“Are you going to tell me what’s bothering you?” Lenardo asked when they were alone. “You’re so braced for defense that I can’t even Read your feelings.”
“I couldn’t get the truth out of those people,” Wulfston replied, going to the other problem on his mind.
“Under all that bowing and scraping-”
“They were appealing to your ego,” said Lenardo. “When that didn’t work, Sukuru attacked your pride.”
“Oh, I got the insult, all right. Sukuru is not the clever diplomat he thinks he is.”
“Agreed.” Lenardo looked at him expectantly.
Finally Wulfston said, “Did you-? I know your Reader’s Code prevented you from probing them deeply, but surely you got some surface impressions?”
Lenardo frowned, staring at his hands. On his left glittered the ring which symbolized his marriage to Aradia, their two emblems, wolf and dragon, intertwined.
Wulfston had had the matching rings made by the finest goldsmith in his lands, as his wedding gift to his sister and her husband. While it symbolized specifically the marriage of these two, it was also emblematic of their entire alliance: neither beast could be separated from the other without breaking the ring, just as no member of their alliance dared fail the rest without endangering the existence of the Savage Empire.
Finally Lenardo said, “I think you got the same impression I did, Wulfston: our uninvited guests were telling the truth. As far as it went.”
“Meaning I didn’t ask the right question.”
“Meaning they didn’t answer it. They were very open and forthright about what they wanted you to do, but highly evasive the moment you asked why.” The Reader frowned, rubbing his neatly bearded chin as if deciding whether to confide what he had learned in a way Readers considered unscrupulous. Then he fixed dark eyes on Wulfston and said, “I wonder how much they really know? The description of Z’Nelia, for example, sounds so much like Portia-”
“To you, perhaps,” said Wulfston. “Besides, Portia was a Reader.”
“Which is why she could not act openly, as this African Adept can. But you are right, Wulfston. What made me think of Portia was the image of the spider with her webs spun throughout the kingdom. That was how Portia seemed to me, once I discovered her evil. I’m sure this Z’Nelia is quite different, probably more like Drakonius.”
“So you think we should help Sukuru and Chulaika?”
“Not until we find out what they’re hiding. The impression I got was that they are trying to use you. Their talk of freedom for their people is a sham. What they really want is the throne of Nubia-perhaps all of Africa-for themselves.”
“That ragtag band?” Wulfston snorted. “Who would sit on the throne? Sukuru? He’s only a minor Adept. “
“Yes,” agreed Lenardo, “they’re all either weak Adepts or low-level, untrained Readers. Their combined talents were nothing against you, and you’re not yet at the height of your powers. If their Z’Nelia is mature and as powerful as Drakonius was, no wonder they’re looking for help.”
“Perhaps they came here,” Wulfston suggested, “because they knew I wouldn’t be interested in claiming a throne on another continent, and so would leave it to them?”
“Unlikely. They seemed honestly amazed that we have an alliance of equals. It sounds to me as if their Adepts are still fighting one another, with the strongest subjecting all the others. So with his limited powers, I cannot see how Sukuru thinks to hold Z’Nelias throne, even if you should gain it for him.”
Wulfston nodded. “Well, Read whatever you can at dinner without breaking your Oath. Even if I cant Read, I know there’s something more than our guests have told us so far!”
Hoping to draw Sukuru and Chulaika out, Wulfston provided plenty of wine, and he and Lenardo, Julia, and Aradia told the story of the defeat of Drakonius-rather than letting the bard sing his distorted version.
Zanos and Astra, another Adept/Reader married couple, joined the group at the long table. Wulfston was rather surprised that they had nothing to say, for Z’Nelia sounded much like the sorcerers they had encountered in Madura, Zanos’ native land, from where they had recently returned. Perhaps they were biding their time, unwilling to reveal what they knew.
There were too many unrevealed secrets about that journey-especially why Torio, the blind Reader, had not returned from it. When the young man had developed the gift of prophecy, and known thereby that the woman he loved tnust seek her fortune in the frozen north, he had followed her there… and apparently lost her to Maldek, a Master Sorcerer. But then, instead of returning with Zanos and Astra, Torio had gone off on his own-to the east, Zanos had said, following some whim of his own.
And leaving Wulfston without a Reader. He had Rolf, of course, and several Magister Readers as well as numerous Dark Moon Readers who had come to work in his lands. But Torio had been friend and equal as none of these could be. Blast Torio’s prophecies anyway! What had they done but lose him Melissa and send him off to seek his fortune away from all his friends? Didn’t Torio realize his absence weakened their alliance?
But there was no use wishing for Torio. For the moment, Wulfston had Lenardo, the finest Reader ever known, to help him in this delicate situation. And Lenardo was explaining to Wulfston’s guests their entangled relationships.
“So Julia is my adopted daughter, though I don’t think either of us often remembers that she’s adopted.
Aradia is my wife, and that makes her brother Wulfston my brother, too.”
Sukuru asked, “How comes it, Lord Wulfston, that these pale folk claim you kin?”
“Ties of love may be as strong as ties of blood,” he replied. “When I was only three years old, I showed the first evidence of my powers.”
A swift glance passed from Sukuru to Chulaika. The woman had worn her veils even to the table, slipping bits of food up beneath her silken mask; so that when she caught Wulfston looking at her she dropped her eyes and he could tell nothing more of her expression.
Wulfston continued, “Aradia’s father, Nerius, stole me from the Aventine Empire, for the village folk would have murdered me for showing Adept powers in a land where only Reading was acceptable. They did kill my parents and my sister. Nerius was unable to rescue them, but he adopted me, and that is how he became my father and Aradia my sister.”
“We grew up together,” Aradia put in. “It was no different than if we had had the same parents by blood; we were playmates, we got into mischief together, and we fought and made up, just the way any other brother and sister would. Because our Adept powers set us apart from other children, we were actually closer than most brothers and sisters. I had been a very lonely child before Father brought Wulfston home.”
“And I was very young,” Wulfston added. “No, I never forgot my birth parents. Nerius had known them for a long time, and so now I can’t tell you which are my own memories and which are stories Father told me. He wanted me to remember my heritage, how proud my parents were that they had earned their way out of slavery and become Aventine citizens.” And then I developed the wrong power.
Aradia stepped into the pause. “So you see, our alliance is like a family-we love and trust one another, even when we are under attack. And now that we are safe and secure, with our friends to protect us from unforeseen dangers, Lenardo and I are having our own child. She will not be only our daughter; she will be Julia’s sister, and Wulfston’s niece. That is the kind of family alliance you must have to fight a tyrant.”
Sukuru nodded. “Yes, we understand, although I must confess I am amazed. Perhaps, then, most gracious Lord, you will advise us in our quest? Explain to us how powerful rulers may be made to work together instead of battling one another?”
“Not all can,” replied Wulfston. “Some of our supposed allies proved false. They were with us when they thought we had a chance of winning, but turned to Drakonius when he seemed to have the advantage.