Suddenly aware, Richard was appalled at what he had almost done. Chase released his sword hand. Shaking, Richard put it on the big man’s shoulder for support, struggling to catch his breath as they stepped out of the green light. Relief washed over him.
Chase leaned over a little, searching his eyes. “All right?”
Richard nodded, too overwhelmed to speak. The sight of his father had brought back the devastating grief. He had to concentrate just to breathe, to stand. His throat hurt. He realized he had been choking, but hadn’t been aware of it at the time.
Terror raced through Richard’s mind as he realized how close he had come to stepping through the wall, to death. He had been totally unprepared for what had happened. If Chase hadn’t been there holding on to him, he would be dead now. He had tried to give in to the underworld. He felt as if he didn’t know himself. How could he have wanted to give himself over to it? Was he that weak? That frail?
Richard’s head swirled with pain. He couldn’t clear the vision of his father’s face from his mind, the way his father longed for him, called to him, so desperate. He ached to be with him. It would have been so easy. The image haunted his mind, refusing to let go. He didn’t want to let it go; he wanted to go back. He could feel the pull, even as he resisted.
Kahlan was there, waiting for them, at the edge of the green light as they emerged. She swept her arm protectively around his waist and tugged him away from Chase. With her other hand she grabbed hold of his jaw, turning his head, making him look at her.
“Richard. Listen to me. Think of something else. Concentrate. You have to think of something else. I want you to remember every intersection on every trail in the Hartland. Can you do that for me? Please? Do it now. Remember every one for me.”
He nodded, and started to remember the trails.
Kahlan turned to Chase in a fury, slapping him across his face as hard as she could.
“You bastard!” she screamed. “Why would you do that to him!” Throwing all her weight into it, she slapped him again, her hair tossing across her face. Chase didn’t try to stop her. “You did it on purpose! How could you do that!” She swung at him a third time, but this time, he grabbed her wrist in midswing.
“Do you want me to tell you or do you wish to go on hitting me?”
She jerked her hand away, glaring at him, her chest heaving. Some of her hair was stuck sideways across her face.
“Going through Kings’ Port is dangerous. It isn’t straight through; it twists and turns. Some places it’s very narrow, the two walls of the boundary almost touching. One step either way and you’re gone. You’ve been through the boundary; so has Zedd. You both understand. You can’t see it until you start in, otherwise you don’t know where it is. I only know because I’ve spent my life out here. It’s even more dangerous now because it’s failing, even easier to walk through it. When you get in the pass, if something started chasing you, Richard could run into the underworld without even knowing what it was.”
“That’s no excuse! You could have warned him!”
“I’ve never had a child yet who had the proper respect for fire until they put their hand in it once. No amount of telling is worth doing it once. If Richard didn’t understand what it was like before he went into Kings’ Port, he wouldn’t come out the other side. Yes, I took him in there on purpose. To show him. To keep him alive.”
“You could have told him!”
Chase shook his head. “No. He had to see it.”
“Enough!” Richard said, his head clear at last. They all turned to him. “A day has yet to go by when one of you three doesn’t scare the wits out of me. But I know you all have my best interests at heart. Right now we have more important things to worry about. Chase, how do you know the boundary is failing? What’s different?”
“The wall is breaking down. Before, you couldn’t see through the green into the darkness. You couldn’t see anything on the other side.”
“Chase is right,” Zedd offered, “I could see it from here.”
“How long until it fails?” Richard asked the wizard.
Zedd shrugged. “It’s hard to tell.”
“Then guess!” Richard shot back. “Give me some kind of idea. Your best guess.”
“It will last at least two weeks. But not more than six or seven.”
Richard thought a minute. “Can you use your magic to strengthen it?”
“I don’t have that kind of power.”
“Chase, do you think Rahl knows about Kings’ Port?”
“How should I know?”
“Well, has anyone come through the pass?”
Chase thought about the question. “Not that I know of.”
“I doubt it,” Zedd added. “Rahl can travel the underworld; he doesn’t need the pass. He’s bringing the boundary down; I don’t think he cares about a little pass.”
“Caring is different from knowing,” Richard said. “I don’t think we should be standing here, and I’m worried he might know where we’re going.”
Kahlan pulled the hair off her face. “What do you mean?”
Richard gave her a sympathetic look. “Do you think it was your mother and sister you saw when you were in there?”
“I thought it was. Do you think otherwise?”
“I don’t think that was my father.” He looked to the wizard. “What do you think?”
“It’s impossible to say. No one really knows all that much about the underworld.”
“Darken Rahl knows about it,” Richard said bitterly. “I don’t think my father would want me in that manner. But I know Rahl would, so despite what my eyes tell me, it’s more likely that it was Darken Rahl’s disciples trying to take me. You said we couldn’t go through the boundary because they were waiting for us to do so, waiting to get us. I think that was what I saw, his followers in the underworld. And they know right where I touched the wall. If I’m right that means Rahl will soon know where we are. I don’t want to be here to find out if I’m right.”
“Richard is right,” Chase said. “And we have
to get to Skow Swamp before nightfall, before the heart hounds come out. It’s the only safe place between here and Southaven. We’ll reach Southaven before tomorrow night and will be safe from the hounds there. The next day we will go see a friend of mine, Adie, the bone woman. She lives near the pass. We need her help to get through. But tonight, our only chance is the swamp.”
Richard was about to ask what a bone woman was, and why they needed her help to cross the boundary, when a dark, shadowy form suddenly whipped out of the air, striking Chase so hard it threw him across several downed trees. With shocking speed the black form wrapped around Kahlan’s legs, whiplike, pulling her feet from under her. She screamed Richard’s name as he dove, grabbing for her. They locked their hands around each other’s wrists. Both were dragged across the ground, toward the boundary.
Zedd’s fingers threw fire over their heads. It shrieked past and vanished. Another black appendage struck out at the wizard with lightning speed, knocking the old man through the air. Richard hooked a foot around a branch on a log. Rotten, it tore from the stump. He twisted his body around, trying to dig his heels into the ground. His boots slid across the wet bog weed. He jammed his heels into the earth, but wasn’t strong enough to hold the two of them from being dragged across the ground. He needed his hands free.
“Put your arms around my waist!” he yelled.
Kahlan lunged, throwing her arms around him, holding tight. The sinuous black thing wrapped around her legs undulated, getting a stronger grip on her. She screamed as it squeezed. Richard yanked the sword free, filling the air with its ringing.
The green light began to glow around them as they were dragged in.
Anger flooded through him. Richard’s worst fear was coming to pass; something was trying to take Kahlan. The green light brightened. Being hauled across the ground, he couldn’t reach the thing that pulled them. Kahlan held him hard by the waist; her legs were too far away, and the thing that held her legs was farther still.