Sorcerers of the Frozen Isles se-5
Page 19
Maldek turned from his last patient, and grinned. “No one can say the Lord of the Land didn’t do his part this time!”
Torio restrained himself from reminding Maldek that it was his fault so many had died or been injured.
The healers and their assistants could take over the patients still in healing sleep. Everyone else had gone home, or to the shelters set up for those whose homes had been destroyed.
Torio and Maldek gathered Melissa, Zanos, Astra, and Cassandra, and returned to the castle. There the Master Sorcerer’s surviving servants had been at work. Most of the debris of the battle had been cleared away, and a new kitchen set up. A meal was waiting for them in the dining hall.
There was not much conversation, for even those who had had some sleep were tired. Torio felt peculiar-not sleepy, yet not quite himself. A few hours of sleep would do him good.
But as they rose to go to their rooms, Maldek said, “Melissa, you come with me.” And all could Read his intentions.
Melissa stared at him in disbelief. “Even if you loved me, which you don’t,” she said, “how could you be interested in making love after what we have just been through?”
“After a man has done something to be proud of? That is the very best time. Can you think Torio loves you, Melissa, when he does not want you now?”
Unfortunately, Melissa could Read only too easily that physical desire was the farthest thing from Torio’s mind at that moment-but she only smiled at him and said, “I know Torio, and I love him. The fact that we feel exactly the same lack of desire at this moment only proves how much we are alike.”
Maldek smiled in malicious delight. “But it is opposites who attract, Melissa. Come-let me show you what pleasures a Master Sorcerer can offer.”
Torio found himself shaking his head, confused by what he was seeing, hearing, and Reading. What was Maldek trying to do? And why at this inappropriate moment?
Then he Read arousal in Melissa-the same thing Maldek had done to Dirdra in the memory they had all witnessed what now seemed a lifetime ago.
“Stop that!” Torio said, moving between Maldek and Melissa. Gray growled threateningly at Maldek, but was silenced by a thought from Torio.
“Do you want her?” Maldek asked.
“I love her,” Torio replied.
“Will you fight me for her?”
“Fight? Why should I?”
“Because otherwise I am going to take her,” Maldek said in tones that indicated that he found his outrageous statement perfectly reasonable.
And Torio found himself paralyzed as Maldek reached around him and took Melissa by the arm.
Torio called on his newfound powers, and broke free to grasp Melissa’s other arm. “Let go, Maldek. I didn’t restore your powers so you could hurt Melissa!”
” You restored his powers?!” demanded Zanos. “Torio-have you gone mad?”
“Perhaps,” he replied. “At the time, there were dying people to be saved. But now-”
“Now you see how powers are to be used,” said Maldek. “It’s for good, Torio. I’m not going to hurt Melissa-you’ll see. Just ask her tomorrow.”
Melissa’s physical desire was increasing-and then she stopped resisting as Maldek reached into her very mind.
“No!” cried Torio. “She’s exhausted with healing. Melissa-fight him!”
But her lovely eyes stared at him as if he were the one being unreasonable.
Maldek draped Melissa’s arm over his. “If you won’t fight for her, Torio, you don’t deserve her,” he said, starting to lead her, unresisting, from the room.
“By Mawort!” exclaimed Zanos. “If you won’t fight him, Torio, I will! Can you call yourself a Reader and think she wants that beast?”
And Zanos picked up the carving knife from the table and flung it after Maldek.
Of course it did not connect; without even turning, the Master Sorcerer stopped it and let it clatter to the floor.
“Torio, do something!” pleaded Astra.
“Melissa!” he projected. “Break free, Melissa!”
And from somewhere deep within her mind, she answered, “Help me, Torio-oh, please-” And the thought broke off as Maldek found that part of her consciousness and turned it to desire for him as they started up the stairs toward the part of the castle where his room was-Blessed gods! He is twisting her mind!
To his horror, Torio realized that he had actually doubted Melissa—
It was all Maldek’s doing!
He ran to the door of the dining hall, stared at Maldek’s retreating back-and willed a thunderbolt to strike him!
The crack shook the walls, and Maldek fell to his knees-only momentarily stunned, for he had been braced for an attack.
But it was enough to make him lose concentration on Melissa. She pulled free and ran down the stairs.
Maldek rose, laughing gleefuly, and turned to face Torio. “At last-the confrontation! Now my game comes to its final match!” And he flung lightning in his turn.
Some new instinct caused Torio to draw the cold fire into his body as protection-Maldek’s bolt bounced off him harmlessly.
He leaped for the Master Sorcerer, tackling him as Zanos had taught him, the two of them rolling on the floor. He was peripherally aware of Zanos holding Gray back, lest the dog join in the fray.
Maldek knew no ordinary defense for such an attack-with his powers, why would he ever need to learn it? So for a moment he was helpless with surprise.
Practice against Zanos’ huge size and strength stood Torio well. The larger man reached for his throat, and the Reader flipped him backward, to land with a breathtaking crash.
But Maldek was no street brawler. Even as he drew a burning breath into his lungs, he set Torio’s shirt afire.
That was nothing, out in an instant.
But the instant was long enough for Maldek to recover-and this time when he reached for Torio his hands sent currents of pain through the Reader!
“Give it up, Torio,” said Maldek. “The woman is mine!”
“No!” Torio gasped, struggling to break free. “Melissa is mine-you have no right to her!”
He remembered his powers once again, and drove the pain backward into Maldek, conjuring the searing of cold fire into the sorcerer’s nerves as he tried to burn him out, put him back to what he had been, helpless to force Melissa-
“Torio! Torio!”
It was Melissa’s horrified voice that broke his concentration, her cool hands that touched his, breaking him free from Maldek and taking the cold fire into herself.
Only then did he realize that his hands had been about Maldek’s throat, choking the life from him. He felt her disbelief at what he had done-and sank into self-loathing as he realized that he had been brawling mindlessly over the woman he loved, as if she were a piece of property. Shame burned his face.
But Maldek grasped his opportunity. Melissa was touching him. Torio was too distracted to oppose him.
The Master Sorcerer grasped Melissa’s wrists and pulled her to him, reaching out to take over her mind again, drawing her face to his for a kiss—
From Melissa, the white fire burned through him for just one moment, shocking him into dropping her hands, staring at herAs she stared back in shock. Then she looked down at her hands, concentrated, and Torio Read the cold fire flow through her, too-as it should have been at her command ever since they had visited the plane of power.
Maldek, Melissa, and Torio all climbed to their feet. Maldek reached toward Melissa again, but she looked up into his eyes and said coldly, “Do not touch me.”
Then she turned to the Reader. “And you, Torio-I thought you loved me. But Maldek brought out your true feelings-exactly the same as his. Conquest! Proof of power! All you want is to possess me!”
There was no hiding Torio’s shame in the feelings Maldek had brought out of his subconscious. For that moment he had, indeed, wanted Melissa not for herself but as the prize he battled for.
When he could not reply, Melissa turned and fl
ed down the hall to the stairs leading to her own room.
One by one, the others followed, going silently to their own chambers, leaving Maldek standing alone, knowing that there were now two people capable of countering his powers.
“But why won’t you stay?” Melissa asked Torio a few days later.
“Why will you?” he demanded in return. “Melissa, I’m so ashamed-my abuse of power caused you pain, but at least this time no one died.”
“No-/ am ashamed,” she replied. “Maldek tricked us both. You had not slept for two days. Of course he was able to bring out your darker instincts. I should have known what he was doing.”
“So should I,” said Torio, “with Maldek as an example of how unlimited power releases those instincts! I didn’t know such feelings were in me, Melissa. I cannot ever trust myself again until I learn how to control under every possible stress.
“Come with me-there must be other lands where people have both Reading and Adept powers, and use them without doing harm. They must have ways of training people to use power responsibly, as the Academies do for Reading.”
Melissa sighed. “Torio, I am a healer, and there is a whole land here in need of healing.”
“Maldek-”
“-is never going to change,” she replied. “Anyone can see that. The only thing that will keep him from destroying his land altogether is a counterbalance-someone with powers equal to his.”
“You,” he was forced to admit. “You saved his life, Melissa-and now you are responsible for him.”
“Yes,” she agreed. “When I realized that, I was able to tap the power. So you understand why I cannot go with you?”
He could not deny that he understood-but neither could he deny the imperative he felt more strongly with every passing day-a call from somewhere far to the east, lands no one he had ever met had visited.
He had spoken the words that brought Melissa here, to her destiny. Now he had to face the fact that his lay elsewhere. “It is as Maldek said-I found what I didn’t know I was looking for: a direction for my life. But I don’t know what lies in that direction.”
“Will you come back?” Melissa asked.
“I… I cannot answer that,” he said truthfully. “If I can return, Melissa, I will.”
“I love you,” she said softly. “I wish…”
“I do, too,” he replied, “but the time is not right for us to be together. I love you, Melissa-but only the gods know whether we will ever meet again. If we do, we will be different people, for we both have much to discover about life, and about ourselves.”
Melissa was not the only one of their party to stay behind; Astra’s mother, Cassandra, would not return to the Savage Empire with her daughter. “Even my poor powers are needed here,” she explained. “This was once the happiest home I ever knew. Now I have the chance to make it happy again.”
But Zanos and Astra had obligations to the Savage Alliance, to Lilith in particular, and so they perforce must leave once Madura showed signs that it would recover from the havoc of the battle of the sorcerers.
Torio sailed with them down the river to the sea, between banks beginning to show the first signs of green in recovery from the devastation. The sun shone, and once clouds came up and produced a warm shower. Maldek’s land would flourish under Melissa’s care-and Torio knew she had the strength to keep the Master Sorcerer in line.
They sailed across the narrow channel, and put Torio ashore just south of Brettonia. Not knowing where he was going, he found his feet instinctively taking the path while his newly opened eyes fastened on the horizon. Carrying only a small bundle of necessities, Gray trotting happily at his heels, he turned toward the east in search of his own destiny.
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