“Now Read me,” Maldek instructed.
“I’m tired just from concentrating,” exclaimed Melissa, “and you’re as fresh as if you’d just had a good night’s sleep!”
“I did not use my own energy,” Maldek explained. “In fact, I sometimes think that the more one draws from the planes of power, the more one is energized by what one touches. Come-we have another patient waiting.”
This time the patient walked in willingly, looking around, taking stock. He was a red-haired man in his early thirties, dressed in fine fabrics, but of too many different bright colors. Arrogantly, he looked Maldek up and down, then asked, “Well, Master Sorcerer, what did you really have your guardsmen bring me here for? I’ll never believe it was this!”
And he thrust out his right arm-which ended not in a hand, but a hook!
Torio gasped in recognition. “By the gods!”
“Oh, no, Torio,” said Maldek, “the gods had nothing to do with it. I knew where this one was. It was Cassandra who was hard to find.”
“What’s going on here?” the red-haired man asked. “Them guards told me you wanted me at the castle to get a new hand. I told ‘em you don’t do favors for gamblers-so what’s it really about?”
“Exactly what the guards told you,” Maldek replied. “I sent them for you in particular, and also told them to bring in the most crippled beggar they saw in the streets.” He waved toward the sleeping man. “As you can see, he is no longer crippled. I have a student here learning to heal. I plan to demonstrate on you.”
“Yeah?” the man questioned. “I’m not so sure I like that. You gonna grow my hand back? Welchers are scared pretty bad by this hook.”
“And also people you ‘protect’ for a fee, no doubt,” said Maldek. “But I will have another surprise for you soon, Bryen. And I want you in perfect condition for it.”
“No thanks!” said Bryen, and headed for the door. “I’ve always stayed out of your way, Maldek. You got no call to pick me for your experiments.”
“Ah, but I have,” replied the sorcerer-and Bryen stopped in his tracks, paralyzed. “Come now-I’ve no reason to hurt you. I’m doing you a favor.”
But not Zanos, Torio thought to himself. If there was any form of human parasite Zanos hated, it was gamblers. Could Maldek know that?
Released, Bryen turned, anger and fear clashing within him. “What you gonna want in return for the favor I never asked for?” he demanded. “I got no woman I care about-don’t pay in this land! You need more money? I can get it for you, depending-”
“Bryen, I am not asking you to pay. You are doing a favor for two of my guests. Now lie down, and let me restore your hand.”
Bryen stared at Melissa and Torio as he moved reluctantly to the empty bed. “Your guests, huh? You folks from some other country?”
“As a matter of fact, we are,” said Melissa.
“Well-take care who you think’s your friend,” Bryen warned.
“Just go to sleep now and let us work,” said Maldek, and the red head dropped onto the pillow.
Maldek removed the tight wrappings which secured the hook to the stump of Bryen’s right arm. The arm itself was as strong as his left-he obviously used the hook, probably just as he had suggested.
The pale stump was cleanly healed over, long calloused and without pain.
“Observe,” said Maldek, “what you will be able to do once you have mastered the planes of power.”
Torio and Melissa Read together. Maldek became blank to Reading as he asserted his Adept powers, then Readable again as he studied the effects, removing the calluses and scar tissue, leaving only normal flesh at the end of Bryen’s arm- soft and pink and vulnerable.
But then Maldek began to Read with fine discernment, down to the very level of the cells of Bryen’s body. Torio had Read thus with Astra, knew Lenardo could have Read it… but he had never tried to Read to such a level on his own.
At least in this skill, Maklek was a better Reader… now. But Torio’s powers would grow for ten years yet. Meanwhile, Reading with Maldek would give him experience against the day when his own powers would reveal such depths.
But then… Maldek began to Read inside the cells!
Down, down, into the tangled strands of life itself, Maldek reached and manipulated. Lost, Torio observed without understanding. Maldek spread cold white fire among the dancing threads until they writhed and intermeshed in new patterns- blinking in and out as Maldek stopped Reading to control, then resumed to study his results.
Then he withdrew, and stood Reading the stump of Bryen’s arm, just within the flesh. Here Torio could Read for himself… and observed a miracle.
The sealed-off bone ends dissolved, and cell by cell the bones began to extend. At the same time, tiny bits of new living matter formed out of the old, and assembled themselves at the ends of the two bones of the forearm.
Melissa gasped as she recognized the pattern. “It’s like the hand of a baby growing in the womt›-so tiny, yet all the elements in place!”
Indeed, the formation was so small that it was not visible even as a swelling… but it was there]
Maldek guided the substance until it had taken on a life of its own. Then he let go his concentration and stood back, breathing heavily.
“You’re tired,” said Melissa.
“Only weary with concentration,” the Master Sorcerer replied. “Let Bryen sleep. We’ll waken him to feed him later-for his body will deplete itself with all the work it must do.”
“The substance, then,” Torio asked, “comes from Bryen’s body?”
“Of course. It is possible to make matter disintegrate, Torio, but I’ve never yet heard of the Master Sorcerer who could create it. And the pattern of Bryen’s whole body, including his missing hand, is in every cell. All I had to do was copy it.”
They went to dinner, then-just the three of them, for Dirdra had not returned, and Zanos and Astra, still closeted with Cassandra, requested that the meal be sent up to their room.
“When are you going to tell Zanos that his brother is here?” asked Torio.
“As soon as Bryen has enough strength for the reunion-just a few days. Zanos is not a strong Reader-surely you two can keep from spoiling my surprise?”
“Of course,” Melissa replied, assuming Torio’s consent. “Besides, it’s Astra’s day today, finding her mother after all these years. Let them enjoy their reunion, and when Bryen has recovered Astra will be able to share Zanos’ happiness the way he is sharing hers today.”
Torio wondered if they were indeed happy, considering how bitter Cassandra had seemed-but when she came down to supper with Zanos and Astra that evening she was a changed woman. Her eyes and Astra’s both showed that they had cried- but they were happy now.
Face on, Cassandra and Astra did not look nearly as much alike as they did in profile, although it was easy to guess they were related. But when they smiled-
Although Torio felt that no woman could compare in beauty to Melissa, with her delicate heart-shaped face and softly curling hair, he knew that other women were beautiful as well. Lilith had a serene, classic beauty. Aradia was exotically lovely. But Astra was not a beautiful woman, merely pretty in the way of youth, and Cassandra had not even that.
But when they smiled, both mother’s and daughter’s faces took on such a glow that for that moment they seemed the most beautiful women in the world.
Over supper, Cassandra told an abbreviated version of the life’s story she had revealed to her daughter and son-in-law that day.
She had, indeed, broken her vows as a Master Reader, as had Master Anthony. When Cassandra’s pregnancy revealed their indiscretion, the Council of Masters decreed that oath-breakers were not to be rewarded with one another, but that they would be separated and sent to the far ends of the empire.
So Cassandra and Anthony decided to run away together.