Temple of the Winds

"Your return. Don't tell me that you only came back to die? Oh, Richard, why would you do such a foolish thing?"

"If I had stayed at the Temple of the Winds, I would eventually have died, but without your forgiveness. I chose, instead, to return and hope that a part of you still loved me enough to forgive me, so I could die with that much at least. With your love back. I couldn't go on, knowing what I had done to you, knowing how I had hurt your heart."

"And you don't think this hurts my heart! Richard, there has to be something we can do. What can we do? Please, you must have known!"

Richard fell onto his side, holding his stomach. "I'm sorry, Kahlan. There is nothing. I am absorbing the magic from the book that was stolen. When I die, the magic will die with me."

Kahlan crouched over him, clutching at him, as the tears overwhelmed her. "Richard, please don't do this. Please don't die."

"I'm sorry, Kahlan. I can't stop it. I gladly paid the price. My heart is at peace, now." He reached up and touched the Agiel hanging from the chain at her throat. "There was never a moment's hesitation, once I understood. De

Kahlan hugged him as he rolled onto his back. "Richard, there must be something. You would have known what to do, before they took the knowledge from you. Try to remember. Please, Richard, try to remember."

His eyelids drooped. "I need… to rest. I'm sorry. I used all my strength. I need to rest a bit.

Kahlan gripped his hand in both others as she wept. It was all too overwhelming to endure. To have him back, only to lose him was too crushing to endure. She opened his limp hand, to press it to her cheek, and saw something in his palm. She pulled back his fingers, and through the tears, she saw writing in the palm of his hand. It said, Find book, destroy it to live.

Kahlan sprawled over his unconscious form and grabbed his other hand. It, too, had writing in it. Pinch of white sorcerer's sand on third page. One grain of black sorcerer's sand tossed on.

There were three other words, but in her mind's state of chaotic disorder, she couldn't think of how pronounce them.

He knew he was going to forget, and before he did, he wrote a message to himself. He had even forgotten that he had written it. The book. She had to have the book. And then she was ru

Both women dashed out of the sliph's room, out onto the walkway beside the inky pool, when they heard Kahlan screaming their names as she raced into the tower room.

Kahlan grasped at their leather as she tried to explain. They each seized one of Kahlan's arms and pressed her up against the wall. "Slow down," Berdine said.

"We can't understand you," Cara said. "Get your breath. Stop crying and get your breath."

"Richard-" She tried to point but they held her arms. "Richard has the plague. . I need the book."

Berdine leaned in close. "Lord Rahl. . has the plague?" Kahlan nodded frantically. "I have to get the book. The book that was stolen from the Temple of the Winds. I have to get it or he will die." Kahlan tore her arms away from them. "Please help me. Richard has the plague." "What do you need us to do?" Cara asked. "I'm going to the Old World. Protect him."

"The Old World!" Berdine gasped. "Do you know where the book is? Did he tell you where to find it? Did he give you any hint?" Kahlan shook her head. There wasn't time. She had to hurry. She had to go. "I don't know where it is! But it's the only chance he has. He took on the magic of the plague in order to return to this world. In order to beg my forgiveness. He wanted to tell me he was sorry for hurting me. If we don't destroy the book, he'll die-just so he could say he was sorry. He'll die! I have to go!"

"But, Mother Confessor," Berdine said, "the Old World is a big place. If Richard has the plague. . how can you hope to find the book?"

In time. That was what she meant. How could she hope to find the book in time? Before Richard died.

Kahlan gripped a fistful of red leather. "I have to try! Protect Richard. Don't let Drefan know that Richard is back. I don't know what Drefan would do. Don't tell him!"

Cara was shaking her head. "Don't worry about that. We won't tell Drefan. We'll take care of Richard while you're gone. We'll hide him here in the Keep. But hurry. If you can't find it, please come back before-"

Kahlan rushed into the room with the sliph. She raced to the sliph's well. The sliph smiled at seeing her. "Do you wish-"

"Travel! I need to travel! Now!" "To where do you wish to travel?" "The Old World!"

"Where in the Old World? There are a number of places I know there. We can go to any you wish. I will take you. You will be pleased."

Kahlan pressed her hands to her head, growling in frustration as the sliph started naming places Kahlan had never heard of.

"The place you came to with Richard, with your Master, when he went to get me! The first time I traveled with you!" "I know the place of which you speak."

Kahlan hiked up her white dress and clambered up onto the wall of the well. "That place! Take me there! Hurry! Your master's life is at stake!" "Protect Richard," Kahlan called out to Cara and Berdine. "What should we tell Drefan when he wants to know where you are?" Berdine asked.

"I don't know. You'll have to think of something!"

"We will care for Richard until you return," Cara said. "May the good spirits be with you."

"Tell him I love him. If. . tell him I love him!" she called out as the sliph's silver arm swept Kahlan from the top of the wall.

Her voice was still echoing off the stone walls when Kahlan was plunged into the quicksilver froth. She gasped in the sliph, praying to the good spirits that they would help her find the book. With frantic effort, she swam into what in the past had been the silver rapture. Now, there was only dark terror.

CHAPTER 65

A

Zedd, sitting on the floor in the center of the room with her, glanced over. "You broke her prized mirror."

"That was an accident," A

"I was simply trying to get it clean. How was I to know that it would catch fire? They shouldn't have put all those dried flowers around it. You were the one who spilled that berry wine on her best dress."

A

Zedd harrumphed. "What do I know about sharpening knives? I'm a wizard, not a blacksmith."

"That would explain the incident with the elder's horse." "They can't blame that on me. I didn't leave the gate open. At least, I'm pretty sure I didn't leave it open. Anyway, there is bound to be another horse that fast he can buy. He can afford it. What I want to know is how you managed to turn his number three wife's hair that color green."

A

Zedd shrugged. "Well, we never told them that we were any good at domestic tasks. We never told them that at all."

"Quite right. We didn't. It's not our fault if we didn't work out. We could have told them, if they'd asked." "We certainly could have."