The Third Kingdom

“Like that. It looks something like that, only it’s all a shimmering green light. That’s the boundary layer to the underworld, the world of the dead.”

She frowned suspiciously. Her head darted out to peek around the gate.

“Dear spirits…” She pulled back, her wide eyes staring into his. “Lord Rahl, that’s the same eerie green glow I told you I saw when I tried to heal the Mother Confessor for the first time. Remember? I saw the same thing within you.”

Richard wiped a hand across his mouth before letting out a deep sigh. “That green luminescence is death.”

“I told you so. I saw it in her. That’s when I first told you that she had death in her.”

He nodded reluctantly. “So you did. I remember. But that was in her. This here is out in the open.” Richard pointed a thumb behind him, beyond the gates. “If you walk into it, into that green veil of luminescence, you walk into the world of the dead. Understand?

“It’s the boundary between life and death, just like you described seeing in Kahlan, the place that tried to tempt you in. If you had crossed over when you were in her mind, you would have entered the world of the dead. You would never have come back.

“This here is the same. Beyond that luminescent glow is the world of the dead. If you step over, even a little, you will never come back.”

Her big dark eyes wide, she swallowed. “Then I guess it would be best not to walk through it.”

“Exactly. When we go in there you can’t ever let your guard down. You can’t ever relax. I don’t know the exact properties of how it works here, where the openings into the underworld will be, but in other places I’ve been you sometimes don’t see it until you get really close. The greenish light is kind of like a warning that you are inches away from death, that you are about to cross over.

“Since you are so close to the underworld, the spirits of the dead beyond sometimes call to you, trying to entice you to cross over to them.”

She nodded. “They did that to me, when I was trying to heal the Mother Confessor and saw that green veil of death. I heard the spirits beyond.”

Richard nodded his understanding. “It seems that we can encounter death in a number of places, in a number of ways. You encountered that boundary to the eternal beyond in Kahlan, and in me. You saw and heard some of what was on the other side.

“In some places I’ve been that green wall will appear as a warning, much the way shields placed by wizards try to warn you with color and light if you start getting too close. In this case, it’s a warning that you are getting close to the boundary.

“In other places I’ve seen, the walls to the world of the dead are static. They stay in the same place, shimmering, so that you can see them from some distance off and know where they are. But here, it seems like those green boundaries into the world of the dead are flickering in and out of existence. That means they aren’t in one place. They move around.”

“That makes sense,” she said. “Life and death in the same place and at the same time, a kind of soup of ingredients mixing together.”

“That’s right, but it also means that this boundary between worlds may be different from what I’ve encountered before, where the lines between life and death were fixed and you could avoid them. Here, from what I saw beyond the gates, those boundaries appear to be fluid, moving like a gossamer carried on a breeze. That’s what’s different here. That’s what makes it so much more dangerous here.

“It means that you may not necessarily need to walk into that boundary to be lost. In this place, they may drift in and come right over you.”

“That would be bad,” she said in a deadpan, stating the obvious.

Richard nodded. “You have to be extremely alert at all times and respect that danger. If you let your guard down for an instant, you could unintentionally find yourself pulled into the underworld. If that happens, you are never coming back.”

Samantha nodded solemnly. “I understand. Keep my eyes open and be prepared to move out of the way.”

“Right,” he said with a firm nod. He took a quick look around. “We need to get going. But don’t forget what I told you, not for a second. I don’t know exactly what we will have to face in there, but this is already something I didn’t expect. We can’t ever let our guard down.”

“I won’t, Lord Rahl.”

“One other thing.”

“What’s that?”

“If anything happens and we somehow get separated, then getting those people out, my friends and your mother, is the priority. Understand?”

“I understand, Lord Rahl. Find the wizard Zedd and the sorceress Nicci and get them out so that they can heal you of the death inside you so that you can end prophecy and end the threat to the world of life now that the barrier is down.”

Richard would have smiled at how insane that sounded, and at her intensity, but the seriousness of the situation was nothing to smile about.