The Omen Machine

Richard rested the palm of his left hand on the hilt of his sword, tapping the cross guard with his thumb. “What were you and the others doing with Queen Orneta? Why were all of you gathered back there on the balcony? By the looks of all the cups and glasses setting around, you were all up there for quite a while. What were you all doing there?”

When the man paled a little, Richard knew that he had hit a soft spot. “Well, Lord Rahl, we were just talking.”

“Just talking. Just talking about what?”

“About prophecy.”

“Prophecy. And what were you all saying about prophecy? Considering that most of those people immediately packed up, and if they haven’t already gone, they are in the process of getting ready to leave.”

Ambassador Grandon licked his lips, carefully considering his answer. “Lord Rahl, I stayed behind for the moment because I felt that I at least owed you an explanation.”

Richard frowned. “An explanation for what?”

“For why the others have left, or are leaving, and what was decided. You see, we have heard what you and the Mother Confessor have had to say about prophecy. We have heard what Nathan, the prophet, has had to say, but we respectfully have our own view of it.”

Richard bit back a flippant answer. He paused and took a deep breath. He was the one, after all, who had told all of these people, who formerly had gone to their knees to chant a devotion to the Lord Rahl, that their lives were their own, and that they should rise up and live them. He expected them to think for themselves, to make their own reasoned decisions, to live their own lives.

Richard laid a hand on the man’s shoulder. “Ambassador Grandon, we are a free people. We all need to cooperate for our common prosperity, but I am not going to torture to death those who don’t want to follow my way of doing things. That was what the war was fought over— the idea that we are all entitled to live our own lives as we see fit. When I said that your lives are your own to live, I meant it. I would hope that people would see the wisdom and experience in what we say, and choose to go along willingly with us.”

The ambassador looked humbled, and regretful. “I cannot tell you how grateful I am to hear such a sentiment, Lord Rahl. I guess that’s one reason it makes what I stayed to tell you all the more difficult to say.”

“Just tell me the truth, Ambassador. I can’t fault you for speaking truth.”

The man nodded. “You see, Lord Rahl, we realized that you have your own point of view about prophecy, and we can even understand that you undoubtedly have your own good reasons for that belief, but we believe that we need to know what prophecy says so that we may use it to help our people live better lives.

“Queen Orneta made the choice to throw her loyalty behind Hannis Arc, to follow his guidance with the aid of prophecy, if he will agree to give it. We don’t know for certain how he will receive our request for him to share his knowledge of prophecy but we have reason to believe that he will be open to our entreaty. After she made this decision, we all decided the same, that we wanted to listen to a leader who revealed prophecy and uses it, rather than … rather than you.”

Richard hooked his thumbs in his belt as he took another deep breath. “I see.”

“After that, when we were gathered up there on the balcony, the abbot asked the Mord-Sith who came to take the queen away what this was about, and she said that it was about the most recent prophecy. Abbot Dreier asked what the prophecy said. The Mord-Sith said that she didn’t know, but that a number of people had had the prophecy. When the abbot tried to stop the woman, she used her Agiel against him— hurt him quite badly.”

He gestured at the dead woman lying in a pool of blood. “The Mord-Sith took Queen Orneta away. We followed and heard what she did. After killing the queen, when she came out, we all thought we might be next. That’s why none of us really looked at her. Anyway, she left then, and we were all spared. So, some of us immediately went to the fortune-teller down in the halls.”

“Sabella,” Richard said. “I know her.”

Ambassador Grandon nodded. “That would be her.”

“So what did Sabella say?”

“She said that an omen had come to her the day before, an omen saying ‘A queen’s choice will cost her her life.’ This, of course, was after Queen Orneta had told us that her choice was to throw her loyalty behind Hannis Arc in return for his guidance with revealing prophecy.” He flicked a hand toward the dead queen. “Shortly after, Orneta lost her life.

“Prophecy had been fulfilled. Further proof to many of us that we are right to believe we need to be informed of prophecy, the need to follow a man familiar with prophecy, and one who will reveal it to us.”

“I see.”