Temple of the Winds

He felt as if he were sentient for the first time. Recompense, for the price demanded. "Lord Rahl!"

A breathless Cara ran up beside him. Agiel in hand, she took up a defensive position. Her Agiel would be useless here. For that matter, it would be useless back in the world of life now.

Richard turned to the winds and started out again. It wasn't far. Not far at all. He knew the way in. "Cara, go home. You don't belong here." "Lord Rahl, what happened? I-" "Go home."

She scowled at him as she pushed past to clear his way of any danger. She had no concept of the dangers here.

"I am Mord-Sith. I am here to protect the Lord Rahl." "I am no longer the Lord Rahl," Richard whispered.

She gazed up at the huge black stone pillars beside the entrance ahead. Beside them on walls of inky stone banded with copper-colored caps. frozen in raven-black granite, stood the skrin, guardians of the boundary between worlds. Frozen only to Cara's eyes, not to his.

Cara lifted a hand, bidding him to stay back as she peered down the passageway to the distant entry, checking for danger. There were bones at their feet. "Lord Rahl, what is this place?" "You can't go in here, Cara." "Why not?"

Richard turned and looked back toward the way he had come-at everything he was leaving behind. At nothing. "Because this is the Hall of the Betrayed."

Richard glanced up at the twin skrin, guardians that had left the bones of two wizards here on this walkway, at their feet.

Richard remembered well the message the sliph had passed on from Wizard Ricker: Ward left in. Richard now knew what that meant.

He lifted his left arm, fist out, toward the skrin perched on the stone wall at the right. Ward left told him which arm to use and which skrin to ward. The wrong arm would have denied him entry into this place in the world of the dead. One of Ricker's traps for the enemy.

His wristband heated. The leather pad protected his flesh from the power he focused in that band. A green glow enveloped his fist. The skrin to the right, to which he directed his birthright of authority, glowed in sympathy with his fist, immobilized for now, to allow Richard to enter.

Richard glanced up at the guardian of raven-black granite to his left. Richard called out its name, a guttural sound to which it answered. Black stone cracked and crumbled as the skrin turned to its master, awaiting instruction. Richard made the sound of its name again. He lifted his hand to Cara. "This one does not belong here. Ward her back to the world of life. Do not harm her. After, return to your post." The skrin sprang from the stone wall, enveloping Cara. "Lord Rahl! When will you be home?" Richard gazed into her blue eyes. "I am home."

Light flared and silent thunder shook the soundless world as the skrin vanished on its journey with Cara, back to the world of life.

Richard turned to the winds. The four winds and the seer watched from their place up on the wall. Richard scanned the solid gold runes running up each side of the wall beside the entrance to the hall, reading the messages and warnings placed there by wizards past.

In a world without wind, Richard's cloak billowed out behind, a telltale in a place with eddies of power and currents of force, as he strode onward, into the Hall of the Betrayed. Kahlan threw up an arm before her face as lightning suddenly cracked before her. The road into the Temple of the Winds lit for an instant. In the distance, Kahlan could see Richard's back as he strode resolutely into a passageway. Cara tumbled lo the ground on the road at the edge of the cliff, at Kahlan's feet. With the boom of thunder, the temple, and Richard, were gone. Cara rolled to her feet. With wild fury, she seized Kahlan by the shoulders. "What have you done!"

Kahlan hurt too much to speak. She stared at the ground, "Mother Confessor, what have you done! I fixed it for you. What did you do to him?"

Kahlan's head came up. "You what?"

"I swore an oath. We are sisters of the Agiel. I swore an oath to you that if anything ever happened, if anything went wrong. I would see to it that it was you, and not Nadine, who was with Richard." Kahlan's mouth fell open. "Cara, what did you do?"

"What you wanted! I spoke the words of the winds as they came to me. but when I took you and Nadine to the buildings, I switched you both. I took Nadine to Drefan, and I took you to Lord Rahl.

"I wanted you to be with the man you truly loved. I took you to Richard! Didn't you trust in me? Didn't you have faith in me?"

Kahlan fell into Cara's arms. "Oh. Cara, I'm sorry". I should have believed in you. Dear spirits. I should have trusted you."

"Lord Rahl said he was going into the Hall of the Betrayed. I asked when he would be coming home. He said he was home. He isn't coming back! What have you done!"