AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It’s bad enough to be without the text that was previously there, but the cause behind such an unprecedented event—the text of prophecy vanishing—is troubling in the extreme.”
“I thought you just said that we shouldn’t jump to conclusions when it comes to prophecy.”
Verna cleared her throat, feeling as if one of those bear traps just snapped closed on her leg. “Well, that’s true, but it’s obvious that something is going on.”
Berdine folded her arms as she pondered the problem. “What do you think could be happening?”
Verna shook her head. “I can’t begin to imagine. Such a thing, to my knowledge, has never happened before. I have no idea why it’s happening now.”
“But you think it’s trouble that involves Lord Rahl.”
Verna gave Berdine a sidelong look. “The simple fact that so much of prophecy involves him makes that conclusion impossible to avoid. Richard is born to trouble. He is at the center of it.”
Berdine didn’t appear to like that one bit. “That is why he needs us.”
“I’ve never argued that he didn’t.”
Berdine relaxed, if only a notch, and flicked her braid back over her shoulder. “No, you have not.”
“Ann is searching for him. Let’s hope she can find him, and soon. We need him to lead us in the coming battle.”
As Verna spoke, Berdine idly pulled a book from one of the glass cases and began leafing through it. “Lord Rahl is supposed to be magic against magic, not the steel against steel.”
“That is a D’Haran proverb. Prophecy says that he must lead us in the final battle.”
“I suppose,” Berdine mumbled without looking up as she slowly turned pages.
“With part of Jagang’s forces headed south around the mountains, we can only hope that Ann will find him in time and bring him to us.”
Berdine was puzzling at the book. “What is it that is buried with the bones?”
“What?”
Berdine was still frowning as she tried to work out something in the book. “This book caught my attention before because it says Fuer Grissa Ost Drauka on the cover. That’s High D’Haran. It means—”
“The bringer of death.”
Berdine glanced up. “Yes. How did you know?”
“There was a widely known prophecy that the Sisters back at the Palace of the Prophets used to debate. It had, actually, been hotly debated for centuries. The first day I brought Richard to the palace he declared himself to be the bringer of death and thus named himself to be the one in the prophecy. It caused quite a stir among the Sisters, I can tell you. One day, down in the vaults, Warren showed Richard the prophecy and Richard himself solved the riddle of it, although to Richard it wasn’t a riddle. He understood it because he had lived portions of the prophecy.”
“This book has a lot of blank pages in it.”
“No doubt. It sounds like it’s about Richard. There are probably a great number of books here that are about him.”
Berdine was reading again. “This is in High D’Haran. Like I said, I know High D’Haran. I would have to work at it to be able to translate it more completely, and it would help if there wasn’t so much missing text, but this place is apparently talking about Lord Rahl. It says something like, ‘what he seeks is buried with the bones,’ or maybe even ‘what he seeks is buried bones’—something like that.”
Berdine looked up at Verna. “Any idea what that’s about? What it could mean?”
“What he seeks is buried bones?” Verna shook her head with regret. “I have no idea. There are probably countless volumes here that have interesting, or puzzling, or frightening things to say about Richard. As I told you, though, with copy missing, what is there is next to useless.”
“I suppose,” Berdine said in disappointment. “What about ‘central sites’?”
“Central sites?”
“Yes. This books mentions places called ‘central sites.’” Berdine stared off as she considered something to herself. “Central sites. Kolo mentioned something about central sites.”
“Kolo?”
Berdine nodded. “It’s a journal written ages ago—during the great war. Lord Rahl found the book at the Wizard’s Keep, in the room with the sliph. The man who kept the journal is named Koloblicin. In High D’Haran the name means ‘strong advisor.’ Lord Rahl and I call him Kolo, for short.”
“What did this Kolo have to say about these places, these central sites? What are they?”
Berdine turned through the pages of the book she held. “I don’t recall. It was nothing I understood at the time so I didn’t devote a lot of effort to it. I’d have to go study it again to refresh my memory.” She squinted in recollection. “It seemed like there was something buried at the places called central sites. I can’t remember if it said what was buried.”
The Mord-Sith stood frozen in her same pose as she studied the little book. “I was hoping this might give me a clue.”
Verna let out a heavy sigh
as she glanced around at the library.
“Berdine, I would love to stay and spend time researching all these books. I would truly like to know what this library and the others here at the palace contain, but there are more pressing matters at hand. We need to get back to the army and my Sisters.”
Verna took a last look around. “Before I go, however, there is one thing here at the People’s Palace that I would like to check on. Maybe you can help me.”
Berdine reluctantly closed the book and replaced it on the shelf. She carefully closed the glass door.
“All right, Prelate. What is it you want to see?”
Chapter 30
Verna paused at hearing the single, long peal of a bell.
“What was that?”
“Devotion,” Berdine said, stopping to look back at Verna as the deep toll reverberated through the vast marble and granite halls of the People’s Palace.
People, no matter where they seemed to be headed, turned and instead moved toward the broad passageway from where the deep, resonant sound of the bell had come. No one looked to be in a hurry, but they all very deliberately walked toward the slowly dying sound of the bell.
Verna puzzled at Berdine. “What?”
“Devotion. You know what a devotion is.”
“You mean a devotion to the Lord Rahl? That devotion?”
Berdine nodded. “The bell announces that it is time for the devotion.” Pensively, she gazed off in the direction of the hall where people were headed.
Many of the gathering crowd were dressed in robes of a variety of muted colors. Verna assumed that white robes with gold or silver banding on them were the mark of officials of one sort or another who lived and worked at the palace. They certainly had the manner and bearing of officials. Everyone from those administrators to messengers in tunics trimmed in green and carrying leather satchels with an ornate letter “R” on them, standing for the House of Rahl, continued their casual conversations even as they made their way to the convergence of wide halls. Other people who worked at any of the countless variety of shops were dressed more appropriately for their profession, whether it was working at leather, silver, pottery, cobbling, or tailoring, providing the many foods and services, or doing any of the various palace work from maintenance to cleaning.
