Phantom: Chainfire Trilogy Part 2

Sister Armina cleared her throat. "We are being asked to believe that a singular rather than a plural word served as their only indication of validity?" Sister Armina shook her head. "While I grant the general point, I believe that this is just too simple an answer, if not far too opaque a message. This means of telling true from false in and of itself becomes chance, too, unless they gave us a way to confirm it."

"And they have, now, haven't they?" Sister Ulicia arched an eyebrow as she leaned a little toward the woman. "It's right there, right in the beginning, where it tells us precisely how to detect if the book is true or not. It says that she must verify it. She has."

Armina folded her arms. "Like I said, I think that's just too simple to be the answer."

"If it's so simple, Armina, then why didn't you see it?" Sister Ulicia asked.

Kahlan closed her eyes a little more when Sister Ulicia pointed at her. "She found the flaw. Why did none of us see it? Only she saw it. Without her we probably would not have noticed it or, if we had, we probably would have thought that it couldn't be important and we would have ignored it. She has done what the book said she must. She found it. She said that it means the copy is a false copy. That is precisely the purpose for which the book itself said she must be used.

"Some of us may not consider that flaw complex enough to be the determining element, but that's irrelevant. The fact remains that she must verify the veracity of this book and, because of a flaw that only she noticed, she claims it is a false copy. That's what matters. We have to take that pronouncement as valid."

Considering the words of each woman, Jagang rubbed a meaty hand back over his bull neck as he paced before the table. He stared down at the book for a time, then spoke.

"There is one way to be sure." He glared at each Sister in turn. "We find the other copies and compare them. If they all, or only a few, have this exact same flaw in the title, then it would point to it being meaningless. On the other hand, if all but one has this same flaw, then the one that doesn't would likely be the true copy. We can then compare all the versions of the text and if the one without the flawed title is different from all the others, we will have confirmed that it's the one true copy."

"Excellency," Sister Armina said with a deferential bow of her head, "that is an excellent idea. If we can locate the others, and this is the only one with this flaw, then it would prove my point that it is nothing but a simple, isolated mistake by an ignorant bookbinder."

Jagang stared at her for a moment before finally breaking eye contact and going to a chest to the side. He opened the top and pulled out a book. He tossed it on the table so that it slid across the top toward the two Sisters.

Sister Armina picked it up and read the cover. Even in the dim light of the oil lamps, Kahlan could see the woman's face going a deep shade of red.

"The Book of Counted Shadow," she said in an incredulous whisper.

"Shadow?" Sister Ulicia asked, peering down over Sister Armina's shoulder. "Not Shadows?"

"No," Jagang said. "It is The Book of Counted Shadow, the same as the one from Caska."

"But, but," Sister Armina stammered, "I don't understand. Where is this copy from?"

A condescending smile joined his glare. "The Palace of the Prophets.",

Sister Armina's jaw dropped in speechless shock.

Sister Ulicia frowned. "What? That can't be. Are you sure?"

"Am I sure?" He grunted in derision. "Oh, yes, I'm sure. You see, I've had this book for quite some time. That is part of the reason why I allowed you fools to continue in your quest. I needed the same woman you were after in order to find out if this is a true copy or not.

"All the time I had this book I never noticed the word 'shadow' in the title as being anything other than what it should be. I just assumed it said what it was supposed to say. But our unconscious friend over there noticed it immediately."

"But how could you have gotten this from the Palace of the Prophets?" Sister Ulicia asked. "From what we've learned, these copies were buried with bones, like in Caska, in hidden catacombs. No catacombs were ever discovered at the palace before it was destroyed."

Jagang smiled to himself, as if he were explaining things to children. "You think you are so clever, Ulicia, finding out about the boxes, about the book needed to open them, about the catacombs, and about the one person needed to verify the text of the book. But I have known for decades what you have only recently discovered.