Stone of Tears

“If this doesn’t work, I’m sorry, Adie. I just want you to know I’ve enjoyed sharing time with you.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Hold tight!”

The green walls of the boundary closed together ahead of them. Zedd held the horse firmly and gave her a silent command.

She dug in her hooves and spun around to a halt just before the trail ended in a wall of the underworld.

Zedd flung the two necklaces made with skrin bone into the green light, between a wide gap in the trees.

The skrin was upon them. Without pause, it followed the necklaces as they sailed into the boundary, into the green light. There was a flash, and a booming clap, like a lightning strike, as the skrin went through.

The green light, and the skrin, flickered and were gone. The dark forest was silent but for ragged breathing.

Adie laid her head wearily against his back. “You be right, old man. Your life be one act of desperation after another.”

Zedd patted her knee before sliding off the sweaty horse. The poor animal was so exhausted it was at the brink of death. Zedd held its head between his hands and gave it a dose of strength, and his sincere thanks. He laid the side of his face against her nose as he closed his eyes and gave reassuring strokes to her cheeks for a moment before going to check on Adie.

Blood still oozed from the wound on her arm. The size of the horse made Adie appear smaller than she really was. Her slumped shoulders and hanging head didn’t help diminish the illusion. She didn’t acknowledge any pain as Zedd inspected the wound.

“I be a fool,” she said. The whole time I thought I be hiding under the Keeper’s nose, he be hiding under mine. He knew where I be the whole time. All these years.”

“We can take solace in the fact that it earned him no profit. He has wasted his investment. Now hold still. I must tend to this wound.”

There be no time for that. We must get back to my house. I must get my bones.”

“I said be still.”

“We must hurry.”

Zedd scowled up at her. “We will go back when I’m finished, but the horse is exhausted; she must be walked. I’ll walk and let you ride, if you give me no further trouble. Now be still or we will be here the whole night quibbling.”

By the time they reached Adie’s house, dawn was breaking, offering a cold, weak light. It was a sad sight. The skrin had torn the place to splinters. Adie disregarded the leaning, holed walls as she rushed inside, stepping over debris, picking up bones, holding them in the crook of her other arm, as she worked her way toward the corner where they had last seen the round, carved bone.

Zedd was inspecting the ground outside when he heard her calling to him.

“Come help me find the round bone, wizard.”

He stepped over a fallen beam. “I don’t expect you will find it.”

She pushed a board aside. “It be here somewhere.” She stopped, looking back over her shoulder. “What do you mean, you don’t expect we will find it?”

“Someone has been here.”

She looked around at the ruin. “You be sure?”

Zedd waved his arm vaguely toward where he had been studying the ground. “I saw a footprint, over there. It isn’t ours.”

She let the bones in her arm drop to the floor. “Who?” . He laid his hand on a beam that hung from the ceiling, its end resting on the floor. “I don’t know, but someone has been here. It looks to be a woman’s boot, but it isn’t yours. I suspect she will have taken the round bone.”

Adie pawed through the rubble in the corner, searching. At last she stopped. “You be right, old man. The bone be gone.” She turned, seeming to inspect the very air with her white eyes. “Banelings,” she hissed. “You be wrong about the Keeper wasting his effort.”

“I fear you’re right.” Zedd brushed his hand clean on the side of his leg. “We had better get away from here. Far away.”

Adie leaned toward him, her voice low but firm. “Zedd, we must have that bone. It be important for the veil.”

“She has covered her trail with magic. I don’t have any idea where she went. I only saw one footprint. We must be away from here; the Keeper might expect us to return. I’ll cover our trail, so no one will know where we’re going.”

“You be so sure about that? The Keeper seems to know where we be, and sends his minions for us at will.”

“He tracked us by the necklaces we wore. He will be blind to us for the time being. But we must get away from here. He may have eyes watching, the same eyes that took the bone.”

Her head sunk lower as she closed her eyes. “Forgive me, Zedd, for endangering you so. For being a fool.”

“Nonsense. No one knows everything. You can’t expect to walk through life without stepping in the muck now and again. The important thing is to maintain your footing when you do, and not fall on your face and make it worse.”

“But that bone be important!”

“It’s gone. We can do nothing about it now. At least we foiled the Keeper; he didn’t get us. But we must be away from here.”

Adie bent to pick up the bones she had dropped. “I will hurry.”

“We can’t take anything, Adie,” he said quietly.