"But it has to. If I can Read-"
"You simply have both talents. Some people are painters, and some people are musicians. Rarely, there is someone who can do both. So you have two talents. You are both Adept and Reader."
"Possibly," she said. "But what do I do now?"
"I'll teach you everything I can," said Lenardo. "We'll see how much ability you can develop. Right now, though, you should get some more rest. You said you'd need to sleep till noon today."
"I'm too excited to feel tired. I want to try Reading everything. But what if it's only you I can Read?"
"It may seem that way at first, if you develop the way a child does. It takes a while to Read thoughts other than those a Reader is deliberately projecting. Aradia, you know meditation exercises. Rest this morning and then don't eat until after we try some tests this afternoon."
"Don't eat?"
"One morning's fast can't hurt you, but what kind of dietary compromise can we find for you?"
"Don't even bother to suggest that horse fodder you eat."
"A few days of purifying diet won't hurt you, any more than a few meat meals at your castle hurt me."
"Yes, Master," she said in mock obedience, but she lay down. Although her thoughts were completely unReadable once more, he could see that she went quickly to sleep.
Lenardo had to exercise careful control to stop trembling before he could dress and leave Aradia's pavilion. At home he ate the hot cereal Cook placed before him, not because he wanted it but to avoid another lecture about keeping up his strength. As soon as he dared, he escaped to his room and began to Read.
Zendi was all around him, the morning bustle well begun, the harvesters already in the fields outside the walls, a caravan a three-hour journey away packing up camp to head into the city, while in the hillsHe was Reading effortlessly in every direction, well beyond the city walls that had previously approximated the radius of his nondirected perception. Incredulously, he let the circle expand, Reading east and west slightly beyond his borders and not quite to them north and south, as his lands expanded farther in those directions.
He found the same exquisite clarity that he had previously known only within the small circle of awareness, and he could focus on one thing and see it as if it were there within his grasp, complete to the smallest detail.
What is happening to me? I committed the cardinal abuse, impaired my powers… and now this!
Reading outward in a single direction, he was aware not only of Wulfston's castle but just as easily and at the same time the sea far beyond.
A sleepy Julia was allowing one of the women of Wulfston's household to comb her hair, while the lord of the castle was in his own room, dressing for travel. Then Wulfston went to Julia's room.
"Ready for breakfast?"
"But we can't leave yet," she protested. "Father hasn't contacted me, and he may not be able to reach me at the sea."
//I'll reach you.//
"Oh!" Joy bubbled up in Julia's mind. "Father's here now, Lord Wulfston."
"Hello, Lenardo. Feeling better?"
"Father says he's completely recovered," Julia relayed, "and there's no hurry about returning to Zendi. Lady Aradia is still there."
"Still? Lenardo, what are you two up to?"
Julia must have caught something of the consternation Lenardo tried to cover, for she giggled as she told Wulfston, "He says you wouldn't guess in a hundred lifetimes. And… he thinks Aradia should tell you herself."
"If that means Aradia will stay until we get there, I'm delighted," said Wulfston. Then, guiding the gaping servant woman out, he told Julia, "Meet me in the kitchen when you're through with your lesson, and don't forget to tell your father about helping Demetrius find his mares."
"Aww, that was easy," said Julia, but she nonetheless eagerly told Lenardo of helping one of Wulfston's men locate five horses lured into the hills by a wild stallion. He gathered that his foster daughter would soon have a swollen head if left to the adulation of nonReaders.
Only years of training and concentration allowed Lenardo to put this morning's events out of his mind and give Julia her lesson. She was improving rapidly, happy in her work, but she was now torn between her promised holiday and her consuming curiosity about what was happening in Zendi.
//Go and have a good time,// Lenardo told her, //but don't be a nuisance to Lord Wulfston.//
He managed to get through his morning's work and clear the afternoon for Aradia. Beginning with the simplest tests, he sought the limits of her current ability, similar to those of a child whose powers were newly wakened. When Lenardo verbalized his thoughts, she could Read them clearly. Other people were a blur of emotion except for an occasional clear thought, and she could not even sense inanimate objects, let alone visualize them.
"So I'm considerably less of a Reader than Julia," she said when Lenardo decided that it was time to stop.
"At the moment, yes. If you were Julia's age, I'd pat you on the head and encourage you to do better tomorrow. As it is, I don't want to discourage you, but I don't want to raise false hopes, either."
They were in Lenardo's room, seated on either side of his worktable. Now Aradia went to the window, staring out at the courtyard. "I don't know if I want to Read any better."
"Why not?"
"All my life I've judged people by their actions. I'm not sure I want to know their motivations."
"I don't understand."
"I know people act from selfish motives," Aradia explained, turning to face him. "My goal is to make working for me in my people's best interest, yet there are those who become caught up in patriotic fervor, and I might be tempted to trust such people more than those who were merely doing what was expedient."
"Since you recognize the danger, Aradia, I do not think you will fall prey to it."
Her violet eyes studied him. "So you agree."
He nodded slowly. "Galen always acted from enthusiasm. I was the object of his enthusiasm for a time, but then came a time when I disagreed with him. He became disillusioned with me and was easy prey for Drakonius."
"Who wasted no time making it expedient for Galen to work for him," said Aradia. She sat on the edge of the worktable, facing Lenardo. "You have learned quickly, now that you are over the blindness your empire instilled in you. You will be a great leader, Lenardo."
"I was not meant to rule. With every day that passes, I wonder what mistakes I have made."
"You think I do not? Every conscientious ruler worries, but he acts. I did not know whether you could act, Lenardo. That's why I gave you Zendi. You have proved yourself here."
"Insulated. Untested."
"When the test comes, it will be against all of us, and we have passed the test against Drakonius. It will be a long time before anyone will dare attack us. But if we do nothing for long enough, that attack will come." Again her fingers traced the brand on his arm. "Lenardo, I don't want to leave you."
"I don't want you to leave."
"Then-"
"No. Don't say it. Come here." He drew her onto his lap, where she leaned against him, her head on his shoulder. "Aradia, I don't know protocol among Lords Adept, so I've been making up my own rules."
"You have the right to make the rules in your own land."
"Then in my land, the right and honorable thing for me to do, because I love you and I want you with me always, is to ask you to marry me. I realize that that will present difficulties. We each have a land to rule, and your people might well object to your forming a permanent alliance with a Reader, and one who has been on this side of the pale less than half a year. Still, I want you to know what I would do if it were possible."