"A Feng San disharmony," Drefan announced at once. "You bring it on yourself with the way you push past the limits of your body. There are bounds to what we can do, and if-"
"Drefan," Richard said, cutting him off with a gentle voice, "I know what you mean, but I do what I must. You just have to understand that. Jagang is trying to kill us all. It will do me no good to be as high-spirited as a squirrel in spring if it means we all end up dead."grunted. "I understand, but that doesn't get you strong." "So, I'll try to be good later. What about going to sleep tonight?" "Meditation," Drefan said. "That will calm your energy flows, and begin bringing them into harmony." Richard rubbed his brow. "Drefan, hundreds of thousands of people are in danger of dying because Jagang wants to put the whole of the world under his boot. He's shown us that he has no bounds to his determination.
"He's starting the killing with children." Richard's knuckles turned white as his hands fisted. "Just to send me a message! Children!
"He has no conscience. He's showing me what he's willing to do to win. To make me surrender! He thinks it will break me!"contrast to his knuckles. Richard's face had gone scarlet. "He's wrong. I'd never give our people over to that kind of tyrant. Never! I'll do whatever I must to stop this plague! I swear it!"room rang with the sudden silence. Kahlan had never seen Richard angry in quite this way. When he had the deadly fury of the Sword of Truth's magic in his eyes, the object of his rage was usually at hand: the rage was invoked by and directed at a palpable threat.was frustrated anger at an invisible enemy. There was no threat he could get his hands on, now. He had no direct way to fight it. Kahlan could see in his eyes that this anger wasn't the magic of the sword. This was purely Richard's rage.face finally cooled. He took a calming breath as he wiped a hand across his face. He regained control of his voice.
"If I try to meditate. I will only see those sick and dead children again in my mind. Please, I can't bear to see that in my sleep. I need to go to sleep and not have dreams."
"Go to sleep and not have dreams? You are bothered by dreams?" "Nightmares. I have them all day, too, when I'm awake, but they're real. The dream walker can't enter my dreams, but he has found a way to give me nightmares, nonetheless. Please, dear spirits, at least when I'm asleep, grant me some peace."
"A sure sign of a Feng San meridian disharmony," Drefan confirmed to himself. "I can see that you are going to be a difficult patient, but not without a cause."slipped the bone pin from the loop of leather and opened the flap on one of the pouches at his belt. He pulled out a few leather purses. He put one back. "No, that will kill pain, but not be much aid to sleep." He sniffed another. "No, that will make you vomit." He searched his other things and finally closed the flaps on the pouches. "I'm afraid I didn't bring anything so simple with me. I only brought rare items."sighed. "Thanks for trying, anyway."turned to Nadine. She was bottled zeal, pressing her lips together with restrained delight as the others talked.
"The things you gave Yonick's mother wouldn't be strong enough for Richard," Drefan said to her. "Do you have any hops?"
"Sure," she said calmly, but obviously pleased that someone had at last asked her. "In tincture, of course."
"Perfect," Drefan said. He slapped Richard on the back. "You can meditate another time. Tonight, you will be asleep in no time. Nadine will fix you a preparation. I'll go start checking with the staff and giving them my recommendations." "Don't forget to meditate," Richard muttered as Drefan departed. Berdine remained behind, studying the journal, as Nadine. Cara, Raina, Ulic, Egan, and Kahlan all followed Richard to his room, not far away. Ulic and Egan took up posts outside in the hall. The rest of them went into the room with Richard., Richard tossed his gold cloak over a chair. He pulled the baldric over his head and laid the Sword of Truth atop it. He wearily drew his gold-trimmed tunic over his head, and removed his shirt, leaving him with a black, armless undershirt.watched from the corner of her eye while she softly counted each drop aloud as it dripped into a glass of water.flopped down on the edge of the bed. "Cara, would you pull my boots off for me, please?"rolled her eyes. "Do I look like a valet?" She squatted to the task when Richard smiled.leaned back on his elbows. "Tell Berdine that I want her to look for any reference to this Mountain of the Four Winds place. See what else she can find out about it."looked up from his feet. "What a brilliant idea," she said with mock enthusiasm. "I bet she would never have thought of that on her own, all-wise and knowing master."
"All right, all right. I guess I'm not needed. How's my magic potion coming over there?"
"Just finished," Nadine said in a cheery voice.grunted as she yanked off his other boot. "Undo your pants, and I'll pull them off, too."scowled down at her. "I'll manage, thank you." Cara smirked to herself as he rolled off the bed and went to Nadine. She handed him the glass of water with the tincture of hops. She had put something else in the glass of water, too.
"Don't drink it all. I put in fifty drops. That's way more than you should need, but I wanted to leave you with extra. Drink about a third, and then if you wake in the night, you can always drink another swallow or two. I put in some valerian and skullcap, too, to help insure you go into a deep and dreamless sleep."downed half of it. His face contorted. "As bad as this tastes, it will put me to sleep or else kill me." Nadine smiled at him. "You'll sleep like a baby." "Babies don't sleep all that well, from what I've heard." Nadine laughed in a soft lilt. "You'll sleep, Richard. I promise. If you wake too early, just take a little more."
"Thanks." He sat down on the edge of the bed, looking from one woman to the next. "I'll manage with my pants. I swear."rolled her eyes and headed for the door, urging Nadine along before her. Kahlan kissed his cheek.
"Get in bed. I'll come back in and tuck you in and kiss you good night as soon as I see to the guards."followed Kahlan out and closed the door. Nadine was waiting, rocking back and forth on her heels. "How's the arm? Do you need a poultice?"
"My arm is much better," Kahlan said. "I think it's fine, now. But thank you for asking."clasped her hands and stood watching Nadine. Cara watched Nadine. Raina watched Nadine.'s gaze moved from one woman to the next. She glanced to Ulic and Egan, who were watching her. too. "All right, then. Good night." "Good night," Kahlan, Cara, and Raina said as one.watched as Nadine strolled off.
"I still say you should have let me kill her," Cara said under her breath. "I may yet let you," Kahlan said. She knocked on the door. "Richard? You in bed?" "Yes."started to follow as Kahlan opened the door.turned. "I'll only be a minute. I don't think he can spoil my honor in a minute."frowned. "With Lord Rahl, anything is possible." Raina laughed and slapped Cara's arm, making her leave Kahlan be. "I wouldn't worry. With what we've seen today, neither of us would be in the mood," Kahlan said. She shut the door.single candle was lit. Richard was covered to his stomach. Kahlan sat on the edge of the bed and took his hand. She held it to her heart. "Are you terribly disappointed?" he asked.
"Richard, we will be married. I've waited my whole life for you. We're together; that's all that really matters."smiled. His tired eyes sparkled. "Well, not all." Kahlan couldn't help smiling herself. She kissed his knuckles. "Just as long as you know that I understand," she said. "I didn't want you to go to sleep thinking I was heartbroken that we can't be married just now. We'll be married when we can."put his other hand to the back of her neck and pulled her into a gentle kiss. She laid a hand on his bare chest, feeling his warm flesh, his breathing, his heartbeat. If she hadn't been so devastated by the suffering children she had seen that day, the feel of him would have ignited longing in her own breast. "I love you." she whispered. "I love you, now, and always," he whispered back. She blew out the candle. "Sleep well, my love."eyed Kahlan suspiciously as she closed the door. "That was two minutes." Kahlan ignored Cara's little jab. "Raina, would you guard Richard's room until you go to bed, and then have a guard posted?" "Yes, Mother Confessor."
"Ulic, Egan, with that sleep potion, Richard may not be able to awake if he were in danger. I'd like one of you to be here when Raina goes to bed."folded his massive arms. "Mother Confessor, neither of us has any intention of leaving this spot as long as Lord Rahl is asleep."pointed at the floor against the opposite wall. "One of us can take a nap if need be. We'll both be here. Don't be concerned for Lord Rahl's safety while he is sleeping."
"Thank you, all of you. One other thing: Nadine isn't to be allowed into his room-for any reason. None whatsoever."all nodded in satisfaction. Kahlan turned to the blond-headed Mord-Sith. "Cara, go get Berdine. I'm going to get a cloak. Both of you should bring your cloaks, too. It's a foul night." "And where are we going?" "I'll meet you both out in the stables." "The stables? Why do you want to go out there? It's time for dinner."would never really balk at a duty over a matter so petty as dinner. She was suspicious.
"Grab something from the kitchens that we can take with us, then." Cara clasped her hands behind her back. "Where are we going?" "For a ride."
"A ride. Mother Confessor, where are we going?" "The Wizard's Keep." Both Cara and Raina lifted an eyebrow.'s surprise turned to a frown of disapproval. "Does Lord Rahl know that you want to go up to the Keep?"
"Of course not. If I had told him why I'm going, he would have insisted on going, too. He needs sleep, so I didn't tell him." "And why are we going?"
"Because the Temple of the Winds is gone. The wizards who did it were put on trial. There are records in the Keep of all the trials held there. I want to find that record. Tomorrow, Richard can read it over, after he's gotten some sleep. It could help him."
"Makes sense, going to the Wizard's Keep after dark. I will go get Berdine and some food and meet you in the stables. We'll make a picnic of it," Cara said with blithe sarcasm.34batted the big, wet snowflakes from her lashes and pulled the hood of her cloak forward as she considered the foolishness of not thinking to change out of her white Confessor's dress. She stood in the stirrups, reached between her legs, and pulled more of the back of the dress under her bare legs to protect them from the cold saddle. Fortunately, her boots were high enough that hiking up the dress to sit in the saddle didn't expose her calves to the wind. She was glad, though, to be back on Nick, the big warhorse her Galean soldiers had given her. Nick was an old friend.and Berdine looked just as uncomfortable as she, but Kahlan knew that it was because they feared going to a place of magic. They had been in the Wizard's Keep before. They didn't want to return. Back at the stables they had tried to talk her out of it. Kahlan had reminded them of the plague.'s ears twitched even before the dark shapes of soldiers appeared out of the swirling snow to challenge them. Kahlan knew they had reached the stone bridge; the soldiers were posted just to the city side of it.men sheathed their swords when Cara growled at them, pleased to have someone handy upon whom to vent her foul mood.
"Terrible night to be out. Mother Confessor," one of the soldiers said, happy to address someone other than the Mord-Sith. "Terrible night to be stationed out here," she said.man looked back over his shoulder. "Any night you're stationed on watch up here at the Keep is a terrible night."smiled. "The Keep looks sinister, soldier, but it's not so bad as it looks." "If you say so. Mother Confessor. Myself, I think I'd just as soon stand guard over the underworld itself." "No one has tried to get in the Keep, have they?"
"If they had, you'd have heard about it, or found our bodies. Mother Confessor." Kahlan urged her big stallion on. Nick snorted and surged ahead on the slick snow. She trusted him in such conditions and let him lead the way. Cara and Berdine both swayed easily in their saddles as they followed behind. Back in the stables, Cara had snatched her horse's bit, looked the animal in the eye, and ordered it not to give her any trouble. Kahlan had the odd feeling that the bay mare understood the warning.could just see the stone walls at the sides of the bridge. Just as well that the horses couldn't see the chasm beyond. She knew Nick wouldn't spook, but she wasn't sure about the other two. The sheer rock walls of the yawning abyss dropped for thousands of feet. Unless you had wings, there was only this one way into the Wizard's Keep. In the snowy darkness, the vast Keep, its soaring walls of dark stone, its ramparts, bastions, towers, connecting passageways, and bridges all blended into the inky darkness of the side of the mountain into which it was built. To those without magic or those who didn't understand magic, the Keep presented an unmistakable spectacle of sinister menace.had grown up in Aydindril and had been up to the Keep uncountable times, more often than not, alone. Even as a child, she had been allowed to go alone to the Keep, as were the other young Confessors. When she was little, wizards had tickled her and chased her through the halls, laughing with her. The Keep was a second home to her: comfortably safe, welcoming, and protective.knew, though, that there were dangers in the Keep, just as in any home. A home could be a safe, welcoming place, as long as one wasn't foolish enough to walk into the hearth. There were places in the Keep you didn't walk into, either.was only when she was older that she no longer went to the Keep alone. When a Confessor became older, it was dangerous to go anywhere alone. After a Confessor had begun taking confessions, it wasn't safe for her to be without the protection of her wizard.she was older, a Confessor earned enemies. Family of the condemned rarely believed that a loved one had committed violent crimes, or they blamed Confessors for the man's death sentence, even though she was only the means of confirming its justice.were always attempts on the lives of Confessors. There was no shortage of people, from commoners to kings, wanting a Confessor dead.
"How are we going to go through the shields without Lord Rahl?" Berdine asked. "His magic enabled us to pass through, before. We won't be able to get through the shields."smiled assurance to the two Mord-Sith. "Richard didn't know where he was going. He just blundered through the Keep, going where he needed to go on instinct. I know the ways to go that don't require magic to pass. There may be a few mild shields that will keep people out, but I can pass those. If I can pass, then I can get you through them by touching you when you pass through, the same way Richard took you through the more powerful shields."grunted disagreeably. She had been hoping that the shields would stop them.
"Cara, I've been in the Keep thousands of times. It's perfectly safe. We're just going to the libraries. Just as you are my protector out in the world, in the Keep I will be yours. We are sisters of the Agiel. I won't let you get anywhere near dangerous magic. Trust me?"
"Well.. I guess you are a sister of the Agiel. I can trust a sister of the Agiel." They passed under the huge portcullis and onto the Keep grounds. Once inside the massive outer walls, the snow melted as it touched the ground. Kahlan pushed back her hood. Inside the walls, it was warm and comfortable.shook the snow from her cloak and took a deep breath of the spring-fresh air, filling her lungs with the familiar, soothing scent. Nick whinnied agreeably.led the two Mord-Sith across the stretch of gravel and stone chips to the arched opening in the wall that tunneled under part of the Keep. As they passed through the long passageway, the lamps hanging from Cara and Berdine's saddles lit the arched stone around them in an orange glow.
"Why are we going through here?" Cara asked. "Lord Rahl took us in that big door back there."
"I know. That's one reason you're afraid of the Keep. That was a very dangerous way to go in. I'm taking us to the way I usually enter. It's much better. You'll see.
"It's not the way visitors entered, either, but the way used by those who lived and worked here. The public came in at a different door. a place where they were greeted by a guide who saw to their wants."the tunnel, all three horses eyed the expansive paddock lush with grass. The gravel road ran beside the wall that held the main entrance to the Keep, with a fence on the other side of the road enclosing the paddock. To the left. part of the paddock was bounded by the walls of the Keep rather than a fence. At the rear were stables.dismounted and opened the gate. After removing saddles and tack, all three of them turned their horses loose in the paddock, where they could crop grass and frisk in the mild air if they wished.dozen wide granite steps, worn smooth and swayback over the millennia, led up into a recessed entryway, to the simple but heavy double doors into the Keep proper. Cara and Berdine followed behind with the lamps. The anteroom swallowed the lamplight into its vast space, only allowing the weak flames to hint at the columns and arches.
"What's that?" Berdine asked in a low whisper. "It sounds like a storm drain." "There aren't.. rats in here, are there?"
"Actually, it's a fountain," Kahlan said, her voice echoing into the distance. "And yes, Cara. there are rats in the Keep, but not where I'm taking you. Promise. Here, give me your lamp. Let me show you the bones of this menacing dungeon."took the lamp and strode to one of the key lamps on the wall to the right. She could walk there without the aid of the lamp, she had done it so often, but she needed the lamp's flame. She found the key lamp, tilled back the tall chimney, and lit it with the flame from Cara's lamp.key lamp took to flame. With a succession of whooshing sounds, the rest of the lamps in the room lit-hundreds of them-two at a time. in pairs, one to each side. Each whoosh was followed almost simultaneously by another, as the lamps around the huge room took to flame from the key lamp. The light in the room grew: the effect was like turning up the wick on a lamp.a span of seconds, the anteroom was nearly as bright as day, bathed in the mellow yellow-orange glow of all the flames. Cara and Berdine stood slackjawed at the sight.hundred feet overhead the glassed roof was dark, but in the day, it flooded the room with warmth and light. At night, if the sky was clear, you could turn down the lamps and gaze at the stars, or let the moonlight wash the room.the center of the tiled floor stood a clover leaf-shaped fountain. Water shot fifteen feet into the air above the top bowl, to cascade down each successive tier into ever wider, scalloped bowls, finally running from evenly spaced points in the bottom one in perfectly matched arcs into the lower pool. An outer wall of variegated white marble was wide enough to act as a bench.stepped down one step of the five that ringed the room. "It's beautiful," she whispered in astonishment.gazed about at the red marble columns holding the arches below the balcony that ran all the way around the oval-shaped room. She had a smile on her lips. "This is nothing like the place Lord Rahl took us." Cara frowned. "The lamps.was magic. There is magic in here. You said you would keep us away from magic."
"I said I would keep you away from dangerous magic. The lamps are kind of like a shield, except in reverse. Instead of keeping people out, they're an enabling shield, to welcome and help them enter. It's a friendly kind of magic, Cara." "Friendly. Sure."
"Come on, we came here for a purpose. We have work to do." Kahlan took them to the libraries via the elegant, warm halls, rather than the frightening way they had gone before. They encountered only three shields. Kahlan's magic allowed her to pass these, and by holding Cara and Berdine's hands, it was possible to get them through, too, though both complained about a tingling sensation.shields didn't guard dangerous areas, and so were weaker than others in the Keep. There were shields that Kahlan couldn't pass, like the ones Richard had taken her through to go down to the sliph, though Kahlan thought there might be other ways to get down there. There were shields which Richard had gone through that in her experience no wizard had ever crossed before.came to an intersection with a hall of light pink stone running down both sides. At places, the hall opened into commodious rooms ringed with padded benches for conversing or reading. Beyond double doors in each of these large outer rooms was a library.
"I've been here," Berdine said. "I remember this." "Yes. Richard brought you here, but by a different route." Kahlan continued on to the eighth sitting room, and went through the double doors into the library there. She used her lamp to light the key lamp, and as before, all the rest lit, lifting the room out of its pitch blackness, bringing it to life. The floors were polished wood, with walls paneled in the same honey-colored oak. During the day, glassed windows on the far wall bathed the room with light and provided a beautiful view of Aydindril. Now, through the snow, Kahlan could only occasionally see the lights of the city below.strode down the aisle between the reading tables and the rows upon rows of bookshelves, looking for the one she remembered. In this room alone, there were one hundred and forty-five rows of books. There were comfortable chairs to use while reading, but tonight they would need the tables to lay out the books.
"So this is the library," Cara said. "In D'Hara, at the People's Palace, there are libraries much larger than this."
"This is only one of twenty-six rooms like this. I can only imagine how many thousands of books are here in the Keep," Kahlan said.
"Then how are we ever going to find the ones we're looking for?" Berdine asked.
"It shouldn't be as hard as it sounds. The libraries can be a bewildering maze when you wish to find something. I used to know a wizard who searched on and off his whole life for a bit of information he knew was in the libraries. He never found it." "Then how can we?"
"Because there are a few things that are specialized enough that they are kept together. Books of language, for example. I can take you to all the books on any specific language, because they're not about magic and so they're in one place. I don't know how books on magic and prophecy are organized, if they even are.
"Anyway, this library is where certain records are kept. such as the records of trials held here. I've not read them, but I was taught about them."turned and led them between two rows of shelves. Nearly midway down the fifty-foot-long aisle, she came to a halt.
"Here they are. I can see by the writing on the spines that they're in different languages. Since I know all the languages but High D'Haran, I'll search all the ones in other languages. Cara, you look at the ones in ours, and Berdine, you take the ones in High D'Haran."three of them started picking books from the shelves and carrying them to the tables, separating them into three stacks. There weren't as many as Kahlan had feared. Berdine had only seven books, Cara had fifteen, and Kahlan eleven, in a variety of languages. For Berdine, it would be slow going translating the D'Haran, but Kahlan was fluent in the other languages, and she would be able to help with Cara's stack as soon as she finished her own.Kahlan started in, she quickly found that it was going to be easier than she'd first thought. Each trial began with a statement of the type of crime, making it simple to eliminate those that had nothing to do with the Temple of the Winds.were charges against the accused ranging from the taking of a cherished object of little worth to murder. A sorceress was accused of casting a glamour, but was found innocent. A boy of twelve was accused of starting a fight in which another boy's arm was broken; because the aggressor had used magic to cause the injury, the sentence was the suspension of his training for a period of one year. A wizard was accused of being a drunkard, a third offense, the prior punishments having failed to halt his belligerent behavior. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. The sentence was carried out two days later, when he had sobered., drunken wizards were viewed not with tolerance but as the true dangers they were, capable, in their inebriated state, of causing mass injury and death. Kahlan herself had seen wizards drink to excess only one time.accounts of the trials were fascinating, but the seriousness of their purpose kept Kahlan skimming through the books, looking for a reference to the Temple of the Winds, or to a team charged with a crime. The other two were making quick progress, too. In an hour, Kahlan had finished all eleven books in the other languages, Berdine had only three left, and Cara six. "Anything?" Kahlan asked.lifted an eyebrow. "I just found an account of a wizard who fancied hiking up his robes in front of women in the market on Stentor Street and commanding them to 'kiss the serpent. I never knew wizards could get themselves in such a variety of trouble."
"They're people, just like any other people." "No, they're not. They have magic," Cara said. "So do I. Have you found anything, Berdine?" "No, not what we're looking for. Just common crimes." Kahlan reached for one of the books Cara hadn't been through, but paused. "Berdine, you were down in the room with the sliph." Berdine made a show of shivering and producing a sound of revulsion from deep in her throat. "Don't remind me."shut her eyes, trying to remember the room. She remembered Kolo's bones, and she remembered the sliph, but she only vaguely recalled what else was in the room.
"Berdine, do you remember if there were any other books down there?" Berdine bit down on the end of a fingernail as she squinted in concentration. "I remember finding Kolo's journal open on the table. An inkwell and pen. I remember Kolo's bones, lying on the floor next to the chair, with most of his clothes long ago rotted away. His leather belt was still around him."remembered much the same thing. "But do you remember if there were any books on the shelves?" Berdine turned her eyes up as she thought. "No." "No there weren't, or no you don't remember?"
"No, I don't remember. Lord Rahl was really excited about finding Kolo's journal. He said it was something different from the books in the library, and he felt it was what he had been searching for: something different. We left right after that."stood. "You two keep looking through these books. I'm going down there and have a look, just to be sure."'s chair clattered against the floor as she stood. "I will go with you." "There are rats down there."expression vexed, Cara put a hand on her hip. "I've seen rats before. I will go with you."remembered well Cara's story about the rats. "Cara, there's no need. I don't need your protection in the Keep. Outside, yes, but in here I know the dangers better than you.
"I told you I wouldn't take you near dangerous magic. Down there is dangerous magic."
"Then there is danger to you."
"No, because I know about it. You don't. The danger would be to you, not me. I grew up here. My own mother let me have the run of the Keep when I was a little girl because I was taught about the dangers and how to avoid them. I know what I'm doing.
"Please stay here with Berdine and finish going through the books. It will save us time, and it's important. The sooner we find the one we're looking for, the sooner we can get home to watch over Richard. That's where our real concern is."'s leather creaked as she shifted her weight. "I guess you would know the dangers of the magic here better than I. I think you're right about getting home. Nadine is back there."35tried to overlay her mental map of the Keep on the passageways, stairwells. and rooms she traversed as she wound her way lower. Rats squeaked and skittered away from her lamp.she had often seen the tower outside Kolo's room from the ramparts and walkways up on top of the Keep, she had never been down inside it until Richard had taken her there. Unfortunately, Richard had taken her there by way of dangerous passages, through shields she would never be able to get through on her own.was confident that there were other routes down to Kolo's room. There were vast areas of the Keep that weren't protected by any shields at all. She had only to find a way without shields, or with shields that her magic would be able to pass. The areas that Richard had taken her, protected by dangerous shields, she didn't know at all, since she had never been beyond those before, but she was familiar with a myriad of ways to get around them.the "hard shields," as the wizards used to call them, were meant to protect something just beyond, rather than specifically to prevent passage to another area. Many of the rooms Richard had taken her through were like that: places of menacing magic she had never seen before. They oftentimes provided a more direct route, but required special magic.she was correct, that Richard had traversed a maze through dangerous places, rather than going through hard shields specifically protecting the tower, then there would be a way around the dangerous areas and into the tower room. In her experience, that was the way the Keep worked: if the tower room was meant to be off-limits, then it would be protected by its own hard shields. If it wasn't forbidden, then there would be at least one way she could enter. She had but to find it.though she had spent a great deal of time in the Keep. much of that time was spent in the libraries studying. She had explored, of course, but the Keep was almost inconceivably vast. Not only was the part that could be seen from the outside immense, but much more of the Keep was burrowed into the mountain. The outer walls were only the tip of the Keep, the visible part of the tooth, with much more of the root hidden beneath.went through an empty room, chiseled from bedrock, to one of the passages on the other side. There were numerous empty rooms in the Wizards' Keep. Some of them, like the one she had just passed through, seemed nothing more than junctions where various passages connected, possibly enlarged to provide reference points.square-sided passage through the rock ahead appeared carefully cut and smoothed. Her lamp illuminated bands of symbols incised in the granite, with round areas in the field of swirling carvings polished to a high luster. Each encircling band marked the location of a mild shield that tingled against her flesh as she passed through., she saw the hall split into three passageways. Before she reached the junction, the air about her suddenly hummed. It took two steps before she could halt her onward rush. Each of those two steps caused the hum to raise in pitch to an uncomfortable buzzing. Her long hair lifted from her shoulders and back to stand straight out in all directions. The band carved in the stone ahead immediately began to glow red.retreated several paces. The humming lowered in pitch. Her hair settled down.cursed under her breath. A humming shield was an urgent warning to stay away. The red glow displayed the region of the shield itself. The hum warned that you were entering the field of a dangerous shield.of these hard shields would actually prevent a person without the required magic from getting too close, by making the very air get as thick as mud, and then stone. Some of the humming shields didn't prevent entry, but walking into one would sear the flesh and muscle right off a person's bones. The lesser shields were meant to keep people without magic, and thus knowledge, from getting close to the danger.turned and held up the lamp as she quickly retraced her steps to the room. She took a different passageway that ran in the general direction she wanted to go. It was a much more congenial-looking hall, with whitewashed walls and ceiling, making the lamp better able to brighten her way.encountered no shields at all in the white hall. A stairway took her lower into the Keep. Another stone hall at the bottom provided quick travel devoid of shields. In her mind, she was retracing the halls, rooms, stairs, and cramped tunnels, and was pretty sure that, by eliminating the false routes she had taken, there was a way to get to and from the tower without encountering any shields.threw open the door at the end of the stone hall and stepped out onto a walkway with an iron railing. She held the lamp up in front of her. She stood at the bottom level of the tower.walkway ringed the hall. Stairs wound their way up around the inside of the immense stone tower, with landings at other doors along the way. In the center, at the bottom of the tower, lurked a pool of black water. Rocks broke the surface of the water here and there. Bugs skittered across the inky surface of the pool. Salamanders rested on the rocks, their eyes rolling to watch her.was the place where she and Richard had fought the mriswith queen. Her stinking, broken eggs still littered the rock. Small bits of the door blasted from Kolo's room still floated in the pool, providing islands for fat bugs that hissed at the intrusion.the water, on the opposite side of the round tower room, was the opening to Kolo's room.quickly made her way around the walkway to the wide platform outside Kolo's room. The doorway had been blown open, leaving blackened, jagged edges. In some places the stone itself was melted like candle wax. The tower wall outside the doorway was streaked with blackened lines of soot from the unleashed power that had opened Kolo's room for the first time in millennia.Richard had destroyed the Towers of Perdition, it had destroyed the magic seal on this room, too. The towers had sealed the Old World away from the New in the great war three thousand years before. They had also sealed the room with the sliph, and sealed in the man who had been unfortunate enough to be the one guarding her at the time.fragments crunched under her feet as Kahlan stepped into the room where Kolo had died, the room where dwelled the sliph. The silence was oppressive. It droned in her ears. making her welcome the relief of her footsteps.had awakened the sliph after thousands of years. The sliph had taken Richard to the Old World, and had brought him and Kahlan safely back to Aydindril. When they returned, Richard had put the sliph back to sleep. All the years Kahlan had spent in the Keep, and she had never known the sliph was there.couldn't even imagine the magic the wizards of old could use to conjure a being such as the sliph, or how they could have put her to sleep for all that time. so that she could wake again. Only at the fringes of her imagination could she conceive of the power Richard wielded, but didn't comprehend.would the war wizards of old, who knew their gift well, have been able to do with such unfathomable magic? What terrors would a war among those with that kind of power have been like? The very thought gave her shivers.would have been things like the plague that had been set upon them, now. They could do those kinds of things.lamplight fell across Kolo's bones beside the chair. The pen and inkwell still sat on the dusty table. The round room, nearly sixty feet across, was capped with a high-domed ceiling, itself nearly as tall as the room was wide.the center was a round stone wall, like a well, twenty-five or thirty feet across. There dwelled the sliph. Kahlan held the light over the wall of the well, and glanced briefly down the smooth stone walls of the dark shaft that fell away seemingly forever.walls of the room were scorched in ragged lines as if lightning had gone wild in the place-another result of the same magic Richard had invoked when he destroyed the towers and when the doorway had been blasted open. Kahlan strode quickly around the room, checking to see if there was anything that might be useful. There was nothing in the room, other than the table, chair, and Kolo, except for a dusty set of shelves.was disappointed to find that there were no books on the shelves. There were three faded blue, glazed, lidded containers, probably once holding water or soup for the wizard on duty guarding the sliph. A white, glazed bowl held a silver spoon. A neatly folded cloth, or embroidery of some sort, sat on one of the shelves. When she touched it, it disintegrated into dust and little flakes where her fingers contacted it.bent lower, seeing that the bottom shelf held only a few spare candles and a lamp.abrupt sensation of icy alarm inundated her. She was being watched.froze, holding her breath, telling herself that it was just her imagination. The fine hairs at the back of her neck stiffened. She felt a cold wave of gooseflesh run up her arms.strained to hear a telling sound. Her toes cringed inside her boots. She feared to move. Carefully, quietly, she let her lungs draw a needed breath., ever so slowly, so as not to make a sound, she straightened a little. She dared not move her feet lest the stone chips crunch., as thin as eggshells, urged her to hide behind the wall of the sliph's well. From there, she could determine if it was only her imagination spooking her. Perhaps it was just a rat.twisted to check the distance to the stone wall. Kahlan sucked a cry as she flinched back.36quicksilver face of the sliph had risen above the edge of the stone wall and was watching her.glossy metallic female features of the sliph reflected the lamplight and the room in a living mirror. It was obvious why Kolo called the sliph "she." The sliph was a silver statue. Except it moved with liquid grace.pressed a hand to her hammering heart as she panted, getting her breath. The sliph watched her, as if curious about what Kahlan might do next. Kolo often said in his journal that «she» was watching him. "Sliph.." Kahlan stammered. "What are you doing-awake?" The face distorted into a puzzled frown. "Do you wish to travel?" The eerie voice echoed around the room. Her lips hadn't moved as she spoke, but she smiled pleasantly.
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