Temple of the Winds

"We know better than to tempt magic," Raina said. "We' re just looking around, that's all. We wouldn't touch anything."

"Good. But I suggest that you don't even look at anything, either, except what we need to look at. For all I know, simply looking at something in here could trigger its magic."

"Do you think?" Raina asked in astonishment.

"What I think is that I'd rather not find out after it's too late. Come on. Let's get this over with so we can get out of here."

Oddly, even though he had said the words, and knew they made sense, he didn't really feel like leaving. As potentially dangerous as he knew the place to be, he found that he liked the First Wizard's enclave. Berdine smirked. "Lord Rahl fears magic as much as we do." "You're wrong, Berdine. I know a little about magic." He started down the red carpet. "I fear it more."

Ten broad steps at the end led down into the central area. An expanse of cream-colored marble covered the floor. A border of darker brown marble ran around the floor near the edge. When Richard reached the bottom step and his foot touched the floor, it hummed and began to glow. He quickly retreated back up onto the red carpet. The glow extinguished. "What now?" Raina asked. He pried her fingers from his arm. "Did either of you put your foot to the floor?" They both shook their heads. "Try."

As Richard waited on the step, Berdine gingerly tried to test the marble. She withdrew her foot.

"I can't. Something stops my foot before I can get it on the floor." Richard stepped out onto the marble again. Again it glowed and hummed. "It must be a shield, then. Here, take my hand and try again." Holding Richard's hand, Berdine was able to step onto the marble with him. Raina took his other hand and followed.

"All right," he said, "since it's some kind of shield, don't let go of my hand while we're on this part. We don't know what would happen. For all I know, if you let go of my hand you could fry like bacon on a griddle."

Their grips on his hands tightened. As they stepped onto the steps up to the wing with the books, the floor went silent. Without Richard to hold their hands on the way out, they would be trapped inside this place, unable to return across the central floor. The wing with the books wasn't the kind of library he had expected. There were rows of shelves, but they were in disarray, with books stacked every which way. Chunks of rock served as bookends for the few standing upright among the disorder. Here and there books were in piles, as if someone had pulled them from the shelves and simply tossed them in a heap. Most were closed, but a significant number lay open. some face-up, some facedown. But that wasn't the biggest surprise. Everywhere, it seemed, there were books stacked up on the floor. A few stacks were short, maybe three or four feet tall, but many more were tall pillars of books. Some of the irregular stacks lowered twelve or fourteen feet. They looked as if the mere act of breathing could make them topple. The columns of books were everywhere, creating a maze. Richard couldn't fathom the reason for the books being stacked in such disarray, but the mystery of it made him sweat.

Richard took an arm of each woman. "My grandfather told me that there were books in the Keep that were extremely dangerous. Kahlan told me that the most dangerous things were kept in here, where no one could get to them, not even the wizards she knew."

Berdine shot him a look. "You mean, you think that the books themselves could be dangerous? Not just the information in them, but the actual books?"

Richard thought of the description of a book that Sister Amelia had used to start the plague. "I'm not sure, but we had better treat them as such. Look, but don't touch."

Berdine's brow drew down with a dubious frown. "Lord Rahl, there must be thousands of books I can see just standing here. There are bound to be more down the aisles. It will take us weeks to find the one we want-if it's even here."

Richard took a deep breath. Berdine was right. He hadn't expected to find so many books in here. He thought the libraries held most of the books, and there would only be a few in here.

"If you want to be out of here before dark, we don't have long," Raina said. "We might as well come back tomorrow and get an early start."

Richard was beginning to feel intimidated by the task ahead. "We'll just have to stay after dark. We'll stay all night if we have to." Raina rolled her Agiel in her fingers. "If you say so. Lord Rahl." Richard's heart sank as he stood staring at the forest of books. He needed information, not a search for one leaf in a forest. If only he could use magic to find that one leaf.

He idly adjusted the bands at his wrist. Under his fingers he felt the starburst pattern on one of them. Look without fixing your sight.

"I have an idea," he said. "Wait here. I'll be right back." Richard returned to the pillars. He went to one that held a crackled-glass bowl upon a large square of black cloth.