“You don’t remember any of it?”
She shook her head. “No. I don’t remember ever telling Verna that I knew the cause of the problem, but what’s worse is that I don’t remember ever knowing why the walls were melting. How could I forget something important like that?”
Richard stared into her troubled blue eyes for a moment. “I don’t think you could, if things were normal.”
“That can only mean that the damage from Chainfire is spreading beyond the original target of the spell.”
“It’s the contamination,” Richard said in a quiet voice.
“If that’s true, then that means that what ever is going on in here is connected to what we must do to reverse Chainfire. The contamination in the chimes is erasing memory to protect itself.”
Such a frightening concept gave Richard pause. He knew, though, that it made sense. Now he had to worry not only about how Jagang might be one step ahead of him, but about how the contamination with Chainfire might also be acting to defend itself from extermination.
It didn’t need to be sentient to react to preserve itself and continue its purpose. To the chimes, eliminating magic was a value, and the contamination they left in their wake was their method of accomplishing that value, so such self-defensive measures were probably integral, much as thorns were sometimes a bush or tree’s means of self-defense. Having thorns didn’t mean the tree was able to think of how to hurt anyone who came near; it was merely its integral means of protecting itself so that it could continue to exist.
“We have to reverse Chainfire or it’s only going to continue to grow worse,” Richard finally said to Nicci. “It won’t be long before we even forget why we have to reverse it. I must invoke the power of Orden to counter the spell before it’s too late.”
“We need the boxes of Orden to do that,” she reminded him.
“Well, Jagang has two, and the witch woman took the third. Somehow we need to get them back.”
“Since Six is doing Jagang’s bidding by attacking our troops down in the Old World, I think we must assume that she intends to give him the third box.”
Richard traced a finger along some of the lettering on Panis Rahl’s casket. “I think you’re right. It’s only a matter of time before Jagang has all three boxes, if he doesn’t already.”
“We have something they need, though,” Nicci said.
“We do? What?”
“The Garden of Life. Since translating The Book of Life I’ve come to see the Garden of Life in a different way. The book confirmed some of the conclusions I had previously come to, after the last time I saw the garden.
“I now understand the Garden of Life through the context of the magic of Orden. I’ve studied the position of the room, the amount of light, the angles in relation to various star charts and how the sun and moon traverse the place. I’ve also analyzed the area within the room where the spells relating to Orden had been invoked—their specific placement in relation to the other elements.”
Richard was intrigued. “You mean to say that you really think that the Garden of Life is necessary to open one of the boxes?”
“Yes. The Garden of Life was constructed specifically to provide the controlled conditions necessary to open one of the boxes of Orden.”
Richard had to run that through his mind a second time before he was sure that he’d heard her right. “You mean to say that Jagang must get into that room in order to open the correct box?”
Nicci shrugged. “Unless he wants to construct his own room just like it. That certainly isn’t out of the realm of possibility, but the elements all brought together in that room are very exacting. Re-creating it would be a complex undertaking.”
“But it would be possible for him to do such a thing?”
“He would need the original references from which the plans for the Garden of Life were derived. He would also need the aid not only of sorceresses, but wizards. Lacking everything necessary to do it on his own, he would have to study the Garden of Life itself in order to know how to construct a new one. The only practical solution would be to duplicate what was already built here, since all that preliminary work has already been successfully carried out.”
“Well, if he could get into here to do that, he might as well use this one.”
Nicci leveled a look at him. “Exactly.”
Richard sighed with grasping just how far behind Jagang’s true motives they truly were. “No wonder he hasn’t been worried about opening the boxes before now. He needed to get here, first. Taking the People’s Palace has been part of his larger goal all along. He’s known all this time what he needed to do.”
“Seems that way,” she admitted.
Berdine stepped through the melted opening into the tomb. “Lord Rahl, there you are.”
Richard turned. “What is it?”
“I found this book,” she said, holding it up as she strode across the room, as if waving the book would explain everything. “It’s in High D’Haran. When I translated some of it and realized what it was, Verna told me to get it to you right away.”
Nicci took the book from Berdine when the Mord-Sith held it out to her. She opened the cover and started scanning the text.
“So, what is the book about?” Richard asked Berdine.
“It’s about Jillian’s people. Her ancestors from Caska, anyway.”
“The dreamcasters…” Nicci whispered to herself as she followed along in the book.
Richard frowned. “What?”
“Nicci’s right,” Berdine said. “It’s about how the people in Caska were able to cast dreams. Verna said to tell you that.”
“All right, thanks.”
“Well, I need to get back. There are some other books Verna needs to have translated. And don’t forget,” she said over her shoulder as she started away, “sometime I need to tell you the things I found out for you before—about Baraccus.”
Richard nodded to the Mord-Sith’s quick smile.
Nicci tucked the book under her arm. “Thanks, Berdine. As soon as we’re finished here, we’ll look into it.”
Richard watched Berdine leaving for a moment, then gestured to the inscriptions on the walls. “This all looks rather disturbing. Do you know the exact nature of the spells outlined here? A number of the elements look vaguely familiar.”
“They should,” Nicci answered cryptically. She pointed out one of the inscriptions on the far wall. “See there? It’s instructions from a father to a son on the process of going to the underworld and returning.”
“You mean, Panis Rahl wanted to pass these spells down to Darken Rahl, so they were chiseled in the walls of his tomb?”
“No,” Nicci said, shaking her head. “I believe that these spells have been passed down through the House of Rahl for countless generations—from each father to his gifted offspring who would become the next Lord Rahl. From each father to his son. They are, in a way, your birthright.”
Richard felt rather overwhelmed with the thought of it. “How old do you think they are? And why pass down spells on going to the underworld?”
“From the composition of these spells, my guess is that they have existed from the time Orden itself was created.” Nicci looked over out of the corner of her eye. “I believe that to use the power of Orden, these spells may be necessary.”
Richard rounded on her. “What?”
“Well, from what I read in the books that explained Orden, like The Book of Life, and some of the books on Ordenic theory, I’ve come to believe that the purpose of such a requirement has to do with the problem of how Subtractive Magic was used in the ignition of a Chainfire event.”
“You mean the problem with memories being eliminated?”
Nicci nodded. “Why can’t the rest of us remember Kahlan? Why can’t she remember who she was? Why can’t we use our gift to heal people who have forgotten Kahlan, or heal Kahlan? Why can’t our gift restore those memories?”
Richard recognized Nicci, the instructor, asking he
r student to provide the answer on his own. Richard was more than familiar with the technique. Zedd had used it on Richard his whole life.
“Because those memories are gone. There is nothing to restore.”
“And how were they taken?” Nicci asked, lifting a questioning eyebrow.
Richard thought it was obvious. “Through Subtractive Magic.”
Nicci only stared at him, as if waiting for more.
Understanding dawned on him.
“Dear spirits,” he said in a whisper. “Subtractive Magic is the magic of the underworld.” He stepped closer to her. “Are you saying that in order to use the power of Orden, going to the underworld is necessary because those things that were taken with Subtractive Magic are only able to be recovered there?”
“If memories are to be rebuilt, there must be a kernel to grow them from. The memory you have of her is your memory, not Kahlan’s missing memory, not Zedd’s, not Cara’s—not anyone else’s. The substance of their missing memory is what is gone from this world. It no longer exists. Not here, anyway.”