Temple of the Winds

"That's why I was so perturbed when after Nathan said we had to go to the Jocopo Treasure, Verna told us that the Jocopo used to live somewhere in the wilds. Nathan might as well have told us to reach into a roaring fire and pull out a hot coal. There are hazards everywhere in the wilds; the Nangtong are only one of them."

"So what makes you think it's these Nangtong people who are causing the trouble with our magic?"

"With most peoples of the wilds who have this effect, it steals the strength out of our magic, but my concealing dust would still have worked. It doesn't. The Nangtong are the only ones I know of who can do that."

Ann held her arms out to the sides to help balance herself and keep her footing as she crossed behind him on a fallen log. The moon slipped behind the clouds. The return of darkness pleased Zedd, because it helped hide them. but it made it nearly impossible to see where to step. They would be no less dead if they fell and broke their necks than if they were run through with a poison arrow or spear point.

"Maybe we could show them that we're friendly," Ann whispered from behind him. She nabbed his robes so she could follow in the dark as he hurried along the flat beside the stream. "You're always boasting and telling me to let you do the talking, as if you have a magic, honeyed tongue, to hear you tell it. Why don't you simply tell these Nangtong that we're looking for the Jocopo, and we would appreciate their help? Many people who would seem to be trouble turn out to be reasonable if you only talk with them."

He turned his head back so he could keep his voice low and she would still be able to hear him. "I agree, but I don't speak their language, so I can't win them over."

"If these people are so dangerous, and you know it. then why would you be so foolish as to take us right into them?" "I didn't. I skirted their lands by a wide margin." "So you say. It would appear you've gotten us lost."

"No, the Nangtong are seminomadic. They have no exact, permanent home, but they stay within their own homelands. I stayed out of their homelands. It's probably a spirit raiding party." "A what?"

Zedd halted and crouched low, studying the lay of the land. He couldn't see anyone in the faint light, and he could only vaguely detect the foreign smell of sweat. It could be that it had been carried on the breeze for miles.

"A spirit raiding party," he said as he put his mouth close to her ear. "It's a long story, but the ending is that they offer sacrifices to the spirit world.

"It is their belief that the newly departed spirit will carry the Nangtongs' respects and requests to their departed ancestors, and in return the spirits will look kindly upon them. The hunting parties hunt things to sacrifice." "People?"

"Sometimes. If they can get away with it. They aren't very brave when they encounter strong opposition-they would rather run than have a fight-but they will gladly pick off the weak or defenseless."

"In the name of Creation, what kind of place is this Midlands, letting people get away with such things? I thought you people were more civilized than that. I thought you had this alliance through which everyone in the Midlands cooperated and saw to the common good."

"The Confessors come here, to try to insure the Nangtong don't murder people, but it's a remote place. The Nangtong are always servile when a Confessor comes; her magic is one of the few not altered by the Nangtongs' power. It could be that because a Confessor's power has an element of the Subtractive to it, it isn't altered."

"Why would you fools leave these people to their own devices, if you know what they are capable of?"

Zedd scowled at her in the darkness. "Part of the reason for the Midlands alliance was to protect those with magic who would be slaughtered by stronger lands." "They don't have magic. You said they couldn't do anything with magic." "Since they can nullify magic, make it impotent, then that means that they have magic. Those without magic could not do such a thing. It's part of the way these people defend themselves. It's their teeth, so to speak, used to defend themselves against those with powerful magic who would subjugate or destroy them.

"We leave alone people and creatures with magic. They have as much right to exist as we, but we try to insure that they don't murder innocent people. We may not like all forms of magic, but we don't believe in exterminating the Creator's beings to make a world in the image of those with the most power."

She remained silent, so he went on. "There are creatures that can be dangerous, such as a gar, but we don't go out and kill all the gars. Instead, we leave them be, let them have their own lives, the way the Creator intended. It is not up to us to judge the wisdom of Creation.