But the adult Readers knew the scandal, and inevitably it leaked to the young girls in training-and under the harsh disciplines of Readers’ training they grasped at something to gossip about. No adult had ever told Astra her parents’ story; the pretense, even today, was that she should never know it. As if that would help her ward off the suspicions always flung her way!
Eventually she had pieced together the whole story.
Twenty-five years ago, the city of Zendi had been inside the empire’s northern border. The savages, after a long and bloody battle, had succeeded in pushing the border all the way south to Adigia. Thousands of refugees overflowed the small town of Adigia, many of them wounded in the fighting. Among the injured were some male Readers from the Zendi Academy who had escaped being killed by the enemy. Healers from the central cities, especially Tiberium, had rushed to Adigia to deal with the many sick and wounded.
The rule regarding male and female Readers not meeting had been suspended for healers in the emergency. Thus it was possible for Master Anthony, a swordsman and musician, to become the patient of Master Cassandra of the Tiberium Academy.
Not long after his recovery, and before her recall to Tiberium, something… happened between the two Masters. Love? Perhaps. Certainly there was no way for Cassandra to hide the fact that she had violated her Reader’s Oath of celibacy.
Apparently she had been kept a virtual prisoner in the Academy until her child was born. Not long afterward, she somehow managed to escape from the Academy, from the empire entirely, never to be heard of again.
Leaving me, the symbol of her shame, as a ward of the state. How she must have hated me, not to have taken me with her.
Two healers entered the infirmary room. One of them, Master Claudia, said to the distraught young woman, “We know how you are grieving, Celia, but you must understand that the baby’s stillbirth was in no way your fault.” The other Master handed the woman a cup of wine, which Astra could Read contained a sedative.
As the patient drank, Claudia spoke soft, hypnotic words. The woman slowly relaxed, her mind entering a trancelike state. The two healers’ minds gently touched hers, deepening the trance, then delicately worked to lessen her grief in ways that Astra only partially understood.
They were using techniques of advanced medical training. Astra had received basic training in such techniques at Gaeta, but these were methods she would have learned only if she had become a healer rather than a music teacher. In her time as a student at the Gaeta hospital-
TERROR! PAIN!
Dozens of Readers’ agony screamed at Astra, buffeting her like a small craft in an ocean storm. She could not shut her mind against the flood of fear and PAIN!
“Help!” she screamed mentally, helpless in her out-of-body state to close her mind to the inundation.
Master Claudia looked up, her concentration broken. “Help me!” Astra pleaded.
“Stay here!” Claudia commanded her assistant as she hurried out of the room. Astra fought to reorient herself. She had to get back to her body, shut herself away from this pain, but hundreds of emotions kept tearing at her-
“Astra!”
Master Claudia’s mental voice was like a hand firmly grasping her by the wrist, pulling her back to the physical world… and indeed, the healer was holding her wrist as she reentered her body, feeling as though she’d fallen from a great height.
Master Claudia stood, breathing a sigh of relief. “Thank the gods! Astra, what were you doing out of body when you’re still so weak-?”
“Gaeta!” Astra gasped, now able to make sense of what she had experienced. “Something terrible’s happened at Gaeta!”
“The seacoast town?” Zanos frowned. He didn’t understand what Astra was so upset about. “What about it?”
Astra swallowed hard. “Late last night, an earthquake devastated the hospital there. Many patients and healers were injured-and some were killed, including five Readers.”
“Friends of yours?” He had come here expecting to find her feeling better, not in the midst of a personal tragedy.
“Acquaintances, some of them. But it was enough that they were Readers. I felt it happen,” she added, and suddenly he understood. In her world, no one dwelt in isolation-and he felt a strange pang for the threats he had made to Darien and Primus.
But Astra was continuing, “Zanos, it’s more than just the deaths of Readers-in a natural disaster, such things happen. But this wasn’t natural-they were murdered.”
“What?” He could see that she believed it-and with a Reader’s powers, perhaps she had good cause.
“That earthquake was no act of the gods,” Astra explained. “Master Portia used her powers to search the territory immediately afterward. She witnessed two spies from the savage lands, sneaking back over the border-a powerful Adept and a renegade Reader.”
This was indeed frightening news-and no rumor of it had penetrated The Maze. “She’s sure the two savages had something to do with the earthquake?” Zanos asked.
“Why, they bragged about it! When Portia confronted him, mind to mind, the Reader declared there was nothing the savages couldn’t do, combining Reading and Adept powers. Portia alerted the border guards, but the spies escaped.”
Although Zanos found nothing magical about evading the border guards, the rest of the story- “Just one Adept guided by a Reader-setting oft” an earthquake? Surely they can’t have such strength!”
“Master Portia found no other savages, and I’m told she did a lot of searching. The Emperor called for a special closed meeting of the senate, where she made a full report. They’re probably still debating what to do, though there’s little doubt that when the citizens hear about Gaeta there’ll be a public outcry for war.
The savages can’t be allowed to get any bolder, any more powerful.”
As soon as the senate session is over, the news will be all over The Maze, Zanos thought. “How much more powerful can they become?” he wondered aloud-and Astra gave him an unexpected answer.
“I’m afraid to imagine. They’ve already learned how to bring the dead back to life.”
At his shocked stare, Astra nodded emphatically. “It’s true. The renegade Reader was a boy named Torio, who was killed last year trying to defect to the savages. A border guard put an arrow through his heart, but the other renegade Reader-Lenardo the
Traitor-carried the body back to his friends, where they resurrected Torio and made him one of them.
Now he’s helping the savages!”
“And your Council of Masters thinks this attack was a preparation for a full-scale invasion of the empire?”
“Obviously-Zanos, they’ve been pushing back the borders for years, but now they’re directly attacking Readers. First the Adigia Academy, now Gaeta-I can’t believe even the savages would deliberately attack a hospital, except that it contained as large a concentration of Readers as any Academy. They’re trying to wipe out our system of Masters and Magisters, for they’ve proved that the failed Readers on the Path of the Dark Moon are no match for their savage arts.”
Zanos noticed the high color in Astra’s cheeks, her paleness otherwise, and attempted to soothe her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you-”
“It’s not you,” she replied. “It’s the savages. What are we going to do?”
“That’s up to the Emperor and the senate. In the meantime,” he added, deliberately changing the subject,
“I want to thank you. I took your advice about the stable owners. It took a full night of arguing and coaxing, but they finally agreed-not one of us paid those Readers this month. And it’s working! So far, all the stables have been represented at the matches, their best wrestlers performing. “