Richard glanced over at his sister. "Jennsen, they're threatening to kill me. They've proven that it isn't an empty threat."

She shrugged uncomfortably. "I know, but they're desperate." She glanced ahead to make sure that Owen wouldn't hear. "They didn't know what else to do to save themselves. They aren't like you. They never fought anyone before."

Richard took a deep breath, the pain pulling tight across his chest when he did so. "You'd never fought anyone before, either. When you thought I was trying to kill you, as our father had, and you believed that I was responsible for your mother's death, what did you do? I don't mean were you correct about me, but what did you do in response to what you believed was happening?"

"I resolved that if I wanted to live I would have to kill you before you killed me."

"Exactly. You didn't poison someone and tell them to do it or they would die. You decided that your life was worth living and that no one else had the right to take it from you.

"When you are willing to meekly sacrifice your ultimate value, your life, the only one you will ever have, to any thug who on a whim decides to take it from you, then you can't be helped. You may be able to be rescued for one day, but the next day another will come and you will again willingly prostrate yourself before him. You have placed the value of the life of your killer above your own.

"When you grant to anyone who demands it the right of life or death over you, you have already become a willing slave in search of any butcher who will have you."

She walked in silence for a time, thinking about what he'd said.

Richard noticed that she moved through the woods as he had taught Cara to move. She was nearly as at home in the woods as he was.

"Richard." Jennsen swallowed. "I don't want those people to be hurt any more. They've already suffered enough."

"Tell that to Kahlan if I die from their poison."

When they reached the meeting place, Cara wasn't there yet. They all were ready for a brief rest. The spot, a break in the slope back against granite that rose up steeply to the next projection in the mountain, was protected high overhead by huge pines and closer down by brush. After so long out in the heat of the desert, none of them were yet accustomed to the wet chill. While they spread out to find rocks for seats so they wouldn't have to sit in the wet leaf litter, Betty happily sampled the tasty weeds.

Owen sat to the far side, away from Betty.

Kahlan sat close to Richard on a small lump of rock. "How are you doing? You look like you have a headache."

"Nothing to be done about it for now," he said.

Kahlan leaned closer. The warmth of her felt good against his side.

"Richard," she whispered, "remember Nicci's letter?"

"What about it?"

"Well, we assumed that this boundary into Bandakar being down was the reason for the first warning beacon. Maybe we're wrong."

"What makes you think so?"

"No second beacon." She pointed with her chin off to the northwest. "We saw the first way back down there. We're a lot closer to the place where the boundary was and we haven't spotted a second beacon."

"Just as well," he said. "That was where the races were waiting for us."

He remembered well when they found the little statue. The races were perched in trees all around. Richard hadn't known what they were at the time, other than they were large birds he'd never seen before. The instant Cara picked up the statue, the black-tipped races had all suddenly taken to wing. There had been hundreds.

"Yes," Kahlan said, "but without the second beacon, maybe this isn't the problem that we thought caused the first."

"You're assuming that the second beacon will be for me-that I'm the one it will be meant for and so we would have seen it. Nicci said that the second beacon is for the one who has the power to fix the breach in the seal. Maybe that's not me."

Looking at first startled by the idea, Kahlan thought it over. "I'm not sure if I'd be pleased about that or not." She leaned tighter against him and hooked an arm around his thigh. "But no matter who is meant to be the one who can seal the breach again, the one who's supposed to restore the boundary, I don't think they will be able to do so."

Richard ran his fingers back through his wet hair. "Well, if I'm the one this dead wizard once believed could restore the boundary, he's wrong. I don't know how to do such a thing."

"But don't you see, Richard? Even if you did know how, I don't think you could."

Richard looked at her out of the corner of his eye. "Jumping to conclusions and letting your imagination get carried away, again?"

"Richard, face it, the boundary failed because of what I did. That's why the warning beacon was for me-because I caused the seal to fail. You aren't going to try to deny that, are you?"

"No, but we have a lot to learn before we know what's really going on."

"I freed the chimes," she said. "It's not going to do us any good to try to hide from that fact."

Kahlan had used ancient magic to save his life. She had freed the chimes in order to heal him. She'd had no time to spare; he would have died within moments if she had not acted.

Moreover, she'd had no idea that the chimes would unleash destruction upon the world. She hadn't known they had been created three thousand years before from underworld powers as a weapon designed to consume magic. She had been told only that she must use them to save Richard's life.

Richard knew what it felt like to be convinced of the facts behind events and to have no one believe him. He knew she was now feeling that same frustration.

"You're right that we can't hide from it-if it is a fact. But right now we don't know that it is. For one thing, the chimes have been banished back to the underworld."

"And what about what Zedd told us, about how once the destructive cascade of magic begins-which it did-then there is no telling if it can be stopped even if the chimes are banished. There is no experience in such an event upon which to base predictions."

Richard didn't have an answer for her, and was at a disadvantage because he didn't have her education in magic. He was saved from having to speculate when Cara came in through a tight patch of young balsam trees. She pulled her pack off her shoulders and let it slip to the ground as she sat on a rock facing Richard.

"You were right. We can get through there. It looks to me like I can see a way to continue on up from the ledge."

"Good," Richard said as he stood. "Let's get going. The clouds are getting darker. I think we need to find a place to stop for the night."

"I spotted a place under the ledge, Lord Rahl. I think it might be a dry place to stay."

"Good." Richard hoisted her pack. "I'll carry this for you for a while, let you have a break."

Cara nodded her appreciation, falling into line as they moved through the tight trees and immediately had to start to climb up the steeply rising ground. There was enough exposed rock and roots to provide good steps and handholds. Where some of those steps were tall, Richard stretched down to give Kahlan a hand.

Tom helped Jennsen and passed Betty up a few times, even though the goat was better at scrambling up over rock than they were. Richard thought he was doing it more for Jennsen's peace of mind than Betty's. Jennsen finally told Tom that Betty could climb on her own.

Betty proved her right, bleating down at Tom after effortlessly clambering up a particularly trying spot.

"Why don't you help me up, then," Tom said to the goat.

Jennsen smiled along with Richard and Kahlan. Owen just watched as he skirted the other way around the rock. He was afraid of Betty. Cara finally asked for her pack back, having entertained long enough the possibility of being considered frail.