Temple of the Winds

Nadine dabbed at her lower lids as

"I'm sorry, Nadine," Kahlan said softly.

Nadine stood and set the tin cup on the side table. Tears streamed down her cheeks and dripped off the side of her jaw. "Forgive me for coming in here like I did. He loves you, not me. He never loved me. I'm happy for you. Mother Confessor; you have a good man who will watch over you and protect you and always be kind. I know he will."

Kahlan stood and took Nadine's hand, giving it a comforting squeeze. "Kahlan. My name is Kahlan."

"Kahlan." Nadine still couldn't meet Kahlan's eyes. "Does he kiss good? I always wondered. When I laid awake in bed, I always wondered." "When you love someone with all your heart, their kisses are always good." "I guess. I never had a good kiss. One [really enjoyed like the ones I've dreamed about, anyway." She smoothed the front of her dress as she made an effort to compose herself. "I wore this because blue is Richard's favorite color. You should know that-blue is his favorite color dress." "I know," Kahlan whispered.

Nadine pulled her bag closer. "I don't know what I'm thinking, forgetting my profession, while I ramble on about what's over and done." Nadine rummaged around in her bag. bringing out a small piece of a sheep's horn with a cork stopper in the square-cut end. The horn was marked with scratches and circles. She pulled the cork stopper aid dipped in a finger, then lifted it to Cara. Cara backed away. "What do you think you are doing?" "It's an unguent, made from aum, to take away the sting, and comfrey and yarrow to help stop the bleeding so the wound can heal smooth. The cut on your cheek is still oozing. If this doesn't stop the blood, then I have some foxglove, but I think this will do it. It's not only the ingredients but how much of each, my pa says, that's the secret that makes the medicine work." "I don't need it," Cara said.

"You're very pretty. You don't want to end up with a scar, now do you?" "I have many scars. You just can't see them." "Where are they?"

Cara scowled, but Nadine didn't back away.

"All right," Cara said at last. "Use your herbs, if it will get you away from me. But I'm not undressing so you can peer at my scars."

Nadine smiled assurance and then dabbed the brownish paste on Cara's cheek. "This will take away the pain of the cut, but it's going to sting for just a minute, and then it will ease."

Cara didn't so much as blink. It must lave surprised Nadine because she paused and looked at Cara's eyes before resuming her work. When she was finished, Nadine replaced the stopper in the horn and placed it back in her bag.

Nadine glanced around the room. "I've never seen such a beautiful room. Thank you for letting me use it."

"Of course. Do you need anything? Some supplies. . anything?" Nadine shook her head, wiped her nose a last time, and stuffed the kerchief back in the pocket. She remembered the cup, downed the rest of the water, and put it in her bag, too.

"It's a bit of a journey, but I have some silver left. I'll be fine." She rested a hand on her bag as she stared down at her trembling fingers. "I never thought my journey would end like this. I'm going to be the laugh of Hartland, running off after Richard like I did." She swallowed. "What's Pa going to say?" "Did Shota tell him, too, that you were going to marry Richard?" "No. I hadn't met Shota yet."

"What do you mean? I thought she was the one who told you to come here- that you were to marry him."

"Well"-Nadine made a wincing smile-"that wasn't exactly how it happened."

"I see." Kahlan clasped her hands. "Well, exactly how did it happen?" "It will sound silly-like I'm some moonstruck girl of twelve." "Nadine, just tell me."

Nadine considered a moment before finally sighing. "I suppose it doesn't matter. I started having these, well, I don't know what to call it. I'd see Richard, or rather, I thought I saw Richard. I'd see him out of the comer of my eye, and I'd turn, but he wouldn't be there. Like one day, when I was walking in the woods looking for new shoots, and I saw him standing beside a tree. so I stopped, but he was gone.

"Every time, I knew he needed me. I didn't know how I knew, but I knew. I knew it was important, that he was in trouble of some sort. I never questioned it. "I told my parents that Richard needed me and I had to go help him."

"And they believed you? They had faith in your visions? They simply let you set out?"

"Well, I never quite explained it to them. I just told them that Richard had sent me a message that he needed my help, and I was going to him. I guess that I, well, I might have kind of made them think I knew where I was going."

Kahlan was beginning to see that Nadine didn't explain things to anyone very well. "Then Shota came?"

"No. Then I left. I knew Richard needed me, and so I started out." "Alone? You simply thought to march off and search the entire Midlands for him?"

Nadine shrugged self-consciously. "It never occurred to me to wonder how I would find him. I knew he needed me, and I felt that it was important, so I left to go to him." She smiled, as if to reassure Kahlan. "I came right to him-straight as an arrow. It all worked out exactly right." Her cheeks flushed. "Except the part about him wanting me, I mean."

"Nadine, had you been having any. strange dreams? Then, or now?" Nadine brushed back a thick strand of hair. "Strange dreams? No, no strange dreams. You know, I mean no stranger than any dreams. Just regular dreams." "What kind of 'regular' dreams do you have?"

"Well, you know, like when you dream that you're little again, and lost in the woods, and none of the trails lead you where you know they should, or like when you dream that you can't find all the right ingredients for a pie, and so you go to a cave and borrow them from a bear that can talk. Things like that. Just dreams. Dreams that you can fly, or breathe underwater. Crazy things. But just dreams. Like I've always had. Nothing different." "Have they changed recently?"

"No. If I remember them, they're the same sort of things." "I see. I guess that all sounds pretty normal."

Nadine pulled a cloak from her bag. "Well, I guess I'd better get a start. With luck, I'll be home for the spring festival."

Kahlan frowned. "You'll be lucky to make midsummer festival." Nadine laughed. "I should think no. It can't take longer back than here. Just two weeks or so. I only left just after the moon's second quarter; it's not yet full."

Kahlan stared dumbly. "Two weeks." It had to have taken Nadine months to travel all the way from Westland, especially in the winter when she would have had to have started, and especially across the Rang'Shada mountains. "Your horse must have had wings."

Nadine laughed, then it died out as her smooth brow puckered. "Funny you should mention that. I don't have a horse. I walked." "Walked," Kahlan repeated incredulously.

"Yes. But since I've left, I've had dreams of flying on a horse with wings." Kahlan was having to work at keeping track of the shifting pieces of Nadine's story. She tried to think of how Richard would ask questions. It had made her feel foolish when Richard put words to all the questions she should have asked Marlin, but never thought of. Though he had taken the sting out of it by telling her that she had done the right thing, it still embarrassed her that she had found out next to nothing important from Marlin when she had had her chance.

Confessors didn't need to know much about questioning people; once she had touched a person with her power, a Confessor simply asked the criminal to confess if they had truly committed the crimes they had been found guilty of, and if the answer was yes-which it always was, except in a couple of rare instances-then to recount the details.

There was no art to it, and none needed. It was an infallible way of seeing to it that political dissenters weren't falsely accused and found guilty of crimes they didn't commit, simply to have them eliminated through a convenient execution.

Kahlan was determined to do a better job of asking Nadine questions. "When did Shota come to see you? You still haven't told me that part."

"Oh. Well, she didn't exactly come to see me. I came across her up in the mountains. She had a lovely palace, but I never had the chance to go inside. I wasn't there long. I wanted to get to Richard."

"And what did Shota tell you? What were her words? Her exact words?" "Let's see…" Nadine pressed her first finger to her upper lip as she recollected. "She welcomed me. She offered me tea-she said that I had been expected-and had me sit with her. She made Samuel leave my bag when he tried to drag it away, and she told me not to be afraid of him. She asked where I was traveling, and I told her that I was going to my Richard-that he needed me. Then she told me things about Richard, things about his past that I would know about. It astonished me that she would know so much about him, but I thought that she must know him.

"And then she told me things about me that she would have no way of knowing. Like longings and ambitions-being a healer, using my herbs, things like that. That's when I realized she was a mystic. I don't remember her exact words about any of that part.

"She told me that it was true about Richard needing me. She said that we were going to be married. She said that the sky had told her it was so." Nadine looked away from Kahlan's eyes. "I was so happy. I don't think I'd ever been that happy." "The sky. What else?"

"Then she said that she didn't want to delay my journey to Richard. She said the wind hunts him-whatever that means-and that I was right that he needed me, and I should hurry and be on my way. She wished me luck." "That's all? She must have said something else."

"No, that's all." Nadine buttoned her bag closed. "Except she said a prayer for Richard, I think."

"What do you mean? What did she say? Her exact words." "Well, when she turned away, to go back to her palace as I was getting up to leave, I heard her whisper, real solemn-like, 'May the spirits have mercy on his soul. »

Kahlan felt her arms under the white satin sleeves of her dress prickle with gooseflesh. She only remembered to take a breath when she felt her lungs burning for want of air.

Nadine hoisted her bag. "Well, I've caused you enough grief. I'd best be on my way home."

Kahlan spread her hands. "Look. Nadine, why don't you stay here for a while." Nadine paused with a bewildered look. "Why?"

Kahlan desperately searched for an excuse. "Well, I wouldn't mind hearing stories about Richard when he was growing up. You could tell me about all the trouble he got himself into." She made herself smile encouragement. "I'd really like that."

Nadine shook her head. "Richard wouldn't want me here. He'll be angry if he comes back and I'm still here. You didn't see the look in his eyes."

"Nadine, Richard isn't going to throw you out on your ear without letting you have a chance to rest up for a few days before you start back. Richard isn't like that. He said 'anything she needs. I think you could use a rest for a few days, more than anything else."

Nadine shook her head again. "No. You've already been more kind to me than I've a right to expect. You and Richard belong together. You don't need me around.

"But thank you for the offer. I can't believe how kind you are-it's small wonder Richard loves you. Any other woman in your place would've had me shaved bald and sent out of town in the back of a manure wagon."

"Nadine, I'd really like you to stay." Kahlan wet her lips. "Please?" she heard herself add.

"It might cause hard feelings between you and Richard. I don't want to be the cause of that. I'm not that kind of person."

"If it was a problem, I wouldn't have asked. Stay. At least for a few days. All right? You could stay right here in this room you like so much. I'd. . really like you to stay."

Nadine studied Kahlan's eyes for a long moment. "You really want me to stay? Really?"

"Yes." Kahlan could feel her nails digging into her palms. "Really." "Well, to tell the truth. I'm not in a hurry to go home and confess my foolishness to my parents. All right, then, if you really want me to, I'll stay for a while. Thank you."

Despite having important reasons for asking Nadine to stay, Kahlan couldn't help feeling like a moth flying into a flame.