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Berdine, hearing them, waggled the key after she pulled it back out of the lock. "I have the key. I knew where Darken Rahl kept it hidden."
Nicci lifted an eyebrow as she looked back at Richard. "The key just shut down the shields to the door. I've never seen such a thing before."
"It must have been designed to give access to trusted aides or scholars who weren't gifted," Richard guessed. He turned back to Berdine as she worked at opening the lever on the heavy door.
"By the way, did you learn anything else about Baraccus?"
"Not much," she said, looking back over her shoulder. "Except that Magda Seams, the woman who became the first Confessor, had once been married to him."
Richard could only stare at her. "How does she know these things?" he muttered to himself.
"What?" Berdine asked.
"Nothing," he said, dismissing it with a wave before flicking the hand at the door. "So what is it that you found in here?"
"Something that connected with what Kolo said."
"You mean about this book that wasn't supposed to be copied."
Berdine merely gave Richard a sly smile as she tucked the key down into a pocket inside the top of her outfit, then pushed open the black door.
* * *
CHAPTER 29
Inside, three tall windows that made up most of the far wall lit the room with the gloomy late-afternoon light. Rain pattered against the glass and ran down in snaking rivulets. The walls of the small room were lined with bookshelves made of golden oak. There was only enough space in the center of the room for one simple oak table that was in turn only large enough for the four wooden chairs, one on each side. In the center of the table sat an unusual four-lobed lamp, offering each empty chair its own light from a silvered reflector.
With a sweep of her arm, Nicci sent a spark of her gift into the four wicks. The flames swelled, lending golden warmth to the small room. Richard noticed that, despite the way the palace spell diminished the power of any but a Rahl, she seemed to have had no trouble lighting the lamps.
Berdine went to the shelves to the right of the door. "Near the part of Kolo's journal where he mentioned the book that wasn't supposed to be copied, I think he might have been implying that the men who didn't trust Baraccus were the ones who made the copies. I think that's who he meant, anyway, but I'm not sure; he refers to them as 'the half-wits from Yanklee's Yarns.'"
Nicci spun around to Berdine. "Yanklee's Yarns!"
Richard looked from Nicci's astounded expression to Berdine's. "What's Yanklee's Yarns?" he asked.
"A book," Berdine said.
Richard turned a questioning look on Nicci.
Nicci huffed in exasperation. "It's more than just a book, Richard. Yanklee's Yarns is a book of prophecy. A very, very peculiar book of prophecy. It predates the great war by seven centuries. The vaults at the Palace of the Prophets had an early copy of it. It was a curiosity that every Sister studied in the course of her education about prophecy."
Richard peered around at the books lining the shelves. "What was so peculiar about it?"
"It's a book of prophecy that is nothing but gossip and hearsay."
Richard turned back to her. "I don't get it."
"Well," Nicci said, pausing to find the right words, "it wasn't believed to be prophecy about future events… exactly. It's, it's, well, it's actually believed to be prophecy about future gossip, so to speak."
Richard rubbed his tired eyes as he sighed. He looked up at Nicci again. "You mean to say that this Yanklee fellow wrote predictions about gossip?" When Nicci nodded, all he could do was ask, "Why?"
Nicci leaned in a little. "That's the very question to which everyone wanted an answer."
Richard shook his head, as if to clear the cobwebs.
"You see, there are many things that are secret"—Nicci gestured toward Berdine—"like this business with the book that wasn't supposed to be copied. Those kinds of secrets often remain secret because people go to their graves without ever revealing them. That's why when we study historical records we sometimes are not able to solve mysteries—there just isn't any information to be had.
"But, sometimes, there are little tidbits of information floating around, things people saw or overheard, and the people who saw or overheard them start to gossip about those tasty tidbits. There were Sisters at the Palace of the Prophets who believed that hidden within this prophetic book of gossip there would be hints of what those future secrets would turn out to be."
Richard arched an eyebrow. "You mean these Sisters were, in essence, listening to gossip in order to overhear something?"
Nicci nodded. "Something like that."
"You see, there were a few Sisters who considered this simple book of seeming nonsense to be one of the most important books of prophecy in existence. It was kept under tight security. It was never allowed to leave the vaults for study, as some other volumes of prophecy were.
"There were Sisters who devoted a lot of their spare time to studying this seemingly silly book. Because people don't generally go to the trouble to record gossip, Yanklee's Yarns is thought to be the only book of its kind—the only written account of gossip, even if it hadn't happened yet. These Sisters believed that there were events that couldn't be discovered or studied in any other way except through this book, which predated such events. In essence, they believed that they were eavesdropping on whispered gossip about things that would happen in the future, gossip about secret things. They believed that Yanklee's Yarns held invaluable clues to secrets unknown to anyone else or in any other way."
Richard pressed his fingertips to his forehead as he tried to take it all in. "You said that there were Sisters devoted to studying this book. Do you happen to know who any of these Sisters were?"
Nicci nodded slowly. "Sister Ulicia."
"Oh, great," Richard muttered.
Berdine opened a glassed door to one of the bookshelves and pulled a volume off the shelf. She turned back and showed the book's cover to Richard and Nicci.
The title was Yanklee's Yarns.
"When I read in Kolo's journal about 'the half-wits from Yanklee's Yarns,' that name was so odd that it kind of stuck in the back of my mind. You know what I mean? Then, one day, I was in here doing research and this book's title jumped out at me. I didn't realize it was a book of prophecy, like you said, Nicci."
Nicci shrugged with one shou
lder. "Some books of prophecy are hard to recognize as prophecy—especially for someone not trained in such things. Such important volumes can appear to be simply boring records or, in the case of Yanklee's Yarns, nothing more than trivial nonsense."
Berdine indicated the bookshelves lining the small room. "Except there would hardly be anything trivial in this room."
"Good point," Richard said.
Berdine smiled, pleased that he recognized the value of her reasoning. She set the book down on the table that occupied the center of the small library and carefully opened the cover. She leafed through the fragile pages until she found the place she wanted. She looked up at each of them in turn.
"Since Kolo had mentioned this book, I thought I ought to read it. It was really boring. Nearly put me to sleep. It didn't appear of any importance at all"—she tapped a page—"until I spotted this, here. This really woke me up."
Richard twisted his head to read the words above her finger. He had to work at it a moment to figure out the meaning of the passage written in High D'Haran. He scratched his temple as he translated aloud.
" 'So nervous will be the meddling half-wits to copy the key that should never be copied, that they will tremble in fear at what they have done and cast the shadow of the key among the bones, never to reveal that only one key was cut true.'"
The hair at the back of Richard's neck stood on end.
Cara folded her arms across her breasts. "So you mean to say that you think that when it came right down to the deed itself and they made the copies, they turned chicken and made all but one copy a fake?"
Berdine drew her hand down her long braid of glossy brown hair. "It would appear so."
Richard was still lost in the words. "Cast the shadow of the key among the bones…" He looked up at Berdine. "Hid them in the central sites. Buried them with the bones."
Berdine smiled. "It's so good to have you back, Lord Rahl. You and I think just alike. I've missed you so much. There have been so many things like this I've wanted to go over with you."
