Phantom: Chainfire Trilogy Part 2

"You say there was something else you were going on?" Zedd asked.

Nicci nodded and then quoted the central prophecy, the one Nathan had told them. " 'In the year of the cicadas, when the champion of sacrifice and suffering, under the banner of both mankind and the Light, finally splits his swarm, thus shall be the sign that prophecy has been awakened and the final and deciding battle is upon us. Be cautioned, for all true forks and their derivatives are tangled in this mantic root. Only one trunk branches from this conjoined primal origin. If fuer grissa ost drauka does not lead this final battle, then the world, already standing at the brink of darkness, will fall under that terrible shadow.

"Do you see?" Nicci asked. "The 'champion of sacrifice and suffering under the banner of both mankind and the Light' is Jagang and the Imperial Order. The next words say that when he 'finally splits his swarm, thus shall be the sign that prophecy has been awakened and the final and deciding battle is upon us. He has split his army. Half is holding the passes, while the other half has gone around to come up through D'Hara from the south. As it says, 'the final and deciding battle is upon us. "

As if to confirm what she had said, a fit of lightning flickered through the windows, accompanied by thunder rumbling the Keep beneath their feet.

Zedd frowned. "I'm not following your reasoning."

"Why did Ann and Nathan steal the book in the first place for Richard? Because they misinterpreted prophecy — they thought the final battle was Darken Rahl. They thought that Richard needed The Book of Counted Shadows to fight Darken Rahl in the final battle. They found the only copy in existence — they thought.

"Don't you see? That was too easy. Richard was born to fight this battle, now, with Jagang and with what the Sisters of the Dark have done by putting the boxes of Orden in play. This, now, is an extension of the same final battle begun with Darken Rahl.

"I think the prophecies may hint that Richard learned the wrong key: 'Be cautioned, for all true forks and their derivatives are tangled in this mantic root. All true forks — true keys? — are on the prophetic root of this final battle. It says that the other forks are false. Maybe other forks contain the false keys.

"Couldn't it be said that the battle against Darken Rahl was a false fork? Ann and Nathan didn't know enough at the time — not enough events had unfolded, so they went down that fork, preparing Richard to fight Darken Rahl, not Jagang. But this prophecy says, 'If fuer grissa ost drauka does not lead this final battle, then the world, already standing at the brink of darkness, will fall under that terrible shadow.

"That terrible shadow is the power of Orden unleashed by the Sisters of the Dark. They want to darken the world of life. Ann, Nathan, and Richard were preparing for the wrong battle. This is the battle he was meant to fight."

Zedd paced, his face creased in thought. He halted, finally, and turned to her. "Maybe, Nicci. Maybe. You've spent a great deal more time studying prophecy than I have. Maybe you have something.

"But then, maybe you don't. Prophecy, as Nathan has explained, is not subject to study the way you have just explained. Prophecy is a means of communication between prophets. It can't necessarily be studied, analyzed, or understood by those without the gift for prophecy.

"Just like Ann and Nathan may have jumped to conclusions without sufficient information, I think it's also too early for you to draw such conclusions."

Nicci nodded, conceding his point. "I hope you're right, Zedd — I really do. This is not an argument I want to win. I'm only bringing it up because I think we need to consider the implications."

He nodded. "There is something else to consider. Richard doesn't take to prophecy. He is a creature of free will, and prophecy has a way of having to open up to accommodate him. In this case, with Darken Rahl, maybe Darken Rahl was a false fork, but had he won there are prophetic roots to cover that eventuality as well. Proponents of prophecy would have pointed to them to confirm that Darken Rahl was the true root. We would now find ourselves on one of those other branches, and this one would be false. You can find a prophecy to support just about any belief."

"I don't know," Nicci said as she ran her fingers back through her hair, "perhaps you're right."

She was so tired. She needed to get some sleep; maybe then she could think more clearly. Maybe her worry was causing her to race down false trails.

"There is no way we can say at this point if the copies of The Book of Counted Shadows, the one I found and the one Richard knows, are true keys or false."

"So, what are we going to do?" she asked.

Zedd halted his pacing and faced her. "We're going to get Richard back, and he is going to find a way to stop this threat."

Nicci smiled. He had a way of making her feel better in the darkest of times — just the way Richard did.