Dragonlord of the Savage Empire se-2

by Jean Lorrah

  “That’s right,” the boy replied, resisting the urge to Read the child. “And you are Julia. Master Lenardo has told me about you.”

  “Torio is going home with us, Julia,” said Lenardo.

  “Get dressed now. We must be well out of the city before dawn.”

  “My horse is stabled near the Academy,” said Torio, “and I must get my sword and some clothes.”

  “Bring two horses,” said Lenardo. “Master Clement won’t set the guard on you. Julia and I rode double from the border, but now we’ve got to ride hard. My friends are under attack.”

  “What?” Julia demanded, wide-eyed. “Why did you let me sleep? Why are you talking? Let’s go.”

  “We mustn’t arouse suspicion.” Lenardo handed the girl a coin. “Go down to the pantry and pack food for three people, and leave this on the shelf for it. Meet me in the innyard. I’ll get the horse. Torio, fast as you can, meet us at-”

  Of the three, only Lenardo was Reading, and so only he reacted to Master Clement’s, //Lenardo!//

  “Torio, Julia! Read,” he instructed aloud.

  //Yes, Master?//

  //Torio is with you. Good. I’d hoped that was where you had gone, son. You must flee at once. At dawn the soldiers of the guard will be there to arrest you, Lenardo.//

  //What?//Torio gasped.

  Lenardo, though, was not surprised.

  //Portia has denounced you as a traitor.//

  //Master, they’ll know you’ve warned me, and you will be arrested,// said Lenardo. //Come with us.//

  //No, Lenardo, I have work here.//

  //Master, there is corruption in the Council of Masters. You’re not safe-// Lenardo began.

  //Son, I am not so foolish as Portia thinks, but as long as she considers me a harmless old man, I can work toward returning the Council of Masters to the body it was meant to be. Since I came here to Tiberium, I have seen many things that sadden me, but I am not alone. Not all the Masters are corrupt, only those in Portia’s special circle.//

  //But if they find out you’ve warned me-//

  //Torio warned you, not I. They’ll believe that easily enough, without Oath of Truth. Now go, all of you. And may the gods protect you.//

  They felt the warmth of the old man’s caring, and then he stopped Reading. There was a moment of bitter silence. Then Torio said, “I can’t go back.”

  Lenardo realized that the boy knew already what he himself had taken until now to absorb, but he deliberately took the words as applying to their immediate situation. “No, so we’ll have to steal horses from two other guests. Come on!”

  “Father,” said Julia, not at all disapprovingly, “you’ve told me it’s wrong to steal.”

  “It is. We’ll just borrow the horses, Julia, and return them if we ever get the opportunity.” She laughed. “You’re thinking like a savage, Father.” “That’s what I am, Daughter, and so are you. And we’ll have to teach Torio to be one, too.”

  By this time they had packed their meager belongings. “Go ahead and Read, both of you,” said Lenardo. “No one will be looking for us till dawn.”

  They crept easily through the sleeping inn, and Julia slipped into the pantry for food while Torio and Lenardo went to the stables. The horse he and Julia had ridden was still tired, and so he chose another that was fresh and eager and two more like it. The stableboy had gone home when the inn closed, and the porter at the innyard gate was deep in drunken slumber, not stirring even when the horses’ hooves clattered on the cobbles.

  A sword hung on the wall near where the porter slept. The blade was rusty; it had obviously not been used for years. But after pondering a moment, Torio tiptoed past the porter and took it down. //Better than nothing, though not much better.// //Take mine,// said Lenardo, //and give me that one. Go on. You’re the better swordsman, just as I’m the better Reader.// //Yes, Master.//

  Just then Lenardo felt something: Portia Reading them. //We’re found out. Off we go.//

  Lenardo ran to the open gates as Julia dashed out of the inn. Torio lifted the girl onto her horse and mounted his own as the porter woke with a snort, saw them, and shouted, “Ho! Stop, thief!”

  The man tried to leap on Lenardo, but he was clumsy and still half drunk. Lenardo shoved him back, running to his own horse as Torio and Julia galloped out. The horse was fresh and nervous and didn’t know Lenardo. It danced away as he tried to mount, and the porter was on him again. He turned and slugged the man, the kind of punch he hadn’t thrown since boyhood fights. With a man’s strength behind it, it sent the porter reeling long enough for Lenardo to swing into the saddle and escape.

  Behind him, the porter shouted, “Thieves! Thieves! Horse thieves!” and began to pound on a bucket hanging on the wall. People woke and ran from their rooms, but Lenardo and his entourage were already out the gate.

  Wakened by the clamor, people looked out of nearby windows, but none ventured into the street as the three Readers rode for the north gate of Tiberium. The city had outgrown its ancient walls centuries ago. Deep and safe within the empire, it did not close its gates at night, nor were they guarded.

  The broad street, however, narrowed at the old gate, and Lenardo Read a troop of guardsmen from a garrison outside the old walls marching to intercept them there. They were guided by a Reader, a young man of Torio’s age named Meleus.

  Torio could Read for himself over that distance, while Julia was Reading with Lenardo. Twenty trained guardsmen against two men and a child.

  Torio grasped his sword, ready to go down fighting as the guards marched through the gate and moved unrelentingly toward them. Julia pulled from her pack a sharp butcher’s knife; the savage child had armed herself on her trip through the kitchen.

  But it was no use. They could not fight twenty guardsmen, nor could they hide from the Reader.

  Lenardo recalled the way he had fooled Galen, but Julia and Torio didn’t know about that. “Julia, Torio,” he said sharply. Pointing straight ahead, he said, “Follow me, and pay no attention to what you Read.”

  “I can’t-” Torio began.

  “Read your surroundings, not me,” Lenardo explained hastily, sensing Meleus trying to Read their discussion. They would soon be within his range to do so. “Not me,” he repeated, and then projected intensely. //Guards ahead. Split up and spread out. We’ve got to lose them.//

  To his relief, the two young Readers, although thoroughly confused, continued to follow him along the broad street. Lenardo projected kicking his horse’s flanks and darting into a side street with Julia at his side, while Torio galloped off in the opposite direction.

  “They’ve Read us,” he Read Meleus reporting to the guards. “Lenardo has turned into Mill Street, Torio into Cobbler’s Lane.”

  Lenardo caught Julia’s delight at this new game, and Torio’s horror. To deliberately confound a fellow Reader-But then Torio remembered what he was leaving behind and grimly withheld his protest.

  Unfortunately, Lenardo was not familiar with the tangled side streets of Tiberium and quickly discovered that he had sent his phantom Torio into a cul-de-sac. Meleus knew that and was sending some of the guards down the main street to the entrance to Cobbler’s Lane while he led the rest in a path that would intercept the images of Julia and Lenardo.

  That left the gate ahead unguarded, but six armed men were headed straight toward them, while Lenardo had to keep up the images of himself and Julia in the twisted lanes to draw Meleus and other guards away from where they really where.

  Torio recognized Lenardo’s dilemma, pointed Julia into another side street, and followed himself as soon as he was sure that Lenardo saw what they must do: hide out of sight until the guards passed them and turned into Cobbler’s Lane.

  The guards went by at a run, expecting Torio either to charge out of the lane again, having discovered his error, or lie in wait for them, having Read their approach. These were nonReaders. Lenardo could project nothing to fool them, and so he abandoned the false image of Torio whil
e he concentrated on keeping Meleus and the rest of the guards chasing the phantom Lenardo and Julia through the winding streets.

  “Come on,” Torio shouted, and urged his horse out into the street. Lenardo and Julia followed, galloping for the unguarded gate.

  They clattered through, their cloaks billowing with the wind of freedom as they streaked along the main road out of town. Lenardo, meanwhile, led Meleus and his men into a blind alley, where Meleus “saw”-and the guards did not-the images of Lenardo and Julia. Then they disappeared before the young Reader’s astonished eyes, and he cried, “Sorcery! The traitor has learned the savage sorcery!”

  Julia, Reading with Lenardo, laughed out loud in delight. //That’s the way to use your powers, Father.//

  And Meleus had them pinpointed again. “They’ve escaped. They’re outside the walls!” //Relay! Relay! Escaped traitors on the Northern Way.//

  Jjistantly, another Reader on the outskirts of town asked, //Who? What did they do?//

  Meleus explained, and the message was sent on to a Reader in a small village beyond, and so on up the road. Within the hour, it would reach Adigia, but Lenardo and his entourage could not hope to be there until well after noon, even riding hard with fresh horses every few miles.

  “We’re trapped,” said Torio.

  “We weren’t trapped in Tiberium, and we won’t be now,” Lenardo replied. “Torio, interfere with mat message.”

  “What?”

  Julia understood at once. “Send a false message.”

  “Lie through Reading? My Oath-”

  “Your Oath binds you to protect your fellow Readers,” Lenardo reminded him. “Is Portia your fellow now? Are her corrupt circle your fellows? Or Master Clement, Julia,

  I?”

  “I don’t know!” Torio answered wretchedly. “We’re not supposed to turn against each other.”

  “I know, you don’t know whether to trust me now. But surely you trust Master Clement. He wants you safely out of the empire, Torio.”

  “Yes.” But the boy was still uncertain, “They’ll kill us if they catch us,” Lenardo reminded him. “Stay alive to see what life is like outside the pale, and then make your decision.” “All right. I’ll distract the relays.” A short distance ahead of them, a sleepy Reader brought suddenly awake was seeking to gain the attention of the next link in the relay system, a woman coping with her teething child. The child’s pain was making her own teeth ache as she held and rocked him. Her husband slept as only someone who had worked hard all day after keeping vigil himself the night before could have, despite the child’s screams.

  //Delia,// projected the Reader trying to get his message through. //Delia, put the child down or wake your husband. You must relay a message!// But nothing could penetrate Delia’s concern and frustration with her baby.

  Torio was a much better Reader than either Delia or the man trying to contact her. It was easy for him to Read beyond Delia the mile or so to the next relay, another lesser Reader dutifully awake and Reading, easily located when so few minds were alert and active.

  //Relay,// Torio announced, and the Reader, a man in his fifties, sat up with interest. //Traitors,// Torio told him. //They left Tiberium by the Northern Way, then turned off cross-country. They should pass to the east of your location. Keep a sharp watch and relay when you Read them.//

  //When? Who? How many?//

  Lenardo dared not interrupt, but Torio had the sense not to embroider his lie too elaborately. //Three: two men and a girl. The guard is after them. Keep a sharp lookout for the next hour to the east.//

  //Where’s Delia?// the man asked suspiciously.

  //Her baby’s sick. We’re having to skip over her tonight. Relay both ways if you spot the traitors.// He broke contact.

  //Very good,// Lenardo told him. //Close enough to the truth to be thought an honest mistake caused by an overextended relay link.//

  For almost an hour, they were able to keep ahead of the relays, planting false messages and distracting the attention of these minor Readers from their true path. It was alarmingly easy until they approached Villa Blanca, a small city mat housed a female Academy. Here there was a direct relay link with Tiberium, and they found the accurate message being transmitted to one of the teachers there.

  //A different message has already come through here from Cassius,// she reported. //The traitors left the road just north of Tiberium, riding cross-country to the northeast. If they continued in that direction, they should pass far to the east of here.//

  //What? No such message was relayed back to us. Read around you, Magister.//

  They were on the open road, close to the city. There was no hope of escaping the Reader’s scan. This time they split up in reality as the city guard came pouring out of Southgate on horseback. Torio rode west, Lenardo and Julia east. The guards had no Readers among them; they could not be misled by false images, but they also could not Read exactly where their quarry were.

  Villa Blanca was a small city, completely contained behind its walls, and at night only nine men guarded it: two at each gate (for it had gates only at the north and south) and five others prepared for any disturbance. Those five now sought the three fugitives, riding on either side of the road to intercept them.

  There were no buildings outside the walls, nothing to hide in. The moon threw long shadows of the moving riders. As three guards bore down on him and Julia, Lenardo had to let Torio take care of himself. They could not hope to outrun the guardsmen’s fresh horses.

  As they approached, the guards flung their spears, but neither Reader had the least trouble ducking them. Then, swords drawn, they closed. Lenardo held one off with the rusty blade from the inn, while Julia, counting on a grown man’s reluctance to harm a child, pulled her horse between his and the guard attempting to attack from the other side. Reading gave Lenardo the advantage of knowing his adversary’s moves before they were made. He got a quick thrust in under the first guard’s lifted arm, withdrew the blade, and turned to the second while Julia continued to cover his back. The guard on her side gave a vicious slap to her horse’s flank, but the child clung to the reins and retained command of the tired animal, keeping it between the soldier and Lenardo.

  //Good girl,// he told her, but just then the wounded guardsman came up beside Lenardo’s horse and jabbed it with his sword. The animal screamed and reared, unseating Lenardo^ His rusty sword hit the hard ground and broke.

  He scrambled to his feet, facing three mounted men. Grasping the wounded man’s arm when he tried to thrust again, Lenardo attempted to unseat him. Pain shot down the man’s arm, and he dropped his sword. Lenardo retrieved it, Reading that this guard was close to fainting and no danger now. But the other two were oh him, one slashing from his horse, the other dismounting to face him on foot, the two in perfect concert, attacking him on both levels.

  The man on foot was a fine swordsman. Lenardo parried his thrusts but was relentlessly driven toward a position where the mounted guard could get in a crippling blow. He tried to draw the swordsman away, but the other fought his horse into position again.

  //Julia, if they take me, flee. Take Torio home to Zendi.//

  No answer, but the child was Reading him and the guards. The wounded man had passed out. It was only two on one. I’ve met such odds before.

  But he had rarely met such an expert swordsman as the one driving him back, and his foreknowledge of the moves was little help against the skill with which they were executed. He thrust and slashed, trying to keep from being driven like a sheep by a dog. But the aggression was too tiring, and he couldn’t keep it up. The horseman was in position behind him, sword ready. Lenardo could not maneuver away.

  The horseman screamed as Julia, with every bit of strength in her small body, sank her butcher knife between his ribs.

  The man on the ground looked up in astonishment, and in that moment of distraction, Lenardo lunged and skewered him. He sank back, doubly surprised, and fell.

  Lenardo turned to Juli
a, who slid off her horse into his arms, trembling but refusing to cry. “Oh, Julia,” he whispered into her hair, “you shouldn’t have to do such things. You saved my life again, Daughter.”

  There was no time, though, for thought or recovery. They Read for Torio and found him just dispatching the second of his pursuers.

  //Take the best horse,// Lenardo instructed him as he and Julia took the two best of the three fresh animals the guards had inadvertently provided them and once more galloped off into the night.

  Lenardo had not expected to leave a trail of dead and wounded, certainly not provincial guardsmen doing their duty without even knowing what the fight was about.

  //They’re our enemies,// Julia said as if in answer to his thought. He realized that she was working it out in her own mind. Savage she might be, but she had never before deliberately killed someone. //They’re just like those men who tried to sneak in and kill you that time, Father. You were a Reader, so they wanted to kill you. Here we’re savages, so they all want to kill us. What can we do but kill them instead?//

  //Nothing here, Julia. All we can do is hope to change things in our own land so that people won’t go on killing one another.//

  Torio kept his thoughts to himself but rode steadily beside them. The teacher from the Academy at Villa Blanca relayed the message ahead of them again, and the next step after that was Adigia.

  //Master Lenardo,// Torio suddenly broke his mental silence, //can you Read from here to Adigia?//

  //Yes.//

  //Who’s on relay duty?//

  Lenardo took his attention from their immediate surroundings, knowing that Torio was quite adequate to prevent their riding into ambush, and Read far ahead to the town where he had grown up.

  A sturdy wooden tower had already replaced the stone one that had fallen in the earthquake, and there above the gate, two guards stretched and yawned, facing the hardest part of their watch, just before dawn. With them was the man Lenardo had Read a few days ago. He didn’t even know his name.

  Even as he Read, the message that there were fugitives headed their direction was relayed to the Reader. Instantly alert, he told the guards. The alarm was sounded, and the garrison was roused.