For one moment Julia hung above the scene, looking down at herself, Decius, Pyrrhus, Wicket, still holding hands, Wicket’s mind desperately searching for theirs.
“You’re back!” his mind shouted in glee, and with a jolt, Julia found herself, stiff and sore, in her own body on the floor of Aradia’s bedroom. Wicket looked over at her in relief, glanced at Decius as he opened his eyes- but across from Julia Pyrrhus’ body remained slumped, unconscious.
“Pyrrhus?” Wicket questioned.
“Yes-I’m here, Wicket”
“Come back, Pyrrhus, please.” Wicket pleaded. “I don’t mind translating for you-you can always leave your body again if you want to Read. But come back now, please?”
Ill can’t… find the way. 11
It was as Portia had said: he could not return to his body.
Julia Read his problem: he could not “feel” his body through the destroyed nerves that should have made the connection between the mental and the physical. Wicket Read with her and choked down panic.
“What can we do?”
“I don’t know,” she told him, feeling sick now that she once again had a body capable of reacting to her emotions. Master Clement should have known this would happen!
But the old Master had seemed so certain that Pyrrhus could return. Oh, surely Portia could not be right and Master Clement wrong!
Then she remembered. “Master Clement said to be a Lord Adept, Pyrrhus!”
“What? I can’t use Adept power without-” As if to demonstrate, he attempted to brace for Adept power- and they all felt the shock as he fell back into his body. With a gasp, he opened his eyes. Then he blinked, and laughed. “Not graceful, but effective. Thank you, Julia.”
“Yes, thank you,” said Wicket. “I don’t think any of us were ready for anther ghost hanging around!”
He turned back to Pyrrhus, who was stretching with a wince. Then his Adept powers automatically began to ease his cramped muscles, and the headache from his abrupt transition to the physical. Decius also exerted Adept strength to relieve his discomfort, but all Julia could do was stretch, with a grunt as her mistreated body protested her leaving it in that position on the cold floor.
Lilith had come over when Pyrrhus first spoke. Now she put a hand on Julia’s shoulder, and healing warmth eased away her misery. “What happened?” the Lady Adept asked.
“Portia is where she belongs,” said Julia. “Master Clement…”
Lilith’s eyes darted to the still form on the lounge by the window. “Oh, no,” she whispered, paling.
“Lilith,” said Julia, “he took Portia, knowing he would have to go with her. But-it’s beautiful. I can’t tell you…”
They were all climbing to their feet now, Wicket sniffing as a tear escaped his control. “Poor old man,” he said.
“No,” said Pyrrhus. “If you had known him longer, Wicket, you would not grieve. If any man ever fulfilled his life, it was Master Clement.”
Lilith nodded. “Pyrrhus is right. We all miss him, but if we grieve it will be for our loss of his strength and wisdom, not for the unfulfilled potential that causes our grief over most deaths.”
And Julia felt no grief at all-only a deep determination to pattern her own life after that of the Master of Masters.
Aradia wakened to a cramping pain. After a few moments she realized that she was in labor, and that her body had been coping with such pains for some time. At least to the extent of suppressing pain, her Adept powers were back!
She Read, and found her child in position for delivery, but it would be hours yet. It was not quite dawn.
She should try to get some more sleep before-
Suddenly she remembered-when? Yesterday afternoon. Portia possessing Julia, threatening to possess her unborn child.
“Julia! Julia-wake up!”
But it was Wicket who answered her call. “Aradia! You’ll wake up every Reader in the city. Julia’s all right. Everybody’s all right, except-”
Wicket was too upset to verbalize it, but even with her weakened powers, Aradia caught the knowledge.
“Master Clement… is dead.”
“He took Portia to the plane of the dead, Pyrrhus says. Aradia, should I wake Lady Lilith for you?”
Then: “Hey! You’re Reading!”
“I’m all right,” Aradia said, realizing that although she would miss Master Clement deeply, she did not feel the shocking grief she had when they had thought him dead before.
“You are all right,” a familiar “voice” suddenly spoke in her mind, “but you are also in labor, Aradia.”
“Lenardo! Oh, Lenardo-where are you?”
“On the fastest horse from Wulfston’s stable-except for the one he’s riding.”
“We’ll be there by this evening, Big Sister,” came another familiar “voice” although she had never Read it before.
“Wulfston! You’ve learned to Read!”
“And that’s not all the news-but we’ll tell you when we get there. If my new niece arrives before we do, tell her hello for me.”
“Father!” Julia suddenly joined the conversation. Aradia let her ask questions, discover Wulfston in the rapport, while she coped with another contraction.
But Julia was too alert. “Father,” she said, “we have so much to tell you-adventures, new friends. But right now, my little sister is trying to get born. So I’m going to go be with Mother till you get here!”
A few hours later, Lilith laid her newborn daughter in Aradia’s arms. With Adept help, the birth had been easy, and she smiled as she touched the baby’s incredibly soft skin, felt the tiny fingers curl around hers.
And then-the baby opened her eyes.
Violet eyes, like Aradia’s own, like her father’s-and nothing in them but newborn innocence. Her heart seemed to overflow with love at the sight.
By evening Aradia’s husband and her brother were there to greet the new arrival and present her with an unexpected bonus: Wulfston had found a wife in Africa! Aradia liked Tadisha at once, although she was too tired to do much more than rest in Lenardo’s arms and listen, half asleep, to their adventures-all, indeed, brought on by Portia’s desire to separate them as she tried to take over the Savage Empire. It was she who had inspired the witch-queen Z’Nelia to the deeds that had sent Sukuru to seek Wulfston, and to kidnap Lenardo to force Wulfston to come to Africa.
“But all Portia did in the long run,” Julia said, “was to bring us even closer together.”
The next day, after a night of healing sleep, Aradia was able to attend Master Clement’s funeral. Not only was the entire city there, but people had flocked in from many miles distant to pay their respects. Even Zendi’s huge forum could not hold them all, and so they trooped out of the city, to the area where the summer fair was held.
Hundreds of people came forward to speak for the beloved old Master-but like Aradia, everyone who had known him well felt peace and joy, not sorrow, at his passing. Even her own father might have achieved much more had he lived longer; no one felt that Master Clement had left anything undone.
Readers from all over the Savage Empire were there in spirit if they could not come in person, creating such a massive group-mind that Aradia suspected even nonReaders could feel their presence.
Afterward, they shared a feast with family and friends, old and new. Lenardo and Aradia, Julia, Wulfston and Tadisha, Lilith, Decius, Pyrrhus and Wicket, all gathered around the table in the dining hall in Lenardo and Aradia’s villa for the traditional celebration of life.
Wulfston’s entourage had caught up with the three who had ridden on ahead, bringing with it another unexpected addition to the family: a rather vague young man named Norgu, who was some sort of relative to Wulfston. Aradia determined to get the story straight as soon as possible, remembering something about a battle by a volcano on another plane of existence from the stories she had listened to so sleepily last night.
Norgu appeared to be a victim of that Adept/Reader battle, healed in body now but badly scarred in mind. But if anyone could help him find himself, she was certain Wulfston could. In the meantime she welcomed the boy to the family, and gave him a place at the table.