Richard sank down in his chair. "I see. No sign? Nothing?"

"No, Lord Rahl. General Reibisch said to tell you they're making good time, and are scouring every inch, and wanted me to assure you that our men have missed nothing, but so far they've found no sign."

Richard signed in disappointment. "All right. Thank you. You'd best go get something to eat."

The man saluted and took his leave. Every day for two weeks, starting a week after the force had departed in search of Kahlan, messengers had been returning to give Richard a report. Since the force had started splitting up to cover different routes, each group was sending its own messenger. This was the fifth of the day.

Hearing the reports of what had happened weeks ago, when the messengers had left their troops, was like watching history happen. Everything he heard unfolding had happened in the past. For all Richard knew, they could have found Kahlan a week ago and were on their way back while he was still hearing reports of failure. He kept that constant hope foremost in his mind.

He had filled the time and kept his mind from wandering into worried thoughts by working on translating the journal. It gave him much the same feeling as getting the reports every day, like watching history happen. Richard was rapidly coming to understand more of the argot form of High D'Haran than Berdine.

Because he knew the story of The Adventures of Bonnie Day, they had been working on that the most, making long lists of words as they discovered their meanings, giving them something to refer to when they worked on the journal. As he learned words, Richard was able to read more of the book, piecing together the exact wording, enabling him to fill in more of the blanks in his memory, and thus learn yet more words.

It was often easier for him, now, to simply use what he had learned to translate from the journal than to show Berdine and have her do it. He was beginning to see High D'Haran in his sleep, and speak it when awake.

The wizard who wrote the journal never named himself; it was not an official record, but a private journal, so he had no need to call himself by name. Berdine and Richard had taken to calling him Kolo, short for koloblicin, a High D'Haran word meaning "strong advisor."

As Richard was able to understand more and more of the journal, a frightening picture was beginning to emerge. Kolo had written his journal during the ancient war that had spawned the creation of the Towers of Perdition in the Valley of the Lost. Sister Verna had once told him that the towers had stood guard over that valley for three thousand years, and had been placed to halt a great war. After learning how desperate these wizards had been to activate the towers, Richard was beginning to feel more and more troubled about having destroyed them.

Kolo had mentioned in one place that his journals had been with him since he was a boy, and he filled about one a year, so this one, number forty-seven, must have been written when he was somewhere in his early to mid-fifties. Richard intended to go to the Keep and search for Kolo's other journals, but this one still had many secrets to reveal.

Apparently Kolo was a trusted advisor to the others in the Keep. Most of the other wizards had both sides of the gift, Additive and Subtractive, but a few had only Additive. Kolo felt great sorrow for, and was protective of, those born with only that one side of the gift. These "unfortunate wizards" were said to be viewed by many as next to helpless, but Kolo thought that they could contribute in their own unique way and petitioned on their behalf for full status in the Keep.

In Kolo's time hundreds of wizards lived at the Keep, and it was alive with families, friends, and children. The now empty halls had at one time rung with laughter, conversation, and lighthearted rapport. Several times Kolo mentioned Fryda, probably his wife, and his son and younger daughter. Children were restricted to certain levels in the Keep, and went to lessons where they studied typical subjects like reading, writing, and mathematics, but also prophecy and the use of the gift.

But over this great Keep, teeming with life, work, and the joy of families, hung a pall of dread. The world was at war.

Among Kolo's other duties was his turn at standing guard over the sliph. Richard remembered the rnriswith in the Keep asking him if he had come to wake the sliph. It had pointed down at the room where they had found Kolo's journal and said she was accessible at last. Kolo, too, referred to the sliph as "she," sometimes mentioning that «she» was watching him as he wrote in the journal.

Because it was such a struggle to decipher the journal from High D'Haran, they had abandoned skipping around since it only tended to confuse them. It was easier to start at the beginning and translate every word as they went, thus learning Kolo's idiosyncrasies in the way he used language, making it easier to recognize patterns in his expressions. They were only about a fourth of the way into the journal, but the process was speeding up considerably as Richard was learning High D'Haran.

While Richard leaned back and yawned again, Berdine bent toward him. "What is this word?"

" 'Sword, " he responded without hesitation. He remembered the word from The Adventures of Bonnie Day.

"Huh. Look here. I think Kolo is speaking about your sword."

The front legs of Richard's chair thumped down as he came forward. He took the book and the piece of paper she had been using to write out the translation. Richard scanned the translation, and then went back to the journal, forcing himself to read it in Kolo's words.

The third attempt at forging a Sword of Truth failed today. The wives and children of the Jive men who died roam the halls, wailing in inconsolable anguish. How many men will die before we succeed, or until we abandon the attempt as impossible? The goal may be worthy, but the price is becoming terrible to bear.

"You're right. It seems he's talking about when they were trying to make the Sword of Truth."

Richard felt a chill at learning that men had died in the making of his sword. In fact, it made him feel a little sick. He had always thought of the sword as an object of magic, thinking that maybe it had simply been a plain sword at one time that some powerful wizard had cast a spell over. Learning that people died in the effort to make it made him feel ashamed that he took it for granted most of the time.

Richard went on to the next part of the journal. After an hour of consulting the lists and Berdine, he had it translated.

Last night, our enemies sent assassins through the sliph. Had the man on duty not been so alert, they would have succeeded. When the towers are ignited, the Old World will truly be sealed away, and the sliph will sleep. Then we can all rest easier, except the unlucky man on guard. We have concluded that we will have no way of knowing when the spells will be ignited, if they ever are, or if anyone is in the sliph, so the guard cannot be called away in time. When the towers are brought to life, the man on guard will be sealed in with her.

"The towers," Richard said. "When they completed the towers, sealing the Old World from the New World, that room was also sealed. That's why Kolo was down there. He couldn't get out."

"Then why is the room open now?" Berdine asked.

"Because I destroyed the towers. Remember I told you that it looked like Kolo's room had been blasted open within the last few months? How the mold on the walls had been burned away and hadn't had time to regrow? It must have happened because I destroyed the towers. It also unsealed Kolo's room for the first time in three thousand years."

"Why would they seal the room with the well?"

Richard had to force himself to blink. "I think this sliph thing Kolo keeps talking about lives in that well."