Phantom: Chainfire Trilogy Part 2

"And then the world was cast into a terrible war with D'Hara. It was a dark time of terrible struggle. I had become First Wizard. The battles were gruesome as battles always are. I had to send men to die. I had to look into the eyes of wizards, young and old, that I knew were not up to the challenges, and tell them to do their best when I knew their best would not be good enough, and they would likely die in the effort. I knew in my heart that if I were to do it myself it would get done and I could make it work, but there were a lot of those kinds of tasks that needed to be done, and only one of me.

"At times, I found responsibility, knowledge, and ability were a curse. To look at all the innocent people counting on me as First Wizard, and know that if I failed they would die, was almost more than I could endure.

"In that respect, I know exactly what Richard is going through. I have been in his place. I have carried the world on my shoulders."

He gestured to dismiss his melancholy departure from the subject at hand. "Anyway, with all my other responsibilities, the catacombs lay mostly forgotten, as they had for thousands of years before I ever came along. I simply had no time to look into what might be down there. From my limited search as a boy I believed that there was nothing to be found but old and comparatively unimportant books buried along with forgotten bones. There seemed to be so many more pressing matters of life and death.

"To me, the most important thing about the catacombs was that they provided a secret passage for me to enter the Keep. That passage came to be invaluable when the Sisters of the Dark took the Wizard's Keep.

"Back when I was younger, after the war in which my wife had died, the council and I had a bitter dispute over the boxes of Orden. And then… Darken Rahl raped my daughter. So I left the Midlands — quit it for good — taking my daughter with me through the boundary to Westland. She was all I had left and all that mattered to me. I thought I would live out all my days beyond the boundary in Westland.

"Then Richard was born. I watched him grow. My daughter was so proud of him. I secretly worried that he had the gift, and fretted that forces from beyond the boundaries would one day come for him. And then, there was a fire and all of a sudden my daughter, Richard's mother, was gone from my life, from Richard's life.

"I turned to Richard for solace. I gave him everything I could that would help him be all he could be. I had some of the best times of my life with him., "Unbeknownst to me as I did my best to forget the outside world, Ann and Nathan, driven by prophecy, had helped George Cypher recover The Book of Counted Shadows from the Wizard's Keep. It had been stored in the First Wizard's private enclave, where I had left it for safekeeping."

"Wait a minute," Nicci said, stopping his story. "You mean to tell me that The Book of Counted Shadows, one of the most important books in; existence, was just lying around in the Keep?"

"Well," he said, "not exactly 'lying around. Like I said, it was in the First Wizard's enclave. That's more secure than the Keep in general and not exactly an easy place to breach."

"If it's so secure," Nicci reminded him, "then how did Ann and Nathan and George Cypher get in to take the book?"

Zedd sighed as he looked up at her from under his bushy eyebrows. "Therein lies what has come to trouble me — the only copy of a book that important being that vulnerable — "

"That's what Richard was going to tell you," Nicci said with a sudden flash of comprehension. "That's why he was in such a hurry to get back i here — he said he had to get to you right away. That was the reason!"

Zedd frowned. "What are you talking about?"

She stepped closer to the wizard and pulled the small book from her pocket. "This is the book that Darken Rahl used to put the boxes of Orden in play — "

"It's what!"

"This is the book that Darken Rahl used to put the boxes of Orden in play," she repeated to the astonished wizard. "We found it at the People's Palace. I promised Richard that I would study it and see if there was a way to undo what Sister Ulicia had done, see if there was a way to perhaps take the boxes of Orden back out of play. I tried to explain to Richard that magic doesn't work that way, but you know Richard, he doesn't so easily accept that something can't be done."

Zedd stared at the book she was holding up as if it were a viper that might bite someone. "That boy has a way of turning over rocks and finding trouble."

"Zedd, this warns that to use this book, the key must be used. Otherwise, without the key, everything that has come before, meaning what has been used from this book, will not only be sterile, but fatal. It says that within one full year the key must be used to complete what has been wrought with this book."