"Maybe that's what happened to Juni. Maybe he saw something so beautiful that he abandoned his weapons, his judgment, even his common sense and followed it down into the water where he drowned.

"Yet others crave attention and like to be worshiped. I guess, because they came from the underworld, they share the Keeper's hunger for veneration. It was said that some even protected those who uncritically revered them, but it's a dangerous balancing act. It lulls them, according to what Kolo said. But if you stop worshiping them, they will turn on you.

"They enjoy most the hunt, never tiring of it. They hunt people. They are without mercy. They enjoy especially killing with fire.

"The full translation of their name from High D'Haran roughly means 'the chimes of doom, or 'the chimes of death. »

Du Chaillu was scowlingly silent. The Baka Tau Mana blade masters for the most part managed to continue to look indifferent, aloof, and relaxed, but they had a new restiveness in their posture that to Richard was inescapable.

"Either way," Cara said with a sigh, "I think we can grasp the idea."

Chandalen, listening attentively, finally spoke up. "But you do not believe this, Mother Confessor? You believe what Zedd had to say, that it is not these chimes of death?"

Kahlan met Richard's gaze before addressing Chandalen. Her tone wasn't harsh.

"Zedd's explanation of the problem is in many ways similar, and so could just as easily account for what's happened, but being similar, it- would be no less dangerous. The important difference, from what he told us, is that when we get to Aydindril we will be able to halt the trouble. I reluctantly hold Zedd was right. I don't believe it's the chimes."

"I wish that were the case, I really do, because as you said when we get to Aydindril we could counter it," Richard said. "But it's the chimes. I would guess Zedd simply wanted to get us out of harm's way while he saw to trying to solve the problem of sending the chimes back to the underworld."

"Lord Rahl is the magic against magic," Cara said to Kahlan. "He would know best about this. He believes it is the chimes, so it must be the chimes."

Sighing in frustration, Kahlan pushed her long hair back over her shoulder.

"Richard, you're talking yourself into believing this is the chimes. By talking about it as being true, you're starting to convince Cara, just as you've convinced yourself. Just because you're afraid of it being true, you're giving it more credence than it deserves."

She was obviously reminding him of the Wizard's First Rule, suggesting that he was believing a lie.

Richard weighed the fiery determination so evident in her green eyes. He needed her to help him. He couldn't face this alone.

He finally decided he had no choice. Asking everyone to wait, he put an arm around her shoulders and walked her away so he could be sure the others wouldn't hear.

He needed her to believe in him. He no longer had any choice.

He had to tell her.

Kahlan went willingly as he walked her off through the wet grass, more content to argue with him alone than in front of everyone else. For Richard's part, he didn't want to tell her what he had to say in front of others.

Over his shoulder, Richard saw Chandalen's hunters leaning casually on their spears, spears dipped in poison. They looked to lazily wait for Richard and Kahlan to finish their talk and return. He knew there was nothing lazy about them. He could see they were strategically positioned to keep the Baka Tau Mana under guard. This was their land, after all, and despite them knowing Richard, the Baka Tau Mana were outsiders.

The Baka Tau Mana, for their part, looked completely indifferent to the Mud People hunters. The blade masters spoke a few nonchalant words to one another, looked out at the storm clouds on the horizon, or stretched and yawned.

Richard had fought Baka Ban Mana blade masters; he knew they were anything but indifferent. They were poised to kill. Having lived a tenuous existence surrounded by enemies bent on destroying them, their nature, by training, was to be prepared to kill at any moment.

When Richard had been with Sister Verna and they had first encountered the blade masters, he had asked her if they were dangerous. Sister Verna told him that when she was young, she had seen a Baka Ban Mana blade master who had gotten into the garrison in Tanimura kill nearly fifty well-armed soldiers before he was taken down. She said they fought as if they were invincible spirits, and that some people believed they were.

Richard wouldn't like some small lapse in judgment or misstep in understanding to bring the Mud People and the Baka Tau Mana to a fight. They were all too good at fighting.

Cara, looking anything but dispassionate, painted them all with her glares.

Like the three sides of a triangle, the Mud People, the Baka Tau Mana, and Cara were all part of the same struggle. They were all allied to Richard and Kahlan, and to their cause, even though each looked at the world differently. They all valued most of the same things in life. Family, friends, hard work, honesty, duty, loyalty, freedom.

Kahlan placed her hand gently but insistently on his chest.

"Richard, despite anything else I'm feeling at the moment, I know your heart is in the right place, but you simply aren't being reasonable. You're the Seeker of Truth; you have to stop insisting you're right and see the truth of this. We can stop the Sisters' magic and their Lurk. Zedd and Ann will counter the spell. Why are you being so obstinate?"

"Kahlan," he said, keeping his voice low, "the chicken-thing was a chime."

She absently, unconsciously, fingered the dark stone on the delicate gold chain around her neck. "Richard, you know I love you and you know I believe in you, but in this case I've just about-"

"Kahlan," he said, cutting her off. He knew what she thought and what she had to say. Now he wanted her only to listen. He waited until her eyes told him she would.

"You called the chimes into this world.

"You didn't do it intentionally, or to cause harm-no one would believe otherwise. You did it to save me. I was near death and needed your help, so I'm part of this, too. Without my actions, yours would not have been necessary."

"Don't forget our ancestors. Had they not borne children, we wouldn't have been born to commit our crimes. I suppose you'll want to hold them to account, too?" • He wet his lips as he gently gripped her shoulders. "I'm just saying that giving help is the thing that started this. That does not, however, in any sense, make you guilty of malicious intent. You must understand that. But because you spoke the words completing the spell, that makes you inadvertently responsible. You brought the chimes into this world.

"For some reason, Zedd didn't want us to know. I wish he would have trusted us with the truth, but he didn't. I'm sure he had reasons that to him seemed important enough to make him lie to us. For all I know, maybe they were."

Kahlan put her fingertips to her forehead, closed her eyes, and sighed with forbearance. "Richard, I agree there are puzzling aspects to what Zedd did, and there are matters yet to be answered, but that doesn't mean we have to leap to a different answer just for the sake of having one. Zedd is First Wizard; we must trust in what he's asked us to do."

Richard touched her cheek. He wished he could be alone with her, really alone, and he could try to make up for his foolish forgetfulness. He dearly didn't want to be telling her these things, but he had to.

"Please, Kahlan, listen to what I have to say, and then you decide? I want to be wrong, I really do. You decide.

"When the Mud People hunters were guarding us in the spirit house, the chimes were outside. One of them killed a chicken just because they like to kill.