The centaur gets upset and tries to kill Bink, but he ends up wining the fight and having a cactus put about a thousand needles in the horse end of the centaur. Then the centaurs girlfriend shows up and tells Chester; the male centaur's name; to stop messing with humans, she offers to give him a ride as a way of making up. She takes him to the edge of the gap chasm, a giant canyon running through the center of Xanth.
Bink has never heard of the giant canyon so he figures it must have an amnesia spell on it. He follows the gap east until he finds a village; he asks the villagers how to get across the gap, so they send a girl who is incredibly stupid but equally beautiful, to lead across the gap. The woman shows him the path, but forgets to tell him that there is a dragon that roams the pit. Bink is nearly killed by the dragon but miraculously survives and ends up hiding in a crack in the edge. Inside the crack is a shade, or a ghost that can take over ones body over time, the shade tells him that he can get him out, but he needs to possess him first.
Bink really has no choice because the dragon is right outside and he can't move or he will be heard, so he agrees to the offer and lets the shade take him. The shade uses his talent, which was the talent of flying, to get Bink out of the gap, and then he goes to his widow's home and tells him where he died and where the silver tree grows so that they can sell the silver to feed themselves. Then the shade fades away; its business finished; and Bink is left on the north side of the gap again.
Bink decides he will go to the shore and cross the gap there, not wanting to risk the dragon again. He continues following the gap east until he gets to the shore, as soon as he gets into the water he sees a sea monster. He tried to yell for help, but gets a mouthful of water and passes out. He wakes up outside a great crystal palace which is inhabited by a sorceress named Iris.