Chainfire: Chainfire Trilogy Part 1

He arched an eyebrow as he straightened his frame to its considerable height. "There are a number of other people interred here." He flicked a hand off toward the darkness. "Back that way."

Ann wondered if they could all be prophets as well. "And the books?"

Nathan leaned down again, and whispered again. "Prophecy."

She frowned and looked back the way they had come. "Prophecy? You mean all of them? Those are all books of prophecy?"

"Most of them."

Excitement bubbled up through her. Books of prophecy were invaluable. They were the rarest of jewels. Such books could offer guidance, provide answers they needed, spare them futile endeavors, fill in gaps in their knowledge. Perhaps more than at any other time in history, they needed those answers. They needed to know more about the final battle in which Richard was supposed to lead them.

As of yet they had not discovered when this battle was to take place. With the frustrating vagary of prophecy, it could yet be many years off. For that matter, it was even possible that it was not to take place until Richard was an old man. With all the difficulties they had faced in the past several years, they could only hope that it was still many years off and they would have time to prepare. Prophecy could help with that.

The vaults at the Palace of the Prophets had been filled with thousands of volumes of prophecy, but they had all been destroyed along with the palace to prevent it from falling into the hands of Emperor Jagang. Better to lose such works for all time than allow evil to look upon their pages.

But no one knew of this place. This place was hidden beneath a concealment spell. The dizzying possibilities spun through Ann's mind.

"Nathan — this is wonderful."

She turned and looked up at the man. He was watching her in a way that made her fidgety. She reached out and placed a hand on his arm.

"Nathan, this is more than we could ever have hoped."

"This is something more than that," he said cryptically as he started hack. "There are books here that make me doubt my sanity," he said with a sullen flourish of an arm.

"Ah," Ann quipped as she followed along in his wake, "verification at last."

He halted and turned a glare on her. "This is nothing to joke about."

Ann felt goose flesh ripple up her arms. "Show me then," she said in a serious tone. "What is it you've found?"

He shook his head, seeming to lose his momentary flash of ill humor. "I'm not even sure." His usual flamboyance was nowhere in evidence as he moved in among the tables he'd dragged together. His dark mood turned guarded. "I've been sorting the books."

Ann wanted to hurry him along and get to the meat of his discovery, but she knew that when he was troubled it was best to let Nathan explain things in his own way, especially when there was arcane speculation involved.

"Sorting them?"

He nodded. "These here in this pile don't appear to be of any real use to us. Most are prophecy long since outdated, contain only irrelevant records, or are in unknown languages-things like that."

He turned and slapped a hand to the top of another stack. Dust boiled up. "These here are all books that we had back at the palace." He swept his hand back and forth in front of the stacks of books piled high on the table behind him. "All of them. This whole tableful."

Her eyes wide, Ann glanced at the shelves and niches going back along the strange room. "There are a great many more books other than these you have here on the tables. This is only a fraction of them."

"Indeed. I haven't had a chance to even begin to look at them all yet. I finally decided that I'd better send Tom off to find you. I wanted you to see what I've discovered. That, and there is a lot of reading to do. I've been pulling out one book at a time, checking through it, and placing it in one of the piles on these tables."

Ann wondered how many books could still be viable, could still be usable, alter thousands of years underground. She had found books before that had been ruined by the effects of time and the elements, especially mildew and water. She peered around, inspecting the walls and ceiling, bill she saw no evidence of water leaking through.

"At first glance, none of these books look to be damaged by water. How can this place underground be so dry? It would seem that water would seep in through the joints in the stone and make everything down here wet and moldy. I can hardly believe that the books appear to be in such good condition."

"Appear being the operative word," Nathan said under his breath.

She turned back to scowl at him. "What do you mean?"

He waved a hand irritably. "In a moment. In a moment. The interesting thing is, the ceiling and walls are sheathed in lead to help keep out the water. The place also has a shield of magic around it for even more protection. The entrance, too, was shielded."

"But the Bandakar people have no magic and their land was sealed off. There was no one with magic to shield against."