by Jean Lorrah
“They were people once,” the Maduran woman answered. “The sorcerers steal their souls, and make their bodies do their bidding.”
Astra shivered. “That’s exactly what they felt like!”
Dirdra looked down at the bread she had been eating, and set it aside. “Maldek has made thousands of them. When the peasants would not give him in tribute the food they needed to feed their children, he took one out of every family, made him orbu, and left him living with his family, working the fields-someone they loved there beside them every day, eating and drinking and resting, but… dead!”
“Mindless,” Melissa agreed.
“He has ruined our land,” said Dirdra. “The orbu live only for a year or two. The first ones he set on us yesterday-they would have been dead in a few weeks anyway. They feel no pain. They simply go on doing as the sorcerer directs until they drop-or until they are killed as we killed those who attacked us.
But Maldek has made so many, now there are not enough living people to till the fields and pay his tribute. He… seems to have learned that lesson, or else he has so much treasure in his castle now that he thinks he needs no more. At least for the past year or two he has stopped demanding tribute in goods, and has stopped turning masses of people orbu.
“Now he uses it more as an individual threat-and he demands a different tribute.” She raised her eyes, flashing green fire. “I was the tribute he demanded from our village. He has turned other women orbu to serve him, but I think he has tired of that now. He was determined that I serve him freely-but I would not! He is evil! And I have brought his evil down upon you, who have become my friends.”
“He’s holding your brother hostage,” said Torio. “Dirdra, we consider you our friend, as well. We’re going to do everything we can to help you set your brother free.”
She shook her head. “It is no use. Maldek holds in thrall too many with powers. Everyone fears him, for his own powers are greater than those of any Master Sorcerer in memory. He will take you, and toy with you like some great black cat-and then he will devour you!”
The sun was setting when they reached the northern edge of the forest, only a few miles from the city. By mutual consent, they rode on, planning to stay in the city overnight, and find out what they could about Maldek’s castle in the morning.
But as they clattered across the bridge into the city, armed guards waited for them on the opposite shore.
The Readers knew it, of course-but they Read that the men had orders simply to take them to Maldek’s castle. There was little use resisting.
“Maldek is honored by your visit,” the officer in charge of the troop informed them. “We are your escort.”
No sinister intent could be Read beyond his words-only curiosity as to who this ragtag band of weary travelers might be, that had aroused such interest in the Master Sorcerer.
They had to ride on for more than an hour to reach the castle-but then it might have taken that long to find accommodations in the city. The road through the forest which separated the castle from the city was broad and well cared for-no need to thread their horses through a tangle of undergrowth here.
The drawbridge was down for them-but it was pulled up behind them with a sinister rumble once they were inside the courtyard. Torio noted that it was manipulated with a huge chain, not ropes-no sword slash could let this drawbridge fall, nor could a minor Adept easily break or burn through that chain.
Maldek expected to hold in-or out-people of both cleverness and power.
Servants came running out to the courtyard, boys to take their horses, women in clean dresses with fresh white aprons, and a majordomo who announced, “Maldek bids you welcome, gracious ladies and gentlemen. If it will please you to follow, his servants will take you where you may refresh yourselves before he grants you an interview.”
One of the boys came toward Gray with a collar and leash. The dog, who was leaning so tightly against Torio as almost to knock him over, growled menacingly, and the boy backed off.
Trusting the animal’s instincts, Torio said, “He stays with me,” and hoped the beast was house-broken.
“As you wish, sir,” said the lad with a bow, and Gray followed Torio inside.
They were taken to baths that rivaled the great bathhouse at Zendi. While they soaked away grime and weariness in the warm pool, servants brought them fruit and wine, nuts and cheese. Then other servants washed them with sweet-smelling soap-even Gray, who, although he enjoyed splashing in the cold pool, submitted to the lathering only at Torio’s insistence. In the process, of course, he shook soapsuds so far into the corners that Torio was sure people would be slipping on them for weeks to come.
Finally, they were dried with soft towels and wrapped in silken robes. “If you gentlemen will come this way,” said the majordomo, “I believe we can find garments suitable for you. The women will take care of the ladies.”
“No-” began Zanos.
“It’s all right,” his wife told him. “Zanos, they’ve let us keep our weapons-which can only mean Maldek knows how little use they would be if he chose to use his powers against us now. We are Readers-he knows we can find one another, no matter what he does.”
So Zanos, Torio, and Gray were taken to a room where the men had their hair and beards combed and trimmed, and even the dog was brushed until he looked twice his size. Then the two men were fitted with silken tunics, covered with fur-trimmed, embroidered velvet robes. Under them went silken hose and soft felt ankle boots-warm indoor attire against the chill of the stone castle.
When they finally met with the approval of the majordomo, they were led through huge arched hallways inlaid with marble, gold, and precious stones, into a chamber only twice as large as the great hall in Lenardo’s villa.
But where Lenardo’s hall was light and decorated with bright colors, this room was paneled in dark wood that glinted softly in the torchlight. There was a fireplace, with a blaze that was somehow warm without being cheery, but there were no furnishings beyond a strip of rich, thick carpet on the floor leading up some steps to a platform, also thickly carpeted. On the platform was a throne-and on the throne lounged Maldek, leaning back with his right leg thrown across the padded arm of his throne. He thus leaned to the left, his left hand casually caressing an animal of some kind that sat in the shadows on the carpeted platform, leaning into his caresses just as Gray did for Torio.
When Gray saw the animal, he growled, and the beast opened surprising green eyes and chattered in a high-pitched voice.
Torio put a hand on Gray’s head and silently ordered him to sit. Obediently, the dog did-but although his growls were no longer audible, Torio could feel them as vibrations in the dog’s skull.
It took several commands for Maldek to silence the other animal’s chattering-an ape of some sort, Torio recognized, as large as a man in the torso but with short dwarfed and bowed legs, so that its hands touched the ground when it stood. It was covered in thick reddish hair, except right around those strange eyes, and the disturbingly human hands.
Maldek was just as they had seen him in Dirdra’s memory: very large and powerfully built, and dressed all in black. Tonight his robe was furred, with little of the silver embroidery they had seen before, but his face wore the same self-satisfied smile, chiseled perfection, carved in ice.
“Welcome to my castle,” he greeted them in tones that attempted sincerity without warmth. “I trust my servants have treated you well. You deserve it-you passed all my tests with alacrity. I rarely find such worthy opponents.”
“We have not come to oppose you, Maldek,” Torio said. “Until you attacked us, we had no quarrel with you at all. Since we were able to defeat you at every turn, we will now consider-”
“Defeat?” The sorcerer laughed heartily. “You think you have defeated me, simply because you managed to get here through the obstacles? My dear Torio, the contest has not yet begun. Tell him, Zanos-you have merely passed the qualifying rounds to enter the games!”
�
��We are not here to play games,” Torio began, but just then the doors to the chamber were opened once more, to admit the women.
Maldek rose to his feet. “Ah-the ladies. Please enter. The lovely Astra, wife of Zanos-you are a fortunate man, sir.” He grinned lasciviously at the gladiator, and Torio Read Zanos quell his fighting instinct.
Astra was dressed in robes of a deep wine-colored velvet, trimmed in gray fur and encrusted with garnets. Her hair was elaborately styled and entwined with velvet ribbons sparkling with the same jewels.
Melissa was in gold velvet with dark brown fur trim that matched her hair-which had been styled so that part of it was braided and curled with bands of gold mesh, but the rest hung loosely down her back, displaying its natural curl. Her dress was heavily encrusted with gold. “Melissa,” said Maldek, “Reader and healer-but also a woman of Adept powers. You have come to me to learn how to expand those powers.”
“Only in the direction of healing,” she replied warily, trying as Torio was to Read what the peculiar look in Maldek’s eyes meant. But he was braced against their Reading him.
After what seemed to Torio far too long a study of Melissa, Maldek reached between her and Astra to pull forward the woman half-hidden behind them. “Dirdra!”
The Maduran woman’s exquisite beauty was enhanced by a green velvet gown the exact color of her eyes. Instead of fur, feathers in iridescent greens decorated her robe. She was magnificently beautiful, but deathly pale.
Maldek pulled her forward into the torchlight. “Why, Dirdra, you haven’t deserted us after all. Look, Kwinn-your sister has come back to us!”
And as he spoke, the creature that had remained crouched beside the throne, afraid to pass Gray to follow its master, gave a great cry and fairly flew across the room to hug Dirdra about the knees, gasping painful sounds that they all knew now were meant to be words of joyful greeting.
Dirdra dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms about his shoulders, holding him close, her tears dropping like diamonds onto the trembling furred pelt as she whispered, “I couldn’t leave you like this!
Oh, Kwinn-I had to come back for you. I couldn’t leave you in his evil power, my brother!”
Chapter Five
What the Readers wanted to do was examine Kwinn, but Maldek had other plans. First they were taken from the throne room to a banquet hall, where only the three who had used Adept powers did justice to the meal.
Maldek did not eat-causing Torio to Read the food carefully for drugs or poison. He could find nothing.
The Master Sorcerer came up behind him. “The game has not begun, Torio. You may safely enjoy the food provided. You are my guests now, and the rules of hospitality obtain.”
For how long? Torio wondered, but Maldek did not respond. Gray voiced his opinion of their host’s sincerity with a soft growl. It rose in volume when Maldek laid his hand on Torio’s shoulder, but the dog didn’t move. Without the healing fire, the last traces of Torio’s injury vanished!
Melissa looked up, startled. “How did you do that?”
“Come and I will show you,” the sorcerer replied. “Here”-he pointed to Torio’s thigh without touching-“your friend has a deep puncture wound that has healed over, but will come to restrict those muscles if it is not soon healed cleanly.”
“I planned to set it healing again tonight,” Melissa replied. “By morning-”
“But there is no reason to wait so long,” Maldek told her. “Put your hand over the wound.”
Melissa did so-and Maldek placed his left hand over hers. Torio tried to Read what they did, but both the healer and the sorcerer braced to use Adept power. The healing fire touched his wound for a moment, but Maldek, his face between Melissa’s and Torio’s, murmured, “No-that way is long, and takes too much power. Like this.”
This deeper wound took longer to heal-long enough for Torio to feel a strange cold sensation quite unlike the healing fire, as from the inside out the wound knitted together, clotted blood dissolving and dissipating.
He could Read what happened to his injury, but not how it was done. Melissa turned her face up to Maldek’s. “Where… where did that power come from?” she asked. “I feel no weakness.”
“Of course not,” he replied, remaining just a moment too long with his hand over hers. Then he straightened. “There is a ready source of power-if one can tap it. You do, Melissa, but inefficiently. Try it on your other friend, Zanos. His wound still pains him.”
Indeed, Torio had admired the gladiator’s stoicism on the long day’s ride, for he had to breathe shallowly to avoid pain, but deeply to keep mov-ing with them. Yet he had not uttered a word of complaint.
Melissa put her hand over Zanos’ wound… but nothing happened. She frowned, and healing warmth spread beneath her hand.
“No,” said Maldek, beside her in one rapid stride. “Melissa, think of healing the wounded after a battle.
Of how much use is a healer who falls asleep after treating twenty, when a hundred more are waiting?”
“It’s not that I disagree, Lord Maldek,” she replied. “It’s that I cannot Read what you do to heal so quickly and cleanly.”
“My master taught me by directing the power through my hands until I could control it. Here-try again.”
Again he placed his hand over hers. When they lifted their hands, Zanos took a deep breath-without a stab of pain. “Thank you, Melissa,” he said, but looked up at Maldek and continued, “I’ll not thank you, Master Sorcerer. You owed me that-it was you who caused my wound!”
Maldek laughed. “Then we begin our contest even, point to point.”
“Even? When you have powers beyond anything we’ve seen before?”
Maldek smiled his cold smile. “It disturbs you to find the tables turned, Zanos the Gladiator, undefeated Champion of the Aventine Games? How many men did you defeat with powers they could not understand?”
“Zanos!” Astra whispered sharply, putting her hand on her husband’s arm. “Whatever he may be, we are his guests.”
“Prisoners, you mean,” the gladiator replied. “We could all end up like that poor creature!”
He gestured to where Dirdra sat, food untouched, cradling Kwinn’s head in her lap.
“Ah, but Kwinn is happy,” said Maldek. “He has what he wants now: his sister home again. Under my care, you will discover, everyone receives exactly what he wants.”
“That’s a lie!” Dirdra snapped. “Do you think Kwinn wanted to be turned into a mindless animal?”
“He wanted you to be well cared for, Dirdra… and he wanted to be with you. Now he has just that. And you, my dear, will soon give me what / want.”
It was obvious that all were finished eating. Maldek bid them good night, and servants showed them to their rooms, all clustered in one wing of the castle.
As soon as the servants left them they all gathered in Dirdra’s room, to examine Kwinn. Gray lay down in front of the door.
Astra was the only one of the group to have completed medical training at Gaeta, and she was also the most skilled among them at the fine discernment required to Read down to the level of nerve synapses and minute chemical changes.
“Dirdra, your brother’s mind Reads something like that of a stroke victim,” Astra said. “What Maldek has done is very cruel, but very easy given his combination of Reading and Adept talents. He has injured the part of Kwinn’s brain that controls language-he can no longer find words for what he wants to think or say.”
“Can he be cured?” Dirdra asked.
“I don’t know,” replied Astra. “I don’t think I could sort out and reconnect all those tiny fibers. Melissa?”
“It would be like trying to-” She searched for a less painful image than the one that came to mind, but Dirdra knew it already.
“To unscramble an egg,” she said bitterly. She rocked her brother in her arms. “It was his mind Maldek took first. Only when that did not persuade me to come to him freely did he begin to amuse himself by twisting Kwinn�
��s body.”
Melissa shivered. “He has such power for healing! Why would he distort it to do deliberate harm?”
“As a demonstration of strength,” said Zanos. “There doesn’t seem to be anyone capable of opposing him-those empty beaches we passed to the south are an open invitation to an invading army.”
“Oh, they’ve tried,” said Dirdra. “Three years ago, Rokannia of the Western Isle sent a fleet of ships against Madura. Maldek did not even bother to raise the wind. He let the army come ashore, and met them with his minions-no army, just Maldek and some forty minor sorcerers against an army of over a thousand.
“Rokannia and her sorcerers sent fire and thunderbolts, but Maldek ignored them. Using his minions to shield him, he took her army, turned them orbu-and when Rokannia had exhausted herself he sent her own army against her. She was brought to his castle in chains, and there was a great celebration.
“Rokannia still rules the Western Isle, but she pays tribute in gold and grain every year. And it is rumored that every year when she comes to pay her tribute she begs Maldek to let her bear him a child to carry on his powers-but he refuses.”
“I can see why you intrigue him so, Dirdra,” said Zanos. “A Master Sorceress begs for his favors, but you spurn him.”
“And what would you have me do?” she demanded. “Let him use me and cast me aside as he does his orbu?”
“Not at all,” replied Zanos. “I spoke out of admiration for your courage.”
“Besides,” added Astra, “it is clear that Maldek does not want you unwilling-and he is too good a Reader not to know your feelings. What is intriguing is that he has never simply implanted the desire for him in your mind.”
“It may be,” Melissa said pensively, “that Maldek is just discovering that his power has limits.”
“What do you mean?” asked Torio.
“He can have anything he wants,” she replied, “except friendship… and love.”
“He’ll never have that in this land,” said Dirdra. “The only people who want to be friends with Maldek are those who seek to profit by the association!”