“There is a war brewing. We could find ourselves friendless, in the midst of a battle in which we would appear enemies to every side.”
Zanos looked down at his hands, then over at Wulfston. “We? You look as if you belong here.”
“Only to you,” the Lord Adept replied grimly. “I am as much a stranger in Africa as you are, Zanos. It is only by chance that I have made some friends. With their help, I’ll have the Night Queen crew free by nightfall. If you will not help, at least do not interfere.”
Their eyes locked. At last Zanos said, “You know where Lenardo is, and I don’t. You are probably right not to call attention to yourself as a Lord Adept. Very well. I will not interfere in your… purchase.”
Because of the impending war, the market for exotic slaves had dropped. Kamas bought the group of eight white men for what Tadisha said was a fifth of what they would have brought a month before.
When Kamas brought them to Wulfston, their feelings were surprise and relief. “My lord, we should have known you’d find us!” exclaimed Telek, the strong, muscular sailor who had challenged Zanos on board ship. “And have you found Lord Lenardo?”
“He is at Norgu’s castle,” Wulfston explained.
“Norgu!” exclaimed Telek. “That bastard. He’s the one who sold us to the slavers!”
One of the other sailors added, “My lord, we were there, and did not see Lord Lenardo.”
“Norgu didn’t want you to. But Lenardo is there, all right. I’ve been in contact with him. Do you know of anyone else who survived? We don’t want to leave anyone stranded in Africa.”
“No, my lord, ” said Telek. “It seemed all the others with Adept or Reading powers were killed in the storm.”
“As if we were their special targets,” Zanos confirmed bitterly.
Nevertheless, it felt so good to speak his native language, to be among people from home, that Wulfston wished they could take the time to share the stories of their adventures. But Lenardo was waiting.
Within the hour they were on the road, the Night Queen crew eager to act against the man who had sold them into the slave pens.
They rode until an hour past sunset, then made camp. If they started early the next day, they could get close enough to Norgu’s castle that only a short ride the next day would take them there, fresh and ready to fight if necessary. It would probably be necessary; it was unlikely that Norgu did not know there was an army approaching his castle.
Tadisha and Kamas contacted Ashuru, who was on the road now, moving toward them. Her army should join theirs the next day.
They had not yet crossed the border into Norgu’s lands, but that border was visible from the hill where they had posted sentries. After the evening meal, Wulfston climbed the hill, trying to Read to Norgu’s castle. It was a foolish gesture; he could not Read even as far as he could see from the top of the hill in the moonlight. Was Lenardo Reading their progress? Why didn’t he make contact?
Wulfston exchanged passwords with the sentries, then walked down the hill a short way to where someone had felled a tree to form a bench. The view in the moonlight was exquisite, but he was in a little hollow where he could not be seen from above or below; he suspected that this must be a favorite courting spot for young people from the village whose fires twinkled below.
He felt Tadisha’s mind touch his, and gave her a wordless welcome. In moments she came to sit beside him.
“Can you See to Norgu’s castle from here?” he asked.
“Not without going out of body,” she said in a soft voice that would not carry beyond their sheltered hollow. “You should not be attempting to See it, either. We want Norgu to think our movement is simply positioning our troops against the Savishnon assault. And who knows what Savishnon Seers might make of your thoughts?”
“From what Barak showed us, they simply take anything foreign as something to be destroyed.”
“Let’s not talk about the Savishnon,” said Tadisha, “or Norgu, either. Is your land so beautiful in the moonlight, Lord Wulfston?”
“The moon shines on the whole world,” he replied. “Its light reveals beauty everywhere.” He turned to look at her face, silvered, with golden glints in those eyes that glowed like a cat’s.
She turned her face to his, but before he dared follow his own desire, she leaned toward him, murmuring,
“Then you could learn to love this land as much…” Her voice trailed off as her lips brushed his, producing almost a spark as he started back.
Tadisha straightened, peering at him. “Wulfston, are you afraid of me?”
“Of you? No. Of another woman trying to control me? I will always be wary of that.”
“I’m not trying to control you!” she said indignantly. “I like you!”
“And you would like me to stay in Africa,” he observed.
“This is your homeland.”
He shook his head. “No, Tadisha. This is the home of my ancestors, but it is not my home. I understand now why my parents never wanted to return to Africa; they would not have wanted me here, where Chulaika and Z’Nelia use me as a pawn in their games of power, and you and your mother- I’m tired of women pushing me around!”
Tadisha smiled. “You sound just like Kamas!”
“I understand just what he’s going through,” he told her seriously. “My parents often left me in the care of my sister until they were killed, and then Nerius took me home and handed me over to Aradia. It’s difficult to explain. I don’t want you to think I don’t love her. I do. And she loves me, but she is only now beginning to accept me as her equal. And I don’t know if she’ll ever stop trying to manipulate me.”
“And you think I am trying to manipulate you?” Tadisha asked. Wulfston heard what sounded like honest amazement in her voice. Then she said thoughtfully, “I must be very careful how I treat Kamas. I would not want his having an older sister with stronger powers to confuse his thinking. I certainly don’t want my younger brother to have trouble understanding the difference between manipulation and caring.”
Queen Ashuru caught up with them on the road the next day, bringing good news. “The combined army of the Assembly has driven off the first assault of the Savishnon. They have turned eastward, traveling across the plain rather than rampaging through our lands. But such an army needs supplies. When they grow hungry, they will turn southward again. Can there be any hope of gaining Norgu’s cooperation?”
“Perhaps,” suggested Wulfston, “now that we know why he hates his mother we may persuade him to join us against Z’Nelia.”
The next day they reached Terza, the small city grown up around Norgu’s castle. No one paid them much attention as they rode up the main street toward the castle walls. Obviously Norgu frequently had distinguished visitors.
But while the streets bustled with morning activity, the castle was strangely quiet. The gates were still closed, and no guards stood watch atop the walls. Drifting high above the castle’s turrets Wulfston saw-
No, it can’t be! Surely not the eagle he had seen at the lake. Yet curiosity prompted him to try to see through this bird’s eyes, for it commanded a view of the entire castle.
At his mental touch, the eagle broadcast such a rupulsion that he was rocked in his saddle. Obviously not the same bird!
Yet the memory of seeing through the eyes of that eagle prompted another memory: the view Norgu had given the Assembly of the Savishnon armies. Strange… it had been much like the eagle’s view, from above. Had Norgu also used an eagle, perhaps this one-?
Tadisha, who had been watching and Reading him, now turned her Seer’s powers toward the castle.
Wulfston opened his own powers to the full-
Where was Lenardo? Why didn’t he greet them?
Tadisha, Ashuru, and Kamas all were Seeing now, for they met no minds guarding against intrusion.
Wulfston Read with them the empty courtyard, the gates closed but unbarred, the empty stables-