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Following behind, Zedd swept a hand in the direction of the table. The lamp lit itself, adding a soft glow to that of the fire coming from the large hearth made of smooth, river stones, and helped illuminate the dark walls of the room. Every wall held white bones. Shelves lined one wall, and were stuffed to overflowing with the skulls of dangerous beasts. Many of the bones were made into ceremonial objects, some were made into necklaces, decorated with feathers and beads, and some were inscribed with ancient symbols. Some had spells drawn on the wall around them. It was the oddest collection he had even seen.
Zedd pointed a bony finger down at her foot. "Why are you limping?"
Adie gave him a sidelong glance as she stopped and lifted a spoon from a hook set into the mortar at the side of the fireplace. "The new foot you grew me be too short."
Zedd stood with one hand on a knobby hip, and the sticklike fingers of the other holding his smooth chin as he looked down at her foot. He hadn't noticed it wasn't long enough when he had grown it back; he had needed to leave soon after it was done. "Maybe I could grow the ankle a little longer," he wondered aloud. He took his hand from his chin and flourished it in the air. "Make them even."
Adie glared over her shoulder as she stirred the stew. "No thank you."
Zedd arched an eyebrow. "Wouldn't you appreciate having them both even?"
"I appreciate you growing my foot back for me. Life be easier with two of them. I did not realized how much I hated that crutch. But the foot be fine the way it is." She lifted the long handled spoon to her lips, blowing on the hot stew.
"It would be easier if they were even."
"I said no." She tasted the stew.
"Bags, woman, why not?"
Adie tapped the spoon clean on the edge of the iron kettle and hung it back on its hook, then lifted a dented tin from the side of the mantle, unscrewing the lid. Her voice was quiet, her rasp softer. "I do not wish to revisit that pain. Had I known what it would be like, I would have chosen to live the rest of my life without the foot." Reaching her hand into the tin, she took a three-finger–and-thumb pinch of five-spice and flung it into the stew.
Zedd tugged at his ear. Perhaps she was right. Growing the foot back for her had nearly killed her. He hadn't expected what had happened, her reaction to using that much magic on her. Still, he had been successful, and managed to draw away the pain of the memories, though he still didn't know what they had been about. But he should have taken into account she could have had memories that held that much pain.
He should have taken the Wizard's Second Rule into account, but he had been intent on doing something good for her. That was the way it worked with the second rule; it was usually hard to tell if you were violating it.
"You know the price of magic, Adie, almost as well as a wizard. And besides, I made it up to you. For the pain, I mean." He knew it wouldn't take as much magic to make the ankle longer as it had to grow the foot back, but after what she had suffered, he could understand her reluctance. "Perhaps you are right. Maybe I have done enough."
Her white eyes settled on him again. "Why be you here, wizard?"
He gave her an impish grin. "I wanted to see you. You are a hard woman to forget. And I wanted to tell you about Darken Rahl being defeated, by Richard. That we won." He frowned at her stare. "Why do you think the grippers are coming here?"
She shook her head with a sigh. "You talk like a drunk man walks: in every direction but where he be headed." She flicked a finger toward the table, indicating she wanted him to get the bowls. "I already knew we won. The first day of winter has come and past. Had Rahl had won, things wouldn't be so peaceful as they are. Though I be pleased to see your bones again."
Her voice lowered, became even more raspy. "Why be you here, wizard?"
He strode over to the table, glad to elude the scrutiny of those eyes for a moment. "You didn't answer my question. Why do you think the grippers are coming here?"
Her voice lowered into a deeper, harsher rasp, bordering on anger. "I think the grippers be here for the same reason you be here: to cause an old woman trouble."
Zedd grinned as he returned with bowls. "My eyes don't see an old woman. They see only a handsome woman."
She regarded his grin with a helpless shake of her head. "I fear your tongue be more dangerous than a gripper."
He handed her a bowl. "Haven't the grippers ever come here before?"
"No." She turned and began spooning stew into the bowl. "When the boundary be in place, the grippers stayed in the pass, with other beasts. After the boundary went down, I not see them for a time, but when winter came, so did the grippers. That not be right. I think something be wrong."
He exchanged the empty bowl for the full, holding it to his nose and inhaling the aroma. "Maybe when the boundary finally failed, there was no longer any hold over them, and they simply came out of the pass."
"Maybe. When the boundary failed, most of the beasts went with it, back into the underworld. Some were freed of their bonds and escaped into the surrounding country. I never saw any grippers until the winter came, nearly a month ago. I fear something else happened, for them to be here."
Zedd knew very well what had happened, but didn't say so. Instead, he asked, "Adie, why don't you leave? Come away with me. To Aydindril. It would be..."
"No!" Her mouth snapped closed. She seemed almost surprised by her own voice. She smoothed her robe with her hand, letting the anger leave her face and then took the spoon out of the hand with the bowl and returned to dishing out stew. "No. This be my home."
Zedd watched silently as she worked over the kettle. When finished, she carried her bowl to the table, set it down and retrieved a loaf of bread from over the counter, from a shelf behind a blue and white striped curtain. She pointed with the bread to the other empty chair. Zedd set his bowl on the table and sat, hiking his robes up as he folded his legs underneath himself. Adie lowered herself into the chair opposite him and sliced off a chunk of bread, using the knife point to push it across the table before she looked up to meet his eyes.
"Please, Zedd, do not ask me to leave my home."
"I am only worried for you, Adie."
Adie dunked a chunk of bread in her stew. "That be a lie."
He looked up from under his eyebrows as he picked up his bread. "It's not a lie."
She ate without lifting her head. "'Only,' be a lie."
Zedd went back to his stew and ate in ernest. "Umm. Thish ish womerful," he mumbled around a hot chunk of meat. She nodded her thanks. He ate until his bowl was empty, then took it to the fireplace and filled it once more.
On his way back to the table, he swept his hand around at the room, pointing with his spoon. "You have a lovely home, Adie. Quite lovely." He sat and picked up the bread she passed to him. He put his elbows on the table, his sleeves slipping up his forearms as he broke the bread in half. "But I don't think you should be living here, all alone. Not with the grippers and all." He gestured with the bread to the north. "Why don't you come with me to Aydindril? It's a lovely place, too. You would like it there. There's plenty of room. Kahlan could see to it you have your choice of places to live. Why, you could even stay at the Keep, if you preferred."
Her white eyes stayed on her meal. "No."
"Why not? We could have a good time there. A sorceress could have a grand time in the Keep. There are books and..."
"I said no."
He watched her as she went back to eating stew. He pushed his sleeves up further and did the same. He couldn't eat long. He set the spoon in the bowl and looked up from under his eyebrows.
"Adie, there is more to the story, more I haven't told you."
She lifted an eyebrow. "I hope you do not expect me to look surprised. I not be good at pretending." She bent back over her bowl.
"Adie, the veil is torn."
Her hand paused with the spoon halfway to her mouth. She didn't look up. "Baa. What do you know of the veil. You do not know what you speak of." The spoon completed its journ
ey.
"I know it's torn."
She scooped up the last piece of potato from her bowl. "You speak of things that are not possible, wizard. The veil not be torn." She stood, picking up her empty bowl. "Be at ease, old man, if the veil be torn, we would have a lot more than grippers to be worried about. But we don't."
Zedd turned, putting a hand on the back of his chair, watching her limp toward the kettle hanging from the crane in the fireplace. "The Stone of Tears is in this world," he said in a quiet voice.
Adie halted. Her bowl fell to the floor, clattering in the thick silence, and rolled away. Her hands were held out before her as if she still held it. Her back was stiff. "Do not say such a thing aloud," she whispered, "unless you be certain beyond doubt. Unless you be certain on your honor as First Wizard. Unless you be willing to offer your soul to the Keeper if you be lying."
