by Jean Lorrah
“If it’s such a good alliance”-all three of them started as Astra stepped out of the darkness of the hut-“then why aren’t you a part of it?”
Zanos jumped to his feet. “Astra-”
“I’m all right, Zanos,” she said flatly, her upraised hand stopping him from touching her.
“But you were asleep for only an hour or two.”
“You put me into recovery sleep. I’ve recovered.”
Have you? he thought as he scrutinized her. She had the sleepy look of someone needing more rest, but her entire attitude had changed. She was… cold. Could her first kill have changed her that much?
She turned to the village elder. “I would like to know why you have not joined this wonderful alliance, Trel.”
“I’m a cautious man, and a very patient one,” he said slowly. “An alliance is like a young tree: it must survive a few storms before it’s able to bear fruit. This alliance weathered an attack by Drakonius and his allies two years ago, and an attempted takeover by several strong Adepts last year. Now the Aventines are challenging them, this time with a powerful army. I believe the alliance will successfully defend us all, and eventually make a peace treaty with the empire. The prophecy will come true.”
“Prophecy?” Astra questioned.
‘ In the days of the white wolf and the red dragon, there shall be peace throughout the world,’ ” he quoted. “The lands just east of here belong to Lord Lenardo, whose symbol is the red dragon. Bordering his lands to the east are those of Lady Aradia, whose symbol is the white wolf. Their marriage last year became the heart of the alliance, and the center of all our hopes. When the young tree has grown a bit more, I wish to taste of its fruit.”
“You may find it bitter,” Astra said grimly. “Last winter, two members of this alliance destroyed the largest hospital in the Aventine Empire-with an earthquake. A hospital, Trel, full of sick and injured people. Hardly an act to promote peace.”
“I hadn’t heard that tale,” Trel replied with a frown. “Who saw them actually start the quake?”
“Portia, the Master of Masters.”
“Is she someone whose word you can trust?”
A strange look crossed Astra’s face. “… no,” she finally admitted.
“I do not want to speak ill of the Master of Masters,” Trel said gently, “but she must be very old by now-Portia was Master of Masters when this was still part of the empire! Can you be sure she told you the truth? As I recall, she’s related to the royal family some way. Could it be that a natural earthquake destroyed the hospital, and the members of the alliance were blamed to give the Emperor support in this war?”
Astra nodded mutely, and Zanos sympathized with her confusion. What if these savage rulers were not mad brutes, as they were portrayed in the empire? But on the other hand, what reason did they have to trust them?
“I suppose that’s possible,” he said. “But if Lenardo fled Portia, how does that prove he’s more to be trusted than she is? It could be that she wouldn’t allow him the power he wanted in the empire, so he found it among the savages. I think you are right to wait and see how well these new rulers govern before you throw your lot in with them, Trel. As for Astra and me, we’re moving on. You are welcome to join us.”
Astra stared at Zanos, wide-eyed. Then suddenly she got up, and walked back into the hut without a word.
Trel and Kimma looked at one another, and left with vague words about looking in on the injured.
Zanos followed Astra into the hut, where he found her tuning her lute.
Some instinct warned Zanos not to unpack his flute and join her-she was in some kind of very personal mood, shutting him out more effectively than if she had barred a door against him.
So he just sat down on the mat, listening to Astra play her “thinking song,” as she called it. All the beautiful chords were there-but her spirit was missing.
Finally, he reached over and put his hand on the strings of her lute, stopping the music. She looked at him with questioning eyes.
“You have to tell me what’s bothering you,” he said softly. “I can’t Read you, Astra. “
“I’m waiting for you to tell me what other decisions you’ve made, ” she replied without expression. “When we move on, how long you’ll let us stay here, what we’ll do about Vortius-”
“I don’t understand.”
She pulled the lute free of his hand. “I thought I was supposed to share your life. For the past two days, all I’ve been is your personal Reader! ‘Read this for me!’ ‘Scan over there!’ ‘Monitor Vortius-!’ ‘
“I had to make decisions for our survival.”
“Our survival doesn’t depend on killing Vortius. It depends on our making a sensible plan. Except for your wanting to avenge yourself on Vortius, we have no plans.”
“That’s not true,” he said. “We plan to go to Madura. Or at least I thought we did. You don’t really want to go, do you?”
“Yes, I do! Returning to your homeland is important to you. But do we have to rush right out of one dangerous situation into another?’
“We don’t know that it’s dangerous to go to Madura. “
“After two warnings? Two warnings that some ‘great evil’ is killing Adepts in your homeland, and you still want to rush into the unknown. You’d prepare for weeks for a single bout in the arena, but you won’t make any preparations for this. Why?”
“If you are too frightened to come with me,” he said bleakly, “just say so.”
“Yes, I’m scared!” she shouted, shoving the lute aside with no care for its delicacy. “If you weren’t so stubborn, you’d admit that you’re frightened, too! You want to keep chasing after Vortius so you don’t have to stop and think about the dangers ahead of us. Zanos, you’ve not even recovered from the white lotus yet. We’ve had one ordeal after another since the day of the games, and we need a rest. At least Trel and his people accept us. Can’t we stay, even for a little while? Long enough to figure out what to do next?”
“I know what I’m going to do next,” he stated firmly. “I’m going to find Vortius and kill him. Even if you want no part of it, that is one thing I must do, Astra.”
“Zanos-” Her face twisted, and he searched the depths of her eyes, trying to understand, desperately wishing he could Read the emotions he could see but not interpret. She suddenly shook her head. “We don’t know each other at all! How could we-we don’t even know ourselves!”
“What do you mean?”
Astra stood up and retrieved her sword, hefting the heavy weapon with both hands. “You told me to wear this until ‘something happened.’ Well, it happened yesterday. First Kimma attacked us, and then Trel confronted me. Right then, I was glad to have this thing, even if I’d have made a very poor showing.” Zanos saw her eyes change again, this time showing the cold anger he sometimes saw in a deadly opponent in the arena. “And when that bandit attacked me today,” she went on bitterly, “I needed this sword-I was sorry I wasn’t wearing it! When I saw your knife within reach, I thanked the gods… but after I used it-”
Zanos stood and placed his hands around hers as she tightly gripped the hilt of the sword.
She looked up at him then, and her anger faded. “I didn’t scream because I’d killed that man, ‘ she said, hardly above a whisper. “It was that I realized… I was glad I’d done it! I enjoyed killing him, Zanos! Is that what you want me to be-a killing machine, like you?”
“Astra,” he pleaded, trying to pry the sword loose from her hands, but she wouldn’t relinquish it.
“Is this what I have to be to survive in your world?’ she asked, transferring the sword to one hand, and putting her other arm around him. “Then I’ll become a warrior for you, Zanos. I’ll learn the way of the sword, my husband.”
The next day, the last of the survivors came out of healing sleep. The village showed its gratitude to Zanos and Astra with gifts and the offer of one of the huts for as long as they wanted to stay. A cheer went up when
the Reader and the Adept accepted.
Early that afternoon, a man rode into the Settlement carrying the young girl Astra had seen being carried off by the raiders two days before. She had suffered at the hands of her captors, but Astra could read her joy at returning home.
Deela and Kimma helped the girl down from the horse and into one of the huts, while Trel greeted the rescuer and introduced him to Zanos and Astra.
“Without their help, Javik, there would have been no Settlement for you to bring Seela back to,” Trel told him.
Javik-a balding man of about fifty but with the bearing of a fighter-gave the couple a curt smile as he thanked them. “Let’s sit down and break bread,” he said. “There is much I have to tell you.
“The war is over,” Javik explained, “and the Aventines lost. Badly.”
Astra swallowed hard, almost afraid to ask. “How many died?”
“Less than two score… on both sides.”
Trel stared at him. “Forty people? Out of two armies numbering thousands? How can that be?”
“After the ships were stopped at Dragon’s Mouth, they sailed south and set the army ashore to march northward by land. The people of the Black Wolf met the first of them in a brief conventional battle.
That’s where the deaths occurred. Then Wulfston, his Reader, and perhaps a dozen of his minor Adepts arrived on the battlefield. The area was a wide, sandy plain. The Adepts surrounded the Aventines, then used their powers to trap the army in quicksand.”
“Quicksand?” Astra repeated. “How could they do that?”
“Quicksand is just sand and water,” Zanos told her. “Wulfston’s Adepts probably broke through a dam and let the plain be flooded.”
“Oh, no-they kept it completely in control,” Javik said. “They made it rain on the enemy, then moved pools of rainwater wherever they wanted them. The Aventines lost their supplies and weapons, and a lot of the troops sank into the mire, but not one of them was allowed to drown. But they were helpless-no choice but to surrender. And Wulfston not only let them live… he fed them, and then told them to go home!”
Astra was astounded. “A handful of people defeat the largest army in military history-then just tell them to go home? Javik, are you certain?”
The older man, who had given the impression of a person with no special powers since he entered the village, was suddenly open to Reading. “I Read it for myself, Astra. What the watchers are reporting is true.”
“You’re the Reader who helped Trel’s people survive Drakonius’ takeover,” Astra identified.
“I was just a boy, new to the Path of the Dark Moon then.”
“Aye, but we’d not have survived without you,” Trel put in. “But go on. What else has happened? Has the Aventine army agreed to go home with their tails between their legs?”
“What else could they do? Wulfston did take hostages-two Master Readers. I couldn’t Read his intentions, but I have a feeling that it has something to do with negotiating a peace treaty. If the Emperor doesn’t agree, he’s a fool. His whole army was taken by just one Lord Adept. And their alliance is made up oifour of them.”
“Yes, ‘ agreed Trel, “the watchers reported that Lenardo and Aradia left for the land of the Black Wolf. I take it they arrived too late for the battle.”
“Aye, ” replied Javik. “They sent a message to Lady Lilith to return home-but that went north of here.”
“Watchers?” Astra questioned. “What do you mean? There aren’t supposed to be Readers among the savages, nor have I sensed any.”
“Not Reading, sunwriting,” Trel explained. “The watchers relay messages and news by flashing codes with mirrors. At night, they use lanterns. Kimma and I were out reading their messages when the White Crows attacked here.”
“If I’d been here to warn you-” Javik said grimly.
“You’re only one man,” said Trel. “We had to know what was happening in the invasion. Thank the gods you found Seela.”
“The hill clans are on the move all over this area. It was chance that I ran across the ones holding Seela-you left fewer than half of them alive, and most of those still licking their wounds. By the time I ran into them, they’d had a clash with another clan and had little interest in tangling with me.”
Astra studied the man’s whipcord body-with that strength and Reading powers combined, he must indeed be a fearsome object to the local clans.
“A second clan attacked us yesterday,” Trel told him. “They’re all going insane!”
“Not without reason,” Javik replied. “You know how the clans are-cowards and bullies, but independent. There’s someone trying to unite them-someone who’s had considerable success with the newcomers.”
“Newcomers?” asked Zanos.
“Since the alliance defeated Drakonius, the clans have been swollen with former slavers and troops from his defeated army-people used to working together as a team. A lot of them dream of capturing lands for themselves. If they could form their own alliance and attack just one Lord Adept at a time, they might succeed.”
“No,” said Trel, “not against these lords. That was what those four Adepts tried only last year, when they attacked Lady Aradia. She escaped to Zendi, and the rest of the alliance rallied immediately to the defense as a unit. It was the attackers who lost their lives.”
“Yes-but what if they had kept her separate-attacked when the others could not come to the rescue of a single member? That seems to be what Seriak plans.”
“Who?” asked Trel.
“A new bandit leader. He’s only a minor Adept, but he’s wily. He’s already gathered over a hundred men around him, and they’ve taken an area in the hills up in the land of the Blue Lion, either killing or absorbing the hill bandits. The Lady Lilith may be their intended target. Her castle is far from the lands of her allies-but of course she has her own retainers, and her son Ivorn is said to be developing rapidly into a Lord Adept in his own right. I doubt Seriak would try until he has more Adept talents in league with him-but he is someone we must watch. “
Astra agreed. “Can you tell me where he is?”
“I’ll show you-you are a Magister Reader, are you not?”
“Yes,” she admitted.
“I thought so. I wouldn’t dare go so far out of body alone, but you won’t get disoriented.”
“Wait,” she said. “You can go out of body? You said you were put on the Path of the Dark Moon when you were just a boy.”
“And deserved it,” he replied. “But a man learns to do what he has to-and to save my people I had to make my small abilities stretch. I Read best out of body-but I dare not go far, and I’ve never tried to reach another plane for fear I couldn’t find my way back.”
“You are very brave,” she said. “I cannot imagine any Reader trying to learn such a thing alone. When you are rested, we will travel together to where this Seriak is, and find out what he is plotting.”
While Javik slept after his long journey, Zanos proceeded with Astra’s lessons in swordsmanship. Trel had found a light sword she could wield without straining her arms, and Zanos began teaching her to use it, trying to remember when he had been an adolescent boy just beginning his training as a gladiator, before he had developed the strength of maturity.
But a woman was built differently from a boy. Astra did very well in the school exercises, but once they exchanged real swords for wooden weapons in a practice match, he found that Astra’s arms were too weak to allow her to deflect more than a few blows before he could simply beat her sword down with sheer strength.
“That’s not fair!” Astra protested, panting.
“Of course it’s not fair!’ Zanos told her. “Do you think some hill bandit is going to treat you with courtesy?
Astra, use your advantage-I’m not using Adept power. Can’t you Read what I’m going to do and counter it?”
Astra tried-he could see that she did know what he was about to do-but her responses were too slow. “You’re thinking about it,”
he told her. “Don’t think-act. Think with your body, not your brain!”
Still she was too slow. He struck her time after time, raising welts on her arms and legs-and when he stabbed at her chest, instead of parrying his thrust she stepped back, trying to shield herself.
“Astra!” he said in annoyance. “You’re wearing enough padding to stop a real sword!”
“It still hurts!” she insisted.
“Of course it does,” Kimma suddenly spoke up. She had been watching them for some time now.
“Zanos, have you ever tried to train a woman to fight before?”
“No-of course not,” he replied.
“Well, we’ve got different instincts from men,” she told him, “because our anatomy is different.”
“I’ve noticed,” he said wryly.
“No-you haven’t,” insisted Kimma. “Every time you strike Astra’s chest padding, it bruises her breasts-and a woman’s instinct is to protect them. Astra, may I borrow that sword?”
“With pleasure,” Astra replied.
“Let me show you how to take advantage of a man’s instincts,” she said. “Remember-we are definitely not bound here by any rules of fair play.”
Intrigued, Zanos faced off against Kimma. She was about the same size as Astra, but had the strength brought on by her life-style. Still, she was certainly no match for him in muscle power. So… she didn’t try to be. She stayed on the move, darting in and out, making him twist and turn to keep up with her.
“Woman may not have men’s strength,” said Kimma, “but we have endurance. Zanos is arena-trained-I probably can’t wear him down this way, but I could most ordinary men.”
Zanos agreed. “A valuable lesson, Kimma. Thank you.”
But the lesson wasn’t over. Suddenly Kimma ceased dancing about, and began to strike at Zanos as if she were trying to finish off a tiring opponent. But he was not tired. Easily, he deflected blow after blow until-Kimma struck high, as if slashing at Zanos’ throat. As he lifted his sword to counter her, she suddenly swung wide and came in under his guard-straight toward his vitals!