Stone of Tears

She watched him silently for a moment without moving, then slipped the axe head to the floor and leaned the handle against the wall just inside the door. “What do you be doing here, wizard?”

Zedd stepped onto the tiny porch and gave a dramatic bow. When he came up, he offered her the flower as if it were a priceless jewel. “I just couldn’t stay away from your tender embrace, dear lady.” He flashed his most irresistible smile.

Adie studied him a moment with those white eyes. That be a lie.”

Zedd cleared his throat and pressed the flower closer. He thought maybe he needed to practice his smile. “Is that stew I smell?”

Without taking her gaze from him, she accepted the flower, sticking it in her straight, jaw-length black and gray hair. She truly was handsome. “It be stew.”

Her soft, thin hands took his. A small smile stole onto her finely wrinkled face, and she gave a slight nod. “It be good to see you again, Zedd. For a time, I feared I never would. I spent many a night in a sweat, knowing what would happen had you failed. When winter came and the Magic of Orden didn’t sweep the land, I knew you had succeeded.”

Zedd was encouraged that his best smile hadn’t been wasted after all, but he was careful with his answer. “darken Rahl has been defeated.”

“What of Richard and Kahlan? Do they be safe?”

Zedd puffed up with pride. “Yes. In fact, Richard was the one who defeated Darken Rahl.”

She nodded again. “I think there be more to the story.”

He shrugged, trying to make it seem less important than it was. “A bit of a tale.”

Though the small smile still rested easily on her face, her white eyes seemed to be weighing his soul. “And there be a reason you be here. A reason I fear I won’t like.”

He pulled his hands out of hers and pushed some of his unruly, wavy white hair back while frowning. “Bags, woman, are you going to feed me any of that stew or not?”

Adie finally withdrew her white eyes from him and turned back into her home. “I think there be enough stew, even for you. Come in and shut the door. I do not wish to see another gripper tonight.”

Invited in. Well, things were going smoothly. He wondered how much he was going to have to tell her. Not all, he hoped. Wizard’s work: using people. The worst of it was using people he liked. Especially people he liked deeply.

As Zedd helped her right the chairs and table, and pick up the pots and tin plates strewn about the floor, he began telling her of the things that had happened since he had been with her last. He started with the harrowing tale of going through the pass, protected, somewhat, by the bone she had given him to hide him from the beasts. He still had the bone on a thin leather thong around his neck, seeing no need to be rid of it after he had gotten safely through.

She listened without comment as he wove the tale, and when he told of Richard’s capture by the Mord-Sith, she didn’t turn to show her face, but he saw the muscles in her shoulders tense for the briefest of moments. With no small amount of emphasis to make his point, he related how Darken Rahl had taken the night stone from Richard, the night stone she had given him to see him safely through the pass.

He scowled at her back as she picked a plate off the floor. “I was nearly killed by that stone. Darken Rahl used it to trap me in the underworld. I escaped by the thinnest of hairs. You almost got me killed, giving that thing to Richard.”

“Do not be a thickheaded fool,” she scoffed. “You be smart enough to save yourself. Had I not given the night stone to Richard, he would have died in the pass, and then Darken Rahl would have won, and right now would no doubt be torturing you. You would soon be dead. By giving the stone to Richard, I saved your life.”

He shook a leg bone of some sort at the glance she cast over her shoulder. That thing was dangerous. You shouldn’t go handing out dangerous things as if they were a stick of candy. Not without warning people, anyway.” He had a right to be indignant. He had been the one sucked into the underworld by that wretched stone. The woman could at least pretend to be contrite.

Zedd went on with the story of how Richard had escaped, although he had a web around him hiding his identity, and how the quads had attacked Chase, Kahlan, and himself. He had to make an effort to control his voice at the telling of what had almost happened to Kahlan, and how she had called forth the Con Dar and killed their attackers. He finished with how Richard had tricked Darken Rahl into opening the wrong box. He told her how the Magic of Orden had taken Darken Rahl for his mistake. Zedd smiled to himself as he reached the end of his story, telling her that Richard had somehow gotten past Kahlan’s power, that they were free to love each other—he wasn’t about to tell her how, that was not for anyone to know—and they were happily together now.