4 - Temple of the Winds, page 54
Both women nodded. Richard gave them each an appreciative squeeze on the shoulder. He absently adjusted the metal bands on his wrists as he gazed at the towering bastion waiting at the end of the rampart.
A cold wind buffeted him as he started across. He could feel the pressure of the shield, like the weight of water when you swam toward the bottom of a pond. The fine hairs at the back of his neck stiffened as he progressed. The pressure made it difficult but not impossible to draw a breath, as Kahlan had said she had experienced.
Six immense columns of variegated red stone stood to each side of the gold-clad door, holding up a protruding entablature of dark stone. The architrave was decorated with brass plaques. As Richard approached it, he recognized some of their symbols as the same ones on his wristbands, belt, and boot pins. The frieze held round metal disks with other of the more circular symbols. The more linear of symbols he wore were also carved into the stone of the cornice.
Seeing the symbols he recognized reassured him, even though he didn't know their meaning. He wore these things by obligation, duty, and right-he was born to them, that much he knew. Why, he didn't know. Even if he wished it could be otherwise, it wasn't; he was a war wizard.
Distracted by the uncomfortable pressure and tingling of the shields, he reached the door almost before he realized it. The door was at least twelve feet tall, and a good four feet wide, gold-clad and embellished in the same symbolic motifs.
Embossed in the center was the more prominent of the symbols he wore: two rough triangles, with a sinuous double line running around and through them. Richard rested his left hand on the hilt of his sword as he fingered the symbol with his other hand, tracing its oval, undulating outer margin.
With the act of touching it, tracing it, following its pattern, he understood. The spirits who had used the Sword of Truth before him passed their knowledge on to him as he used the sword, but they didn't always convey that knowledge in words; in the heat of combat there wasn't always time. Sometimes it came to him in images, symbols: these symbols. This one on the door, like the ones on his wristbands, was a kind of dance used for fighting when outnumbered. It conveyed a sense of the movements of the dance, movements without form. The dance with death.
It made sense. He wore the outfit of a war wizard. Richard had learned from Kolo's journal that in Kolo's time the First Wizard, named Baraccus, had also been a war wizard, as was Richard. These symbols had meaning to a war wizard. Much as a tailor painted shears on his window, or a tavern sign had a mug on it, or a blacksmith nailed up horseshoes, or a weapons maker displayed knives, these symbols were signs of his craft: bringing death.
Richard realized that his fear had vanished. He stood in the Wizard's Keep, which had always before set his nerves on edge and worse, stood now before the most restricted and protected place in the Keep, yet he felt calm. He touched a starburst symbol on the door. This symbol was an admonition. Keep your vision all-inclusive, never allowing it to lock on any one thing. That was the meaning of the starburst symbol: look everywhere at once, see nothing to the exclusion of all else-don't allow the enemy to direct your vision, or you will see what he wishes you to see. He will then come at you as you become bewildered, looking for his attack, and you will lose.
Instead, your vision must open to all there is, never settling, even when cutting. Know your enemy's moves by instinct, not by waiting to see them. To dance with death meant to know the enemy's sword and its speed without waiting to see it. Dancing with death meant being one with the enemy, without looking fixedly, so that you could kill him. Dancing with death meant being committed to killing, committed with your heart and soul. Dancing with death meant that you were the incarnation of death, come to reap the living. Berdine's voice drifted across the rampart. "Lord Rahl?" Richard looked over his shoulder. "What? What's wrong?" Berdine shifted her weight to her other foot. "Well, are you all right? You've been standing there for a long time, staring at the door. Are you all right?"
Richard wiped a hand across his face. "Yes. I'm fine. I was just . . . just looking at the things written on the door, that's all."
He turned, and without thinking, slapped his hand to the cold metal plate in the polished gray granite wall. Kahlan had told him it was said that to touch that metal plate was like touching the cold, dead heart of the Keeper himself. The metal plate warmed. The gold door silently swung inward. Dim light came from beyond. Richard took a careful step into the doorway. Like
a wick on a lamp being slowly turned up, the dim light coming from inside brightened. He took another step, and the light brightened more.
He scanned the inside as he motioned the two waiting Mord-Sith forward. Whatever magic prevented people from approaching apparently was now withdrawn; Berdine and Raina walked to him without any difficulty. "That wasn't so bad," Raina said. "I didn't feel anything." "So far, so good," Richard said.
Inside, there were glass spheres, about a hand-width in diameter, set atop green marble pedestals against the wall to his left and right. Richard had seen glass spheres similar to these before, down in the lower reaches of the Keep. Like those, these too provided light.
The inside of the First Wizard's enclave was an immense cavern of ornate stonework. Four columns of polished black marble, at least ten feet in diameter, formed a square that supported arches just beyond the outer edges of a central dome dotted by a high ring of windows. Between each pair of columns a wing ran off from the vast central chamber. He noticed that much of the stonework repeated the palm-leaf pattern that adorned the gold capitals atop the black marble columns. The polish of the marble was so high that it reflected images like glass.
Finely worked wrought-iron sconces decorated with the same palm-leaf pattern held candles. Fluidly worked iron formed railings at the edge of the expansive, sunken central floor.
This was not the sinister lair Richard expected. This was a place of grand splendor to match any he had seen. The place was so beautiful that it left him awestricken.
The wing in which the three of them stood, the entry hall, appeared to be by far the smallest of the four wings. Six-foot-tall white marble pedestals marched in a long double row beside the walkway laid with a long red carpet over a gold-flecked dark brown marble floor.
Richard wouldn't have been able to touch fingers were he to put his arms around one of the pedestals. The ribbed, barrel ceiling thirty feet overhead made the fat pedestals look miniscule.
Sitting atop some of the pedestals were objects Richard recognized: ornate knives, gems set in brooches or at the ends of gold-worked chains, a silver chalice, filigree bowls, and delicately worked boxes. Some sat on squares of cloth trimmed with gold or silver embroidery, others on stands carved from buried wood.
Other pedestals held contorted objects that made no sense to him. He would have sworn that they changed shape when he looked at them. He decided it would be best not to look directly at such things of magic, and warned the other two.
The distant wing opposite them, across the central area under the huge dome, ended at a round-topped window that had to be thirty feet tall. Before the window was a huge table piled with a clutter of objects: glass jars, bowls, and coiled tubes; a massive but simple iron candelabrum covered with ages of wax; stacks of scrolls; several human skulls; and a chaos of smaller items Richard couldn't make out from such a distance. The floor all around the table was similarly cluttered, along with things stacked up and leaning against the table.
The wing to the right was dark. Richard felt uncomfortable even looking in that direction. He heeded the warning, and looked to the left. In that wing, he saw books. Thousands of them.
"There," Richard said, as he gestured to the left. "That's what we're here for. Remember what I told you. Don't touch anything." He glanced at them both as
they looked about with wide eyes. "I mean it. I don't know how to save you if you get in trouble touching something in here." Both pairs of eyes looked back at him. "We remember," Berdine said.
"We know better than to tempt magic," Raina said. "We' re just looking around, that's all. We wouldn't touch anything."
"Good. But I suggest that you don't even look at anything, either, except what we need to look at. For all I know, simply looking at something in here could trigger its magic."
"Do you think?" Raina asked in astonishment.
"What I think is that I'd rather not find out after it's too late. Come on. Let's get this over with so we can get out of here."
Oddly, even though he had said the words, and knew they made sense, he didn't really feel like leaving. As potentially dangerous as he knew the place to be, he found that he liked the First Wizard's enclave. Berdine smirked. "Lord Rahl fears magic as much as we do." "You're wrong, Berdine. I know a little about magic." He started down the red carpet. "I fear it more."
Ten broad steps at the end led down into the central area. An expanse of cream-colored marble covered the floor. A border of darker brown marble ran around the floor near the edge. When Richard reached the bottom step and his foot touched the floor, it hummed and began to glow. He quickly retreated back up onto the red carpet. The glow extinguished. "What now?" Raina asked.
He pried her fingers from his arm. "Did either of you put your foot to the floor?" They both shook their heads. "Try."
As Richard waited on the step, Berdine gingerly tried to test the marble. She withdrew her foot.
"I can't. Something stops my foot before I can get it on the floor." Richard stepped out onto the marble again. Again it glowed and hummed. "It must be a shield, then. Here, take my hand and try again." Holding Richard's hand, Berdine was able to step onto the marble with him. Raina took his other hand and followed.
"All right," he said, "since it's some kind of shield, don't let go of my hand while we're on this part. We don't know what would happen. For all I know, if you let go of my hand you could fry like bacon on a griddle."
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 lowered twelve or fourteen feet. They looked as if the mere act of breathing could make them topple. The columns of books were every-
where, 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 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 he 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. "Its 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 osf fuer Mosst Verlaschendreckmch Greschlechten.'"
"Temple of the Winds Inquisition and Trial," Richard translated in a whisper. "We've found it."
CHAPTER 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 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.
Tilled 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.
