King's Port

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The King's Port is a fictional location in the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind.

[edit] Description

The King's Port was the name of a pass through the boundary (a manifestation of the underworld) between Westland and the Midlands, near the town of Southaven in Westland (about 4 hours ride away) and west of the Wilds in the Midlands. Very few creatures of the living world lived there, making it unusually quiet. The pass was a void of the underworld, but it was still the land of the dead and the creatures of the dead lived within, especially the shadow people. However, one living creature that called the pass home were the grippers.

Going through the pass was very dangerous. It wasn't straight through; it twisted and turned. At some places it was very narrow and the two walls of the boundary were almost touching. One step either way and you would be given over to the underworld. If you got too near the black walls of the boundary in the pass, the dead could be seen (and heard) calling to you, and could be very difficult to resist. Even the shadow people would call to you in a similar way and dull your senses and your mind. Many who were keen with greed, but not strong of will, had tried to go through and never came out the other side.

Halfway through the pass there was a place called the Narrows, where the two black walls of the boundary came very close together, almost touching - an invisible passage. At the Narrows, there was a rock the size of a house, but split down the middle. The Narrows went through the middle of the rock and beyond. It was the most dangerous place in the pass and smelled of sickening rot. In the Narrows, uncanny green illumination would glow all around you and would make you feel as if you were in a cave as you walked the thin line of life, with death to each side. There was no view of the hillside around, only the tight world of luminous green light, like a bubble of life floating helplessly through an endless sea of darkness and death. The boundary walls dictated the direction to travel. Never was there more than a step or two to either side that didn't bring up the dark walls of the boundary. Each time the trail turned the dark wall appeared, sometimes several times, until the trail could be deciphered, sometimes even going up or downhill.

The bone woman, Adie, lived at the mouth of the King's Port in Westland.