Neither was there recognition, even when Lenardo Read with him, sick at heart to see traces of unhealed damage after all this time. Sandor would have healed those lingering injuries in a week, Aradia in a day.
But they heal people only to keep them in their power, Lenardo told himself, and continued quietly past Decius':closed door toward where Torio's stood open.
At this point the wall to Lenardo's left ended, a series of pillars supporting the roof but giving access to the courtyard, where several of the younger boys were splashing in:the fountain with shouts and giggles, paying attention to nothing but their games. Lenardo moved quietly down the shaded hall and entered Torio's room.
The boy was sitting at his desk, his back to Lenardo, concentrating on a box in front of him. It was an exercise in fine discernment, a sealed box containing a number ol items similar in composition, some very tiny, such as several grains of sand in different colors, and with them a single salt crystal. Torio, having identified all the larger items, was concentrating on those. He added to the list on his tablet: "sand-black, blue, red, yellow, white." Lenardo held his breath. Some instinct told Torio to Read again. He did, "looking" at the grains in another way, examining their internal structure. Then he turned his stylus over and rubbed out the word "white," substituting "salt." With a sigh, he started to get up from his stool.
//Very good, Torio.//
//Master Lenardo.// The boy froze. //Where are you?//
Astonished to find that Torio seemed to think him still far away, Lenardo replied aloud, "Right here."
Torio started and whirled around, his hands groping for an instant unil he began Reading visually and "saw" Lenardo before him. Then he threw his arms about him, hugging him tight, and Lenardo realized that the boy was now as tall as he was.
"Oh, Master Lenardo, I'm so glad you're home. But you certainly humble my pride. I didn't think anyone could sneak up on me anymore. Why didn't you tell me you were coming? Why didn't Master Clement tell me-?"
The boy's string of questions halted as Master Clement himself came into the room, closing the door behind him and staring at Lenardo in disbelief.
"No Reading, Torio," he instructed quickly. "Lenardo, how did you get here? Why didn't you contact us? How did you come within the pale?"
"The same way I just walked through an Academy of Readers undetected. I have much, much to tell you, Master, and to show you."
"We must seek a plane of privacy," said Master Clement. "Lenardo, you are in grave danger here. If you are discovered before we find a way to explain your presence, you will be arrested and executed. Torio, stay here until I contact you. Yes, you may join us, son, but I do not want you trying to reach another plane alone."
"Yes, Master," Torio replied, and lay down on his bed as Clement and Lenardo left.
Unlike the old Academy at Adigia, there was no special protected room where Readers could take shelter while they left their bodies. Master Clement's room, though, had a couch as well as bed. Lenardo stretched out, making certain his position would not cramp his unattended body, and floated easily up into pure consciousness. Master Clement was quickly "mere" too, and they "moved" together to Tone's room.
The moment Master Clement's presence touched Torio, the boy's consciousness left his body, joining them readily with the delicious sense of pure freedom so refreshing in those to whom it was still a new experience.
//Excellent, Torio,// Lenardo told him. //You have learned much while I was away.//
//Don't encourage him to pride,// Master Clement warned, although his warm pleasure in the boy's achievement belied the thought. //I've never had a student so determined to be first and best at everything. No, not even you, Lenardo.//
In their present disembodied state, no Reader could "overhear" their conversation unless they willed it or unless the other Reader joined them. Yet to Lenardo's. surprise, Clement said, //We will now move to another plane. Torio, you've done this only once before. Don't try to Read and follow. Flow with me. With me. That's right.//
The two presences were gone, but Lenardo had Read then- "direction." He followed into the disorientation of the plane of privacy, sensing Torio's discomfort. They were three presences in a world of nothing-no light and hence no dark, no up, no down. From here, they could no longer Read their own world, would not even know if something happened to their bodies.
The plane of privacy was dangerous; only Readers of the highest ranks could achieve it, and even they rarely used it. Only once before had Lenardo actually come here to achieve privacy: when he, Clement, and Portia had plotted his exile so that he could attempt to take Galen from the enemy.
He was surprised that Clement was already teaching Torio, who had not yet passed his preliminary examinations.
//Now, Lenardo,// said Clement, //What are we to do with you?//
//All I want is to return home, Master. I have accomplished my task: Galen is dead, and the alliance of powerful Adepts who were attacking the empire has been destroyed.//
//You will have to be tested under Oath of Truth before the Council of Masters.//
//Of course,// said Lenardo.
//Portia is respected by the Senate. She can have your exile revoked. Then you can help me rebuild our Academy.//
//No, Master,// Lenardo interrupted. Ill cannot return to the Academy, for I have broken my Reader's Oath.//
//No!// It was a flash of pain from Torio. //No, Master Lenardo, you couldn't-//
//I did,// he insisted calmly. //It seemed necessary at the time. All I ask is the same treatment accorded any failed Reader: a job, a place to live… and a place in Portia's Academy for my daughter.//
// Your… daughter?// asked Clement.
//A Reader, Master, born among the savages. I took her into my protection lest they kill her, and then I adopted her.//
Relief flooded from the other Readers. //Under such circumstances,// said Clement, //what choice did you have? You could not let a child die just because she is female. The portion of your oath requiring you to protect a fellow Reader took precedence. The Council will have to pronounce judgment, but I am sure you will be readmitted to the Academy. How old is the child?//
//Just turned nine.//
//And where is she now?//
Ill took a room at an inn before coming here.//
//We cannot leave a child at an inn. We'll put her up with a family for tonight, until she can be tested. But you must not continue-//
//Master Clement,// Lenardo said stopping him. Ill have broken more than one part of the Code. I am no longer celibate.//
Shocked silence. Then Torio's protest: //It's not so. You couldn't have.//
//It's not possible,// Clement added. //Lenardo, your powers are not diminished. They have grown-grown far more in the few months you were away than I have ever seen a Reader of your age achieve. Son, believe me, the savages have placed a false memory within your mind, hoping to weaken your abilities. If it were true, you would not be able to leave your body, let alone achieve the plane of privacy, or walk unnoticed among Readers. If we must send you to Gaeta to remove this false memory, we will do so, but you may rest assured that it cannot possibly be true.//
//Master, I regret to tell you that you are wrong. It was no illusion. I sacrificed my powers deliberately, to diminish the powers of an Adept who survived the battle in which Galen was killed. She was my ally until peace was achieved and she realized that she is now the most powerful. In savage terms, that gives her the right to rule. She would have used me, and she would have used Julia-my daughter-had we remained within her sphere of influence.// Lenardo started to add that he knew how to break a command implanted in his mind by an Adept-when he suddenly recalled: //Master Clement, I did not know when I was exiled that the Adepts had the power to place thoughts in people's minds. How did you know it?//