Temple 42

**Chapter 42**

Kahlan sits by the sliph's well for a while and ponders things. We're randomly told that witch women bewitch people automatically, and it's not their fault; it's compared to height or hair color. We're also reminded of how awesome Richard is, \~/ because we must never be allowed to forget that.

All of a sudden, Chandelier's grandfather's bone knife heats up and starts vibrating, and the feathers tied to it wave around as if in a breeze. Kahlan intuits that the Mud People are in trouble, and tells the sliph to take her there. One problem - the sliph has no clue what she is talking about. It can only travel to set locations, presumably places where its wells are. It rattles off a bunch of place names, and Kahlan seizes on one, *"the Jocopo Treasure."* Remembering Chandelier's tale of the heroic genocide of the Jocopo people, Kahlan orders the sliph to take her there.

We cut to Zedd and Hypocrite, still captives of the Nangtong. They are no longer tied up, but are being held captive in a muddy pigpen, and Zedd is laughing, shrieking, and throwing mud around. He tries to persuade Hypocrite to join in, explaining that their only chance to escape the Nantong is if the latter believe them to be insane. *"Would't the spirits be insulted to recieve a lunatic as a sacrifice? Wouldn't that be disrespectful?"*

*"We are like the bride, being offered to the spirits. How would it look if the Nangtong got an unworthy, demented bride?"*

Gee, I don't know, Terry. How would it look if you **raped the bride?** I imagine that would be pretty disrespectful, wouldn't it? And yet it didn't stop you from shoehorning your odious rape fetish in with the Majendie and Rapegirl a couple of books back.

This annoys me far more than it should, because Zedd's argument means that *Terry Goodkind understand the logic behind a sacrifice.* This means his clumsy, juvenile mishandling of the Majendie affair wasn't born of ignorance; he knew better **and he did that anyway.**

\~/\~/

So Zedd and Hypocrite basically behave like pre-verbal toddlers, laughing, screaming, making faces, and playing in the mud. The Nangtong are predictably unhappy, and after a while they forcibly wash the mud off their captives and herd them . . . somewhere.

The Nangtong are probably not going to stab them to death and throw their corpses down a bottomless pit, but I can dream.

Cut to Richard, the Aryan Boys, and some random soldiers, who are hanging around atop Mount Kymermosst and examining the area where the Temple of the Winds ought to be. The soliders can't find anything, and Richard is worried about Kahlan. One of the soldiers, Lieutenant Crawford (because why the hell shouldn't he have a name of English/Irish/Scottish origin?) knows mountains, and can't make any sense of the sheared-off cliff face and the lack of fallen rocks below.

Richard explores the ruins for a bit, imagining what the place must have looked like back in the good old days. Wait, no, he's not imagining. *"It was his gift, he knew, that was telling him this, much the way the spirits of those who once held the Sword of Truth guided him when he used that magic."*

RICHARD JUST KNOWS. \~/

He also decides that the Temple was *"where the wizards had taken things of powerful magic for safekeeping,"* based on I don't know what, then stands around with his gold lamé cloak flapping in the breeze. \~/ Then - I swear this happens - Richard almost walks off a cliff, saved only by the Aryan Boys, because he's so caught up in what the place *used* to look like.

Our hero, folks. \~/

The chapter ends with the dramatic declaration that *"The Temple of the Winds was gone"* Well, at least it might have been dramatic if it hadn't been well-established several chapters ago.

Drinks: 6

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