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“Lord Rahl, I do appreciate your indulgence. The Mother Confessor has graciously granted me two weeks to observe the signs from the stars.”
Power came to Richard’s voice. “You risk your people seeing swords, instead of stars, minister.”
Tristan unbuttoned his coat. From the corner of her eye, Kahlan saw Cara’s Agiel twitch up into her hand. Tristan didn’t notice. His gaze stayed on Richard while he drew his coat back, holding it open casually by resting his fist on his hip. It exposed the knife at his belt. Raina flicked her Agiel up into her hand.
“Lord Rahl, as I explained to the Mother Confessor, our people looked forward with great joy to joining with the D’Haran empire.”
“D’Haran empire?”
“Tristan,” Kahlan said, “we’re rather busy at the moment. We have discussed this already, and you have been given two weeks. Now, if you will excuse us?”
Tristan brushed back a lock of his hair, his bright brown eyes taking her in. “I’ll get to the point, then. I’ve heard rumors that plague is loose in Aydindril.”
Richard’s raptor glower was suddenly in full form. “It’s not just a rumor. It’s true.”
“How much danger is there?”
Richard’s hand found the hilt of his sword. “If you join with the Order, minister, you will wish it was the plague on you, instead of me.”
Kahlan had rarely seen two men so instantly and intently dislike each other. She knew Richard was exhausted, and in no mood, after having just seen so many seriously ill or dead children, to be challenged by a noble such as Tristan inquiring after his own hide. Jara had also been on the council that had condemned Kahlan to death. Although it wasn’t Tristan who had voted to behead her, it had been a councilor from his land. Richard had killed that Jarian councilor.
Kahlan didn’t know why Tristan took such an instant dislike to Richard, except for the fact that this was the man who had demanded Jara’s surrender. She guessed that was reason enough; if she were in his place, she might feel the same.
Kahlan was expecting the two men to draw steel any second. Drefan stepped between them.
“I’m Drefan Rahl, High Priest of the Raug’Moss community of healers. I’ve had some experience with the plague. I suggest that you confine yourself to your room and avoid contact with strangers. Especially prostitutes. Beyond that, you should get enough sleep and proper, healthful food.
“Those things will help to keep your body strong against the distemper. Also, I will be speaking to the staff, here at the palace, on strengthening oneself against illness. You’re welcome to come and hear my guidance, as is anyone else of a mind.”
Tristan had listened earnestly to Drefan. He bowed, thanking him for his advice. “Well, I appreciate the truth, Lord Rahl. A lesser man might have tried to deceive me about such a serious problem. I can see why you’re so busy. I’ll take my leave so that you may see to your people.”
Berdine nudged up beside Richard as he glared after Tristan’s departing back. As intently as she had been studying the journal, muttering to herself, testing the pronunciation of High D’Haran words, Kahlan doubted she had heard anything that had been said.
“Lord Rahl, I need to talk to you,” Berdine mumbled.
Richard put a hand on her shoulder in a signal for her to wait. “Drefan, Nadine, do either of you have anything for a headache? A really bad headache?”
“I have some herbs that will help, Richard,” Nadine offered.
“I have something better.” Drefan leaned closer to Richard. “It’s called sleep. Perhaps you recall having experienced it in the past?”
“Drefan, I know that I’ve been awake for a while, but—”
“Many days and nights.” Drefan held up a finger. “If you try to mask the outcome of lack of sleep with so-called remedies, you do yourself no service. The headache will return, worse than before. You will ruin your strength. You will be no good to yourself, or anyone else.”
“Drefan is right,” Kahlan said.
Without looking up, Berdine turned the page she was reading in the journal.
“I agree. I feel much better since I got some sleep.” Berdine seemed to have finally noticed that there were other people around. “Now that I’m alert, I can think better.”
Richard warded their insistence with a lifted hand. “I know. Soon, I promise. Now, what was it you wanted to tell me, Berdine?”
“What?” She was reading again. “Oh. I found out where the Temple of the Winds is.”
Richard’s brow went up. “What?”
“After I got some sleep, I could think more clearly. I realized that we were limiting our search by looking for a limited number of key words, so I tried to think of what the old wizards would do in their situation. I reasoned that—”
“Where is it!” Richard bellowed.
Berdine finally looked up and blinked. “The Temple of the Winds is located atop the Mountain of the Four Winds.”
Berdine noticed Raina for the first time. The two women smiled in greeting, their eyes sharing a private warmth.
Kahlan shrugged to Richard’s questioning look. “Berdine, that’s not much help unless you can tell us where it is.”
Berdine frowned a moment, and then waved in apology. “Oh. Sorry. That’s the translation”—she frowned again—“I think.”
Richard swiped a hand across his face. “What does Kolo call it?”
Berdine flipped the page back and turned the book, tapping a finger at a place in the writing.
Richard squinted. “Berglendursch ost Kymermosst,” he read from the journal. “Mountain of the Four Winds.”
“Actually,” Berdine said, “Berglendursch means more than just mountain. Berglen is ‘mountain,’ and dursch can sometimes mean ‘rock,’ though it can also mean other things, like ‘strong-willed,’ but in this case I think it means something more along the lines of rock mountain, or great mountain made of rock. You know, rocky mountain of the four winds… something like that.”
Kahlan shifted her weight on her tired feet. “Mount Kymermosst?”
Berdine scratched her nose. “Yes. That sounds like it could be the same place.”
“That has to be the same place,” Richard said, looking hopeful for the first time in hours. “Do you know where it is?”
“Yes. I’ve been on Mount Kymermosst,” Kahlan said. “There’s no doubt about its being windy up there—and rocky. There are some old ruins atop the mountain, but nothing like a temple.”
“Maybe the ruins are the temple,” Berdine offered. “We don’t know how big it is. A temple can be small.”
“No, I don’t think so, in this case.”
“Why?” Richard asked. “What’s up there? How far is it?”
“It’s not far to the northeast. Maybe a day’s ride, depending. Two at the most. It’s a pretty inhospitable place. As treacherous as the old trail going up and over the mountain is, going over Mount Kymermosst prevents you from having to go through some very difficult country and saves days of travel.
“At the top is the site of some old ruins. Just some kind of outbuildings, from the look of them. I’ve seen a lot of grand places; I recognize, architecturally, that what’s up there isn’t the main structure. They’re something like the outbuildings here, at the Confessors’ Palace. There’s a road through the buildings, a bit like the grand promenade here going through the outbuildings.”
Richard hooked a thumb behind his wide leather belt. “Well, where does it go, this grand road?”
Kahlan stared into his gray eyes. “Right to the edge of a cliff. The buildings are at the edge of a cliff. That sheer stone wall drops off for maybe three or four thousand feet.”
“Is there any kind of stairway carved in the cliff? Something leading down to the Temple itself?”
“Richard, you don’t understand. The buildings are hard on the edge of the cliff. It’s obvious that the buildings, walls, and the road itself went on, because they’re sheared off abruptly right at the edge
. There used to be more of the mountain there. It’s gone now. It’s all fallen away. A rockslide, or something. What was beyond the ruins, the main structure and the mountain, is gone.”
“That’s what Kolo said. The team returned, and the Temple of the Winds was gone.” Richard looked devastated. “They must have used magic to tear away the side of the mountain, to bury the Temple of the Winds so no one could ever go there again.”
“Well,” Berdine sighed, “I’ll keep looking in the journal to see if he says anything about the Temple of the Winds falling in a rockslide, or avalanche.”
Richard nodded. “Maybe there’s more about it in the journal.”
“Lord Rahl, will you have time to help me before you go off to be married?”
