"And why did you involve other children?" Lenardo pursued, ignoring the empty feeling her words produced in him.
"I couldn't get it alone. They'd each have got a gold piece. Then they'd have owed me more favors."
"You risked their lives and yours."
"I didn't know the well would fall in."
"No, you won't have the skill to Read such stresses for years. Why can't you learn to obey? I wish you could be sent to an Academy. They'd teach you some discipline."
Julia climbed down from the window and stood, shielding her thoughts as best she could. "I need to learn to rule, not obey. If you don't want me, Lord Wulfston will take me."
"What?" Then he remembered a recent letter from Wulfston: "So you have found an apprentice. Congratulations. If you should find any more Readers, I can certainly use someone with even a portion of your skills."
"You've been Reading my letters!"
"Well, you wanted me to practice." Defiant pride.
He stared at her helplessly. "What am I to do with you? Spank you? Helmuth, Josa, Cook-they've all punished you. What good has it done?"
Defiance melted as her eyes grew liquid. "You never punish me. You're the only one that's got the right, Father. Don't you care about me?"
He suddenly remembered that she had called him "Father" in her panic that afternoon. "I'm not your father," he said bluntly, not knowing how to approach the real problem.
"But you must be," Julia insisted. "There's nobody else like us, nobody that can talk in their minds. I feel it. You're the only one like me. You bought me from Mama. I thought you loved me because I was like you, but then you gave me to everybody else-and-and-" Angrily, she struck away the tears that rolled down her cheeks. "My mother was right. Men don't care nothing about their children, except great lords for the pride of it or the fear. I've got your powers. You had to claim me, but you don't want me. You don't love me. You just want me to stop using my powers so I won't use them against yo«!"
Lenardo was astonished. How could he handle this savage child? His only weapon was truth.
Kneeling before Julia, he took her hands. "Julia, you and I are not the only Readers in the world. I'm not your father, but if I were, I would certainly never have abandoned you. You're too young to understand that you're insecure because you never had anyone to rely on, not even your mother. Child, I will give you things you can trust in: your own abilities, the Readers' Honor, other Readers. But what you need right now is one person you can trust, and under the circumstances, that has to be me."
The wide brown eyes searched his.
"I'm going to open my mind to you, Julia. Read me."
Hesitantly, her thoughts met his. //You're not my father?//
//No. I never left the Aventine Empire before last spring.//
Because his memories were totally open to her, she caught a trace of the pain of his branding. //They hurt you,// she said, sliding her hand up his arm to rest over the dragon's head. Ill hate them!//
//No, child, you mustn't hate people you don't know. I have many friends in the empire, Readers like us. You can trust any Reader, Julia, if you yourself are trustworthy.//
Ill don't want other people, just you.//
//You have me. I promise, I'll take care of you. Trust me, Julia.// Stubbornness intruded, born of many disappointments. //Have I ever lied to you or broken a promise?//
//No, but you took me when you didn't want me.//
//I do want you. Can't you Read that?//
//Yes.// But she also felt walled off from him.
//Julia, I cannot give you every minute of my day. I have too much work. I'm the only Reader-// It suddenly occurred to him, //Child, would you like to help me?// In the empire, children were given Reading responsibilities within the Academies from the day they entered. There was no Academy for Julia, but the whole city could become her Academy.
//You'll let me work with you? All the time?//
//Not all the time but certainly a great deal more time, if you will work seriously. No tricks, and no spying on people's secret thoughts.//
Tears spilled again, but they were tears of joy. She flung her arms around his neck. Ill promise! I'll be good. Oh, Master Lenardo, I want to be with you. I love you!//
He let her hold on to him for a moment and then gently removed her arms.
"Don't push me away," she pleaded.
"You don't have to touch, Julia." //Between Readers it's the same whether we're touching or not.//
//If it's the same, then I'd rather touch.//
He smiled, brushing her tears away and recalling that Torio had never formed a Reader's aversion to touching. We assumed he needed that reassurance because of his blindness, and we didn't force him as we did the other boys. Taking Julia's hand, he said, "Very well… for now. I'm far behind in today's work. Come along and see if you can learn to Read where the drainpipes have broken."
"Master Lenardo?" Julia's thoughts were guarded, and he did not seek to break her shield. "You could be my father. You could adopt me."
"I will take the matter under consideration."
"What does that mean?"
"I'll think about it."
"Oh." She was silent for a moment and then said, "I'll prove worthy. You'll see."
His first impulse was to discourage such ideas. Then he recalled who he was and where he was. If Julia could be taught honesty and responsibility, one day she would make a far better leader than he was. I may need an heir, and where else am I going to find one?
By the time autumn approached, Lenardo's lands were in good shape, the storage bams were full, and a large section of Zendi was in livable condition. They had, however, very little to trade for goods they did not produce.
Lenardo's land had little forest. His first inclination had been to allow people to hunt freely, but Helmuth warned him, "They'll kill off your game in one season, my lord. It would take years to replenish. You must appoint huntsmen to kill a proper limit and distribute the meat."
Wulfston, on the other hand, had large forests and little farmland. Along the coast, his people fished, and Lenardo sought for something to trade this year, when he could not afford to give up grain. "Trade your abilities," Wulfston wrote to him. "Come Read the iron deposits in the Western Hills and mark them for mining. Then negotiate with Aradia and me for a trade route across your land between my mines and her iron works." It was all so obvious to Wulfston and Aradia, raised to rule.
Lenardo's wider concerns were interrupted one day by Arkus. "My lord, I was your enemy, and you gave me the chance to become your friend."
"You have proved a good friend, Arkus. What is disturbing you?"
"My lord, it's Helmuth."
"Helmuth? But it was Helmuth who first suggested that I put you in charge of the troops from Zendi."
"I know, my lord. He's been most fair with me, but he is your chief adviser, while I am still commander of a fifty-man troop."
Lenardo was sorely tempted to Read exactly what was going on in Arkus' head. "Has Helmuth refused you a promotion? No one's been thinking in military terms since-"
"No, it isn't that. It's Josa." He blushed. "Where she comes from, what she's used to. I'd want to, anyway. I mean-"
"You want to get married," Lenardo finally interpreted.
"Yes, my lord."
"Then what is the problem? Does Josa want to marry you?"
"I think so, but I must ask Helmuth's permission. Josa's father entrusted her to him, to arrange a good marriage for her."
"Would you make her a good husband?"
Arkus sighed. "I'm a soldier, my lord. I don't know how to be anything else, and in peacetime there's no advancement."