The Third Kingdom

The spirit glanced back at the vast force of devoted Shun-tuk blanketing the rugged landscape as they followed behind, flooding around the rugged spires. “That is the one. Have you considered what trouble he might be?”

“Trouble?” Hannis Arc flicked a hand dismissively. “Ludwig Dreier is a petty abbot. A nobody. He doesn’t even work at the citadel, with me. He runs a dusty old abbey off in the mountains. He performs a variety of services for me.”

“In what variety of ways does this petty man serve you?”

“Well, I sometimes send him in my place on matters of state. I recently sent him to bring word to the leaders of other lands in the D’Haran Empire of the value of prophecy. As it happened, Lord Rahl had invited all the rulers of all the lands to the People’s Palace, for a wedding. I had business with a Hedge Maid”—he glanced over at Sulachan—“and with you, of course.

“So I sent Ludwig Dreier to the People’s Palace in my place. He was to make overtures to other lands on the value of prophecy and begin the process of winning the loyalty of leaders to our cause, rather than the D’Haran Empire.

“But his main work is to bring me prophecy. That is his job, the work of the abbey he runs.”

Hannis Arc watched the king of the dead walk in silence for a moment. He finally spoke what was on his mind.

“And has he ever told you how he collects that prophecy for you?”

Hannis Arc cast about in his memory, trying to think if Dreier had ever told him anything specific.

“It’s all pretty routine work. He deals with country people, the cunning folk out in the less-populated areas of Fajin Province and the Dark Lands, looking for anyone with any modicum of talent at foretelling from whom he might be able to coax prophecy. Some such people are born with minor ability to see into prophetic visions. Ludwig Dreier tests these people for what prophecy they might be capable of giving. If there is such prophecy among the country folk and he discovers it, then it should properly come to me.

“Lord Rahl has always been secretive about prophecy, and will not share what he knows of it. People have a right to prophecy. Prophecy is not the property of the few. It belongs to all of us.

“Unlike Lord Rahl, I understand and use prophecy.” He gestured at the corpse walking beside him. “After all, that is part of how you are able to be here in this world again. Had it not been for prophecy I might not have unlocked the paths necessary to bring you back from the underworld.

“Sometimes those simple country people require an incentive to get them to concentrate their minds to such a complex task as giving forth prophecy. He pressures them in various ways to focus their thoughts on what we seek so that they will be able to give prophecy, if they in fact are truly gifted in the art.”

“So he tortures them to get them to focus.”

Hannis Arc shrugged. “Well, yes, on occasion, when necessary, I suppose. I leave it to him to decide what is necessary. I don’t need to waste my time with such petty matters. I leave it to him.

“He is very effective at his work. He has brought me some remarkable prophecy. Not the prophecy I found myself, from my own more in-depth studies that I used for all this”—he swept a hand back toward the Shun-tuk behind them—“for understanding how this fits into everything, and for calling you back. But he has proven useful over the years with prophecy that has turned out to be not only true, but quite timely and useful.

“I have books in which we record the prophecy he collects. He sends it on to the citadel, I look it all over, and then we record it.”

The spirit king gazed up at a wisp of gray overcast trailing down. “Do you know that he tampers with the world of the dead in order to obtain that prophecy?”

Hannis Arc missed a step. “No.… In what way? And how do you know?”

“Well, since I exist in that underworld, I know what happens there. You would have been unaware of such things taking place, of course, but part of my value in this alliance is to know of events in that world. You have seen things of importance here—evidence and indications—while I have seen such things of importance there, in that world.”

“Yes, that has proven to be mutually beneficial, and it will be even more so in the future. But what of Ludwig Dreier? What news could you have from the underworld about him?”

“He meddles in things you don’t know about. He meddles in prophecy in ways that you don’t know about or suspect. I know this because he uses his talents to send tentacles in my world to draw out that prophecy.”

Hannis Arc’s anger rose in a hot fury. “For what purpose?”

The spirit king glanced over out of the corner of a transparent, glowing eye. “What purpose indeed? What purpose would a man have not to tell his master what he was doing, and how he was doing it … unless he has designs on one day taking rule for himself.”

Hannis Arc felt his seething anger boil to the surface.