//Oh, I remember. The ground trembled in Zendi. But it didn't work right. Almost our whole army got killed. The mountain fell on them.//
//Yes, and Drakonius blamed Galen.//
//Did Galen do it?//
//We will never know, child. By the time I found him, Galen's mind was so twisted from Drakonius' tortures that he himself did not know when he spoke truth.//
//What did Drakonius do to him?// Julia asked with childish curiosity.
//The soldiers are far ahead of us now,// said Lenardo. //We can return to the road, where we can move faster.//
//The watchers will tell everybody.//
Lenardo could Read that Wulfston's command to him to return was being relayed throughout the land, but the message would have to be sent by foot or on horseback into every settlement, for only the watchers knew the code of flashing lights. By the time it had disseminated widely, Lenardo and Julia would be in the no-man's-land near the border, where no one lived.
It was incredibly easy for two Readers in a mind-blind society to elude pursuit. Aradia could do nothing. Her powers were far less than Julia's.
Ill was caught by watchers once, Julia. I won't be again, nor will you.//
The little girl might not have been able to do it alone. Lenardo estimated that her range was about what his had been limited to by illness and exhaustion the time Aradia's watchers had located him. But with Julia Reading near and Lenardo far, they were able to use the good road to travel quickly when there was no one about and leave it to skirt settlements and avoid other people on the road.
They passed harvesters in the fields, making no attempt to hide when they Read that these people had no idea that they were fugitives. There was a sharp contrast between the well-clothed, well-fed, well-housed people they passed and the hungry, hopeless people Lenardo had Read along this same road on his journey northward last spring. So I have done some good, he thought. Aradia and Wulfston will keep it up. They would never let their people suffer the way Drakonius did.
//What did Drakonius do to Galen?// Julia's tenacious curiosity demanded to be satisfied.
Ill don't know all of it, child. When I found him, he was caged like an animal. One tune I Read Drakonius break the bones in Galen's hand-as a warning, he said. He healed him afterward, but that did not lessen Galen's pain at the time.//
//Do you think Aradia or Lord Wulfston would do something like that?//
//Their methods are more subtle, Julia. Aradia once kept me locked in her castle by planting in my mind the idea that I could not open the door of my room. I don't know if you can understand that that is much more wicked than outright torture.//
She thought it over. //If they can make people think whatever they want, why don't they make us think we want to go back?//
Ill don't think they could implant an idea in the mind of a healthy Reader. They did it to me when I was very ill, while they had me in healing sleep. I was not yet completely well when I found out what they had done, drove the command from my mind, and escaped. So they know they cannot hold a Reader that way. And Aradia tells me no one can be forced by that method to do something he believes to be wrong. It may be that Drakonius tried to chain Galen's mind, and Galen caused the avalanche to fall on Drakonius' army without knowing what he was doing. But now we'll never know.//
//Did you kill Galen, Father?//
//No, not personally. I was guiding Aradia, Wulfston, Lilith, and Nerius. They trapped Drakonius and Galen with the other Adepts and burned them to death.//
He withdrew into his own thoughts, remembering having no time to think or to grieve-not over Galen and not over Nerius-but having to go on into the combat between the armies, with Drakonius' troops still fighting fiercely, not knowing that their leader was dead.
At the mass funeral three days later, Lenardo had not been able to bring himself to speak for Galen. He could not believe that all the boy's bright potential had died so horribly, nor was his ability to accept Galen's death aided by the fact that those who had gone to collect the charred remains in the burnt-out canyon found nothing but a few scattered bones.
Suddenly, imposed on the memory of that charred canyon, rose the vision that had plagued him months before: Castle Nerius in ruins beneath the golden harvest moon, Aradia dead"Father! Father, they're coming back!"
Julia's cry jolted Lenardo back to the present. Four of Arkus' men were indeed coming back toward them. He and Julia rode quickly over a swell of ground, the only nearby shelter. On the other side, they reined in, got down from their horses, and pulled the animals' heads down as they crouched, waiting. The horses began to crop the stubble in the newly harvested field. Lenardo wished for a moment that a field of grain shielded them, until he realized that in an unharvested field they would have left a trampled trail to lead the soldiers right to them.
The men were moving slowly, peering out on either side of the road. They didn't expect to find their quarry in the fields, though. As they passed, one of the men ordered, "Erik, Tav, ride around that patch of woods ahead, then come through it toward us."
Lenardo Read the soldiers carefully. They were puzzled but doing their duty. Why the Lord of the Land would be hiding from his own troops was a total mystery. At least two of them were of the opinion that it was a war game to see whether nonReaders could figure out how to capture someone who could Read their every move, part of whatever plans Lord Lenardo and Lady Aradia had been working on together.
Julia, Reading with Lenardo, smothered a giggle. He touched her touseled curls and told her, //We won't have any trouble eluding that kind of pursuit, will we?//
When the soldiers were out of sight, Lenardo and Julia took to the road again. The sun was low in the sky as they reached the part of the road that had fallen into disrepair. Close to the wall, the road became a wide highway again, but for many miles it narrowed to a badly rutted wagon track, full of holes that could throw a horse if the rider was not careful.
Ironically, there was plenty of shelter here and no one to take shelter from. The fields had been abandoned in Lenardo's childhood, and the woods encroached on them, after all these years almost coming together to form a forest.
They were still more than two hours from Adigia, and Julia was getting tired and cranky. They stopped to eat and rest, while Lenardo Read on ahead to find Arkus setting a trap.
Every savage knew the danger of coming near the walls of the Aventine Empire because of the Readers therein. Near the gates of Adigia, a huge area was kept clear. Even in the blackest night, a Reader with bow and arrow could pick off anyone attempting to approach the gates.
Lenardo had stood watch atop that wall many a time. It was routine duty for boys from the Academy, from the ages of twelve to fifteen. What Arkus did not know was that with the Academy gone and only three Readers now in the town, there was no longer a Reader atop the tower at all times. There was none now, just two guards from the garrison.
Torio was gone, of course, and the three Readers who had replaced him did not know Lenardo's situation. Two of them did not even know Lenardo, a husband and wife he Read just sitting down to their evening meal with a chubby little boy of perhaps three. It was easy to Read them, not intruding, without their being aware of him.
The third Reader was Secundus, who had been the healer at the Academy. He was a few years older than Lenardo, a quiet, gentle man who had barely achieved the rank of magister and perhaps might have been-denied it except that he was skilled at healing, and such people were always badly needed.
Secundus now had Torio's old room at the inn and was also unaware of Lenardo's scrutiny, being deep into a book of remedies in search of something to cure a catarrh that had so far eluded his skills.