Wizard's First Rule - Terry Goodkind [200]
Rachel scrunched her eyes closed and shook as the wizard began sinking, lowering himself to the floor.
“Child,” he said in a soft voice. Rachel cautiously opened one eye, surprised to find he was sitting on the floor, his face even with hers. “I am not going to hurt you.”
She opened the other eye, just as cautiously. “You’re not?” She didn’t believe him. She saw with a start that the big heavy door was closed, her only escape route blocked.
“No,” he smiled, shaking his bald head. “Who took the box down?”
“We were playing. That’s all, just playing. I was putting it back for the Princess. She’s very good to me, so very good, I wanted to help her. She’s a wonderful person, I love her, she’s so kind to me…”
He put a long finger over her lips, to gently silence her. “I get the point, child. So, you are the Princess’s playmate then?”
She nodded in earnest. “Rachel.”
His grin got bigger. “That’s a pretty name. Glad to meet you, Rachel. I’m sorry I frightened you. I was only coming to check on the Queen’s box.”
No one had ever told her that her name was pretty. But he had shut the big door. “You’re not going to strike me dead? Or change me into something horrid?”
“Oh, dear, no,” he laughed. He turned his head, peering at her with one eye. “Why are there red marks on your cheeks?”
She didn’t answer, too scared to say. Slowly, carefully, he reached out, his fingers touching one cheek, then the other. Her eyes opened wide. The sting was gone.
“Better?”
She nodded. His eyes seemed so big, the way they looked at her up close like this. They made her feel like telling him, so she did. “The Princess hits me,” she admitted, ashamed.
“So? She is not so kind to you, then?”
She shook her head, casting her gaze downward. Then the wizard did something that absolutely stunned her. He reached around and gave her a gentle hug. She stood stiffly for a moment, then put her arms around his neck, hugging him back. His long white whiskers tickled the side of her face and neck, but she still liked it.
He looked at her with sad eyes. “I’m sorry, dear child. The Princess and the Queen can be quite cruel.”
His voice sounded so nice, she thought, like Brophy’s. A big grin spread beneath his hook nose.
“Tell you what, I have something here that might help.” A thin hand reached into his robes, and he looked up into the air while his hand felt around. Then his hand found what it was looking for. Her eyes went wide as he pulled out a doll with short hair the same yellow color as hers. He patted the doll’s tummy. “This is a trouble doll.”
“Trouble doll?” she whispered.
“Yes.” He nodded. There were deep wrinkles at the ends of his smile. “When you have troubles, you tell them to the doll, and she takes them away for you. She has magic. Here. Try it out.”
Rachel could hardly take a breath as she reached out with both hands, her fingers carefully clutching the doll. She pulled it to her chest cautiously and hugged it. Then, tentatively, slowly, she held it out, looking at its face. Her eyes got all watery.
“Princess Violet says I’m ugly,” she confided in the doll.
The face on the doll smiled. Rachel’s mouth dropped open.
“I love you, Rachel,” it said in a tiny little voice.
Rachel gasped in surprise, she giggled in glee, she hugged the doll to her as tight as she could. She laughed and laughed, swinging her body back and forth as she hugged the doll to her chest.
Then, she remembered. She pushed the doll back at the wizard, turning her face away.
“I’m not allowed to have a doll. The Princess said so. She would throw it in the fire, that’s what she said. If I had a doll, she would throw it in the fire.” She could hardly speak, because of the lump in her throat.
“Well, let me think,” the wizard said, rubbing his chin. “Where do you sleep?”
“Most of the time, I sleep in the Princess