Terry Goodkind - Wizard's First Rule

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 with sharp eyes. “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, keeping 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.