Temple of the Winds

Richard knew what Lieutenant Crawford was talking about. He knew how a forest, in time, could cover over rockslides. If you dug in the forest at the bottom of a cliff, you often encountered the bones of the fallen mountain. "I don't think so, in this case."

The lieutenant looked over at him. "May I ask why you think not. Lord Rahl?" Richard stared across the rift to the next mountain. "Well, look at that cliff. The face of it is rough and uneven, yet the rock of the mountain left behind after the face fell away is weathered now, so much of it isn't sharp. It's been worn by time.

"Some of it is sharp, though. Water gets in the cracks, freezes, and breaks off more of the rock with time. You can see some of those sharp places; but most of it has a softer look.

"It has the look to me that it happened long before this slide here, yet you can still see most of the rock lying at the bottom of the cliff. Here, there's much less scree."

Egan unfolded his arms and brushed back his blond hair. "Could just be the lay of the land. This cliff faces south, letting the sun in to help things grow, whereas that one faces north, so it's in shade most of the time. The forest wouldn't grow in as well over there, and that would leave the scree exposed." Egan had a point.

"There's more to it." Richard tilted his head back and looked up the thousands of feet of sheer cliff face towering above them. "Half this mountain is gone. That one over there is just a small slide, in comparison.

"Look up at this mountain, and try to imagine what it would have looked like before this happened. It's cleaved from the very top all the way down, like a log round split in half. All the rest of the mountains around here are more or less cone-shaped. This one is only half a cone.

"Even if I'm wrong, and half the mountain isn't gone, and it used to be shaped much as we see it now, there would still be an immense amount of rock down here. I mean, even if it used to be much this shape, and only a shell of rock ten or twenty feet thick collapsed, by the towering height alone there would have to be a huge pile of rubble.

"This rock is sharp, so it might be pieces broken off by the working of water freezing, but probably, since I can't see any time-worn places, it happened more recently. Yet I just don't see any evidence of the mass of rock that would have had to come off this mountain. Even if it had been covered over in time. I'd think that where we're standing would be a huge mound."

The lieutenant glanced about. "You have a point. This is pretty much level with the bottom of the rift. If all that rock broke off, there's no mound under the forest down here."

Richard watched the soldiers all about searching through the rock and woods for any sign of the Temple of the Winds. None looked to be finding anything.

"I can't see that it's down here. I just don't see any reason to believe that the mountain fell down here."

Ulic and Egan folded their arms again, the matter settled as far as they were concerned.

Lieutenant Crawford cleared his throat. "Lord Rahl, if the half of Mount Kymer-mosst that used to be there isn't down here, then where is it?"

Richard shared a long look with the man. "That's what I'd like to know. If it isn't down here, then it must be someplace else."

The blond-headed lieutenant shifted his weight to his other foot. "Well, it didn't just get up and walk away. Lord Rahl."

Richard turned his scabbard out of the way as he started climbing down off the rocks. He realized he was frightening the man; Richard seemed to be suggesting something that hinted at magic.

"It must be as you say, lieutenant. It must have fallen and grown over. Perhaps the cleft between the mountains was deeper back then, and the fall simply filled it in, rather than making a mound."

The lieutenant liked the idea. It gave him a rock solid reality. Richard didn't believe it. The cliff face looked peculiar to him. It was too smooth, as if cleaved with a huge sword. Yes, there were jagged places, but that would explain the rock that was at the bottom. It looked to him as though the mountain had been cut off and taken away, and over time water and ice had worked at the smooth face of the cliff, breaking off pieces and making it more craggy; but it was nowhere near as rough as the other cliffs round about.

"That might explain it. Lord Rahl," the lieutenant said. "If that's true, though, that would mean that the temple you're looking for must be buried deep underground."

With his two huge guards right at his heels, Richard made for the horses. "I want to have a look up on top. I want to see the ruins up there."