Zedd came out of his own thoughts and frowned. “What?”
“A beard. Where’s your beard? I’ve been wondering about it ever since I found out you were a wizard. Wizards are supposed to have beards, you know.”
“Who told you this?”
“Well… I don’t know. Everybody knows it. Wizards are supposed to have beards. It’s common knowledge. I’m surprised you don’t know it.”
Zedd made a face as if he had just sucked on a lemon. “But I hate beards. They itch.”
Richard shrugged. “Seems you don’t know as much as you think you do about being a wizard, if you don’t even know wizards are supposed to have beards.”
Zedd folded his arms. “A beard is it?” He unfolded his arms, and began drawing his fingers and thumb down opposite sides of his chin. As he drew his fingers repeatedly, whiskers began appearing. The more he did this, the longer the whiskers grew. Richard watched, wide-eyed, until a snow white beard reached to the middle of Zedd’s chest.
Zedd cocked his head and gave Richard an intent look. “Will this do, my boy?”
Richard realized his mouth was open. He made it shut, but could only nod.
Zedd scratched his chin and neck. “Good. Now give me your knife, so I can shave this thing off. It itches like ants.”
“My knife? What do you need my knife for? Why don’t you just make it disappear like you made it appear?”
Kahlan gave a little laugh, then made her face straight when he glanced at her.
“It doesn’t work that way. Everyone knows it doesn’t work that way,” Zedd mocked. He turned to Kahlan. “Doesn’t everyone know? You tell him.”
“Magic can only do things that use what is there. It cannot undo things that have happened.”
“I don’t understand.”
Zedd peered at him intently. “Your first lesson, should you ever decide to become a wizard. The three of us all have magic. It is all Additive Magic. Additive Magic uses what is there, and adds to it, or uses it somehow. The magic Kahlan has uses the spark of love in a person, no matter how small, and adds to it until it’s changed into something else. The magic of the Sword of Truth uses your anger, and adds to it, takes power from it, until it becomes something else.
“I do the same thing. I can use whatever I need in nature to change things. I can change a bug to a flower, I can change a fear to a monster, I can make a broken bone knit, I can take heat from the air around us and add to it, multiply it, into wizard’s fire. I can make my beard grow. But, I can’t make it ungrow.” A rock big as his fist started rising into the air. “I can lift something. I can change it.” The rock crushed to dust.
“Then, you can do anything,” Richard whispered.
“No. I can lift or crush or move the rock, but I can’t make it vanish. Where would it go? That’s called Subtractive Magic: the undoing of things. My magic, Kahlan’s magic, the sword’s magic, is from this world. All magic from this world is Additive Magic. Darken Rahl can do any of it I can.” Zedd’s expression turned dark. “Subtractive Magic is from the underworld. Darken Rahl knows how to use that too. I don’t.”
“Is it as powerful as Additive Magic?”
“Subtractive Magic is the counter to Additive. As night is to day. Yet it is all part of the same thing. The Magic of Orden is the magic of both. Additive and Subtractive. It can add to the world, and it can take the world to nothing. To open the boxes, you must be a master of both magics. People never worried about it ever happening, because no one was ever able to tap Subtractive Magic. But Darken Rahl commands it as easily as I command the Additive.”
“And how do you suppose that came to be?” Richard asked with a frown.
“I have no idea. But it troubles me greatly.”
Richard drew a deep breath. “Well, I still think you are getting worked up over nothing. All I did was a little trick.”
Zedd gave him a serious glare. “If done on a normal person, it would have been as you say. But I’m a wizard. I know how the Wizard’s Rules work. You would not have been able to do this to me, except with magic of your own. I have taught many to be wizards. I have had to teach them to do what you have done. They could not do it without learning it first. Once in a great while, one is born with the gift. I was one such as this. Richard, you have the gift too. Sooner or later you will have to learn to control it.” He put out his hand. “Now, give me the knife so I can rid myself of this ridiculous beard.”
Richard put the knife handle in Zedd’s hand. “The blade is dull. I’ve been digging roots with it. It’s too dull to shave with.”
“Really?” Zedd pinched the edge of the blade between his thumb and forefinger, drawing them along the length of the knife. He turned the knife around and held it delicately between his thumb and two fingers. Richard grimaced at him shaving dry. With a light stroke, a swath of beard fell away.
“You just used Subtractive Magic! You made some of the edge go away to sharpen it.”
Zedd arched an eyebrow. “No, I used what was already there, and re-formed the edge, making it sharp again.”
Richard shook his head and went about gathering up their things while Zedd shaved off the beard. Kahlan helped put things away.
“You know, Zedd,” Richard said as he picked up the bowls, “I think you’re getting too obstinate in your ways. I think when this is over, you need someone. Someone to take care of you, help keep your perspectives straight. Put the light of day to your imagination. I think you need a wife.”
“A wife?”
“Sure. I think that’s what you need. Maybe you should go back and take another look at Adie.”
“Adie?”
“Yes, Adie,” Richard scolded. “You remember Adie. The woman with one foot.”
“Oh, I remember Adie quite well.” He gave Richard his most innocent look. “But Adie has two good feet, not one.”
Richard and Kahlan both came to their feet in a rush. “What?”
“Yes,” Zedd smiled, turning away. “Seems it grew back.” He bent, pulling an apple from Richard’s pack. “Quite unexpectedly.”
Richard took Zedd’s sleeve and turned him around. “Zedd, you…”
The wizard smiled. “Are you thoroughly sure you wouldn’t like to be a wizard?” He took a bite of the apple, pleased at seeing the astonishment on Richard’s face. Zedd handed him the knife, the blade as sharp as he had ever seen it.
Richard shook his head and turned to his work. “I just want to go home and be a guide. Nothing more.” He thought awhile, then asked, “Zedd, all the time I grew up with you, you were a wizard and I never knew. You didn’t use the magic. How could you stand not to? Why didn’t you?”
“Ah, well, there are dangers to using the magic. Also, pain.”
“Dangers? Like what?”
Zedd regarded him for a moment. “You have used magic, with the sword. You tell me.”
“But that’s the sword, that’s different. What dangers are there for a wizard in using the magic? And what pain?”
Zedd gave a small, sly smile. “Only just finished with the first lesson, and already he is eager for the second.”
Richard straightened. “Never mind.” He hoisted the pack onto his back. “All I want to be is a woods guide.”
Apple in hand, Zedd started toward the trail. “So you have told me.” He took a big bite. “Now, I want you two to tell me everything that has happened since I was knocked unconscious. Don’t leave out a thing, no matter how trivial.”
Richard and Kahlan exchanged a crimson look. “I won’t tell if you don’t,” he whispered.
She held him back with a hand on his arm. “I swear, not a word about what happened in the spirit house.”
By the look in her eyes, he knew she meant to keep her word.
For the rest of the day as they trudged along the trails, keepi
ng off the main roads, the two of them told Zedd the stories of everything that had happened since they were attacked that day at the boundary. Zedd made them go back to previous events at the oddest places in a story. Working off each other’s words, Richard and Kahlan managed to weave the story of the Mud People without mention of anything that happened between them in the spirit house.
As they drew nearer to Tamarang, they crisscrossed roads, and began to see refugees carrying their belongings on their backs, or on small carts. Richard saw to it that they didn’t stay long in the sight of people, and placed himself between them and Kahlan whenever he could. He didn’t want anyone recognizing the Mother Confessor. He was relieved each time they were back in the woods. The forest was where he was most comfortable, even though it had proven its dangers to them.
Late in the day, they had to take to the main road in order to cross the Callisidrin River. It was too big and swift to risk fording, so they took the big wooden bridge. Zedd and Richard kept Kahlan protectively between them as they walked among the people crossing the bridge. Kahlan kept the hood of her cloak up so people wouldn’t see her long hair. Most of the people were headed for Tamarang, seeking shelter and safety from the marauding forces, supposedly sweeping in from Westland. Kahlan said that they would reach Tamarang by the middle of the next day. From now on they would have to travel most of the time on the road. Richard knew that they would have to move far from the road at night to be clear of any people. He began watching the sun so as to leave them time to move deep enough into the forest before it became too dark.
“Does that feel good?”
Rachel pretended Sara answered that it did, and tucked a little more grass around her doll to be doubly sure she was warm enough. She nestled the loaf of bread with the cloth tied around it next to Sara.
“You’ll be warm for now. I have to go get some wood before it’s too dark, and then we’ll have a fire. Then we can both be warm.”
She left Sara with the bread in the wayward pine and went outside. The sun was down, but it was still light enough to see. The clouds were a pretty pink. She looked at them once in a while as she picked up sticks, holding them against her body with the other arm. She checked her pocket to be sure the fire stick was still there. She had almost forgotten it last night, and was scared now, unless she checked to make sure she hadn’t forgotten it again.