Stone of Tears

“I don’t think I could be one of these war wizards.”

“Do you eat meat?”

“What does that have do do with anything?”

“You are a child of balance. Wizards must balance themselves, the things they do, their power. War wizards rarely eat meat. Their abstinence is a balance for the killing they sometimes must do.”

“I’m sorry, Ann, but I just can’t believe I have Subtractive Magic.”

That’s why you are such a danger. Every time you encounter magic, your Han learns more about how to protect you, to serve you, but you are not aware that it is learning. The Rada’Han helps it grow, though you’re not aware of the process.

“You do things without knowing the importance, or the reason, like when you were drawn to the black sorcerer’s sand and took it, or when you took the round skrin bone from Adie.”

Richard’s brow pulled together. “You know Adie, too?”

“Yes, she helped your father and me get through the pass, so we could retrieve the Book of Counted Shadows.”

“What round bone are you talking about?”

Richard saw the slightest twitch of alarm in her eyes.

“Adie had a round bone, carved all over with beasts. It’s an object of great power. Your Subtractive Magic would have drawn you to it.”

Richard remembered seeing the round bone on a high shelf. “I saw such a thing at her house, but I didn’t take it. I wouldn’t take something that didn’t belong to me. Maybe that means I don’t really have Subtractive Magic.”

She straightened. “No, you noticed it. The fact that you didn’t take it means only that since you did not have the Rada’Han on yet, your power had not developed enough to draw you to the skrin bone, the way it drew you to the black sand.”

Richard hesitated. “Is this some kind of problem?”

She smiled. It looked forced to him. “No. Adie would protect that bone with her life. She knows how important it is. You can recover it in the future.”

“What does it do?”

“It helps protect the veil. When used by a war wizard, like you, with both powers, it invokes the skrin. The skrin are a force that helps keep the worlds separated. You might say they are guardians of the boundary between worlds.”

“What if the wrong person got their hands on it? A person wishing to help the Keeper?”

She pulled on his shirt, urging him up. “You worry too much, Richard. I have work to do. You must leave me to it, now. Do your best, child, and study. Learn to touch your Han, to get control of it. You must learn if you are to be of any help to the Creator.”

Richard turned back to her. She was staring off.

Ann, why does the Keeper want the world of the living? What will it gain him? What is the purpose?”

Her answer came in a soft, distant voice. “death is the antithesis of life. The Keeper exists to consume the living. His hatred of life has no bounds. His hatred is as eternal as his prison of death.”

Chapter 62

Richard was in a world of his own as he headed for the stone bridge. He had been cloistered in his room for days, thinking. When the Sisters came to give him his lessons, he put in only a halfhearted effort. He now feared he just might touch his Han.

Warren was busy day and night in the vaults, checking what Richard had told him and looking for more information. There had to be at least some truth to what the Prelate had told him—why else would the Keeper not yet have used the gateway, if he could.

He needed to go for a walk. He felt as if his head were about to burst. He just wanted to be away from the palace for a while.

Pasha suddenly appeared at his side. “I’ve been looking for you.”

He stared ahead as he walked. “Why?”

“I just wanted to be with you.”

“Well, I’m going for a walk in the country.”

She shrugged. “I wouldn’t mind a walk. May I come along?”

Richard looked over. She was in her wispy maroon dress, the one with the V-shaped neckline. The day was chilly. At least she had on a useful-looking violet cloak. She was wearing big gold loop earrings. Her belt matched her necklace, with the same kind of gold medallions. She looked alluring in the outfit, but they weren’t exactly hiking-in-the-country clothes.

“Are you wearing those useless slippers?”

She held a foot out to show him her tooled leather boots. “I had them made special, just so I could go for walks with you.”

Made special, he grumbled to himself. Richard remembered how hurt she had been that time he had told her that the blue dress didn’t become her. He didn’t want to hurt her feelings by sending her away. She was only trying to please him. Maybe, he thought, the company of a smiling face would do him good.

“Well, all right then. I guess you can come along, as long as you don’t think I’m going to entertain you in conversation.”

She grinned and took his arm. “I’d be happy just to walk with you.”

At least having Pasha on his arm kept most of the women away from him as they passed through the city. The ones who did boldly approach earned a glare from Pasha. The ones who braved the glare earned something else: a touch of her Han. They yelped from the invisible pinch and made themselves scarce.