Their grips on his hands tightened. As they stepped onto the steps up to the wing with the books, the floor went silent. Without Richard to hold their hands on the way out, they would be trapped inside this place, unable to return across the central floor.
The wing with the books wasn’t the kind of library he had expected. There were rows of shelves, but they were in disarray, with books stacked every which way. Chunks of rock served as bookends for the few standing upright among the disorder.
Here and there books were in piles, as if someone had pulled them from the shelves and simply tossed them in a heap. Most were closed, but a significant number lay open, some face-up, some facedown. But that wasn’t the biggest surprise.
Everywhere, it seemed, there were books stacked up on the floor. A few stacks were short, maybe three or four feet tall, but many more were tall pillars of books. Some of the irregular stacks towered twelve or fourteen feet. They looked as if the mere act of breathing could make them topple. The columns of books were everywhere, creating a maze. Richard couldn’t fathom the reason for the books being stacked in such disarray, but the mystery of it made him sweat.
Richard took an arm of each woman. “My grandfather told me that there were books in the Keep that were extremely dangerous. Kahlan told me that the most dangerous things were kept in here, where no one could get to them, not even the wizards she knew.”
Berdine shot him a look. “You mean, you think that the books themselves could be dangerous? Not just the information in them, but the actual books?”
Richard thought of the description of a book that Sister Amelia had used to start the plague. “I’m not sure, but we had better treat them as such. Look, but don’t touch.”
Berdine’s brow drew down with a dubious frown. “Lord Rahl, there must be thousands of books I can see just standing here. There are bound to be more down the aisles. It will take us weeks to find the one we want—if it’s even here.”
Richard took a deep breath. Berdine was right. He hadn’t expected to find so many books in here. He thought the libraries held most of the books, and there would only be a few in here.
“If you want to be out of here before dark, we don’t have long,” Raina said. “We might as well come back tomorrow and get an early start.”
Richard was beginning to feel intimidated by the task ahead. “We’ll just have to stay after dark. We’ll stay all night if we have to.”
Raina rolled her Agiel in her fingers. “If you say so, Lord Rahl.”
Richard’s heart sank as he stood staring at the forest of books. He needed information, not a search for one leaf in a forest. If only he could use magic to find that one leaf.
He idly adjusted the bands at his wrist. Under his fingers he felt the starburst pattern on one of them.
Look without fixing your sight.
“I have an idea,” he said. “Wait here. I’ll be right back.”
Richard returned to the pillars. He went to one that held a crackled-glass bowl upon on a large square of black cloth.
“What good is that going to do?” Raina asked, when he came back holding the cloth out for them.
“There’s too much to see. I’m going to use this as a blindfold, so I won’t see all the things I don’t want to see.”
Berdine’s face twisted with incredulity. “If you’re blindfolded, then how are you going to see the thing we’re looking for?”
“With magic. I’m going to try to let my gift guide me. Sometimes it works that way—through need. All these books are too confusing. If I’m blindfolded, I won’t see them, and I’ll be able to feel the one I’m looking for. At least, that’s what I hope.”
Raina gazed out over all the books. “Well, you are the Lord Rahl. You have magic. If it has a chance of getting us out of spending the night in here, then I say do it.”
Richard placed the black cloth over his eyes and began tying its tails behind his head. “Just guide me and keep me from touching anything. Don’t forget what I said about you two not touching anything, either.”
“Don’t worry about us, Lord Rahl,” Raina said. “We’re not about to touch anything.”
When he finished tying the blindfold over his eyes, Richard turned his head this way and that, testing to make sure that he couldn’t see. He rubbed a finger over the starburst on his wristband.
His world was pitch-black. He sought the inner peace, the inner calm, where dwelled his gift.
If the plague was started by magic from the Temple of the Winds, then maybe they had a chance to halt it. If he did nothing, then untold thousands of people were going to die.
He needed that book.
He thought about the boy he had watched die. About the little girl, Lily, who told him about the Sister of the Dark showing her the book. That was how the plague started. He knew it was.
That precious child had the tokens on her. Richard hadn’t inquired, but he knew that she, at least, would be dead by now. He couldn’t bear to inquire.
He needed that book.
He put a foot out. “Nudge me with your fingers if I’m about to run into anything. Try not to talk, but if you must, don’t be afraid to speak up.”
He felt their fingers lightly touch his arm as he stepped forward. They guided him with that touch, keeping him from colliding with the towering stacks of books as he waded deeper into the maze.
Richard didn’t know what it was he should feel. He didn’t know if it was magic, a hunch, or his imagination guiding him. By the way he seemed to be winding up and down aisles and snaking through the stacks, he feared it was no more than his imagination. He tried to ignore the things that kept his thoughts skipping about and running in every direction.
He tried to concentrate on the book and his need to find it.
Thinking of the sick children, he was able to focus better. They needed him. They were helpless.
Richard felt himself jerk to a halt. He wondered why. He turned left when he expected that he was going to turn right. It had to be the gift. With that thought, his thoughts scattered in every direction again. He focused once more.
The two Mord-Sith forcibly snatched his arm to halt him. He understood. Another step, and he would have collided with a stack.
Wondering which way he would be turned, he found himself squatting instead. His arm lifted and he reached out.
“Careful,” Berdine whispered. “It’s a big, irregular stack. Be careful, or you’ll knock it over.”
Richard nodded, not wanting to distract himself by answering with words. He was concentrating on feeling the object of his need. He felt it near. His fingers lightly brushed the books, running down the stack, touching the bindings of some and the pages of others because they were turned around the other way.
His fingers stopped on a binding.
“This one.” He tapped the leather binding. “This one. What does it say?”
Berdine propped a hand on his thigh to support herself as she leaned in. “It’s High D’Haran. Something about the Temple of the Winds—‘Tagenricht ost fuer Mosst Verlaschendreck nich Greschlechten.’”
“Temple of the Winds Inquisition and Trial,” Richard translated in a whisper. “We’ve found it.”
47
Breathe, the sliph said.
Kahlan let go the silken essence and pulled a deep breath of the alien air. The dim world of the sliph’s well down in the Keep whirled in around her. Stone of the walls and floor finally settled in her vision. The dome overhead seemed to slow its spinning.
Something unexpected waited in the sliph’s room.
Tilted back in the chair, with her feet propped up on the table, sat a figure in red leather. Kahlan sat down, dangling her feet over the edge of the stone wall, to gather her senses.
The front legs of the chair thunked down. “Well, well, the wandering Mother Confessor returns at last.”
Kahlan hopped down onto the floor. She almost lost her footing with the way it seemed to twist and tilt.
“Cara
, what are you doing down here?”
Cara gripped Kahlan under her arm. “You better sit down until you regain your feet.”
“I’m all right.” Kahlan glanced over her shoulder to the silver face behind her. “Thank you, sliph.”
“Do you wish to travel?” The sliph’s haunting voice echoed off the walls and dome overhead for a long moment.
“No, I’ve had enough traveling for the time being. I’m going to stay here.”
“When you wish to travel, call me, and we will travel. You will be pleased.”
“I don’t know about that,” Kahlan muttered as the sliph seemed to melt back into her well.
“She’s a spooky companion to have down here,” Cara said. “She invited me to travel with her, too, and then told me I didn’t have the magic required. She comes and stares at me with that eerie smile.”
“Cara, what are you doing down here?”
Cara leaned Kahlan back against the sliph’s well. She gave Kahlan the strangest look as she shook her head to herself.
“When Lord Rahl read your letter, it didn’t take him long to figure out what you had done. Berdine told him how you had brought us here to look for that book on the trial record. He came down here, but the sliph wouldn’t tell him where she had taken you.
“Lord Rahl said that now that he knew the sliph was not sleeping, as he had thought, it wasn’t safe to leave her alone. He said that others, like the Sister and Marlin, could come through.”
Kahlan hadn’t thought about that, about another one of Jagang’s minions coming to Aydindril through the sliph. The sliph seemed to have no loyalty. She would travel with anyone who had the required price of magic.
“So, Richard left you here?”
“He said he couldn’t remain down here all the time to guard the sliph.” Cara’s chin lifted with pride. “He said that a Mord-Sith must guard the well at all times, since we have the power to stop someone with magic. The Lord Rahl has always used the Mord-Sith to protect him against magic.”
The wizards of old obviously had this same problem with the sliph, and had left wizards like Kolo down here to guard her. Kolo said that the enemy sometimes arrived suddenly by way of the sliph, and that only the quick reactions of the one on guard had prevented disaster.
“You mean he brought you down here and just left you?”
“No. He searched for hours until he found a way without magic so we could get down here on our own. He didn’t want to have to bring each of us down here for our turn, and he didn’t want us trapped down here, either. We have to take shifts. I don’t like it, because we should be close to Lord Rahl in order to guard him, not this… silver thing, but I guess that we are guarding Lord Rahl by doing this, so I agreed to it.”
Kahlan found her feet steady at last. “If we had known the sliph was awake, and had been guarding her before, then Marlin wouldn’t have been able to come to try to assassinate Richard, and the Sister wouldn’t have been able to start the plague.”
Kahlan’s chest constricted with a hot, cutting pang of regret. They could have prevented the whole thing. All the awful things she had learned would not be threatening her people, her world, and her love. The realization of the chance lost left her nauseous.
“Lord Rahl also wanted us to wait until your return from the witch woman, in case you needed help.”
“Richard knew where I went?”
“The sliph wouldn’t tell him, but he said he knew anyway. He said you went to the witch woman.”
“He knew, and he didn’t chase after me?”
Cara pulled her long blond braid over her shoulder. “I was surprised, too. I asked him why he wouldn’t go after you. He said that he loved you; he did not own you.”
“Really? Richard said that?”
“Yes.” A smirk tightened Cara’s lips. “You are training him well, Mother Confessor. I approve. And then he kicked a chair. I think he hurt his foot, but he denies it.”
“So, Richard is angry with me?”
Cara rolled her eyes. “Mother Confessor, this is Richard we are talking about. The man is fool in love with you. He wouldn’t be angry with you if you told him to marry Nadine instead of you.”
Kahlan swallowed at the renewed twist of pain. “Why would you say that?”
Cara frowned. “I only meant he could never be angry with you, no matter what. You were supposed to laugh, not jump like I had poked you with my Agiel. Mother Confessor, he loves you; he is worried sick, but he is not angry with you.”
“What about kicking the chair?”
Cara stroked her long blond braid and smirked again. “He claimed the chair gave him just cause.”
“I see.” Kahlan couldn’t seem to find pleasure in Cara’s sense of humor. “How long have I been gone?”
“Not quite two days. And I expect you to tell me how you managed to slip past those D’Haran guards out there by the bridge.”
“It was snowing. They didn’t see me.”
Cara didn’t look to believe it. She was giving Kahlan that odd look again.
“And did you kill the witch woman?”
“No.” Kahlan changed the subject. “What has Richard been doing while I was gone?”
“Well, first he asked the sliph to take him to the Temple of the Winds, but she said she didn’t know that place and couldn’t take him there, so he rode to Mount Kymermosst—”
“He went there?” Kahlan snatched Cara’s arm. “What did he find?”
“Nothing. He said that there was nothing to find. He said that if the Temple of the Winds was once there, it is now gone.”
Kahlan released Cara’s arm. “He went to Mount Kymermosst, and he’s back already?”
“You know Lord Rahl; when he gets something in his head, he charges after it. The men who went with him said they rode hard. They slept little and rode much of the night. Lord Rahl expected you to return last night and wanted to be back for you. When you did not return as expected, he paced and fretted, but still he did not go after you. Whenever he looked like he was about to change his mind, he read your letter again, and went back to pacing instead.”
“I guess my letter was a little strong,” Kahlan said as she glanced down at the floor.
“Lord Rahl showed it to me.” Cara’s face was unreadable. “Sometimes it is necessary to threaten men, or they get to thinking that they are the ones who say what will be. You dissuaded him of that idea with your threats.”
“I didn’t threaten him.” Kahlan thought that her tone sounded too much like a plea.
Cara watched Kahlan’s eyes for a moment. “You are probably right. The chair must have given Lord Rahl cause, as he said.”
“I did what I had to do. Richard would understand that. I guess I’d better go explain it to him.”
Cara gestured behind, to the door. “You just missed him. He was here not long ago.”
“He came to see if I was back? He must be worried sick.”
“Berdine told him about the book you were searching for. He came here and found it.”
Kahlan blinked in astonishment. “He found it? But we looked. It wasn’t there. How did he find it?”
“He went to a place he called the First Wizard’s enclave, and found it there.”
Kahlan’s jaw dropped. “He went in there? He went into the First Wizard’s enclave? Alone, without me? He shouldn’t have gone there! That’s a dangerous place!”
“Really.” Cara folded her arms. “And of course you would never do anything so foolish as to get it in your head to go run off alone to a dangerous place. Maybe you should reprimand Lord Rahl for his impulsive behavior, since you are so prudent and above such reckless conduct yourself.”
The echo of Cara’s voice lingered uncomfortably before it died out. Kahlan understood. Even though Richard did as she had asked by not coming after her, Cara had tried. Even though she didn’t like magic, Cara had tried to go to protect Kahlan.
“Cara,” she said in a meek voice, “I’m sorry, I tricked y
ou, too.”
Cara shrugged, but still showed no emotion. “I am just a guard. You have no obligation to me.”
“Yes, I do. You are not ‘just a guard.’ You may be our protector, but you are more. I consider you my friend. You are a sister of the Agiel. I should have told you what I was doing, but I feared that if I did, Richard would be angry with you for not stopping me. I didn’t want that.”
Cara said nothing. Still, she showed no emotion. Kahlan breached the uncomfortable silence. “Cara, I’m sorry. I guess I was afraid you would try to stop me. I tricked you. You’re a sister of the Agiel; I should have trusted you and taken you into my confidence. Please, Cara, I was wrong. I beg you forgive me.”
A smile finally spread on Cara’s face. “We are sisters of the Agiel. I forgive you.”
Kahlan managed a small smile. “Do you think Richard will be as understanding as you?”
Cara let out an amused grunt. “Well, you have better ways to persuade him to forgive you. It is not so difficult to melt a man’s frown.”
“I only wish I had good news, so I could bring a smile to his face, but I don’t.” She paused at the doorway. “What has Nadine been up to while I’ve been gone?”
“Well, I’ve been down here guarding the sliph much of the time, but from what I’ve seen, she has been giving the staff herbs to try to protect them, and to use in smoking the palace. It’s a good thing the place is made mostly of stone or it would have been burned down by now. She has been conferring with Drefan and helping him in talking to the staff and others who come for advice.
“Lord Rahl asked her to go out to visit herb sellers and such, to make sure they are not hucksters out to swindle people who are in fear for their lives. The city seems to be sprouting shameless mountebanks the way the sudden warmth seems to be bringing green grass. Nadine also gives reports to Lord Rahl, but he has been gone much of the time, and as busy as she seems to be trying to help people, the visits since he returned are short.”