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Nicci crossed one leg over the other. It was going to be a long night.
The next time Tovi came around, Nicci sat up straighter. "So you swore a bond to Richard, as the Lord Rahl," Nicci said as if there had been no gap in the conversation, "and that protected all of you from the dream walker."
"That's right."
"And then what?"
"We were able to escape. We kept track of Richard as we went about our work for our master. We needed to find a hook."
Nicci knew very well who their master was.
"What do you mean, a hook?"
"In order to do what we need to do to satisfy the Keeper, we needed a way to make sure Richard Rahl could not interfere. We found it."
"Found what?"
"Something that keeps us bonded to him no matter what we do. It was brilliant."
"So what is it?"
"Life."
Nicci frowned, not knowing if she had heard right. She laid a hand on Tovi's wound and gave some focused comfort.
After Tovi had calmed from the wave of pain, Nicci asked in a quiet voice, "What do you mean?"
"Life," Tovi said at last. "It is his highest value."
"So?"
"Sister, think. In order to stay out of the dream walker's grasp, we must be bonded to Richard Rahl all the time. We dare not waver for a moment. And yet, who is our ultimate master?"
"The Keeper of the dead. We have sworn oaths."
"That's right. And if we were to do something that would harm Richard's life, such as loose the Keeper into the world of life, then we would be going against our bond to Richard. That would mean that before we could free the Keeper from his bounds in the world of the dead, Jagang, in this world, would be able to pounce on us."
"Sister Tovi, you had better start making sense, or I will lose my patience, and I assure you, you would not like that. You would not like it one bit. I want to know what's going on so that I can be let in. I want my place back."
"Of course. Of course. You see, Richard's highest value is life. In fact, he created a statue to it. We were in the Old World. We saw his statue dedicated to life."
"I got that much out of what you said."
Her head rolled back so she could again look at Nicci. "Well, my dear, what is it we are pledged to do in the Oaths we have given?"
"Free the Keeper."
"And what is our reward for performing our task?"
Nicci stared at the woman's cold eyes. "Immortality."
Tovi gri
"Richard's highest value is life. You are saying that you plan to grant him immortality?"
"We are. We are working toward his most noble ideal: life."
"But he may not want immortality."
Tovi managed a shrug. "Maybe. But we don't intend to ask him. Don't you see the brilliance of Sister Ulicia's plan? We know that his highest value is life. No matter what else we may do against his wishes, those things do not rise to the level of his most important value. Thus, we are honoring our bond to the Lord Rahl in the most grand way possible, while maintaining the bond-keeping the dream walker out of our minds-and at the same time working to bring the Keeper into the world. See how it goes round and round. Each element locks the others in tighter."
"But it is the Keeper who promises you immortality. You ca
"No, not if we seek it through the Keeper."
"Then how can you possibly grant immortality? You don't have any such power."
"Oh, but we will, we will."
"How?"
Tovi fell to coughing and Nicci had to do some swift work on the wound just to keep the woman alive. It was nearly two hours before she again had her conscious and calm.
"Sister Tovi," she said once the woman had opened her eyes and looked like she was seeing again. "I've had to repair some of your injury. Now, before I can repair the rest of your wound and fully heal you —so that you can have your reward of life-I need to know the rest of it. How can you think that you can grant immortality? You don't have that power."
"We stole the boxes of Orden. We intend to use them to destroy all life — except that which we wish to have around, of course. With the power of Orden, we will hold sway over life and death. We will have the power to grant Richard Rahl immortality. See? Bond fulfilled."
Nicci's head was spi
"Well, there are other parts to the plan. We found catacombs under the Palace of the Prophets."
Nicci had had no idea that such catacombs existed, but she wanted the woman to go on with her story, so she just let her talk.
"That's when it all started. When we got the idea. You see, we had been wandering the lands, looking for ways to satisfy the Keeper.» She clutched Nicci's arm so hard it hurt. "He comes in our dreams. You know that. He comes to you as well. He comes and torments us, forcing us to do his bidding, to work to free him."
Nicci pulled the clawlike hand off her arm. "Catacombs?"
"Yes. The catacombs. We discovered ancient catacombs and in them books. We found a book called Chainfire"
Goose bumps ran up Nicci's arms. "Chainfire, what does that mean? Is it a spell?"
"Oh, it is much more than anything so simple as a spell. It was from ancient times. The wizards of the time had come up with a new theory of how to alter memory-in other words, real events altered with Subtractive power, with all the disco
"But the wizards who came up with this theory were timid men, fearful of unleashing such things not only because they realized that such a linked event would cause irreparable damage to the subject, but because there was no way for them to control it once it was initiated, it would be self-actuating and self-sustaining."
"What do you mean? What does it do?"
"It unravels people's memory of the subject, but that ignition starts a cascade event that can't be predicted or controlled. It then burns through links they have with others, and then others those people know, and so on. It eventually unravels co
"But why did you need to destroy the memory of someone?"
"Not just someone, but the memory of the woman who bought us the bond in the first place, Kahlan Amnell, Richard Rahl's love. By creating a Chainfire event, we ended up with a woman no one remembers."
"But what can that possibly gain you?"
"The boxes of Orden. We used her to get the boxes, so that we can free I the Keeper. With the boxes, we can grant Richard immortal life at the same time we also free the Keeper.
"The Keeper whispered to us in our dreams that Richard has the secret to opening the boxes, he has a necessary knowledge memorized. It exists nowhere else. Darken Rahl revealed it to the Keeper. Richard knows the way to unlock the secrets of Orden, only this time, we know the trick that defeated Darken Rahl.
"The book he knows says that we need a Confessor to open the boxes. And now we have a Confessor who no one remembers-so no one can bother us about her."
"What about prophecy disappearing? Was that caused by Chainfire?"
"It's part of Chainfire. They called it the Chainfire corollary. Part of the initiation phase of Chainfire requires that prophecy also be ignited with a Chainfire event, much the same as people's memories are cast into the conflagration. The Chainfire event feeds on those memories to sustain the event, therefore prophecy must be involved as well. A blank is found in the proper fork-a place where a prophet left a space, should a future prophet wish to complete the work. We then fill in that void in prophecy with a completing prophecy which has the Chainfire formula invested in it. A Chainfire event thus infects and consumes all the associated prophecy on the branch, starting with related prophecy, either in subject or in chronology-in this case both: Kahlan, the woman we wiped away in life, is thus also wiped away in prophecy by the Chainfire corollary."