Temple of the Winds

He flipped open the journal on the table. He had found the journal up in the Keep, where it had been sealed in for three thousand years, along with the man who had written it. Kolo had been keeping watch over the sliph, the strange creature that could take some people great distances, when the towers separating the Old and New Worlds were completed. When the towers were activated, Kolo had been sealed in, trapped, and had died there.

The journal had already proven an invaluable source of information, but it was written in High D'Haran, which complicated matters. Berdine understood High D'Haran, but not such an ancient form of it. They had to use another book written in almost the same ancient form of High D'Haran to aid them. Richard's childhood memory of that book's story helped Berdine to translate words, which they used as a cross reference in order to work out the translation of the journal.

As they went along, Richard was learning much of both the vernacular High D'Haran and also the much older, argot form, but it was still frustratingly slow going.

After Richard had brought Kahlan back to Aydindril, he told her how he had used the information in the book to find a way to rescue her. He said that sometimes he could seem to read with ease, but then at other places he and Berdine became bogged down. He said that at times he was able to unravel a page in a few hours, and then they would spend a whole day trying to translate one sentence. "Moss? You said you had her checking for the word moss. What's that mean?" He took a sip of tea and set the cup tack down. "Moss? Oh, it means 'wind' in High D'Haran." He opened the pages to a marker. "Since it was taking so much time to translate the journal, we've just been looking for key words, and then concentrating on those passages, hoping to get lucky."

"I thought you said that you were translating it in order, to better understand the way Kolo uses the language."

He sighed in annoyance. "Kahlan, I don't have the time for that. We had to change our tactics." Kahlan didn't like the sound of that.

"Richard, I was told that your brother is the High Priest of an Order called the Raug'Moss. Is that High D'Haran?" "Means 'Divine Wind, " he muttered He tapped the book, not seeming to want to discuss it. "See here? Berdine found where Kolo was talking about a red moon. He was really upset about it. The whole Keep was in an uproar. He writes that they were betrayed by the 'team. He said that the team was to be put on trial for their crimes. We haven't had time to look into that, yet. But…"

Richard flipped the book back toward the front where one of their written translations was inserted, and read her the passage:

" 'Today, one of our most coveted desires, possible only through the brilliant, tireless work of a team of near to one hundred, has been accomplished. The items most feared lost, should we be overrun, have been protected. A cheer went up from all in the Keep when we received word today that we were successful. Some thought it was not possible, but to the astonishment of all, it is done: The Temple of the Winds is gone. »

"Gone?" Kahlan asked. "What's the Temple of the Winds? Where did it go?" Richard shut the book. "I don't know. But later in the journal, Kolo says that this team who had done it had betrayed then all. High D'Haran is an odd language. Words have different meanings depending on how they're used." "Most languages are that way. Our own is." "Yes, but sometimes, in High D'Haran, a word that ordinarily has different meanings according to its usage is intended to have multiple meanings. You can't have one meaning without all the rest. That makes translating it all the more difficult.

"For example, in the old prophecy that names me the bringer of death, the word 'death' means three different things, depending on how it's used: the bringer of the underworld, the world of the dead; the bringer of spirits, spirits of the dead; and the bringer of death, meaning to kill. Each meaning is different, but all three were intended. That was the key.

"The prophecy was in the book we brought with us from the Palace of the Prophets. Warren was only able to translate the prophecy after I told him that all three meanings were true. He told me that because of that, he was the first in thousands of years to know the true meaning of the prophecy, as it was written." "What does this have to do with the Temple of the Winds?" "When Kolo says 'winds, I think that he sometimes just means the wind, like when you say that the wind is blowing today, but sometimes when he says 'winds, I think he means the Temple of the Winds. I think he used it as a short way of referring to the Temple of the Winds, and at the same time as a way to differentiate it from other temples."

Kahlan blinked. "Are you saying that you think Shota's message, that the wind hunts you. means that the Temple of the Winds is really somehow hunting you?" "I don't know, for sure."