Others hung on tenuously, infection eating at their wounds. Many were tossing in fever, some in convulsions.
“How do you think I can give you back your powers?” he asked.
“Direct the power through me, as I did with
Melissa. Put me in touch with it, and I will quickly have my strength back.”
Torio stared. If it worked, would Maldek use his powers for good? Or was this a trick? The Master Sorcerer did want to heal-and if his motives were not purely selfless, how many people’s motives were?
Besides-his own powers were now equal to those Maldek had had. The man had to know that Torio could counter any sinister move.
The death in convulsions of a child out in the hallway tipped the scales.
“Very well,” said Torio. “I will try.”
Together they bent over the next patient. Maldek placed a hand on the forehead of a boy with a skull fracture from being hit by one of the giant hailstones. It had taken hours for what was left of his family to dig him out of the rubble of their home, and bring him here.
There was a huge blood clot in the boy’s brain-it would be at least an hour’s exhausting work for an Adept healer to dissolve the clot, move the bone back into place, and restore the damaged brain tissue.
If it could be restored at all.
But with the cold fire, all was done in moments. Torio let it flow through his hand to Maldek’s- and when he broke the contact, the flow continued. The Master Sorcerer had been right: once he was put back in touch with that source of power, he knew how to retain contact with it.
While the attendants removed the patient and brought in another, Maldek let the power flow through his own body, soothing the last of the “scarring” away.
By that time Torio was healing the other patient in the room-and the two men worked rapidly on, one burned and battered body after another, pausing only when the attendants brought them food and drink.
It seemed as if it would never end.
Zanos and Astra resumed work in another treatment room. In a third, the Maduran healers did so as well.
Cassandra administered medicines to the few patients whose injuries were so slight that herbs and simples were all they needed.
Melissa used Adept power to heal a number of people, and had to go sleep it off.
Torio was peripherally aware of all those events, but his main concentration remained on his patients.
Until at last the attendants took away the man he had just healed-and did not bring in anyone else.
It was a new morning; he had worked through a second straight night.
Pressing his hands to the small of his back, he stretched-and let the healing power ease his tension as he yawned.
Maldek turned from his last patient, and grinned. “No one can say the Lord of the Land didn’t do his part this time!”
Torio restrained himself from reminding Maldek that it was his fault so many had died or been injured.
The healers and their assistants could take over the patients still in healing sleep. Everyone else had gone home, or to the shelters set up for those whose homes had been destroyed.
Torio and Maldek gathered Melissa, Zanos, Astra, and Cassandra, and returned to the castle. There the Master Sorcerer’s surviving servants had been at work. Most of the debris of the battle had been cleared away, and a new kitchen set up. A meal was waiting for them in the dining hall.
There was not much conversation, for even those who had had some sleep were tired. Torio felt peculiar-not sleepy, yet not quite himself. A few hours of sleep would do him good.
But as they rose to go to their rooms, Maldek said, “Melissa, you come with me.” And all could Read his intentions.
Melissa stared at him in disbelief. “Even if you loved me, which you don’t,” she said, “how could you be interested in making love after what we have just been through?”
“After a man has done something to be proud of? That is the very best time. Can you think Torio loves you, Melissa, when he does not want you now?”
Unfortunately, Melissa could Read only too easily that physical desire was the farthest thing from Torio’s mind at that moment-but she only smiled at him and said, “I know Torio, and I love him. The fact that we feel exactly the same lack of desire at this moment only proves how much we are alike.”
Maldek smiled in malicious delight. “But it is opposites who attract, Melissa. Come-let me show you what pleasures a Master Sorcerer can offer.”
Torio found himself shaking his head, confused by what he was seeing, hearing, and Reading. What was Maldek trying to do? And why at this inappropriate moment?
Then he Read arousal in Melissa-the same thing Maldek had done to Dirdra in the memory they had all witnessed what now seemed a lifetime ago.
“Stop that!” Torio said, moving between Maldek and Melissa. Gray growled threateningly at Maldek, but was silenced by a thought from Torio.
“Do you want her?” Maldek asked.
“I love her,” Torio replied.
“Will you fight me for her?”
“Fight? Why should I?”
“Because otherwise I am going to take her,” Maldek said in tones that indicated that he found his outrageous statement perfectly reasonable.
And Torio found himself paralyzed as Maldek reached around him and took Melissa by the arm.
Torio called on his newfound powers, and broke free to grasp Melissa’s other arm. “Let go, Maldek. I didn’t restore your powers so you could hurt Melissa!”
” You restored his powers?!” demanded Zanos. “Torio-have you gone mad?”
“Perhaps,” he replied. “At the time, there were dying people to be saved. But now-”
“Now you see how powers are to be used,” said Maldek. “It’s for good, Torio. I’m not going to hurt Melissa-you’ll see. Just ask her tomorrow.”
Melissa’s physical desire was increasing-and then she stopped resisting as Maldek reached into her very mind.
“No!” cried Torio. “She’s exhausted with healing. Melissa-fight him!”
But her lovely eyes stared at him as if he were the one being unreasonable.
Maldek draped Melissa’s arm over his. “If you won’t fight for her, Torio, you don’t deserve her,” he said, starting to lead her, unresisting, from the room.
“By Mawort!” exclaimed Zanos. “If you won’t fight him, Torio, I will! Can you call yourself a Reader and think she wants that beast?”
And Zanos picked up the carving knife from the table and flung it after Maldek.
Of course it did not connect; without even turning, the Master Sorcerer stopped it and let it clatter to the floor.
“Torio, do something!” pleaded Astra.
“Melissa!” he projected. “Break free, Melissa!”
And from somewhere deep within her mind, she answered, “Help me, Torio-oh, please-” And the thought broke off as Maldek found that part of her consciousness and turned it to desire for him as they started up the stairs toward the part of the castle where his room was-
Blessed gods! He is twisting her mind!
To his horror, Torio realized that he had actually doubted Melissa-
It was all Maldek’s doing!
He ran to the door of the dining hall, stared at Maldek’s retreating back-and willed a thunderbolt to strike him!
The crack shook the walls, and Maldek fell to his knees-only momentarily stunned, for he had been braced for an attack.
But it was enough to make him lose concentration on Melissa. She pulled free and ran down the stairs.
Maldek rose, laughing gleefuly, and turned to face Torio. “At last-the confrontation! Now my game comes to its final match!” And he flung lightning in his turn.
Some new instinct caused Torio to draw the cold fire into his body as protection-Maldek’s bolt bounced off him harmlessly.
He leaped for the Master Sorcerer, tackling him as Zanos had taught him, the two of them rolling on the floor. He was peripherally aware of Zanos holding Gray back, lest the dog join in the fray.