Empress Unborn

Chapter One

Aradia, Lady Adept of the Savage Empire, paced the halls of Castle Blackwolf as she waited impatiently for her husband, Lenardo, to bring home her brother, Wulfston.

I’m already thoroughly tired of being pregnant, she thought, and I still have six months to go!

She wondered if Lenardo was humoring her, or if he, too, was concerned about Wulfston. Her brother had invited them to come for a celebration, but once they arrived he did not seem happy with their company.

In fact, today he had walked out in the middle of a family gathering.

And Lenardo had followed him, taking Julia-but not Aradia.

I shouldn’t ride horseback at this stage of my pregnancy, she reminded herself. Nonetheless, it felt as if her husband had chosen his adopted daughter over his wife.

I will not have such irrational thoughts! Aradia told herself. Lenardo loves me. He will help me through this pregnancy, and afterward I will regain all my powers.

But it galled her to rely on others, when all her life she had depended on her own strong Adept powers.

Only six more months, she reminded herself, laying a hand on her abdomen. Alone, she could hardly tell there was a second life growing within her. With Lenardo, she had Read the tiny living creature that would become a little girl… but it did not seem real to her.

Sometimes Aradia worried that she had no feelings of maternity. Physically, she noticed nothing so far except a slight thickening of her body; she could still move freely, and of course her powers kept her from the sickness many women suffered in their early months.

But those powers were weakening. She was so strong an Adept that only she would notice, but there was a change from day to day in the effort it took to perform any but the most ordinary Adept functions.

And for what? To give Lenardo a child… when he was so obviously contented with the one he had adopted? Perhaps if the child were a son, rather than another daughter. But not even an Adept could govern that.

Where was Lenardo? Why hadn’t he brought Wulfston back? Aradia strode to the tower stairs, and climbed up to where a Watcher stood waiting for signals. There were none. The day was calm, the land serene.

“Lord Wulfston is riding toward the sea, my lady,” the Watcher told her.

Just then flashes of light flickered from a hilltop beyond which lay the ocean. “There is a ship putting people ashore,” the Watcher translated, although Aradia knew the code. “My lord is riding to investigate.”

But how could Wulfston have known? No message had been brought to him. Why had the ship not sailed into the harbor at Dragon’s Mouth? Was it a prearranged meeting?

The Watchers’ signals began again-fast and furious!

Aradia read them as they came in, her heart sinking. Her brother was under Adept attack!

Julia rode happily at her father’s side. Lenardo was shielding his thoughts by bracing for the use of Adept power, but Julia could still Read his excitement.

She was certain he’d had one of his precognitive flashes, but he had learned to shield so that he did not catch up every Reader in the vicinity in his visions. Julia hoped this one meant action. She had eagerly looked forward to their visit to Castle Blackwolf, but it ad turned out as boring as her days in Zendi.

e adventure than most people have in a lifetime. When Lenardo took her from the people who would have killed her for her Reading powers, she had become part of the small group of Readers and Adepts who defeated Drakonius, brought down the Aventine Empire, and created their own Savage Empire.

But then her father had married Aradia, and while they cleaned out the hill bandits and forestalled insurrections to establish a firm rule, Julia had spent most of her time studying, usually with old Master Clement, the Master of Masters among Readers.

Master Clement had been Lenardo’s teacher, and she was fortunate indeed to have the tutelage of the Master of Masters. Nevertheless, Julia often ached for the action of her younger days. Todays ride after a petulant Lord Wulfston was the closest thing to an adventure she had had in months!

As Julia and Lenardo topped the crest of the hill over which Wulfston had disappeared, they saw a ship anchored not far off shore. It had put down boats, in which people were rowing toward land.

Wulfston was already down on the beach, riding to greet these strangers. He became blank to Julia’s Reading as he braced Adept powers-

Thunderbolts exploded around the lone rider!

Wulfston leaped from his saddle and hit the ground rolling, bouncing to his feet in an Adept’s fighting stance.

The Lord Adept used his power to deflect the thunderbolts. People began clambering out of the boats.

He sent three of them sprawling on the sand in Adept sleep.

From their vantage point, urging their horses down the hill, Lenardo and Julia saw Wulfston’s attackers fan out, dividing his attention. He needed a Reader at his side!

Julia kicked her horse.

“No!” her father warned her. “We can’t help Wulfston if we fall down the cliff.” And he continued to guide his horse along the precarious path.

Julia did the same, but her attention was seized by the impact of a bolt of lightning on the beach.

She looked and Read: Wulfston was momentarily blinded, and his horse, Storm, screamed and fell, taking long seconds to die in an agony of burnt flesh.

Julia fought nausea, deliberately turning her attention to guiding her own mount down the steep trail.

When she dared to Read the beach again, she saw that Wulfston had identified the most powerful Adept among his attackers: a tall man standing in one of the boats. Under the full fury of a Lord Adept nearing the peak of his powers, the man gasped once, and fell unconscious into the surf.

With a glance, Wulfston dropped another man rushing at him from the right.

But not even a Lord Adept could keep up such steady use of his powers! If someone still on the ship were an Adept-

Apparently no one was. Wulfston walked into the waves to grasp the last boat and beach it. There were only two people now in it: a woman and a little boy, huddled together in fear.

At the bottom of the hill, Julia and Lenardo spurred their horses.

Wulfston whirled at their approach, braced again.

Julia expected the Lord Adept to make some joke about their belated rescue attempt. Instead he stared as if he hardly knew them, until Lenardo demanded, “Are you all right?”

Then the old Wulfston was back, releasing his Adept mental stance on a wave of inner amusement. “Yes, I’m all right,” he said. “But-” He sobered as he glanced toward the smoldering corpse of his favorite horse.

Julia Read weariness overtaking him now that the danger was past. After such rapid and extensive use of his powers, a Lord Adept needed to rest. Wulfston, though, started toward the man he had knocked out of the boat, who floated facedown in the water.

Lenardo swung down off his horse and helped Wulfston drag the man ashore. “Why did you come out to face these people alone?”

“I didn’t,” Wulfston replied shortly.

“Well, you must have had some reason to leave a celebration at your own castle and go riding this far south! I should have been Reading.”

Julia could Read her lather’s guilt. He could easily have Read the ship from Castle Blackwolf if he had not been relaxed, his attention on family and friends.

But Wulfston could not Read, and was pursuing his own train of thought. “I was… restless. Something drew me to this place, to these people.”

As she studied the people who had come ashore, Julia was not surprised that Wulfston had gone out to meet them. “But why did they attack you?” she asked.

“I don’t know, Julia,” Wulfston replied. “I don’t even know who they are.”

“You don’t?” she asked, Reading only bafflement from him. “But Wulfston, they’re all black-just like you!”

The Watchers reported Wulfston’s defeat of his attackers, so Aradia had calmed herself by the time her family returned to the castle. It had cost all her patience to obey Lenardo’s instructions to stay, after he finally bethought himself to contact her.

After all the excitement was over.

Aradia’s Reading abilities were minimal, but Lenardo was the most powerful Reader yet known. He and Wulfston were rowing out to the ship before his mind touched hers, letting her look through his eyes, Read through his powers that her brother was unharmed.

Assigning Julia to escort their captives to the castle, the two lords boarded the ship and instructed the Nubian captain and crew to move the ship into Dragon’s Mouth.

Their interrogation of the ship’s crew provided little information. The ship had been hired by one Sukuru, the Adept who had attacked Wulfston. He and the others who had gone ashore were the only passengers, and the captain had asked no questions about their strange destination. They paid him, and he took them where they wanted to go. All the way from Africa.

The mystery plagued Aradia long after Lenardo broke contact, and she went down to see the captives being brought to the castle. Sukuru was carriea in unconscious. The other men were obviously awed, and the woman with the little boy would say nothing. She was veiled, so that only her eyes showed, but mahogany skin was revealed around her eyes and on her hands. Every one of these people was as black as Wulfston.

More irrational thoughts flickered through Aradia’s mind: in retaliation for her jealousy of Lenardo’s adopted daughter, some god she didn’t believe in had sent these people to take away her beloved adopted brother.

But Wulfston had not come from Africa.

His parents did, she reminded herself.

What if he were the long-lost heir to an African throne?

Then why did they attack him?

Besides, he had his own throne right here, his own lands, his own people.

And he is feeling restless, unhappy. …

The moon was riding high by the time Lenardo and Wulfston returned. Lenardo wanted Aradia to go right to bed, but she insisted on talking to Wulfston first.

She knew where to find him: an Adept had to replenish his strength, and his cook had prepared him a meal worthy of three ordinary men. He should have eaten hours ago, and long since been asleep, so it was little wonder Aradia found him uncooperative.

“But why did you go out there in the first place?” she wanted to know. She was really asking why he seemed so alien, and his response only heightened the impression.

“Aradia, why do you ask me when you know I don’t have the answer? Don’t give me that innocent look.

I know that you were in contact with Lenardo the whole time.”

You’re wrong there, little brother, she thought, but Wulfston continued, “For the last time, I don’t know why I left a celebration I’m supposed to be hosting and went riding along the cliffs. Now, will you please leave me alone?”

His harsh words wounded. Reader or no, Wulfston must have realized it, for he reached across the table to put his hand over hers. “I’m sorry. I–I guess I’m more upset than I want to admit… especially about losing Storm like that.”

She nodded in sympathy. Wulfston had planned to use the beautiful stallion to improve his stock, but it was more than that. He had always had a strong affinity for animals.

“Do you think it’s possible,” she asked tentatively, “that you might have… Read that the ship was there?”

To learn Read was his fondest dream-and Aradia, too, yearned to meet her brother mind to mind.

There were times, such as now, when words were inadequate.

But Wulfston shook his head. “If I could sense a strange ship several miles away-which neither Lenardo nor Julia did until they started following me-then I should be able to pick up someone’s thoughts nearby.

But nothing has changed for me. I don’t know what drew me into that confrontation, but it wasn’t Reading. I’m still your mind-blind little brother,” he said with a rueful chuckle.

Yet something had drawn him away from his family- something that frightened Aradia.

When she went upstairs to the room she shared with Lenardo, her husband was already in bed, although still awake. His mind met hers, Reading her conversation with Wulfston and the vague, unsettling fears this day had brought.

Without speaking, Lenardo got up and pulled on a soft woolen robe against the castle’s chill. Aradia’s maid was in the antechamber, waiting to help her mistress undress, but Lenardo went to the door and told her, “Go on to bed, Devasin. I will help the Lady Aradia tonight.”

Devasin handed Lenardo Aradia’s chamber garments, and Lenardo closed the door. Then he turned to his wife. “You are upset.”

“My brother was attacked today.”

“His attackers were fools. Aradia, their combined powers are nothing to Wulfston’s. He didn’t need my help, or Julia’s. By the time we got there, the battle was over.”

“I know. Yet… Lenardo, I have such a strange feeling about these people. Why have they come here, all the way from Africa?”

“We’ll find out tomorrow,” he reassured her, and reached to take off her outer robe of silver-bordered velvet. Then he unhooked the satin overgarment, and helped her out of the layers of silk undergarments and into her chamber robe.

She didn’t really need the help, of course, but her husband’s hands made every move a caress, soothing away her unexplained anxiety.

When she sat down and began to unbraid her hair, Lenardo’s strong hands took over that function, too, untangling the pale blond strands, then brushing them smooth.

Such ministrations were not routine. Lenardo did not even have a valet, having grown up in an Academy of Readers. Once he had professed surprise that a Lady Adept should require a maid to dress her, but he accepted Devasin as custom, and usually left Aradia to her care.

Tonight, though, when Aradia needed the comfort of her husband’s touch, he gave it, putting her to bed as tenderly as he might a child. Then he lay down beside her, taking her in his arms.

Lenardo was a tall man, with a body well formed by years of work and exercise. Aradia rested against him, feeling the lean hardness of his muscles irrationally reassuring. Even diminished by pregnancy, her powers far outweighed the physical strength of any man, even one as huge as Zanos the Gladiator.

Nonetheless, she felt secure in her husband’s arms.

Perhaps it was that Lenardo, with only Reading and no Adept powers, had proved his strength to her when they first met, defending her with his sword when she had exhausted her powers in their first battle with Drakonius. Later, Lenardo had learned to develop the Adept portion of his powers, but since exercising the abilities to affect the physical world with the mind impeded Reading, he had never become a Lord Adept. Master Reader satisfied him, and he satisfied her, in every possible way.

“Lenardo?” she murmured.

“Hush,” he said. “Go to sleep. We’ll talk in the morning.”

“No-tell me. What did you see today?”

“What do you mean?”

“I thought you were just humoring me when you went after Wulfston-but now I wonder. You had one of your visions, didn’t you?”

For a moment he didn’t answer. Then, “Yes,” he said reluctantly.

“What was it? Did you see him being attacked?”

Again the pause, and even though Lenardo was far too skilled to let someone of Aradia’s meager ability Read what he didn’t want her to, she knew with a wife’s certain knowledge that he was considering lying to her. But he didn’t. “I saw Wulfston on board ship, that Nubian woman and her child beside him, sailing away to the south.”

Her skin prickling with cold sweat, Aradia whispered, “I was right! They are here to take him away!”

His arms tightened about her. “We don’t know that. Aradia, you know how my flashes of precognition are. Yes, they always come true-but never in the way I expect. Wulfston may just sail a few miles south on that ship. Or he may decide to go and do some trading in our visitors’ lands.”

“After they attacked him the moment they saw him?”

“He was not a prisoner in my vision,” Lenardo offered. “He was standing freely on deck, urging the captain to hurry southward. Aradia, he wasn’t hurt, and he was clearly in charge. Wulfston is a grown man-you can’t think of him as your little brother forever.” — “Little, no. But Lenardo, he is my brother forever.

Remember what Torio said? ‘Wulfston must seek his destiny far away, only to find where he began.’ ‘

“Torio!” Lenardo snorted. “Don’t start me thinking about Torio, Aradia. I should never have let him go off to Madura, just when he had developed a new talent. And of all the irresponsible acts after he learned Adept powers there, to go wandering off who knows where instead of coming home here, where you and Master Clement and I could train him!”

Aradia let him fume, knowing that having a second student he had trained go off to use his powers in unknown and possibly dangerous ways frightened Lenardo. He felt responsible for those he taught.

It was his search for Galen, the student who had gone over to his enemies, that had originally brought Lenardo into Aradia’s path some five years ago.

There was nothing she could say, except that she knew Torio to be strong-willed and unlikely to be used as Drakonius had used Galen. But the boy was young, inexperienced. He had learned strange things in Madura, according to the reports he had sent with Zanos and Astra. Lenardo’s fears that he might be tricked into using his developing powers for evil were certainly justified, and Aradia agreed wholeheartedly that Torio should have returned to his friends. But he hadn’t. And there was nothing Lenardo could do about it except worry.

At last he came back to the original subject. “Anyway, prophecies are just like my visions: incomplete and misleading.”

“Not always,” said Aradia, running her hand over Lenardo’s right forearm. She could feel the brand embedded into his flesh, a dragon’s head that showed red against his skin, even years after the wound had healed. “In the days of the white wolf and the red dragon,” she murmured.

He held her close. “Yes-we finally did bring peace to all our lands,” he agreed, looking up at the room’s ceiling. Wulfston had decorated this suite of rooms especially for Lenardo and Aradia. Even in the dim light their emblems, Aradia’s white wolfs head and Lenardo’s red dragon, could be made out, entwined in the painted relief.

“And if Wulfston has to find where he began,” Aradia added, snuggling sleepily into a more comfortable position against Lenardo, “he was born in a village between Tiberium and Zendi. So even if he does go far away, he’ll have to… come home again.”

The next day, their uninvited African guests were brought before Wulfston, who sat on his throne, flanked by a formidable array of Readers and Adepts: Lenardo, Aradia, Julia, and Wulfston’s Reader, Rolf.

Sukuru, revived and healthy, was shaking in his sandals as he apologized profusely, stumbling over his words in the language called Trader’s Common.

The tall, gaunt black man seemed to have only minor Adept powers. He insisted they would never have attacked Wulfston had they known him to be the Lord Adept they sought, but when they saw another black man, wrapped in a plain woolen cloak, they had thought him one of their enemies, trying to thwart their expedition.

They had expected to find “the most excellent Lord of the Black Wolf,” Sukuru explained in annoyingly obsequious terms, to be “as you are now, most gracious lord, crowned in gold and seated upon a throne.”

Aradia listened, Reading fear, but a certain level of sincerity in the man. She didn’t like him: he was here to ask a stranger to do what he feared to do himself.

Sukuru and his small band claimed to represent “many tribes and peoples who share a dream of freedom.” He told of a powerful witch-queen, Z’Nelia, who held in thrall a large number of African lands.

“Besides her own formidable powers, she has many followers with powers of their own, as well as a huge and powerful army.”

Z’Nelia sounded like Drakonius-and Drakonius had been defeated.

“But why come so far to seek my help?” Wulfston asked.

Sure enough, the story of the defeat of Drakonius had traveled as far as Africa. But, it seemed, the version popular there was a distorted one in which Wulfston had defeated Drakonius in single combat.

Julia snickered, and Aradia could feel Wulfston smother laughter. “That’s a song,” he explained, “created by a bard seeking favor in my court. East of here, in the city of Zendi, you would hear a much different version, celebrating the exploits of my sister and her husband.”

The puzzlement of the envoys was clear to Read when Wulfston identified Aradia as his sister. But they did not ask; they were too eager to press their case. Despite Wulfston’s insistence that only an alliance of Adepts and Readers could defeat such a strong opponent, they wanted one single champion-someone the equal of their fabled Z’Nelia.

When Sukuru’s words won no promises from Wulfston, he called forward the veiled woman, Chulaika.

She spoke of oppression, slavery, and murder, begging, “Please, Lord Wulfston-come to our aid. Only a great Lord like yourself can help us now.”

“You are a Son of Africa,” Sukuru said suddenly. “Surely you will not refuse to help your own people?”

Aradia smothered a gasp of indignation, but Wulfston replied exactly as she would have hoped: “My own people are right here. I was not born in your land, but in the Aventine Empire, where my parents were proud to have earned citizenship. I will consult with my allies to determine what help we can offer you-but you must understand that I cannot leave my lands unattended to go adventuring in yours.”

That afternoon, Aradia was examined by Astra, who was acting as healer for her on this expedition.

Astra and her husband, Zanos, were direct allies of Lady Lilith, and represented her at this meeting; they were another couple brought together by the turmoil surrounding the fall of Tiberium. Astra would soon be taking her tests for the rank of Master Reader-even though she was a married woman-while Zanos was a former gladiator in the Aventine arena.

If Lenardo and Aradia were an unlikely team, the quiet, slender Reader and the huge, flame-haired gladiator seemed an incomprehensible match. Yet they were obviously quite happy together. Zanos had minor abilities as both Reader and Adept, while Astra, like Lenardo, had developed some Adept powers, but would rarely sacrifice her Reading skills to practice them.

“The baby is doing very well,” Astra told Aradia, “but you are tired. You should take a nap this afternoon.”

“I’m not tired.”

“My lady, do not deny your condition to a Reader. Your husband will say the same.”

“But it’s such a lovely day,” Aradia protested.

“There is no need to stay indoors,” said Astra. “Come with me into the herb garden. The walls will protect you from the breeze.”

So Aradia was installed on a chaise in the herb garden near the castle’s kitchen. Astra remained with her for a while, gathering herbs which did not grow in Lilith’s lands, and then left her alone, not protesting that Aradia was reading rather than sleeping.

Later that afternoon, Lenardo’s mind touched Aradia’s. “Come join me?” she suggested.

“Gladly. Wulfston is with me.”

Wulfston and Lenardo, it seemed, had been discussing their uninvited guests. “It doesn’t make sense,”

explained Wulfston. “Why would they come to strangers for help? There’s something Sukuru’s not telling.”

“And that I can’t Read,” added Lenardo. “We’re going to try to draw them out at dinner tonight.”

Aradia smiled wryly. “And then you and Astra will provoke the rest of us by Reading something important, but being bound by your Reader’s Oaths not to reveal it!”

“You are bound by the same Oath, Aradia,” her husband reminded her.

“Yes, but how likely am I to Read any secrets? I still can’t even Read our baby. I tried again today, but Astra had to Read with me.”

“At least you can Read,” Wulfston reminded her. “I won’t get to meet my niece until after she’s born!”

When Wulfston had gone, Lenardo said, “Our daughter is developing well. Read with me.”

Through her husband’s powers, Aradia Read the shape in her womb, the tiny being already equipped with arms and legs, eyes and mouth. But there was no consciousness yet. “Soon,” Lenardo promised.

“Soon she will become aware, and then I’m sure you’ll be able to Read her, Aradia.”

She wanted to. She wanted to love the baby, Lenardo’s child, product of their love. But how could she love someone she didn’t know? Automatically, she braced as if to use her powers so Lenardo would not Read her thought: I don’t feel like a mother- I just feel as if I have some nagging minor illness draining my powers.

At dinner that night, Julia watched and Read with interest as Lenardo, Aradia, and Wulfston told their African guests how they had first met and joined their powers to defeat Drakonius. Part of her preparation to govern lands of her own one day was to learn Trader’s Common, and she found that she had little trouble following the conversation.

Lenardo ended the story by emphasizing the strength of their relationships: “So Julia is my adopted daughter, though I don’t think either of us often remembers that she’s adopted. Aradia is my wife, and that makes her brother Wulfston my brother, too.”

Sukuru asked, “How comes it, Lord Wulfston, that these pale folk claim you kin?”

“Ties of love may be as strong as ties of blood,” Wulfston replied. Julia glanced at Lenardo, trying to take comfort in the thought. She often wondered if the baby Aradia carried would take her place in his affections.

Her eyes focused on the ring her father wore, matching the one on Aradia’s hand. Wolf and dragon intertwined in gleaming gold. Their wedding rings, a gift from Wulfston. Julia knew he had meant them as a symbol of unity. To Julia, though, they seemed to mean that Lenardo was joined to Aradia, shutting his adopted daughter out. She knew that was an unfair thought, and tried to put it out of her mind.

Wulfston was telling how Aradia’s father, Nerius, had spirited him out of the Aventine Empire when his Adept powers manifested at the age of three, and the folk of his village would have killed him. In those days, only Readers were accepted in the Empire, and any child who showed Adept talent was killed.

Aradia finished up, declaring that the child she carried “will not be only our daughter; she will be Julia’s sister, and Wulfston’s niece. That is the kind of family alliance you must have to fight a tyrant.” Julia Read only sincerity from her stepmother. Why did she distrust her?

Sukuru expressed amazement, but seemed disappointed at Wulfston’s advice to raise an alliance of people with powers in his own lands to fight the tyrant. Although he said, “We will heed your advice, most excellent lord,” Julia Read that he did not really mean the words.

With her mind, she reached out to Lenardo, but he replied with an unverbalized warning to keep mentally silent. Were there Readers among the Africans that she had not recognized?

Her father was on his guard-if these people were hiding something, Lenardo would find it out.

Sukuru, meanwhile, was presenting Wulfston with a bottle of wine from his native land, insisting that they all drink a toast “to our success in gaining from you the means to save our land.”

Now what did he mean by that? Julia wished she could get her hands on something of Sukuru’s. She had one of the unusual Reading talents, the ability to Read the history of an object by touching it, including the stories of the people who had handled it. Perhaps before they left, she could touch something of this man’s and find out his secrets.

Meanwhile, the wine was poured from a vessel like none Julia had ever seen before. It was pointed on the bottom, so it couldn’t stand on a table, and painted in brilliant, jewel-like colors.

Julia reached for her goblet as soon as the wine was poured into it, but her father was right there with the water pitcher. When would he believe she was grown up enough to drink her wine like an adult, not watered down like a baby?

Sukuru raised his goblet. “To the defeat of Z’Nelia- and anything we must do to free our land from her evil!”

As she raised the goblet to her lips, smelling exotic spices in the wine, Julia suddenly Read Sukuru’s only half-hidden thought: “Z’Nelia will be pleased with the way I have fooled them-they’re completely unprepared for her attack!” And with it came a picture of an armada of heavily armed ships full of black warriors, waiting out of Reading range.

Aradia, having Read it through Lenardo, leaned over and whispered to Wulfston, but Lenardo just took a drink of the wine, giving no reaction to indicate that he had Read the man’s secret thought.

Julia followed her father’s example. Wulfston called for sweets and fruits and a drier wine, for even Julia found the one their guests had served them unbearably sweet and overloaded with spices. She took a long drink of plain water to wash the taste out of her mouth.

Why didn’t Lenardo challenge Sukuru with what he had Read? Or ask Wulfston to end the dinner, so they could meet and make plans? Julia Read agitation from Aradia, who would want to alert all their allies, and prepare for invasion.

As the musicians played once more, Lenardo watched Sukuru through slitted eyes. Julia cautiously Read with him, careful not to let thoughts or feelings project, just as her father had taught her. Astra, sitting farther down the table, Read with them, while Aradia braced her Adept powers, for she could not possibly Read without being Read herself.

Sukuru could not be a very good Reader to make that slip-if he was a Reader at all. Lenardo was the only Reader known who could Read any Reader at all without being detected. Astra could do it with many Readers, but Julia was just learning. She felt warmly proud that her father trusted her now, and she fulfilled that trust, Reading only through him, making no attempt to reach Sukuru’s mind on her own.

Lenardo found only Sukuru’s feelings, however; he was now lightly braced for the use of Adept powers, his thoughts unReadable. When Lords Adept like Wulfston and Aradia braced for full use of powers, even their feelings became unReadable. But Sukuru was no Lord Adept. Although he kept them from Reading his thoughts, a definite smugness came through, and something more…

When she recognized it, Julia dropped out of the rapport before she allowed herself to react. Closing her mind in upon itself as Master Clement had patiently taught her, she realized, He was lying! There was no invasion fleet!

Lenardo’s hand touched her arm. When she looked up at him, he smiled at her and nodded, and she glowed with the knowledge that she had done well in her father’s eyes-and under circumstances in which a childish slip might have proved fatal. Sukuru did not know they had discovered his deception.

“What do you think he thinks we’ll do?” Julia asked once they were in their suite of apartments after Wulfston had dismissed the musicians.

“Gather our allies, perhaps,” replied Lenardo. “Then I suppose he’ll try to get us all to join in his fight.”

“That’s a…” Aradia paused to yawn. “… terribly foolish plan.”

“What’s keeping Wulfston?” Lenardo wondered.

“I told him to come here,” Aradia replied, and yawned again. It was contagious; both Lenardo and Julia yawned.

“It’s been a long day,” said Lenardo. “I’ll have Devasin help you get ready for bed. You too, Julia. I’ll go get Wulfston.”

Julia didn’t know why she was so sleepy, when she should be excited. In the next room, she could hear Devasin telling Aradia to lie down-something about being asleep on her feet. Julia put on her nightgown, and a robe over it, wondering why her father hadn’t come back yet with Wulfston.

As she sat down on the edge of her bed to put on her slippers, a wave of dizziness swept over her. She tried to Read for Lenardo, but couldn’t find him… and then couldn’t remember why she wanted him as she sank onto the bed, sound asleep.

Aradia woke to a touch on her forehead. Her brother was bending over her.

“Wulfston, what-? Why have I slept so late?” she asked as she realized that strong morning sunshine was slanting between the curtains. She sat up, looking around, and remembered last night. Her husband had gone for Wulfston. “Where’s Lenardo?” she demanded.

“Aradia, we were drugged,” Wuflston explained. “The wine Sukuru served us-”

“Drugged?” A bolt of pure fear shot through her body, and she clasped her arms across her abdomen.

“The baby! Oh, Wulfston-get Lenardo to Read whether the baby’s been harmed!”

“I don’t know where he’s gone,” Wulfston replied.

“Aradia? Wulfston?” It was Julia’s voice at the door to the adjoining chamber.

“Julian-come in!” Aradia cried. “Can you Read where Lenardo is?”

“Not in the castle,” the girl replied at once. “What’s the matter?”

“Please,” Aradia told her, “Read the baby-see if she’s been poisoned.”

“Poisoned!” Julia’s eyes grew round with horror, but she laid a hand on Aradia’s abdomen and concentrated. Aradia Read with her, finding the baby still there, its tiny heart beating as usual. “No,” Julia said. “At least I

can’t Read anything but a healthy baby, Aradia. I’m sure Father will confirm that.”

“You don’t have a headache, Aradia,” Wulfston said, thus telling her that he must have been so affected.

“Your body instinctively protected your child-you probably went directly into healing sleep and purged the poison from your blood at once. The drug knocked me out so completely^ that I couldn’t cleanse it away until I woke this morning.”

She remembered how sleepy she had been-Devasin had had to support her. Yes, it had been the same weariness she knew when her body needed to heal an injury.

But when she asked again for Lenardo, Wulfston shook his head. “Our uninvited guests have gone.

Perhaps he followed them.”

Aradia saw that Julia didn’t believe that any more than she did. She remembered the moment Sukuru had let slip the knowledge that a fleet was on the way to attack them: Lenardo had covered his surprise by taking a long swallow of the drugged wine.

As Aradia drew breath to say it, though, Julia suddenly spoke, her eyes focused on something not in the room with them. “I can Read as far as the harbor, and I can’t find Father anywhere.” Then she gasped.

“The ship! Wulfston-the ship is gone!”

“Julia,” Aradia demanded, “is there really a fleet of ships out there?”

“No,” the girl replied, and Aradia heard the respect in her voice. “Father Read that it was a lie.”

“Designed to fool Readers!” said Aradia. “And it did. In the excitement of thinking Sukuru was the point of an invasion, nobody Read the poison in the wine!”

Wulfston went to awaken Zanos and Astra, for a Magister Reader could go out of body to Read over great distances. Astra verified that there was no invasion fleet, but she found Sukuru’s vessel, and with it Lenardo-still asleep, and locked in the hold.

Wulfston called for a ship.

Aradia heard the news from Astra, who came to verify her baby’s health. Zanos and Astra were going with Wulfston, the Magister Reader explained. With their abilities and Wulfston’s, they would quickly catch the fleeing vessel.

Aradia agreed. As soon as Astra had gone, she began preparing herself to join in the rescue of her husband. Dressed in serviceable garments for travel, she joined Wulfston in his room just as he was turning his private coffer out on the bed.

It was just a precaution-taking enough money for a long journey-but nonetheless it made Aradia uneasy. “Hurry, Wulfston,” she said. “We don’t want to miss the tide.”

“Aradia-” he began.

“I’m going with you,” she told him firmly.

“No, you’re not.”

“Wulfston, it’s my husband they’ve taken!”

“And that’s his child you’re carrying,” he reminded her. “You were fortunate that the drug did not harm the baby-for Sukuru still let you drink the wine after he knew you were pregnant. You don’t know what these people are capable of if they have no care for the health of an unborn babe. Will you be as careless as they are? Will you take your child into the midst of Adept conflict?”

“I can take care of my baby and myself,” Aradia insisted.

As if the matter were settled, Wulfston turned away and began putting coins into a leather pouch.

He thought she wasn’t capable of helping! To prove her strength, she let her powers reach out to her brother, grasping control of his body, paralyzing his muscles.

As if her powers were nothing, he straightened and turned on her, moving as freely as if she had done nothing! “You see?” He spoke her own horrified thoughts. “Aradia, you just don’t have your old powers right now.”

It was true! She had always been stronger than

Wulfston. Now he was coming into the full strength of his powers, while hers…

She tried to fight down tears. I never cry, she told herself, but even that weakness would not be denied.

Wulfston saw, and gently put his arms around her. “Please… we both know it’s best that you stay here. I know it wont help for me to tell you not to worry, but I promise you this: we will bring Lenardo back to you, safe and sound. I swear it.”

It was just as difficult to persuade Julia that she could not go along. “If I’d only developed Adept powers instead of Reading!” the girl fumed as she and Aradia stood on the quay, watching Wulfston’s ship sail out through the entrance to Dragon’s Mouth.

“Julia, we need a good Reader here, to follow their progress,” Aradia told her.

Julia did not dignify that offering with a response. She knew she was no more able than Wulfston’s Reader, Rolf, to tell where Sukuru’s ship was out on the ocean- and since it would be even father away by the time Wulfston caught up with it, they would have only the Watchers’ reports from Readers closer to the action to let them follow Lenardo’s rescue.

The ship dropped below the horizon, but Julia could still Read it, and Aradia Read through the girl. For a long while they stood there, but finally Julia put out her hand to Aradia-something the girl had never done before. “Let’s go back to the castle,” she said. “There’s nothing more we can do.”

“We can prepare for a homecoming party,” Aradia suggested, and Julia managed a small smile.

Together, Lenardo’s wife and his daughter walked up to the end of the quay, where servants waited to take them back to Castle Blackwolf.

All that day, Watchers sent Readers’ reports on the progress of the two ships, but by morning there was nothing more. The last thing anyone Read was that they had disappeared into a storm.

A storm, Aradia wondered, or an Adept battle? If the latter, then surely they would be home soon, for Wulfston’s powers were far superior to Sukuru’s.

But the next day passed with no word, and then a third day. Aradia did not sleep well the first two nights; she kept waiting for Lenardo’s mind to touch hers, and would not deliberately put herself into deep slumber lest she miss his first contact. She knew he would go out of body, to tell her as soon as he was safely on his way home!

And when he didn’t, she knew that something was terribly wrong. Wulfston had not been able to catch Sukuru’s ship. She refused to face the worst possibility- that Lenardo and Wulfston were dead, whether in Adept battle or natural disaster.

No-they were her husband and her brother. If either were dead, surely she would know it!

So she faced the fact that it might be weeks or months before the two men she loved best could get themselves out of whatever predicament they were in and return to her. She nearly cursed the child in her womb that had turned her into a passive female who could do nothing but wait while her men were in danger.

But it was Lenardo’s child. Possibly the baby was all she would ever have of him. She lay down and folded her hands over her abdomen, trying once again to Read the child in her womb.

Frustrated, she realized that it was essential to keep herself healthy, and that meant sleeping. Deliberately, she used the mental exercises her father had taught her when she was a child, to put herself into a deep, restful sleep.

Aradia dreamed she was Reading her baby at last. Her mind took her inside her own body, and she saw the shape of her child, sleeping sweetly in its private ocean. It moved gently, drifting with its mother’s breathing.

She moved. The child was a girl-not an infant, but an infant-sized perfectly formed young woman, long golden hair drifting about her slender body. Her back was to Aradia, who approached slowly, wondering at the revelation. This was what her child-Lenardo’s child-would be.

As she came nearer, the girl’s body turned over, very slowly, to face her. The face was utterly beautiful, although the eyes were closed.

Still sleeping, still unconscious-when would there be an awareness for her to touch as Lenardo had promised?

Nonetheless, it was wonderful to see her child, so perfect, so beautiful, rosy-cheeked with health. She could count her fingers and toes, see that her limbs were straight and strong. Lenardo would be so proud of such a daughter!

As she watched, Aradia saw the girl’s soft pink lips begin to move-it was as if she were trying to speak.

“Yes!” Aradia urged. “Speak to me. I’m your mother. Tell me that you’re there, child!”

The lips moved again, but still Aradia could Read no thought, no mental presence. She went closer, looking into the beautiful face with its still-closed eyes fringed with dark lashes. If she watched the lips move, perhaps she could make out what her daughter was saying.

No… not quite. Not…

The child spoke. Very clearly, in a voice not of youth and innocence but of incredibly weary experience.

“Aradia. Mother. You and Lenardo have given me life. You owe me that-and after I am born, I will give you what I owe you. “

Bewildered, Aradia stared at the serene face, speaking such strange words. Then the girl’s eyes began to open-She woke up.

It was morning again, and she knew there had been no news of Wulfston and Lenardo, for she had left strict instructions that she was to be awakened if there were.

So she lay there for a moment, remembering her strange dream. I probably dreamed of our daughter grown up because if she were, she’d be able to help us now, she thought.

Again she tried to Read the child for herself-

— and touched something!

There was an awareness!

It was incoherent, no more than a vague sensing of life-but what did she expect of a babe in the womb, not to be born for six months yet?

Oh, Lenardo, she thought, your child is conscious! Come home safely, my husband, as soon as you can. Meanwhile, I will care for our daughter, until you can see her for yourself!