“Our ancestors’… how did you know that I went to the Mud People?”
Richard’s brow curved into a bewildered cast. “Kahlan, your face is all painted so the ancestors’ spirits could see you in a gathering. Did you think I wouldn’t notice?”
Kahlan touched her fingers to her forehead, to her cheek. “I was in such a hurry, I never even gave it any thought. No wonder people have been giving me such odd looks.”
As she had raced through the palace looking for him, three different women on the staff had offered to draw her a bath. Everyone must have thought she had gone mad.
Richard’s expression turned serious as he settled his arms around her waist. “So, what did the ancestors’ spirits have to say?”
Kahlan steeled herself. She tilted her head, indicating the bone knife on her arm.
“Grandfather’s spirit called me, through his bone knife. He had to speak with me. He told me that the plague isn’t confined to Aydindril. It’s spread all over the Midlands.”
Richard tensed. “Do you think it’s true?”
“Elder Breginderin had the tokens on his legs. He’s probably dead by now. Some children reported that they saw a woman near the Mud People’s village. She showed them something with colored light, just like what Lily told us she saw. One of those children has already died. Sister Amelia was there.”
“Dear spirits,” Richard whispered.
“It gets worse. The spirit showed me other places I know in the Midlands. He said that the plague has spread to all these places, too. The spirit showed me what will be if the plague isn’t stopped. Death will sweep the land. Few will survive.
“The spirit told me that magic stolen from the Temple of the Winds started the plague, but that the plague itself isn’t magic. Jagang has used magic more powerful than he understands. If allowed to rage unchecked, the plague could eventually sweep into the Old World, too.”
“Small consolation. Did the spirit say how Jagang stole this magic from the Temple of the Winds?”
Kahlan nodded as she looked away from his eyes. “You were right about the red moons. It was a warning that the Temple of the Winds had been violated.”
Kahlan told him about the Hall of the Betrayer, and how Sister Amelia had been able to tread that path. Kahlan recounted the rest of her meeting with the spirit of Chandalen’s grandfather, as best as she could remember it, including the part about the temple being at least partially sentient, as Richard had suspected.
Richard leaned an arm against the mantel as he stared into the fire. He pinched his lower lip as he listened patiently.
Kahlan told him how the spirit had told her that to stop the plague, they must get into the Temple of the Winds, how it existed in both worlds at the same time, and how both the good and the evil spirits were involved and had a say in this.
“And the ancestor’s spirit could give you no indication how we were to get to the Temple of the Winds?”
“No,” Kahlan said. “In fact, he wasn’t interested in that part of it. He said that the temple would reveal what must be done. Shota said the same thing.”
Engrossed in thought, Richard nodded while he considered her words. Kahlan twisted her fingers together while she waited.
“What about Shota?” he asked at last. “What happened with her?”
Kahlan hesitated. She knew she had to tell him at least some of it, but she was reluctant to tell him all of what Shota had said.
“Richard, I don’t believe Shota was trying to cause trouble.”
He looked back over his shoulder. “She sends Nadine to marry me, and you don’t think that kind of interference trouble?”
Kahlan cleared her throat into her fist. “Shota didn’t send Nadine, exactly.” Richard’s hawklike gaze continued to fix on her, so she went on. “The message about the winds hunting you was not her idea. The Temple of the Winds was sending you a message, through her, just as it was sending you a message through that boy who died. Shota wasn’t trying to harm us.”
Richard’s brow lowered. “What else did the witch woman tell you?”
Kahlan interlocked her fingers behind her back. She looked away from his penetrating glare.
“Richard, I went there to put an end to Shota’s interference. I was prepared to kill her, if she threatened you or tried to harm me. I thought the worst of her. I did. I was convinced she was trying to harm us.
“I talked with her. Really talked. Shota isn’t as… malicious, as I thought. She admitted she doesn’t want us to have a child, but this isn’t about trying to keep us apart.
“She has a talent for seeing the future, and she is only telling us what she sees—to try to help you. She’s just the messenger in this. She’s not directing these events. She said the same thing as the ancestor’s spirit, that the plague was started by magic, and not of its own accord.”
With three strides, Richard closed the distance between them. He seized her by the upper arm.
“She sent Nadine to marry me! She sent Nadine to keep us apart!
She’s trying to put a wedge between us, and you are taken in by her tricks?”
Kahlan backed away from him. “No, Richard, you have it wrong, as did I. The spirits sent you a bride. Shota was only able to influence who it would be. She used that influence so that the bride sent would be Nadine. Shota says she sees that you will marry this bride sent by the spirits, and so she wanted it to be someone you knew. She was only trying to ease your pain in this.”
“And you believe her? Have you lost your mind!”
“Richard, you’re hurting my arm.”
He released her. “Sorry,” he muttered, as he withdrew to the hearth. Kahlan could see the muscles in his jaw flexing as he ground his teeth.
“You said she told you the same as the ancestor’s spirit. Do you remember her words?”
Kahlan tried frantically to separate what she knew she had to tell him from what she didn’t want him to know. She realized how unwise it was to try to hide information from Richard, but she reasoned that if she had to, she could always tell him everything. If she could get away with withholding some if it, though…
“Shota said we have not heard the last message from the winds. She said we will receive one more, involving the moon.”
“Involving the moon? How?”
“I don’t know. Just like the spirit, the ‘how’ didn’t seem to be important to her. What she did say was that this message from the moon will be the ‘consequential communion,’ as she called it. She said we must not ignore or dismiss it.”
“Did she, now. And did she say why, exactly?”
“She said our future—and the future of all those innocent people—will hinge on this event. She said it would be our only chance to carry out our duty to save the innocent lives of all those who depend upon us to do what they cannot.”
Richard turned to her. It was like death itself rounding on her. His eyes had that look, like Drefan’s. Like Darken Rahl’s.
“She told you something else that you’re holding back. What is it?” he growled.
It wasn’t Richard speaking, it was the Seeker. She knew in that instant why a Seeker was so feared: he was a law unto himself. Those gray eyes were looking right into her.