2 - Stone of Tears Read online

  Jebra lifted the purse and set it back in Zedd's lap. 'I will not do it for all the gold in D'Hara. But I will do it for you.'

  Zedd smiled and patted her cheek. 'Thank you, child.' He put the gold back in her lap, the coins making a muffled clink. 'You will be needing this. You will have expenses. What is left is yours. That is the way I wish it.'

  She nodded resignedly. 'What must I do?'

  'Well, first we must both get a good night's sleep. You will need to rest for a few days to regain your strength. And then you have some traveling to do, Lady Bevinvier.' He smiled at the way one of her eyebrows lifted. 'We are both very tired right now. Tomorrow after I have rested, I must be off on important business. Before I leave, I will come to you and we will talk more of this. But starting right now, I would ask you not to wear the Stone where it can be seen. No good can come of declaring your talent to eyes in the shadows.'

  'So my new employer shall use me covertly too? Not the most honorable of things.'

  'The ones who would recognize you now are not vying for gold. They serve the Keeper. They want much more than gold. If they discover you, you will wish I had not saved you today.'

  She winced before finally nodding.

  CHAPTER 4

  Zedd stood with the aid of a hand to his knee. He helped Jebra up. As he expected, she was unable to stand without leaning heavily on him. She apologized for the burden. He made her smile by telling her he would use any excuse to have his arm around the waist of a pretty maiden.

  People were starting to go back to their business, engaged in hushed conversation as their eyes darted about the suddenly not so safe palace. Those hurt had been helped away, and the dead carried off. Maidservants in heavy skirts worked tearfully at the task of cleaning up the blood, sloshing mops in buckets of reddening water. Soldiers of the First File were spread out everywhere. Zedd motioned to Commander Trimack across the hall.

  'Anyway, I shall be glad to be away from this place,' Jebra said. 'I have seen auras here that make me sweat in my sleep.'

  As the officer started toward them, Zedd asked, 'Do you see anything of this man coming toward us?'

  She studied him a moment as he strode toward them, checking the placement of his men. 'A faint aura. Duty.' She frowned as she stared. 'It has always been a burden for him. He is daring to hope that maybe he will now find pride in it. Does that help you any?'

  Zedd smiled a little. 'Yes it does. Any visions?'

  'No. Just the faint aura.'

  The wizard nodded in thought, then brightened. 'By the way, why has a woman as lovely as you not found herself a husband?'

  She gave him a sidelong glance. 'Three have asked. As each was on bended knee before me, I saw a vision of them lying with another woman.'

  Zedd grinned. 'Did they ask why you said no?'

  'I didn't say no. I only slapped them so hard it made their heads ring like a bell.'

  Zedd laughed until she was caught up in it. Trimack came at last to a halt before them. Commander General Trimack, may I introduce the Lady Bevinvier.' Trimack gave a smart bow. As are you, as am I, this lady is one who is at the task of keeping harm from getting a glance at Lord Rahl. I would like her to have a heavy guard at all times while she is in the palace. Lord Rahl needs her help, and I don't want her life risked again as it was today.'

  'While she is in the palace she will be as safe as a babe in her mother's arms. By my honor.' He turned and gave a coded tap to his shoulder. A good two dozen men of the First File came at a dead run, freezing to a halt at attention, not even breathing hard. 'This is the Lady Bevinvier. Every one of your lives before hers.'

  With a sharp snap, every fist came to an armored heart as one. Two of them took Jebra's weight from Zedd. She kept one hand tightly closed around the Stone. The purse of gold bulged in a pocket of her long, green skirt. It was covered most of the way down with dried blood.

  Zedd addressed the men holding her up. 'She will need suitable quarters, and meals brought in. Please see to it she is not disturbed by anyone but me.' He looked at her tired blue eyes and gently touched her arm. 'Rest well, child. I will visit you in the morning.'

  She smiled weakly. 'Thank you, Zedd.' As the soldiers helped her away, the wizard turned his attention to Trimack. 'There is a woman staying in the palace, a Lady Ordith Condatith de Dackidvich. Lord Rahl is going to have enough trouble without her kind around. I want her out of here before the day is finished. If she refuses to leave, offer her the choice of a carriage or a noose.'

  Trimack grinned wickedly. 'I will see to it personally.'

  'If there are any others you know of about the palace, who are of her temperament, feel free to make them the same offer. New rule brings change.' Zedd couldn't see auras, but he was sure that if Jebra had been standing there, she would have seen Trimack's brighten.

  'Some are uncomfortable with change, Wizard Zorander.' The man had spoken more than his simple words. Are there any above you in command in the palace? Other than Lord Rahl?'

  Trimack clasped his hands behind his back as his eyes swept the hall. There is one named Demmin Nass, commander of the quads, who gave orders to all but Darken Rahl.'

  Zedd let out a heavy breath at that memory. 'He is dead.'

  Trimack nodded with what might have been relief. 'Below the palace, quartered in the chambers of the plateau, there are perhaps thirty thousand men of the army. Their generals outrank me in the field, but in the palace the word of the commander general of the First File is law. Some of them I know will welcome the change. Some will not.'

  'Richard is going to have a difficult enough time being the magic against magic - underworld magic - without troubles from steel. You have a free hand, Commander, to do as you see fit to protect him. Err on the side of duty.'

  Trimack grunted acknowledgment, then went on. 'The People's Palace, one roof though it may be, is a city. Thousands live here. Merchants and supplies, trains of wagons to lone peddlers, come and go in an endless stream in all directions except to the east, across the Azrith Plains. The roads in are the arteries that feed the heart of D'Hara - the People's Palace.

  The inside of the plateau is chambered with twice the number of rooms of the palace above ground. As with any city of this size, the motives of the multitudes coming here are beyond our ability to judge with absolute certainty.

  'I will have the great inner doors closed and seal off the palace above ground. It is something that has not been done in a few hundred years, and it will cause worry among the people of D'Hara, but I would risk the worried talk. The only way to the palace itself, if not through the inside entrances, is up the cliff road on the east side. I will keep the bridge up.

  That still leaves us with thousands in the palace proper. Any of them could have designs not to our liking. Worse, there are thousands of battle-tested soldiers in the belly of the palace, many led by men I would not want getting a glance at Lord Rahl. I have a feeling the new Lord Rahl is not the kind of Rahl they are used to dealing with, and they are not going to like the change.

  'D'Hara is a vast empire, the supply routes long. Perhaps it is time some of these divisions were sent out to see to the safety of these routes, especially the ones to the far south, near the wilds, where I have heard rumor there is unrest and trouble. And perhaps from the ranks of the ones I trust, the size of the First File could be increased threefold.'

  Zedd studied Trimack's face as the man continued to scan the hall. 'I am no soldier, but your ideas make sense. The palace must be made as secure as possible. How you do it is up to you.'

  'I will give you a list then, in the morning, of the generals to be trusted and those to worry about.'

  'Why would I need such a list?'

  Trimack's intense gaze was steady. 'Because orders such as these must come from one with the gift.'

  Zedd shook his head, muttering, 'Wizards should not be ruling people. It's not right.'

  'It is the way in D'Hara. Magic and steel. I want to protect Lord Rahl. This is what
I think needs to be done.'

  Zedd stared off into the distance, feeling the ache of exhaustion in his bones. 'Do you know, Trimack, that I have fought and killed wizards who wanted to take it upon themselves to rule?'

  When an answer didn't come, Zedd turned back to the officer. Trimack was studying him. 'Given the choice, Wizard Zorander, I would choose to serve one who bears command as a burden, to one who wears the mantle as a right.'

  Zedd sighed and nodded. 'In the morning then. There is one other matter, the most important of all: I want the Garden of Life guarded. That is where the screeling first attacked. I don't know if there will be more. There is a door up there that will have to be fixed. Put a ring of steel around the garden. Enough men that they have room only to swing an axe. No one, no one at all, is to be allowed to go in except myself or Richard, or by our order.

  'Anyone attempting to go into that room is to be viewed as harm trying to get a look at Lord Rahl. Even one who tells you he is there only to pull weeds. And you can bet your mother's honor that anything trying to get out is harm trying to have more than a look.'

  Trimack clapped his fist to his armored chest. To the last man, Wizard Zorander.'

  'Good. Lord Rahl may need what's in that room. I don't dare to move those things for the time being. They are extremely dangerous. Take very seriously the guarding of that room, Commander. More screelings could come. Or worse.'

  'How soon?'

  'I would not have thought we would have seen the first for a year or more. At least months. That the Keeper could have loosed one of his assassins so soon is a great worry. I don't know who it was sent for. It's possible it was simply sent to kill whoever was around. The Keeper needs no reason to kill. I must leave the palace tomorrow to learn what I can before we are surprised again.'

  Trimack pondered this with troubled eyes. 'Do you know when Lord Rahl will return?'

  Zedd shook his head. 'No. I thought I was going to have time to teach him some of what he must know, but now I must send for him at once to meet me in Aydindril and see if we can discover what must be done. He is in great danger and knows nothing of it. Events have outpaced me. I have no idea what the Keeper is going to do next, but I now fear how deep his tendrils may be. That they were around Darken Rahl even before the veil was torn means I have already been an ignorant fool in this business.

  'If Richard should happen to return unexpectedly, or if anything happens to me ... help him. He sees himself as a woods guide, not the Lord Rahl. He will be distrustful. Tell him I said to trust you.'

  'If he is distrustful, how shall I convince him to trust me?' Zedd smiled. 'Tell him I said it is the truth. The toasted toads' truth.'

  Trimack's eyes widened with incredulity. 'You wish the Commander General of the First File to say such a childish thing to the Lord Rahl?'

  Zedd straightened his face and cleared his throat. 'It's a code, Commander. He will understand it.'

  Trimack nodded, but looked skeptical. 'I had better see to the Garden of Life, and the rest of it. No disrespect intended, but you look like you could use some rest.' He tilted his head toward where the army of maidservants were still cleaning blood off the marble floor. 'All the healing you did looks to have tired you.'

  'It did. Thank you, Commander Trimack. I will take your advice.'

  Trimack's fist snapped to his heart, the salute softened by the hint of a smile. He began to turn, but hesitated. His intense blue eyes looked back to the wizard.

  'May I say, Wizard Zorander, that it's a pleasure to at last have one with the gift in the palace who is more concerned with putting people's guts back inside, than with spilling them out. I've never seen the like of it.'

  Zedd didn't smile. His voice was quiet. 'I am sorry, Commander, that I could do nothing for that lad.'

  Trimack gave a sorrowful nod. 'I know that to be the truth, Wizard Zorander. The toasted toads' truth.'

  ----------

  Zedd watched the commander stride across the hall, drawing armored men to him like a huge magnet. The wizard brought his hand up, staring at the gold chain looped over his sticklike fingers. He gave a pained sigh. Wizard business -using people. And now for the worst of it. He brought the black, tear-shaped stone from a pocket deep in his robes. The spirits be cursed, he thought, for the things a wizard must do.

  He held the mounting where the blue Stone had been, and pressed the point of the smooth, black stone to it. Elemental power flowed from the fingers of each hand, joining in the middle, welding the stone to the mount.

  Hoping he was wrong, Zedd brought forth a painful memory of his long-dead wife. With the way Jebra's mind had shredded his barriers, it wasn't difficult. When a tear ran over his cheek, he wet his thumb in it, and shut the memory away with the greatest of effort. He smiled a little at the irony that wizards had to use even themselves, and that the horrible memory at least brought with it one with a little pleasure to balance it.

  Holding the black stone in the palm of one hand, he buffed its surface with the tear-dampened thumb. The stone turned a clear amber as he rubbed it with his thumb. His heart sank a little. There was no doubt now as to what it was.

  Resigned to what must be done, Zedd wove a wizard's web around the stone. The spell would work to hide the true nature of the stone from everyone, except Richard. More important, the web would draw Richard's attention to the stone. If he ever saw it, the attraction would be planted firmly in his mind.

  He glanced over at Chase, who was stretched out on his back on a marble bench across the hall. One foot was planted on the floor, and Rachel was sitting on the ground, an arm wrapped around his calf, her head against his knee. His other foot was on the bench. A bandaged forearm rested across his forehead.

  Zedd sighed and started across the polished marble floor. He wondered for a moment what the boundary warden was supposed to guard, now that the boundary was gone. He stopped, standing over the two.

  Without removing his forearm from his eyes, Chase spoke. 'Zedd, my old friend, if you ever again have some ruthless, strong-armed witch of a healer pour a concoction that tastes that spirits-be-cursed foul down my gullet, I'll twist your head around so you have to walk backward to see where you're going.'

  Zedd grinned. Now he knew he had picked the right woman for the job.

  'Did the medicine taste really awful, Chase?' Rachel asked.

  He lifted his arm a little, letting it hover over his eyes as he looked down at her. 'If you call me Chase again, you may find out.'

  'Yes, Father.' She grinned. 'I'm sorry she made you drink that awful medicine.' Her face turned to a pout. 'But it scares me something fierce to see blood on you.' He grunted.

  She peered at him. 'Maybe the next time, if you take your sword out when I tell you to, you wouldn't get blood on you and have to drink awful medicine.'

  Zedd marveled at the childlike innocence of the perfectly delivered, stinging rebuke. Chase held his head up a little off the bench, with his arm frozen in the air several inches above his eyes, as he glowered at the little girl. Zedd had never seen a man struggle so mightily to keep from laughing. Rachel's nose wrinkled up and she giggled at the strained face he was making.

  'May the good spirits be mercifully kind to your future husband,' Chase said, 'and at least grant him a few years' peace until you lay your eyes on the poor, doomed fool.' She frowned. 'What does that mean?' Chase swung his leg down and sat up. He scooped her up and plopped her down on his knee. 'I'll tell you what it means. It means that there's a new rule. And this one you better not break.'

  'No, Father, I won't. What is it?'

  'From now on,' he said with a scowl, his face close to hers, 'if you need to tell me something important, and I don't listen to you, you are to kick me. Hard as you can. And you just go on kicking me until I listen. Got it?'

  She smiled. 'Yes, Father.'

  'I'm not joking. I mean it.'

  She nodded earnestly. 'I promise, Chase.'

  The big man rolled his eyes and swept her to his
chest with one arm, holding her to him the way she held her doll to herself. Zedd swallowed back the lump in his throat. At that moment, he didn't like himself very much, and he liked the alternatives a lot less.

  The wizard fell to one knee before her. The dried blood made his robes stiff at his knees. 'Rachel. I must ask you to do something for me.'

  She nodded. 'What is it, Zedd?'

  He brought his arm up, the gold chain hanging from his fingers. The stone swung back and forth under his hand. This belongs to someone else. Would you wear it for now? Keep it safe? Someday Richard may come and get it from you, to take it where it belongs, but I don't know when that will be.'