"Please come soon. I miss you, Master Lenardo."
"I miss you, Torio. I'll come as soon as I can. But for now you'll be happy to get back to your friends at the academy."
"You've always been my best friend," the boy told him.
"Then trust me."
"Oh, I do!" Lenardo felt Torio's reassurance like the unReaderlike hug the boy bestowed on those he loved.
“Good. Then give Master Clement my message, and apply yourself to your studies-for I am going to have work for you as a Reader such as you have never dreamed of!”
It was with regret that Lenardo broke contact with Torio's mind. It would be so good to get back among ReadersNo. It would be so good to have daily contact with Torio and Master Clement, his dear friends… but he would miss Aradia and Wulfston. / am going to have -work for you, he had told Torio. 7 don't suppose there's any hope of persuading Master Clement to venture beyond the pale. I wonder if Aradia could ease his rheumatism?
Lenardo lay back, hands clasped behind his head, contemplating the future. It looked good. He felt good. All his wounds were healed again, but the source of his sense of well-being was not physical. Rather, he felt satisfied with himself for the first time since his failure with Galen.
Lifting his right arm, he looked at the dragon's-head brand in the flickering candlelight. The mark of the exile- but he did not feel exiled. He felt at home. Readers were having problems hi Tiberium; Lenardo would have the power to demand that then- rights be recognized. The senate said there were no funds for a new academy? Suppose it were built here, at Castle Nerius! No-better yet- restore the academy at Zendi! It had been a female academy hi Lenardo's childhood, but with the male academy gone from AdigiaYes, he must speak with Aradia about Zendi! He longed to see the city restored to its former glory, and what better way than to make it the neutral ground on which Readers and Adepts could meet and learn to work together?
Perhaps, thought Lenardo, 7 was not well suited to the cloistered life of the academy. Or perhaps being there on the border, I Read without being able to accept it that we should not be fighting one another.
He had taken Galen's exile, Decius' wound, Galen's death, all as his own fault. But they were all part of the perpetual war between the empire and the savages.
He stroked his beard, thinking, Now I'm part of both, the Aventine Empire and the savage- No, not an empire, but perhaps one day an amalgam of alliances such as Aradia had forged with Lilith. Their alliance had withstood the power of Drakonius.
Filled with hope for the future, Lenardo slept the sleep of deep contentment.
The next day everybody in and about Castle Nerius slept late except Lenardo. He was up at dawn, as usual, and for the first time found the kitchen not only deserted but hi a shambles-clearly even the cook and his staff had finally joined hi the celebration last night. He found fruit and bread and met the bleary-eyed dairyman bringing hi fresh milk-cows, the man grumbled, had to be milked no matter how one had spent the night before. Lenardo helped him pour the milk into the cool stone vats and earned for his efforts a mumbled thanks and, "I don't suppose you can cure a headache, Master Reader?"
"No, I'm afraid you'll have to ask one of the Adepts for that."
"Aye, but they'll be "too busy curing their own today. Good day to ye!"
Apparently everyone knew who he was by now-even the proper way to address him-but there was none of the fear Nerius had predicted. Aradia's sworn man, wearer of the wolf-stone…
When Aradia appeared downstairs, looking none the worse for her night of revelry, Lenardo approached her with his ideas.
"An academy of Readers at Zendi?" she asked. "How will you persuade the empire to risk their precious Readers outside their borders?"
"I don't think they would. Aradia, to make a treaty, both sides must grant concessions. To gain peace, and the aid of Readers, grant me the power to return the land that includes the city of Zendi to the empire." "Give back land honorably won?"
"You won it from Drakonius; thus you would not be giving it 'back' to the empire but granting it as a concession -with stipulations. The academy, and free access for Adepts to work with Readers there."
Her violet eyes studied his face. "And you would be Master of this Academy?"
"I… I suppose so, one day. I hadn't really thought about that."
"Lenardo… precisely what was your mission on this side of the border?"
"You know it. To find Galen and stop him from aiding Drakonius."
"And that was all?" "Yes. But after all I've seen here-" "You are ready to stop merely doing what you are told." She reached for the wolf s-head pendant he wore. "Do you wish to continue to wear this?"
"Yes," he replied. "I will swear loyalty to you, Aradia- freely, as I have fulfilled my agreement with you and won my freedom."
"You have done far more than fulfill our agreement. But if you swear loyalty to me, that is where your loyalty must stay. If you do not succeed in making the treaty with the empire, you must come back to me."
"I would want to," he replied. "If I cannot persuade the senate or the emperor to listen to me… then you will have one Reader, Aradia, and perhaps we shall find more among your people."
"The empire will think you a traitor."
"All but three people think so now. I am sure that, with your strength to back me, I can persuade the empire that making a treaty with you is to their benefit"
The wolfish grin showed her teeth. "With my strength to back you. Yes, Lenardo, you are beginning to understand how to work with nature-human nature. You shall have the power you require and the chance to learn to use it wisely. Now," she added more seriously, "there is a ceremony to be performed before Lilith leaves. Tomorrow afternoon, will you swear fealty to me before Lilith, Wulf-ston, and my officers?"
"Gladly, my lady."
The ceremony was held in the great hall, again cleared of tables, including the permanent one that had burned in the battle of Adepts. Aradia's treasure chest stood open, along with numerous other chests of gold and jewels, plunder brought back by the army. Other chests held gold and silver corns. Lenardo judged that there was as much value there as in the Aventine Empire's depleted treasury, unhesitatingly delivered by Aradia and Lilith's soldiers. Lenardo recalled Arkus saying that day in Zendi that Drakonius' soldiers were allowed to loot as they pleased-and I suppose he didn't care if they killed each other over the loot, once the battle was over.
Aradia, wearing the circle of twisted gold that had been Nerius' crown, began the long list of awards: to every soldier and watcher a measure of silver, to every wounded man two measures, to the family of every man killed a gold mark, and on to detailed grants to the communities that had sent men and supplies to her army.
Then each of the officers assembled there received one of the twisted gold bracelets, and Lenardo recalled that there was enough value in on.e to build and furnish a modest home. More than one mind among the younger officers began to fill with marriage plans, while others thought of horses or oxen, of new clothes for wives and children, and standing out from the common melee someone's plan to build a mill to grind grain.
Charging the officers with taking their men safely home and distributing their awards, Aradia turned to Lilith, Wulfston, and Lenardo. "Although Master Lenardo long since gave his personal pledge to me, and proved his value and loyalty right well in the battle just past, he has not made a public declaration of fealty. Master Reader?"
When Wulfston had rehearsed him in the ceremony, Lenardo had been glad to find it needed no rewording to avoid conflict with his Reader's Oath. He knelt before Aradia and held the wolf-stone in both hands. "I, Lenardo, Master Reader, take this sign in pledge to Aradia, daughter of Nerius, and my liege lady. I promise to protect her life, her people, and her goods, and to defend her life with my own."