Savage Empire se-1

by Jean Lorrah

“I understand,” she replied. “His life is all I ask of you. Now, as I have your word, you have the freedom of the castle-within reason. Do not enter anyone’s private rooms uninvited��� although I suppose you could Read anything you wanted, right from here.”

  “First, the number of dresses in your chest does not interest me,” said Lenardo. “Second-and more important -it is forbidden to intrude on another’s privacy out of mere curiosity.”

  “But if you were spying on an enemy?”

  “For the time being, Aradia, I shall not consider you my enemy. Drakonius, however, may be enemy to both of us-and you know he is spying on you. Aradia, as I do not know Drakonius’ specific location, I cannot Read from here, cannot contact Galen to find out if he is Drakonius’ ally or prisoner. If you could show me on a map where Drakonius is-”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “He moves constantly, but I can tell you the general area. He will be somewhere in the Western Hills, probably along the river.”

  “I cannot Read that far from here-not in my present condition, and even if I were at peak performance I could not do so without a specific location.”

  “I too would like to know exactly where Drakonius is,” Aradia mused, “and exactly what he is doing. We can get nearer by riding out to the border tomorrow. Would that help?”

  “Yes, indeed. At least I’d have a better chance.”

  “Then go and rest. We’ll have a long ride tomorrow. Is there anything you need?”

  “There’s something I don’t need-any more meat with my meals. Otherwise��� could I have some different clothes?”

  “Of course. The tailor is working on others already.”

  “I mean��� could I have something less��� exposed? I’ve noticed that Wulfston’s clothes are of much the same design, but they’re cut fuller, the tops longer.”

  Her smile became wolfish again. “Wulfston gives his own instructions to the tailor. But very well, Lenardo, I’ll take care of it.”

  “Thank you, Aradia.”

  “You’re welcome. One thing more-in public, your proper form of address to me is ‘my lady.’”

  “Yes, my lady,” he replied, aware that the title was to remind people of her power. But he could give her that now. It was part of a pact that would soon be fulfilled-and then he would be free and have help in his quest for Galen.

  Aradia and Lenardo set out at dawn the next day-alone. Lenardo was momentarily surprised, until he realized that an Adept required no guard. So he was surprised again when Aradia took him into the guard room and girded on him the same sword he had taken the night of his escape.

  “I trust you know how to use it?” she asked.

  “Of course. I instructed novices at the academy. However, could you not defend yourself better than I?”

  “The sword is a symbol that you would defend me if you had to. You would, wouldn’t you?”

  “Yes. I would.”

  It was a beautiful day, warming as the sun rose. Aradia had apparently issued orders quickly yesterday, for this morning Lenardo had been provided with a new outfit in blue and green, with the more modest cut he had requested. He had also been given boots of softest leather, that molded to his feet and clung to his calves like a second skin.

  Aradia pointed out the new extension of the irrigation system and, a little further on, an iron works. “It would be preferable to have our weapons made further from Drakonius’ border, but this land is useless for anything else, and there is a good road northeast to the forest, where charcoal is made for smelting.”

  “An Aventine road,” said Lenardo.

  “Probably. Drakonius certainly didn’t build it. He never builds anything except defenses.”

  “Then you took this land from Drakonius?”

  “My father helped Drakonius win some battle long before I was born. When Drakonius asked what he wanted as reward, he asked for these lands that had been abandoned. Drakonius thought my father a fool, but he granted his request. Now the lands are ours��� as long as we can hold them.”

  “That’s the way everything is here, isn’t it? Yours for as long as you can hold it.”

  “That is the way of nature,” Aradia replied. “The nature of people, though, is such that they can work together, protect one another, so that a man is not torn between working his land and defending it. My people know I will defend them; thus they are loyal to me.”

  “I wonder,” Lenardo mused, “if there will ever be a day when people can live peacefully, without fear of attack?”

  “I don’t know,” Aradia replied. “Perhaps if no one were hungry or cold, or lacked a roof over his head���”

  “Is that the world you want, Aradia?”

  “Yes. Since I made the treaties with Lilith and Hron, Drakonius has not diverted his efforts from trying to take the Aventine Empire to fight three strong Adepts. For three years there has been peace in our lands-and no beggars in our lanes. Everyone has honest work, and the old and infirm are cared for.”

  “What of those who don’t want to work?”

  “Such people find themselves out of place, so they go off to join the hill bandits or cross over into Drakonius’ lands.”

  “Exiles,” Lenardo observed.

  “Yes. If all the world were peaceful, where would such people go? Perhaps we would have to set aside a land for them and let them contend with one another.”

  “Then you believe some people are evil by nature?”

  “Evil? In general terms, we would say that someone who inflicts pain for his own pleasure is evil. Yet that person exists by nature, as do storm and drought and flood. Evil to one person is good to another; the best we can do is work as closely as possible with nature.”

  “But��� what are your values, Aradia?” Lenardo was deeply puzzled now. “How do you decide right from wrong?”

  “Life is the highest good. That which prevents death contributes to life-hence peace is better than war. But it is not simple. Sometimes one chooses one life over another -just cultivating a field, the farmer kills the plants he calls weeds, so the food crops will grow. We kill and eat animals. How do you decide right from wrong, Lenardo? Or does your Reader’s Code cover every possible choice?”

  “No human law could do so. But we do believe that right conduct has a higher authority than simply what men can observe-what you call nature. There is a higher, sentient force, usually personified as the gods, although that simple belief has fallen into disfavor. The powers ascribed to those ancient manlike gods are painfully close to the powers of Adepts.”

  “Then what do you believe in?”

  “A higher authority, the force that created the world.”

  “Nature,” said Aradia.

  “Wulfston tells me you believe that when life ends, the person-his consciousness, his personality-ends as well.”

  “Of course. We do not believe in ghosts, Lenardo.”

  “Then what is the point of living?”

  “Life! It is all we have!” she said vehemently. “I shall live my life to the full, until it is taken from me by force!” Remembering what Wulfston had said about Aradia’s mother, Lenardo tactfully shifted the subject. “We believe that the point of life is to please the gods. However, that philosophy does not solve the problem of good and evil, any more than yours does. Even today, it is possible to get a debate going as to whether something is good because it is pleasing to the gods, or pleasing to the gods because it is good.”

  “And what good does it do to please the gods?” asked Aradia.

  Lenardo was stopped cold. In ten years of teaching, he had fielded every possible question on the subject-he had thought. But Aradia approached from a different direction, attacking the question instead of seeking an answer. He thought about it for a moment. “Presumably it does the same good to please the gods as it does your people to please you.”

  Aradia laughed, then said, “Here is the best place to stop. A bit further on is the trail into the borderland, wh
ere you were attacked by the bandits. This is the closest we can come to Drakonius’ lands and remain within my borders.” A small spring flowed from a rock into a pool the size of a hand bath-a natural fountain. Grass and a few trees grew where they could reach the moisture, forming a tiny park. Someone had placed small rocks to form a fireplace, but Lenardo and Aradia had no need of a fire this warm spring day.

  “Tell me how to search for Drakonius,” said Lenardo. “He was not in Zendi when I was there, but it is a place to start, as I can Read it easily. I once lived there.”

  “You have to have been there?”

  “No, but it is a great help in Reading over long distances. An even greater aid is to have someone to contact at the other end.”

  “Try your powers. Read to Zendi. See how far recovered you are.”

  It took a slight effort, but Lenardo knew the exact location of the city. In a few moments, he was in the middle of the town, “looking” around at the milling crowds, the beggars, the filth-it was exactly as he remembered. He was grateful he didn’t have to smell it.

  The sun darkened for a moment, and Lenardo “looked” up to see a cloud passing, other clouds piling up in the west.

  To Aradia, he said, “It’s going to rain in Zendi by evening, and the clouds will reach here by tomorrow.”

  “You’re better than the watchers!” said Aradia. “They won’t know until tomorrow. Did you see anything interesting?”

  “No-nothing but the same overcrowded conditions I saw in person. How do I find Drakonius from here?”

  “He’s got a string of fortresses in the Western Hills that he built as he forced the walls of the empire back. If you can find him, try to Read how far he has progressed in rebuilding his army. And whether he has other Adepts with him.”

  “You think he may be preparing to strike against you?”

  “I know it must come. Had Drakonius won at Adigia, he would have been able to say to us, ‘You see? You’d better come in with me next time!’ But as he lost, he will try to force us to join him, to prove his strength. And if he finds out where you are, my lands will be his first target.”

  So Lenardo Read back to Zendi, then allowed his perceptions to rise, heading west, finding the hills with ease, although details were blurred. Following the river southward, he began to feel stretched, tenuous, as if his connection with his body might snap. It was pouring rain here, making visual Reading difficult.

  When the river took a turn directly west, increasing the distance he was trying to Read even more rapidly, Lenardo almost gave up. He was beginning to wonder if he would be able to Read anything smaller than a river or mountain anyway-when suddenly a cluster of human minds drew his attention.

  There were twenty or more people, spread through a warren of caves in the cliffside. Below was a large stretch of beach, where an army might camp-but there was no army there now, although defenses had been built along the beach.

  Aradia wanted to know how many Adepts were here; that would mean attempting to Read everyone, to see how many could not be Read. It was getting harder and harder to focus. How could he-?

  Suddenly, a lighthouse in the fog, there was the touch of a compatible mind. Galen!

  //Yes? WHAT? Who’s there?// //Galen-are you well?//

  //Lenardo!// All the joy of the boy’s enthusiasm welcomed him. //Magister Lenardo 1 You’ve come at last! How did you find me? Where are you?//

  Something behind that final question, a certain tension of hidden motives, made Lenardo recklessly drop contact with his body. He’d pay when he returned with cramped muscles and pinched nerves, but now he could Read freely��� and Galen could not follow him back to Aradia, even if the boy could Read that far.

  //I’ll come to you, Galen,// he temporized. //Are you well? You haven’t been hurt?//

  //Where are you?// again, with an edge of desperation.

  Maybe the boy was hurt. He was certainly frightened.

  //I’ll find a way to get you out of there-// Lenardo began.

  //No!// A burst of panic, followed by enforced but tenuous control. //Why should I leave? I’m never going back to an empire that locks Readers up in the academies and out of the senate, an empire that’s afraid of us. Come join me. I’ll prove I was right, Lenardo. I’ll show you what our powers are for.// But the boy did not believe his own words.

  //Galen-can’t you see what they’ve done to you? You’ve broke one of the commands they implanted-you can easily cast out these thoughts. They’re not your own.//

  //They said you were exiled! I’ve been Reading all over the land for you. They told me you had come to see things our way, that you were in Zendi, and then you disappeared. Where are you?//

  Lenardo tried another approach. //Galen, you were right; it is possible to make peace with the savages. Everyone will know you destroyed Drakonius’ army-//

  //You destroyed them!// Galen raged suddenly. //I felt you touch my mind, distracting me! Now they don’t trust me, because of you! I should have killed you when I had the chance!//

  Beneath the boy’s ramblings, Lenardo caught thoughts, suspicions: the Code a hypocrisy��� Lenardo trying to keep Galen from achieving rank as a Reader��� betraying him in his testimony at the trial��� jealous of Galen, refusing to admit he was becoming the better Reader���

  It was all nonsense-but how had Drakonius found these strange thoughts, to knit of them a snare for Galen’s mind? Or was it possible they were not of Drakonius’ invention, but rather the result of Galen’s exposure for two years to the Adept’s manipulations, transferred to his own disappointments?

  At that moment, Lenardo could have wished for an Adept’s skill to force Galen to calm down. The boy seemed not to have grown up at all-if anything, his adolescent mood swings had gotten worse. //Galen, I want to help you-//

  //You! You coward! You let me be exiled-branded! You said you’d stand by me, and you didn’t. You hate me because I’m a better Reader than you are. Everyone who’s the best at something is hated. Now you want to trick me into going back to be executed. It won’t work, Lenardo. I know you now, and I hate you!// Lenardo’s mind flinched, ��� but he could not avoid the intensity of the boy’s hysteria. //I hate you! I’m going to find you and kill you, Lenardo, so you’ll never betray me again!//

  Chapter Six

  The Wolf Stirs

  When Lenardo’s consciousness returned to his body, he was almost glad of the pain in his back, knees, and ankles, competing with the pain of his confrontation with Galen. He had been sitting tailor-fashion, not the proper posture from which to leave the body.

  After the onslaught of aches, his next impression was that someone was touching him. He opened his eyes to find Aradia kneeling before Mm, holding his wrist with a finger on his pulse, concern in her violet eyes. “Are you all right? You slumped-I thought you’d fainted, but I was afraid to move you.”

  “I’m glad you didn’t,” he replied. “I’ll be all right in a moment.” He stretched his cramped legs, rubbing them, then stood up to stretch his back.

  “Was it too far? What happened to you?”

  “It was too far for a closely focused Reading, but I found Drakonius’ stronghold. There is no army there now. As for Adepts-I’m afraid I couldn’t concentrate enough to separate them from the others. There weren’t more than thirty people in the entire stronghold.”

  “Are you sure that’s what you found? Not just a castle?”

  Oh yes. Galen would not be anywhere but in Drakonius’ stronghold.

  “It’s not a castle. Drakonius has expanded some caves in a cliff, and built fortifications along the river’s edge. It seems to be a new place that he’s still working on.”

  “Did Drakonius’ Reader detect your presence?”

  “Yes,” he admitted.

  “Has he followed you here? Is he Reading us now?”

  “No-I saw to it that he couldn’t follow me, and besides, he can’t Read this far. I fear Drakonius has chained his mind.”


  “Wulfston thinks-”

  “What I thought: that Galen broke the commands implanted in his mind and bided his time until he could bring that avalanche down on Drakonius’ army.”

  “But you don’t think that now?”

  “I don’t know what to think, Aradia. Galen is young-only twenty-and his training as a Reader was cut off when he was exiled at eighteen. I don’t know how far he may have progressed, but certainly not as far as If he’d stayed at the academy. I could not have Read so far at his age. I don’t know whether he can break a command planted in his mind by an Adept, because I have no example but my own. It was easy enough for me once I knew what you had done. In Galen’s case���”

  “What?”

  “First, it’s possible he has truly come to hate the empire. Second, if Drakonius implanted that hatred in Galen’s mind, how do I get Galen to want to break the command? I wanted that door to open for me, but suppose you had implanted in my mind the suggestion that I simply wanted to stay there?” He frowned. “Could you do that?”

  “I could have. I would not.”

  “Why not?”

  “I want your true loyalty, Lenardo, of your own free will. That is what Drakonius wants of Galen too. If he implanted false loyalties, he certainly learned his lesson at Adigia. If Galen were working against his true feelings, a ‘mistake’ such as bringing the avalanche down on Drakonius’ troops is exactly the kind of thing to be expected. He wouldn’t know, consciously, that he had done it deliberately.”

  Lenardo smiled in relief. “Thank you. I did not want to think Galen a traitor.”

  “Unfortunately,” she replied, “I cannot think Drakonius so great a fool. He did not conquer many lands by making that kind of mistake. An unwilling army is a weapon for one’s foe. I fear your friend truly believes whatever he told you. I’m sorry.” She paused. “Does he know you’re with me?”

  “Apparently not. He kept asking me where I was.”

  “Could he tell anything to lead Drakonius to you?”

  “No. But if I was observed after I left Zendi���”

  “Yes-it won’t take Drakonius long to find you. I don’t suppose you thought to lie to Galen-to suggest that no one knows you’re a Reader?”