Chainfire: Chainfire Trilogy Part 1

Nathan picked up the volume on the top and flipped the book open. "Well, for one thing, this symbol, here, troubles me greatly. It's an exceedingly rare form of prophecy, undertaken while the prophet was under siege by a storm of revelation. Such graphic prophecies are drawn in the heat of a powerful vision, when writing would take too long and interrupt the rush of what is rampaging through his mind."

Ann was only vaguely aware of such representational prophecy. She recalled a few from the vaults at the palace. Nathan had never before mentioned to her what they had been, and no one else had known. Yet another of Nathan's little thousand year old secrets.

She bent close and studied the intricate drawing that took for itself most of a page. There were no straight lines in it at all, only curved swirls and arcs that eddied all around in a circular design that somehow seemed almost alive. Here and there the pen had dug violently into the surface of the vellum, ploughing up parallel rows of fibers where the two halves of the pen's point had spread under the pressure. Ann lifted the book closer to a candle and carefully examined a curious place that was particularly rough. She saw in the ancient dried bed of an inky pool a fine, pointed sliver of metal: one side of the pen's point had broken off where it had been stabbed into the page. It was still embedded there. Right after, the cleaner marks of a fresh pen began anew, although they were no less forceful.

Nothing in the ink drawing represented any identifiable subject-it appeared to be completely nonobjective-and yet it was for some reason so gravely disturbing that it made her hackles lift. It seemed as if the drawing was almost recognizable but its meaning was just outside of her conscious awareness.

"What is it?" She laid the book on the table, open to the drawing. "What does it mean?"

Nathan stroked a finger along his strong jaw. "It's rather hard to explain. There are no precise words to describe what comes as a picture in my mind when I view it."

"Do you think," Ann asked with exaggerated patience as she clasped her hands, "that you could make an effort to describe to me as best you can the picture in your mind?"

Nathan viewed her askance. "The only words I can think of that fit are 'The beast comes. "

"The beast?"

"Yes. I don't know what the impression means. The prophecy is partially cloaked, either deliberately or perhaps because it's meant to represent something I've never encountered before, or maybe even because it's linked to the blank pages and without their associated text the drawing won't fully come to life for me."

"What is it that this beast is coming to do?"

Nathan flipped the cover closed so that she could see the title: A Pebble in the Pond.

Cold sweat broke out across her brow.

"The symbol is a graphic warning," he said.

Prophecy often referred to Richard as the "pebble in the pond." The text of such a volume would probably be of incalculable value. If only it weren't missing.

"You mean, it's a warning for Richard that some kind of beast is coming?"

Nathan nodded. "That's about as much as I can get from this-that and a vague impression of the ghastly aura around the thing."

"Around the beast."

"Yes. The supporting text preceding the drawing would have been critical to understanding it better, to being able to comprehend the nature of this beast, but that text is missing. The branches after are blank as well so there is no way to place the warning contextually or chronologically. For all I know, it could be something he has already faced and defeated, or something that in his old age might defeat him. Without at least some of the supporting prophecy or a context there simply isn't any way to tell."

Chronology was vital to understanding prophecy, but just from the dread that she felt when viewing the drawing, Ann didn't believe it was anything Richard had yet faced.

"Perhaps it's meant as a metaphor. Jagang's army behaves like a beast and they could certainly be described as ghastly. They slaughter everything in their path. For free people, and for Richard especially, the Imperial Order is a beast coming to destroy them and everything they hold dear."

Nathan shrugged. "That very well could he the explanation. I just don't know."

He paused a moment before he went on. "There is one more disturbing bit of oblique counsel to be found not only in this book but in several of the other books"-he cast a meaningful look her way.»books that I've never seen before."

For a whole variety of reasons, Ann, too, found it disturbing to learn that there were all these books hidden in such a strange, underground, graveyard room.