Stone of Tears

She wiped her fingers over her eyes as she considered. “Well, I think I can retrieve the object before tonight, so we could try tonight. But where? It can’t be in the palace. It would be too dangerous.”

The Hagen Woods,” Richard said. “Everyone avoids the Hagen Woods.”

Liliana looked up. “Richard, you can’t be serious. It’s dangerous there.”

“Not for me. I already told you how I can tell if the mriswith are coming. We’ll be safe enough, and we won’t have to worry about any Sisters, or Pasha, stumbling by while we’re trying to get this cursed thing off my neck.”

She let out a frustrated breath. At last she laid a hand on his shoulder and, giving it a squeeze, smiled. “All right. The Hagen Woods, then.”

With a stern look, she gripped his shoulder and held him out at arm’s length. “I’m violating a whole stack of rules by doing this. I know it’s important, and the right thing to do, but if they catch us before we can do it, they will make sure I never get near enough to you to ever again try.”

“I’m ready now, let’s go.”

“No. I must try to retrieve the aid first.” She cocked her head to the side as she frowned. “And I just thought of something else. They keep telling you not to let the sun set on you there. Why?”

Richard shrugged. “Because it’s dangerous.”

“And after everything you’ve learned, you believe them? You trust them? Richard, what if they don’t want you to let the sun set on you there because you might learn something useful? You said the Hagen Woods were placed there by the wizards of old who had Subtractive Magic, in order to help those like you. What if the Sisters don’t want you to have that help? What if they are just trying to make you afraid, so you won’t discover it?”

Wizard’s First Rule. Were they deceiving him? Was he believing a lie? “You may be right. We’ll go before sunset.”

“No. We don’t want to be seen together. And it will take me some time to steal the aid. Do you know where the long, split rock sits in the stream to southwest corner of the Hagen Woods?”

“I know the place.”

“Good. You get there before the sun sets; you are the one the magic is for. Go in the woods by the split rock. Tie strips of cloth to branches so I can follow where you went, and find you. I’ll meet you there, in the woods, when the moon is two hands in the sky. And Richard, don’t you dare tell anyone about this, or you will be risking not only my life and yours, but Kahlan’s too.”

Richard nodded with a smile of thanks. “On my word. Tonight, then.”

He paced his room after she left. He was anxious to get this over with, and be off. He was running out of time. If Darken Rahl had the skrin bone, they were already out of time. But that was just foolish. How would he get it? He was a spirit. Maybe it was as Warren said, that the elements were rarely all in place.

It was Kahlan he was worried about. He had to help her.

A knock brought him out of his thoughts. He thought it might be Liliana come back, but when he opened the door, a distraught Perry pushed into the room.

“Richard! I need your help.” He pulled out a fistful of robes. “Look at this! They promoted me!”

Richard glanced down the length of the simple, brown robes. “Congratulations. That’s great, Perry.”

“It’s a disaster! Richard, I need your help!”

Richard frowned. “Why is it a disaster?”

Perry threw his arms in the air, as if it should be obvious to anyone. “Because I can’t go into the city! I’m restricted in these robes! I’m not allowed to go over the bridge!”

“Well, I’m sorry, Perry, but I don’t see how I can help you.”

Perry took a deep breath to calm himself. He looked up pleadingly. “There’s a woman in the city… I’ve been seeing her steady of late. Richard, I really like her. I’m supposed to meet her tonight. If I don’t show up, so I can explain, if I never show up again, she’ll think I don’t care about her.”

“Perry, I still don’t see what I can do about it.”

Perry grabbed him by his shirt. “They took all my clothes. Richard, you could lend me some of yours. Then no one would recognize me, and I could sneak into the city, and see her. Please, Richard, lend me some of your clothes?”

Richard thought a moment. He didn’t care if he was violating some obscure rule of the palace, it seemed insignificant compared to what he was doing, but he still worried for Perry.

“The guards all know me. They will see it’s you in my clothes and tell the Sisters. Then you’ll be in for trouble.”

Perry glanced away, frantically thinking. “Night. I’ll wait until night, and then I’ll go. They won’t see so clearly who it really is at night. Please, Richard? Please?”

Richard sighed. “It’s fine by me, Perry, if you want to risk it. Just don’t get yourself caught. I’d hate to know I helped get you in trouble.” He gestured to the bedroom, where the wardrobe was. “Come on. Take whatever you like. You aren’t quite my size, but I guess you’re close enough.”

Perry added a grin to his sidelong look. “The red coat? I can have the red coat? She’d like me in that.”