[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

//The soldiers are far ahead of us now,// said Lenardo. //We can return to
the road, where we can move faster.//
//The watchers will tell everybody.//
Lenardo could Read that Wulfston's command to him to return was being relayed
throughout the land, but the message would have to be sent by foot or on
horseback into every settlement, for only the watchers knew the code of
flashing lights. By the time it had disseminated widely, Lenardo and Julia
would be in the no-man's-land near the border, where no one lived.
Page 88
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
It was incredibly easy for two Readers in a mind-blind society to elude
pursuit. Aradia could do nothing. Her powers were far less than Julia's.
//I was caught by watchers once, Julia. I won't be again, nor will you.//
The little girl might not have been able to do it alone. Lenardo estimated
that her range was about what his had been limited to by illness and
exhaustion the time Aradia's watchers had located him. But with Julia Reading
near and Lenardo far, they were able to use the good road to travel quickly
when there was no one about and leave it to skirt settlements and avoid other
people on the road.
They passed harvesters in the fields, making no attempt to hide when they
Read that these people had no idea that they were fugitives. There was a sharp
contrast between the well-clothed, well-fed, well-housed people they passed
and the hungry, hopeless people Lenardo had Read along this same road on his
journey northward last spring.So I have done some good, he thought.Aradia and
Wulfston will keep it up. They would never let their people suffer the way
Drakonius did.
//What did Drakonius do to Galen?// Julia's tenacious curiosity demanded to
be satisfied.
//I don't know all of it, child. When I found him, he was caged like an
animal. One time I Read Drakonius break the bones in Galen's hand as a
warning, he said. He healed him afterward, but that did not lessen Galen's
pain at the time.//
//Do you think Aradia or Lord Wulfston would do something like that?//
//Their methods are more subtle, Julia. Aradia once kept me locked in her
castle by planting in my mind the idea that I could not open the door of my
room. I don't know if you can understand that that is much more wicked than
outright torture.//
She thought it over. //If they can make people think whatever they want, why
don't they make us think we want to go back?//
//I don't think they could implant an idea in the mind of a healthy Reader.
They did it to me when I was very ill, while they had me in healing sleep. I
was not yet completely well when I found out what they had done, drove the
command from my mind, and escaped. So they know they cannot hold a Reader that
way. And Aradia tells me no one can be forced by that method to do something
he believes to be wrong. It may be that Drakonius tried to chain Galen's mind,
and Galen caused the avalanche to fall on Drakonius' army without knowing what
he was doing. But now we'll never know.//
//Did you kill Galen, Father?//
//No, not personally. I was guiding Aradia, Wulfston, Lilith, and Nerius.
They trapped Drakonius and Galen with the other Adepts and burned them to
death.//
He withdrew into his own thoughts, remembering having no time to think or to
grieve not over Galen and not over Nerius but having to go on into the combat
between the armies, with Drakonius' troops still fighting fiercely, not
knowing that their leader was dead.
At the mass funeral three days later, Lenardo had not been able to bring
Page 89
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
himself to speak for Galen. He could not believe that all the boy's bright
potential had died so horribly, nor was his ability to accept Galen's death
aided by the fact that those who had gone to collect the charred remains in
the burnt-out canyon found nothing but a few scattered bones.
Suddenly, imposed on the memory of that charred canyon, rose the vision that
had plagued him months before: Castle Nerius in ruins beneath the golden
harvest moon, Aradia dead
"Father! Father, they're coming back!"
Julia's cry jolted Lenardo back to the present. Four of Arkus' men were
indeed coming back toward them. He and Julia rode quickly over a swell of
ground, the only nearby shelter. On the other side, they reined in, got down
from their horses, and pulled the animals' heads down as they crouched,
waiting. The horses began to crop the stubble in the newly harvested field.
Lenardo wished for a moment that a field of grain shielded them, until he
realized that in an unharvested field they would have left a trampled trail to
lead the soldiers right to them.
The men were moving slowly, peering out on either side of the road. They
didn't expect to find their quarry in the fields, though. As they passed, one
of the men ordered, "Erik, Tav, ride around that patch of woods ahead, then
come through it toward us."
Lenardo Read the soldiers carefully. They were puzzled but doing their duty.
Why the Lord of the Land would be hiding from his own troops was a total
mystery. At least two of them were of the opinion that it was a war game to
see whether nonReaders could figure out how to capture someone who could Read
their every move, part of whatever plans Lord Lenardo and Lady Aradia had been
working on together.
Julia, Reading with Lenardo, smothered a giggle. He touched her tousled curls
and told her, //We won't have any trouble eludingthatkind of pursuit, will
we?//
When the soldiers were out of sight, Lenardo and Julia took to the road
again. The sun was low in the sky as they reached the part of the road that
had fallen into disrepair. Close to the wall, the road became a wide highway
again, but for many miles it narrowed to a badly rutted wagon track, full of
holes that could throw a horse if the rider was not careful.
Ironically, there was plenty of shelter here and no one to take shelter from.
The fields had been abandoned in Lenardo's childhood, and the woods encroached
on them, after all these years almost coming together to form a forest.
They were still more than two hours from Adigia, and Julia was getting tired
and cranky. They stopped to eat and rest, while Lenardo Read on ahead to find
Arkus setting a trap.
Every savage knew the danger of coming near the walls of the Aventine Empire
because of the Readers therein. Near the gates of Adigia, a huge area was kept
clear. Even in the blackest night, a Reader with bow and arrow could pick off
anyone attempting to approach the gates.
Lenardo had stood watch atop that wall many a time. It was routine duty for
boys from the Academy, from the ages of twelve to fifteen. What Arkus did not
know was that with the Academy gone and only three Readers now in the town,
there was no longer a Reader atop the tower at all times. There was none now,
just two guards from the garrison.
Page 90
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Torio was gone, of course, and the three Readers who had replaced him did not
know Lenardo's situation. Two of them did not even know Lenardo, a husband and
wife he Read just sitting down to their evening meal with a chubby little boy
of perhaps three. It was easy to Read them, not intruding, without their being
aware of him.
The third Reader was Secundus, who had been the healer at the Academy. He was
a few years older than Lenardo, a quiet, gentle man who had barely achieved
the rank of magister and perhaps might have been-denied it except that he was
skilled at healing, and such people were always badly needed. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]