Kahlan looked over at an expressionless Cara and then frowned at Richard. "Characterized it? Nothing. It was a dead place. Nothing grew there."

Richard waved his hand around, indicating the land through which they were now traveling. "And this?"

"Now things are growing," Cara said, becoming increasingly disinterested in his study of flora and fauna.

Richard held a hand out. "And there?"

"Nothing is growing there, yet," Cara said in an exasperated sigh.

"There are a lot of spots around where nothing is growing yet. It's still a wasteland. Just have patience, Lord Rahl, and we will soon enough be back among the fields and forests."

Kahlan wasn't paying attention to what Cara was saying; she was frowning as she leaned closer.

"The place where things begin to grow seems to start all at once,"

Kahlan said, almost to herself. "Isn't that curious."

"I certainly think so," Richard said.

"I think Lord Rahl needs to drink more water," Cara sniped.

Richard smiled. "Here. Stand over here," he told her. "Stand over by me and look again."

Cara, her curiosity aroused, did as he asked. She looked down at the ground, and then frowned at the places where things grew.

"The Mother Confessor is right." Cara's voice had taken on a decidedly businesslike tone. "Do you think it's important? Or somehow a danger?"

"Yes-to the first, anyway," Richard said.

He squatted down beside Kahlan. "Now, look at this."

As Kahlan and Cara knelt down beside him, leaning forward, looking closely at the rock, Richard had to push a curious Betty back out of the way. He then pointed out a patch of yellow-streaked lichen.

"Look here," he said. "See this medallion of lichen? It's lopsided.

This side is round, but this side, near where nothing grows, is flatter."

Kahlan looked up at him. "Lichen grows on rocks in all kinds of shapes."

"Yes, but look at how the rock over where there is lichen and brush growing is spotted all over with little bits of growth. Here, beyond the stunted side of the lichen, there is nearly nothing. The rock almost looks scoured clean.

"If you look closely there are a few tiny things, things that have started to grow only in the last couple of years, but they have yet to really begin to take hold."

"Yes," Kahlan said in a cautious drawl, "it is odd, but I'm not sure what you're getting at."

"Look at where things are growing, and where they aren't."

"Well, yes, on that side there's nothing growing, and over here there is."

"Don't just look down." Richard lifted her chin. "Look out at the boundary between the two-look at the whole pattern."

Kahlan frowned off into the distance. All of a sudden, the color drained from her face.

"Dear spirits…" she whispered.

Richard smiled that she finally saw what he was talking about.

"What are you two mooning over?" Cara complained.

Richard put his hand behind Cara's neck and pulled her head in to look at what he and Kahlan were seeing.

"That's odd," she said, squinting off into the distance. "The place where things are growing seem to stop in a comparatively clean line- like someone had made an invisible fence running east."

"Right," Richard said as he got up, brushing his hands clean.

"Now, come on." He started walking north. Kahlan and Cara scrambled to their feet and followed behind as he marched across the lifeless rock. Betty bleated and trotted after them.

"Where are we going?" Cara asked as she caught up with him "Just come on," Richard told her.

For half an hour they followed his brisk pace as he headed in a straight line to the north, across rocky ground and gravelly patches where nothing at all grew. The day was sweltering, but Richard almost didn't notice the heat, so focused was he on the lifeless expanse they were crossing. He hadn't yet gone to see what lay at the other side, but he was convinced of what they would find once they reached it.

The other two were sweating profusely as they chased behind him. Betty bleated occasionally as she brought up the rear.

When they finally reached the place he was looking for, the place where lichen and scraggly brush once again began to appear, he brought them to a halt. Betty poked her head between Kahlan and Cara for a look.

"Now, look at this," Richard said. "See what I mean?"

Kahlan was breathing hard from the brisk walk in the heat. She pulled her waterskin off her shoulder and gulped water. She passed the waterskin to Richard. He watched Cara study the patch of ground as he drank.

"The growing things start again over here," Cara said. She absently scratched behind Betty's ears when the goat rubbed the top of her head impatiently against Cara's thigh. "They start to appear in the same kind of line as the other side, back there, where we were."

"Right," Richard said, handing Cara the waterskin. "Now, follow me."

Cara threw up her arms. "We just came from that way!"

"Come on," Richard called back over his shoulder.

He headed south again, back toward the center of the lifeless patch of rock, the small group in tow. Betty bleated her displeasure at the pace of the hot dusty excursion. If Kahlan or Cara shared Betty's opinion, they didn't voice the complaint.

When Richard judged they were back somewhere in the middle, he stood with his feet spread, his fists on his hips, and looked east again. From where they stood, they couldn't make out the sides of the lifeless stretch, the places where growth began.

Looking to the east, though, the pattern was evident. A clearly defined strip-miles wide-ran off into the distance.

Nothing grew within the bounds of the straight strip of lifeless desert, whether going over rock or sandy ground. To either side the ground with widely spaced brush and lichen growing on the rock was darker. The place where nothing grew was a lighter tan. In the distance the discrepancy in the color was even more apparent.

The lifeless strip ran straight for mile after mile toward the far mountains, gradually becoming but a faint line following the rise of the ground until, finally, in the hazy distance, it could no longer be seen.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Kahlan asked in a low, troubled voice.

"What?" Cara asked. "What are you thinking?"

Richard studied the confused concern on the Mord-Sith's face. "What kept Darken Rahl's armies in D'Hara? What prevented him, for so many years, from invading the Midlands and taking it, even though he wanted it?"

"He couldn't cross the boundary," Cara said as if he must be having heat stroke.

"And what made up the boundary?"

At last, Cara's face, framed by the black desert garb, went white, too.

"The boundary was the underworld?"

Richard nodded. "It was like a rip in the veil, where the underworld existed in this world. Zedd told us about it. He put the boundary up with a spell he found in the Keep-a spell from those ancient times of the great war. Once up, the boundary was a place in this world where the world of the dead also existed. In that place, where both worlds touched, nothing could grow."

"But are you so sure things wouldn't still grow there?" Cara asked. "It was still our world, after all-the world of life."

"It would be impossible for anything to grow there. The world of life was there, in that spot-the ground was there-but life couldn't exist there on that ground because it shared that same space with the world of the dead.

Anything there would be touched by death."

Cara looked out at the straight, lifeless strip running off into the wavering distance. "So you think what?. . This is a boundary?"

"Was."

Cara looked from his face, to Kahlan, and again out to the distance.

"Dividing what?"

Overhead a flight of black-tipped races came into sight, riding the high currents, turning lazy circles as they watched.