Temple of the Winds

"I've never seen them before, with my own eyes, but I've read about them in our records. The tokens will appear on the legs and sometimes on the chest. People who have the tokens rarely know they are sick, until the end. They will one day discover to their horror that they have the tokens upon them, and be dead shortly thereafter.

"They die with little or no pain. But they all die. No one with tokens on them ever lives. The old man must have seen them before, because he knew this.

"The plagues I've seen, as violent as the outbreaks were, never displayed the tokens. The records say that the worst of the great plagues, the ones that brought the most widespread death, were marked with the tokens. Some people thought they were visible signs of the Keeper's fatal touch."

"But Lily is just a little girl," Kahlan protested, as if arguing could change it, "she doesn't seem so sick. It isn't possible for her to…"

"Lily is feeling out of sorts. The tokens on her legs are fully developed. She will be dead before midnight." "Tonight?" Richard asked in astonishment.

"Yes. At the very latest. More likely within hours. I think perhaps even. ." A woman's long, shrill scream came from the house. The horror in it sent a shiver through Richard's bones. The soldiers who had been talking in low voices off at the end of the alley fell silent. The only sound was a dog barking down the next street.

A man's anguished cry came from the house. Drefan closed his eyes. "As I was about to say, even sooner." Kahlan buried her face against Richard's shoulder. She clutched his shirt. Richard's head spun.

"They're children," she wept. "That bastard is killing children!" Drefan's brow bunched. "What's she talking about?"

"Drefan"- Richard tightened his arms around Kahlan as she shook-"I think these children are dying because a wizard and a sorceress went to a Ja'La game a few days back and used magic to start this plague." "That's not possible. It takes longer than that for people to fall sick." "The wizard was the one who hurt Cara when you first arrived. He left a prophecy on the wall in the pit. It begins: 'On the red moon will come the firestorm. " Drefan regarded him with a dubious frown. "How can magic start a plague?" "I don't know," Richard whispered.

He couldn't bear to speak aloud the next part of the prophecy. The one bonded to the blade will watch as his people die. If he does nothing, then he, and all those he loves, will die in its heat, for no blade, forged of steel or conjured of sorcery, can touch this foe.

Kahlan trembled in his arms, and he knew she was agonizing over the final part of the prophecy.

To quench the inferno, he must seek the remedy in the wind. Lightning will find him on that path, for the one in white, his true beloved, will betray him in her blood.

CHAPTER 31

At the edge of the expansive palace grounds, a patrol of D'Haran soldiers spotted them and snapped to attention. Just beyond the soldiers, in the streets of the city, Kahlan could see people everywhere going about their business pause to bow to the Mother Confessor and the Lord Rahl.

Although the activities of commerce, on the surface, seemed like any other day, Kahlan thought she could detect subtle differences: men loading barrels into a wagon scrutinized people who passed close by; shopkeepers appraised customers carefully; people walking on the street skirted those stopped in conversation. The knots of people gossiping seemed more numerous. Laughter was conspicuously absent from the streets.

After they had solemnly saluted with fists to the leather armor and chain mail over their hearts, the patrol of soldiers not far off broke into good-natured grins. "Huzzah, Lord Rahl!" they cheered as one. "Huzzah, Lord Rahl!" "Thank you, Lord Rahl," one of the soldiers shouted toward them. "You cured us! Restored our health! We're well because of you. Long live the great wizard, Lord Rahl!"

Richard froze in midstride, not looking at the soldiers, but staring at the ground before him. His cloak, snared in a gust of wind, embraced him, shrouding him in its golden sparkles.

The others joined in. "Long live Lord Rahl! Long live Lord Rahl!" Hands balled in fists, Richard started out once more without looking their way. Kahlan, her arm around his, slid her hand down and urged his fist open to twine her fingers in his. She gave his hand a squeeze of silent understanding and support.

From the corner of her eye, Kahlan could see Cara, back behind Drefan and Nadine, gesturing angrily at the patrol to silence them and move them along.

In the distance before them, on a gentle rise, the expanse of the Confessors' Palace rose up in all its splendor of stone columns, vast walls, and elegant spires, standing out a pristine white against the darkening sky. Not only was the sun going down but murky clouds scudded by, messengers, delivering a vow of a storm. A few errant snowflakes flitted past on the wind, scouting for the horde to come. Spring had not yet prevailed.