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moment, and then held up a cautionary finger. “In confidence, I am going to tell you about Zeddicus Zu’l Zorander. If you ever repeat this story, I will never forgive you for betraying my confidence.”
    “I won’t, but I don’t see—”
    “Just listen.”
    After Abby remained silent the Mother Confessor began. “Zedd married Erilyn. She was a wonderful woman. We all loved her very much, but not as much as did he. They had a daughter.”
    Abby’s curiosity got the best of her. “How old is she?”
    “About the age of your daughter,” Delora said.
    Abby swallowed. “I see.”
    “When Zedd became First Wizard, things were grim. Panis Rahl had conjured the shadow people.”
    “I’m from Coney Crossing. I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
    “Well, the war had been bad enough, but then Panis Rahl taught his wizards to conjure shadow people.” The Mother Confessor sighed at the anguish of retelling the story. “They are so called because they are like shadows in the air. They have no precise shape or form. They are not living, but created out of magic. Weapons have no more effect on them than they would have on smoke.
    “You can’t hide from the shadow people. They drift toward you across fields, or through the woods. They find you.
    “When they touch someone, the person’s whole body blisters and swells until their flesh splits open. They die in screaming agony. Not even the gift can heal one touched by a shadow person.
    “As the enemy attacked, their wizards would send the shadow people out ahead. In the beginning whole battalions of our brave young soldiers were found killed to a man. We saw no hope. It was our darkest hour.”
    “And Wizard Zorander was able to stop them?” Abby asked.
    The Mother Confessor nodded. “He studied the problem and then conjured battle horns. Their magic swept the shadow people away like smoke in the wind. The magic coming from the horns also traced its way back through the spell, to seek out the one who cast it, and kill them. The horns aren’t foolproof, though, and Zedd must constantly alter their magic to keep up with the way the enemy changes their conjuring.
    “Panis Rahl summoned other magic, too: fevers and sickness, wasting illnesses, fogs that caused blindness—all sorts of horrors. Zedd worked day and night, and managed to counter them all. While Panis Rahl’s magic was being checked, our troops were once again able to fight on even terms. Because of Wizard Zorander, the tide of battle turned.”
    “Well, that much of it is good, but—”
    The Mother Confessor again lifted her finger, commanding silence. Abby held her tongue as the woman lowered her hand and went on.
    “Panis Rahl was enraged at what Zedd had done. He tried and failed to kill him, so he instead sent a quad to kill Erilyn.”
    “A quad? What’s a quad?”
    “A quad,” the sorceress answered, “is a unit of four special assassins sent with the protection of a spell from the one who sent them: Panis Rahl. It is their assignment not only to kill the victim, but to make it unimaginably torturous and brutal.”
    Abby swallowed. “And did they … murder his wife?”
    The Mother Confessor leaned closer. “Worse. They left her, her legs and arms all broken, to be found still alive.”
    “Alive?” Abby whispered. “Why would they leave her alive, if it was their mission to kill her?”
    “So that Zedd would find her all broken and bleeding and in inconceivable agony. She was able only to whisper his name in love.” The Mother Confessor leaned even closer. Abby could feel the breath of the woman’s whispered words against her own face. “When he used his gift to try to heal her, it activated the worm spell.”
    Abby had to force herself to blink. “Worm spell … ?”
    “No wizard would have been able to detect it.” The Mother Confessor clawed her fingers and, in front of Abby’s stomach, spread her hands outward, in a tearing gesture. “The spell ripped her insides apart.