Dragonlord of the Savage Empire se-2

by Jean Lorrah

  “Recover? I wasn’t hurt.”

  “You couldn’t Read. Torio was terrified for you. I’ll tell him that his fears were groundless. Stop fighting sleep, Lenardo. Your people are safe.”

  There was something else nagging at the back of his mind, but it would not come clear before he sank once more into unconsciousness.

  The next time he woke, it was dawn, and Aradia lay beside him, her head on his chest, her pale hair shimmering in the morning light.

  Aside from being ravenously hungry, Lenardo felt normal. He tried Reading, easily locating Julia asleep in her room, Torio in one nearby, Wulfston hi the suite on the other side of the courtyard, and Cook already preparing breakfast in the kitchen.

  Outside, the forum was the same as on any morning, with a few people stirring, drawing water from the fountain. All the buildings, though, were as crowded as they bad been at the festival. His people would not go home until their familiar rituals had been completed.

  Where Southgate had been, there was a huge crater. No need to barricade that entry point now. Repairs had already been effected at Eastgate, although surely after the abysmal failure of an alliance of four Adepts to take the city, there would be no further attacks.

  I did it, he thought contentedly, and knew himself worthy to be Lord of the Land. Worthy in powers. Now I must be worthy in devotion. I will never desert my people again.

  His powers. Would they be passed on to another generation? At last he Read Aradia. He had been wrong. She was not pregnant.

  She woke and looked at him hi puzzlement. “What’s wrong?”

  “You are not carrying my child.”

  “No. You knew that.”.

  “I was so ready to run from you that I did not Read you thoroughly before I left, Aradia. It was unforgivable.”

  “You thought I lied to you?”

  “No, I forgot how limited your Reading is and took your word. You could have been wrong, though you were not.”

  She sat up. “Lenardo, we must attend to our duties. Before we face the others, though, I must ask your forgiveness.”

  “And I yours,” he replied.

  She took his hand. “I want your child. I will risk my powers willingly. But I am glad I am not pregnant now.” She squeezed his hand tightly. “Read the truth, please! I was glad I dared use my powers to the fullest in the battle just past and neither have them impaired by pregnancy nor fear that I might harm our child. You know that is true, Lenardo.”

  “Yes.”

  “But there is a more important reason to me. If I carried your child now, I would never know if it had been conceived in love or in deceit. It could have happened the day I tricked you, Lenardo. It may seem foolish to you, but I am very glad that I will never have to wonder if a child of ours was conceived against your will.”

  “Never fear,” he said tenderly, drawing her into his arms and kissing her. Then he said, “We are still going to disagree, you know.”

  “I know,” she replied, “but we’ll do it openly. No more deceit. That goes for you, too, Lenardo.”

  “I deeply regret the one time I sought to deceive you.”

  “More than once. I was your liege lady, and you chose Julia as your heir without consulting me. My father would have considered that reason enough for anything I cared to do to you. My brother did not.”

  “Wulfston?”

  “When I told him why you left-” she swallowed hard. “He is much like you, open and direct. He was horrified, not at my taking action but at my method. He is right, Lenardo: I should have told you plainly of my disapproval. From now on, I shall.”

  “I’m sorry, Aradia. I’m afraid I wasn’t fully aware of what I had done. I intended only to make Julia my daughter. Whether she will be my heir-”

  “Could have become a serious problem one day,” said Aradia. “Fortunately, some good came out of this latest attack. We have acquired even more lands, and young as she is, Julia proved herself. So we shall set aside now the lands she will one day rule and thus avoid a potential rivalry between Julia and the child you and I will have.” Lenardo groaned. “We sound like the family of the Aventine Emperor, intriguing about children not yet born.” “No intrigue. No deception. But we must plan, Lenardo. We have a future to build. The law of nature is that those with power will rule, and so we must see that those with power have their own lands. Otherwise, they will challenge, and there will be more wars.”

  They raided the kitchen, to Cook’s delight, and then got ready to face the world, dressing in gray funeral garments, for the preparations were already going on outside for the rite later in the day.

  “As Lord of the Land, you must light the funeral pyre,” said Aradia.

  “Either I’ll do it with a burning brand or I’ll pretend and you light it, Aradia. I do not want to pass out at a public ceremony.”

  “You won’t if you do it right. You’re completely recovered now, Lenardo. Let’s see what you can do. Lift something.”

  He was standing before the chest from which he had taken the clothes he wore. The wolf-stone still lay where he had left it when he fled with Julia.

  Wulfston, he recalled, had been only three years old when he revealed his Adept powers by lifting the wolf-stone Nerius wore. Can I match the powers of a three-year-old?

  As he tried to concentrate, he felt again the utter terror he had known when his Reading disappeared after he blew up the gate. It came back, he reminded himself, but he still fought down fear.

  Aradia saw what he was trying to do. “You can move it,” she told him. “Remember, work with nature.”

  Nature? Gravity held the pendant firmly to the top of the chest. The chain formed a kind of nest for the wolfs head, and so it did not even have a tendency to roll. It had, indeed, stayed right there through every vibration that had shaken the house in the past few days. Lenardo Read that the top of the chest had a faint slant toward the left front corner. He began to concentrate, stopped Reading, envisioned the stone tilting, rolling over the chain, sliding toward that left front corner. He put his hand there to catch it, although it had not yet moved.

  Aradia stood beside him, saying nothing, but her presence was a palpable encouragement. The stone tilted, lurched over the chain, and then gathered momentum as it rolled to the edge and fell with a plop into Lenardo’s hand.

  He stared at it and then looked at Aradia. “Did you-”

  “No,” she said with her wolflike grin. “I was Reading, so I couldn’t help.” She hugged him. “That was wonderful. And you see? You didn’t deplete yourself.”

  He was trembling, and his knees were weak, but it was more from his astonishment at what he had done than from physical depletion. He tried to Read and for a moment felt a stir of terror, for his power was gone again.

  Even as he stood there, though, his Reading cleared. As if a fog had drawn back, he could Read Aradia, then the room, then the house, the city”Aradia, for a moment my Reading was gone again. Now it’s returning.”

  She nodded. “When I was using my Adept powers in battle, I found I could not Read at all. We have much to learn, Lenardo, but we’ll learn it together.”

  He started to put on the wolf-stone, but Aradia stayed his hand.

  “No, Lenardo, you are my sworn man no longer. You have well repaid me for the lands I granted you by saving my life and Wulfston’s and Lilith’s as well. In fact, I should not be telling you what to do with the lands of those whom you destroyed for attacking your people. You could keep them all if you desired.”

  “I won’t,” he replied, and laid the wolf-stone back on the chest. “I would not want to, and even if I did, I could not rule so much land.”

  “Oh, you could,” said Aradia. “We could.”

  “I thought you had given up wanting to rule the world,” Lenardo said lightly, hoping to turn it off as a joke.

  “We must rule,” she said firmly, refusing to be distracted. “Our alliance of four lasted hardly a season before you and I betrayed one another. And we
love each other. Wulfston refuses to be my sworn man any longer and defies me to take his lands.”

  “But he helped you.”

  “Of course. He is my brother.” She gave Lenardo a sad smile. “Wulfston sees me more clearly than you do, not only because we were children together but because his love for me is family love. He see what he considers to be my faults and loves me in spite of them.”

  “But Wulfston will not hear of forming an empire, nor will Lilith.”

  “By our laws, those with power rule those with lesser or no powers. They have no choice, for only you and I have both Adept and Reading powers.”

  Sick at heart, Lenardo said flatly, “I will not do it. I don’t want to fight you, Aradia. I want to marry you and live the rest of my life with you. But I will not help you subject Wulfston, Lilith, Julia, Torio-”

  “Not subjects, allies. But you and I will make the final decisions if there is a dispute.”

  “Semantics,” he said. “Calling it something else doesn!t change it. We’ll see what Wulfston and Lilith have to say.”

  They left it at that and went to breakfast, their second meal of the day. Julia and Torio were at the table. Lenardo’s daughter leaped up to hug him, but Torio gave only polite responses and otherwise remained silent and withdrawn. Lenardo found no trouble doing justice a second time to Cook’s efforts.

  When they had eaten, Torio asked, “Master Lenardo, may I speak with you?”

  “Of course. Come into my room. I’ve heard nothing but glowing praise about how you helped after the battle. You saved many lives, Torio, by helping the healers.”

  “Yes,” replied Torio, “I am fit for that. But Master Lenardo, one of your servants brought me clothes to wear for some kind of ceremony tomorrow, the robes of a Magister Reader. I can’t wear them”

  That was quick work. Lenardo had issued the order at dawn, hardly two hours since. “Why can’t you wear them?”

  “I have not achieved magister rank. I was denied testing. I was failed.”

  “You did not fail, Torio. I have tested you and found you worthy.”

  “You?”

  Lenardo sat. behind his desk, guiding Torio into the chair opposite. “Do you deny my right to test you?”

  “You are a Master Reader,” Torio said uncertainly. “But the Council of Masters-”

  “Never had the opportunity to examine you. When a Reader proves himself in an emergency, any Master can elevate him, as Master Clement elevated me. The ancient tradition of the Academies is still honored, Torio. We have carried it beyond the pale. I am the only Master Reader here..Do you challenge my authority?”

  The boy gasped. “Oh, no, Master.”

  “Then accept what you are. You have passed every test for the rank of magister except age, and you will find that in the world you have entered, you will be judged by your accomplishments, not your years.”

  Torio sat silently for a few moments. “Yes, Master,” he said at last.

  “Something else is disturbing you,” Lenardo observed.

  “I don’t know what I’m doing here,” the boy replied. “I ran from Portia and her plans to harm you and me. Master Clement told me to go. I trust him. I trust you. But what did I run to?”

  “A whole new world,” said Lenardo. “A world where no one will attempt to limit your powers. You will learn Adept powers, too, Torio.”

  “That frightens me. What you did-I was Reading. I still can’t believe it.”

  Torio was dressed like Lenardo, in a gray ankle-length tunic with a shorter gray tunic over it, ash-colored garments appropriate to a savage funeral. Without moving from his chair behind the desk, Lenardo concentrated on the belt tied loosely around the boy’s slim waist and tugged. Torio jumped as if stung. Lenardo smiled grimly and said, “Believe it.”

  It was easier each time. He breathed a bit hard from the effort, and that was all, except that he had blanked out his Reading again.

  Torio lifted his face, as if “looking” at Lenardo as he concentrated, undoubtedly trying to Read him. Lenardo noticed that the boy’s eyes were no longer milky but a clear bluish green. Then his Reading returned as it had that morning, spreading outward from himself, and Torio relaxed with a shiver.

  “I’m becoming accustomed to the Adepts doing such things. But you-”

  “You’ll learn to do them yourself. What happened to your eyes?”

  “Fila, I think. She must have thought the cataracts were the cause of my blindness, so while my shoulder was healing, she had them dissolve away. I didn’t even notice until Julia did.”

  “We must find Fila and reward her at the ceremony tomorrow. She did save your life, although she will probably be disappointed that she did not restore your sight.”

  “But many people are blind because of cataracts,” said Torio. “Do you think… could I learn to heal? The way the Adepts do?”

  “We’re all going to learn and teach the Adepts to Read. We’ll build an Academy here, Torio, where Readers and Adepts will work together. Will you help me do that?”

  “Yes, Master,” the boy said eagerly.

  “My lord,” Lenardo corrected. “That is my title here.”

  Torio frowned. “People keep calling me ‘my lord,’ too.”

  “A title you deserve by virtue of your powers. Torio, we have not settled the details, but there are lands won in the battle just past that will be set aside for you to rule as soon as you come into your full powers.”

  “To rule? I can’t.”

  “Yes, you can. You must. All your life, you have been taught to fear power. So long as you fear it, it will control you. Master your fears and you will master your powers. Master your powers and you will master your fears.”

  It was time for the funeral, after which Lenardo would meet with Aradia, Wulfston, and Lilith to decide the future. He dreaded the meeting. It could end with the four of us enemies if Aradia persists in her plan to rule us all.

  The mass funeral was sad and solemn, but this time Lenardo spoke for Galen. “He was never evil, he was only weak. Let us build a world in which bright and clever young people like Galen need not fear being forced to do the will of those who have power. A world in which power is used for good.”

  Torio also spoke for Galen, whom he had once known well. “He was wrong… for the right reasons. I hope… that I will do right for the right reasons.”

  Aradia and Wulfston spoke for Hron, but Lenardo received another shock when Lilith stepped forward with her son, Ivorn.

  “At one time,” she said, “Hron and I were closest of friends. He gave me the most precious gift possible: my son. I shall treasure always the memory of Hron in those days and vow to work for a world in which no one like Drakonius can grow so powerful as to draw good men like Hron from their vows of friendship and alliance into power plays and vengeance.”

  Voice breaking with adolescent perversity, Ivorn said, “I found out only today that Hron was my father. He gave me rife, and yet yesterday he would have taken it. My mother would not have chosen an evil man to give her a child, so I vow to be as my father must have been as a young man” and revere his memory, but to be like my mother in keeping my w^rd.”

  This time it was Lenardo’s duty to sprinkle earth and water over the funeral pyre and then unite all four elements by lighting it. He had no doubt that he could do it now. Torio Read him grimly, Julia expectantly.

  //Show me how, Father.//

  He concentrated, shutting out Reading, imagining the flame. A wisp of smoke rose, a tiny flicker of fire, and Lenardo rocked on his heels, but he didn’t feel faint-and his Reading cleared in just a few moments.

  //Very good,// Aradia told him joyously, and then became blank to Reading herself as the pitiful flicker roared into white-hot flame that would reduce the immense pyre to ashes within minutes.

  His people must have known that the other Adepts had taken over to create the conflagration, but that did not lessen their pride in then-lord’s accomplishment. He felt them quell the u
rge to cheer him and knew that it would be indulged at the ceremony tomorrow, when he appeared before them in his scarlet robes.

  If there was to be such a ceremony. If he did not betray the trust these people had in him and destroy the future so healthily represented in Torio, Ivom, Julia, solemnly watching the bodies of the hundreds who had died reduced to nothing but a scattering of ash-and memory.

  A rousing cheer startled him, and he tardily remembered the savage custom of following a funeral with a feast, a celebration of victory and of life. Music started, and people ran to change their garments. Banners bearing the red dragon appeared out of nowhere-and just as many with Aradia’s white wolf’s head. Scattered among them were Wulfston’s black wolfs head and Lilith’s blue lion, but the watchword of the day was the old saying, “In the day of the white wolf and the red dragon, there will be peace throughout the world.”

  Food was brought out: bread and cheese and fruit, kegs of wine and ale, meat that had been roasting all morning. The city rang with celebration, and Lenardo prepared to meet with the Adepts to try to make the ancient prophecy come true.

  They met in Lenardo’s house, around the same table they had used before. All had taken time to change out of their funeral garb: Wulfston into his richly embroidered dark brown garments, Aradia into her favorite purple, Lilith into a dark green dress with a vivid green surcoat.

  They were ready to go out and join the dancing if the occasion called for it. Lenardo, too, had dressed optimistically, in dark blue hose, shirt, and embroidered tabard that had been made for him in Aradia’s land.

  When they sat down, Lenardo found the eyes of the three Adepts on him. As he was searching for the right way to begin, Wulfston said, “It is your right to determine how the lands we have taken shall be divided, Lenardo. No One can deny that you alone were responsible for the victory.”

  “No,” said Lenardo. “I cannot act like a savage lord, give you lands, expect loyalty in return, and not worry about what happens in the next generation provided that my own lands have an heir.”