Stone of Tears

She nodded. “I know.” Her face was a calm mask over a thunderhead. “I could have stopped it, had I used the gift, but it be against everything I be taught, believed. It be as if using the gift would prove to myself that what the men said be true. I felt it would have been blasphemy against the Creator. I be as helpless while the men beat me as if I did not have the gift.”

She drained the tea from her cup. “Even as I screamed, I could hear Pell’s screams echoing from another room.”

Zedd went to the fire and brought the pot back, filling her cup again. “It wasn’t your fault, Adie. Don’t blame yourself.”

She flicked a glance up at him as he poured himself another cup. They wanted me to name Pell as a baneling. I told them I would not, that they could kill me, but they could not make me say that it be so.

“Mathrin bent close to me, put his face close to mine. In my head, I can still see his smile. He said, “I believe you, girl. But it doesn’t matter, because it not be you we want to name the baneling. It be Pell we want to speak the name of the baneling. It be you we want Pell to name. You be the bane-ling.”

Then the men held me down. Mathrin tried to pour something down my throat. It burned my mouth. He held my nose. It be swallow or drown. I wished to drown, but I swallowed without wanting to. It burned my throat like swallowing fire. I could not speak. I could not make a sound. I could not even scream. No sound be there. Only burning pain. More pain than I had ever known.” She took a sip of tea, as if to soothe her throat.

Then the men took me in the room with Pell and tied me to a chair in front of him. Mathrin held me by my hair so I could not move. It broke my heart to see what they had done to my Pell. His face be white as snow. They had cut off most of his fingers, one knuckle at a time.” Her own fingers tightened around her cup as she stared into the vision.

“Mathrin told Pell that I had confessed that Pell be a baneling. Pell’s eyes be big, looking at me. I tried to scream that it not be true, but no sound came. I tried to shake my head that it not be true, but Mathrin held me so I could not.

“Pell told them he did not believe them. They cut off another finger. They told him they only do it because I named him. Only do it on my word. Pell kept his eyes on me as he shook, and kept telling them he did not believe them. They told Pell I had told them I wished him to be killed because he be a baneling. Still Pell said he did not believe them. He said he loved me.

Then he told Pell I had named him a baneling, and that if it not be so, I could deny it and they would let us both go free. He told Pell that I had promised I would not deny it because he be a baneling, and I wanted him to die for it. Pell screamed for me to tell them. Screamed for me to deny it. He screamed my name, screamed for me to say something.

“I tried, but I could say nothing. My throat be fire. My voice did not work. Mathrin held me by my hair; I could not move. Pell’s eyes be big as he stared at me. As I sat silent.

Then Pell spoke to me. “How could you do that to me, Adie? How could you name me a baneling?” Then he cried.

“Mathrin asked him to name me a baneling. He said that if he did, they would believe him over me, because I had the gift, and he would be freed. Pell whispered, “I will not say that of her to save my life. Even though she has betrayed me.” Those words broke my heart.”

As she stared off at nothing, Zedd noticed a candle on the counter behind her melt into a puddle. He could feel the waves of power radiating from her. He realized he was holding his breath. He eased it out.

“Mathrin cut Pell’s throat,” she said simply. “He severed Pell’s head and held it before me. He said he wanted me to see what following the Keeper had brought on Pell. He said it be the last thing he wanted me to ever see. The men held my head back and pulled my eyes open. Mathrin poured the burning liquid in them.

“I be blinded.

“In that moment, something happened inside me. My Pell was gone, he died thinking I had betrayed him, my life was about to end. I suddenly realized how it be my own fault, for holding to an oath. The life of my love, for an ignorant oath, for a foolish superstition. Nothing mattered anymore; everything be gone to me.

“I turned the gift loose, turned the rage loose. I broke my oath not to use the gift to harm another. I could not see, but I could hear; I could hear their blood hit the stone walls. I struck out wildly. I shredded every living thing in that room, be it man or mouse. I could not see, so I simply struck at any life I could feel. I could not tell if any had escaped. In a way, I be glad to be blind, or seeing what I be doing, I might have stopped before I finished.

“When all be still, dead, I felt my way around the room, counting the bodies. One be missing.