Temple of the Winds

Sparkles of color fizzled. The twisting eddy of light degenerated into a muddy gloom of color. With gathering speed, it slumped, foundering impotently. Zedd was dumbfounded.

With a thump that shook the ground, the whole elaborately forged warp in the world of existence extinguished.

Zedd's arms windmilled as Ann snatched the back of his collar and yanked him from atop his wizard's rock. He tumbled back, knocking them both to the ground.

Deprived of enlivening magic, the rock, too, collapsed. Zedd hadn't done it; his wizard's rock had reverted to its inert state of its own accord. Now he truly was baffled.

"Bags, woman! What's the meaning of this!"

"Don't you curse at me, you contrary old man. I don't know why I bother trying to save your skinny hide." "Why did you interfere? I was almost through!" "I didn't interfere," she growled.

"But if it wasn't you"-Zedd shot a glance at the dark hills. "You mean. .?" "I suddenly lost the link with my Han. I was trying to warn you, not stop you." "Oh," Zedd said in a thin voice. "That's very different." He stretched out and snatched up his wizard's rock. "Why didn't you say so?" He slipped the rock into an inner pocket.

Ann scanned the darkness. "Did you find out anything before you lost contact?" "I never made contact."

Her gaze shot back at him. "You never. . what do you mean, you never made contact? What were you doing all that time?"

"Trying," he said as he reached for a blanket. "Something was wrong. I couldn't reach through. Get your things. We'd better get out of here."

Ann scooped up a saddlebag and began stuffing their gear into it. "Zedd," she said in a worried tone, "we were counting on this. Now that you have failed-"

"I didn't fail," he snapped. "At least, it wasn't my fault that it wasn't working." She slapped his hands away when he pushed her toward her horse. "Why wouldn't it work?" "The red moons."

She twisted and stared at him. "You think. ."

"It's not something I do often, or lightly. I've only made contact with the spirit world a handful of times in the whole of my life. My father warned me, when he gave me the rock, that it must only be used in the most dire of circumstances. Such contact risks letting the wrong spirits through, and worse, tearing the veil. When I had trouble making contact in the past, it was because of a disharmony. The red moons were a warning of disharmony, of a sort."

"We're running out of things to try." She yanked her arm from his grip. "What's gotten into you?"

Zedd grunted. "What's this you said about not being able to touch your Han?" Ann stroked a hand along the flanks of her horse, letting it know she was close to its hindquarters. The horse pawed a front hoof as it whickered.

"When you were up on your rock, I was casting sensing webs to make sure no one was near. This is the wilds, after all, and you were making quite a show with all the light. All of a sudden, when I reached to touch my Han again, it was like falling on my face."

Zedd flicked his hand, casting a simple web to flip over a fist-sized rock lying at his feet. Nothing happened. It felt rather like trying to lean against something, and finding out too late that it wasn't there. Like falling on his face.

Zedd reached into an inner pocket and pulled out a pinch of concealing dust. He cast it in the direction they had come. The breeze carried it away. It didn't sparkle. "We're in trouble," he whispered.

She huddled close to him. "You wouldn't mind being more specific, would you?"

"Leave the horses." He took her arm again. "Come on." This time she didn't object as he took her arm and led her at a trot. "Zedd, what is it?" she whispered.

"This is the wilds." He stopped, lifted his nose, and sniffed the air. "My guess would be Nangtong." He pointed in the dim moonlight. "Down here, in this ravine. We must do our best to stay out of sight. We may have to split up and try to escape in separate directions."

Zedd held her arm, helping her as her feet slipped on the dewy grass and wet clay of the steep sides. "Who are the Nangtong?"

Zedd reached the bottom first. He put his hands on her wide waist and helped her down. Her legs were short, and she didn't have the reach with them that he had with his. Without the aid of magic, her weight almost toppled him. With a hand, she caught a tangled mat of bur bush roots to steady herself.

"The Nangtong," Zedd whispered, "are a people of the wilds. They have magic of their own. They can't exactly use their magic for anything, the way we use it, but it leaches the strength right out of other magic. Like rain on a campfire.

"That's the trouble with the wilds. There are any number of people in the wilds who cause odd things to go wrong with your attempts to use magic. There are creatures and places here, too, that are trouble in ways you don't expect. It's best to stay clear of the wilds.