Finally, since there was nothing they could do for Kwinn and Dirdra tonight, they retired to the rooms assigned them, and slept the sleep of utter exhaustion.
Torio woke in a cold sweat, out of a nightmare he could not remember. The castle was coming to life for the day. The guards were securing the drawbridge, which had just been let down, and servants scurried about, preparing for the awakening of their master and his guests.
When Torio sat up, Gray raised his head from where he had been sleeping at Torio’s feet in the huge bed. “You were on the floor when I fell asleep,” Torio informed him. “How did you get up here without waking me? Do you have Adept power, too?”
The dog stretched, then pushed his face under Torio’s chin until the Reader rubbed the big shaggy head.
That ritual completed, he jumped off the bed, went to the door, and whined. Torio opened the door for him, Reading the dog run down the stairs and across the courtyard, then over the drawbridge into the forest.
Apparently Gray’s not worried about me this morning, thought Torio, and Read the other nearby rooms.
Dirdra was in the dull sleep of emotional exhaustion, her face still showing signs that after the others had left last night she had cried herself to sleep. Kwinn was curled up atop the coverings at her feet-just as Gray had been on Torio’s bed.
Melissa still slept in her room across the hall, and next door Zanos and Astra were in one another’s arms, her head on his shoulder, one arm about his waist as if her small body could shield his great one. On either side of the bed, their swords were hung within easy reach. And what good are they against power like Maldek’s? Torio wondered.
He was Reading surfaces only, invading no one’s privacy-but he was wide awake and too tense to go back to sleep. What was the “game” Maldek intended to play with them? And where was the Master Sorcerer now?
In another wing of the castle, he Read Maldek… also asleep. So, the man was human after all.
Torio had slept in the nightshirt he had found laid out on his bed. The clothes he had worn last night were gone, but an embroidered robe hung over the chair by the bed, fur-lined slippers beneath it.
More demonstrations of power: someone had been in and out of the room, not only without waking Torio, but without disturbing Gray.
Furthermore, just as Torio put on the robe and slippers, a servant started up the stairs from the kitchen with breakfast on a tray. The woman was Reading him-inexpertly enough that she instantly attracted his attention, but Reading nonetheless- yet when she reached his door she became blank to Reading for a moment, and the door opened by itself.
Someone with both Reading and Adept powers employed as a serving maid? Another symbol of Maldek’s power.
“You be up early, young sir,” the woman said as she laid the tray on the table. “Have a good breakfast, and then Devon will be up to help you dress. The Master says you be welcome to explore the castle till he rises. You may find summat of interest in his library.”
“Thank you,” Torio replied. The smell of fresh-baked bread was too good to resist. There was fruit mixed with soft farmer’s cheese, as well, and a pot of fresh hot tea whose scent he did not recognize. As before, everything Read perfectly wholesome, so he ate and drank-and by that time Gray was back.
When the door opened by itself to admit the dog, Torio Read outward, amazed that anyone, except perhaps Maldek, could have been Reading the room without his knowing it.
But the man sweeping the dust out of the corners of the hall had been Reading the dog, not Torio.
Gray eagerly accepted the leftovers of Torio’s breakfast. “But that’s not enough for you,” he realized.
“We’ll go down to the kitchen and-” He stopped, smiling grimly. “No-we don’t even have to ask!”
This time the door opened to admit a manservant in Maldek’s black-and-silver livery, followed by a small boy with a platter of meat scraps and bones, and a bowl of water. Hesitantly, he set them before the huge dog, then scurried out of the room.
Gray set happily to his meal while Devon laid out clothing for Torio. The daytime garments were no less rich than last night’s robes, although the hose were woolen, as was the undershirt. He was given a satin shirt of an iridescent blue-green, covered by a knee-length tunic of the same reddish-brown wool as the hose, sleeveless and open-necked to show the shirt. The tunic was belted in soft leather.
Over that went a short fur vest, and then a fur-trimmed ankle-length robe of the reddish-brown wool, lined with blue-green satin.
Soft leather boots came up high on Torio’s calves-and fit as perfectly as if the cobbler had measured his feet! Finally, Devon adjusted a soft brimless hat on his head, something Torio was quite unaccustomed to. Winter cloaks had hoods where he came from, but no one required a head covering indoors. Here, though, the castle’s stone walls gave off a chill not completely cut by the heavy hangings.
“Now, sir,” said Devon, “you will be comfortable. Please feel free to explore. Perhaps the Master’s library-?”
Why does Maldek want me in his library? Torio wondered. Perhaps it was a trap. For a Reader?
Unlikely, as the lord of the castle must certainly know that his guests mistrusted him, and would be on guard.
So he dismissed Devon, deciding to remain right where he was-and Read the library.
It was a large room, with more books and scrolls than he had ever seen in one place. There was a desk with a huge candelabra, pens, a box of parchment, wax seals-Maldek or some secretary must work here regularly. The pens were trimmed and ready for use. The inkpot was freshly filled. The broad surface of the desk was clean of dust, and the wax droppings of the partly burned candles had been scraped away.
But the books and scrolls were what interested Torio. In Zendi, Master Clement was working with Aradia-who had lost her own library when her castle was destroyed-to build up a collection of useful works. How they would envy this library!
Unable to see, Torio had not learned to read-as opposed to Reading-until he could visualize. Once he had mastered the technique, though, he had read voraciously.
The other boys would never have put the effort into visualizing what they could see perfectly well, but Torio had to make the same effort to Read a page whether he opened the book or not-and so usually he didn’t. The only way Lenardo had kept him from spending all his free time lying on his bed, lost in some book on the shelves of the Academy library, was to entice him with something more interesting.
Lenardo, whom he idolized, was the instructor of novice swordsmen. Since Torio, at age eight, imitated Lenardo in every way possible, his teacher had been able to entice the boy to exercise by introducing him to swordplay. As his body strengthened from the daily activity, he was able to play with the other boys, to learn to swim, and soon to be as sturdy and healthy as the other young Readers.
There had never seemed to be enough hours in the day for lessons and games and the books he wanted to explore. Torio was reminded, as he stretched out on his bed in Maldek’s castle, of the nights Lenardo had discovered him reading instead of sleeping, and made him do the Readers’ mental exercises for sleep.
With much the same sense of stealing time, Torio Read Maldek’s library. The Master Sorcerer’s own notebooks were stacked on the desk and on the shelves beside it, but Torio resisted the temptation to examine those first.
He found a section of works on medicine-herbal lore, surgery, diagrams of the bodies and brains of both humans and animals. Nearby were works on agriculture and horticulture, weather prediction… and a text on Adept climate manipulation. History, architecture, geography, Reading techniques, philosophy, government-Maldek seemed to have books on every topic.