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  　Richard's arms enclosed her in comforting shelter. She listened to the fire crackle, and the sound of his heart under her ear. She could almost imagine, in the safety of his strong arms. that everything was fine, and that they had a future. She remembered her mother's words. Confessors don't have love, Kahlan. They have duty.

  　Kahlan clutched his black shirt as she fought a losing battle to hold back tears. He held her and stroked her hair. She had asked him to hold her and not speak, and he was doing just that. That only made her feel worse.

  　He must have questions. He must want to say something to her, to tell her how relieved he was to see her sate, to tell her how worried he had been, to ask her where she had been and what she had found out, to tell her what he had found, to

  　yell at her; but he didn't. Instead, without protest, he did as she had asked, relegating his own desires to secondary, after hers.

  　How would she go on without his love? How would she draw a breath? How would she manage to make herself go on until she was old and could finally finish her duty and at last die?

  　"Richard . . . I'm so sorry I made that letter sound threatening. I didn't mean to threaten you, I swear. I just wanted you to be safe. I'm so sorry if I hurt you."

  　He squeezed her a little tighter and kissed the top of her head. Kahlan wished she could just die in his arms. now. and not have to face her duty. not have to face the finality of the future, the finality of losing him. "How's your foot?" she asked. "My foot?"

  　"Cara said you hurt it on a chair."

  　"Oh. My foot is fine. The chair died, but I don't think it suffered." Against all odds, Kahlan laughed. She looked up through her tears into his gentle 【创建和谐家园】ile.

  　"All right. I think your hug has revived me. You can yell at me now." He kissed her instead. The feeling of being pulled up in his arms was rapture. Being in the sliph didn't even come close.

  　"So." he finally said. "what did our ancestors' spirits have to say?" "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."

  　"【创建和谐家园】all 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 1. 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 of 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 di【创建和谐家园】iss 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.

  　"Richard," she whispered, "please leave it at that." His glare cut to her soul. "What did she tell you?"

  　Kahlan swallowed as she panted with dread. She could feel hot tears coursing down her face.

  　"Shota saw the future." Kahlan heard herself speaking, even though she had intended to remain silent. "She saw that you will wed another. She used her influence to make it someone you knew." Under his glare, she found remaining silent impossible. "She could not influence who I am to wed. I will be married. too. It will not be you who becomes my hu【创建和谐家园】and."

  　Richard stood frozen for a moment, a boiling thunderhead gathering. He yanked the baldric off over his head and tossed it and the scabbard holding the sword on a chair.

  　"Richard, what are you doing?"

  　And then he was moving. He went for the door. Kahlan put herself in front of him. It was like stepping in front of an enraged mountain. "Richard, what are you going to do?"

  　He grasped her by the waist, picked her up. and set her aside as if she were no more than a child in his way. "I'm going to kill her." Kahlan threw her arms around his waist from behind, trying to drag him to a

  　halt. It slowed him no more than if she had been a gnat. He was leaving his sword because he couldn't travel in the sliph with the magic of the Sword of Truth. "Richard! Richard, please, stop! If you love me, stop!" He halted and turned his wrathful glare on her. His voice came like a crack of thunder. "What?"

  　"Richard, do you think I'm stupid?" "Of course not."

  　"Then do you believe I want to marry someone else?" "No."

  　"Richard, you have to listen to me. Shota said she saw the future. She isn't making the future, she just saw it. She told me these things so that what she saw might help us."

  　"I've had all of the 'help' from Shota I intend to have. I'll have no more of it. She has taken one liberty too many. It will be her last."

  　"Richard, we have to figure out what to do. We have to do what we can to stop this plague. You saw those sick, dying children. The spirit of Chandalen's grandfather showed me countless other dead children-dead people of all sorts. That will be the future if you do this. Do you want those children and their parents to die because you refuse to use your head?"

  　His fist was gripping some sort of ornament on an elaborate necklace. She realized she had never seen it before.

  　Even though he wasn't wearing his sword, its magic drove him. He was a cauldron of lethal rage. Death was dancing in his eyes.

  　"I don't care what Shota says, I'll not marry Nadine. Nor will I stand by while you-"

  　"I know," she whispered. "Richard, I know how you feel. How do you think this makes me feel? But use your head. This is not the way to change what Shota says. You always said before that the future is not yet decided, and that we couldn't act on what Shota says. You always said that we couldn't allow ourselves to put our faith in what she says, and let it direct our actions." His eyes shone with deadly wrath. "You believe her."

  　Kahlan took a calming breath, trying to regain her composure. "I believe she saw the future. Richard, don't you remember how she also said that I would touch you with my power? Look at how that turned out. She was right, but it wasn't the calamitous event I feared. It was what brought us together, and allowed us to have our love."

  　"How can your marrying someone else turn out good?" Kahlan abruptly realized what this was really about: he was jealous. She had never seen him this jealous before. But that's what it was-a jealous rage.

  　"I would be lying if I told you I knew." Kahlan gripped his broad shoulders. "Richard, I love you, and that's the truth. I could never love anyone else. You believe me, don't you? I trust in your love for me, and I know that you don't love Nadine. Don't you believe in me? Don't you trust me?"

  　He visibly cooled. "Of course I do. I do trust you." Frustration replaced the rage in his eyes. He released the amulet in his fist. "But-"

  　"But nothing. We love each other, and that's all there is to it. Whatever happens, we have to believe in each other. If we don't believe in each other, then we are lost in this."

  　At last, he pulled her into his arms. She knew his anguish. She felt it, too. Hers, though, was worse, because she didn't believe there was a way out of Shota's prediction.

  　Kahlan lifted the strange amulet at his neck. In the center, surrounded by a complex of gold and silver lines, was a teardrop-shaped ruby as big as her thumbnail. "Richard, what is this? Where did you get it?"

  　He lifted the gold and silver object from her fingers to peer down at it. "It's a symbol, like the others I wear. I found it in the Keep." "In the First Wizard's enclave?"

  　"Yes. It was part of this outfit, but unlike the rest of it. this was left in the First Wizard's enclave. The man who wore it was the First Wizard in Kolo's time. His name was Baraccus."

  　"Cara told me that you found the record of the trial. What did it look like in there?"

  　Richard stared off. "It was . . . beautiful. I didn't want to leave." "Have you found out anything from the book yet?"

  　"No. It's in High D'Haran. Berdine is working on Kolo's journal; I'll work on this one. I've only had an hour or so to start translating it. I haven't really done much yet: I was too worried about you to be able to think about anything else."

  　Kahlan touched the amulet hanging around his neck. "Do you know what this symbol represents?"

  　"Yes. The ruby is meant to represent a drop of blood. It is the symbolic representation of the way of the primary edict." "The primary edict?"

  　His voice turned distant, as if speaking to himself more than to her. "It means only one thing, and everything: cut. Once committed to fight, cut. Everything else is secondary. Cut. That is your duty, your purpose, your hunger. There is no rule more important, no commitment that overrides that one. Cut." His words chilled her to the bone as he went on.

  　' The lines are a portrayal of the dance. Cut from the void, not from bewilderment. Cut the enemy as quickly and directly as possible. Cut with certainty. Cut decisively, resolutely. Cut into his strength. Flow through the gaps in his guard. Cut him. Cut him down utterly. Don't allow him a breath. Crush him. Cut him without mercy to the depths of his spirit.

  　"It is the balance to life: death. It is the dance with death. "It is the law a war wizard lives by. or he dies."

  　CHAPTER 49

  　Clarissa sat curled up in a chair, sewing the hem of a new dress Nathan had bought for her. He had wanted to let the seamstress do the work, but she had insisted on doing it herself, mostly to have something to do. Nathan had 【创建和谐家园】iled and told her that if it would please her, then it was all right with him. She didn't know what she would do with all the dresses he kept buying for her. She had told him to stop, but he just kept doing it.

  　Nathan returned from the door, having had a long discussion with a soldier named Bollesdun about the movements of Jagang's expeditionary force. They were the men who had attacked her home of Renwold, Clarissa had learned. She tried not to listen to Nathan's talks with his soldier friends who showed up from time to time.

  　She didn't like to think about the nightmare of Renwold. Nathan told her that he wanted to end the killing, so there would be no more Renwolds. He called it a waste of life.

  　Clarissa touched Nathan's leg when he came close. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

  　His blue eyes turned toward her, watching her for a long moment. "No, not yet. I must write a letter. I'm expecting someone soon. Don't go into the bedroom to answer the door when they come. Stay in here. I don't want them to get a look at you. You don't have magic, so they won't know you're in here."

  　Clarissa caught the tone of disquiet in his voice. "Do you think they will cause trouble? They won't try to hurt you, will they?"

  　A sly 【创建和谐家园】ile took his face. "That would be the last mistake they ever made. I've laid so many traps around this place that the Keeper himself wouldn't dare to try to take me here." He winked at her, as if to reassure her. "Watch through the keyhole, if you wish. It may be good for you to remember the faces of these people. They're dangerous."

  　Her stomach churning with anxiety, Clarissa began embroidering little vines and leaves along the hem of the dress, because she thought they would be pretty, and to pass the time while Nathan wrote his letter. When he finished, he clasped his hands behind his back and paced.

  　When the knock finally came, he looked toward the bedroom, where stood the door to the hall. He turned to her and crossed his lips with a finger. Clarissa nodded. He shut the door to the sitting room as he went to answer the knock. She set aside her needlework and knelt at the door to peek through the keyhole.

  　She had a good view of the hall door as Nathan pulled it open. Two attractive women, about Clarissa's age, stood in the hall. Two young men waited behind them. The scowls on the women could have cut stone.

  　Clarissa was astonished to see that each woman had a 【创建和谐家园】all gold ring through her lower lip, as did Clarissa.

  　"Well. well." one of the women said contemptuously, "if it isn't the prophet himself. We thought it was probably you. Nathan, messing about in things that aren't your business."

  　Nathan grinned as he bowed dramatically from the waist. "Sister Jodelle. Sister Willamina. How nice to see you again. And that's Lord Rahl. Even to you, Sister Jodelle."

  　"Lord Rahl." Sister Jodelle said in a flat. mocking voice. "So we've heard." Nathan waggled his fingers in greeting to the two young men standing out in the hall behind the two women. "Vincent, Pierce, how good to see you two boy wizards again. Still trying to master prophecy, are you? Come for some advice? Maybe a lesson?"