Wizard's First Rule - Terry Goodkind [146]
Zedd shrugged. “As wizards go, I’m pretty harmless.”
She studied his eyes in the lamplight.
“That be a lie,” the sorceress whispered in a low rasp.
Zedd cleared his throat, and thought to change the subject. “It would seem I owe you thanks for tending to me, dear lady.”
“That be true.”
“And for helping Richard and Kahlan”—he looked over to Chase, pointing with his spoon—”and the boundary warden too. I am in your debt.”
Adie’s smile widened. “Perhaps, someday you can return the favor.”
Zedd pushed up the sleeves of his robes and went back to eating the soup, but not quite as voraciously as before. He and the sorceress watched each other. The fire in the hearth crackled, and outside night bugs chirped. Chase slept on.
“How long have they been gone?” Zedd asked at last.
“This be the seventh day he has left you and the boundary warden to my care.”
Zedd finished his meal, pushing the bowl carefully away. He folded his thin hands on the table, looking down as he tapped his thumbs together. The light from the lamp flickered and danced on his mass of white hair.
“Did Richard say how I was to find him?”
For a moment Adie didn’t answer. The wizard continued to wait, tapping his thumbs, until at last she spoke. “I gave him a night stone.”
Zedd jumped to his feet. “You did what!”
Adie calmly looked up at him. “Would you have me send him through the pass, at night, without a way to see? To be blind in the pass is a sure death. I wanted him to make it through. It be the only way for me to help him.”
The wizard put his knuckles on the table and leaned forward, his wavy white hair falling around his face. “And did you warn him?”
“Of course I did.”
His eyes narrowed. “How? With a sorceress’s riddle?”
Adie picked up two apples and tossed one to Zedd. He caught it in the air with a silent spell. It floated, spinning slowly while he continued to glare at the old woman.
“Sit down, wizard, and stop showing off.” She took a bite of her apple, chewing slowly. Zedd sat down in a huff. “I did not want to frighten him. He already be fearful enough. Had I told him what a night stone could do, he might have been afraid to use it, and the result would have been that the underworld would have had him sure. Yes, I warned him, but with a riddle, so he would figure it out later, after he be through the pass.”
Zedd’s sticklike fingers snatched the apple out of the air. “Bags, Adie, you don’t understand. Richard hates riddles, always has. He considers them an insult to honesty. He won’t brook them. He ignores them as a matter of principle.” The apple snapped as he took a big bite.
“He be Seeker; that be what Seekers do: they solve riddles.”
Zedd held up a bony finger. “Riddles of life, not words. There is a difference.”
Adie set her apple down and leaned forward, putting her hands on the table. A look of concern softened her face. “Zedd, I was trying to help the boy. I want him to succeed. I lost my foot in the pass; he would have lost his life. If the Seeker loses his life, we all lose ours too. I did not mean him harm.”
Zedd put his apple down and dismissed his anger with a wave of his hand. “I know you meant no harm, Adie. I did not mean to suggest you did.” He took Adie’s hands in his. “It will be all right.”
“I be a fool,” she said bitterly. “He told me he disliked riddles, but I never thought more of it. Zedd, seek him through the night stone? See if he has made it through?”
Zedd nodded. He closed his eyes and let his chin sink to his chest as he took three deep breaths. Then he stopped breathing for a long time. From the air about came the low, soft sound of distant wind, wind on an open plain: lonely, baleful, haunting. The sound of the wind left at last, and the wizard began breathing again. His head came up, and his eyes opened.
“He is in the Midlands. He has made it through the pass.”
Adie gave a nod of relief. “I will give you a bone to carry, so that you may go safely through the pass. Will you go after him now?”
The wizard looked down at the table, away from her white eyes. “No,” he said in a quiet voice.