Temple of the Winds

Something at her shoulder was bothering her. As she thought, she flicked her hand at it, and then went back to tearing strips off the big leaf. There had to be a way to solve this.

When she swatted at her shoulder again, her fingers hit the bone knife. It felt warm.

Kahlan drew the knife and held it in her lap. The knife was warm. It seemed to pulse and vibrate. It grew so hot that it became uncomfortable to hold.

Kahlan watched, wide-eyed, as the black feathers stood up. They danced and waved and twisted in a breeze. Her hair hung limp. The air was dead still. There was no breeze. Kahlan shot to her feet. "Sliph!"

The sliph's silver face was right there, close. Kahlan backed away a bit. "Sliph, I need to travel."

"Come, we will travel. Where do you wish to go?" "The Mud People. I need to go to the Mud People." The liquid features contorted in thought. "I do not know this place." "It's not a place. They're people. People-" Kahlan tapped her chest-"they're people, like me."

"I know different peoples, but not these Mud People." Kahlan pushed back her hair, trying to think. "They live in the wilds." "I know places in the wilds. Which one do you wish to travel to? Name it, and we will travel. You will be pleased."

"Well. it's a place that's flat. It's a grassland. Flat grassland. No mountains, like here." Kahlan gestured around, but realized that the sliph could see only trees. "I know several places like that." "Which places? Maybe I'll recognize them." "I can travel to a place overlooking the Callisidrin River-" "To the west of the Callisidrin. The Mud People are farther west." "I can travel to Tondelen Vale, the Harja Rift, Kea Plains, Sealan, Herkon Split. Anderith, Pickton, the Jocopo Treasure-"

''The what? What was the last one?" She knew most of the rest of the places the sliph named, but they weren't close to the Mud People. "The Jocopo Treasure. Do you wish to travel there?"

Kahlan held out the warm bone knife-grandfather's knife. Chandalen had told her how the Jocopo had made war on the Mud People, and the ancestor spirits had guided Chandalen's grandfather in how to defend his people against the Jocopo. Chandalen had said they used to trade with the Jocopo, before their war. The Jocopo had to be close to the Mud People. "Say the last place again," Kahlan said. "The Jocopo Treasure."

At the echoing words, the black feathers danced and twisted. Kahlan shoved the bone knife back in the band around her upper arm. She sprang up onto the stone wall.

"That's where I wish to go: the Jocopo Treasure. I wish to travel to the Jocopo Treasure. Can you take me there, sliph?"

A silver arm swept her off the stone wall. "Come. We will travel to the Jocopo Treasure. You will be pleased."

Kahlan gasped one quick breath before she was plunged into the quicksilver froth. She let the breath go, and inhaled the sliph, but this time, numbed by troubling thoughts of losing Richard, of his marrying Nadine, she felt no rapture.

Zedd cackled like a madman. Ann was upside down in his vision. He stuck out his tongue at her and blew, making a long, crude sound.

"You needn't attempt to pretend," she growled. "It seems to be your natural state."

Zedd moved his legs as if trying to walk upside down through the air. The blood was rushing to his head.

"Do you wish to die with your dignity?" he asked her. "Or would you rather live." I'll not play a fool."

"That's the word-play! Don't just sit there in the mud. Play in it!" She leaned over, putting her head close to his. He was standing on it in the mud. "Zedd, you can't possibly think such a thing would work."

"You said it yourself. You are mucking about with a crazy man. It was your suggestion." "I suggested no such thing!"

"Perhaps you didn't suggest it, but you were the one who gave me the inspiration. I'll be happy to give you full credit, when we tell people the story."

"Tell people! In the first place, it won't work. In the second place, I realize full well that you would be only too delighted to tell people. That's just one more reason why I won't do it."

Zedd howled like a coyote. He stiffened his legs and his spine, letting himself topple like a felled tree. Mud splashed on Ann. Fuming, she wiped a small splat from her nose.

At the tall stick fence, grim-faced Nangtong guards watched the two prisoners, the two sacrifices. Zedd and Ann had sat in the mud with their backs to one another and untied the ropes binding their wrists. The guards, armed with spears and bows, didn't seem to care; the prisoners couldn't get away. Zedd knew they were right.

Happy people had begun to stop by the pigpen at dawn. As the morning wore on, the crowd grew as more people stopped by to chatter with the guards and take a look at the fine offerings. Apparently, everyone was in a good mood because they now had a sacrifice for the spirits. Their lives would be safe after the unhappy spirits were appeased.