But this was different. This was well beyond what Nicci had done with the beast. This, in a way, was the opposite of what she had done.

"Zedd, I don't understand how such a thing is possible. It's like throwing a rock; once thrown, the trajectory is set. The rock would follow that trajectory to a termination point."

"She hit you on the head with your own rock before you'd even thrown it," Cara said.

Zedd fixed her in a murderous scowl, as if she were an impetuous student who had just spoken out of turn. Cara's mouth took on an obstinate twist, but she kept it closed.

Nicci ignored the interruption as she went on. "She would have needed to act on specific power as it was engendered-before it was even fully formed-as it began to ignite. That's when the foundational node is formed as well. At that point the full nature and power of the spell wouldn't even have come into being, yet."

Zedd gave Cara a sidelong glance to make sure she intended to keep quiet. When she folded her arms and remained mute, Zedd turned back to Nicci.

"That's precisely what she does," he said.

Having never actually encountered a witch woman before, the explicit mechanisms they used were a mystery to Nicci. "How?"

"A witch woman rides eddies of time. She sees the flow of events into the future. Their ability is in many ways an ancillary form of prophecy. That means she is ready for the spell before you cast it. She knows what is coming. Her own ability, her own gift, allows her to act against you before you can complete what you are doing to her.

"It all comes naturally to them-like lifting an arm when someone throws a punch at you. Her block is there as your web forms-as you begin to throw your punch. She is denying you a foundational link so that your web can't even begin to form. As I said, she has the ability to turn it back before that link between principal and object is established. Your power falls inward on itself-on you.

"It doesn't take great power on her part. Her strength is your strength. The harder you try to do something, the more difficult it becomes. She doesn't increase her effort, she merely denies yours a completing node. The harder you push, the more force it feeds back at you from her block.

"A witch woman uses you. That force, your force, folds back in on you, over and over, as you try all the harder. Much the way bending a piece of metal back and forth makes it hot, your own force bent back in on you, over and over as you tried to conjure your ability to overpower her, sent your body into a fever."

"Zedd, that can't be. You used magic. I saw you, I saw the web you cast and it didn't harm you. It merely fizzled out."

The old wizard smiled. "No, it did not fizzle out. It was a fizzle from the beginning. I was using so little power that she couldn't draw strength from it. Since she couldn't draw strength from it, she couldn't block it or bend it back. There wasn't enough for her to grab hold of."

"What kind of spell can do such a thing?"

"I cast a protection web laced inside a simple tranquillity spell. You should have done the same."

Nicci wiped a hand across her face. "Zedd, I've been a sorceress for a very long time. I've never even heard of a tranquillity spell."

He shrugged. "Well, I guess you don't know everything, now, do you? I used a tranquillity spell for the shell because if I misjudged and made it just a little too strong, and she cast it back at me, well, she would simply be making me more tranquil. Being even more calm would have helped me. I would then know the threshold had been surpassed, and I would be more calm to try again and have a better chance at success the second time."

Nicci shook her head in amazement. "It's for sure that I didn't know enough to deal with the likes of Six. What you did may not have been able to reach me, but at least it was enough to keep her from killing me."

Zedd only smiled.

She looked up at him. "Where did you learn such a trick?"

He shrugged. "Harsh experience. I've dealt with witch women before, so I knew that there was only one thing I could do."

"You mean Shota?"

"In part," he said. "When I took the Sword of Truth back from her I had a great deal of trouble. That woman is cunning, clever, and trouble behind sparkling eyes and a crafty smile. I found out that doing things the usual way simply didn't work. She found my struggles amusing. The more force I used, the worse I made things for myself, and the wider she smiled."

He smiled himself as he leaned in a little. "That was her mistake- smiling." He lifted a finger to make his point. "Her smile tipped me off that what I was doing was my own undoing. I realized in that instant that my use of force was what was giving her the power she needed."

"So you didn't use force."

He spread his hands as if she had finally grasped the lesson. "Sometimes doing what you would most like to do can be the very worst thing to do. Sometimes to accomplish what you want in the end, you have to hold back in the beginning."

As the concept he'd expressed sank in, yet more of her disordered memories-perplexing pieces of some grand puzzle that had never before fit anywhere-having been freed from where they languished in the dark corners of her mind, tumbled into place. It was as if she was seeing everything in a new light.

The sudden realizations were jolting.

Nicci's jaw fell open. Her eyes went wide.

"I understand, now. I know what it meant. Dear spirits, I understand. I know the purpose of the sterile field."

"Sterile field?" Zedd's bushy white brow drew down. "What are you talking about?"

Nicci pressed her fingertips to her forehead as she reasoned it all out. She could hardly believe she hadn't realized it sooner. She looked up at the wizard.

"There is a complex order of events required for the power of Orden to work. Like you said, connections based on primary foundations must be established-just as in any magic. It was, after all, created by wizards and they would have had to have based anything they did on what they knew about the nature of the things they were manipulating.

"For the most part, at its core, Orden is a complex constructed spell. Like any constructed spell, in the right conditions it is triggered by a specific set of events. It then runs according to its predetermined protocols. Yet, no matter how complex it is, once begun it still functions according to basic principles."

"And the sun rises in the east," Zedd growled. "What are you getting at?"

"It all correlates," she said to herself as she stared off at nothing for a moment.

She abruptly turned her attention back to the wizard. "The Book of Life explains how to put the power of Orden in play. It lays out the protocols. It's basically an operating manual; it doesn't explain the theory behind Orden-that's not its purpose. To understand the whole thing you have to look elsewhere.

"While that power, like all forms of power, can be misappropriated and looted for the objective of dominion, it was created and intended for a specific purpose: to counter the Chainfire spell. Central elements of Orden are a constructed spell so, once ignited, it runs through established routines. Those routines in turn require specific conditions-such as properly using the key, The Book of Counted Shadows."

Her mind was still racing through all the new connections as she fit together pieces from different sources that she had never before connected.

"Yes, yes," Zedd said as he rolled his hand impatiently. "The boxes of Orden were created specifically to counter the Chainfire spell. We already know that. What's more, it is self-evident that certain conditions must be met and that then the power will function in a given manner. That's all stone-cold obvious."