"And if you can't think of what to do next?"

Richard leaned on both hands as he stared off into the dark well, doing his best to stifle his tears.

"Please.»

If he only knew who to fight, if only he could strike out at an enemy. He didn't know how to fight shadows in his mind.

Nicci laid a hand gently on his shoulder. "All right, Richard. All right."

CHAPTER 55

Nicci knocked on the round-top oak door and waited. Rikka, standing at her back, waited with her.

"Come in," came a muffled voice.

Nicci thought that it sounded like Nathan's deep, powerful voice, rather than Zedd's. Inside the small, round room that Richard's grandfather was fond of using, she saw the prophet along with Ann, her hands pushed into opposite sleeves of her simple, dark gray dress as she stood patiently waiting for their invited guest. Nathan, in dark brown trousers and high boots, with a ruffled white shirt under a sweeping cloak, looked more like an adventurer than a prophet.

Zedd, in his simple robes, stood quietly at a round leaded window between book cabinets with glassed doors, his hands clasped behind his back. He appeared to be lost in thought as he gazed out at the city of Aydindril far below at the base of the mountain. It was a beautiful view; Nicci could understand why he favored the cozy room. Rikka started pushing the thick oak door closed.

"Rikka, dear," Ann said with a Prelate's practiced smile, drawing the Mord-Sith's attention, "my throat is still terribly dry from all that smoke yesterday when that dreadful creature set the library ablaze. Would you mind making me some tea, maybe with a spot of honey?"

Rikka, holding the half-closed door, shrugged. "Not at all."

"Any of your biscuits left?" Nathan asked with a wide smile. "Your biscuits were wonderful, especially when they're warm."

Rikka gazed briefly at everyone in the small room. "I will bring biscuits and tea along with some honey."

"Thank you so much, my dear," Ann said, the smile never breaking, as Rikka vanished out the door.

Zedd, still watching out the window, hadn't said anything.

Nicci, ignoring Ann and Nathan, instead turned and addressed Zedd. "Rikka said that you wanted to see me."

"That's right," Ann said in his place. "Where is Richard?"

"Down in that place I told you about, the place he found between the shields where he will be safe. He is reading, looking for information, doing what a Seeker does, I suppose." With exaggerated care, Nicci folded her fingers together. "So, the three of you want to talk to me about Richard."

Nathan huffed a short laugh that transformed itself into a throat-clearing cough when Ann glanced his way. Zedd, standing with his back to the rest of them, stared out the window without saying anything.

"You always were a bright one," Ann said.

"It wasn't exactly a guess that required great intellect," Nicci said, not wanting to allow Ann to get away with such empty flattery. "If you please, withhold your praise until I do something to deserve it."

Both Nathan and Ann smiled. Nathan's even looked genuine.

Flattery had been a plague that had followed Nicci her whole life. "Nicci, you're such a bright child, so you must give more of yourself." "Nicci, you're so beautiful, the most beautiful creature I've ever seen. I must hold you." "Nicci, my dear, I simply must be allowed to sample your exquisite charms or I will surely die an impoverished man." To Nicci, vacuous flattery was the sound of a prybar, a tool used by a thief as he tried to get at what she had.

"What is it I can do for you," Nicci asked in a businesslike voice.

Ann, hands still pushed up opposite sleeves, shrugged. "We need to talk to you about Richard's unfortunate condition. It was quite shocking to discover him suffering from delirium."

"I can't say I disagree with that," Nicci said.

"Do you have any ideas?" the Prelate asked.

Nicci glided her fingers back and forth across the polished top of the magnificent desk. "Ideas? What do you mean, ideas?"

"Don't play coy," Ann said, her indulgent humor evaporating from her voice. "You know very well what we mean."

Zedd finally turned around, apparently not liking Ann's tack. "Nicci, we're very worried about him. Yes, we're worried because of the prophecy and that it says he must be the one to lead our forces and all the rest of it, but.» He lifted a hand and let it drop in frustration. "But we're worried for Richard himself. There is something very wrong with him. I've known him from the day he was born. I've spent years with him, alone with him, with him around others. I've been so proud of that boy that I can't begin to tell you. He always has been one to occasionally do puzzling things, things that frustrate and confuse me, but I've never seen him act like this. I've never seen him believe such crazy stories. You can't imagine what it does to me to see him like this."

Nicci scratched an eyebrow, using it as an excuse to look away from the pain in his hazel eyes. His white hair looked in even more disarray than usual. He looked more thin than usual; he looked gaunt. He looked like a man who had not gotten much sleep for weeks.

"I think I can understand your feelings," she assured him. She took a deep thoughtful breath as she slowly shook her head. "I don't know, Zedd. I've been trying to figure it out since I found him that morning gasping for breath and almost in the Keeper's clutches."

"You said he lost a lot of blood," Nathan said. "And that he was unconscious for days."

Nicci nodded. "It's possible that such a condition, such desperate fear of not having enough breath and thinking he was going to die that way, caused him to dream up someone who loved him-a kind of trick to try to calm himself. I used to sometimes do something similar when I was afraid; I would put my mind in another else, a pleasant place, where I was safe. With Richard, with the heavy loss of blood and the abnormally long sleep after being healed, while he was regaining some of his strength —enough strength to try to survive the ordeal-well, I think that the whole time the dream could have grown and grown in his mind."

"And have taken over his thoughts," Ann finished.

Nicci met her gaze. "That was my thought."

"And now?" Zedd asked.

Nicci turned her eyes up to gaze at the heavy oak beams across the ceiling as she searched for words. "I don't know anymore. I'm no expert in such things. I've not exactly spent my life as a healer. I would think that the three of you would know a great deal more about such maladies than I do."

"Well, yes, as a matter of fact," Ann said, making a face like she was glad to hear Nicci admit as much, "we would tend to agree with that assessment."

Nicci eyed all three of them suspiciously. "So, what do all of you think is his problem?"

"Well," Zedd began, "we're still not ready to rule out a number of things that.»

"Have you considered a glamour spell?" Ann asked, fixing Nicci in her steady stare the way she used to do to make novices tremble and confess to shirking their chores.

Nicci was no novice and no longer susceptible to such intimidation from on high. After having Jagang, in a blind rage, hold her with one meaty fist around her throat and pound her face with the other, a stare was hardly something to make Nicci tremble. In fact, had the subject not been one so serious, one that sincerely did concern her so, she might have laughed at the very effort of such a stern look to elicit an incautious report.

"It crossed my mind," she said, seeing no purpose in denying it. "But I had to eliminate the arrow with Subtractive Magic if I was to save his life. I'm afraid that, at the time, I never gave any thought to such an idea. I was frantically tying to keep him from dying. Perhaps I should have thought about the arrow being spelled, but I didn't. With the arrow now gone there is no way to tell if that really was the case and, without the arrow, there's no way to do anything about it if true."