Phantom: Chainfire Trilogy Part 2

The boxes of Orden, after all, had been created for the purpose of countering the Chainfire spell. To misuse the key meant that someone without the proper intention and knowledge was trying to gain access to Orden's power, in essence tampering with the purpose for which it had been created. The Book of Life made it all too clear within the structure of the spell-forms that, as a safeguard, if everything was not done correctly, namely completed with the key in the exact, prescribed manner, the formulas and spells would self-destruct — not altogether unlike the way in which Richard had shut down the verification web, collapsing it, to save Nicci.

Richard had memorized a false key, that was the truth of it.

"What is it?" came Zedd's voice.

Nicci looked back over her shoulder to see the old wizard marching across the vast rampart. She knew that she had to set aside the things she had been considering. Telling Zedd about the false key now would only cause him to want to argue. Arguing with Zedd would serve no purpose.

Richard was the one who really needed to know that the key he possessed was false.

"Four riders," Nicci told him.

Zedd came to a halt at the wall. He peered down at the road and grunted to indicate that he saw them.

"Looks like Tom and Friedrich to me," Cara said. "They must have found someone sneaking around."

"I don't think so," Nicci said. "They hardly look like prisoners. I can see the glint of steel. The man is carrying weapons. Tom would have disarmed anyone he thought was a threat. Besides, the other one looks like a little girl."

"Rachel?" Zedd asked, frowning as he leaned out farther, trying to see better between the trees far down the road. It would not be many more days until those golden-brown leaves were gone for the season. "Do you really think it could be her?"

"That's my guess," Nicci said.

He turned and appraised her critically. "You look terrible."

"Thank you," she said. "Just what a woman likes to hear from a gentleman."

He huffed a dismissal of his rude manners. "When's the last time you got any sleep?"

Nicci yawned again. "I don't know. Last summer, when I came back from the People's Palace with that book?"

He made a face at her rather poor attempt at humor. She didn't know why she tried to be funny with him. Zedd could make people laugh just by grunting. Whenever she said anything she thought was rather amusing, people just stared at her, the way Cara was doing.

"How is it coming?" he asked.

Nicci knew what he meant. She pulled some hair back off her face, holding it back from the grasp of the wind. "I could use your help with some star charts and angle calculations. It might speed things up if I didn't have to do those myself. I could go on to some of the other translations and problems."

Zedd laid a hand tenderly on her back, giving her a gentle rub that conveyed a personal, comforting warmth. "On one condition."

"What's that?" she asked as she yawned again.

"You get some sleep."

Nicci smiled as she nodded. "All right, Zedd." She gestured, pointing with her chin. "First I think we had better get down there to see who our guests are."

They were just coming out the big door of the Keep at the side entrance with the paddock when the riders came under the arched opening in the wall.

Tom and Friedrich were escorting Chase and Rachel. Rachel's hair was chopped short, rather than long the way it had been, and Chase looked to be in surprisingly good health for a man who had been stabbed with the Sword of Truth.

"Chase!" Zedd shouted. "You're alive!"

"Well, it's hard to ride a horse upright when you're dead."

Cara chuckled. Nicci glanced at her, wondering where the woman's sudden appreciation for humor had come from.

"Found them returning," Tom said. "First people we've seen out there in months."

"It was good to see Rachel back," Friedrich said. The older man regarded the girl with a grin, showing how much he really meant it.

Zedd caught Rachel as she slipped from the saddle while Cara took the reins of the horse.

"My, but you're getting heavy," Zedd told her.

"Chase rescued me," Rachel said. "He was so brave. You should have seen him. He killed a hundred men all by himself."

"A hundred! My, my, what an accomplishment."

"You stabbed one in the leg for me," Chase said as he swung down out of his saddle. "Otherwise I'd only have gotten ninety-nine."

Rachel kicked her legs, eager to be put down. "Zedd, I brought something important with me."

Once on the ground, she untied a leather bag hanging right behind her saddle. She brought it to the granite steps and set it down, then undid the drawstring.

When she pushed back the leather covering, darkness came out into the crisp late-autumn daylight. To Nicci, it felt like looking into the inky obscurity of Jagang's eyes.

"Rachel," Zedd said in astonishment, "where did you get this?"