Magda was beginning to think that whole story was too simple, too neat and tidy. She was beginning to wonder if they all really were traitors.

“But how could such men turn against us? How is mankind suffering under a tyranny of magic? Dear spirits, they were wizards, creatures of magic. They weren’t tyrants.

“For the Temple team itself—a hundred men—to have been working for the enemy was horrifying. No one, not even Baraccus, had suspected such a thing. So if no one suspected, do you really think that Lothain managed to catch and execute every last one of the traitors?”

“It is hard to imagine such a widespread conspiracy here at the Keep, and especially among such trusted men. But I’m sure that Lothain tortured confessions out of those men before they were executed and would have rounded up any others if there were any.”

“You told me that three of your men died mysteriously since arriving here,” she reminded him.

“There is that,” he said.

“Baraccus left me a note. It was his last words to me. He told me that my destiny is here. He asked me to have the courage to find the truth.”

“The truth? The truth about what?”

Magda let out a deep sigh. “I don’t know.”

“How do you know that the note really meant anything specific? Maybe Baraccus, knowing your nature, simply wanted to let you know that you were in his heart.”

“In that note, he told me to guard my mind.”

Lord Rahl missed a step. “Guard your mind? You mean from the dream walkers?”

She cast him a sidelong glance. “You tell me.”

Some of his long blond hair fell forward over a shoulder as he looked over at her. “So you think he also wanted you to stay here?”

“Yes. He said that my destiny is here. Baraccus was a war wizard. He had the gift for prophecy. I think that he knows that something dark is going on here and he wanted me to find it.”

Lord Rahl thought it over as they walked past soaring marble columns supporting an arched ceiling with scenes of great events painted between the ribs of the vaulting.

“But Baraccus was a war wizard. You’re, well, you’re not. What can you possibly do that he couldn’t?”

“Try and guess how many times I’ve tried to make sense of that very thing.”

Lord Rahl grunted his understanding of her point. “You have no idea what it is you are supposed to look for?” he asked.

“I guess that I’m supposed to look for the truth.”

“But what truth?”

“Maybe the truth of why Baraccus killed himself.”

Lord Rahl considered that for a moment. He finally gestured in frustration. “Perhaps after venturing into the world of the dead, he was simply overwhelmed by the experience and lost all hope.”