Page 59 of Phantom (Sword of Truth 10)

Richard had to smile. The man did indeed know Verna.

"I'll return when I can, General. In the meantime, I'll count on you to safeguard the People's Palace."

"The great inner doors will have to be sealed."

"Do what you think best, General."

"The great doors are invested with the same power as the rest of the palace, so they are not a weak link that will provide any opportunity for attack. The only problem with closing the doors is that it puts an end to commerce, which is the lifeblood of the palace… in peacetime, anyway."

Richard watched the throngs of people making their way through the passageway and along the balconies above. "With what's coming, commerce is not going to be possible at the palace anyway. No one is going to be able to travel the Azrith Plain—or anywhere else in the New World, for that matter. Trade everywhere is being disrupted. Prepare for a long siege."

The man shrugged. "That's what enemy armies historically do, sit out there and hope to starve us out. Can't be done; out on the Azrith Plain they'll starve first. Will you be coming back, Lord Rahl, to help in the protection of the palace?"

Richard swiped a hand across his mouth. "I don't know when I'll be able to return. But I will if I can, I promise. For now, I have to put my mind to this new effort.

"We're going to try to kill the Order by cutting out its heart, rather than trying to fight its muscle."

"And if they lay siege to the palace in the meantime and you need to return? How will you be able to get back in?"

"Well, I don't have a dragon, so I can't fly in." When the man only stared blankly at him, Richard cleared his throat and said, "If need be I can come back the way I came today, with the aid of magic—through the sliph."

The general didn't look like he understood, but he accepted Richard's word without question.

"I'm on my way back there now, General. If you want, you can escort us and see it for yourself."

He looked somewhat relieved to be invited to be allowed to do his job of protecting the Lord Rahl. Richard took Berdine's arm and started walking her down the hall as all the soldiers fanned out to form a protective perimeter.

Berdine was considerably shorter than Richard, so he leaned down a bit to speak without raising his voice. "I need to know some things. Have you been translating any more of Kolo's journal?"

She grinned like a maid full of gossip. "I'll say I have. Because of some of the things Kolo had to say, though, I've had to start researching other books as well—so that I could better understand how it all fits together." She leaned closer. "There were things going on that we didn't even realize, before, when we worked on it together. We had only scratched the surface."

Richard didn't think that she knew the half of it. "Do any of those things have to do with First Wizard Baraccus?"

Berdine abruptly halted and stared at him. "How did you know that?"

* * *

CHAPTER 28

Richard reached back, took Berdine by the arm, and pulled her along with him. "I'll explain it later, when I have more time. What did Kolo write about Baraccus in his journal?"

"Well, what Kolo wrote is only part of the story. Kolo just hinted at some of what was going on so, to fill in the blanks, I started reading the books in your restricted, private libraries."

It never failed to amaze Richard that, being the Lord Rahl, he now had access to such restricted libraries. He could not begin to imagine the wealth of knowledge contained in all those volumes.

"What kinds of books?"

Berdine pointed. "One of them is on the way, not in the common areas but deeper in the private sections of the palace—places where almost no one is ever allowed. I'll show you. Part of it has to do with something called central sites."

Keeping pace on the other side of him, Nicci leaned in. "Nathan told me that he read some things about places called central sites."

"Like what?" Richard asked.

Nicci pulled her blond hair away from the side of her face and back over her shoulder. "The central sites are top-secret libraries. Back sometime near or after the great war the central sites were established as a safe, secure, and hidden place to keep books there that were considered too dangerous to be known except by a very restricted, select group of a few people. Nathan said that he thinks there were maybe a half-dozen of these sites."

"That's right," Berdine said. She looked around to make sure that none of the soldiers following them were close enough to hear. "Lord Rahl, I found a reference where it implied that at least some of these sites were marked with the names of a Lord Rahl from prophecy."

Richard halted. "You mean they put his name on a gravestone?"

Berdine's brow lifted. "That's right. It men

tioned that these places, these libraries, were kept with the bones. They thought, from what they knew of prophecy, that a future Lord Rahl would need to find books that were kept there and so, in at least one instance that I found mentioned, it said they put his name on a grave marker."

"In Caska."

Berdine snapped her finger, then shook it at him. "That's the place I saw named. How did you know?"

"I've been there. My name is on a big monument in the graveyard."

"You were there? Why? What were you looking for? What did you find?"

"I found a book—Chainfire—that helped prove what happened to my wife."

Berdine glanced to Cara and the Nicci before looking back at Richard. "I've been hearing rumors about you having a wife. At first I thought it had to be just crazy gossip. So, it's really true, then?"

Richard took a deep breath as he marched through the corridor, surrounded by guards and watched by the passing crowds. He didn't feel up to explaining to Berdine that she knew Kahlan, and had in fact spent a great deal of time with her.

"It's true," he said, simply.

"Lord Rahl, what's this all about?"

Richard waved off the question. "It's a long story and I don't have the time to tell it right now. What is it about these central sites that has you so worked up?"

"Well," Berdine said as she leaned in again while they rushed down the broad hallway, "you remember how Baraccus killed himself after he came back from the Temple of the Winds?"

Richard glanced over at her. "Yes."

"There was something behind it."

"Behind it. What do you mean?"

Berdine came to a side passageway guarded by two men with lances. As they took in Richard and his entourage, they clapped fists to their hearts and stepped aside. Berdine pulled open one of the double doors clad in metal. It had a picture of a courtyard garden meticulously embossed in the polished surface. Beyond the door the smaller hallway of rich mahogany paneling was empty of people. It was the entrance into the private areas of the palace.

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