Stone of Tears

Zedd watched her placid expression as she stared at the table. “I don’t suppose anyone, except the girl and her parents, were happy?”

Adie shook her head. “Everyone knew I had the gift. They knew it be me who had done it. My mother stood and cried. My father just stood looking the other way. He would not look at me, at an agent of the Keeper’s evil.

“Someone went for Grandmother Lindel; she was respected because of how she stood by the oath. When Grandmother Lindel came, she took me and the girl before the men of the king’s circle. Grandmother Lindel switched the girl who I saved. She bawled a good long time.”

Zedd was incredulous. “she beat the girl! Why?”

“For letting the Keeper use her to bring forth the use of the gift.” Adie sighed. The girl and I had known each other, had been friends, of a sort. She never spoke to me again.”

Adie hugged her arms across her stomach. “And then Grandmother Lindel stripped me naked in front of those men, and switched me until I was covered with welts and blood. I screamed more than the girl had in the fire. Then she marched me, naked and bloody, through the town, to her house. The humiliation be worse than the beating.

“When we got to her house, I asked how she could be so of hers still on her face. And then she said, “Though you be wild of spirit, child, you have worked to tame it. The people have asked for your oath, and you have given it. May I not live to see you break it. You owe no debt beyond that. I will take care of the circle and see to Mathrin Galliene. You will wed Pell.” I wept into the hem of her dress.”

Adie was silent, staring into the fire, lost in the memories. Zedd lifted an eyebrow. “Well, did you wed your love?”

“Yes,” she whispered in her soft rasp. She took the spoon off its hook and stirred the stew while Zedd watched her. At last, she hung it back at its place. “For three months, I thought life be beyond bliss.”

Her mouth worked soundlessly as she stared into nothingness. Zedd put an arm around her shoulder and gently led her back to the table. “sit, Adie. Let me bring you a cup of tea.”

She was still sitting, her hands folded together on the table, staring off, when he returned with the steaming cups. He placed one in her thin hands as he sat opposite her. He didn’t press her to go on before she was ready.

At last, she did. “One day, the day of my birth and nineteen years, Pell and I had taken a walk in the country. I be with child.” She lifted the cup in both hands and took a sip. “We spent the day walking past farms, thinking of names for our child, holding hands, and… well, you know the foolishness of love at that age.

“On our way back, we had to walk past the Choora mill, just outside of town. I thought it strange no one be there. Someone always be at the mill.” Adie closed her eyes for a moment and then took another sip of tea. “As it turned out, there be people there. The Blood of the Fold. They be waiting for us.”

Zedd knew of them. In the larger cities of Nicobarese, the Blood of the Fold were an organized corps of men who hunted banelings; rooted out evil, as they saw it. In other lands, there were men like them, who went by other names, but they were the same. None were especially picky about proof. A corpse was the only proof they need show of their job well done. If they said the body was that of a baneling, then it was. In the smaller towns, the Blood were usually selfappointed toughs and thugs. The Blood of the Fold were widely feared. With good reason.

“They took us…” Her voice broke, but only that once… “into separate rooms in the bottom of the mill. It be dark, and smelled of the damp stone walls and grain dust. I did not know what be done to Pell. I be almost too terrified to breathe.

“Mathrin Galliene said Pell and I be banelings. He said I would not wed as I should have because I wished to bring the Keeper’s notice to Choora. There be a sickness, a fever, in the country that summer, and it brought death to many a family. Mathrin Galliene said Pell and I brought the sickness. I denied it be so, and spoke the oath to show proof.” Adie turned the cup in her fingers as she stared at it.

Zedd touched her hand. “drink, Adie. It will help you.” He had put a pinch of cloud leaf into her tea, to help relax her.

She took a long swallow. “Mathrin Galliene said Pell and I be banelings, and the graveyard be full of the proof of that. He said he wanted only for Pell and I to tell the truth, to confess. The other men of the Blood be growling like hounds around a rabbit, ready to tear us apart. I be terrified for Pell.

As they beat me, I knew they would be doing worse to him, to make him name me a baneling. Nothing be better for the Blood than to have someone name a loved one as a baneling. They would not listen when I denied it.” She looked up into his eyes. “They would not listen.”

“Anything you said,” Zedd offered quietly, “would have made no difference, Adie. It wouldn’t have mattered. When you are in a leghold trap, reasoning with the steel does no good.”