Stone of Tears

Her 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.”

Adie 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.

Smoothing 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.

Thank 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.”

Zedd 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.”

Her 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.”

Chapter 23

“The Stone of Tears? Well, it is hidden.”

She 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?”

Zedd 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!”

She 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!”

Zedd scowled defensively. “Well, I had to do something with it. I couldn’t just leave it lying about.”

Adie 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.”

Zedd 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.

Zedd 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…”

Adie 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.”

Zedd 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?”

Her 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… !”