Temple of the Winds

Chapter 62

Wake him! the voice in her head commanded.

Verna cried out. It felt as though she was covered with wasps, and they were all stinging her at once. She frantically swiped at her arms, her shoulders, her legs, her face. She screamed in panic, swatting, swatting. Wake him! came the voice in her head again. His Excellency’s voice.

Verna snatched the cloth from the bucket. She turned Warren’s head. He was sprawled forward on the table, unconscious. She dabbed the wet cloth on his cheeks, his forehead. With trembling fingers, she smoothed back his hair. He hadn’t been out long, so she had a better chance to bring him around. “Warren. Warren, please wake up. Warren!”

He moaned in delirium. She pressed the wet cloth to his lips. She rubbed his back with her other hand as she kissed his cheek. It broke her heart to see him so afflicted with the pain, not only of the dream walker but of the gift out of control. She pressed her fingers to the back of his neck and let a warm flow of Han seep into him, hoping it would give him strength, hoping it would bring him around.

“Warren,” she cried, “please wake up. Please, for me, wake up, or His Excellency will be angry. Please, Warren.”

Tears streamed down her face. She didn’t care. She needed only to wake Warren, or His Excellency would make them both suffer. She had never known that resistance could be so futile. She had never known that she could so easily be made to betray everything in which she believed.

She couldn’t even protect those she loved by killing herself. She had tried. Oh, how she had tried. He wouldn’t allow it; he wanted them alive so that they could serve him. He wished to use their talents.

She now knew that it had to be true: Richard had to be dead. The bond to him was broken, and they were defenseless against the dream walker. He intruded into her mind at will. With frightening ease, Jagang bent her to his wishes. It was as if she were no longer in control of the simplest of actions. If Jagang willed it, her arm lifted, and she could do nothing but watch. He controlled her use of her Han, too. Without the bond, she was powerless.

Warren let out another groggy groan. He moved of his own accord, at last. Only Verna seemed able to wake him when he passed out from the gift. That was the only reason Jagang hadn’t sent her to the tents.

Only his heart’s connection to her was enough to stir Warren. She knew that it was harmful to wake him when the gift wanted him unconscious—it did that as a way to stretch his endurance until he could get proper help—but she had no choice. She was using their love to wake him, and in so doing, was bringing him closer to death; but Jagang didn’t care, as long as Warren did as ordered.

“Sorry,” Warren mumbled. “I . . . I couldn’t . . .”

“I know,” Verna comforted, “I know. Wake up, now, Warren. His Excellency wants us to keep working. We have to keep working.”

“I . . . can’t. I can’t, Verna. My head—”

“Please, Warren.” Verna couldn’t control the tears. The pain of a thousand wasps stinging her everywhere at once made it impossible to hold still. She flinched constantly. “Warren, you know what he’ll do to us. Please, Warren, you must go back to the books. I’ll carry them down. Just tell me which ones you need. I’ll get them for you.”

He nodded as he pushed himself up. He was becoming more alert. Verna slid the lamp near him and turned up the wick. She pushed close the volume he had been reading when he had passed out, and tapped the page.

“Here, Warren. Here. This is where you were. His Excellency wants to know what this means.”

Warren pressed his fists to the sides of his head. “I don’t know! Please, Excellency, I don’t know. I can’t make the visions of prophecy come at will. I’m not a prophet yet. I am only beginning.” Warren cried out, squirming in his chair. “I’ll try! I’ll try! Please, let me try!”

Warren panted as his agony subsided. He bent over the book, licking his lips. Fingers shook as he set them to the book, following along the line of words, the line of prophecy.

“ ‘Patronizing past,’ ” he muttered as he read to himself. “ ‘Patronizing past carries forward the same disfavor twisted to new use, for a new master . . .’ Dear Creator, I don’t know what it means. Please, let the vision come.”

Clarissa peered out into the darkness as the coach rocked to a stop. Dust hung in the air, their ghostlike escort. A stone fortress rose up just outside the coach’s window. It was dark, and she couldn’t see the whole thing, but what she could see made her heart pound out of control.

She waited, twisting her fingers together, until the soldier opened the door.

“Clarissa,” he whispered. “This is the place.”

Clarissa took his hand as she stepped out into the inky night. “Thank you, Walsh.”

The other one of Nathan’s soldier friends, a man named Bollesdun, waited up in the driver’s seat, keeping tight the reins.

“Hurry, now,” Walsh told her. “Nathan said he doesn’t want you in there for more than a few minutes. If anything happens, the two of us aren’t going to be able to fight much of a battle to get you out.”

She knew the truth of that. They had ridden past so many tents that it left her stunned by their numbers. The hoard who had overrun Renwold had been nothing compared to the numbers of men here.

Clarissa pulled up the hood on her cloak. “Don’t you worry, I know better than to dally. Nathan told me what to do.”

She clutched her cloak together in her fist. She had promised Nathan. He had done so much for her. He had saved her life. She would do this for him. She would do this so others wouldn’t die.

As terrified as she was, she would do anything for Nathan. There was no better man in the whole world. No kinder man, no more compassionate, no braver.

Walsh walked beside her as they passed under an iron portcullis, and then into an entryway under a barreled roof. Two brutish guards, wearing hide mantles and hung with grisly-looking weapons, stood beside a hissing torch.

Clarissa kept her cloak tightly drawn and her hood pulled forward. She hung her head so that the guards couldn’t see her face in the shadow. She let Walsh do the talking, as she had been instructed.

Walsh flicked his hand toward her. “The representative of His Excellency’s plenipotentiary, Lord Rahl,” he said in a gruff voice, as if unhappy that this assignment had fallen to him.

The bearded guard grunted. “So I’ve been told.” He lifted a thumb toward the door. “Go on in. Someone is supposed to be waiting for you.”

Walsh adjusted his weapons belt. “Good. I have to drive this one back tonight. Can you believe it? Won’t even let us wait until morning. That Lord Rahl is as demanding as they come.”

The guard grunted, as if he well understood the annoyance of night duty. “Oh,” Walsh added, as if in afterthought, “Lord Rahl also wanted to know if his representative could pay the Lord Rahl’s respects to His Excellency.”

The guard shrugged. “Sorry. Jagang took out of here this morning. He took most everyone with him. Just left a few behind to mind things.”

Clarissa’s heart sank with disappointment. Nathan had been hoping that Jagang would be here, but he had said that even though he hoped it, Jagang would likely be smarter than that. Jagang wasn’t one to trust his life to the unknown abilities of a wizard as powerful as Nathan.

Walsh took Clarissa’s arm and pushed her on ahead as he gave the guard a good-natured slap on the shoulder.

“Thanks.”

“Yea, just go on in down the hall. There’s one of the women waiting there for you. Last I saw her, she was pacing by the second set of torches.”

Walsh and Bollesdun were Imperial Order soldiers, and they had had no trouble with any of the other soldiers, either. Clarissa dreaded to think what would have happened to her without those two the times their coach had been stopped by troops to query its mission. Walsh and Bollesdun also had little trouble ushering her through checkpoints.

Clarissa remembered all too well what happened to the women in Renwold. She still had nightmares about what she had seen happening to Manda Perlin when the Order’s troops captured Renwold. And right there, on the floor beside her murdered husband, Rupert.

Their footsteps echoed as they hurried down the stone corridor. It was a dark, dank, and depressing place. It looked to Clarissa to have no comforts other than a few wooden benches. This was a place for soldiers, not a place for families to live. As the guard had said, the woman was waiting near the second set of torches.

“Yes,” the woman asked, “what is it?”

As Clarissa came to a stop before the woman, she could see in the torchlight that her face was badly battered. She had horrid-looking cuts and bruises. One side of her lower lip was swollen to twice normal size. Even Walsh moved back a little when he got a good look at her.

“I am to meet Sister Amelia. His Excellency’s plenipotentiary sent me.”

The woman slumped with relief. “Good. I am Sister Amelia. I have the book. I hope never to see it again.”

“His Excellency’s plenipotentiary also told me that I am to pay his respects to an acquaintance of his, Sister Verna. Is she here?”

“Well, I don’t know if I should—”

“If I’m not allowed to see her, His Excellency will be most unhappy when his plenipotentiary reports how his request was so rudely treated by a slave. As a slave myself, serving His Excellency, I can tell you that I will not be the one to take the blame.”

Clarissa felt foolish saying such words, but as Nathan had told her, they seemed to work magic.

Sister Amelia’s eyes fixed on the gold ring through Clarissa’s lip. Her hesitation vanished. “Of course. Please follow me. That is where the book is kept, anyway.”

With Walsh close at her side, and his hand near the hilt of his short sword, Clarissa followed Sister Amelia deeper into the gloomy fortress. They went down a long hall, and then took a turn. Clarissa was paying careful attention as they went, so that if they had to get out fast, she wouldn’t take a wrong route and be caught in here.

Sister Amelia stopped before a door, glancing to Clarissa for just an instant before she lifted the lever and led them in. A woman and a man were in the room, he sitting at a simple plank table, reading a book laid open on the table, and she looking over his shoulder.

The woman glanced up. She was a little older than Clarissa, and attractive, with curly brown hair. She looked to Clarissa to be a woman of authority crushed by humiliation. She looked in agony. Whether it was physical, or emotional, Clarissa didn’t know.

Sister Amelia held out a hand. “This is Verna.”

Verna straightened. She had a gold ring in her lip, the same as Sister Amelia, the same as Clarissa. The man, his curly blond hair in disarray, didn’t look up. He seemed frantically absorbed in his book.

“Pleased to meet you,” Clarissa said.

Verna turned back to the man and the book he was studying.

Clarissa pushed back her hood as she turned to Sister Amelia. “The book?”

Sister Amelia bowed. “Of course. It’s right here.”

She scurried to a shelf. The room wasn’t large. One of the stone block walls had a crudely built shelf holding books. There were perhaps no more than a hundred. Nathan had been hoping there would be a great many more. As Nathan had expected, though, Jagang wouldn’t keep many of his prizes together in one place.

Sister Amelia pulled a volume from a shelf and placed it on the table. She looked to be uncomfortable even touching it. “This is it.”

The cover was as Nathan had described it to her, a strange black that seemed to absorb the light from the room. Clarissa flipped open the cover.

“What are you doing?” Sister Amelia cried out as she stepped closer.

Clarissa looked up. “I was instructed how to make sure it is the right book. Please leave it to me.”

Sister Amelia stepped back, wringing her hands together. “Of course. But I can tell you only too well that it’s the right book. It’s the one His Excellency agreed to.”

Clarissa carefully turned over the first page as Sister Amelia nervously licked her lips. Verna watched from the corner of her eye.

Clarissa reached inside her cloak and pulled out the little leather pouch of powder Nathan had given her. She sprinkled it over the open page. Words began to appear.

It was the book she had come for. Nathan hadn’t known the name of the wizard, but he had told her it would say “Assigned to the Winds” and then a name. She flipped the cover closed.

“Sister Amelia, would you leave us for a moment, please?”

The woman bowed and quickly scurried out of the room.

Verna frowned as she straightened again. “What’s this about?”

“May I see your ring, please?”

“My ring?”

Verna finally sighed and held out her hand, showing Clarissa the ring on her third finger. It had the sunburst pattern as Nathan had described.

“Why do you want to see—”

For the first time, Verna noticed Clarissa’s guard. Her eyes went wide.

She jostled Warren’s shoulder while she spoke. “Walsh?”

Warren’s head came up.

Walsh smiled. “How you doing, Prelate? Warren?”

“Not very well.”

Clarissa stepped closer. The man, Warren, was looking very puzzled.

“I was sent by Lord Rahl to get this book.” Clarissa gave Verna and Warren both a meaningful look. “I am bonded to Lord Rahl.”

“Richard is dead,” Verna said in a flat whisper.

“I know. But I was sent by Lord Rahl. Nathan Rahl, the master of D’Hara. He wanted me to pass along his regards.”

Verna’s mouth fell open. Warren’s chair skidded across the floor as he rushed to his feet.

“Do you understand?” Clarissa carefully asked. “If you do, then you had better be quick about it.”

“But, Nathan, we couldn’t . . .”

“Well,” Clarissa said, “I must be getting back to Lord Rahl. He’s waiting for me. I have a coach, and I must be leaving at once.”

Verna’s eyes turned up to Walsh. He gave her a nod.

Verna fell to her knees. She snatched Warren’s violet robes and yanked him down beside her.

“Do it, Warren!” She folded her hands together as she bowed her head. Her words spilled out. “Master Rahl guide us. Master Rahl teach us. Master Rahl protect us. In your light we thrive. In your mercy we are sheltered. In your wisdom we are humbled. We live only to serve. Our lives are yours.”

Warren spoke the words, too, just a little in her wake.

Verna knelt frozen for a moment, her hands still folded together prayerfully. She suddenly let out a cry of joy. She laughed like a madwoman.

“Thank the Creator! My prayers have been answered! I’m free! He’s gone! I can feel that he’s gone from my mind!”

Clarissa sighed in relief. Nathan had warned her that if Verna failed to do as they had hoped, she would have to die here.

Verna and Warren hugged as they wept with joy. Clarissa seized them both and urged them up.

“We have to get out of here, but Lord Rahl wants me to do something else, first. I need to look for some books.”

“Books?” Warren asked. “What books?”

“Mountain’s Twin, Selleron’s Seventh Task, The Book of Inversion and Duplex, and Twelve Words Left for Reason.”

Warren turned to the book on the table. “Twelve Words, that’s this one, here. I think I saw a couple of the others.”

Clarissa went to the shelves. “Help me look. Nathan wants to know if they are here. He needs to know.”

They all scanned the titles on the spines, and had to pull out several that weren’t marked so as to check their titles. They found all but The Book of Inversion and Duplex.

Clarissa brushed the dust from her hands. “That will have to do. Nathan said that they might not all be here. With only one missing, that’s better than we could have hoped.”

“What does Nathan want with these books?” Warren asked.

“He doesn’t want Jagang to have them. He says that they’re dangerous for Jagang to have.”

“They all could be dangerous,” Verna said.

“Let me worry about that,” Clarissa said, as she slipped the book from the table back into an empty slot. “Nathan just needed to know which were here. Now, we can leave.”

Verna clutched Clarissa’s sleeve. “I have two friends here. We have to get them out with us. You said you have a coach. We can all go.”

“Who?” Walsh asked.

“Janet and Amelia.”

Walsh let out a knowing grunt as Clarissa glanced to the door. “But Nathan said—”

“Look, if they give their oath to . . . to Lord Rahl, also, they can escape.”

Verna touched the ring in Clarissa’s lip. “You don’t know what they do to the women here. Did you see Amelia’s face?”

“I know what they do,” Clarissa whispered, remembering the scenes in Renwold. “Will they take the oath?”

“Of course. Wouldn’t you, if it would get you away from here?”

Clarissa swallowed. “I’d do anything.”

“Hurry, then,” Walsh said. “There’s room in the coach, but we have to hurry.”

Verna nodded and then slipped out the door.

While Verna went to get the other two, Clarissa unhooked the clasp on the fine gold chain around her neck. Warren watched with a frown as Clarissa pulled a book from a lower shelf and then set it on the table.

Clarissa placed the locket on the shelf, in the empty slot. Carefully, she laid open the locket. With a finger, she gently pushed it all the way back against the wall. She wiggled her fingers at Warren. He handed back the book she had removed. Clarissa slid it back into its place.

“What did you do?” Warren asked.

“What Nathan wanted me to do.”

Verna burst back into the room, holding the hands of two beaming women. One was the one with the battered face, Sister Amelia.

“They’ve given the oath,” Verna said in a breathless voice. “They are bonded to Lord Rahl. Let’s get out of here.”

“About time,” Walsh said. He had a little smile on his face for Verna. It was obvious to Clarissa that they knew each other.

Walsh took a hold of Clarissa’s arm and the two of them led out the rest, to retrace their route back through the fortress. The dark, dripping stone smelled of rot. They saw only a few guards inside the stronghold, most people having left along with Jagang, gone to his huge tents.

Nathan said that Jagang traveled with a large contingent of people and that he had big, round tents with all the comforts of a palace. Of the people left behind, there seemed to be a scattering of officers and guards, and a few of the women who were slaves to Jagang and his army.

As they came around a corner, one of those slaves was coming the other way, carrying two steaming kettles of what smelled like lamb stew. She was dressed the same as the other women Clarissa had seen, except Verna. The clothes they wore, like Janet and Amelia, were not clothes as far as Clarissa was concerned. The women might as well have been naked, for all the good those transparent garments did.

When the woman looked up and saw them coming, especially Walsh, she immediately stepped to the side of the hall, out of their way.

Clarissa jerked to a halt, staring at the woman, whose gaze fixed on the floor. “Manda?” Clarissa whispered. “Manda Perlin, is that you?”

Manda looked up. “Yes, mistress?”

“Manda, it’s me, Clarissa. From Renwold. I’m Clarissa.”

The young woman looked up the length of Clarissa, at her expensive gown, at her jewelry, at her hair all done in ringlets. Manda’s gaze met Clarissa’s, and her eyes widened. “Clarissa, is it really you?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t hardly . . . recognize you. You look so . . . different. You look so . . .” The spark went out of her expression. “Were you captured back home, too, then? I see the ring.”

“No. I wasn’t captured.”

Manda’s eyes filled with tears. “Oh, good. I’m so glad they didn’t get you, there. It was—”

Clarissa hugged the young woman. Manda had never spoken this many words to her in all the years Clarissa had known her, and the words she had spoken hadn’t been decent. Clarissa had always hated Manda for the cruel words, the cruel smirks, the condescending glances. Now, Clarissa felt sorrow for her.

“Manda, we have to go. Would you like to come away with us?”

Verna snatched Clarissa’s arm. “We can’t do that.”

Clarissa glared at Verna. “I came here to rescue you. I let you take your friends with us. I want to take my friend out of here, too.”

Verna sighed and let go of Clarissa’s arm. “Of course.”

“Friend?” Manda whined as her face twisted with untold sorrow.

“Yes,” Clarissa said. “I could get you out of here, too.”

“You would do that for me? After all the times I . . .” Sobbing, Manda threw her arms around Clarissa. “Oh, yes. Oh, Clarissa, please! Oh, Clarissa, please let me go with you!”

Clarissa gripped the woman’s wrists and pushed her away. “Then listen carefully. I give you only one chance. My master has magic to protect your mind from the dream walker. You must swear an oath to him. You must be loyal to him.”

Manda fell to her knees, clutching at Clarissa’s dress. “Yes, I swear.”

“Then say these words, and you must mean them with all your heart.”

Clarissa spoke the devotion, pausing to let Manda repeat the words. When she finished, Verna and Clarissa helped the sobbing woman to her feet.

Clarissa had always been so intimidated by Manda, always so afraid of her scorn. How many times had Clarissa crossed the street, her head bowed low, as she tried to avoid Manda’s attention?

“Hurry, now,” Walsh said. “Nathan told us to get out of here fast.”

At the entrance, Walsh had to make up a story about His Excellency’s plenipotentiary wanting some women. The guard eyed the nearly naked women, smiled knowingly, and slapped Walsh on the back.

They all piled into the coach as Walsh climbed up into the driver’s seat with Bollesdun. As the coach lurched and then started out, Clarissa pushed Janet and Manda to the floor, in the center, so she could lift the leather-covered seat. She pulled out a long cloak. She only had one extra; they had expected to rescue Verna and Warren. Since Verna had a cloak, Clarissa gave the extra cloak to Manda, and retrieved blankets for Janet and Amelia. All three women were immensely grateful to be able to cover themselves, at last.

Clarissa sat at the end of the seat, holding the strange black book Nathan had sent her for, with Amelia at the other end, and Manda in the center, clutching at Clarissa for comfort.

Manda kept weeping on Clarissa’s shoulder, and thanking her profusely. Clarissa put an arm around Manda and told her that she had expressed her gratitude enough times. It did feel good, though, to have the beautiful Manda Perlin looking up to Clarissa for a change, rather than looking down on her. All because of Nathan. How he had changed her life—changed everything.

They had to stop three times, while soldiers checked the coach. Once, the soldiers made them all get out and line up for a look. The blankets and cloak had to remain in the coach as Janet, Amelia, and Manda climbed out for inspection.

Walsh explained, in very crude terms, what he was doing with these slaves—how he was taking them for the pleasure of His Excellency’s plenipotentiary. The soldiers were satisfied by Walsh’s explanation, and allowed them to continue on their way.

They turned north at the harbor, and headed up the coast road. Clarissa sighed in relief as she saw the last of the fires and tents finally fade into the distance behind them. It wasn’t until they crested a hill, nearly an hour’s ride out after leaving the last of the soldiers, that the flash lit the sky behind.

Clarissa heard a cheer from up on the driver’s seat. Walsh leaned down, gripping a rail with one arm, and stuck his face, nearly upside down, partly into the window.

“Good job, Clarissa! You did it!”

Clarissa grinned. He swung back up, and he and Bollesdun booted into the night air. It was then that the sudden boom reached them, making Manda jump with fright.

Verna, sitting in the center, opposite, produced a flame above her upturned palm and leaned toward Clarissa. “Job? What is it that you have done?”

Clarissa patted the inky black book in her lap. “Nathan sent me for this book, and he wanted the ones left behind destroyed. He said that they were dangerous, what with you, and especially Warren, telling Jagang the meaning of the prophecies in them. Nathan didn’t want Jagang to be able to use the information.”

“I see,” Verna said. “Lucky for us that we agreed to swear loyalty to . . . Lord Rahl, and go with you.”

Clarissa nodded. “Nathan said I was to offer you the chance, but in either case, I was to open that locket and leave it hidden there. He said that Jagang having both Warren and the prophecies together could ruin everything, if you told Jagang anything important.”

Verna pressed her lips together as she let out a breath. She shared a look with Warren.

“I can’t believe that after all this time I’m finally going to get to meet the prophet himself,” Warren said. “Not long ago I had given up hope, and now . . . I will be meeting Nathan.”

Verna harrumphed. “Out of the rain and into the lake. I can’t believe I’ve sworn loyalty to that crazy old man.”

Clarissa leaned forward. “Nathan is dashing. He isn’t old.”

Verna barked a laugh. “You have no idea, child.”

“And he isn’t crazy, either. Nathan is the kindest, most wonderful, most generous man I’ve ever met!”

Verna glanced down at Clarissa’s cleavage, and back up to her eyes. She had that look that Clarissa was used to seeing.

“Yes,” Verna murmured. “I’m sure he is, my dear.”

“You could have no better man to swear loyalty to,” Clarissa said. “Besides being thoughtful and kind, Nathan is a powerful wizard. I saw him turn another wizard to a pile of dust.”

Verna’s brow creased. “Another wizard?”

Clarissa nodded. “Named Vincent. Vincent and another wizard and two Sisters, Jodelle and Willamina, came to see Nathan. They tried to hurt him. Nathan turned Vincent into a pile of ash.”

Verna’s eyebrows rose.

“After that,” Clarissa said, “they were very polite to Nathan, and Jagang agreed to give the book”—she tapped the book in her lap—“to Nathan. Jagang said Nathan could have either the book, or Sister Amelia. Now, Nathan will have both. Nathan has great plans. Nathan will rule the world, one day.”

Verna and Warren shared a sidelong glance. She looked at Amelia. “What is this book, Amelia?”

“I stole it from the Temple of the Winds,” Amelia said in a hoarse voice. “I’m the only one who can use it. I started a plague. Thousands have already died because of what I did. It was how Jagang eliminated Richard Rahl.

“Thank the Creator that we still have Nathan Rahl to protect us with the bond to him.”

“Dear Creator,” Verna whispered, “what have we agreed to with our oath to the likes of Nathan?”