Temple of the Winds

She seemed to be satisfied that he had paid attention to her. It reminded him of a child who misbehaved so that a beloved parent would notice her. He glared at her until he was sure she would not say another word. and only then did he open the door.

Drefan was squatted down, whispering words of comfort to Yonick while he rested a hand on the boy's shoulder. Kahlan's green eyes watched as Nadine reached back for Richard's hand to help her balance as she stepped onto the narrow board in the mud.

"Drefan," Richard said when he had joined them, "I need to talk to you about some of the things you said in there."

Drefan rubbed Yonick's back and then stood. "What things?" "About how you wanted Cara and Raina to get me out of there, for one thing. I want to know why."

Drefan considered Richard a moment, and then Yonick. He drew open his cloak, hooking it behind one of the leather pouches on his belt. He opened the pouch at the front of his belt and poured some dried powder from a leather purse onto a piece of paper. He twisted the paper closed and handed it to the boy.

"Yonick, before we go to see the other boys, would you please take this up to your mother and tell her to steep it in hot water for a couple of hours to make a tea, and then strain it and see that everyone in your family drinks it tonight? It will help build up your family's strength to keep them well."

Yonick looked at the paper in his hand. "Sure. I'll be back as soon as I tell my mother."

"No rush," Drefan said. "We'll be waiting when you're through." Richard watched Yonick close the door. "All right, I know you wanted me out of there because of the danger of catching the plague from the sick boy. But we're all in danger, aren't we?"

"Yes, but I don't know how much. You are the Lord Rahl. I wanted you as far away as possible." "How do you catch the plague?"

Drefan glanced to Kahlan and Nadine, and then to Ulic and Egan back with the soldiers guarding either end of the alley. He took a deep breath.

"No one knows how the plague is passed from one person to the next, or even if that is the way it spreads. There are some who believe that it's the wrath of the spirits brought down on us, and the spirits decide who they will smite. There are others who argue that the effluvia infest the very air of a place, of a city, endangering everyone. Others insist that it can only be caught by inhaling the infectious steams of the body of a sick person.

"I can only assume, for the sake of caution, that, like fire, the closer you are, the more dangerous it is. I didn't want you close to that danger, that's all."

Richard was so tired that he felt sick. Only his terror kept him on his feet. Kahlan had been near the boy, too.

"So, you're saying that it's possible we could all get it just from being in the same house as someone who has it." "It's possible."

''But the sick boy's family doesn't have it, and they lived with him. His mother tended to him. Wouldn't she have it, at least, if that were true?"

Drefan considered his words carefully. "Several times I have seen isolated outbreaks of the plague. One time, when I was young and in training, I went with an older healer to a town, Castaglen Crossing, that had been visited with the plague. From this place, I learned much of what I know about the sickness.

"It started when a merchant came with his wagon of goods to sell. It was reported that when he arrived, he was coughing, vomiting, and complaining of agonizing headaches. In other words, the plague was already upon him before he arrived in Castaglen Crossing. We never knew where he came to have it, but it could have been that he drank envenomed water, stayed with a sick farmer, or that the spirits chose to strike him with it.

"The townspeople, wishing to do a trusted merchant a kindness, put him up in a room, where he died the next morning. Everyone remained well for a time, and they thought the danger had passed them by. They soon Forgot about the man who had died among them.

"Because of the confusion brought on by the sickness and death by the time we arrived, the accounts were varied, but we were able to determine that the first townsperson became sick with the plague at least fourteen days, by some accounts, or as many as twenty days, by others, after the merchant arrived."

Richard pinched his lower lip as he thought. "Kip was well at the Ja'La game a few days back, so that would mean that he really became ill with it sometime before."

Despite being mournful over the boy's death. Richard felt great relief that what he had been thinking didn't seem to be plausible. If Kip got the plague long before the Ja'La game. then Jagang didn't have anything to do with it. The prophecy wasn't involved.

But then, why the warning of the winds hunting him?

"That would also mean," Drefan said, "that the dead boy's family may yet become sick. They look well at the moment, but they may already be fatally infected with plague. Just as were the people of Castaglen Crossing."