard started out, Kahlan, knowing what was coming, walked beside Shale.
“Easy, now,” Richard said as he finally locked arms with the sorceress.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Just keep hold of my arm. I’ll stop you when we’ve gone far enough.”
“What do you mean, when we’ve gone far enough?”
Despite her reluctance, Kahlan locked her arm with Shale’s other arm. “It’s best if you let us hold on to you. You’ll see.”
As they walked closer and a faint green glow began, it was different-looking than when they had watched from the outside as Richard walked close by himself. It almost felt like it was humming. Shale looked up and then to the sides.
As they went farther in, Kahlan started hearing that awful, high-pitched buzzing sound, like a thousand bumblebees. With each step, the sound became not only louder but deeper in tone. Kahlan knew, though, what the sound actually was. That knowledge ran a shiver up her spine.
As they continued in, the green light deepened in color. The woods all around became darker, too, as if it were twilight.
Abruptly, an entire sheet of green materialized, the greenish glow everywhere around them. Kahlan looked back. She could no longer see the others. The woods and everything beyond had been swallowed in darkness. The cloud of insects dispersed rather than go any farther in.
“Easy,” Richard warned them as he stepped carefully.
After a few more steps, the green vanished as the whole world darkened to black. It felt like a moonless, starless night, where she couldn’t see her hand in front of her face. The buzzing vibrating deep in Kahlan’s chest was so strong that it was starting to make her feel sick to her stomach.
She put a hand over her babies, suddenly worried, wondering if it was a mistake to take them close to such an evil place.
The darkness abruptly became a distinct, darkly transparent wall, like looking out on a night through glass that had grease smeared all over it. Kahlan could see the shapes moving beyond.
“This is as far as we dare go,” Richard said.