"Something else is disturbing you," Lenardo observed.
"I don't know what I'm doing here," the boy replied. "I ran from Portia and her plans to harm you and me. Master Clement told me to go. I trust him. I trust you. But what did I run to?"
"A whole new world," said Lenardo. "A world where no one will attempt to limit your powers. You will learn Adept powers, too, Torio."
"That frightens me. What you did-I was Reading. I still can't believe it."
Torio was dressed like Lenardo, in a gray ankle-length tunic with a shorter gray tunic over it, ash-colored garments appropriate to a savage funeral. Without moving from his chair behind the desk, Lenardo concentrated on the belt tied loosely around the boy's slim waist and tugged. Torio jumped as if stung. Lenardo smiled grimly and said, "Believe it."
It was easier each time. He breathed a bit hard from the effort, and that was all, except that he had blanked out his Reading again.
Torio lifted his face, as if "looking" at Lenardo as he concentrated, undoubtedly trying to Read him. Lenardo noticed that the boy's eyes were no longer milky but a clear bluish green. Then his Reading returned as it had that morning, spreading outward from himself, and Torio relaxed with a shiver.
"I'm becoming accustomed to the Adepts doing such things. But you-"
"You'll learn to do them yourself. What happened to your eyes?"
"Fila, I think. She must have thought the cataracts were the cause of my blindness, so while my shoulder was healing, she had them dissolve away. I didn't even notice until Julia did."
"We must find Fila and reward her at the ceremony tomorrow. She did save your life, although she will probably be disappointed that she did not restore your sight."
"But many people are blind because of cataracts," said Torio. "Do you think… could I learn to heal? The way the Adepts do?"
"We're all going to learn and teach the Adepts to Read. We'll build an Academy here, Torio, where Readers and Adepts will work together. Will you help me do that?"
"Yes, Master," the boy said eagerly.
"My lord," Lenardo corrected. "That is my title here."
Torio frowned. "People keep calling me 'my lord,' too."
"A title you deserve by virtue of your powers. Torio, we have not settled the details, but there are lands won in the battle just past that will be set aside for you to rule as soon as you come into your full powers."
"To rule? I can't."
"Yes, you can. You must. All your life, you have been taught to fear power. So long as you fear it, it will control you. Master your fears and you will master your powers. Master your powers and you will master your fears."
It was time for the funeral, after which Lenardo would meet with Aradia, Wulfston, and Lilith to decide the future. He dreaded the meeting. It could end with the four of us enemies if Aradia persists in her plan to rule us all.
The mass funeral was sad and solemn, but this time Lenardo spoke for Galen. "He was never evil, he was only weak. Let us build a world in which bright and clever young people like Galen need not fear being forced to do the will of those who have power. A world in which power is used for good."
Torio also spoke for Galen, whom he had once known well. "He was wrong… for the right reasons. I hope… that I will do right for the right reasons."
Aradia and Wulfston spoke for Hron, but Lenardo received another shock when Lilith stepped forward with her son, Ivorn.
"At one time," she said, "Hron and I were closest of friends. He gave me the most precious gift possible: my son. I shall treasure always the memory of Hron in those days and vow to work for a world in which no one like Drakonius can grow so powerful as to draw good men like Hron from their vows of friendship and alliance into power plays and vengeance."
Voice breaking with adolescent perversity, Ivorn said, "I found out only today that Hron was my father. He gave me rife, and yet yesterday he would have taken it. My mother would not have chosen an evil man to give her a child, so I vow to be as my father must have been as a young man" and revere his memory, but to be like my mother in keeping my w^rd."
This time it was Lenardo's duty to sprinkle earth and water over the funeral pyre and then unite all four elements by lighting it. He had no doubt that he could do it now. Torio Read him grimly, Julia expectantly.
//Show me how, Father.//
He concentrated, shutting out Reading, imagining the flame. A wisp of smoke rose, a tiny flicker of fire, and Lenardo rocked on his heels, but he didn't feel faint-and his Reading cleared in just a few moments.
//Very good,// Aradia told him joyously, and then became blank to Reading herself as the pitiful flicker roared into white-hot flame that would reduce the immense pyre to ashes within minutes.
His people must have known that the other Adepts had taken over to create the conflagration, but that did not lessen their pride in then- lord's accomplishment. He felt them quell the urge to cheer him and knew that it would be indulged at the ceremony tomorrow, when he appeared before them in his scarlet robes.
If there was to be such a ceremony. If he did not betray the trust these people had in him and destroy the future so healthily represented in Torio, Ivom, Julia, solemnly watching the bodies of the hundreds who had died reduced to nothing but a scattering of ash-and memory.
A rousing cheer startled him, and he tardily remembered the savage custom of following a funeral with a feast, a celebration of victory and of life. Music started, and people ran to change their garments. Banners bearing the red dragon appeared out of nowhere-and just as many with Aradia's white wolf's head. Scattered among them were Wulfston's black wolfs head and Lilith's blue lion, but the watchword of the day was the old saying, "In the day of the white wolf and the red dragon, there will be peace throughout the world."
Food was brought out: bread and cheese and fruit, kegs of wine and ale, meat that had been roasting all morning. The city rang with celebration, and Lenardo prepared to meet with the Adepts to try to make the ancient prophecy come true.
They met in Lenardo's house, around the same table they had used before. All had taken time to change out of their funeral garb: Wulfston into his richly embroidered dark brown garments, Aradia into her favorite purple, Lilith into a dark green dress with a vivid green surcoat.
They were ready to go out and join the dancing if the occasion called for it. Lenardo, too, had dressed optimistically, in dark blue hose, shirt, and embroidered tabard that had been made for him in Aradia's land.
When they sat down, Lenardo found the eyes of the three Adepts on him. As he was searching for the right way to begin, Wulfston said, "It is your right to determine how the lands we have taken shall be divided, Lenardo. No One can deny that you alone were responsible for the victory."
"No," said Lenardo. "I cannot act like a savage lord, give you lands, expect loyalty in return, and not worry about what happens in the next generation provided that my own lands have an heir."
Aradia smiled. "Then you have decided to act on my suggestion, Lenardo? Form an empire, make-"
"No," he said, interrupting her, feeling Lilith and Wulfston already bristling. "All of you-can't you see we must find a new way of governing? The way you have traditionally used brings on ceaseless wars-while the way of the Aventine Empire results in weakness and corruption. We must find another way."
He turned to Lilith. "You do not wear the wolf-stone. What are you to Aradia, Lilith, that you are ever loyal?"
"A friend," Lilith replied. "An ally, as I was to Nerius. I have never been sworn woman to either father or daughter, but I have always agreed with their aims to rule by kindness rather than cruelty, love rather than fear. That is the reason I am your ally, too, Lenardo."