Richard thanked her as he took the bowl. He was starving.
He held out a hand. “Sit with us, Irena. We’d like to know more about you and your home of Stroyza. We wonder what you can tell us about the north wall, as your village called it.”
Her face, an older version of Samantha’s, brightened at the invitation. As she was sitting, soldiers brought bowls of stew for everyone else. Kahlan smiled up at the soldier who handed her a bowl. Nicci took one but set it down on the ground beside her. Zedd started eating as soon as he had a bowl in his hands.
Richard was famished, so he had to take a bite, first.
“Mmm. Commander Fister, you make a great stew.”
He smiled, happy that the Lord Rahl liked it.
“That’s what I told him,” Irena said. “I told him you would like it.”
Now that the soldiers had brought over more, she and Samantha each had a bowl as well. Their likeness was uncanny. Sitting there beside each other on a small blanket, both skinny, both with the same thick thatch of frizzy black hair, dark eyes, and narrow faces, they looked like an older and younger version of the same person.
The immature femininity of Samantha’s smooth features gave her a sweet look. Those same features had hardened on Irena’s face into a calculating countenance. Richard could see that behind Irena’s smile and dark eyes was a woman who had led a hard life. Where Samantha still possessed the treasure of youthful optimism, Irena had traded that optimism for pragmatism, and it looked like it had been an eager trade.
After swallowing another bite, Richard gestured with his spoon toward Irena. “Tell me about Stroyza. I’d like to hear what you know about the third kingdom and the evil hidden behind that barrier. Tell me what you know of it.”
Irena shrugged. “We were given an ancient duty, passed down from one generation to the next, to watch over that barrier. Samantha told me that she showed you the viewing port, where we watched the north wall, as we called it. Our duty was to check that the gates still held.”
When she fell silent and went back to eating stew, Richard asked something more specific. “Have there always been gifted living at Stroyza?”
“Yes,” she said after swallowing a mouthful. “My husband had an older sister, Clarice. She was the sorceress who led the rest of us gifted in Stroyza, and the rest of the village, for that matter. She had been the matriarch for, my, I can’t even remember how many years. Since well before Samantha was born. She was a hard woman, with an iron will, but fair.”
“And I take it she passed away?” Zedd asked.
“Yes, a little over a year and a half ago. The men who found her dead in the woods said that she was just sitting there, leaned up against a tree, looking like she had taken a nap and in the middle of it never woke back up.”
“Then my mother took her place,” Samantha said with obvious pride.
“So, there were no other gifted in Stroyza?” Zedd asked.
“Yes, I have—had—two sisters, both gifted, as were their husbands, although to a lesser extent. I never actually took Clarice’s place, though. Stroyza is a small village. It wasn’t like it needed a queen to rule over it.”
“So this Clarice thought of herself as the queen of the people of Stroyza?” Zedd asked.
Irena shrugged one shoulder. “At times. After her death, the six of us discussed matters when there was need. We didn’t include Samantha in those discussions because she is still too young.” She thought better of it and smiled over at her daughter. “Well, she was too young. No longer, it seems. She is growing into a fine sorceress.”
Zedd reached out, patted Samantha’s knee, and gave her a wink. “Yes she is.” Samantha beamed.
“So the six of you discussed things, like when you started hearing rumors about the Hedge Maid?” Richard asked, having heard all this before, when Samantha had originally told him. He wanted to hear Irena’s version, though.
“That’s right. Millicent’s husband felt he had a gift of prophecy, and he had long warned of wicked forces loose in the Dark Lands. He considered the rumors to be proof of his ability, but I thought otherwise.”
“What do you mean, you thought otherwise?” Zedd asked, looking up from shoveling stew into his mouth.
Irena again shrugged the one shoulder. “The Dark Lands are a vast and dangerous place. In such a place there are always dark forces at work, always evil about. To state the obvious, that they will cause trouble, hardly seems prophecy to me.”
“And you believe that’s because the evil behind the barrier has long been leaking out,” Richard said.
She blinked at him. “That’s right. How did you know that?”