Kahlan looked over at the young woman, at her red hair shining in the afternoon sunlight. "He was born with both sides of the gift. All those born with the gift in the last three thousand years have been born with Additive Magic only. Some, like Darken Rahl and the Sisters of the Dark, have been able to use Subtractive Magic, but only through the Keeper's help-not on their own. Richard alone has been born with Subtractive Magic."
"That's what you mentioned last night, but I don't know anything about magic, so I don't know what that means."
"We're not exactly sure of everything it means ourselves. Additive Magic uses what is there, and adds to it, or changes it somehow. The magic of the Sword of Truth, for example, uses anger, and adds to it, takes power from it, adds to it until it's something else. With Additive, for example, the gifted can heal.
"Subtractive Magic is the undoing of things. It can take things and make them nothing. According to Zedd, Subtractive Magic is the counter to Additive, as night is to day. Yet it is all part of the same thing.
"Commanding Subtractive, as Darken Rahl did, is one thing, but to be born with it is quite another.
"Long ago, unlike now, being born with the gift-both sides of the gift-was common. The great war then resulted in a barrier sealing the New World off from the Old. That's kept the peace all this time, but things have changed since then. After that time, not only have those born with the gift gradually become exceedingly rare, but those who have been born with the gift haven't been born with the Subtractive side of it.
"Richard was born of two lines of wizards, Darken Rahl and his grandfather Zedd. He's also the first in thousands of years to be born with both sides of the gift.
"All of our abilities contribute to how we're able to react to situations. We don't know how having both sides contributes to Richard's ability to read a situation and do what's necessary. I suspect he may be guided by his gift, perhaps more than he believes."
Jennsen let out a troubled sigh. "After all this time, how did this barrier come to be down, anyway?"
"Richard destroyed it."
Jennsen looked up in astonishment. "Then it's true. Sebastian told me that the Lord Rahl-Richard-had brought the barrier down. Sebastian said it was so that Richard could invade and conquer the Old World."
Kahlan smiled at such a grandiose lie. "You don't believe that part of it, do you?"
"No, not now."
"Now that the barrier is down, the Imperial Order is flooding up into the New World, destroying or enslaving everything before them."
"Where can people live that's safe? Where can we?"
"Until they're stopped or driven back, there is no safe place to live."
Jennsen thought it over a moment. "If the barrier coming down let the Imperial Order flood in to conquer the New World, why would Richard have destroyed it?"
With one hand, Kahlan held on to the side of the wagon as it rocked over a rough patch of ground. She stared ahead, watching Richard walking through the glaring light of the wasteland.
"Because of me," Kahlan said in a quiet voice. "One of those mistakes I told you about." She let out a tired sigh. "One of those stabs in the dark."
Richard squatted down, resting his forearms across his thighs as he studied the curious patch of rock. His head was pounding with pain; he was doing his best to ignore it. The headache had come and gone seemingly without reason. At times he had begun to think that it just might be the heat after all, and not the gift.
As he considered the signs on the ground, he forgot about his headache.
Something about the rock seemed familiar. Not simply familiar, but unsettlingly familiar.
Hooves partially covered by long wisps of wiry brown hair came to an expectant halt beside him. With the top of her head, Betty gently butted his shoulder, hoping for a snack, or at least a scratch.
Richard looked up at the goat's intent, floppy-eared expression. As Betty watched him watching her, her tail went into a blur of wagging.
Richard smiled and scratched behind her ears. Betty bleated her pleasure at the scratch, but it sounded to him like she would have preferred a snack.
After not eating for two days as she lay in misery in the wagon, the goat seemed to come back to life and begin to recover from the loss of her two kids. Along with her appetite, Betty's curiosity had returned. She especially enjoyed scouting with Richard, when he would let hercome along.
It made Jennsen laugh to watch the goat trotting after him like a puppy.
Maybe what really made her laugh was that Betty was getting back to her old self.
