The Omen Machine Read online

  That, and the translations from the strips.

  Richard stuck his hand in the book to stop the pages from turning over when out of the corner of his eye he spotted the part he was looking for.

  “There’s the first one,” he told Berdine. He tapped an element on the page. “That’s the one. What’s the inversion of it?”

  Berdine leaned in, looking, reading the High D’Haran explanation silently. “It has to do with falling.”

  Richard had already begun to grasp the language of Creation and he knew what many of the symbols meant. He had only been looking to confirm his worst fears. Berdine just had.

  “That’s the last symbol, so it—”

  “So it ends the action of the subject,” Berdine finished in a mumble. She hadn’t yet figured out what Richard already had. She stuck her tongue out the side of her mouth as she wrote it down, then started turning pages in the book. “I need the subject.”

  Richard tapped the metal strip, showing her. “Here. If it’s inverted, then this part of the device is the subject.”

  Zedd, coming to an abrupt halt across the table, leaned in, squinting, trying to read the paper she was working on.

  “What’s that, there, that you’ve written down?”

  “It’s the translation of the language of Creation inscribed on this strip,” Richard said. “How’s Kahlan? Were you able to heal her hand?”

  “I’m a wizard, aren’t I?” He gestured to the paper where Berdine was writing. “So, you’ve figured out how the book works? How these symbols work?”

  “Yes,” Richard said. “It’s quite remarkable, actually. The symbols are an incredibly efficient and compact form of language. What might take sentences, or even paragraphs for us to say, the language of Creation can express in a brief line of symbolic elements. With just a few devices combined in the right way it can tell you a whole story or convey a tremendous amount of information. It’s extraordinarily precise in conveying meaning in a compact fashion.”

  Richard had long ago learned to understand emblematic devices. He understood their language, how they represented things, and how they functioned in spell-forms. It turned out that those emblems he had already learned were rooted in the language of Creation. Without knowing it, he had already long ago begun learning to use the language of Creation.

  Once he started using the book, and started translating the symbols, at some point in the night it had all clicked into place for him and he saw how what he already understood related to this new language, and how to use that knowledge to interpret the symbols the machine used. It was like opening a door he had never known was there. In a flash of comprehension, everything he already knew fell into place in helping him to understand this new language.

  He came to realize that it was more like learning a new dialect than a new language. As a result he had been able to rapidly grasp how it worked. Now he no longer needed the book Regula to understand the symbols.

  Zedd picked up the strip to look at it again, as if he suddenly, magically, might understand it. He didn’t. “So if it worked, what’s the translation? What does this strip say?”

  Richard pointed with the back end of his pen. “That one you’re holding says ‘The roof is going to fall in.’”

  Zedd’s frown grew. “You mean, like that prophecy you mentioned? From that blind woman? The fortune-teller, Sabella, that you met out in the halls?”

  “That’s the one.”

  “After the warning about darkness from the boy down in the market the other day? The one with the fever who was delirious?”

  Richard nodded. “That’s right.”

  “The boy you thought was speaking gibberish.”

  “We thought it was gibberish at the time, but maybe it wasn’t. After the boy’s warning, I got the fortune from the blind woman that turned out to be the same prophecy we then got from Lauretta and from the machine. The boy said something else that, at the time, we thought was the fever speaking. He said, ‘He will find me, I know he will.’”

  “Certainly sounds like a fevered delirium.”

  Richard picked up another strip. “This one was at the bottom of the stack in the machine. That means it was the first one the machine made since it seems to have awakened down there in the darkness. I could hardly believe it when we translated it. It says ‘He will find me.’”

  Zedd gestured to the strip Richard was holding. “You mean to say that the machine predicted that you would find it?”

  Richard shrugged. “You tell me.”

  “Are you sure that you’ve translated it properly?”

  Richard glanced toward the door to see Nathan marching into the library. He, too, looked grim.

  “Now that I have the key I needed, yes,” Richard told Zedd. “There can be no doubt. It all works out perfectly.” Richard reached over and picked up the third strip. “This one here, the one I thought has only the symbol for fire on it, turns out to translate perfectly in the High D’Haran key. It’s exactly as I thought. It says only ‘fire.’”

  “What’s that about fire?” Nathan called out as he rushed up.

  Zedd took the strip from Richard’s hand and showed Nathan. “The translation worked out just like Richard thought. It does mean fire, and nothing else.”

  At the far end of the library, Richard saw Lauretta trundle in carrying a load of her predictions. Two guards followed behind, lugging big stacks in their arms. It was going to be a lot of work for them to help carry all her predictions down from her room to their new home in the library. Richard was relieved to see that she was moving all that paper out of her place.

  Nathan scowled. “Fire.”

  “That’s right,” Richard said. “One of the others says ‘He will find me.’ That’s what the sick boy down in the market told Kahlan and me. The other says that the roof will fall in, like Lauretta and the blind woman, Sabella, told me.”

  Nathan planted a fist on his hip. “So happens that I’m here about Sabella.”

  “Really? What about her?”

  “She’s been causing trouble. A few of the representatives went to her to hear her prophesy. They are insisting that they need to learn what the future holds.”

  Richard sighed. “Oh great. What did she tell them?”

  Nathan leaned in. “‘Fire.’”

  “What?”

  “That’s all she said: ‘Fire.’ The representatives went back and told the others. They’re all worked up, fearing that there will be a fire in the palace. Several of the representatives woke up a short time ago, and came running out of their rooms in their night clothes, all upset because they had dreams of fire.”

  “That is curious,” Zedd mumbled as he rubbed his chin.

  Richard caught sight of Lauretta hurrying toward them from across the library. “Lord Rahl! Lord Rahl!” She was waving a piece of paper. “There you are. I’m so glad I found you here.”

  Richard stood as she came to a breathless halt. “What is it?”

  She put a hand to her chest as she panted a moment, catching her breath. She thrust out a folded piece of paper.

  “I had another prophecy for you. I wrote it down like always. I was going to put it with the others for safekeeping until I saw you again, but here you are.”

  Richard unfolded the piece of paper. It had only one word on it.

  FIRE.

  “What is it?” Zedd asked.

  Richard handed him the paper. Zedd’s brow drew down as he read the single word on the paper.

  “And do you have any inkling as to what this means?” he asked the woman as he handed the paper to Nathan.

  She shook her head.

  The tall prophet read the single word silently and then looked up. “Just like Sabella.”

  Zedd peered down at Richard. “Any idea what it could mean?”

  Richard sighed. “I’m afraid—”

  He stopped as icy realization washed over him.

  He tossed his pen on the table and raced for the door.

&n
bsp; “Come on!” he called back over his shoulder. “I know what it means! I know where the fire is!”

  Zedd, Nathan, and Berdine ran to follow after him. Even Lauretta raced to catch up.

  CHAPTER 39

  As he ran down the service hallway, Richard could smell the smoke. Such a familiar smell when it came from campfires had always offered warmth and protection, but in the palace such an acrid smell carried terrifying implications. When he slid around the last corner he saw it billowing up thick and dark from under a door down the hall.

  Berdine clutched his sleeve in one hand to prevent him from getting ahead of her. Whenever there was even a hint of trouble, all of the Mord-Sith did what ever they could to stay as close as possible to him. Berdine had lost her bubbly demeanor, turning as implacable as any of the Mord-Sith when there was a threat. From time to time as she ran, she spun her Agiel up into her fist, as if to reassure herself that it was there at the ready.

  Down the hallway beyond the smoke, Richard spotted men of the First File running in from the other direction. Several of them had buckets. Water slopped out as they ran, splashing across the wood floor. Several women, awakened at the early hour by the commotion, had come out of their rooms to stand in their doorways, clutching nightgowns at their throats in fright as they watched soldiers racing past.

  “What is it?” Nathan asked as he rounded the corner and caught up. Zedd was right on his heels.

  Richard pointed. “It’s Lauretta’s place. It’s on fire.”

  Lauretta stumbled to a halt, gasping for breath. Her short, rapid gait had left her face bright red and her hair in disarray.

  “My room!” She swallowed, trying to get enough air. She pressed her hands to the sides of her head. “My prophecies!”

  The soldiers with the buckets kicked open the door. Black smoke laced with crackling sparks and burning pieces of paper rolled out into the hall and along the ceiling. Flags of flame unfurled out along the ceiling of the hallway. The soldiers heaved water in through the open doorway. From the amount of smoke and the heat from the flames, Richard didn’t think their buckets of water were going to be anywhere near enough.

  Lauretta screamed when she saw the soldiers throwing water into her room. She pushed past Zedd and Nathan. “No! You’ll ruin my prophecies!”

  Richard knew that it was too late to worry about that. Besides, water was not the real threat to her prophecies. He caught Lauretta’s arm and dragged her to a halt. He knew that if left to her own devices she would run into the burning room to try to save her precious prophecies. As thick as the smoke was, and as heavily as she was breathing, she would have been overcome in mere seconds.

  The heat, even at a distance, was withering. Richard was relieved that the palace was made mostly of stone. Still, parts of it, like the floors under them and beams above, were wood. They needed to put out the fire as quickly as possible.

  More soldiers raced up with yet more buckets of water. They ran in toward the door, turned their faces away from the heat, and heaved the water in. Angry, hot flames licked out through the open door in defiance of the water. As Richard had suspected, such an effort was hopelessly in effective.

  Zedd knew it, too. He rushed past Richard and down the hall, ducking under the lowering black smoke hugging the ceiling to make his way toward the doorway into the inferno.

  Urging soldiers back out of the way with one arm, he cast the other out toward the open door as yet more smoke and flames poured out. Richard could see the air waver before Zedd’s hand, forcing the smoke back into the room, but more flames boiled out of the doorway, as if to chase the wizard away. The heat drove Zedd back.

  “Bags! My gift is too weak in this place.”

  Nathan caught up with Zedd and lifted his palms out toward the smoke-filled doorway, adding his gift to the effort. He, too, caused the air to waver, but it also slowed the amount of smoke as the flames withdrew back into the room. At last the smoke coming out the doorway was choked off entirely, confining it to the room inside, leaving the hallway in a dark and pungent haze.

  Nathan was a Rahl. His gift wasn’t hampered by the palace’s spell. He stepped in closer, holding the flats of his hands out toward the doorway again. As Richard restrained Lauretta, he watched Nathan gradually circle his palms, sealing off the room, suffocating the fire at its source. After a few tense moments, the fire died out and the prophet spun a web that cooled the remains of Lauretta’s home.

  As Nathan entered the room, checking that it was safe, Richard let go of Lauretta, allowing her to follow. Weeping in misery, she rushed into the room behind Nathan.

  She lifted her arms in distress. “My prophecies! Dear Creator! My prophecies are ruined!”

  Richard could see that she was right. There looked to be some stacks in the farthest reaches that might not have been totally destroyed, but the blackened, wet mess covering the floor was all that was left of most of them.

  Lauretta fell to her knees, scooping up handfuls of the useless, wet ash.

  “They’re ruined,” she wept.

  Richard laid a hand on her shoulder. “You can write more, Lauretta. You can use the library as a place to write more.”

  She nodded absently. He wondered if she even heard him.

  Out in the hall, people had gathered to see what was happening. Many of them covered their noses against the stench left from the fire.

  Richard saw a number of representatives he recognized at the back of the crowd. They looked grim. The fire was obviously confirmation of the prophecy they had all heard that morning.

  Murmuring warnings to one another, the crowd parted. Cara marched through as if the people were not there, expecting everyone to get out of her way. There was never any problem with that. People were only too eager to get out of the way of a Mord-Sith, especially when she looked as angry as Cara looked. The last thing in the world that most people wanted was to cause a Mord-Sith to take notice of them.

  “Are you all right?” Cara asked as Richard nodded. “I heard that there was trouble.”

  “Lauretta’s prophecies caught fire,” he told her.

  Among the crowd, Richard spotted Ludwig Dreier, the abbot from Fajin Province. His face was set in a stony expression as he took in all the activity. He finally moved through the onlookers to come in closer.

  “Was anyone hurt?” he asked.

  “No,” Richard said. “Lauretta’s place was full of papers. It was a fire waiting to happen.”

  Ludwig glanced through the doorway. “Especially since it was foretold in prophecy.”

  “Says who?”

  The abbot shrugged. “The blind woman for one. Several others had the premonition as well.”

  Richard glanced past the abbot to the faces in the crowd and saw a number of representatives watching and listening.

  “The woman used open flames in her room,” Richard said. “There were papers everywhere. I told her myself that she had to move all the papers or there was going to be a fire.”

  “Nonetheless, it was predicted by prophecy.”

  “The man is right,” Lauretta said as she stepped out into the hall, looking heartbroken. “I had the prophecy myself. I wrote it down and gave it to Lord Rahl,” she told the abbot as she wiped tears from her cheeks. “I guess that now we all know what it meant.”

  The abbot turned his frown to Richard. “You had a dangerous prophecy about fire in the palace brought directly to you and you told none of us? You kept the prophecy to yourself?”

  “I had only just told him about it and he raced right here,” Lauretta said before Richard could answer, unwittingly saving him from having to explain himself. “There was no time to warn anyone, or to do anything to stop the fire in time.”

  The abbot let out a troubled breath. “Still, Lord Rahl, you would be well advised to take prophecy more seriously. Especially when the prophecy could have bearing on the lives and safety of others. Your duty, after all, is to protect the subjects of the D’Haran Empire. You are the magi
c against magic that we all depend on for our safety. Prophecy is magic that the Creator has given us and you need to take it seriously.”

  “I think that Lord Rahl takes prophecy quite seriously,” Nathan said, glaring down at the man.

  “Good,” Ludwig said. “Good. He needs to take it seriously.” Others back in the crowd added nods of agreement.

  Cara spun her Agiel up into her fist. She pointed the red weapon at the abbot’s face. “Lord Rahl does not need you to tell him his responsibility or how to carry it out. Lord Rahl protects us all.”

  Cara’s deadly tone was a clear warning that the man was overstepping his place.

  His gaze finally left Cara and returned to Richard. “Your sword can’t protect you from prophecy, Lord Rahl. It can’t protect any of us from the future. Prophecy is what protects us. That is why the Creator gave mankind the gift of prophecy.”

  Richard’s glare caused the abbot’s gaze to falter and drift to the ground. “That’s enough.”

  Ludwig took a hesitant step back as he dipped his head in a deferential bow. “As you command, Lord Rahl.”

  Once safely withdrawn, he turned and left, several of the other representatives falling in with him and following behind.

  “Let me kill him,” Cara said as she scowled at the man’s back.

  “Let me do it,” Berdine said. “I could use the practice.”

  Richard watched the departing abbot. “If only it were that simple.”

  “Oh, I think it would be pretty simple,” Berdine said.

  Richard shook his head as he saw the knot of people disappear down the hall. “Killing people isn’t the way to have peace.”

  Cara looked like she agreed with Berdine, but she dropped the subject and went on to other business. “Benjamin would like to see you. I told him that I’d find you and bring you to the Garden of Life.”

  CHAPTER 40

  As Richard passed between phalanxes of guards and through the doors into the Garden of Life, with Zedd, Nathan, and Cara close behind, he noticed that scaffolding had already been erected. A number of men clambered along lengths of plank at the top. Some of the men were cutting off twisted metal, while others were beginning the work of laying in new framework so they could replace the glass and close in the roof.