Phantom: Chainfire Trilogy Part 2

Chapter 41

Richard followed the sparkling point of light into the ancient stand of timber, a place of quiet and peace. He had never seen trees this big. It struck him as odd that creatures so tiny would live among trees so big.

It seemed like they walked for hours, though Richard knew that it only felt that way because he was so drained. When they at last emerged from the trees into a vast clearing, Richard could hardly believe his eyes. It was just as Kahlan had described it. The grassy meadow sparkled with hundreds of night wisps gliding among the tall blades of grasses and wild-flowers. The swath of stars above, through the gap in the towering pines, seemed lifeless and dead compared with the stars in the grass.

It was a beautiful sight, but it brought pain into Richard’s heart because it reminded him of Kahlan, of the first day he had met her, when she had introduced him to Shar, of the time she’d told him about the wisps. Kahlan and the wisps were forever linked in his mind.

And now, after all this time, he knew that it was a night wisp that his mother had run back into the burning house to save. She had not died alone.

All because a man thousands of years before had gone to the Temple of the Winds and done something that would result in Richard being born with both sides of the gift, both sides that the sliph said he no longer had.

As Richard stepped into the grass, some of the night wisps came closer, curious to see the stranger among them. The wisps flashed brighter and dimmer, as if in conversation among themselves.

“What are you called?” Richard asked the wisp who had escorted him.

“I am Tam.”

Richard watched wisps gliding closer, rising up the length of him, before shooting away.

“Our numbers dwindle,” Tam said. “Such a thing has never happened before. It is a time of suffering for us. We don’t know the cause.”

“The cause is in part why I am here,” Richard told him. “I’m hoping to find help so that I can stop what is causing this sickness among the wisps. If I don’t succeed, you will all vanish from the world.”

Tam considered in silence for a time. Others who had heard Richard’s words drifted away, sinking into the dark places in the grass, as if seeking a quiet place to weep. Some, though, came closer.

“Many here knew Ghazi,” Tam said. “They miss him. Can you tell us any of what he said before his life was gone? The way you have spoken of Shar’s words?”

“I’m sorry, Tam, but I never saw Ghazi. I never knew that he had come to see my mother. Ghazi and my mother must have died before he had a chance to tell us anything of his reason for being there.”

Richard wondered if that had been the reason for the fire.

Many of the wisps dimmed, as if in disappointment that he could tell them none of Ghazi’s last words.

Richard remembered his purpose and turned to his guide.

“Please, Tam, I have come for an important reason that, as I said, may in the end help the wisps with what they suffer. I have come because Baraccus left something here for me. His library is here. He sent his wife with a book for me.”

“Magda,” one of the nearby wisps said. He wasn’t sure which one was speaking, but it sounded decidedly more feminine than Tam.

“That’s right.”

“This was long before our time,” she said, “but the words of Baraccus have been passed down to us. We still hold the secrets he asked us to keep. I am Jass. Come. Tam and I will show you.”

Tam and Jass led Richard off through the silky grass, toward the towering trees to his left. Among the trees, away from the open meadow, it was again like descending into a dark world. Only the two wisps gave him enough light to see his way.

“How far?” Richard asked.

“Not far,” said Jass.

“It is a place within our realm,” said Tam, “a place where we can watch over and protect it. Over the millennia the seed of stories planted in the fertile soil of bits and scraps of facts was watered by wishes and began to take root and grow. Eventually, a bountiful fruit of rumors burst forth, to be spread on the wind of whispers that said we hid a fabled hoard of gold. Nothing could convince the believers that it was not true. The truth does not glitter for these people like gold does. Their dream of reaping unearned wealth was so strong for them that they would rather sacrifice everything truly precious to them than accept the truth that it was an empty belief.”

“What we hide is not a treasure,” Jass said, “but a promise made by our ancestors.”

“It is a treasure, of a sort,” Richard told them. “To the right person, anyway.”

What seemed not far to them seemed quite far to Richard. It was getting ever more exhausting for him to put one leg in front of the other. His stomach growled with hunger as they moved through the silent wood.

It had to be somewhere deep in the middle of the night when the trees opened up and Richard could see at last, illuminated by the silvered moonlight, a valley spread out far below. Lush forests carpeted the bowl of the valley, with the mat of trees ascending the slopes of mountain close in on each side. The place where he stood overlooking the length of the valley was not only a commanding spot, but a place with hauntingly beautiful views of the things that Richard had always loved. He ached to be able to explore such a place, to be down in those woods . . . but to be there with Kahlan. Without her, beauty was only a word. Without Kahlan smiling at him, the world was empty and dead.

“This is the place of the library that Master Baraccus left with us for safekeeping,” Tam said.

Richard looked around. He saw only ferns, some vines trailing down from the darkness above, and the massive trunks of the pines standing with him at the rim of the overlook.

“Where?” he asked. “I don’t see a building anywhere.”

“Here,” Jass said as she drifted down to a small boulder, coming to rest atop it. “Under here is the library.”

Richard scratched his scalp. It seemed an odd place for a library. But then he recalled finding the entrance to the library in Caska under a gravestone. In light of that, this made more sense. A building might have long ago been discovered and raided.

He bent and put his shoulder against the rock, in a curved niche that wasn’t sharp. He was sure that he wasn’t strong enough to move such a huge slab of stone, but he put all his weight against the stone socket anyway. With great effort it slowly began to pivot to the side.

The wisps came close, looking with Richard at what lay below. The stone had rested on a small, carefully smoothed lip. There was no hole, no stairway down into the ground within that lip.

Richard knelt and dug at what was under the rock, inside the stone lip. It was soft, and dry.

“This is just sand.”

“Yes,” Jass said. “When Magda came, she followed her husband’s instructions, using magic, and filled what was below.”

Richard was incredulous. “With sand?”

“Yes,” Jass said.

“How much sand?” Richard asked. He wasn’t looking forward to digging out a sand-filled hole, no matter how small it turned out to be.

“You see that small river down in the valley?” Jass asked.

Richard squinted in the dim moonlight. He saw the sparkling reflections off the water wandering among sandbars.

“Yes, I see it.”

“The words passed down to us,” Jass said, “say that Magda brought with her a powerful spell from Baraccus. She used it to create a whirlwind that drew the sand up from the riverbanks, and funneled it into this hole, here, filling up the place below to protect it.”

“Protect it?” Richard asked. “From what?”

“From any who might make it this far. This sand is meant to foil anyone, who might come for what is down there.”

“Well, I suppose that if there was enough sand that would certainly slow them down.” Richard looked over suspiciously at the two wisps spinning slowly in the moonlight. “How much sand is down there, anyway?”

Tam floated out past the edge of the drop-off. “You see that ledge down there?”

Richard carefully leaned over the edge of the cliff and looked. It had to be several hundred feet down to the narrow stone shelf.

“I see it.”

“That is how far down the rooms of the library are to be found.”

“The rooms of the library are buried under all this sand—down there, at the bottom?”

“Yes,” Tam said.

Richard was dumbfounded. There had to be a palace-worth of sand.

“How am I to dig such a thing out? It would take forever to accomplish such a thing.”

Tam returned, coming close to his face. “Maybe. But Baraccus said that if you were the one, you would know what to do.”

“If I’m the one?” Richard felt the weight of discouragement, like a mountain of sand on top of him. “Why do I always have to be the one?”

Tam spun for a moment. “That is not for us to say.”

Richard groaned with the disappointment of being so close but so far. “If I’m the one, then why couldn’t he just leave a message for me so that I would know what to do?”

Tam and Jass were silent for a moment, as if thinking.

“Well, there was one other thing passed down,” Jass finally said.

“What would that be?”

“Baraccus said that the wisps would have to guard this for ages and ages, but when the sands of time had finally run out, the one who was meant to have the book would be here and take it with him.” Jass spun closer. “Does that help, Richard Cypher?”

Richard wiped a hand across his face. Why couldn’t Baraccus simply tell him how to recover Secrets of a War Wizard’s Power! Maybe Baraccus thought that the man who was meant to have the book must already have mastered his power to the point where this would present no obstacle. Maybe he thought that Richard should know how to spin a magical whirlwind and suck out the sand. If that was so, then Richard was not the one. Not only did he not know how to use his power but, since being in the sliph, he no longer had his gift.

As far as Richard was concerned, the sands of time had already run out for him. The Sisters of the Dark had put the boxes of Orden in play; the chimes had contaminated the world of life, beginning the destruction of magic, which was probably the great misery the wisps were suffering; and the army of the Imperial Order was rampaging unchecked through the New World. But worst of all for him, personally, Kahlan had been abducted, was under the influence of the Chainfire spell, and desperately needed his help.

And here he stood, waiting for the sands of time to run out.

Richard took his hand away from his face as he frowned. He leaned out over the edge of the cliff, looking down at the ledge far below. The sands of time.

He looked to the left side and studied the rock. He didn’t see anything he could use there, but on the right he thought he saw a way to use the rocks to climb down. He swung his pack off his back and set it on the ground while he dug out his camp shovel and hastily assembled it.

“ ‘When the sands of time had finally run out, the one who was meant to have the book would be here and take it with him,’ ” he quoted. “Isn’t that what you said?”

“Yes,” Jass said, “That is what we were told.”

Richard gazed out over the cliff again. “I have to go down there, to that ledge,” he told the wisps.

“We will come and light the way,” Tam said.

Richard wasted no time climbing down the side of the rock precipice. It turned out to be just as difficult as he had judged it would be, but it didn’t take long and he was soon standing on the narrow shelf far below the top where he had pivoted the boulder out of the way.

He searched around, picking at the face of the rock wall, until he found what he was looking for. He immediately started digging, chipping, and prying out rocks that had been so tightly jammed in that it was hard to tell for sure in the poor light of the moon and two wisps if it really was what he thought it was. When rock began coming out, his confidence level rose. The more rock fragments he pulled out, the easier it was to get out more.

He had to work carefully to free some of the larger stones; one wrong step and he could slip and fall off the narrow ledge. Some of the boulders back in the growing hole were larger than he could have lifted, so he had to roll and walk them out of the ever-expanding opening. Fortunately, he was able to loosen the rock beneath most of them and then roll them out. He stood to the side on the narrow ledge and let the rocks and boulders tumble out past him. He watched them sail out into the night air, falling soundlessly until they finally crashed down into the forest far below.

Suddenly, when the shovel broke through to something soft, the rest of the rock plug began to let go with a grating sound and abruptly burst out in a cascade of fragments. Richard had to duck out of the way. With a rumbling roar, the sand followed in a column pouring far out into space before beginning to arc downward.

Richard stood with his back pressed against the rock wall, his heart pounding from the surprise of the sudden explosive clearing of the opening into the hollow interior of the cliff. The two wisps spun as they watched the amazing sight. One of them, Richard wasn’t sure which one, followed the column of sand out and down for a ways before returning.

It seemed to go on forever, but the last of the sand finally dwindled away as it poured out of the hole, leaving only small amounts to drizzle out in fits.

Richard wasted no time climbing into the hole. “Come on,” he called back to the wisps. “I need light.”

The two wisps obliged, passing over the tops of his shoulders to enter first. Once past him they lit the chamber beyond. Richard stood up inside, brushing himself off as he gazed around at shelves filled with books. It was astounding to think that he was the first person who had stood in this place since Magda Searus, the woman who would become the first Confessor.

That reminded him of Kahlan, and his need to find her, so he immediately started looking around. It appeared a rather simple library, with a doorway at the far side that he could see led deeper into the interior of the cliff. He saw shadows of doorways, and circular stairs. Despite the sand pouring out of the hole, there was still a lot of sand covering everything. It would take some time to clean the place and really tell what was there.

To the right, though, on a stone pedestal against a blank stone wall, sat a book all by itself. Richard lifted it off the stand and blew the sand and dust off of it.

On the cover it said Secrets of a War Wizard’s Power.

His fingers gently glided over the gilt letters on the cover as he again read the words meant for him.

It was an awe-inspiring feeling to realize that a war wizard, First Wizard Baraccus himself, had made this very book for the person who would be born with the power that he saw to it would be released from the Temple of the Winds. Richard had at last found the treasure that Baraccus had left for him.

A night wisp hovered over each shoulder, watching him as he reverently stared at the book that would finally answer his questions, that would finally help him master his gift.

Finally, his heart pounding, Richard opened the cover to see what Baraccus wanted him to know.

The first page was blank.

Richard turned over more pages, but they were all blank. He thumbed through the entire book and, other than the words on the cover, he found that the entire book was completely blank.

Richard squeezed his temples between the fingers and thumb of one hand. He thought he might be sick.

“Can either of you see anything on the pages?”

“No,” Jass said. “Sorry.”

“I see no marks of writing at all,” Tam added.

Richard realized, then, what the problem was. His heart sank.

Secrets of a War Wizard’s Power was an instruction book on the use of a specific form of the gift. The book involved magic. For some reason, Richard had been cut off from his gift. Without that gift to assist him, whatever was written on the pages would not stay in his mind. He would forget the words before he could remember reading them.

Just as he no longer remembered a single word of The Book of Counted Shadows, he could not remember the words of Secrets of a War Wizard’s Power long enough to remember having seen any words. Without the gift, it would appear blank to him.

Until he could figure out what was wrong with his gift, he wouldn’t be able to read this book.

“I’ll have to take this with me,” Richard told the wisps.

“Just as Baraccus said you would, Richard Cypher,” Tam said.

Richard wondered if Baraccus somehow knew this, as well. Whether he did or not, Richard didn’t have time to ponder it. He climbed back out of the hole and up the rock face of the cliff.

He noticed that the rock jutted out over the opening into the library, probably so that water wouldn’t eat away at the plug over time or work its way inside. The sand had to be dry not only so that the books inside wouldn’t be ruined, but so that it would pour out. Richard decided that for the time being the library was relatively safe from rain.

At the top of the cliff, he stored the valuable blank book away in his pack. He saw that inside the stone rim, where there had been sand before, there was now a spiral stairway down into the darkness below. To make sure that no one discovered the library, he struggled mightily against the boulder until he managed to pivot it into place.

Panting from the exertion, he swung his pack up onto his back. His mind was racing with a thousand different thoughts. On the way back through the dark wood, Richard spoke little to the wisps, other than to thank them for their help.

Once they had reached the meadow again, he gazed out over the sight of all the night wisps gliding through the grass and wildflowers, some spinning in an intricate dance as they moved together in pairs. He wondered how many more wisps there had been when Kahlan had been here.

Richard missed Kahlan so much that it brought a lump to his throat. She was his world. The whole world, in so many ways, seemed to be slipping away.

“I have to go,” he told Tam and Jass. “I hope to use what I found here to help stop the suffering of the wisps, and others.”

“You will come back?” Jass asked.

Thinking briefly about the hidden library, Richard nodded. “Yes. And I hope to bring Kahlan with me, and that by then you will remember her. I know she will be overjoyed to see you all again.”

“When we remember her,” Jass said, “then we will be filled with joy, too.”

Unwilling to test his voice again, Richard nodded and then started out.

Tam escorted him through the ancient forest, helping him find the way. At the edge of the ancient trees, the wisp came to a halt. “Baraccus was wise to choose you, Richard Cypher. I believe that you have it in you to succeed. I wish you well.”

Richard smiled sadly. He wished he was as sure. He no longer had access to the gift within him—if it was still even there—and he had no idea how he would succeed. Maybe Zedd could help.

“Thank you, Tam. You and the wisps have been good protectors of those things Baraccus left with you. I will do my best to protect you, and the other innocents who are in so much danger.”

“If you fail, Richard Cypher, I know that it will not be from lack of effort on your part. If you ever need our help again, as Shar told you, say one of our names and we will try to help you.”

Richard nodded and started away, turning once to wave. The wisp spun a rose color for a moment and then vanished back into the trees. He suddenly felt awfully forlorn by the light of the moon alone.

The dead oaks seemed to go on forever. He plodded along in a numb daze. He needed to get some food and rest, but he wanted to get out of the strange wood and back down into the forest first. He saw bones among the roots of the oaks, as if the trees were trying to gather in the dead to hug them to their bosoms.

Somewhere in the dead wood, after walking endlessly, absorbed in his troubled thoughts, Richard felt a sudden chill to the air that made him shudder and gasp the sharp cold into his lungs.

It felt as if he had walked into the fangs of winter.

When he looked up, he spotted what at first looked like an upright shadow among the skulls. When he saw at last what it really was, another shudder shivered up his spine.

It was a tall woman with black, wiry hair. She wore inky black robes. Her skin was as pale as the moon, making her gaunt face seem to float in the darkness. Her desiccated flesh was stretched tight over her bony features, the way he imagined the dead would have looked for a time as they lay lifeless in this forsaken forest, waiting for the worms to do their work.

Her thin, menacing smile marked her unmistakably as the sort to leave the bones of used-up people to rot in just such a place, among the moldering dead.

Richard felt so cold he couldn’t move. He realized that he was shivering, but he couldn’t seem to make himself stop. He couldn’t feel his fingers or toes. He wanted to move, to run, but he couldn’t force his legs to move.

He had no gift to summon. He had no sword to draw.

He felt helpless in the beguiling gaze of her blanched blue eyes.

Richard wondered if his lifeless remains would end up discarded in this desolate place to rot, forgotten, along with all the other anonymous bones of those who had come with lofty dreams.

The woman’s arms swept up, like a raven’s wings lifting, and the night swallowed him.