Temple of the Winds

Some of them trotted back to retrieve torches as Kahlan started away. Nadine held her torch out ahead of her as she trotted to keep up. The flame fluttered and roared in the wind of their flight, illuminating the walls, ceiling, and floor for a short distance around them, creating an undulating island of light in a sea of blackness. Close behind, men with torches created their own islands of light. Heavy breathing echoed through the hall as they ran, along with the thud of boots, the jangle of chain mail, the clang of steel, and the roar of flame. Above it all, in her mind, Kahlan could still hear Cara's screams. Kahlan halted at an intersection, panting to get her breath as she looked ahead, and then down the corridor that branched to the right. "Here!" Nadine pointed to blood on the floor. "He went this way!" Kahlan looked up the dark hall ahead. It led to the stairwells and up into the palace. The other corridor that branched off to the right led under the palace in a labyrinth of storerooms, abandoned areas once used in the excavation of the bedrock the palace was built atop, access tunnels to inspect and maintain the foundation walls, and drainage tunnels for the springs the builders had encountered. At the ends of the drainage tunnels, massive stone grates let the water out through the foundation walls, but prevented anyone from getting in. "No," Kahlan said. "This way-to the right." "But the blood," Nadine protested. "He went this way." "We've seen no blood until this place. The blood is a diversion. That way leads up into the palace. Jagang went this way, to the right, where there are no people."

Nadine followed after as Kahlan started down the corridor to the right. "But why would he care if there are people? He killed and wounded all those soldiers back there!"

"And they managed to take off an arm. Now Marlin is wounded. Jagang won't care if we kill Marlin, but, on the other hand, if he can escape, then he can use Marlin to cause more harm."

"What more harm could he cause than hurting people? Hurting all those people upstairs and the soldiers?"

"The Wizard's Keep," Kahlan said. 'Jagang doesn't have command of magic, other than his ability as a dream walker, but he can use a person with the gift. From what I've seen so far, though, he doesn't know much about using another's magic. The things he did back there, simple use of air and heat, are far from inventive for a wizard. Jagang only thinks to do the simplest of things with their magic, things of brute force. That is to our advantage.

"If I were him, I would try to get to the Keep, and use the magic there to cause the most destruction I could."

Kahlan turned down an ancient stairwell carved from rock, taking the steps two at a time. At the bottom, the rough, tunnel-like hall ran in two directions. She turned to the soldiers still racing down the stairs behind. "Split up-half each way. This is the lowest level. When you encounter more junctures, cover them all. Remember which way you went at each turn, or you could be lost down here for days.

"You've seen what he can do. If you find him, don't take a chance trying to take him. Post sentries so we know if he backtracks, and then send runners to come get me."

"How will we find you?" one asked.

Kahlan looked to the right. "At every choice, I'll take the one to the right, so you can follow where I went. Now hurry. I think he's headed for any opening out of the palace he can find. We can't let him get out. If he gets to the Keep, he can get through shields there that I can't."

With Nadine and half the men, Kahlan rushed on through the dank hall. They encountered several rooms, all empty, and before long, several more corridors. At every branch, she divided the men and took her continually dwindling force to the right.

"What's the Wizard's Keep?" Nadine asked as they moved on through the darkness.

"It's a massive fortress, a stronghold, where wizards used to live. It predates the Confessors' Palace." Kahlan lifted a hand, indicating the palace above them. ' In ages long forgotten, nearly everyone was born with the gift. Over the last three thousand years the gift has been dying out in the race of man." "What's in the Keep?"

"Living quarters, long abandoned, libraries, rooms of every sort. And things of magic are stored there. Books, weapons, things like that. Shields protect important or dangerous parts of the Keep. Those without magic can't pass through any of the shields. Since I was born with magic, I can pass through some of them, but not all.

"The Keep is vast. It makes the Confessors' Palace look like a cramped cottage, by comparison. In the great war, three thousand years ago, the Keep was filled with wizards and their families. Richard says it was a place filled with laughter and life. At that time, the wizards had both Subtractive and Additive Magic." "And now they don't?"

"No. Only Richard has been born with both sides.