“But in that too, there was something to balance what he did. You came here to learn about the world of the dead in order to contact your Pell. Don’t you see, Adie? You were manipulated to prevent you from interfering with the Keeper’s plans, but in so doing, the balance is that you have learned things that might be of aid in stopping him. You must not surrender to what he had done to you; you must strike back with what he has inadvertently given you.”eyes glistened as she cast her gaze about her house, looking to the bone pile, the walls covered with talismans of the dead she had collected over the years, and to the shelves holding more yet. “But my oath… my Pell. I must reach him, tell him. He died thinking I betrayed him. If I cannot redeem myself in his eyes, then I be lost, my heart be lost. If I be lost, then the Keeper will find me.”
“Pell is dead, Adie. Gone. The boundary, the pass, is gone. You would know better than I if it would have ever been any use in what you wanted, but in all these years, you have not found a way to make it so. If you wish to continue the pursuit of your oath, you will find no help here. Perhaps in Aydindril, you will.
“Helping to stop the Keeper does not mean you must break your oath to yourself. If my knowledge and help can be of any aid in what you seek, I offer it gladly. Just as you know things I do not, I know things you don’t. I am, after all, the First Wizard. Perhaps what I know will help you. Pell would not want you to bring him your message that you did not betray him, if it meant you must betray everyone else.”picked up the yellow flower, twirling it between her finger and thumb a moment before setting it down again. Gripping the edge of the table, she pushed herself to her feet. She stood a moment, and then lifted her head to gaze with her white eyes around the room once more.her robes at her hips, as if to make herself presentable, she limped around the table to stand behind his chair. Zedd felt her hands rest on his shoulders. Unexpectedly, she leaned over and kissed the top of his head and smoothed his unruly hair with gentle fingers. Zedd was relieved the fingers hadn’t gone around his throat. He thought they might, after some of the things he had said.you, my friend, for hearing my tale, and for helping me to find the meaning in it. My Pell would have liked you. You both be men of honor. I accept your word that you will help me tell my Pell.”twisted around in his chair and raised his face to her soft smile and kind eyes. “I will do whatever I can to help you keep your oath. You have my oath on that.”smile widened as she smoothed down a stray lock of his white hair. “Now. Tell me of the Stone of Tears. We must decide what is to be done with it.”23
“The Stone of Tears? Well, it is hidden.”gave a single, firm nod. “Good. It not be something to be loose in this world.” Her brow wrinkled in a little frown. “It be hidden well? It be safe?”winced a little. He didn’t want to tell her, he knew what she would say, but he had promised. “I put it on a chain. Put it on a chain and hung it around the neck of a little girl. I don’t know… exactly… where she is right now.”
“You touched it!” Adie’s eyes widened. The Stone of Tears? You touched it, and hung it around the neck of a little girl!”gripped his chin firmly in her suddenly powerful fingers and leaned close to his face. “You have hung the Stone of Tears, the Stone that it be told was hung by the Creator Himself around the Keeper’s neck to lock him in the underworld… you hung that around a little girl’s neck? And let her wander off!”scowled defensively. “Well, I had to do something with it. I couldn’t just leave it lying about.”smacked the palm of her hand to her forehead. “Just as he makes me think him wise, he shows me he be a fool indeed. Dear spirits, save me from the hands you have placed me in.”shot to his feet. “And just what would you have done with it!”
“Well, I would have certainly given it more thought than you seem to have done. And I wouldn’t have touched it! It be a thing from another world!” She turned her back to him, shaking her head and whispering things in her foreign tongue.shifted his robes, straightening them with a firm tug. “I didn’t have the luxury of time to give it any thought. We were attacked by a screeling. If I had left it there…”spun around. “A screeling! You be full of good news, old man.” She jabbed a finger against his chest. “That still be no good excuse. You still should not have…”
“Not have what? Not have picked it up? I should have let the screeling pick it up, instead?”
“Screelings be assassins. They not be there to take the Stone.”jabbed a finger right back at her. “You know that? Are you so sure? Would you have been willing to have risked everything on it? And if you were wrong, let the Keeper have the Stone to do with as he would? Are you so sure, Adie?”hand dropped to her side as she stared at his frown. “No. I guess not. It could be as you say. There be a chance the screeling may have taken it. Perhaps you did the only thing you could do.” She shook the finger at him. “But to hang it around the neck of a little girl…!”
“And where would you have had me keep it? In my pocket? In the pocket of a wizard? In the pocket of one with the gift, where the Keeper is sure to look first? Or perhaps you would have had me hide it, in a place only I knew, where, if a baneling gets his hands on me and somehow makes me talk, I could tell him it would be, so he could go and collect it?”folded her arms with a muttered curse. At last her expression relaxed. “Well… perhaps…”
“Perhaps nothing. I had no choice. It was an act of desperation. I did the only thing I could do, given the circumstances.”let out a tired sigh, then nodded. “You be right, wizard. You did the best you could have done.” She patted the top of his shoulder. “Foolish as it be,” she added under her breath. Her hand gave a gentle push. “sit. Let me show you something.”sat as he watched her limp across the room toward the shelves. “I would rather have done anything else, Adie,” he said sorrowfully, “than what I had to do.”nodded as she walked. “I know… “ She stopped and turned. A screeling, you say?” Zedd nodded. “You be sure it be a screeling?” He arched an eyebrow. “Yes, of course you be sure.” Her brow creased in thought. “screelings be the Keeper’s assassins. They be singleminded, and extremely dangerous, but they not be very smart. They must have something to show them the one they be after, a way to find them. They not be good at searching in this world. How could the Keeper know where you be? How could the screeling know to find you? Know it be you he be after?”shrugged. “I don’t know. I was where the boxes had been opened. But it had been some time since it had happened. There would be no way to know I was still there.”
“And did you destroy the screeling?”
“Yes.”be good. The Keeper will not waste the effort to send another, not after you have proven you be able to defeat it.”threw his hands up. “Oh yes, just wonderful. Screelings are sent to eliminate a threat to the Keeper. It was probably sent to rid the Keeper of my meddling, just as the Keeper sent a baneling to rid himself of your interference. You’re right: he will not send another screeling, now that I’ve proven that I can defeat one. He will send something worse.”
“If indeed it be sent for you.” She touched a finger to her lower lip as she mumbled to herself. “Where be the Stone when you found it?”
“Next to the box that had been opened.”
“And where came the screeling?”
“In the same room as the boxes, as the Stone.”shook her head in puzzlement. “Perhaps it could be as you say, that it came to get the Stone, but it makes no sense for a screeling to come for the Stone. I wonder how he found you.” She limped on toward the shelves. “something had to guide him.”on her toes, she peered to the back of a shelf, carefully pushing aside various objects, at last retrieving what she sought. Holding it in one hand, she limped back and placed it carefully on the table. It was a little bigger than a hen’s egg, round, and age-darkened with a deep patina that was a brownish black in the recesses. It was masterfully carved into the shape of a vicious beast, all balled up, but glaring with eyes that seemed to watch you no matter which way it was held. It looked to be bone, and very old.picked it up, testing its weight. It was much heavier than he thought it should have been. “What’s this?”woman, a sorceress, gave this to me when I went to her, to learn. She be on her deathbed. She asked if I knew of the skrin. I told her what I knew. She sighed with relief, and then said something that made my skin prickle. She said she had been waiting for me, as the prophecies had told her to do. She placed this in my hand, saying it be carved from the bone of a skrin.”flicked her hand toward the walls, and then toward the bone pile. “I have a whole skrin here, among the bones. I did battle with one once, in the pass. His bones be here. His skull be on the shelf. It be the one that fell on the floor.”put a thin finger on the carved bone sphere in Zedd’s hand as she leaned toward him and lowered her raspy voice. “This, the old one said, must be guarded, by one who understands. She told me it be of ancient magic, made by wizards of old, possibly with their hand guided by the Creator Himself. Made because of prophecies.
“She said it may be the most important thing of magic I would ever touch. That it be invested with more power than she or I would ever understand. She said that it be of skrin bone, and of skrin force, that it be a talisman that be of importance if the veil ever be in danger.
“I asked how it was to be used, how the magic worked, and how it had come into her hands. She be very exhausted from the excitement of my coming to her, and said she must rest. She told me to come back to her in the morning and she would tell me everything she knew. When I returned, she had died.” Adie gave him a meaningful look. “Her death be a little too timely to suit me.”had had the same thought. “But you have no idea what it is, or how it is to be used?”
“No.”, Zedd was using magic to lift it on a cushion of air, floating it in space, watching it slowly spin. The whole time the finely carved eyes of the beast peered back as the ball revolved before him. “Have you tried using any magic on it?”
“I be afraid to try.”held his bony hands to each side of the floating carving, probing gently with different kinds of force, different sorts of magic, letting them shift and slide over the round bone, testing, searching gingerly for a crack, a shield, a trigger.had the oddest feel to it. The magic reflected back as if it had touched nothing, as if the thing weren’t there at all. Perhaps it could be a shield he had never seen before. He increased the force. It slipped against the carving like new shoe leather on ice.wrung her hands. “I do not think you should be…”flame of the lamp puffed out. A thin thread of greasy smoke curled from the abruptly dead wick. The room was left to the flickering shadows cast from the fire in the hearth. Zedd frowned at the dark lamp.sudden crash brought both their heads jerking around. The skull rolled across the floor toward where they sat. Halfway there, it wobbled and rocked to a stop, right side up. Empty eye sockets stared up at the two of them. Long fangs rested on the wood floor.carved bone ball thumped to the table, bouncing twice, as Zedd and Adie came to their feet.
“What foolish thing did you do, old man?”stared at the skull. “I didn’t do anything.”bones tumbled from the shelves. Bones hanging on the wall clattered to the floor, some bouncing and flipping back into the air as they struck.and Adie both turned to a racket behind them. The bone pile rattled apart, bones toppling and spilling over one another as the pile pulled itself apart. Some of the bones, as if alive, slid or rolled across the floor, toward the skull. Sliding along the floor, a rib bone caught the leg of a chair and spun around, but continued on.twisted to Adie, but she was hurrying to the shelf above the counter behind the table, the one covered with the blue-and-white-striped cloth.
“Adie, what are you doing? What’s going on?”collected in increasing number around the skull.yanked the cloth away, ripping it from its hooks. “Leave! Before it be too late!”
“What’s going on!”and tins clanged together as she shoved them aside. She pushed her hand farther along the shelf, fingers searching blindly. Canisters thudded to the floor. A jar tumbled out, shattering on the edge of the counter, throwing sparkling shards of glass over the table and chairs. A thick, dark mass from the jar oozed over the edge of the counter, carrying splinters of glass with it, making it look like nothing more than a melting porcupine.
“Do as I say, wizard! Leave! Now!”rushed toward her, glass crunching under his feet. He jerked to a halt when he glanced over his shoulder toward the skull.was level with his eyes, bones collecting and assembling under it as it rose into the air. A few rib bones ranked themselves, vertebrae slipped into line, talons tipped claws, leg bones erected to the side of each flank. The jaw snapped into place as the skull rose toward the ceiling.spun toward Adie, snatched her by the arm, yanking her toward him. She came away from the counter clutching a small tin in her other hand.
“Adie, what’s happening!”head tilted up toward the skull brushing the ceiling. “What do you see?”
“What do I see! Bags, woman! I see a bunch of bones come to life!”shoulders of the skrin hunched as the thing grew with the addition of more bones. More yet were sliding across the floor toward it.gaped at him. “I don’t see bones. I see flesh.”
“Flesh! Bags! I thought you said you killed that thing.”
“I said I battled it. I do not know that a skrin can be killed. I do not think they be alive. You be right about one thing, wizard: since you be able to defeat a screeling, the Keeper sent worse.”
“How did he know where we were? How does the skrin know where we are? All these bones are supposed to hide us!”
“I do not know. I cannot understand how…”skeletal arm swept toward them. Zedd lurched back, pulling her with him. Yet more bones assembled. Adie was frantically unscrewing the tin as he dragged her around the back of the table. The lid came off, dropping to the floor, spinning like a top. The skrin lunged, bringing an arm down. With a loud crack, the table shattered into splinters.round, carved ball bounced across the floor. Zedd tried to snatch it with a magic, but it was like trying to pinch a pumpkin seed with greased fingers. He tried to scoop it up with air compressed around it, but it slipped away and rolled into the corner.skrin skeleton leapt at them. They both went down in a heap as he yanked her back. Zedd hauled her to her feet as she thrust her hand into the little tin. The skrin was having trouble moving quickly; it had grown too large to fit beneath the ceiling.jaws of the beast opened wide, as if to roar. No sound came forth, but Zedd could feel a blast of air. It made their robes flap and fly as if in a wind.’s hand came out of the tin, flinging sparkling white sand at the beast.’s sand. The fool woman had sorcerer’s sand.skrin staggered back a step, shaking its head. It recovered in an instant, lurching forward again. Zedd unleashed a ball of fire. It passed among the bones to splatter liquid flame against the far wall. The tongues of flame sputtered out, leaving behind a sooty splotch. Zedd tried air, since fire didn’t work. It had no effect.two of them sidestepped across the room as the beast whirled to attack again. Zedd tried different elements of magic while he pulled Adie along with him. She ignored the danger as she poured the rest of the sorcerer’s sand into her hand. When the skrin made another silent roar, she flung the sand with a foreign incantation. The blast of air from the roar died as she spoke the words. The skrin seemed to inhale, taking in the sparkling white sand. The jaws snapped closed as the head drew back.be all I have,” she said. “I hope it be enough.”skrin shook its head, then spat out the sand in a cloud of sparkles. It came for them again, but when he tugged on her sleeve she yanked her arm away. Zedd tried sending logs and chairs flying into the bone beast, trying to distract it while she scurried around behind it. They simply bounced off.a hand into a pocket, he brought out a handful of sparkling dust of his own. With a quick flick, he sent it into the center of the bone collection standing before him. It had no more effect than had Adie’s sorcerer’s sand. Nothing he could do seemed to be much of a distraction, and it soon turned its attention to Adie. She was snatching an ancient bone from the wall. Feathers dangled from one end, strings of red and yellow beads from the other.grabbed a bone arm, but the beast flung him away.the skrin reeled to her, she shook the bone at the thing, casting spells in her own tongue. The skrin snapped at her. She yanked her hand back just in time to save it, but not the bone talisman. It was splintered in half.was it. He had no idea how to fight the thing, and Adie wasn’t having any success. He dove under the head toward her, rolling to his feet.
“Come on! We have to get out of here!”
“I can’t leave. There be things of great value here.”
“Grab what you can, we’re leaving.”
“Get the round bone I showed you.”tried to dodge and lunge toward the corner, but the skrin snapped and swept talon-tipped claws at him. He fought back with blasts of every kind of magic he had. Before he realized it, he was losing ground, and had nowhere to retreat.
“Adie, we have to get out now!”
“We cannot leave that bone! It be important for the veil!”ran for the corner. Zedd grabbed for her but missed. The skrin almost did, too. It caught her with a claw, ripping a gash down her arm. She cried out as she was flung against the wall, rebounding to sprawl facedown on the floor. More bones crashed down around her.caught a handful of the hem of her robe, dragging her back as talons raked the wall, just missing his head. Adie clawed at the floor, trying to get away from him, to get to the round bone in the corner.skrin reared back with a silent roar. The ceiling ripped open as the beast stood to its full height. Huge chunks and splinters of wood rained down. Claws raked wildly, tearing the wood of the walls. Fangs ripped at the roof. Zedd pulled Adie toward the door as she fought him.
“There be things here I must take! Important things! It has taken me a lifetime to find them!”’s no time, Adie! We can’t save them now!”tore away from his grasp, lunging toward the bone talismans on the wall. The skrin went for her. Zedd used magic to yank her back. He grabbed her in both arms and fell backward with her through the doorway just as a claw splintered it.rolled to their feet. Zedd scrambled into a run, pulling her along as she fought him. She tried using magic on him, but he shielded against it. The night air was frigid. Clouds of their breath streamed away with the cold wind as they both ran and fought each other.wailed like a mother watching her child being slaughtered. Her arms, one soaked with blood, stretched toward the house. “Please! My things! I must not leave them! You do not understand! They be important magic!”skrin tore at the walls to get out, to get at the two of them.
“Adie!” He pulled her face close to his. They are no good to you dead. We will come back for them, after we get away from that thing.”chest heaved. Tears welled up in her eyes. “Please, Zedd. Please, my bones. You don’t understand. They be important. They have magic. They may help us to close the veil. If they fall into the wrong hands…”whistled for the horse. He was moving again, pulling her along with him. She protested every step of the way.
“Zedd, Please! Don’t do this! Don’t leave them!”
“Adie! If we die, we can’t help anyone!”horse galloped up, skidding to a stop. Her wide eyes rolled in near panic as she saw the thing pulling itself through the walls of the house, splintering and snapping boards and beams. She gave a frightened scream, but held her ground as Zedd gripped her mane and threw himself on her back, hauling Adie up behind.
“Go! Fly like the wind, girl!”flung chunks of dirt and moss high into the air as the horse leapt out, fangs snapping at her flanks. Zedd crouched forward, Adie clutching him around the waist as they galloped into the darkness. The skrin wasn’t ten strides behind, and looked to be as fast as the horse. At least it wasn’t faster. Zedd could hear the teeth snapping. The horse squealed when they did, stretching to run with everything she had. He wondered who could run the longest, the horse or the skrin, and he was afraid he knew the answer.24’s eyes opened. “I think someone is coming.”Verna was sitting on the other side of the small fire, writing in the little book she kept tucked behind her belt. She looked up from under her eyebrows. “You have touched your Han, yes?”
“No,” he admitted. His legs ached. He must have been sitting without moving for at least an hour. “But I’m telling you, I think someone is coming.”did this every night, and it was no different this time. He would sit and picture the sword, on a blank background, and try to reach that place within himself that she said was there, but he could not find, while she watched him, or wrote in her little book, or touched her own Han. He had not visualized the sword on a black square with a white border since the first night. He had no desire to chance revisiting that nightmare.
“I am beginning to think I’m not able to touch my Han. I’m trying my best, but it just isn’t working.”drew the book close to her face in the moonlight and resumed writing. “I have told you before, Richard, it is something that takes time. You have not yet begun to have had enough practice. Do not be discouraged. It comes when it comes.”
“Sister Verna, I’m telling you, someone is coming.”kept writing. “And if you are not able to touch your Han, Richard, how would you know this? Hmm?”
“I don’t know.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “I’ve spent a lot of time alone in the woods. Sometimes I can just feel when someone is near. Don’t you ever know when someone is near? Haven’t you ever felt someone’s eyes on you?”
“Only with the aid of my Han,” she said as she wrote.watched as firelight flickered across her dispassionate face. “sister Verna, you said we were in dangerous lands. I’m telling you, someone is coming.”leafed back through the book, squinting as she read in the dim light. “And how long have you known this, Richard?”
“I told you as soon as I had the feeling, just a moment ago.”lowered the book to her lap and looked up. “But you say you did not touch your Han? You felt nothing within yourself? You felt no power? Saw no light? Did not sense the Creator?” Her eyes narrowed. “You had better not be lying to me, Richard. You had better never lie to me about touching your Han.”
“Sister Verna, you’re not listening! Someone is coming!”closed the book. “Richard, I have known since you began your practice that someone approaches.”stared at her in surprise. Then why are we just sitting here?”
“We are not just sitting here. You are practicing reaching your Han, and I’m tending to my business.”
“Why haven’t you said anything? You told me this land is dangerous.”Verna sighed and began tucking her book back behind her wide belt. “Because they were still some distance off. There was nothing else for us to do but to continue. You need the practice. You must keep trying until you are able to touch your Han.” She shook her head with resignation. “But I suppose you are too agitated now to continue. They are still ten or fifteen minutes away; we may as well begin packing our things.”
“Why now? Why didn’t we leave as soon as you sensed them?”
“Because we had been spotted. Once we have been discovered, there is no way to escape these people. This is their land; we would not be able to outrun them. It’s probably a sentinel who has found us.”
“Then why do you want to pack to leave now?”regarded him as if he were hopelessly thick. “Because we can’t spend the night here after we kill them.”leapt to his feet. “Kill them! You don’t even know who is coming, and already you plan to kill them?”Verna stood, drawing herself up straight, and peered into his eyes. “Richard, I have done my best to prevent this. Have we seen anyone else before now? No. Even though these people cover this land like a swarm of angry ants, we have seen no one. I have led us between anyone I could sense with my Han, in an effort to avoid contact. I have done my best to avoid trouble. Sometimes, even when you do your best, trouble cannot be avoided. I do not want to kill these people, but they are intent on killing us.”certainly explained why they had been traveling such a peculiar route. Although they had been heading steadily southeast for weeks, they had done so in an odd fashion. Without ever explaining, she had directed them first one way, then another, occasionally backtracking, but always, relentlessly, southeast.barren land had become progressively rockier and more desolate. He had not bothered asking about their route because he didn’t think she would tell him, and because he didn’t care. Wherever they went, he was still a prisoner.scratched his new beard as he started kicking dirt over the fire. It was a warm night, as most had been lately. He wondered what had happened to winter. “We don’t even know who they are yet. You can’t just go killing anyone that shows up.”
“Richard.” She clasped her hands together. “Not all the Sisters who try to return are successful. Many are killed trying to cross these lands. In every case, there were three Sisters. I am but one. Not good odds.”horses nickered and began moving about, tossing their heads and pawing their hooves. Richard strapped the baldric over his shoulder. He checked that the sword was clear in its scabbard.
“You were wrong, Sister, not to try to get away as soon as you knew. If you have to fight, it should be because there is no other way. You didn’t even try.”still clasped together, she watched him. Her voice was soft but firm. These people are intent upon killing us, Richard. Both of us. If we had tried to run, this one would have alerted the others, and brought hundreds, thousands, to bring us down. I have not run so as to embolden this one into trying to take us himself, so we can end the threat.”
“I’m not killing people for you, Sister Verna.”they glared at each other, he heard a scream: a woman’s scream. He stared out into the night, trying to see into the shadows of the rocky spires, trying to see where the scream came from. He couldn’t see anyone, but the screams and cries were coming closer.kicked dirt over the last of the flames and sprinted to the horses, calming them with reassuring words and gentle strokes. He didn’t care what she said, he wasn’t killing people on her word. The woman was crazy not to want to try to escape.probably wanted a fight, just to see what he would do. She was always watching him as if he were a bug in a box. She questioned him every time he practiced trying to touch his Han. Whatever the Han was, he hadn’t been able to sense it, much less touch it or call it forth. Just as well, as far as he was concerned.was starting toward the saddlebags, to gather the rest of their things, when a woman came running out of the night. Cloak flying behind, and crying in terror, she ran headlong into their camp. She let out a wail and dashed desperately for him.
“Please!” she cried out. “Please help me! Please don’t let them get me!”loose hair streamed behind as she ran. The naked fear on her face ran a shiver up Richard’s spine. She stumbled as she reached him. Richard caught her frail form in his arms. Her dirty face was streaked with sweat and tears.
“Please, sir,” she sobbed, looking up at him with dark eyes, “please don’t let them get me. You don’t know what those men will do to me.”’s mind filled with the fright of remembering Kahlan being pursued by the quads. He remembered how terrified she had been of those men, and how she had spoken almost the same words: You don’t know what those men will do to me.
“No one is going to get you. You are safe now.”woman’s arms came out from under her cloak, slipping around him. Her dark eyes stayed on his as he held her weight.opened her mouth as if to speak, but instead gave a little grunt and jerked. Light seemed to flash from within her eyes. She went slack and heavy in his arms.looked up into Sister Verna’s unwavering gaze as she yanked the silver knife from the woman’s back. Richard felt himself letting the dead weight slip to the ground. The woman slumped fluidly and rolled onto her back.night air rang with the sound of steel as Richard drew the sword.
“What’s the matter with you?” he hissed. “You have just murdered this woman.”Verna returned his glare in kind. “I thought you said you held no foolish prohibitions against killing women.”wrath of the sword’s magic pounded through him, raging to be set free. “You are mad.” He was rushing toward a lethal precipice. The sword’s point rose in anger.
“Before you would think to kill me,” Sister Verna said in a measured tone, “you had better make sure you are not making a mistake.” Richard didn’t answer. He was incapable of speaking through the fury. “Look in her hand, Richard.”looked down at the lifeless body. Her hands were covered by her heavy woolen cloak. Using the sword, he flicked the cloak back off her arm to reveal a knife still gripped in her dead fist. The point had a dark stain on it.
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