Temple of the Winds

"What about Shota?" he asked at last. "What happened with her?" Kahlan hesitated. She knew she had to tell him at least some of it, but she was reluctant to tell him all of what Shota had said. "Richard, I don't believe Shota was trying to cause trouble." He looked back over his shoulder. "She sends Nadine to marry me, and you don't think that kind of interference trouble?"

Kahlan cleared her throat into her fist. "Shota didn't send Nadine, exactly." Richard's hawklike gaze continued to fix on her, so she went on. "The message about the winds hunting you was not her idea. The Temple of the Winds was sending you a message, through her. just as it was sending you a message through that boy who died. Shota wasn't trying to harm us."

Richard's brow lowered. "What else did the witch woman tell you?" Kahlan interlocked her fingers behind her back. She looked away from his penetrating glare.

"Richard, I went there to put an end to Shota's interference. I was prepared to kill her, if she threatened you or tried to harm me. I thought the worst of her. I did. I was convinced she was trying to harm us.

"I talked with her. Really talked. Shota isn't as. . malicious as I thought. She admitted she doesn't want us to have a child, but this isn't about trying to keep us apart.

"She has a talent for seeing the future, and she is only telling us what she sees- to try to help you. She's just the messenger in this. She's not directing these events. She said the same thing as the ancestor's spirit, that the plague was started by magic, and not of its own accord."

With three strides, Richard closed the distance between them. He seized her by the upper arm.

"She sent Nadine to marry me! She sent Nadine to keep us apart! She's trying to put a wedge between us, and you are taken in by her tricks?"

Kahlan backed away from him. "No, Richard, you have it wrong, as did I. The spirits sent you a bride. Shota was only able to influence who it would be. She used that influence so that the bride sent would be Nadine. Shota says she sees that you will marry this bride sent by the spirits, and so she wanted it to be someone you knew. She was only trying to ease your pain in this." "And you believe her? Have you lost your mind!" "Richard, you're hurting my arm."

He released her. "Sorry." he muttered, as he withdrew to the hearth. Kahlan could see the muscles in his jaw flexing as he ground his teeth.

"You said she told you the same as the ancestor's spirit. Do you remember her words?"

Kahlan tried frantically to separate what she knew she had to tell him from what she didn't want him to know. She realized how unwise it was to try to hide information from Richard, but she reasoned that if she had to. she could always tell him everything. If she could get away with withholding some of it. though. .

"Shota said we have not heard the last message from the winds. She said we will receive one more, involving the moon." "Involving the moon? How?"

"I don't know. Just like the spirit, the 'how' didn't seem to be important to her. What she did say was that this message from the moon will be the 'consequential communion. as she called it. She said we must not ignore or dismiss it." "Did she, now. And did she say why. exactly?"

"She said our future-and the future of all those innocent people-will hinge on this event. She said it would be our only chance to carry out our duty to save the innocent lives of all those who depend upon us to do what they cannot."

Richard turned to her. It was like death itself rounding on her. His eyes had that look. like Drefan's. Like Darken Rahl's.

"She told you something else that you're holding back. What is it?" he growled. It wasn't Richard speaking, it was the Seeker. She knew in that instant why a Seeker was so feared: he was a law unto himself. Those gray eyes were looking right into her.

"Richard," she whispered, "please leave it at that." His glare cut to her soul. "What did she tell you?"

Kahlan swallowed as she panted with dread. She could feel hot tears coursing down her face.

"Shota saw the future." Kahlan heard herself speaking, even though she had intended to remain silent. "She saw that you will wed another. She used her influence to make it someone you knew." Under his glare, she found remaining silent impossible. "She could not influence who I am to wed. I will be married. too. It will not be you who becomes my husband."

Richard stood frozen for a moment, a boiling thunderhead gathering. He yanked the baldric off over his head and tossed it and the scabbard holding the sword on a chair.

"Richard, what are you doing?"

And then he was moving. He went for the door. Kahlan put herself in front of him. It was like stepping in front of an enraged mountain. "Richard, what are you going to do?"