The men pulled him up straight, not allowing him pause to recover.
Being pulled up straight brought a gasp of agony. His teeth were clenched, his eyes were watering, and his knees wanted to buckle, but the men held him upright.
Her smile was getting annoying. "You see, Wizard Zorander? Being clever isn't necessary at all."
Zedd saw her point but didn't say so.
He was already preparing to unlock the cursed collar from his neck.
He'd been «captured» before-by the Prelate herself-and had had a Rada'Han put around his neck, like some boy born with the gift who needed training.
The Sisters of the Light put such a collar around those boys so that the gift wouldn't harm them before they could learn to control their gift.
Richard had been captured and put in such a Rada'Han right after his gift came to life in him.
The collar was also used to control the young wizard wearing it, to give pain, when the Sisters thought it necessary. Zedd understood the Prelate's reasons for wanting Richard's help, since they knew he had been born with both sides of the gift, and, too, they worried about the dark forces that pursued him, but he could never forgive her for putting Richard in a collar. A wizard needed to be trained by a wizard, not some misguided gaggle like the Sisters of the Light.
The Prelate, though, had harbored no delusion of actually training Richard to be a wizard. She had collared him in order to smoke out the traitors among her flock: the Sisters of the Dark.
Unlike Richard, though, Zedd knew how to get such a disgusting contrivance off his neck. In fact, he had done it before, when the Prelate had thought to collar him and thus force his cooperation.
Zedd used a thread of power to probe at the lock, not overtly, so as this woman might notice it, but just enough to find the twist in the spell where he would be able to focus his ability to snap the conjured lock.
When the time was right, when he had his feet solidly under him, when his head stopped spinning long enough, he would break the collar's hold. In that same instant, before she knew what had happened, he would release wizard's fire and incinerate this woman.
She hooked a finger under the collar again and gave it another tug.
"The thing is, my dear wizard, I would expect that a man of your renowned talent might know how to get such a device off."
"Really? I'm renowned?" Zedd flashed her a grin. "That's very gratifying."
Her utter contempt brought her a smile of pure disdain. With her finger through the collar she pulled him close to her twisted expression. She ignored his words and went on.
"Since His Excellency would be extremely displeased should you get the collar off, I've taken measures to insure that such a thing would not happen. I used Subtractive Magic to weld it on."
Now, that was a problem.
She nodded to the men. Zedd glanced to them at each side and noticed for the first time that their eyes were wet. It shocked him to realize they were weeping.
Weeping or not, they followed her orders, unceremoniously lifting him and heaving him in the back of a wagon as if he were firewood.
Zedd landed beside someone else.
"Glad to see you be alive, old man," a soft voice rasped.It was Adie.
The side of her face was swollen and bleeding. It looked like they'd clubbed her nearly to death. Her wrists were tied behind her back as well. He saw, too, tears on her cheeks.
It broke his heart to see her hurt. "Adie, what did they do to you?"
She smiled. "Not as much as they intend to, I fear."
In the dim light of a lantern, Zedd could see that she, too, wore one of the awful collars.
"Your stew was excellent," he said.
Adie groaned. "Please, old man, do not mention food to me right now."
Zedd cautiously turned his head and saw more men waiting in the darkness off to the side. They had been behind him, so he hadn't noticed them before. His gift had not told him they were there.
"I think we're in a great deal of trouble," he whispered to no one in particular.
"Really?" Adie rasped. "What be your first clue?"
Zedd knew she was only trying to make him smile, but he could not even manage a small one.
"I be sorry, Zedd."
He nodded, as best he could lying on his side with his wrists bound behind his back. "I thought I was so clever, laying every kind of trap I could think of. Unfortunately, such traps didn't work for those who are not affected by magic."
"You could not know of such a thing," Adie said in a comforting tone.
His mood sank into bitter regret. "I should have taken it into account after we encountered that one down at the Confessors' Palace, in the spring.
I should have realized the danger." He stared off into the darkness. "I served our cause no better than a fool."
"But where did all of them come from?" She looked on the verge of losing herself to panic. "I have never encountered a single such person in my entire life, and now there be a whole gang of them standing there."
