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  　As Zedd helped her right the chairs and table, and pick up the pots and tin plates strewn about the floor, he began telling her of the things that had happened since he had been with her last. He started with the harrowing tale of going through the pass, protected, somewhat, by the bone she had given him to hide him from the beasts. He still had the bone on a thin leather thong around his neck, seeing no need to be rid of it after he had gotten safely through.

  　She listened without comment as he wove the tale, and when he told of Richard’s capture by the Mord-Sith, she didn’t turn to show her face, but he saw the muscles in her shoulders tense for the briefest of moments. With no 【创建和谐家园】all amount of emphasis to make his point, he related how Darken Rahl had taken the night stone from Richard, the night stone she had given him to see him safely through the pass.

  　He scowled at her back as she picked a plate off the floor. ‘I was nearly killed by that stone. Darken Rahl used it to trap me in the underworld. I escaped by the thinnest of hairs. You almost got me killed, giving that thing to Richard.’

  　‘Do not be a thickheaded fool,’ she scoffed. ‘You be 【创建和谐家园】art enough to save yourself. Had I not given the night stone to Richard, he would have died in the pass, and then Darken Rahl would have won, and right now would no doubt be torturing you. You would soon be dead. By giving the stone to Richard, I saved your life.’

  　He shook a leg bone of some sort at the glance she cast over her shoulder. That thing was dangerous. You shouldn’t go handing out dangerous things as if they were a stick of candy. Not without warning people, anyway.’ He had a right to be indignant. He had been the one sucked into the underworld by that wretched stone. The woman could at least pretend to be contrite.

  　Zedd went on with the story of how Richard had escaped, although he had a web around him hiding his identity, and how the quads had attacked Chase, Kahlan, and himself. He had to make an effort to control his voice at the telling of what had almost happened to Kahlan, and how she had called forth the Con Dar and killed their attackers. He finished with how Richard had tricked Darken Rahl into opening the wrong box. He told her how the Magic of Orden had taken Darken Rahl for his mistake. Zedd 【创建和谐家园】iled to himself as he reached the end of his story, telling her that Richard had somehow gotten past Kahlan’s power, that they were free to love each other - he wasn’t about to tell her how, that was not for anyone to know - and they were happily together now.

  　He was pleased that he had managed to tell the story without having to delve too deeply into some of the more painful events. He didn’t want to have to revisit some of those hurts. She didn’t ask any questions, but came and put a hand on his shoulder, saying that she was relieved all of them had survived, and won.

  　Zedd was silent after the telling, at least as much as he wanted to tell, of the tale. He set to stacking the pile of loose bones into the corner where she said they belonged. By the way they were scattered about, the gripper must have sought refuge in them. A sorry mistake.

  　That people called Adie the bone woman was 【创建和谐家园】all wonder; the house had little else in it. Her life seemed devoted to bones. A sorceress dedicated to bones was a troubling concept. He saw little evidence of potions, powders, or the usual type of charms, any of the typical things he knew to expect from a woman of her talents. He knew what she was probing into, just not why.

  　Sorceresses usually confined their concerns to things living. She was a searcher into things dark and dangerous. Things dead. Unfortunately, that was what he was doing, too. If you wanted to know about fire, you had to study it, he guessed. Of course, it was a good way to get burned. He knew he didn’t like the 【创建和谐家园】ogy the moment it popped into his head.

  　He looked up from the bone pile as he placed the last of them. ‘If you don’t want grippers in your house, Adie, you should keep your door closed.’

  　His perfectly apt, scolding frown was wasted, as she didn’t turn from her task of stacking the firewood back in its bin at the side of the hearth. The door be closed. And bolted,’ she said in her dry rasp, in a tone seemingly meant to wither his unseen scowl. This be the third time.’

  　Picking up a bone that had been hiding behind a stick of firewood, she straightened and carried it to him. ‘Before, the grippers never came near my house.’ Her voice lowered as if in a threat to unseen ears. ‘I saw to that.’ She handed over the thick, white rib bone, peering down at him as he squatted on the floor next to the bone pile. ‘Now, since winter, they come near. The bones no longer seem to keep them away. The reason be a mystery to me.’

  　Adie had lived in this pass a long time. No one knew as well as she its dangers, its quirks, its vagaries. None knew better than she what it took to be safe here, to live on the cusp between the world of the living and the world of the dead, at the edge of the underworld. Of course, the boundary was gone now. It should be safe here now.

  　He wondered what else was going on that she wasn’t telling him; sorceresses never told all they knew. What was she doing still living here with strange, and dangerous, things happening? Stubborn women, sorceresses, the lot of them.

  　Adie limped slightly as she walked across the room lit only by the fire. ‘Light the lamp?’

  　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 in the large hearth made of 【创建和谐家园】ooth 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 had been made into ceremonial objects, some had been made into necklaces, decorated with feathers and beads, and some had been inscribed with ancient symbols. Some had spells drawn on the wall around them. It was the oddest collection he had ever 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 stick-like fingers of the other holding his 【创建和谐家园】ooth 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 realize 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 mantel, 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 his 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 that 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 that she wanted him to get the bowls. ‘I already knew we won. The first day of winter has come and past. Had Rahl 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. ‘Have 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 【创建和谐家园】oothed 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 knifepoint 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.’