Sorcerers of the Frozen Isles

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!”

Finally, since there was nothing they could do for Kwinn and Dirdra tonight, they retired to the rooms assigned them, and slept the sleep of utter exhaustion.

Torio woke in a cold sweat, out of a nightmare he could not remember. The castle was coming to life for the day. The guards were securing the drawbridge, which had just been let down, and servants scurried about, preparing for the awakening of their master and his guests.

When Torio sat up, Gray raised his head from where he had been sleeping at Torio’s feet in the huge bed. “You were on the floor when I fell asleep,” Torio informed him. “How did you get up here without waking me? Do you have Adept power, too?”

The dog stretched, then pushed his face under Torio’s chin until the Reader rubbed the big shaggy head.

That ritual completed, he jumped off the bed, went to the door, and whined. Torio opened the door for him, Reading the dog run down the stairs and across the courtyard, then over the drawbridge into the forest.

Apparently Gray’s not worried about me this morning, thought Torio, and Read the other nearby rooms.

Dirdra was in the dull sleep of emotional exhaustion, her face still showing signs that after the others had left last night she had cried herself to sleep. Kwinn was curled up atop the coverings at her feet-just as Gray had been on Torio’s bed.

Melissa still slept in her room across the hall, and next door Zanos and Astra were in one another’s arms, her head on his shoulder, one arm about his waist as if her small body could shield his great one. On either side of the bed, their swords were hung within easy reach. And what good are they against power like Maldek’s? Torio wondered.

He was Reading surfaces only, invading no one’s privacy-but he was wide awake and too tense to go back to sleep. What was the “game” Maldek intended to play with them? And where was the Master Sorcerer now?

In another wing of the castle, he Read Maldek… also asleep. So, the man was human after all.

Torio had slept in the nightshirt he had found laid out on his bed. The clothes he had worn last night were gone, but an embroidered robe hung over the chair by the bed, fur-lined slippers beneath it.

More demonstrations of power: someone had been in and out of the room, not only without waking Torio, but without disturbing Gray.

Furthermore, just as Torio put on the robe and slippers, a servant started up the stairs from the kitchen with breakfast on a tray. The woman was Reading him-inexpertly enough that she instantly attracted his attention, but Reading nonetheless- yet when she reached his door she became blank to Reading for a moment, and the door opened by itself.

Someone with both Reading and Adept powers employed as a serving maid? Another symbol of Maldek’s power.

“You be up early, young sir,” the woman said as she laid the tray on the table. “Have a good breakfast, and then Devon will be up to help you dress. The Master says you be welcome to explore the castle till he rises. You may find summat of interest in his library.”

“Thank you,” Torio replied. The smell of fresh-baked bread was too good to resist. There was fruit mixed with soft farmer’s cheese, as well, and a pot of fresh hot tea whose scent he did not recognize. As before, everything Read perfectly wholesome, so he ate and drank-and by that time Gray was back.

When the door opened by itself to admit the dog, Torio Read outward, amazed that anyone, except perhaps Maldek, could have been Reading the room without his knowing it.

But the man sweeping the dust out of the corners of the hall had been Reading the dog, not Torio.

Gray eagerly accepted the leftovers of Torio’s breakfast. “But that’s not enough for you,” he realized.

“We’ll go down to the kitchen and-” He stopped, smiling grimly. “No-we don’t even have to ask!”

This time the door opened to admit a manservant in Maldek’s black-and-silver livery, followed by a small boy with a platter of meat scraps and bones, and a bowl of water. Hesitantly, he set them before the huge dog, then scurried out of the room.

Gray set happily to his meal while Devon laid out clothing for Torio. The daytime garments were no less rich than last night’s robes, although the hose were woolen, as was the undershirt. He was given a satin shirt of an iridescent blue-green, covered by a knee-length tunic of the same reddish-brown wool as the hose, sleeveless and open-necked to show the shirt. The tunic was belted in soft leather.

Over that went a short fur vest, and then a fur-trimmed ankle-length robe of the reddish-brown wool, lined with blue-green satin.

Soft leather boots came up high on Torio’s calves-and fit as perfectly as if the cobbler had measured his feet! Finally, Devon adjusted a soft brimless hat on his head, something Torio was quite unaccustomed to. Winter cloaks had hoods where he came from, but no one required a head covering indoors. Here, though, the castle’s stone walls gave off a chill not completely cut by the heavy hangings.

“Now, sir,” said Devon, “you will be comfortable. Please feel free to explore. Perhaps the Master’s library-?”

Why does Maldek want me in his library? Torio wondered. Perhaps it was a trap. For a Reader?

Unlikely, as the lord of the castle must certainly know that his guests mistrusted him, and would be on guard.

So he dismissed Devon, deciding to remain right where he was-and Read the library.

It was a large room, with more books and scrolls than he had ever seen in one place. There was a desk with a huge candelabra, pens, a box of parchment, wax seals-Maldek or some secretary must work here regularly. The pens were trimmed and ready for use. The inkpot was freshly filled. The broad surface of the desk was clean of dust, and the wax droppings of the partly burned candles had been scraped away.

But the books and scrolls were what interested Torio. In Zendi, Master Clement was working with Aradia-who had lost her own library when her castle was destroyed-to build up a collection of useful works. How they would envy this library!

Unable to see, Torio had not learned to read-as opposed to Reading-until he could visualize. Once he had mastered the technique, though, he had read voraciously.

The other boys would never have put the effort into visualizing what they could see perfectly well, but Torio had to make the same effort to Read a page whether he opened the book or not-and so usually he didn’t. The only way Lenardo had kept him from spending all his free time lying on his bed, lost in some book on the shelves of the Academy library, was to entice him with something more interesting.

Lenardo, whom he idolized, was the instructor of novice swordsmen. Since Torio, at age eight, imitated Lenardo in every way possible, his teacher had been able to entice the boy to exercise by introducing him to swordplay. As his body strengthened from the daily activity, he was able to play with the other boys, to learn to swim, and soon to be as sturdy and healthy as the other young Readers.

There had never seemed to be enough hours in the day for lessons and games and the books he wanted to explore. Torio was reminded, as he stretched out on his bed in Maldek’s castle, of the nights Lenardo had discovered him reading instead of sleeping, and made him do the Readers’ mental exercises for sleep.

With much the same sense of stealing time, Torio Read Maldek’s library. The Master Sorcerer’s own notebooks were stacked on the desk and on the shelves beside it, but Torio resisted the temptation to examine those first.

He found a section of works on medicine-herbal lore, surgery, diagrams of the bodies and brains of both humans and animals. Nearby were works on agriculture and horticulture, weather prediction… and a text on Adept climate manipulation. History, architecture, geography, Reading techniques, philosophy, government-Maldek seemed to have books on every topic.

Having discovered the library’s organization, Torio turned to Maldek’s notebooks, wondering why the Master Sorcerer had left them in plain sight. That had to be where the trap lay, if there was one.

Maldek could not know which of his guests would wake first this morning-nor would he probably have guessed that Torio would not enter the library, although no skilled Reader would have had to. Even Master Readers read with their eyes most of the time.

Torio carefully assessed the books on the desk. He found no physical traps. Moving them would not trigger a trapdoor or a falling weight. There was no poison on the covers or sprinkled within the pages…

Or was there?

The last entry in the top notebook was dated yesterday:

My visitors approach. They will be worthy opponents, for they have all survived. Even the hound has been turned to their advantage- although I saw in the blind one’s mind that he knows nothing of animals.

Had he shown fear or hate, the beast would have torn him apart.

What powers have these five, that all have eluded my traps? They are weak, their powers nothing to mine. I must know their secret. I must have this power they share.

Now that was interesting, that Maldek should think they shared some secret power!

In an earlier entry, Torio found that someone had Read Dirdra aboard the ship with them and relayed the message to Maldek, who offered a reward for such information. “I knew she would return,” he wrote. “I may be forced to restore her brother-but if I do, he will not be the same person. Still, Dirdra need not know that limit to my powers.”

So if Dirdra had not arrived in the company of Readers who could warn of his treachery, Maldek would have led her on until he obtained what he wanted. Torio found the idea repellent. What kind of person would want the physical favors of someone who did not desire him?

It was not merely that Maldek was a Reader, and would know that Dirdra came to him unwillingly. None of Torio’s nonReader friends would coerce someone to act against her will. He shied away from the mind of someone who could think like that.

Yet… if he did not come to uaderstand the man, how could he help his companions escape Maldek’s clutches?

So he continued to read.

And did not know he had fallen into the trap in the library until Gray became bored with sleeping on the fur rug beside the bed and jumped up to nudge Torio.

Pulling his mind out of Maldek’s notes, he found that it was already midmorning. His companions were all gone from their rooms.

Torio swung his legs off the bed, Reading for the others. They were in the room where they had first met Maldek last night. The Master Sorcerer was once more on his throne.

A woman was being brought in through the courtyard, guarded-a Reader! In fact, a strong Reader who would have been a Magister, perhaps even a Master, in the Academy system.

“Who-?” the woman’s mind questioned as Tor-io’s thoughts touched hers. “You are Aventine!”

“Magister Torio, late of the Adigia Academy,” he told her in terms she would understand-for the flood of images her mind produced told him that she had come here from his homeland.

“Cassandra,” she identified herself, “once of Portia’s Academy in Tiberium.”

Although Torio did not verbalize it, the woman Read his surprise that such a strong Reader was not ranked.

Ill was once a Master Reader,” she told him, bitter shame shrouding her thoughts. Ill broke my vows-and my life has been misery ever since.”

As Cassandra and Torio exchanged thoughts, she was being led by the guards toward Maldek’s throne room, while Torio hurried down the stairs, Gray at his heels. He could Read Cassandra’s reaction to being brought before Maldek: resignation, and the expectation of some new trouble piled upon a lifetime of the same. But she had no idea why she was here.

“Don’t antagonize Maldek,” Torio warned as he Read that she cared little what happened to her now.

“You think he doesn’t know anything he chooses?” the woman replied. “He Reads already who I am, and how much life has punished me, first for breaking my vows, then for fleeing to this land of evil.”

And Torio could, indeed, Read that the Master Sorcerer was following their mental conversation with avid interest.

Torio Read Astra stiffen, and turn to look as well as Read, but she was carefully guarding her thoughts so that only a strange turmoil of emotion could be Read from her.

Cassandra gave a despairing mental laugh as she was taken into the throne room. Ill made one mistake in my life-and it destroyed the man I loved. Why should I be surprised if Maldek decides to add to my punishment?”

The Master Sorcerer rose as Cassandra was escorted in and stretched out a hand to beckon her forward. “Welcome, Cassandra,” he said with the same guileless charm he had turned on Melissa the night before, “Have no fear-I have a wonderful surprise for you. Behold!”

As Torio took his place beside Melissa, Maldek dismissed the guards and motioned Astra forward. “As I promised-here you will find what you sought.”

Astra moved stiffly, her mind refusing to believe- until she stood face to face with Cassandra. Torio heard Zanos gasp as the two women stood in profile: the same lines, as alike as the two faces formed by the drawing of a wine goblet.

Cassandra stared blankly at Astra-but the younger woman whispered, “You… you are my mother!”

Cassandra blinked, then stepped back and glared at Maldek. “This is some trick for your evil satisfaction!”

“Indeed not,” replied the sorcerer. “It is for your satisfaction, Cassandra-but especially for your daughter’s.”

“I have no daughter,” the woman insisted. “My first child died soon after birth… and later I bore my husband two stillborn sons. The gods punished us for our transgressions.”

“Cassandra,” said Astra, “I am your daughter, Astra. Portia lied to you. When you were weak after childbirth, your Reading powers diminished, she used the techniques designed to heal sick minds… but to evil purpose. She made you think that you Read your own child dead.”

“But… why?” Cassandra asked. “Portia had no reason to lie to me.”

“She wanted to keep your child in her power. I am the daughter of two Master Readers. Portia led me to believe that you had deserted me, so that I would turn to her as a mother. But when I grew up, my Reading powers increased-and I discovered how she had lied to me. And to you… Mother.”

Cassandra stared. “I Read that you are telling the truth… at least as you know it.” Tears slid down her cheeks. “Oh, child, whether you are truly my daughter or no, I have brought the curse of the gods upon you if your search for me brought you to this place of evil!”

Astra blushed. “I… did not come seeking you,” she admitted. “I had no way to trace where you might have gone. I came here with my husband, who-”

“Husband!” exclaimed Cassandra, looking past Astra to Zanos, Reading his clumsy effort to follow their thoughts as well as their words. “Yes… he is a Dark Moon Reader, but surely you inherited enough powers-?” Her eyes widened as she Read Astra’s tumbled thoughts. “You… you ran away from Portia to marry this man? You broke your vows, too? Oh, child-why did you have to inherit my weakness?”

“You don’t understand!” said Astra. “Mother- please come with Zanos and me. Let us tell you our story.” She turned to the Master Sorcerer, who was watching the reunion with keen interest. “Maldek, I think I have had in the back of my mind this whole journey that somewhere I might find news of my parents… even find them alive. And so I thank you.”

The sorcerer smiled with apparent sincerity. “It is my pleasure, Astra. By all means, go have a private talk with your mother. Melissa, if you will come with me, I will continue to teach you what you seek.

Dirdra-”

“I will walk in the forest with my brother,” she replied.

“Then, Torio-?”

“I’ll come with you, if you don’t object,” he told Maldek. “I may have no Adept powers, but perhaps I can help Melissa Read just what happens when you heal people.”

They went into a long, hall-like room on the ground floor. It faced the courtyard, where it was safe to have large, many-paned windows to admit sunlight. In the morning, when all the fires but the cooking fire were out, it was the warmest room in the castle.

This was the infirmary. Although it was clean, Torio could tell that it was seldom used. There were only two beds set up with fresh straw mattresses, although he could Read frames for a dozen or more stacked in a nearby storage room.

In Wulfston’s castle, and in Lilith’s, at least a dozen beds were always available, frequently occupied with people in healing sleep. There were healers in every village, but people whose illness or injury was beyond the powers of such minor

Adepts were always taken to the Lord Adept. Here, it appeared, the Lord of the Land rarely bothered with his people’s needs.

Or perhaps it was the payment he exacted that made people fear to come. The guards had to drag in a man all bent and crippled with rheumatism. Despite pain that made the Readers wince, he flung himself at Maldek’s feet, saying, “Master, I dinna ask to be brought here. Please, Master-I be content!”

“But wouldn’t you be happier without your pain?” asked Maldek. With a wave of his hand, the man’s pain disappeared.

“Now,” said Maldek as the man stared down at his body as if he’d never seen it before, “we must cool the inflammation and straighten those limbs.”

The guards lifted the patient onto one of the beds, where he clutched at the mattress with his poor bent hands and asked, “What do ye want of me, Master?”

“Why, nothing but to make you well,” Maldek told him. “You will be cured-and then you will be able to work. Instead of begging in the streets, you will pay your tithe to my support, which is the support of my people. Rest now,” he added, touching the man on the forehead, at which he promptly fell asleep.

Maldek’s rationale was precisely what Torio had heard Aradia say as to why it was in the best interest of a Lord Adept to expend his energies in healing. But the unused state of the infirmary and the reaction of his patient showed that this was not Maldek’s usual practice.

“Now, Melissa,” said the Master Sorcerer, “show me how you would heal this man.”

“I have done this kind of healing before,” she replied. “The poor man’s body is fighting itself.” She lifted one of the gnarled hands, Read it, and then became blank to Reading as she concentrated. Healing heat spread beneath her fingers. The inflammation yielded, dissolved away, and the swelling went down as improved circulation carried away the accumulated fluid.

“I can make the muscles relax,” she said, “but after he becomes accustomed to being without pain it will take exercise to bring his limbs back to full function. The tendons have shortened; only time and use will lengthen them.”

Maldek Read Melissa’s work, Torio Reading with him. So far he had seen no sign that their host was a better Reader than he was, nor did the examination of the patient’s hand give any such indication.

“You have done your work well, Melissa,” said Maldek, “but you have wasted too much of your own energy. Tell me-do you know what Adept powers are?”

Melissa studied him, looking puzzled. “I don’t think you mean that they are powers to affect material objects with the mind.”

“No-I mean what they are, not what they do.”

“Then I don’t know,” Melissa replied.

“They are forces from a different realm,” replied Maldek. “We can use them to catalyze our own efforts, which is what most Adepts do-or we can simply guide them, let them pour through us, and thus use very little of our own energy. That is what Master Sorcerers do.”

“A different realm?” questioned Torio. “What do you mean? Another plane of existence? Such planes are not physical, and can only be reached out of body. How can they provide power?”

Maldek smiled disarmingly at him. “An excellent question. You have ventured onto other planes of existence, Torio? You are very young for such a quest-it is said that one is hardly rooted in this world until he has lived in it for a generation- thirty years.”

“And I suppose you waited that long?” asked Torio.

“Almost,” replied Maldek, frowning. “Do they teach you this in your Academy training while you are so young? That is dangerous-you could lose yourself.”

“It is not something I would do for amusement,” Torio replied. “One of my teachers was lost on the planes of existence, and it took a circle of Readers and Adepts to draw him back. I know of others who have been lost forever, their bodies left behind to die.

“But you are avoiding my question, Maldek. One does not enter the planes of existence in his body, for they are immaterial. So how can they have anything to do with physical power?”

“How? That is something I do not know. That there are planes of power, though, I am witness to. And those planes must be tapped while one is in the body. Out of it, one cannot control them-or at least no one ever has except in legend.”

“The ghost-king,” Torio identified.

“It is legend here in Madura, too,” replied Maldek. “Even if that tale is not pure fable, in living memory no one has tapped the planes of power out of body. Our version of the legend says that when the king did so, the power flowed through his conscious link with his helpless body, and destroyed it. That is how he became a ghost.”

“That part’s not in our story,” said Torio. “But… how can you reach other planes of existence without going out of body? And how can you Read and use Adept powers at the same time?”

“I’m not Reading when I do it,” Maldek replied. “That is why I can teach Melissa only as I was taught-and until you develop the Adept half of your powers, I cannot teach it to you, Torio. But this is what Melissa came here to learn. Let her learn it.”

“Go ahead,” Torio replied. “I’ll try to Read what you’re doing.”

But it was the same as the night before-he could Read what happened to the man’s arthritic joints, but not the source of the change.

Perhaps he found it difficult to concentrate on the healing because he was too aware of Maldek touching Melissa. In fact, he was Reading the Master Sorcerer so closely that when he stood behind her, wrapping his huge body around hers to put his hands over hers on the patient, Torio could smell Melissa’s fresh scent in Maldek’s nostrils.

And Maldek’s reaction-the reaction of a normal, healthy man to having his arms around a beautiful woman.

Torio gritted his teeth and concentrated on the healing. As before, it seemed to take place spontaneously, without the healing fire. Not only did the inflammation disappear, but the muscles relaxed and the shortened tendons… grewl

Torio could not believe what he was Reading.

Healers had used traction in the Aventine Empire, when normal exercise would not restore full function.

Adepts might work on deformed limbs daily, making small progress each time until they were restored-but he had never Read anything like this. Of course Melissa had to learn it!

But, “I just don’t know what you’re doingl” she protested when Maldek took his hands off hers for the dozenth time, and for the dozenth time the healing stopped abruptly.

“It’s all right,” he said. “I couldn’t do it when I first tried, either. It will come with practice, Melissa. But now, Read your patient.”

Both Torio and Melissa did so. The man was sleeping quietly, all inflammation gone from his joints, muscles relaxed, connective tissue restored to normal. He would require food and exercise to restore his strength-but then he would be able to resume a normal life!

“Now Read me,” Maldek instructed.

“I’m tired just from concentrating,” exclaimed Melissa, “and you’re as fresh as if you’d just had a good night’s sleep!”

“I did not use my own energy,” Maldek explained. “In fact, I sometimes think that the more one draws from the planes of power, the more one is energized by what one touches. Come-we have another patient waiting.”

This time the patient walked in willingly, looking around, taking stock. He was a red-haired man in his early thirties, dressed in fine fabrics, but of too many different bright colors. Arrogantly, he looked Maldek up and down, then asked, “Well, Master Sorcerer, what did you really have your guardsmen bring me here for? I’ll never believe it was this!”

And he thrust out his right arm-which ended not in a hand, but a hook!

Torio gasped in recognition. “By the gods!”

“Oh, no, Torio,” said Maldek, “the gods had nothing to do with it. I knew where this one was. It was Cassandra who was hard to find.”

“What’s going on here?” the red-haired man asked. “Them guards told me you wanted me at the castle to get a new hand. I told ‘em you don’t do favors for gamblers-so what’s it really about?”

“Exactly what the guards told you,” Maldek replied. “I sent them for you in particular, and also told them to bring in the most crippled beggar they saw in the streets.” He waved toward the sleeping man. “As you can see, he is no longer crippled. I have a student here learning to heal. I plan to demonstrate on you.”

“Yeah?” the man questioned. “I’m not so sure I like that. You gonna grow my hand back? Welchers are scared pretty bad by this hook.”

“And also people you ‘protect’ for a fee, no doubt,” said Maldek. “But I will have another surprise for you soon, Bryen. And I want you in perfect condition for it.”

“No thanks!” said Bryen, and headed for the door. “I’ve always stayed out of your way, Maldek. You got no call to pick me for your experiments.”

“Ah, but I have,” replied the sorcerer-and Bryen stopped in his tracks, paralyzed. “Come now-I’ve no reason to hurt you. I’m doing you a favor.”

But not Zanos, Torio thought to himself. If there was any form of human parasite Zanos hated, it was gamblers. Could Maldek know that?

Released, Bryen turned, anger and fear clashing within him. “What you gonna want in return for the favor I never asked for?” he demanded. “I got no woman I care about-don’t pay in this land! You need more money? I can get it for you, depending-”

“Bryen, I am not asking you to pay. You are doing a favor for two of my guests. Now lie down, and let me restore your hand.”

Bryen stared at Melissa and Torio as he moved reluctantly to the empty bed. “Your guests, huh? You folks from some other country?”

“As a matter of fact, we are,” said Melissa.

“Well-take care who you think’s your friend,” Bryen warned.

“Just go to sleep now and let us work,” said Maldek, and the red head dropped onto the pillow.

Maldek removed the tight wrappings which secured the hook to the stump of Bryen’s right arm. The arm itself was as strong as his left-he obviously used the hook, probably just as he had suggested.

The pale stump was cleanly healed over, long calloused and without pain.

“Observe,” said Maldek, “what you will be able to do once you have mastered the planes of power.”

Torio and Melissa Read together. Maldek became blank to Reading as he asserted his Adept powers, then Readable again as he studied the effects, removing the calluses and scar tissue, leaving only normal flesh at the end of Bryen’s arm- soft and pink and vulnerable.

But then Maldek began to Read with fine discernment, down to the very level of the cells of Bryen’s body. Torio had Read thus with Astra, knew Lenardo could have Read it… but he had never tried to Read to such a level on his own.

At least in this skill, Maklek was a better Reader… now. But Torio’s powers would grow for ten years yet. Meanwhile, Reading with Maldek would give him experience against the day when his own powers would reveal such depths.

But then… Maldek began to Read inside the cells!

Down, down, into the tangled strands of life itself, Maldek reached and manipulated. Lost, Torio observed without understanding. Maldek spread cold white fire among the dancing threads until they writhed and intermeshed in new patterns- blinking in and out as Maldek stopped Reading to control, then resumed to study his results.

Then he withdrew, and stood Reading the stump of Bryen’s arm, just within the flesh. Here Torio could Read for himself… and observed a miracle.

The sealed-off bone ends dissolved, and cell by cell the bones began to extend. At the same time, tiny bits of new living matter formed out of the old, and assembled themselves at the ends of the two bones of the forearm.

Melissa gasped as she recognized the pattern. “It’s like the hand of a baby growing in the womt›-so tiny, yet all the elements in place!”

Indeed, the formation was so small that it was not visible even as a swelling… but it was there]

Maldek guided the substance until it had taken on a life of its own. Then he let go his concentration and stood back, breathing heavily.

“You’re tired,” said Melissa.

“Only weary with concentration,” the Master Sorcerer replied. “Let Bryen sleep. We’ll waken him to feed him later-for his body will deplete itself with all the work it must do.”

“The substance, then,” Torio asked, “comes from Bryen’s body?”

“Of course. It is possible to make matter disintegrate, Torio, but I’ve never yet heard of the Master Sorcerer who could create it. And the pattern of Bryen’s whole body, including his missing hand, is in every cell. All I had to do was copy it.”

They went to dinner, then-just the three of them, for Dirdra had not returned, and Zanos and Astra, still closeted with Cassandra, requested that the meal be sent up to their room.

“When are you going to tell Zanos that his brother is here?” asked Torio.

“As soon as Bryen has enough strength for the reunion-just a few days. Zanos is not a strong Reader-surely you two can keep from spoiling my surprise?”

“Of course,” Melissa replied, assuming Torio’s consent. “Besides, it’s Astra’s day today, finding her mother after all these years. Let them enjoy their reunion, and when Bryen has recovered Astra will be able to share Zanos’ happiness the way he is sharing hers today.”

Torio wondered if they were indeed happy, considering how bitter Cassandra had seemed-but when she came down to supper with Zanos and Astra that evening she was a changed woman. Her eyes and Astra’s both showed that they had cried- but they were happy now.

Face on, Cassandra and Astra did not look nearly as much alike as they did in profile, although it was easy to guess they were related. But when they smiled-

Although Torio felt that no woman could compare in beauty to Melissa, with her delicate heart-shaped face and softly curling hair, he knew that other women were beautiful as well. Lilith had a serene, classic beauty. Aradia was exotically lovely. But Astra was not a beautiful woman, merely pretty in the way of youth, and Cassandra had not even that.

But when they smiled, both mother’s and daughter’s faces took on such a glow that for that moment they seemed the most beautiful women in the world.

Over supper, Cassandra told an abbreviated version of the life’s story she had revealed to her daughter and son-in-law that day.

She had, indeed, broken her vows as a Master Reader, as had Master Anthony. When Cassandra’s pregnancy revealed their indiscretion, the Council of Masters decreed that oath-breakers were not to be rewarded with one another, but that they would be separated and sent to the far ends of the empire.

So Cassandra and Anthony decided to run away together.

But Portia watched Cassandra too closely. The day she packed her belongings, she found the door blocked by the Master of Masters-and thereafter locked. With her advancing pregnancy, it became less and less possible for her to flee.

Anthony, pursued as he moved from village to village trying to find a way to rescue Cassandra, was eventually forced to cross the border into the savage lands.

Finally Cassandra’s baby was born-and died. At least so Portia had made her believe. And in her despair, Cassandra fled-perhaps escaping too easily, she thought now that she knew Portia had not wanted her, but her child.

In the savage lands Cassandra had to hide her Reading ability, for the savages, terrified of their powers, killed Readers. For almost a year she had wandered, terrified, until at last she touched minds with another at a harvest fair-and found her love.

They spoke their marriage vows to one another, and decided to travel northward, to where they had heard of verdant isles where people of both Reading and Adept powers lived in peace.

“And indeed,” Cassandra finished, “Madura was such a land in those days. We sailed here eagerly, and found welcome. It seemed that we had paid for our misdeeds, and that at last we could settle down to good lives.

“But… our children were born dead, and we knew the punishment of the gods was still upon us. We lived far in the northern hills of this island, seeking obscurity among the shepherds-and then the old Lord of the Land died.”

She looked at Maldek, and continued, choosing her words carefully. “At first, things seemed the same as always, except that the shepherds complained that the new Master Sorcerer demanded twice as many sheep and three times as much wool as his portion of their goods. But they had fine flocks, and it was little hardship for them.

“Then… the tithe was increased, and demands came for young men of the village for the army, and young women…” She let that trail off. “Then a few years ago the climate changed. Winters became longer. The newborn lambs died in the snow, and the sheep that survived grew weaker as there was less and less for them to eat.

“Anthony went out with the shepherds in a blizzard, to find and rescue as many of their sheep as possible.

None of us were strong anymore-we were suffering shortages as much as the sheep were. Anthony stayed out all night with the shepherds-and caught pneumonia. So did several other men. The village healer exhausted himself, while I did all that I could with herbs-but it had been years since I could get many herbs I needed. Five good men died that winter… among them Anthony.”

Cassandra fell silent. Maldek rose and came up behind her chair, placing his hand on her shoulder.

“Cassandra-I am only beginning to recognize what harm I have done in my attempts to strengthen Madura against its enemies. If I could bring your husband back, I would-but you know I cannot.”

I “No,” Dirdra suddenly spoke up, “you can only make orbu, you fiend!”

“And I have stopped doing that,” Maldek replied, irritation edging his voice for a moment. Then he calmed himself. “You have no reason to believe me, Dirdra-how could you, when it is your own example that has shown me my mistakes only in these past few days?”

Torio tried to Read the man’s sincerity, but he was shielding his emotions by bracing for Adept power-Melissa did that sometimes when she didn’t want Torio to know how she felt, but in Maldek he suspected it was something more.

Maldek, meanwhile, said to Cassandra, “Although I cannot restore your husband, at least I have reunited you with your daughter. It is not recompense; there can be no recompense. But I shall restore the land, and reunite those whom I can- and perhaps, one day, my people will forgive me.”

“You are your people,” Torio suddenly found himself saying. “And you are your land, Maldek. The land may demand your life to restore it.”

The Master Sorcerer stared at him. “That is so,” he replied. “But how do you know this, Torio?”

“He has the gift of prophecy,” Melissa replied. “But Torio, you said the land may demand Maldek’s life.”

“There is yet time,” the words tumbled forth, “but it is growing short. Make your words true, Maldek, or only one who dies your death for you can save you and your land.”