She wondered how long it had been since he had gotten any sleep. She wondered if he was thinking clearly. "I said I wasn't sure." "But that's what you mean."

"Well, it sounds. . absurd, when you;;ay it like that. It doesn't sound the same when you read it in High D'Haran. I don't know how to explain the difference, but there is one. Maybe it's just a difference of degree."

"Difference of degree or not. how can a place have a sense of perception? Be sentient?"

Richard sighed. "I don't know. I've been trying to figure that out myself. Why do you think I've been up all night?" "But such a thing is not possible."

His defiant gray eyes turned to her. "The Wizard's Keep is just a place, but it knows when someone violates it. It reacts to that violation by stopping the person, even killing them if it must, to prevent an unauthorized person from entering a place they don't belong."

Kahlan made a face. "Richard, that's the shields. Wizards placed those shields to protect important or dangerous things from being stolen, or to prevent people from going where they could be hurt."

"But they react without anyone having to tell them to, don't they?" "So does a leg-hold trap. That doesn't make them sentient. You mean that the

Temple of the Winds is protected by shields. That's all you're saying, then-that it has shields."

"Yes, and no. It's more than simple shields. Shields only ward. The way Kolo talks about it makes it sound like the Temple of the Winds can. . I don't know, like it can think, like it can decide things when it must." "Decide things. Like what?"

"When he wrote how everyone was? in a panic about the red moon, that was when he said that the team who had sent the Temple of the Winds away had betrayed them." "So. . what?"

"So I think that the Temple of the Winds made the moon turn red." Kahlan watched his eyes, transfixed by the look of conviction in them. "I won't even ask how such a thing would be possible, but for the moment, let's just say you're right. Why would the Temple of the Winds make the moon turn red?" Richard held her gaze. "As a warning." "Of what?"

"The shields in the Keep react by warding. Almost no one can pass through them. I can, because I have the right kind of magic. If someone who wants to do harm has enough magic, and knowledge, they too can get by the shields. What happens, then?" "Well, nothing. They get through."

''Exactly. I think the Temple of the Winds can do more. I think it can know if someone has violated its defenses, and lend a warning." "The red moon," she whispered. "It makes sense."

She put a hand tenderly to his arm. 'Richard, you need to get some rest. You can't infer all this from Kolo's journal alone. It was just one journal, written a long time ago."

He yanked his arm away. "I don't know where else to look. Shota said the wind was hunting me! I don't need to go to sleep to have nightmares."

In that instant, Kahlan knew that it wasn't Shota's message that was driving him. It was the prophecy down in the pit.

The first part of the prophecy said: On the red moon will come the firestorm. It was the second part that truly terrified her.

To quench the inferno, he must seek the remedy in the wind. Lightning will find him on that path, for the one in white, his true beloved, will betray him in her blood.

She realized that the prophecy frightened him more than he had admitted. Someone knocked at the door. "What!" Richard yelled.

Cara opened the door and poked her head in. "General Kerson would like to see you, Lord Rahl."

Richard raked his fingers back through his hair. "Send him in, please, Cara." Richard put a hand to Kahlan's shoulder as he stared off toward the window. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "You're right. I need some sleep. Maybe Nadine can give me some of her herbs to put me to sleep. My mind doesn't seem to want to allow it when I try."

She would sooner let Shota give him something. Kahlan answered with a tender touch, fearing to test her voice at that moment.

General Kerson, wearing a wide grin, marched into the room. He saluted with a fist over his heart before coming to a halt.

"Lord Rahl. Good morning. And a good morning it is. thanks to you." Richard took a sip of his tea. "Why's that?"

The general slapped Richard on the shoulder. "The men are all better. The things you ordered-the garlic, blueberries, quench oak tea-it worked. They're all well again. I've got a whole army of bright-eyed men who're ready and able to do as ordered. I can't tell you how relieved I am. Lord Rahl." "Your smile just did. general. I'm relieved, too."

"My men are uplifted that their new Lord Rahl is a worker of great magic, able to turn death from their door. Every one of those men would like to buy you an ale and toast your health and long life."

"It wasn't magic. It was simply things that. . Thank them for the offer, but I. . What about the riots? Were there any more last night?"

General Kerson grunted dismissively. "It's mostly finished. The worry went out of people when the moon returned to normal." "Good. That's good news, general. Thinks for the report." The general rubbed a finger along his smooth jaw. "Ah, there was one other thing. Lord Rahl." He glanced at Kahlan. 'If we could talk…" The man let out a sigh. "A. . woman was murdered last night." "I'm sorry. Was it someone you knew?"

"No, Lord Rahl. She was a. . a woman who. . she accepted money in return for…"

"If you're trying to say she was a whore, general," Kahlan said, "I've heard the word before. I won't faint if I hear it again."

"Yes, Mother Confessor." He turned his attention back to Richard. "She was found dead this morning." "What happened to her? How was she killed?"

The general was looking more uncomfortable by the moment. "Lord Rahl, I've been looking at dead people a lot of years. I can't remember the last time I vomited when I saw one."

Richard rested a hand on one of the leather pouches on his wide belt. "What was done to her?"

The general glanced to Kahlan as if to beg her indulgence as he put an arm around Richard's shoulder and pulled him aside. Kahlan couldn't hear the whispered words, but the look on Richard's face told her she didn't want to know. Richard went to the hearth and stood staring into the flames. "I'm sorry. But you must have men who can look into it. Why are you bringing this to me?"

The general grimaced and cleared his throat. "Ah, well, you see. Lord Rahl, it was, well, it was your brother who found her."

Richard turned with a dark frown. "What was Drefan doing at a house of prostitution?"

"Ah, well, I asked him that myself. Lord Rahl. He doesn't seem to me a man who would have any trouble"-the general wiped a hand across his face-"I asked him, and he said that it was his business, not mine, if he wanted to go to whorehouses."

Kahlan could see the tightly controlled anger etched in Richard's expression. He abruptly snatched his gold cloak from a chair.

"Let's go. Take me there. Take me where Drefan goes. I want to talk to the people there."

Kahlan and General Kerson rushed after Richard as he swept out the door. She caught his sleeve and glanced to the general. "General, could you give us a moment, please?"

After he moved down the hall, Kahlan pulled Richard in the other direction, away from Cara, Raina, Ulic, and Egan. She didn't think that Richard was in any mood at the moment to be looking into such a thing. Besides, she had come to him for a reason.

''Richard, there are representatives writing to meet with us. They've been waiting days." "Drefan is my brother." "He's also a grown man."

Richard rubbed his eyes. "I need to see about this, and I have a lot of other things on my mind. Would you mind talking to the representatives? Tell them that I was called away on important matters, and that they can just as easily give their land's surrender to you and then all the;arrangements of command can begin to be coordinated?