The Omen Machine

CHAPTER 17

Kahlan woke to the distinctive sound of Richard’s sword coming out of the scabbard. The clear ring of the Sword of Truth’s steel brought her wide awake and brought her heart rate up.

She lifted her head from his shoulder. “What is it?”

Richard had the sword gripped in a fist above her. He shushed her as he gently, carefully slipped out from under her loose embrace. It was a bewitchingly fluid movement that ended with him standing silent and still beside the bed looking into the darkness.

Kahlan expected that at any moment something might fly at him out of that darkness. Nothing did.

“What is it?” she whispered.

“Do you feel like someone is watching us?” he asked back over his shoulder.

“I don’t know. I was sound asleep.”

“You’re awake now.”

Kahlan sat up. “I don’t know, Richard. I could convince myself that I do, but I don’t know if it’s real or just my imagination.”

Richard stared off at the darkness at the end of the room. “It’s real.”

That made Kahlan’s heart beat even faster. She inched closer to him, making sure to stay out of the way of his sword in case he needed to use it.

“Can you tell what it is?”

His muscles relaxed. “It’s gone.”

Kahlan squinted, trying to see better in the dimly lit bedroom. “You mean it’s gone like maybe you were imagining it and now you realized as much?”

Richard turned to her. “No, I mean that when I deliberately looked back at it, it left. It was there. I have no doubt of it.”

The tension might have gone out of his muscles, but she recognized all too well the rage that still lit his eyes. It was the magic of the Sword of Truth he was gripping tightly in his fist. It was the righteousrage of the Seeker.

Kahlan could hear distant thunder. She rubbed her arms against the chill. “Who, or what, could do such a thing? I mean, who could look in at us that way?”

“I haven’t any idea. Zedd didn’t know either.”

Richard slid the sword back into the gold and silver scabbard he was holding in his other hand. As the sword slipped back into its lair, the anger faded from his gray eyes.

Richard lifted the sword’s baldric over his head and let it rest on his right shoulder while Kahlan went to the window and drew the drapes aside enough to peek outside. “It’s light out.”

“What about the storm?”

“Looks like it’s worse. You’re quite the prophet.”

“Great,” Richard muttered. “Now all the representatives get to stay around and badger us about prophecy some more.”

“They’re just worried, Richard. You have to admit, something is going on. They’re not stupid. They know it too. You are the Lord Rahl. They look to you to protect them from things they don’t understand and fear.”

“I suppose,” he said as he turned to a knock on the door.

After pulling on his boots he went to the door and looked out. Kahlan could seen Nathan down the hall talking to Benjamin. Cara had been the one who knocked. She was wearing her red leather and a grim expression. When Nathan and Benjamin saw Richard and Kahlan they hurried over.

“You look like you slept in that dress,” Cara said as Kahlan joined Richard at the door.

“I’m afraid that I did.”

“Ah,” Cara said with knowing nod. “So it was in your room, watching you again.”

“I don’t like the idea of taking off my clothes in front of prying eyes.”

“Did you and Benjamin sense anyone watching you in your room again last night?” Richard asked Cara.

“No, and I was waiting for them. They never showed up so I guess it was looking for you, as you suspected, and not us. It was quiet all night— until this morning, anyway.”

“Why, what happened this morning?” Kahlan asked.

Nathan leaned forward, impatient to get down to business. “Do you remember the stocky regent in the red tunic, the one at the reception yesterday who wanted to know if there is some prophetic event lying ahead for us?”

Richard yawned. “The regent who said that our future is rooted in the past and part of that past is prophecy? All that roundabout nonsense?”

“That’s the one.”

Richard wiped a weary hand across his face. “He was pretty insistent about how everyone is eager to hear my insight on prophecy and what the future holds for us. I suppose he can’t wait for me to meet with him and the others so that I can reveal the future to them.”

“Not exactly,” Nathan said. “He had a vision of his own early this morning.”

Richard straightened with a suspicious look. “I didn’t know that any of the representatives were gifted with even a little talent for such things.”

Nathan leaned closer. “He’s not. That’s the strange thing. His aides said that the regent had never before given any kind of prophecy. They said that he was always fascinated by it, and sought out people who claimed to be able to foretell the future, but he had never shown any ability for it himself.”

“So what was this important prophecy of his?”

“He said only that he’d had a vision.”

“But he didn’t reveal this vision, didn’t say what he saw?” Kahlan asked.

“No. He only told his aides that he’d seen what the future holds. They say that he was a talkative man, but after saying he’d had a vision he was unusually quiet and seemed distracted.”

“If he didn’t reveal the nature of his prophecy, then what’s so meaningful about it?” Richard wiped a hand across his face. “For that matter, how do we even know that he’s telling the truth?”

“We don’t, I suppose, but after he told his aides that he’d had this vision, he walked outside into the teeth of the storm, still dressed in his bedclothes, and jumped off the side of the plateau.”

“He killed himself?” Richard gaped at the prophet. “With no word on the nature of his vision?”

“No word at all,” Nathan confirmed.

Richard drew a deep breath as he considered the regent’s sad end. “Well, I guess Cara was right, it was an eventful morning.”

“I’m afraid that’s not all, Lord Rahl,” Benjamin said. “After the regent’s inexplicable behavior, and considering the two women yesterday who killed their children after having a vision, I suggested to Nathan that we ought to go check on anyone else he knew of who showed any history of visions, even if it was only a minor ability.”

Richard looked back at Nathan. “There are others?”

Nathan shrugged. “I hardly know everyone living at the palace. There’s no telling how many people might have had small premonitions. I do know of a man, though, who from time to time claims to foresee future events. I’ve never tested him so I have no idea if he really can, if he’s telling the truth. But considering recent events I thought we’d best pay him a visit.”

Richard nodded as he considered. “That makes sense.”

“When we got to his quarters,” Benjamin said, taking up the story, “we heard screams coming from inside. We broke in the door and saw that the man had his wife down on the floor. He was straddling her. She was struggling mightily trying to fight him off. The man had a knife in his fist, trying to kill her. Three young children were huddled in the corner, crying in terror, waiting their turn to be murdered, I believe.”

Nathan gestured to head off making more drama of the story than he apparently thought it warranted. “Nothing had happened, yet. As the man held his knife up in the air to strike, I used a quick bit of magic, that’s all, throwing him off the woman so that he would be unable to carry out his intentions. The general and some of his men rushed in and disarmed him.”

“So then no one was hurt?” Kahlan asked.

“No,” Nathan said. “We got there in time to prevent another tragedy.”

Kahlan let out her breath. “That’s a relief.”

“So this man had also had a vision?”

Nathan nodded. “He’s a jewelry maker. He told us that he had a vision that men are going to come to his house to rob him but he won’t be there. In this vision, the thieves torture his wife and children, trying to get them to reveal where the gold he uses to make jewelry is hidden. They don’t know. The men don’t believe them and over a period of hours torture his family to death, one at a time, trying to make them talk. The man insisted that he could not bear to allow such a horrific thing to happen to his family, that it was better to kill them quickly than let them endure the agony they would otherwise suffer.”

Richard looked puzzled. “That’s not at all like the other prophecies.”

“We have him locked up, if you want to question him,” Benjamin said.

Richard nodded, lost in thought.

The general hooked a thumb behind his weapons belt. “There is something else, Lord Rahl.”

Richard looked up. “What else?”

Benjamin took a deep breath. “Well, my men managed to get all the people and their animals down on the plain into the plateau before the worst of the storm descended on us last night. While the last of them were being ushered inside, the men conducted a wide sweep, wanting to make sure that they didn’t miss anyone, that no one was left behind or got lost in the storm to freeze to death in one of those flimsy market tents.

“While they were scouting they found a boy who had been dragged off and killed. He was maybe ten, no older.”

“Killed?” Richard asked. “What do you mean he was dragged off? How was he killed?”

The general didn’t shrink from the question. “He’d been partially eaten, Lord Rahl.”

Richard blinked in surprise. “Eaten?”

“Yes, Lord Rahl. His insides had all been eaten out. His face had been chewed off. The skull had long gouge marks from teeth. One arm and the other hand were missing. Animals had feasted on him, tore him open, and mostly ate out his innards.”

Richard sagged a little at the news. “A small boy, out in the storm, lost, away from people, would be easy prey for wolves, or even a pack of coyotes. It was probably Henrik, the sick boy I talked to, the one who ran off.”

“My men took account of everyone we herded inside. We were still trying to find the boy you had talked to. We talked to his mother. She told us that her boy hadn’t come back. She was worried sick.”

“That must have been him, then— the dead boy you found.”

Benjamin was shaking his head before Richard had finished. “That was our thought, too, but it wasn’t him. We described the clothes to the mother. She said that wasn’t what Henrik wore. A little later a man came to us for help. He was looking frantically for his boy. My men asked what he was wearing. The man described the dead boy’s clothes perfectly.”

Richard pressed his lips together in regret. “Then that means that the sick boy, Henrik, is lost out there on the Azrith Plain. In this storm he’s frozen to death by now. If a pack of wolves didn’t take him first.”