Terry Goodkind - Phantom - Chainfire Trilogy Part 2

“When I was taking you away to the Old World, before we left the New World, we came across colossal bones. I never got down off my horse to look at them, but I remember watching you walk through those rib bones—rib bones that were well beyond twice your height. I had never seen anything like them. You said that you believed that it was the remains of a dragon.

“I thought that they must have been ancient bones. You said they were not, that they still had scraps of flesh on them. You pointed out all the flies buzzing around it as proof that it was what was left of a rotted carcass, not ancient remains.”

Richard nodded at the memory.

Zedd cleared his throat. “And have you ever seen a dragon, Richard? One that was alive, I mean.”

“Scarlet.”

“What?”

“That was her name: Scarlet.”

Zedd blinked with incredulity. “You have seen a dragon . . . and it has a name?”

Richard stood and went to the window. He rested his hands on the stone opening, leaning his weight on it as he gazed out.

“Yes,” he said at last. “Her name was Scarlet. She helped me, before. She was a noble beast.”

He turned back from the window. “But that’s not the point. The point is that you knew her, too.”

Zedd’s eyebrows lifted. “I knew this dragon?”

“Not as well as Kahlan or I, but you knew her. The Chainfire event has obviously corrupted your memory of it. Chainfire was meant to make everyone forget Kahlan, but everyone is forgetting other things as well, things that were connected with her.

“For all I know, you might once have known the meanings of the emblems outside the First Wizard’s enclave better than I do. If you did, that memory is lost to you. How many other things have been lost? I don’t know much about the various ways to use magic, but when we were fighting the beast the other night it seemed to me that in the past all of you used more inventive spells and powers than the simple things you tried against the threat—except maybe what Nicci did at the end.

“This is what the men who came up with the Chainfire spell feared most. This is why they didn’t ever want it ignited. This is why they never even dared test it. They feared that once such an event was initiated it might spread, destroying connections removed from the primary target of the spell—in this case Kahlan. Your memory of Kahlan is lost. Your memory of Scarlet is lost. Your memory of even having seen dragons is apparently lost as well.”

Nicci stood. “Richard, no one is arguing that the Chainfire spell isn’t terribly dangerous. We all know that. We all know that our memories have been damaged by the ignition of a Chainfire event. Do you have any idea how disturbing it is to be intellectually aware that we all did things, knew things, and knew people that we now can’t remember? Don’t you realize how haunting is to be in constant dread of what memories are lost, and what others might be lost? That your very mind is eroding? What are you getting at, anyway?”

“Just that—what else is being lost. I think that the destruction is expanding through everyone’s memory—that their minds are eroding, as you put it. I don’t think that Chainfire was a single event of merely forgetting Kahlan. I think that the spell, once activated, is an ongoing, dynamic process. I think that everyone’s memory loss is continuing to spread.”

Zedd, Cara, and Nicci all looked away from Richard’s unwavering gaze. Nicci wondered how they could expect to help him if none of them were consciously capable of using their own minds, much less keeping what they still had from day to day.

How could Richard trust any of them?

“I’m afraid that as bad as that much of it is, it gets more involved and far worse,” Richard said, the heat having left his voice. “Dragons, like many creatures in the Midlands, need and use magic to live. What if the corruption caused by the chimes extinguished the magic that they need in order to live? What if no one has seen any dragons for the last couple of years because they no longer exist and with Chainfire are now forgotten? What other creatures with magic might have also vanished from existence?”

Richard tapped a thumb against his own chest. “We are creatures of magic. We have the gift. How long until that taint left by the chimes begins to destroy us?”

“But perhaps . . .” Zedd’s voice trailed off when he could think of no argument.

“The Chainfire spell itself is contaminated. You all saw what it was doing to Nicci. She was in the spell and she knows the terrible truth of it.” Richard began pacing as he spoke. “There is no telling how the contamination within the spell might change the way it works. It might even be that the contamination is the reason that everyone’s memory loss is spreading beyond what would have otherwise happened.

“But worse yet, it appears that the corruption has worked in conjunction with the Chainfire event in a symbiotic fashion.”

Zedd looked up. “What are you talking about?”

“What is the mindless purpose of the chimes? Why were they created in the first place? For one single function,” Richard said in answer to his own question, “to destroy magic.”

Richard paused his pacing to face the rest of them as he went on. “The contamination left by the chimes is destroying magic. The creatures that need magic to live—dragons, for example—would likely be the first to be affected. That cascade of events will continue. But no one is aware of it because the Chainfire event is simultaneously destroying everyone’s memory. I think this may be happening because the Chainfire spell is contaminated, causing everyone to forget the very things being lost.

“In much the way a leech numbs its victim so that they won’t feel their blood being drained away, the Chainfire spell is making everyone forget what is being lost because of the corruption of the chimes.

“The world is changing dramatically and no one is even aware of it. It’s as if everyone is forgetting that this is a world that is influenced by, and in many ways functions through, the existence of magic. That magic is dying out . . . and so is everyone’s memory of it.”

Richard again leaned on the sill and stared out the window. “A new day is dawning, a day in which magic continues to die out, and no one is even aware that it is fading away. When it passes entirely, I doubt that anyone will even remember it, remember what once was.

“It’s as if all that was this world is passing into a realm of mere legend.”

Zedd pressed his fingers to the table as he stared into the distance. The light of the lamp accentuated the deep creases of his drawn features. His face had gone ashen. At that moment, Nicci thought that he looked very old.

“Dear spirits,” Zedd said without looking up. “What if you’re right?”

They all turned to the sound of a polite knock. Cara pulled the door open. Nathan and Ann stood beyond the doorway, peering in.

“We ran the standard verification web,” Nathan said as he entered behind Ann, glancing around at the somber expressions.

Zedd looked up expectantly. “And?”

“And it reveals no flaws,” Ann said. “It’s perfectly intact in every way.”

“How can that be?” Cara asked. “We all saw the trouble with the other one. It nearly killed Nicci—and would have if Lord Rahl hadn’t gotten her out.”

“Our point, exactly,” Nathan said.

Zedd’s gaze fell away. “An interior perspective is said to be able to reveal more than the standard verification process,” he explained to Cara. “This is not a good sign. Not a good sign at all. The contamination apparently buried itself as deeply as possible in order to conceal its presence. That’s why it wasn’t seen in the standard verification web.”