Naked Empire   ::   Goodkind Terry

"Find anything interesting?" Kahlan asked as she wiped her sleeve across her forehead.

Richard cast a few small pebbles down at the stretch of rock he'd been studying. "Tell me what you think of that."

"I think you look like you feel better," Kahlan said.

Her eyes on his, she gave him her special smile, the smile she gave no one but him. He couldn't help grinning.

Cara, ignoring the smiles that passed between Richard and Kahlan, leaned in for a gander. "I think Lord Rahl has been looking at too many rocks. This is more rock, just like all the rest."

"Is it?" Richard asked. He gestured at the area he'd been scrutinizing and then pointed at another place by where Kahlan and Cara stood. "Is it the same as that?"

Cara peered at both areas briefly before she folded her arms. "The rock over there that you've been looking at is just a paler brown, that's all."

Kahlan shrugged. "I think she's right, Richard. It looks like the same kind of rock, maybe just a little more of a tan color." She thought it over a moment as she scanned the ground, then added to her assessment. "I guess it looks more like the rock we've been walking across for days until we started encountering a little bit of grass and brush."

Richard put his hands on his hips as he stared back at the remarkable stretch of rock he'd found. "Tell me, then, what characterized the rock in the place where we were before-a few days ago, back closer to the Pillars of Creation?"

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.