Temple of the Winds

Amelia had a dacra stabbed in the back of Nathan's thigh. Manda had a knife at Clarissa's throat. Janet was holding a weapon at Verna's back. Warren stiffened when Janet held a warning finger to him and then to the two soldiers.

"Don't you move a muscle, Nathan," Amelia said, "or I let flow my Han, and you are instantly dead."

"Warren is right," Janet said. "He did, in fact, give His Excellency some very valuable information."

"Amelia, Janet!" Verna cried out. "What are you doing?" Amelia turned a wicked smile on Verna. "His Excellency's bidding, of course." "But you swore the oath."

"We swore the oath in word only, not in our hearts." "But you can be free of him! You don't need to serve Jagang!" "Had you told us true the first time, maybe, but once we tried, and failed to hold the bond when Richard died. His Excellency punished us. We'll not take the chance again."

"Don't do this," Verna pleaded. "We're friends. I came to save you. Don't do this, please. Swear the bond, and you will be free!"

"Oh, darlin. I'm afraid she can't do that." It was not Amelia's voice alone, but more. It was the voice Verna had heard in her own head: Jagang. She felt herself suddenly trembling, just at hearing his tone and inflection in Amelia's voice.

"Now, my loyal and faithful plenipotentiary, hand over the book. Sister Amelia and I have more use of it."

Nathan held it out to the side. With her other hand, the one not on the dacra in his leg, Amelia snatched back the book. "Well," Nathan said, "are you going to kill me, or not?" "Oh, yes, I intend to kill you," Amelia said in Jagang's voice. "You betrayed our bargain. Lord Rahl. Besides, I don't like having subordinates who won't allow me into their minds.

"Before you die, I thought I'd let you watch how a real slave obeys orders. I thought you'd like to watch me cut your little darlin Clarissa's throat." Breathe.

Kahlan expelled the sliph from her lungs, and with frantic need, sucked in the alien air. Night crashed in around her. She refused to spare the time to fear the sudden vision, the sudden sound, to give it time to settle into place in her mind, and instead seized the stone wall to hoist herself out.

A frightening sight-to match the words she had already heard-greeted her. With her vision enhanced by the sliph, she took in the whole scene at once, in one slamming jolt.

The instant she saw him. Kahlan knew this was Nathan. He looked like a Rahl, and Richard had told her about Nathan-tall. older, with long white hair to his shoulders. A woman had stabbed a dacra into his leg, and was holding it there. Kahlan had heard her name: Amelia-the one who had started the plague. Kahlan saw Verna, with a woman at her back. A young man stood frozen. Kahlan saw a beautiful young woman holding another woman by a fistful of hair done in ringlets- it could only be Clarissa. The woman's other fist held a knife at the terrified Clarissa's throat.

As Kahlan had emerged from the sliph, she was conscious of the last part of the conversation that had just taken place, and knew well the voice coming from the woman holding the dacra in Nathan's leg. Kahlan knew well the word "darlin." She remembered hearing that voice from the wizard, Marlin, who had come to assassinate Richard. It was Jagang's voice.

The image of the amulet Richard wore came unbidden into Kahlan's mind. It means only one thing, and everything: cut. Once committed to fight, cut. Everything else is secondary'. Cut.

Her training at the hands of her warrior father had been much the same. Kill or be killed. Never yield. Never wait. Attack.

Richard was near death-near his last breath. She had no time to spare, no time to consider. She was committed. Cut.

In one fluid movement, she erupted from the sliph, dived out of the well, yanked a short sword free of the scabbard on the soldier standing right there, ducked her head, tumbled forward, and came up with the sword already whipping down.

In the span of a heartbeat, before anyone had time to flinch, Kahlan was there. She had to stop Amelia before she released her magic into the dacra in Nathan's leg, or he would be dead. Like lightning, her sword descended, severing Sister Amelia's arm at the crook of her elbow.

And then, everything moved in a painfully slow dance. Kahlan could see the expression on every face. The woman Kahlan had just cut. Sister Amelia, was falling back with a cry. Already, Kahlan's sword was whirling, to reverse her handhold, as she followed her quarry down. Verna was spinning, a dacra in her own hand, toward a surprised woman behind her. The young man was diving toward the woman with the knife. Nathan's hands were coming up toward Clarissa. His scream cut through the night.

Clarissa was reaching toward Nathan. The young woman holding her by the hair snarled with a vicious sneer, and savagely cut through Clarissa's throat.

Kahlan saw the spray of blood for only an instant before the night exploded with lightning from both Nathan and the young man.