by Jean Lorrah
Wicket was staring, wide-eyed. “But that means-”
Aradia could not help smiling at him. “Yes, Wicket, that’s what it means.”
Wicket jumped up, and thumped Pyrrhus so hard on the back he almost knocked the man over.
“Pyrrhus-that’s how you do it! How I did it tonight, after Julia told me what it was!”
Regaining his balance, Pyrrhus stared haughtily at his friend, who was practically dancing with joy. “Do what?”
“Always hit your mark. Never miss. Pyrrhus-you’re an Adept! Just like me!”
Pyrrhus shook his head in mock sorrow. “Wicket, I always feared that you would go mad one day.”
“Wicket is right, Pyrrhus,” said Aradia. “Both Master Clement and I Read what happened at Capero’s.
You used Adept power to control your weapons, and so did Wicket.”
For the first time, Aradia saw Pyrrhus at a loss for words. He stared first at her, then at Master Clement, then Wicket, went to the couch Wicket had vacated, and sat down as if he didn’t trust his legs to hold him. “It’s not possible,” he said finally.
“Of course it’s possible-in fact, it is a natural compensation for losing your ability to Read,” Aradia said.
“Compensation?” He nearly choked on the word. “For Reading? How can you Read at all and say that?”
“That’s not how I meant it, Pyrrhus,” she replied gently. “I meant that the body and mind compensate when any sense is taken away, the others becoming sharper. Certainly no blind nonReader would feel that more acute hearing makes up for lack of sight, but it is still nature’s way of attempting to do so.
When you lost the ability to Read, you naturally began to develop the other half of your power.”
“Then why didn’t I know it?” Pyrrhus asked.
“Because you continued to think of yourself as a Reader,” said Master Clement. He smiled. “Look at you. You still eat like a Reader, don’t you?”
“Why not?” Pyrrhus shrugged.
“Because,” said Aradia, “a Reader’s diet doesn’t give an Adept adequate nutrition. That’s why you’re too thin, and why you’ve never had enough power to manifest anything that could not supposedly be accomplished with a strong arm and a good eye. And of course you didn’t know you were an Adept.
What you believe determines what you can do.”
Master Clement added, “If you had known you have Adept powers, and been trained to use them efficiently, you would not have been injured in the marketplace.”
“True,” said Aradia. “When you saw the vat of oil about to spill on the child, you would have directed the flow another way, protecting both the child and yourself. You’ll soon learn to accomplish what you want with the least expenditure of energy. Even Lords Adept do so, since we prefer not to spend half our lives in recovery sleep.” A new thought occurred to her. “Pyrrhus, you were a Master Reader in all but final testing and ceremony.”
“That’s right,” Master Clement agreed.
Aradia continued, “If you stop mourning the powers you have lost, and practice the powers you have gained, you have the potential to be a Lord Adept. “
“A Lord Adept!” Wicket whispered reverently. Then he sat down beside Pyrrhus, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Think what we could do with that kind of power, Pyrrhus!”
Pyrrhus turned his head to look at Wicket, and closed his eyes for a moment in a frown, shaking his head just slightly. “Like you. You said, just like you.”
“Yeah!” Wicket said brightly. “Julia told me the way I make money or dice fall right the way I want-that’s Adept power. Never knew till yesterday. But tonight I used it in the fight-just feeling the same as when I want somebody’s money pouch to fall in my hand-and my knife went right where I told it to. Good a fighter as you are now!”
Pyrrhus stared at his friend for a long moment. Then, helplessly, he smiled. The smile became a chuckle, and finally he threw his head back and laughed.
Julia woke to a touch on her forehead, between the eyes, and looked up to find Aradia sitting on her bed. “How are you feeling?” her stepmother asked.
Before she could unstick her tongue from the roof of her mouth to answer, memory flooded back. She had been tricked. The people she had thought loved her hated her.
And-because of her foolishness-Galerio was dead.
“You can Read for yourself,” she replied sullenly.
“Julia,” said Aradia, “you know you did wrong, but you paid a terrible price for your mistake. I need add no further punishment. I was also wrong. It was convenient for me to treat you as if you were grown up.
But you are still a child in so many ways, and I should have allowed for that. For the moment you are relieved of all your duties except your lessons. Later, with Master Clement’s help, and your father’s as soon as he gets home, we will determine a work load appropriate for your years and experience.
“Now get up and get dressed. No lessons today, but I’m here if you want to talk, or you may go talk with Master Clement if you’d rather.”
“Why should I get up?” asked Julia. “My people hate me. Galerio is dead. Father and Wulfston have gone away, and will probably never come home. Why didn’t you just let me die?”
“Julia!” Aradia said sharply. “You have the right to grieve-and at the funeral today you will speak for your friends. But you must go on with your life, learn from your mistakes.”
Then her stepmother became gentler, sitting on the edge of the bed and taking Julia’s hand. “Child, your foolishness in getting involved with gamblers-even if Capero had not discovered your scheme, it would still have resulted in punishment for you when Master Clement or I found out about it. When, not if.
“But it should not have resulted in death, Julia. The hatred you Read last night is not the attitude of Zendi’s citizens. It’s not your fault that your friends died.”
“They were trying to protect me,” Julia said wretchedly.
“Yes, they died honorably, and will be remembered so. But think, Julia. Stupid people don’t reach Capero’s level of success. He could not possibly have thought he could get away with harming you-if he had been thinking for himself. We have an enemy, probably within our borders. There may be Adepts and Readers working together against us. No one has ever succeeded in defeating our Alliance with Adept force, so someone is trying a different form of attack.”
Julia stared at her. “You mean somebody made Capero try to kill me? A Reader?”
“Or an Adept,” replied Aradia. “I’ll explain it all later, when you’re feeling better. We’re going to need every Reader alert, for we have a subtle enemy this time, Julia. At the moment we have no clues as to who he is, or where he is-and that leaves us vulnerable.”
When Aradia left, Julia got up and put on the gray mourning clothes laid out for her. She was late eating breakfast, and Cook was subdued as she dished out food. Julia ate only until she had quelled the worst of her appetite. Leaving half of what she had been served, she returned to her room until it was time to leave for the funeral.
Every time she thought of Galerio, pain lanced through her chest, and she wanted to sob in agony.
Because she could not stand to think about him, she sought something else to occupy her mind-and remembered Portia’s scrolls.
Lying down on her bed, she began to Read where she had left off the night before, about Portia’s frustrated efforts as the young Master of Masters to give Readers a greater say in the government of the Aventine Empire.
Before the funeral, Aradia and Master Clement met with Pyrrhus and Wicket. The Master of Masters had no good news. Only one person they were certain had been influenced had survived the battle at Capero’s: Octavia. She remembered absolutely nothing of the evening. The Readers determined that her memory loss was quite real.
“All our Master and Magister Readers are on alert. Perhaps now they will notice any strange Reading activity in Zendi. What I find difficult to understand is that even now, after
the fact, no one remembers anything unusual. How could thirty or forty people have had commands implanted, without one Reader in this entire city noticing?”
When no one spoke, Pyrrhus shrugged. “Sorry, I can’t help you on that score.”
“Don’t,” said Wicket.
Pyrrhus glared at him, but Wicket stood his ground. “You have no reason to be angry at Lady Aradia and Master Clement. They’re trying to help us-even me, when I helped get Julia into trouble.”
“You also helped get her out,” said Aradia. “And we need your further help. Pyrrhus, we do not give charity. You have proved your value, and once you have learned to use Adept power efficiently you will be an ally to be reckoned with.”
“You want to use me.”
“As Portia tried to use you? No. We don’t force people to do what we want. But we need someone to *
keep order in the city. Our Readers tend to be…
naive. Adepts have to learn to work with nature, and that includes human nature. We could ban gambling, prostitution, wine, gladiatorial contests. Do either of you know what would result?”
Wicket replied at once, “Unregulated gambling, unchecked prostitutes spreading disease, theft, drug dealing, cockfighting, dogfighting, and maybe even slave-fighting.”
“There is no slavery anymore, Wicket,” said Master Clement.
“Might as well be,” Wicket replied, “if people have to go to the likes of Capero for their pleasures.
Gambling debts where no one regulates losses can enslave someone just as effectively as Aventine law-and white lotus is even worse.”
Aradia smiled. “Pyrrhus, you do not place enough value on your companion’s wisdom.”
“Don’t tell him that,” replied Pyrrhus. “Wicket attempting to be wise is a phenomenon I prefer to be spared.”
“If you accept my offer, I’m afraid you won’t be spared it,” Aradia said, “for Wicket already understands the first rule of Adept power: it is futile to work against nature. People must have recreation, and certain types of recreation will continue, whether regulated or not. What people will do, whether we permit it or not, we permit. What we cannot permit is the step too far-dissemination of enslaving drugs, gambling debts destroying a life’s work, influencing people in power through their recreational follies.”
“Or,” added Wicket, “forcing children or animals to fight to the death for onlookers’ amusement. “
Pyrrhus studied him. “You…?”
“Yeah,” Wicket replied, ‘“when I was fourteen. I managed to win. I still don’t know how, except I was desperate. Ran away the next day. Ran for a long time after that, ‘fraid I’d be caught and made’t’do it again.”
“We do not want any children to experience such fear,” said Aradia. “Pyrrhus, you see why I want you and Wicket together as Zendi’s peace officers?”
“Yes,” Pyrrhus replied. Then he smiled at Wicket, a sincere smile immediately echoed by the other man.
“I never said we didn’t work well together.”
“Very good. Take as long as you need to learn the city, and then draw up a plan. We will give you all the Readers and minor Adepts you need to implement it. Master Clement, can you recommend a Reader to work with them now?”
“Decius,” he repelied at once. “Let him be useful while he gains control of his Adept powers. At the moment he is unable to work on his studies for the rank of Magister because he is depleting himself with Adept tricks. He can certainly Read well enough to help Pyrrhus and Wicket-and learn along with them how to use his Adept talent. It will take less of your time, too, Aradia, if you work with the three at once.
For now, I suggest that Julia concentrate on her Reading.”
“Efficient as ever, Clement,” said Pyrrhus. Aradia noted that he had still not forgiven his old teacher, but there was at least less bitterness in his tone than when she had first met him.
“As we will expect you to be,” the Master of Masters replied. “You’re the one who determined how we are being attacked. Now tell us how to locate and identify our attackers.”
Somehow, Julia got through the funeral for Galerio, Mosca, Antonius, and the people killed at Capero’s.
It was held in the forum, and virtually the entire city was there.
News of the attack had spread throughout Zendi. Julia Read bewilderment in the crowd, and both love and sympathy for her as she stepped forward to speak for Galerio, Mosca, and Antonius. Buoyed up by the acceptance she had feared was gone, she was able to get through her speech, although she choked on her words.
Dilys and Piccolo, Blanche, Diana, and Georgio were all there, lost without Galerio. Out of the whole crowd, theirs was the only resentment Julia felt-and she could not blame them.
After the funeral pyre blazed into white heat, reducing the bodies to ashes in minutes through Adept power, everyone filed silently from the forum. Julia started toward the five young people, but they turned away and lost themselves in the crowd. Julia was left standing alone.
With a sigh, she turned and walked through the subdued people in the streets, until she reached home.
There she went to her room, and buried herself again in Portia’s scrolls.
Amazing how similar Portia’s circumstances in Tiberium then were to Julia’s in Zendi now! She had a title, a position, great Reading ability for her age, and great responsibility, yet she was frustrated because the political structure of her community would not allow her to make things better.
And, just as a mysterious enemy was attacking Zendi, Portias Aventine Empire was shrinking year by year through attacks of the Savage Adepts no one truly understood, and everyone feared. Her Readers were used, conscripted into the army to guide it-and they died in battle, often as not, first target of Adepts who knew they would have the Aventines at their mercy if they could blind, deafen, and silence them by destroying their Readers.
But all Portia’s efforts to get the Senate to change the law, to allow Readers a say in the government of the Empire-to have even one senator to represent them-fell on deaf ears. NonReaders feared Readers, Portia slowly came to recognize, especially nonReaders who had acquired some power of their own through money or political influence.
When she put the scrolls away for the night, Julia felt confused. She hated Portia. Portia had tried to kill her father, had destroyed Pyrrhus’ Reading, had manipulated Readers and nonReaders alike. But the Portia of those scrolls was a different person-someone Julia sympathized with.
She would read more tomorrow, as Master Clement had asked her, to find the connection. How had the devoted, benevolent Portia of the scrolls she had read today become the power-mad villain Julia had known?
In the early-morning hours, Julia was once again awakened by Aradia’s screams. This time she did not get up, Reading it was just another nightmare, and that Devasin went immediately to waken and comfort her mistress. Again Aradia could not shake off the dream after she woke, insisting, “She’s trying to kill me! She’s stealing my powers!”
If only Lenardo were here.
But Julia’s father was gone. Wulfston was gone.
Torio was gone. Melissa was gone.
Zanos and Astra had gone with Wulfston to rescue Lenardo.
Lilith and her son Ivorn remained in their own lands to the north, fighting off a series of border infractions that pounded against the Savage Empire now just as the Savages had pounded against the Aventine Empire in Portia’s day.
Who was left to protect Zendi? Julia, young, her responsibilities now taken from her. Master Clement, old, his powers possibly waning. Decius, also young, but much as Torio had been when he had first joined their battle to create the Savage Empire. But Decius was crippled in body if not in mind, and unused to the new powers he was acquiring.
And that was it, out of the entire group who had toppled an empire and built a union of allies on its ashes.
No wonder Aradia had nightmares!
And no wonder she pounced on the opportunity Pyrrhus and Wic
ket presented to gain new allies. But they knew so little of those two. Wicket admitted to an unsavory past, even if he gave few details.
Pyrrhus, though, was more mysterious, even if they knew all about him.
Or did they?
Swordsmanship was taught in the Academy-but where had he learned to fight with a knife, or to shoot, or to use all those other weapons in his portable armory? Julia was fairly certain she knew when he had learned: between the time he escaped from Portia after she had crippled his mind, and the rapport which ended the Aventine Empire and killed Portia.
Pyrrhus must have set about to learn every form of weaponry he could, not only to protect himself once bereft of the ability to Read an attacker, but also obviously to take his revenge on Portia if the opportunity presented itself.
The opportunity had been mental, not physical-a far more satisfying revenge. Yet Pyrrhus had seemed far from satisfied when he appeared in Zendi.
Why had Pyrrhus and Wicket come to Zendi in the first place? Aradia had found out that they were successful and had a good reputation as bodyguards in Tiberium. Why leave?
Determined to find out, she let herself drift back to sleep.
Aradia’s nightmares continued, but she was learning to live with them. She wished Lilith could come earlier than she had promised, but she could not ask when there were constant border skirmishes against Lilith’s lands.
There were also continuing Adept attacks, but none near Zendi now that the Readers were watching for anything unusual. Some of the events might be natural phenomena-when whirlwinds came out of thunderstorms, who was to say that they were not produced by nature? If an irrigation dam broke in Wulfston’s lands and flooded acres of farmland, that again could have happened naturally. The only odd thing about the events occurring now was that there were so many of them.
Cattle stampeded. The wall of a stone quarry collapsed, killing three workers. High winds of the first winter storm destroyed a bridge in the mountains south of Tiberium, cutting off the main trade route through the center of the Empire for almost a month. Even with Adept aid, it took that long to rebuild the vast expanse and reinforce it against such winds in the future.