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"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."
Chase's fierce, hawkish eyes looked like what Zedd imagined a mouse must see an instant before the end.
"It's very pretty, Zedd. I never wore such a pretty thing."
"It's also very important. As important as the box that Wizard Giller gave you to look after."
"But Darken Rahl is dead. You said so. He can't hurt us anymore."
"I know, child, but this is still important. You did such a good and brave job with the box, that I think you would be the best one to wear this necklace until the one it belongs to comes for it. You must wear it always until then. Don't let anyone else even try it on for play. This is not something to play with."
Her expression turned serious at the mention of the box. "I'll take good care of it, Zedd, if you say it's important."
"Zedd," Chase hissed as he pulled Rachel's head to himself, cupping his hand over her ear so she couldn't hear, "what do you think you're doing? Is that what I think it is?"
Zedd gave him a forbidding look. "I'm trying to keep all the children of the world from having very bad nightmares. For eternity."
Chase gritted his teeth. "Zedd, I don't want..."
Zedd cut him off. "Chase, how long have you known me?" Chase didn't answer. He only glared. "In all the time you have known me, have you ever known me to bring harm to another, especially a child? Have you ever known me to put another at risk for anything foolish?"
"No," Chase said in a voice like grating stone. "And I don't want to see you start now."
Zedd kept his own voice firm. "You will have to trust that I know what I am doing." His eyes flicked to where the screeling had killed the people. "What has happened today doesn't even begin to touch what is about to happen. If the veil isn't closed, the suffering and death will be beyond your comprehension. I am doing what I must, as a wizard. As a wizard, I recognize this little one, just as Giller recognized her. She is a ripple in the pond. She is destined to do important things.
"When we were in the tomb of Panis Rahl, earlier, checking to see that they were walling it in properly, I studied some of the runes on the walls. They weren't all melted yet. They were in high D'Haran, and I don't understand much of it, but I understood enough. They were instructions on going to the underworld. You know that stone table in the Garden of Life? It's a sacrificial altar. Darken Rahl used it to go to the underworld, to travel under the boundaries."
"But he is dead. What does..."
"He killed children, and offered their unsoiled souls as a gift to the Keeper of the underworld to gain himself passage. Do you understand what I am saying? He made pacts with the Keeper.
"That means the Keeper has been using people in this world. Where he has used one, he has surely used more. And now the veil is torn. That a screeling was here proves it beyond question.
"Many of the oldest prophecies, I believe, are about what is beginning to happen now, and about Richard. Whoever wrote them was intending to send him help across time. I believe they are meant to aid him in the fight against the Keeper. But much has happened in the last few thousand years to muddy those words. I fear that it is the Keeper's patient work that has obfuscated the meaning of the prophecies.
"He has no more important skill than patience. He has an eternity of it. He has probably been sending careful tendrils into this world to influence people, wizards, like Darken Rahl, to do his bidding. The fact that we need the prophecies so much right now, and there are no wizards left who understand them, can't be coincidence. I have no idea where the Keeper's eyes lurk, or what he intends next."
Chase's eyes still had fire in them, but it was different from the kind they held before. "Tell me how to help. What would you like me to do?"
Zedd smiled sadly and patted the big man's shoulder. "I would like you to teach this child to be like you. I know she is smart. Bring it out in her. Make her your student. Teach her how to use every weapon you know. Teach her to be strong, and quick."
Chase sighed and gave a nod. "Such a little warrior."
"In the morning, I must leave to get Adie and take her to Aydindril. I would like you to go to the Mud People. Ride hard, fast as you can go. Richard and Kahlan and Siddin will be with the dragon tonight, and tomorrow she will take them there. It will take you weeks to reach him. We can't afford to waste any time.
"Tell Richard and Kahlan to come to me in Aydindril at once. Tell them of the danger as I have told you. Then maybe you should take this child to safety. If there is any such thing."
"Isn't there anything else I can do?"
"The most important thing is to get to Richard. I have been a fool for thinking we would have time. I never should have let him out of my sight." Zedd rubbed his chin a moment in thought. "Maybe you could tell him I am his grandfather, and that Darken Rahl was his father. Maybe that wi
ll give his anger time to cool before he reaches me."
Zedd lifted an eyebrow and smiled. "Do you know what the Mud People call him? They call him 'Richard With The Temper.' Imagine that. Richard of all people. He is one of the gentlest people I've ever known. But I fear the Sword of Truth has brought out his other side."
Chase gave a lopsided smile. "He won't be angry to learn you are his grandfather. He loves you."
Zedd sighed. "Maybe so, but I don't think he will be pleased to know who his father really is. And that I hid that knowledge from him. George Cypher raised him and they loved each other deeply."
"That is the truth, and this doesn't change it."
Zedd nodded. He held the necklace up. "Will you trust me?"
Chase gave the wizard an appraising look, then sat Rachel up straight on his knee. "Let me latch the clasp for you."
After Chase hooked it around her neck, Rachel picked up the amber stone in her small hands, bending her face down to see it. "I'll take good care of it for you, Zedd."
The wizard ruffled her hair. "I'm sure you will." He put a finger to each side of her forehead, letting the magic flow into her, and gave her the thought of how important the necklace was, that she was not to talk to people about it or where she got it, and that she must protect it as she had the box of Orden.
He removed his fingers, and she opened her eyes and smiled. Chase picked her up with a hand on each side of her waist and set her down to stand on the bench next to him. He searched through the arsenal of knives at his waist and found the strap for the smallest. He untied the leather thong and pulled the sheathed blade free. He held it up in front of her face.
"Since you are my daughter now, you will wear a knife, just like me. But I don't want you taking it out until I teach you about it. You could cut yourself badly. I will teach you how to use it in a safe manner. I'm going to teach you how to protect yourself so you will be safe. All right?"
