"What is it?" She laid the book on the table, open to the drawing. "What does it mean?"

Nathan stroked a finger along his strong jaw. "It's rather hard to explain. There are no precise words to describe what comes as a picture in my mind when I view it."

"Do you think," Ann asked with exaggerated patience as she clasped her hands, "that you could make an effort to describe to me as best you can the picture in your mind?"

Nathan viewed her askance. "The only words I can think of that fit are 'The beast comes. "

"The beast?"

"Yes. I don't know what the impression means. The prophecy is partially cloaked, either deliberately or perhaps because it's meant to represent something I've never encountered before, or maybe even because it's linked to the blank pages and without their associated text the drawing won't fully come to life for me."

"What is it that this beast is coming to do?"

Nathan flipped the cover closed so that she could see the title: A Pebble in the Pond.

Cold sweat broke out across her brow.

"The symbol is a graphic warning," he said.

Prophecy often referred to Richard as the "pebble in the pond." The text of such a volume would probably be of incalculable value. If only it weren't missing.

"You mean, it's a warning for Richard that some kind of beast is coming?"

Nathan nodded. "That's about as much as I can get from this-that and a vague impression of the ghastly aura around the thing."

"Around the beast."

"Yes. The supporting text preceding the drawing would have been critical to understanding it better, to being able to comprehend the nature of this beast, but that text is missing. The branches after are blank as well so there is no way to place the warning contextually or chronologically. For all I know, it could be something he has already faced and defeated, or something that in his old age might defeat him. Without at least some of the supporting prophecy or a context there simply isn't any way to tell."

Chronology was vital to understanding prophecy, but just from the dread that she felt when viewing the drawing, Ann didn't believe it was anything Richard had yet faced.

"Perhaps it's meant as a metaphor. Jagang's army behaves like a beast and they could certainly be described as ghastly. They slaughter everything in their path. For free people, and for Richard especially, the Imperial Order is a beast coming to destroy them and everything they hold dear."

Nathan shrugged. "That very well could he the explanation. I just don't know."

He paused a moment before he went on. "There is one more disturbing bit of oblique counsel to be found not only in this book but in several of the other books"-he cast a meaningful look her way.»books that I've never seen before."

For a whole variety of reasons, Ann, too, found it disturbing to learn that there were all these books hidden in such a strange, underground, graveyard room.

Nathan gestured again to the books stacked all over the four large tables. "While there certainly are copies of a number of books we've seen, and I've showed those to you, most of these books are new to me. For any library to deviate to this degree from the classic masterworks is unprecedented. Each library has its own unique volumes, to be sure, but this place is like another world altogether. Nearly every volume in here is an astonishing discovery."

Ann's caution awakened. She had the uncanny feeling that Nathan had at last arrived at the core of the labyrinth through which his mind traveled. One thing he had just said loomed in the back of her mind.

"Counsel?" She frowned suspiciously. "What sort of counsel?"

"It advises the reader that if their interest is not of a general nature but they instead have cause to seek more extensive and specific knowledge on the subjects therein, then they should consult the pertinent volumes kept with the bones."

Ann's brow drew even tighter. "Kept with the bones?"

"Yes. It referred to these caches as 'central sites. " Nathan leaned close again, like a washwoman with a load of dirty gossip. "The 'central sites' are mentioned in a number of places, but I've so far only been able to find where one of these sites was named: the catacombs beneath the vaults at the Palace of the Prophets."

Ann's jaw fell open. "Catacombs — That's preposterous. There was no such place beneath the Palace of the Prophets."

"None we knew of," Nathan said in a grave tone. "That doesn't mean it didn't exist."

"But, but," Ann stammered, "that's just not possible. It's just not. Such a thing could not have gone unnoticed. In all that time Sisters lived there we would have known."

Nathan shrugged. "In all this time no one knew of this place, here, beneath the bones."

"But no one lived right above here."

"What if the presence of catacombs beneath the palace was not common knowledge? After all, we know little of the wizards of that time, and not a great deal about the specific people involved in the construction of the Palace of the Prophets. It could be that they had reason to conceal such a place, just as this place was concealed."

Nathan arched an eyebrow. "What if part of the purpose of the palace-the training of young wizards-was part of an elaborate ruse to hide the existence of such a secret site?"

Ann could feel her face going red. "Are you suggesting that our calling was meaningless? How dare you even suggest that all our lives have been devoted to nothing more than a deception, and that the lives of those with the gift would not have been spared had we not.»

"I'm not suggesting anything of the kind. I'm not saying the Sisters were being duped or that what they did didn't spare the lives of boys with the gift and help preserve it. I'm only saying that these books suggest that there may have been more to it. What if there was not only the intent to have a place for the Sisters to practice their useful calling, but there was in part a grander purpose behind the place where they practiced that calling? After all, think of the graveyard above us; it has a valid reason to exist, but it also conveniently provides a shroud to hide this place.

"Perhaps such catacombs were deliberately covered over thousands of years ago with the intent of hiding them? If so, then by design we would never be aware of their existence. If it was a secret cache there wouldn't have been any records of it.

"From the impression I got from the references in these books, I have reason to believe that there were at one time books that were considered so disturbing and in some cases containing spells so dangerous that it was decided that they had to be confined to a few hidden 'central sites' as a precaution, so that they didn't end up in circulation, where they would be copied, as is the practice with most prophecy. What better way to restrict access'. ' Since these references speak of 'the books kept with the bones, I suspect that these other 'central sites' may be catacombs like the one said lo be beneath the Palace of the Prophets."

Ann slowly shook her head as she tried to lake it all in, as she tried lo imagine if there was any possibility that it could be true. She looked again at the table with the stacks of books that were mostly about Richard, and which they had never seen before.

Ann gestured. "And these, here?"

"What is there I almost wish I'd not read."

Ann clutched his sleeve. "Why? What did you read?"

His seemed to catch himself. He waved a dismissal, smiled briefly, and changed the subject.

"What I find the most troubling about the blank places in the books is their common thread. While not all of the missing text is in prophecy about Richard, I have determined that they all do have one thing in common."

"And what would that be?"

Nathan held up a finger to emphasize his point. "Every one of the missing portions are in prophecies that pertain to a time after Richard was born. None of the prophecies that belong to a time before Richard's birth, or thereabouts, have copy missing."