Temple of the Winds

"You're the Lord Rahl. Your word is law. You would have to suppress any information. Arrest the family. Accuse them of a crime. Have them held until this is over. Have the soldiers carry off all their possessions to be burned and shut up their home."

Richard closed his eyes and pressed his fingertips to them. He was the Seeker of Truth, not the suppressor of it.

"We can't do that to a family who just lost a boy. I won't do that. Besides, wouldn't it be better if people knew? Don't people have a right to know of the danger they're in?"

Drefan nodded. "If it were my decision, I would want people to know. I've seen the plague before, in small places. Some have tried to suppress the knowledge of it to prevent panic, but when more people started dying, it couldn't be kept a secret."

Richard felt as though the sky had fallen on him. He struggled to make his mind work, but the dead boy's words kept echoing around in his head. The winds hunt you.

"If we try to lie to people, they won't believe anything we say. We have to tell them the truth. They've a right to know."

"I agree with Richard," Kahlan said. "We shouldn't try to deceive people, especially about something that could endanger their lives."

Drefan nodded his concurrence. "We're fortunate, at least, with the time of year. Plague is worst in the heat of summer. It could run rampant if this were summer. In the colder weather of the spring it shouldn't be able to get a good foothold. With luck, the outbreak of plague will be weak and soon over."

"Luck," Richard muttered. "Luck is for dreamers. I only have nightmares. We have to warn people."

Drefan's blue eyes looked to each in turn. "I understand, and I agree with your reasoning. The problem is. there's not much to be done, other than burying the dead quickly and burning their things. There are remedies, but I fear they are of limited value.

"I just want to warn you: news of plague will spread like a firestorm." Richard's flesh prickled with goose flesh. On the red moon will come the firestorm.

"Dear spirits spare us," Kahlan whispered. She was thinking the same as he. Richard sprang up. "Yonick." He crossed the room, rather than make the boy come to his dead brother.

"Yes, Lord Rahl?" His brow creased as he struggled to hold back his tears. Richard put one knee to the floor and held the boy's shoulders. "Yonick, I'm so sorry. But your brother isn't suffering any longer. He's with the good spirits now. He's at peace, and hoping we will remember the good times with him, and not be too sad. The good spirits will watch over him." Yonick brushed his blond hair aside. "But…I…"

"I don't want you to blame yourself. Nothing could have been done. Nothing. Sometimes people get sick, and none of us has the power to make them well. No one could have done anything. Even if you had brought me right at the first, we couldn't have done anything." "But you have magic."

Richard felt heartsick. "Not for this," he whispered.

Richard hugged Yonick for a moment. In the room beyond, the mother wept onto Raina's shoulder. Nadine was wrapping up some herbs for the woman, and giving her instructions. The woman nodded against Raina's shoulder as she listened and sobbed.

"Yonick, I need your help. I need to go see the other boys on your Ja'La team. Can you take us to their homes?" Yonick wiped his sleeve across his nose. "Why?" "I'm afraid they might be sick, too. We have to know." Yonick glanced back at his mother with unspoken concern. Richard gestured for Cara.

"Yonick, where's your father?"

"He's a felt maker. He works down the street and three over to the right. He works until late every day."

Richard stood. "Cara. have some soldiers go and get Yonick's father. He should be here with his wife right now. Have a couple of soldiers take his place for today and tomorrow and help out as best they can, so that his family won't lose the income. Tell Raina to stay here with her until Yonick's father comes home. It shouldn't be long, then she can catch up with us." At the bottom of the stairs, Kahlan clutched his arm, holding him back, and asked Drefan and Nadine to wait outside with Yonick while Cara went to find his father. Kahlan closed the door to the alley, leaving Richard alone with her at the bottom of the dim stairwell.

She wiped the tears from her cheeks with trembling fingers. Her green eyes let slip more.

"Richard." She swallowed and gasped a breath. "Richard, I didn't know. There was Marlin, and the Sister of the Dark. . I never knew that Yonick's brother was so sick, or I would never-"

Richard held up a finger to silence her. He realized, though, by the dread in her eyes, that his scowl was what had silenced her.

"Don't you dare dignify Nadine's cruel lies with an explanation. Don't you dare. I know you, and would never believe such things about you. Never."

She closed her eyes with relief and fell against his chest. "That poor child," she wept.