"Can you not heal that yourself?" asked Lenardo as he knelt beside Arkus.
"Then you do remember me?'
"Certainly. You tried to entice me into Drakonius' army and displayed Adept power. Why can't you heal your shoulder?"
"I can move things, not heal. I'm not a Lord Adept, nor a Reader either. Would that I were-I'd never have let you leave Zendi had I known who you were. Drakonius' message reached us too late, and we couldn't find you again."
"Now you have," replied Lenardo, looking up as Lilith approached. She was beginning to show the effects of the night's work. Her golden brown eyes appeared to have retreated into her face, completely circled by dark rings. Although she did not seem to be troubled by her. own injury, even her pale blue underdress was charred, one sleeve in tatters.
Arkus looked up at her. "You chose the right side, Lady Lilith."
"No, captain," she replied. "I remained with those to whom I had given my pledge, as did you. We have no quarrel now that the battle is done." She turned to Lenardo. "A clean wound?"
"Yes, Lady."
She touched Arkus' shoulder, and Lenardo Read the dull throb of pain give way to healing fire. "There are many who must be carried," Lilith said to Arkus. "I think you are well enough to walk to Castle Nerius, but if you grow weak or have pain, do not hesitate to ask for help."
The young officer's eyes spoke the incredulity Lenardo Read in him. "Why are you healing an army that has just opposed you?"
"An army is made up of men, captain, and men choose their loyalties. You are no longer bound by your oath to Drakonius, as he is dead. You commander-"
"Braccho is dead also," said Arkus.
"Then at this moment you have no loyalties. You are the property of the Lady Aradia, but I think you will choose to become her sworn man."
And what is my choice now? Lenardo wondered, knowing that he wanted to ally his efforts with these people who, instead of killing their enemies, healed them and turned them into friends.
The image of five charred bodies in a rocky canyon intruded on him-but that was self-defense. What else could they have done against Adept power? But oh, Galen, why did you have to fall into Drakonius' hands?
He pulled his mind away from the thought. Galen was dead. Lenardo's mission for the empire was complete.
And if he had managed to take Galen back? Once the senate knew that Galen had conspired with the enemy, what choice would they have had but to execute him?
Didn't I know that all along?
Nerius had been right. The only way Lenardo could make the senate listen to him would be to approach them as Aradia's emissary. There soon would be peace in all the lands along the border, the lands Drakonius had ruled. The time was right. As soon as Aradia had firm command of all the lands she had won, he would attempt to make a treaty with the empire. May it be the will of the gods that there never be another night of savage destruction like the one just past!
There was a mass funeral three days later for all the troops that had been killed in the battle… and for Nerius. One gruesome report that Lenardo heard, but that was kept from most of the people, was that the men who went to collect the remains of those who had died in the rocky canyon found that scavengers had got at the bodies, and nothing was left but scattered bones.
It was a very long funeral, beginning early in the morning, for there were many dead to be eulogized. Lenardo was surprised when Aradia found something to say even for Hron, who had betrayed her. When it came to Nerius, every person there except the survivors of Drakonius' troops had something to say. Lenardo had come to respect Aradia's father on just a few days' acquaintance; now he got a fuller picture of a strong, firm, honest, and entirely honorable man whose wrath was feared but who was deeply loved by his people.
Everyone was all in gray, and Lenardo noted that, as he had seen at the other funeral, no one wore any ornament.
Like Wulfston, he had hidden his wolf s-head pendant inside his clothing once more.
Yet both Aradia and Wulfston wore the gold fillets across their foreheads-the mark of children of the Lord Adept.
Lenardo was one of the last to speak, for once in his life finding words would not come to express his feelings. He stumbled through somehow, unsurprised and unashamed at the tears coursing down his cheeks-tears for Nerius, but also for Galen.
The mourners formed several circles about the flat rock. When the speeches were over, there was silence-suddenly broken by a mournful howling. Everyone looked up in amazement, to see the white wolf atop a nearby hummock, howling as if he too grieved that the lord of the land was dead.
Finally all was silence. The wood was already piled over the bodies, and Aradia and Wulfston performed the ceremony of earth and water. Then both removed their gold fillets and laid them on the pyre.
Everyone backed off, for when the huge pyre went up in roaring flames the heat bombarded them hi waves of physical pressure. As had happened before, every trace of the bodies was consumed, the fire died back, and all that was left was a skiff of ashes.
This'time Lenardo found it difficult to be cheerful at the funeral feast. It was far too large a gathering for the great hall, and so the slope behind the castle, no longer grassy after being an army camp for days, became the scene of an immense picnic. Soon pipes were playing, and people began to dance, as Lenardo watched with increasing glum-ness.
Finally Aradia asked him, "What's wrong, Lenardo?"
"I know it is your custom, but to me it seems completely wrong to-to celebrate Nerius' death."
"We celebrate his life!" she replied. "His life and ours. I am the child of Nerius' body-his life is in me, and I celebrate that fact."
"It all seems so pointless," said Lenardo. "We worked so hard to save his life. He hadn't even recovered his full health yet-and then he died. What was it for?"
"Perhaps the day of Nerius' death was set in the stars," Aradia said. "There are those who say it is-it could be that if we had done nothing to heal him, he would have died that same hour. Do you not think, had he been given the choice, Nerius would have preferred to die.defending his people rather than to sleep away helplessly?"
"I'm sure he would," Lenardo agreed, but he could not shake off his mood.
"Lenardo," said Aradia, "you should have spoken for Galen today."
"No one spoke for Drakonius, although his soldiers were there."
"I do not think any close friends were among those troops. They feel the loss of a leader, fear over what will happen to them now, but not the breaking of a personal bond of friendship, as you do."
"That is why you spoke for Hron today?"
"Aye, and why Lilith did too. Hron was a weak man, but not an evil one. Speak for Galen now, Lenardo. Tell me what was best about him."
The nepvous, unpredictable, vengeful young man he had last Read was not the Galen Lenardo wanted to remember. He thought back to the boy as he had first known him. "He had intense enthusiasm. Each new lesson was a joy to him, and he made something I'd taught a hundred tunes fresh and new for me. He wanted to know everything at once, always eager to get on to the next lesson, the kind of student who breaks a teacher free of routine."
As he spoke, he felt better. Aradia smiled at him. "Are you glad you knew him?"
"Yes."
"Then celebrate that he lived, and that we all live yet to bring what good we can into the world." She took a brimming goblet of wine from one of the tables, handing it to Lenardo. "Let us drink together in celebration of life."
Lenardo took a sip, and Aradia took the goblet from him, raising it to her own lips and looking at him over the rim. When she had taken a swallow, she said, "You are free now, Lenardo. I have no more hold on you, the empire has none. All your promises are fulfilled. What will be your choice now?"