The Omen Machine (Sword of Truth 12)

“What’s going on, my boy?”

“There’s been an incident.”

Zedd scowled at his grandson a moment. “An incident. What do you mean, there’s been an incident? You mean, like the cook burned the gravy? That kind of incident?”

“Not exactly.” Richard sighed as he leaned back in his chair to look up at his grandfather. Kahlan could see the weary frustration in Richard’s gray eyes. “We found something buried under the Garden of Life.”

Zedd cocked his head. “What do you mean, you found it? How did you find it?”

“The roof fell in.”

“The roof…” He glanced again at Kahlan. She didn’t have so much as a smile in her.

Zedd looked back over his shoulder when Nathan charged into the library leading Nicci, Cara, Benjamin, and Nyda.

“What’s going on?” Nathan demanded in a booming voice from halfway across the room.

“Seems the roof over the Garden of Life fell in,” Zedd announced. “I don’t know yet what the boy did to cause it to collapse.”

“Me? I didn’t do—”

“So then the fragment prophecy is confirmed,” Nathan said. “Doesn’t sound all that important, though. Not important enough to wake us all in the middle of the night.”

Richard folded his arms and waited until both wizards fell silent. When they looked at him innocently, waiting for him to explain, and he was sure they would remain silent, he finally went on.

“There’s more to it. The glass roof was covered in heavy, wet snowdrifts. When it all fell in it landed in the center portion of the floor in the Garden of Life. The weight and shock of the impact, along with a lightning strike, in turn caused the floor to give way.” Richard wiped a weary hand back across his face. “There’s a room buried under there that looks not to have had a visitor in thousands of years.”

Zedd placed his hands on the table and leaned in with a scowl. “Obviously there must be something in that room that would cause you to send Nyda to wake us in the middle of the night.”

“Obviously.”

Nathan turned to Zedd. “What do you think is in there?”

“Well how should I know?”

Nicci shot them each a hot glare. “Would you two give him a chance to tell us?”

Zedd’s mouth twisted irritably. “All right, so what did you find?”

Berdine leaned forward and tapped the book she and Richard had been sharing. “Lord Rahl says it speaks in this language.”

Both Zedd and Nathan blinked in astonishment.

“‘It’?” Nicci asked. “What are you talking about? What do you mean?”

“Yes, what do you mean?” Nathan added.

“Berdine is being dramatic.” Richard tossed a metal strip across the table to his grandfather. It spun on the mahogany tabletop, reflecting flashes of lamplight for a moment before it slowed to a halt. “In a second room down under the Garden of Life there is a machine that inscribes these strips of metal with symbols.”

Zedd stared in astonishment. “A machine?”

Nathan cocked his head to eye the metal strip on the table. “A machine that inscribes symbols?”

“Yes. I believe that the inscriptions are a form of language. That’s what Berdine was talking about when she said it speaks.”

Zedd smoothed back his unruly shock of wavy white hair. “A machine…” With great care he picked up the metal strip. His bushy brows drew down as he studied the series of designs. Nathan looked over one shoulder, Nicci the other. Cara, Benjamin, and Nyda peered around from the side.

“What kind of symbols are these?” Zedd asked. “I’ve never seen anything like most of these before.”

Richard lifted the book, letting them see the spine. He didn’t look any happier than his grandfather. “Symbols out of this book, Regula.”

Zedd eyed the book as if it were a treacherous agent of the Keeper himself. “It would have to be that one.”

“I’m afraid so,” Richard said.

Zedd gestured at the book. “I know a few words of High D’Haran here and there, but I don’t know that one, ‘regula.’ What does it mean?”

“It means to regulate with sovereign authority.”

“Sovereign authority,” Zedd scoffed.

Nathan arched an eyebrow. “Richard is being restrained in his translation.”

“Quite restrained,” Nicci added under her breath.

Kahlan sat in silent worry about just what it was that the Regula machine was supposed to regulate. Everything about it— the size, the complexity, the way it burned messages in an ancient form of language onto the metal strips with focused beams of light, and especially the way it had been hidden and sealed away for ages yet still seemed to function— had her stomach tightened into a knot.

As Nathan took the strip of metal from Zedd to have a closer look, Zedd again waggled a hand at the book. “So what does the book have to do with these strips of metal?”

“I believe that the book is what Berdine thought it was from the first, a wordbook, a manual of sorts. I think that the book is the means to decipher the symbols in order to be able to understand what the strips say.”

“Then it’s a good thing we have the book,” Nathan said in a cautious tone that suggested he didn’t think it could be that simple. “So what have you been able to figure out about the symbols?”

Richard stared off a moment before speaking, apparently reluctant to have to admit it aloud.

“Nothing, I’m afraid.”

Nathan’s scowl grew. “I thought you said the book was intended as a means to decode the strips?”

“I believe it is. But it doesn’t work.”

His grandfather’s brow drew down even tighter. “What do you mean, it doesn’t work? If it is what you say it is then it has to work.”

“I know,” Richard said in a quiet voice. “But it doesn’t.”

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 inscribe

d 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.”