'Thank you for conversation, Ahern. But I can see you're not the man able to get me to Nicobarese.'
He rose, reaching for his hat. Ahern laid a big paw on Zedd's arm and urged him down. He squirmed forward on his bench.
'Look, Ruben, times have been hard. The war with D'Hara disrupted trade. Kelton was spared the brunt of the war, but many of our neighbors weren't. It's hard to trade with dead people. There's not as much cargo as there used to be, but we still have more than enough men wanting to haul.
You can't blame a fellow for trying to get his best price when an opportunity comes along.' His eyebrows lifted as he leaned in a little more. Trying to get the best price for the best fruit, as it were.'
'Best fruit indeed.' Zedd waved his hand impatiently toward the room. 'Any one of these men will gladly offer to hire out. Any one of them can offer me a boastful story just as good as yours, as to why they would be the best driver. You're working up to asking top price. That's fair enough, but stop playing games with me, Ahern. I want to know why I should pay it.'
With the tip of one thick finger, Ahern slid his cup to the middle of the table, indicating he wanted a refill. Zedd smoothed out his sleeves before obliging him. Ahern drew his cup into the protective shroud of his big arms as he leaned in. He glanced around the room.
Everyone was watching the bard sing a love song to one of the serving girls. He was holding her hand, singing words of eternal devotion. The girl's face was red. She held her tray behind her back with her other hand as she studied her feet and giggled.
Ahern extracted a chain with a silver medallion from under his green flannel shirt. 'The reason I want top price is because of this.'
Zedd frowned down his nose at the regal image on the medallion. That looks to be Galean.'
Ahern gave a single nod. 'In the spring and summer, D'Hara laid siege to Ebinissia. The Galeans were slowly being choked to death, and no one would help them. Everyone had troubles of their own, with the D'Harans, and didn't want a piece of theirs. The people there needed weapons.
'I took loads of weapons, and some badly needed salt, up through some of the more isolated passes. The Galean guard had offered to escort any who would risk the run, but few took the offer. Those back passes are treacherous.'
Zedd lifted an eyebrow. 'Very noble of you.'
'Nothing noble to it. They paid handsomely. I just didn't like to see them folks trapped like that. Especially knowing what D'Haran soldiers do to those they vanquish. Anyway, I reasoned that some Keltish swords might give them a better chance to defend themselves, that's all. Like I said, we make the best.'
Zedd lifted a hand from where it was folded over his cane, and gestured to the medallion, now back under Ahern's shirt. 'So what is that about?'
'After the siege was lifted, I was called before the Galean court. Queen Cyrilla herself gave this to me. She said I had helped her people defend themselves, and I was always welcome in Galea.' He tapped his chest, where the medallion hung under his shirt. This is a royal pass. It says I may go anywhere I wish in Galea, unhindered.'
And so now,' Zedd said, looking up from under his eyebrows, 'you wish to put a price on something that is priceless.'
Ahern's eyes narrowed. 'What I did was a small bit; they bore the brunt of the hardship. I helped those people because they needed help, and because I was paid well. I'm not claiming to be a hero. I did it for both reasons. I wouldn't have done it for one alone. Now I have this pass, and if it will help me to make a living, well, I don't see anything wrong with that.'
Zedd leaned back. 'You're right, Ahern. The Galeans, after all, put a price in gold to your work for them. I shall, too, if I can. Name your price to take us to Nicobarese.'
The teacup looked tiny in Ahern's big hands as he rolled it back and forth. Thirty gold. Not one less.'
Zedd arched an eyebrow. 'My, my. Don't we think a lot of ourselves.'
'I can get us there, and that's my price. Thirty gold.'
Twenty now, ten more when you get us to Aydindril.'
'Aydindril! You never said anything about Aydindril. I don't want anything to do with Aydindril, with their wizards and Confessors. Besides, we'd have to cross the Rang'Shada again!'
'You will have to cross anyway to come back here. So you cross in the north. It's hardly out of your way. If you don't like the offer, then I'll offer twenty to take us to Nicobarese, and I'm sure I can find someone there more than willing to take us to Aydindril for the other ten, if we even need carriage after my wife is healed. If you want all thirty, then I'll commit to it now, if you agree to take us all the way. That's my offer.'
Ahern rolled his cup back and forth. 'All right. To Aydindril. Twenty now, ten in Aydindril.' He pointed a meaty finger in Zedd's direction. 'But you have to agree to one condition.'
'Such as?'
Ahern's finger moved, to point at Zedd's red hat. 'You can't wear that hat. That feather will spook the horses sure.'
Zedd's wrinkly cheeks spread in a grin. 'One condition of my own, then.' Ahern cocked his head. ' You have to tell my wife that it's your condition.'
Ahern grinned back. 'Done.' His grin vanished as quickly as it had come. This isn't going to be an easy journey, Ruben, up into and across those mountains. I have a coach I bought with my earnings from hauling to Ebinissia. I can mount runners to it. Make easier going in the deep snow.' He tapped a finger against the side of the cup. 'Now, the gold?'
The bard's fingers danced across the strings, playing an enthralling tune without words. Practically every toe in the room was moving in time with it, adding a drumlike accompaniment. Zedd reached into his robes and put a hand around the two purses of silver coins. He watched the room without seeing it.
And then the wizard did again that which he had had to do far too often of late: he channeled a warm flow of magic into the bags of silver coins - and changed them to gold.
But what choice did he have? To fail in this endeavor was to see the world of the living die. He hoped he was not simply providing himself justification for an act he knew was dangerous.
'Nothing is ever easy,' he muttered under his breath.
'What was that?'
'I said I know it's not easy, this journey.' He plunked the dark brown bag of gold on the table. This should make it possible. Twenty now, as agreed.'
Ahern pulled open the draw top and put two big fingers into the bag, counting, while Zedd idly watched people enjoying the food and drink and music. He was anxious to be off to Nicobarese.
This some kind of joke?'
Zedd brought his attention back to Ahern. With two fingers, the big man drew a coin from the bag and flicked it across the table. The coin spun with a dull color before finally toppling over, making a sound just as dull. Zedd stared incredulously.
The coin looked just like an ordinary coin. Except it was wood instead of gold.
'I... I... well...'
Ahern had poured the rest of the gold coins into his big mitt and was now letting them tumble back into the purse. 'And there are only eighteen here. You're two short. I'm not taking wooden coins.'
Zedd smiled indulgently as he pulled the light brown purse from his robes. 'I apologize, Ahern.' He swept the wooden coin from the table. 'It would seem I gave you the wrong purse, the one with my lucky coin. I would never give that away, of course. It's more valuable to me than gold.'
He peered into his purse. Seventeen. And two of those were wood, too. There should have been nineteen, altogether. His mind reeled as he tried to make sense of it. Could Master Hillman have tried to short him? No, that would be too clumsy a theft. Besides, to carve a coin from wood, hoping to pass it off as gold, would be witless.
'My other two gold?'
'Oh yes, yes.' Zedd pulled two gold coins from the purse and slid them across the table.
Ahern added them to his purse, jerked the drawstring tight, and stuffed the dark brown bag into a pocket. 'I'm at your bidding, now. When would you like to leave?'
The silver coins that were turned to wood instead of gold did not concern the wizard; that could be explained. Somehow. But there were three coins missing. Vanished. That could not be explained. That did concern him. Concern him down to the bones in his toes.
'I would like to leave as soon as possible. At once.'
'You mean tomorrow?'
Zedd snatched up his hat. 'No, I mean at once.' He glanced at the man's puzzled frown. 'My wife... there is no time to waste. She needs to get to her healers.'
Ahern shrugged. 'Well, I just got back from Tristen. I'll need to catch a little sleep. It's going to be a long, hard run.'
Zedd reluctantly nodded his acquiescence. 'First I'll put the runners on the coach. That'll take a couple of hours. Less if I can get one of these fellows to help me.'
Zedd thumped his cane. 'No! Tell no one what you're doing, or where you're going. Don't even tell anyone you're leaving.' He snapped his mouth shut when he saw Ahern's frown, and thought he had better say something to ease it. Those shadows you spoke of. Does no good to let them know where to point an arrow.'
Ahern stared down suspiciously as he stood to his full, towering height, drawing his longcoat on. 'First you talk me into taking you to the accursed land of wizards and Confessors, and now this. I think I asked too little.' He flicked the ends of the coat's belt together into a loose knot. 'But a bargain is a bargain. I'll get the coach set up, and get some provisions together before I snatch a little sleep. I'll meet you back here three hours before dawn. We'll be across the border and into Galea before midday tomorrow.'
'I have a horse at the stables. We might as well take her along. Stop by and fetch her before you come for us.' Zedd dismissed the man with an absent wave of his cane. 'Three hours before dawn.'
His mind was racing in other directions. This was more serious than he had thought. It was imperative that they have help as soon as possible. Maybe the woman in Nicobarese who had had the three daughters had studied somewhere, perhaps someplace closer. Maybe they could find what they needed without going all that way. Time was of the essence.
The light only knows, Adie had said, where the woman had learned about the skrin. The 'light' was a common reference to the gift. It was also an obscure reference to something else entirely. He thumped his cane on the floor. Must Adie always speak in sorceress's riddles!
As Ahern headed for the door, the wizard rose and headed for the stairs.
CHAPTER 35
Zedd opened the door to be confronted by a haze of smoke that smelled of creosote. The window was opened, letting in icy cold air, and letting out the smoke. Adie sat on the bed, wrapped nearly to her neck in a blanket, brushing her straight, black and gray, jaw-length hair.
'What's going on? What happened?'
She pointed with the hairbrush. 'I be cold. I tried to start a fire.'
Zedd glanced to the hearth. 'You need wood, Adie. You can't have a fire without wood.'
He expected a scowl. Instead, it was a look of disquiet. 'There be wood. I used magic, to try to light the fire from where I be in bed. But there be a big puff of smoke and sparks. I opened the window to let out the smoke. When I looked to the hearth, the logs be gone.'
Zedd stepped closer to her. 'Gone?'
She nodded and went back to brushing. 'Something be wrong. Wrong with my gift.'
Zedd stroked a hand down her hair. 'I know. I had a similar problem. It must be the taint.' He sat and took the brush from her hand, setting it down. Adie, what can you tell me about this taint, about the skrin? We must have answers.'
'I have already told you all I know. The skrin be force on the cusp between the world of the living and the world of the dead.'
'But why won't the cut heal? Why won't my magic work to heal it? What made the logs disappear when you used magic?'
'Skrin be from both worlds. Do you not see?' She shook her head in frustration. 'Skrin be magic, magic of both worlds, so it can work in both worlds. Additive and Subtrac-tive. We be touched by that force. The taint be Subtractive.'
'You mean that you think the taint of Subtractive Magic is corrupting our magic? Our gift?'
She nodded. 'It be like you have just cleaned ashes from a hearth with your bare hands, and without washing them clean you try to hang up freshly washed white sheets to dry. Your hands be tainted with the ash, and it gets on the clean, damp, white sheets. Sticks to them.'
Zedd silently considered the problem for a time. 'Adie,' he whispered, 'we must somehow clean our hands. Wash the taint away.'
'You have a talent for stating the obvious, old man.'
Zedd checked his tongue and took a different tack. 'Adie, I hired us a coach to take us to Nicobarese, but you're getting weaker, and I'm not going to be long behind. I don't know if we can wait. If there's another way, maybe someone else closer who can help us, I must know.'
'There be no other way. There be no one else.'
'Well, what about this woman who had the three daughters? Perhaps she studied somewhere closer to learn some of these things. Maybe we could go there, instead.'
'It not be a help.'
'Why not?'
Adie considered him a moment, and at last yielded. 'She studied with the Sisters of the Light.'
Zedd shot to his feet. 'What!' He paced back and forth between the bed and the fireplace. 'Bags and double bags! I knew it. I knew it!'
'Zedd, she studied with them to learn. Then she returned home. She not be a Sister. The Sisters not be so... unreasonable... as you think.'
He halted to peer at her with one eye. 'And how would you know that?'
Adie gave a resigned sigh. The round skrin bone, the one that be given to me just before the woman died, the one I told you be important, the one we lost back at my house... the gifted woman who gave it to me be a Sister of the Light.'
'And what was she doing in the New World?' Zedd asked in a level tone.
'She not be in the New World. I be in the Old World, at the time.'
Zedd put both fists on his hips as he leaned toward her.
'You crossed the Valley of the Lost? You went into the Old World! You're just filled right up full with little secrets.'
Adie shrugged with one shoulder. 'I told you I searched out women with the gift, to learn from them what I could. Some of them be in the Old World. I used my one passing through the valley and back to learn what I could of what I needed to know.'
Adie snugged the blanket tighter around her shoulders. The Sisters, some of them, taught me the little bits they knew. Important little bits. The Sisters view it as their province to know about the Keeper, the Nameless One as they call him, in order to keep souls from his grasp.
'I did not stay at their palace long; they would not let me stay unless I wished to be one of them, but for a time they let me study with them, study things in their vaults. There be Sisters in the palace I would not trust to cook me breakfast, but there be some who were great help.'
Muttering, Zedd started pacing again. The Sisters of the Light are misguided zealots. They make the Blood of the Fold look to be reasonable men!' He came to a halt. 'And when you were there, did you see any of their boys? Did you see if they even had any with the gift?'
'I had my own learning to attend to. I not be there to argue theology with the Sisters. That not be a wise thing to do. They did not let me have anything to do with their charges, if indeed they had any. I be sure that if they had any boys, they be ones from their side.
They know better than to risk violation of that truce. They strongly fear what wizards on this side would do if they did. They let me learn what I could from them, and let me study in the vaults, but they never let me see any boys, nor would they tell me if they had any.'
'Well, of course they don't have any!' he snapped. There are almost never any born with the gift, anymore. Too many wizards have been killed in the wars. We are a dying breed.
'And as First Wizard I would never turn down the teaching of one with the gift as happened thousands of years ago. Nor would any wizard I taught. And the Sisters know that! They know the rules! They may not take a gifted one unless every wizard declines to teach him. To go against the rules just once would mean a death sentence to any Sister that ever again crossed that valley.'
They know that, Zedd. They take that threat seriously.'
'Well, they ought to know it! I met up with one of them once, when I was young, and I sent my warning to the Prelate.' He flexed his fists as he stared off. They are barbaric in their methods. They are children teaching surgery. If I knew how to get past those accursed towers, I'd go down there and lay waste to the Palace of the Prophets.'
'Zedd, in that time past many with the gift died because there be none who would teach them to control it. Those with the power were possessive of it, and did not want to train another who one day might be a threat to their power. They abandoned those born with the gift, left them to die by the power of the thing they be born with but didn't know how to control. The Sisters didn't want to let those abandoned boys die. They just be doing what they think best to help people.'
He cast her a withering glare. The Sisters of the Light do only what is best for the Sisters of the Light.'
'Maybe so, but they are sworn to follow the rules, the truce, just as you do, by letting them be when they come here.'
He stared off, shaking his head. To let those with the gift die, simply for their own selfish gain... If they had lived up to their responsibilities as wizards, the Sisters of the Light would never have come to be. Never been needed.'
With his boot, he brushed a dead ember on the flagstone hearth back into the fireplace. They would never think of allowing a wizard to teach a young sorceress to use her gift, yet they presume to teach a young wizard how to use his.'
'Zedd, I believe as you, but listen to me: dead and buried causes and wars not be our concern. The veil be torn. The Stone of Tears be in the world of the living. Those be our concerns.
'I went to those women to learn. Magic I learned there, and have taught you, though insufficient to stop the taint, has been able to slow it. We must purge the taint before it claims us.'
His mood cooled under the scrutiny of her white eyes. 'Of course you are right, Adie. We have pressing problems to deal with.'
She favored him with one of her little smiles. 'I be glad you be wise enough to listen to wisdom.'
He rubbed the ache in the back of his neck, squeezing the tight muscles. 'Do you really think this woman with the three daughters would have known about this taint? It's a long way to go on a hunch and a hope.'
'She studied with the Sisters of the Light many years. They liked her and wanted her to stay, to be a Sister. But she did not believe as they, and so finally went home. I don't know the extent of her knowledge, but if the Sisters know anything about the taint, and taught her, she would have taught her daughters. As much as I don't like the idea, they be in Nicobarese.'
When Zedd saw Adie wrapping the blanket up around her shoulders, he closed the window. Kneeling at the hearth, he placed a handful of kindling on the grate and stacked on wood from the bucket to the side. He was about to use magic to start the fire, but thought better of it and instead lit a stick in the lamp. He squatted, touching the flame to the curls of the kindling.
'Zedd, my friend,' Adie said in a quiet, gentle voice, 'I not be a Sister of the Light. I know that be what you are wondering. I not be one of them.'
That was exactly what Zedd had been wondering.
'And if you were,' he asked without turning, 'would you tell me?'
She was silent. He looked over his shoulder to see her smiling at him. 'The Sisters of the Light value honesty above almost anything else. But to them, lying in the service of their Creator be a virtue.'
The fire took a good start. Zedd stood before her, looking down without returning her smile. 'That is no comfort to me.'
She took hold of his hand, patting it with her other.
'Zedd, I will tell you the truth. I be in debt to some of them for the things they did for me, but I give you an oath on the soul of my dead Pell: I not be a Sister of the Light. I would never let them have one of the gifted from our side, as long as I knew there be a wizard to teach him. I would never allow a boy to be taken and subjected to their ways, had I a say.'
Zedd smoothed the fringe of a carpet with his foot. 'I know you're not one of them, dear lady. It's just that I hate the thought of those women doing those things to ones with the gift, when I can show them the joy of their talent. It's a gift. They treat it like a curse.'
With a thumb, she rubbed the back of his hand. 'I see you have yourself a dashing new cane.'
Zedd grunted. 'I hate to think what Master Hillman is scheming to charge me for it.'
'And did you find us transportation?'
Zedd nodded. 'A man named Ahern. We better try to get a bit of sleep. He's going to be here with a coach three hours before dawn.'
He gave her a grim look. 'Adie, until we get to Nicobarese and can rid ourselves of this taint, I think we had better consider the consequences very carefully before using magic.'
----------
'Are we safe here?'
A soft hand extended from the fog of dim light, brushing her cheek, comforting her.
You are safe here, Rachel. Both of you are safe. Now, and always. You are safe.
Rachel smiled. She did feel safe. Safer than she ever felt before. Not just safe like she felt when she was with Chase, but safe like she had felt in her mother's arms. She hadn't been able to remember her mother before, but she remembered now, remembered the encircling arms holding her to a breast.
The terrible fright she had shared with Chase while.they raced to catch Richard was melting away. The bone-tired worry of whether or not they would catch him in time was melting away. The terror of the people who had tried to stop them, the fights Chase had had, the horror of the blood she had seen, all the blood she had seen... it was all melting away.
As she stood before the sparkling pool, the hands reached to her again. Reached to her from the gentle smiles of reassurance. The hands helped her undo the buttons of her dirty, sweaty dress, and pull it off. She flinched when her dress pulled against the bruise on her shoulder, the bruise she got when a man chasing them had knocked her down.
The smiles turned to sad looks of concern for her pain. The soft, gentle voices cooed comfort to her. The glowing hands caressed the shoulder, and when they lifted, the bruise was gone. The hurt was gone.
All better?
Rachel nodded. 'Yes! It's all better. Thank you.'
The hands pulled off her shoes and stockings. She sat on a warm rock and dangled her bare feet in the soothing water. It would be so wonderful to bathe and be rid of the dirt and sweat.
The hands reached for the stone hanging on the necklace around her neck. The hands drew back, as if afraid.
We cannot remove this thing. You must do it without our help.
Through the soothing warmth and security of the beautiful land around her, through the comfort of the peace she had found, through her desire to do as the gentle murmurs had asked, a voice rose up in her mind. It was Zedd's voice, telling her that she must not give the Stone to anyone, for any reason, telling her how important it was for her to guard it always.
She looked up, from the circles of ripples her feet made in the water, to the gentle faces. 'I don't want to take it off. Can't I leave it on?'
The smiles returned and widened.
Of course you can, Rachel, if that is what you wish. If that is what would make you happy.
'I want it to stay on. That would make me happy.'
Then it will stay on. Now, and forever, if you wish.
She smiled a smile of peace and security as she slipped into the soothing water. It felt so good. She floated and drifted. She felt all her troubles sloughing away with the dirt. One moment, it seemed she couldn't feel any more safe or happy, and then the next moment she did, and the next yet more.
She drew her arms through the healing, cleansing, golden water, swimming toward the other side of the pool, where she remembered leaving Chase. She found him almost up to his neck in the water, his head tilted back, resting on a soft mat of grass at the bank. His eyes were closed and he had a wonderful smile on his face.
'Father?'
'Yes, daughter,' he whispered without opening his eyes.
She swam up beside him. He lifted an arm and she slipped under it. It felt so good to have his arm around her shoulders, comforting her.
'Father, do we ever have to leave this place?'
'No. They say we can stay forever.'
She nuzzled against him. 'I'm so glad.'
She slept, really slept, like she couldn't remember ever sleeping before, so safe and sheltered, though she didn't know how long. When she dressed, her clothes were clean, and seemed to sparkle like new. Chase's clothes, too, were bright and shiny. She held hands and danced in circles with other children, glowing children, whose voices and laughter echoed. It made her laugh, too, laugh with happiness like none she had ever felt before.
When she was hungry, she and Chase lay in the grass, the warm fog and glowing, smiling faces around them, and ate things that were sweet and delicious. When she was tired, she slept, never having to worry about where she slept, because she was safe, safe at last. And when she wanted to play, the other children came to play with her. They loved her. Everyone loved her. She loved everyone.
Sometimes she walked alone. Filmy shafts of sunlight streamed through the trees. Glowing meadows were filled with wildflowers bowing in the gentle breeze, winking with bright specks of color.
Sometimes she walked with Chase, holding his hand. She was so happy that he was contented now, too. He never had to fight anyone anymore. He was safe, too. He said he was at peace.
He sometimes took her for walks, and showed her the woods where, he said, he grew up, where, he said, he had played when he was as little as she. She smiled with delight at the look of happiness in his eyes. She loved him and was fulfilled knowing he, like she, had found peace, at last.
----------
She looked up, and a small smile touched her thin lips. She hadn't heard a sound, and she needn't turn to look in the near darkness. She knew he was there, on the other side of the door. She knew how long he had been there.
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