“Representational language?”
“Sure. If you see a simple drawing of a bird, it conveys a whole array of meaning—a concept—without needing words, right? That’s how the language of Creation works. It conveys meaning and concepts through symbols, designs, and emblems rather than words.”
She looked intrigued. “Someday you will have to tell me more about the language of Creation, but for now, what is the important point about this particular spell-form?”
Richard pointed a finger toward the ceiling, rotating his hand around to indicate everything above them. “The People’s Palace is laid out in the shape of a giant spell-form, the purpose of which is to give the Lord Rahl more power when he is here, in his home, also called the House of Rahl. That makes the People’s Palace a place of power for the Lord Rahl.”
“More power? More power like what?”
“Like when I turned all those Glee to ash. I was in part aided by the power of the spell-form of the palace itself. It helped me by adding energy to what I did—because I am the Lord Rahl. That’s the purpose of the way the palace was originally designed. Like a castle has thick walls and defensive parapets and ramparts, the People’s Palace was built on a giant spell-form drawn on the ground. That spell-form gives it its shape and is its means of defense for the House of Rahl by augmenting their magic.”
Shale blinked as she thought about it. “No wonder the halls are so confusing.”
“Not if you know the specific spell and the language of Creation. If you do, the layout of the palace makes perfect sense. It’s elegant in its simplicity … as a spell-form.”
“Sure, perfect sense,” she mocked. She gestured at the plan on the table. “So then what’s this business about a complication?”
Richard turned back to the diagram as he let out an unhappy sigh. “A complication, which is a spell-form, is an ancillary element of the principal spell-form to which it is attached. In this case, it’s a subordinate, supporting spell-form, meant to add power to the rest of the spell-form that is the palace. You might say it’s like extra descriptive words in a sentence.”
“So it is a spell-form that exists on its own and it can also be a supporting element of another spell-form?”
“Yes and no,” Richard told her. “This is a specific type of spell-form called a complication. It’s not meant to ever exactly exist on its own. Its purpose is to add capability to the spell-form to which it is attached.”
“Then it has a purpose for being here, for being built into the palace,” Kahlan said.
“Yes.”
“So then why does it have you so worried and upset?”
Richard took a deep breath. “The simplest way to explain the problem is that in the language of Creation, the primary elemental component of this particular spell-form means ‘chaos.’ That means that this spell-form adds an element of chaos to the power of the palace spell.”
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“Chaos,” Kahlan repeated. “In what way?”
Richard lifted a hand as if to say that it was unknowable. “It adds its power to the main spell to which it is attached in chaotic ways, meaning there is no way to predict what it will do. That makes the primary spell-form of the palace more dangerous to enemies of the House of Rahl.”
Kahlan wasn’t at all sure how such a spell would work. “Why would a chaotic element make the main spell-form more dangerous?”
“Because if a wizard—a Rahl here at the palace—uses his magic against a gifted enemy, the palace spell-form amplifies the power of the web he casts.”
“All right,” Kahlan said. “That makes sense.”
Richard held up a finger. “But a dangerously gifted enemy will know how to counter magic. See the problem?”
Kahlan, trying to follow, frowned in concentration. “No.”
“The spell-form of the palace is a known, specific spell-form and for someone powerfully gifted and experienced, it is therefore predictable in how it amplifies a Rahl’s power. Predictability means it can be anticipated and if it can be anticipated it can be countered. If a Rahl’s magic is countered, then it is rendered ineffective against the enemy, right?
“To solve that predictability problem, what the creators of the People’s Palace did was to add in this chaotic complication.”
“You mean it’s like gravy on a meat pie?” Shale asked.
Richard smiled at her sarcasm. “Sort of. Lumpy gravy, and you don’t know what’s in the lumps.”
He held out a hand toward the plan on the table. “In this case, this complication’s function is to make the web cast by the Lord Rahl and amplified by the primary palace spell chaotically unpredictable. That makes it nearly impossible for a gifted enemy to defend against. See? It’s hard if not impossible to put up a defense if you don’t know what’s coming.”
“That’s incredibly devious,” Kahlan said as she thought about it.
“Indeed it is,” Richard said with a nod.
“Then having it here within the palace must not be so dangerous,” Shale said as she paced off a short distance, considering, and then returned. “After all, it’s been here for millennia, hasn’t it? And it was meant to help a Rahl. So why do you all of a sudden think it’s such a problem?”
Richard wiped a hand back across his face. “Well, because it’s not simply a complication drawn in sand or blood meant to attach to another spell-form drawn in sand or blood to cast a web. This one is huge, and it exists in stone and mortar, not in the dirt drawn with a stick. That means we’re going to need to actually go inside the complication.” He leaned closer to her. “Inside it.”
“We’re inside the palace spell-form right now,” Shale said with a shrug.
“Hens and hawks. Both birds, not the same animal.”
Kahlan was beginning to grasp his concern. “So that’s why Moravaska Michec would hide in there? Because it’s like he’s hiding in a giant thorn hedge?”
Richard nodded. He turned to Edward Harris. “Could you please get me the plans for this region of the palace—the surrounding areas? And the levels above and below?”
After consulting the palace map, the man went around the room, pulling rolls of the appropriate plans out of their cubbyholes, holding them under an arm as he collected all the ones needed. Once he had them all, he spread them out on the adjacent tables, putting weights on the sides to hold them open. Following along behind him, Richard reviewed each one, looking increasingly upset with everything he saw.
“What?” Kahlan finally asked as he silently studied one, then another, then went back to the first, then to the last. “What do you see?”
His brow lowered as he leaned in over the plans laid out on all the tables. “This thing is even more extensive than I thought at first. This complication spell isn’t technically two-dimensional, so it’s not a single floor, but actually a number of floors that are involved, all of it self-contained in its own compartmentalized, separate location. Look here,” he said, pointing, “this is the whole restricted wing of the palace where the complication is located, and all of this is the complication. It’s enormous. I mean, really enormous. Not simply in terms of length and width, but on multiple levels.
“It’s one gigantic, three-dimensional labyrinth. I can easily see why people who went in there became lost and were never seen again. If you became disoriented, and didn’t understand the nature of the layout, it would be easy to get lost and never find your way out. That’s why I needed the plans. I need to understand them so that we’ll know where we are once in there.
“This kind of spell-form, being chaotic, is naturally unpredictable, so the builders deliberately kept it totally isolated. When the palace spell uses it, it becomes involved and has purpose.”