Chainfire: Chainfire Trilogy Part 1

"We all remember you, now don't we? And the prophecies about you are missing. As it turns out, in this case the problem with prophecy doesn't have anything at all to do with what you are hoping will explain or prove the existence of Kahlan Amnell."

"Why not?" Richard asked.

Zedd started up the steps. "It has to do with the nature of what I found out when I did my own investigation of the problem with the books of prophecy. I'm not without my own sense of curiosity, you know."

"I know that, Zedd. But it could be connected," Richard insisted as he walked along beside his grandfather.

Nicci hurried after him. Everyone else was forced to fall in behind.

"It might seem that way to you, my boy, but your speculation is flawed because all the facts just don't fit your conclusion. You're trying to wear boots that look good but are too small." Zedd clapped Richard on the shoulder. "When we get to the library I'll show you what I mean."

"Who's Kahlan?" Nathan asked.

"Someone who vanished and I haven't found yet," Richard said over his shoulder. "But I will."

Richard paused and turned back to Ann and Nathan. "Do either of you know what Chainfire is?" They both shook their heads. "How about a viper with four heads, or the Deep Nothing?"

"I'm afraid not, Richard," Ann said. "But as long as we're on the subject of important matters, we do have other things we need to speak with you about."

"After we see Zedd's reference about prophecy," Nathan said.

"Well, come on, then," Zedd told them as he started off with a flourish of his simple robes.

CHAPTER 52

In the plush library, Richard stood behind Zedd, watching over his grandfather's bony shoulder as he flipped open a thick book bound in tattered, tan leather. The room was rather dimly lit by a number of silver reflector lamps on all four sides of five thick mahogany posts standing in a line down the center of the room. They held up the leading edge of a balcony running the length of the room. Heavy, dark wooden tables with polished tops lined the center of the room down the line of posts. Wooden chairs were spaced around the outside of the tables. Opulent carpets with elaborately woven patterns felt soft and quiet underfoot. Perpendicular to the long walls on each side were aisles of shelves packed with books. Above, the balcony held closely spaced shelves filled with yet more volumes.

A gray-blue shaft of sunlight slanting in from the single window up high at the very end of the room lit the dust floating in the stuffy air. The freshly lit lamps added an oily smell. The room had a vaultlike quiet about it.

Cara and Rikka stood off by themselves in the darker area beneath the window at the end of the room, arms folded, heads together, talking in low voices. Nicci stood beside Zedd along one edge of a table lit in a glowing rectangle of sunlight while Ann and Nathan stood impatiently on the opposite side, waiting for Zedd's explanation of how prophecy had vanished. Standing there, in the island of light, the rest of the room faded away into gloomy shadows around them.

"This book was compiled, I believe, sometime not long after the great war had ended," Zedd told them as he tapped the open cover near the title: Continuum Ratios and Viability Predictions. "The gifted back then had discovered that, for whatever reason, fewer and fewer wizards were being born and the ones who were being born were not being born with both sides of the gift, as had almost always been the case before. What's more, the ones who were being born with the gift were all being born with only the Additive side. Subtractive Magic was vanishing."

Ann looked up from under her brow. "It is hardly a novice and a boy wizard standing before you, old man. We know all this. We have spent our lives devoted to this very problem. Get on with it."

Zedd cleared his throat. "Yes, well, as you may know, this also meant that there were fewer and fewer prophets being born."

"How remarkably fascinating," Ann mocked. "I, for one, would never have guessed such a thing."

Nathan irritably hushed her. "Go on, Zedd."

Zedd pushed back his sleeves, briefly casting a scowl Ann's way. "They realized that, with ever fewer wizards born to prophecy, the body of work of prophecy was of course going to cease to grow. In order to understand what the consequences of this might mean, they decided that they needed to do an intensive investigation of the entire subject of prophecy while they still could, while they still had prophets and other wizards with both sides of the gift.

"They approached the problem with the gravest of concern, realizing that with them, this might very well be mankind's last opportunity to comprehend the future of prophecy itself, and to offer future generations an insight to understanding what these wizards were increasingly coming to believe would one day be seriously corrupted or even lost."