The Omen Machine

CHAPTER 32

Zedd peered again at the metal strip when Nathan handed it back, squinting at it as he turned it in the light. He finally surrendered with an unhappy sigh.

“You say that this machine you found inscribed these symbols? What kind of machine could do such a thing?”

“It’s a big square metal box.” Richard flicked his hand. “About as big as from here to the end of the table, there. It has a small slit fitted with a glass window so that you can see down inside. The box is filled with all kinds of gears and levers and mechanical mechanisms all linked together. From looking down in, you can see that it goes much deeper than it looks like from the outside. It’s not sitting on the ground, it’s coming up out of the ground.”

Zedd glanced at the book lying open on the table. “Can you tell anything at all from the book about these designs that the machine inscribes on the strips?”

“Well, since symbols are a language of sorts, much like an innkeeper might have a drawing of a mug of ale on his sign, or a farrier might have a horse shoe nailed to his gate, that means that these strings of symbols are saying something, but it’s something complex. Some of the symbols on the strips are familiar, but a lot of what’s inscribed on them are unlike any designs I’ve ever seen before. Since these same symbols appear in the book, I believe that the book must be a means to decipher the metal strips.”

“That’s what Berdine means when she says it talks?” Nicci asked.

Richard nodded. He tapped the book as he fixed the three standing before him with a meaningful look. “This book, Regula, calls these symbols the language of Creation.”

“That’s a bit of a leap at this point,” Nathan said. “Especially since the book doesn’t work to decode the symbols the way you thought it would.”

“I realize it may look that way at the moment, but I believe that’s the true purpose of the book. Just because I haven’t been able to figure out how to make it work, yet, doesn’t mean that it isn’t the true purpose of the book. I’m missing some kind of key to turn the lock keeping its secrets hidden, that’s all.”

Zedd broke Richard’s gaze to look down once more at the metal strip he was holding. He finally spoke in a quiet, troubled tone.

“I recognize a few fragments of those symbols.”

“From the Wizard’s Keep,” Richard confirmed with a nod.

“So these are emblems like those inscribed on the walls at the Keep, in that they represent specific things?”

“Something like that, but not exactly. It’s more than that.”

“How can it be more than that?” Nathan wanted to know. “If a symbol represents something, like a skull with crossed bones under it represents mortal danger, then that’s what it represents. How can it be more?”

“I believe that what really matters is how the symbols are used in combination,” Richard said. “From what I can gather from this book, these pictorial devices are not simple emblematic representations in and of themselves, like a mug, or a horse shoe, or your example of a skull and crossed bones.

“It’s true that parts of them are recognizable as independent symbolic entities, but I believe that falls short of the full intent of their use here. By studying this book I can see by the way simple elements are assembled into more complex images that they are in fact parts of a complex language, rather than single concepts. I think that the symbols actually have somewhat different meanings depending on how they’re combined.

“This one”— Richard tapped a metal strip lying on the table—“is the simplest of them. It’s different. It’s a symbol that represents one thing, from what I can make out of it, anyway. It isn’t combined with anything else, so in this case I don’t believe that its meaning is intended to be modified by any other element. Its meaning is therefore singular. This singular concept is all the machine wanted to say.”

Zedd shot Richard an incredulous look. “What the machine wanted to say? And what would that meaning be? What did the machine want to say, as you put it?”

“Fire.”

Zedd’s brow drew down again. “Fire?”

“Yes, that’s the symbol for fire. For some reason I can’t seem to work the translation in the book, but I know because I’ve seen it before in the verification web for the Chainfire spell— remember?”

Nicci folded her arms. “I certainly remember that one.”

Zedd grunted that he also remembered it all too well. “Why would this machine inscribe ‘fire’— if that’s what it really means in this case— on a strip of metal?”

“I don’t know,” Richard admitted with a sigh. “I was hoping that you three could go down there and take a look at the machine and see if you can figure out what we’re dealing with. It might be nothing more than a curiosity from an age long past, but if it’s anything more, I’d like to know about it. It must be powered by magic of some sort. Maybe one of you has encountered that kind of power before and you will recognize it.”

“How do you know that it’s powered by magic?” Nathan asked.

Richard shrugged. “What else? It’s certainly not run by a water wheel. The light coming from inside looks like the kind of light given off by the proximity spheres. I’m hoping that one of you knows something about the magic the machine uses, maybe even what its purpose was, or is. I’m worried about its location— right in the heart of the palace, under the Garden of Life, the heart of the elaborate spell that is the palace structure.”

Zedd turned the metal strip around and around, studying it with a leery eye. “All right,” he finally said. “We’ll take a look. Have you been able to learn anything at all from the book about what any of the other symbols on the other strips mean?”

“So far all I know is that the elements of the various symbols are actually intended to be combined— that the string of them is more than the sum of their parts. At least, that’s what the High D’Haran explanations say, that the string of component parts when put together form a language.”

“The language of Creation,” Zedd said in a sour tone.

“Yes. Because of that, I think it’s a mistake to try to interpret the symbols individually. If you try, then you lose sight of the true meaning expressed by the combination. Those strings of symbolic inscriptions are the language of Creation. I just can’t figure out how to decode it.”

Zedd gestured with the strip of metal. “So you’re saying that these strings of symbols are actually meant to be combined, like the words in a sentence, in order to communicate some kind of information, or to tell a story?”

Berdine lifted an eyebrow at Richard. “Dear spirits, isn’t that a wonder? I think he’s finally paying attention.”

Zedd ignored her. “So if you haven’t figured out anything at all of this language from the book, then you can’t even guess at what these longer emblematic statements might mean.”

Richard tapped the end of his pen on the table for a moment. “I’m afraid not.”