Warheart (25 page)

 

CHAPTER

30

Kahlan rubbed her arms against the chill of beginning to grasp the enormity of what Richard had discovered. It was all so overwhelming that it was making her feel very small and insignificant, as if she were but a speck of dust in the vast universe. She supposed that was all she really was.

“I almost hate to say it, Richard, but it's starting to make sense. It touches on vague doubts I've always had–things that just never seemed right. For the first time in my life, all of these doubts and questions are starting to make sense.”

“Good, I'm relieved that you get this much of it because there is more, and understanding this foundation will help with the rest.” Richard took a breath before going on. “The underworld is not touched by Creation, so it is not created. Rather, it is chaos in free form. You might say, since it is death, it is the opposite of Creation. It is anti-Creation. It is neither good nor bad. It has no integral nature to define it. It has no inherent order. It is merely a timeless void that is, in a way, shaped by the souls that exist there.

“Prophecy, being a power partly involving certain elements of the Grace, is expressed by the souls in the underworld existing in the eternal now. Touched by the Grace from the moment they came into being, they continue to be connected to it even as they cross over through the veil. That's how the spirits, the souls of the dead, who exist in a world where prophecy is all part of their eternal now, channel it back through prophets in the world of life. It follows those lines of the Grace that cross worlds separated by the veil.

“Some of those souls are good, some evil, some brilliant, some fools–just as they were in life. Our souls, you see, are the sum total of who we are–good, evil, brilliant, or fools. That means prophecy is the product of both brilliant and ignorant souls, good and bad souls, choosing those things in the homogeneous soup of the eternal now which fit their inherent nature. They gravitate toward those outcomes which their soul embraces. It all mixes together into the prophecy that becomes the power of Regula.

“That collective intellect pooled–the web of life and the spirits–creates what the celestial scrolls call the time wave of prophecy. All of the predictions are true, but all can't be.”

Kahlan wiped a hand back across her face. “If it can't all be true, then how is it resolved?”

“It isn't. That's the point. In the eternal now of the underworld it doesn't matter–it's all part of the homogeneous soup of the eternal now–but here it all spins out of control and collapses. It's one of the powers that doesn't belong in this world–it's incongruous–but it is leaking through the veil because the veil is weakened by the spectral fold.

“What's called the Twilight Count measures this degradation of the veil.”

Kahlan cocked her head. “The Twilight Count? That measures how much the veil is weakening?”

“Yes, that's right. The Twilight Count was begun, like turning over an hourglass, by the initiation of the star shift of the spectral fold. You could say that the Twilight Count is the sand in that grand celestial hourglass counting down our existence.

“The death of this world through the spectral fold degrading the veil will devour the world of existence and thus our souls. Prophecy is the leper's bell betraying that open gap between the worlds. The very existence of prophecy is a dire warning that the sands of the Twilight Count are running out. Prophecy is contaminating the nature of time in our world, and that contamination is measured by the Twilight Count.”

Kahlan blinked in alarm. “How much time do we have?”

“To answer that question we would need some kind of zenith formulas called breach calculations from the star shift.”

“You mean to say there was previously one of these star shifts?” she asked. “It's happened before?”

“Apparently. The scrolls are vague about the previous events, but they mention needing, among other things, templates for occulted celestial charts called seventh-level rift formulas if you are to work out these worldly timelines for this star shift. I haven't the faintest idea what any of that means, where to find these things, or how to work them if I did.”

Kahlan looked over at the sleeping sorceress draped in the overstuffed chair. “What about Nicci? Would she know, do you think?”

Richard sighed as he shook his head. “She was just as mystified about that part as I was. Except she did say that by the nature of such things she could tell that it would require the use of my gift to work any such calculations. So even if I had the components, I couldn't make them work. But it really doesn't make a lot of difference anymore because we know from everything else, such as Sulachan being back in this world and the barrier to the third kingdom being down, that we are rapidly running out of time. What is happening now is an end phase.

“While it seems that prophecy has been here forever, in the stretch of cosmic existence, prophecy has been coming into this world for only a brief twinkling of time. Now that it has, the timeless nature of the underworld is stealing time away from us. Stealing existence from us. Prophecy is the open link that is draining away our free will, our lives, our existence.”

Kahlan snapped her fingers. “That's what it means when it says you can only save us all by ending prophecy.”

Richard smiled that she saw it. “Exactly. It really means that I need to end prophecy in this world by closing the bridge between worlds that has been opened up.”

“Opened by you.”

“Yes,” Richard conceded. “When I used the power of Orden, that was the initiating phase of everything that was long ago set into motion when Sulachan sent the prophecy out from the world of the dead. The entire thing is tightly woven together with thousands of different threads.” Richard drew a deep breath. “And all of those threads are linked to me.”

Kahlan swept some of her hair back off of her face. “So if you end prophecy, you are really sealing the spectral fold and completing the star shift.”

He nodded again. “Thus letting life begin a new era. That page needs to be turned–life reset. The open conduit of prophecy must be closed. Only in that way can the star shift be complete. When that happens, life will be reset in a new phase. Life will then be able to go on.”

“And without that happening?”

Richard raked his fingers back through his hair. “If I can't end prophecy then the veil will continue to erode away, which is what Sulachan has been working toward, and everything will be consumed by the chaos of the underworld. Because he has understood all of this and has been able to direct so much of it, Sulachan believes himself to be the master of the underworld, I guess you could say. He thinks this will unite it all into one world–life and death existing together–and he will rule over this new world of souls.

“But what he doesn't understand, or doesn't care about, is that when the veil finally fails completely and the worlds come together, everything–even the eternity of the underworld itself–will end. It will be a form of death for everything, except the underworld can't die, as such, since it's already dead. So what happens is that everything–the world of life and the world of souls–will simply wink out of existence.”

“How can eternity end?” Kahlan asked. “It's eternal.”

“Think of it this way: A shadow exists because of something casting it. If the thing that casts the shadow ceases to exist, then the shadow ceases to exist.”

Richard shook his head. “Only so long as everything is in balance, as long as life and death–these two opposing forces–are separated by the veil. On its own, without the world of life, the eternity of the world of the dead is a contradiction–like a shadow with nothing casting it–and contradictions can't exist.

“In other words, how can something be dead if there is no such thing as life? The world of the dead is defined by the world of life, so, once the world of life ends, the underworld ceases to exist. No world of life, therefore no world of the dead.”

“How can it end,” she asked, “if there is no such thing as the concept of an end in the underworld?”

“It wouldn't exactly end–because, technically, there is no existence in the underworld to end–it will all simply cease to exist. It will be as if it never existed, like a shadow vanishes without an object to cast it. No trace would be left behind. The eternal now will wink out as if nothing ever existed.”

He leaned back in his chair, drumming his fingers on the desk. “Unless, of course, I can stop it from happening.”

Kahlan nested her hands in her lap, feeling overwhelmed. “You're dying, Richard. You have the poison of death in you. How are you going to do anything to help us if you die?”

Richard considered his answer for a time. When he spoke, he spoke in a quiet, but forceful, tone.

“I'm inextricably woven into the fabric of this, in a number of ways, from using prophecy, to using free will, to using the power of Orden to stop what would have happened had I not. I couldn't not have used the power of Orden.

“Prophecy grows old and corrupt over time, becoming infected with branches that never took place or false prophecy or evil prophecy. Such defective prophecy infects life with that underworld power that is pulling the world of existence apart. Wizards–gifted individuals–have become rare where once they were common. The gift itself is fading away from mankind. Subtractive Magic has virtually vanished from those few who do have the gift. The world has been dying for thousands of years, and we never realized it–or at least never realized why. Prophecy is the talisman that marks everything being taken into oblivion.

“I'm the only one who can stop it. I must stop it.”

Kahlan wiped a hand back over her face. She was beginning to see more of the links the more she thought about it, the way everything was inextricably connected, but he still hadn't answered her question of how he would be able to stop any of it if he was dead.

“How are you connected with Sulachan?” she asked.

He looked up from under his raptor brow. “I'm the living bridge that enabled Sulachan to cross over, in much the same way that Cara was the living bridge that allowed me to cross back through the veil. My blood, the blood of the bringer of death, brought the dead man back.”

“And Hannis Arc? How is he linked into this?”

“He is basically taking advantage of it all for himself, but in so doing he enables it to happen. For all I know, the end of the Twilight Count may take a lifetime, or ten lifetimes, before it runs out. He wants to rule the world of life in the interim.”

“And why would Sulachan help him?”

Richard leveled a look at her. “I'm the living bridge, but Sulachan needed someone on this side to initiate the elements necessary to bring him back. He needed someone on this side of the veil to move the pieces on the chessboard, so to speak. Hannis Arc has the occult powers and the detailed knowledge that were required to accomplish such an extraordinary task.”

Kahlan lifted her hands in a gesture of frustration, only to let them drop back to rest on her thighs. “Red told me that Sulachan and Hannis Arc are like two vipers, each with the tail of the other in his mouth. I can see that Hannis Arc needs Sulachan's army of half people to help him take over the D'Haran Empire and rule the world of life, but now that Emperor Sulachan is back in this world, what does he need with Hannis Arc?”

Richard met her gaze. “You know those tattoo symbols all over Hannis Arc?”

“Of course.”

He gestured to the scrolls. “Those tattoos are elements of occult magic laid out in these scrolls. They are part of how Hannis Arc was able to pull Sulachan out of the underworld.”

“But he's back, now. Why continue to indulge the man?”

Richard smiled. “Those spell-forms tattooed all over the man are the only thing keeping Sulachan in this world. They are his anchor. At the same time, those spells are Hannis Arc's armor, protecting him from being harmed by Sulachan.

“Until he can finish breaking the veil and uniting the world of the dead and the living, he still needs those living spells in order to remain in this world. They secure his spirit here in the world of life and keep the spirit king from being pulled back into the spirit world by the power of the skrin. If Hannis Arc dies, those spells lose their viability.

“My blood brought Sulachan here, but those spells all over Hannis Arc keep him here.”

Kahlan blinked in eager astonishment. “So, then, if someone kills Hannis Arc, that would get rid of Sulachan at the same time. Maybe a force of men of the First File?” Kahlan snapped her fingers. “Maybe archers could take him down from up on the plateau when they come to lay siege to the People's Palace.”

“Both of them are protected by powerful occult powers.” Richard looked away and tapped a thumb against the scroll for a time before answering. “Only a Warheart can stop Sulachan and only a Warheart can kill Hannis Arc.”

Kahlan wasn't sure she had heard him right. “A what?”

Richard pulled a scroll out of the pile on the side and unfurled it across the desk. He tapped one of the symbols.

“This symbol, here, means ‘Warheart.' It says in this scroll that the only one who can send Sulachan back to the underworld, kill Hannis Arc, and end prophecy to seal the spectral fold to complete the star shift before the Twilight Count trickles down to the end of everything, is the one it calls the Warheart.”

Kahlan gave him a look. “Don't tell me, it's someone we know.”

Richard nodded. “The bringer of death, the pebble in the pond, and all the other names that have identified me over the ages. A Warheart is an ancient name for a specific kind of war wizard. It's a war wizard who has led a war, who has wielded a sword in righteous anger … and a few other requirements.”