Temple of the Winds

Chandalen took her directly to the spirit house, among the communal buildings at the north side of the village. Most of these buildings were bunched close together, but the spirit house sat apart. Moonlight reflected off the tile roof Richard had helped to make. Guards, Chandalen's hunters, ringed the windowless building.

Outside the door, on a low bench, sat the fatherly figure of the Bird Man. His silver hair hanging down around his shoulders shone in the moonlight. He was naked. Black and white mud covered his body and face in a tangle of whorls and lines: a mask all in the gathering wore so the spirits could see them.

Two pots, one with white mud and the other holding black, sat on the ground at the Bird Man's feet. She could tell by the glazed look in his eyes that he was in a trance, and speaking would do her no good. She knew what was required.

Kahlan unbuckled her belt. "Chandalen, would you mind turning your back, please? And ask your men to do the same." It was the greatest concession to her modesty that circumstances would allow. Chandalen called out the order to his men in his own language. "My men and I will guard the spirit house while you and the elders are inside," Chandalen said to her over his shoulder.

When she had slipped off all her clothes and at last stood naked in the cool night air, the silent Bird Man began applying the gooey mud so that the spirits might see her, too. Sleepy chickens sat watching from the nearby low wall. The wall still bore a slash from Richard's sword.

She knew she had to do this, to go in and speak with the spirits, but she wasn't eager; speaking with the spirit ancestors was only done in times of dire need, and while the results sometimes brought the answers needed, they never brought joy. When the Bird Man had finished covering Kahlan with the black and white mud, he silently led her inside. The six elders sat in a circle around the skulls of ancestors arranged in the center. The Bird Man took his place, sitting cross-legged on the floor. Kahlan sat in the circle, opposite him. to the right of her friend Savidlin. She didn't speak to him; he. too. was in a trance, seeing the spirit in the center of the circle that she could not yet see.

A woven basket sat behind her. Knowing why it was there, she picked it up and reached inside. Hesitantly. she seized a squirming red spirit frog and pressed its back between her breasts-the one place she wasn't painted.

The slime from the frog tingled against her skin. She released the spirit frog and took up hands with the elders to either side. It wasn't long before she felt herself spiraling into a daze.

, The room began its dizzying spin. She was lifted away from the world she knew. and carried into a revolving vortex of light, shadow, aroma, and sound. The skulls spun with her.

Time twisted, much as it did in the sliph. but not in the same comforting way. This was a disorienting experience that brought sweat to her brow. It also brought the spirit.

His glowing form was before her. yet she couldn't recall when it had appeared to her. It was simply there.

«Grandfather,» she whispered in the tongue of the Mud People. Chandalen had said that it was his grandfather who had come in the gathering. but she recognized him on a more visceral level; he had become her protector. She felt the connection to the bone that had been his in life.

"Child."The unearthly sound of his voice coming through the Bird Man tingled against her flesh. 'Thank you for heeding my call. ' "What does our ancestor's spirit wish of me?"

The Bird Man's mouth moved with the spirit's voice. "That which has been partly entrusted to us has been violated. ' "Entrusted to you? What was entrusted to you?" 'The Temple of the Winds. ' Kahlan's naked flesh prickled with goose bumps.

Entrusted to the spirits? The implications made her head swim. The spirit world was the underworld, the world of the dead. How could something like a temple, built mostly of inert materials like stone, be sent to the underworld? "The Temple of the Winds is in the spirit world?"

"The Temple of the Winds exists partly in the world of the dead, and partly in the world of life. It exists in both places, both worlds, at once. ' "Both places, both worlds, at once? How could such a thing he possible?" The glowing form, like a shadow made of light, lifted a hand. "Is a tree a creature of the soil, like the worms, or is it a creature of the air, like the birds?"

Kahlan would have preferred a simple answer, but she knew better than to argue with the dead.

"Honored grandfather, I guess the tree is of neither world, yet exists in both." The spirit seemed to smile. 'So if does. child. ' the spirit said through the Bird Man. "As does the Temple of the Winds."

Kahlan leaned forward. "You mean, the Temple of the Winds is like the tree, with its roots in this world, and its branches in your world? " It exists in both our worlds. ' "In this world, in the world of life, where is it?"