They got into a jostling crowd, and Torio was lost already. If Detrus let go of his hand, he’d never find his way home!
He stopped, digging in his heels. “Detrus, I wanna go home!”
“No! You wanted to come along, now you come!” said Detrus. “Hurry up, Torio! We’ll miss the parade!”
Detrus gave a jerk to Torio’s hand, and the blind boy stumbled after him, terror building. Up ahead there were rumbling noises, and roars and growls along with the stink of wild beasts-real wild beasts, not neighborhood dogs and cats!
“I wanna go home!” Torio screamed the louder, but Detrus dragged him along, in among packed bodies, bumping into people, worming their way through to where Detrus could see the passing wagons.
“There’s the wild boy!” Detrus shouted. “Come on, Torio-Orfio’s tryin’ a catch up-I wanna see if he sticks him!”
“I wanna go home!” Torio cried again as Detrus hauled him along. Suddenly he dug in his heels, grabbed Detrus’ hand in both of his, and swung his brother away from the direction he was headed. “You gotta do what / want, Detrus! I wanna go homel”
Torio knew nothing of where they were except that they had broken through the crowd that he could still hear, and all around them were loud rumbles of heavy animal wagons with their growling beasts and sharp ammonia stinks.
He swung Detrus in the direction he thought they had come from.
Detrus stumbled-and his hand slipped out of Torio’s!
“Detrus!” Torio screamed. Other voices in the crowd began to scream. “Look out!”
“Watch out for the boys!” Horses neighed in terror. Fear stench rose all around. The rumble grew louder, shaking the ground as Torio groped wildly for Detrus- Heard his brother’s scream- Heard horses scream again- Heard people screaming all around- Smelled-blood!
In Maldek’s throne room, Torio stood sweating and shaking as he did when he awoke from that same nightmare. Now he knew why he could never remember it.
Tears streaking his face, he sank to his knees, whispering, “Now you know-now we all know. I’m responsible. I killed my brother.”
Chapter Seven
From all around the throne room, waves of anger washed through Torio’s battered mind.
Overpowering surges of guilt ripped through him as he knelt, exposed, before the people who had been his friends. Shielding from their fury, he withdrew into himself, as blind and helpless as he had been as a small boy.
Claws clicked on the stone floor, and Gray licked his face, nudging him under the chin, offering unquestioning comfort even though the dog had Read Torio’s experience along with all the other Readers.
Then a gentle hand touched his shoulder. “Torio.” It was Dirdra’s voice. “Don’t let Maldek do this to you.”
“You don’t understand,” he said wretchedly. “You couldn’t Read-” He threw his arms around Gray, not caring that the dog still loved him only because it couldn’t comprehend the enormity of his guilt.
“I could Read it,” said Melissa, kneeling on Torio’s other side and putting her arms around him.
“Torio-do you think we would blame you for an accident? You were too young even to understand what was happening! Torio?”
He could not respond, keeping his face buried against Gray, his mind firmly closed. Melissa’s pity was even worse than her anger of the moment before.
Then strong hands grasped his upper arms. “Stand up!” said Zanos, lifting him to his feet. “Torio- Read’t For Hesta’s sake-we’re angry at Maldek, not at you! What kind of evil mind tries to cast guilt on a man for what happened when he was a four-year-old child?”
“But it was my fault-” Torio began.
“Nonsense!” declared Zanos. “Have you Read Bryen blaming me for the loss of his hand? Or me blaming him for letting me be carried off into slavery? Or either of us laden with guilt for the deaths of the rest of our family? By the gods, Torio, you take responsibility for everything that happens, as if to make up for that one event that was not your fault.”
Hesitantly, Torio allowed himself to Read-and found that Dirdra, Melissa, and Zanos spoke the truth. It was not even that his friends forgave him-they found nothing to forgive!
Unlike his mother.
For the two years he had remained at home after Detrus’ death, Torio had lived with a silent woman who blamed her crippled son for the death of her perfect one. She had neither punished nor neglected him-but she had not loved him. And Torio’s growing powers had only revealed more and more how much his mother blamed him for something his young mind had banished from memory.
But he remembered clearly how happy his mother was to be rid of him when then-Magister Lenardo had discovered his potential as a Reader and taken him off to the Academy.
The Readers had taken four boys from six to eight years old out of their town that day. Torio, the youngest, was the only one who did not cry himself to sleep in his strange bed that night… the only one who did not want to go home again.
What he felt this evening in the throne room of Maldek’s castle was the same sense of relief he had known at the Academy, where his teachers had cared only about his Reading potential, and no one had blamed him for anything beyond boyish pranks.
This feeling was even more welcome. His friends knew-and they didn’t hate him! He Read their love, their caring as they gathered around him, even Bryen and Cassandra joining the circle to put their arms around him, protecting him against the malice of the Master Sorcerer-
Who stood partway up the steps to his throne, watching the scene in growing anger.
Astra turned to him. “We won’t let you pull that trick again, Maldek. We have our differences-but you will never again divide us!”
And as if her words were a signal-thunder roared outside, and people began to scream!
They Read outward, to find the city under attack.
Fire rained from the sky. Thunderbolts struck the castle. The forest roared into flame, animals fleeing, leaping into the river and the moat-
“Rokannia!” shouted Maldek.
But there was more than one Adept attacking!
In savage glee, the Readers felt Maldek recognize that the very tricks he had been using on his visitors had been turned against him.
While Maldek had been preoccupied with trying to divide and conquer his guests, Rokannia had taken the opportunity to gather two other Master Sorcerers against him-one of them Borru of Meliard, with whom he had been fostered as a boy.
Torio felt Maldek’s shock of recognition-Borru was his mentor, Rokannia his sworn vassal, and Shivahn his neighbor to the northwest, with whom he had an uneasy truce.
“How dare you attack me?” he demanded.
Rokannia answered for them all. “You destroy my people with your demands, Maldek-and your ruin of your own lands is spreading to those of your neighbors on Madura! You are at war with us, whether you declare it or not.”
“Borru,” Maldek appealed, “Master. You taught me to use my powers. How can you turn against me?”
“You have misused your powers, Maldek, against your people, your land. You must be stopped before you destroy everything your father left to you.”
“This is my land,” Maldek told them. Ill will do with it as I please!”
“No,” said Shivahn, “the land is not yours, nor the people-you are theirs! And your loss of control of the climate has crept year by year into my lands, until my crops fail under early and late frosts, my herds die in the winter storms-and my people suffer hunger! No more, Maldek. You will be stopped, once and for all!”
“Give it up, Maldek,” said Rokannia. “Your powers may be greater than ours individually-but our combined powers are greater than anything you have.”
“You are wrong!” Maldek roared aloud even as he projected the thought. Ill know where you are-and I will destroy you!”