Phantom: Chainfire Trilogy Part 2

"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 shoulder. "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?"