And inside, empty rooms. No servants, no retainers… and no guests.
But in Norgu’s main hall, devastation.
The place had been firestormed.
Charred and blistered remains of furnishings surrounded a blasted corpse. And Norgu, seated in the midst of the ruin, physically unharmed but mentally blank, his eyes fixed in a glassy stare, seeing nothing.
Chapter Seven
Wulfston moved toward Norgu, who was obviously in shock. Ashuru brushed past him. “Ill care for the boy. It’s his mind that needs healing.”
She was right; people injured physically needed Wulfston’s skills. He spared a glance at the corpse to confirm his expectations; it was Sukuru.
Then where were Chulaika and Chaiku? And where was Lenardo? Why had the Master Reader not given a mental call for help?
Traylo and Arlus ran out of the main hall, then back to Wulfston, coaxing him to follow. Unable to Read anything to guide him, he accepted the dogs’ direction through the corridors and down a stair that narrowed as it wound into darkness. For the first time, he experienced the Readers gift of movement without hesitation when there was no glimmer of light to see by.
Norgu’s dungeons stank of agony and death. By the time he came to the bottom of the stairs, Wulfston was holding his breath. Why had Traylo and Arlus brought him to this empty place?
He could Read no one there… alive.
The dogs, though, whimpered and fussed. Wulfston concentrated on a rushlight on the wall, until it burst into smoky flame. In the dim light he saw two bodies on the floor.
Chulaika and Chaiku, mother and son wrapped in one another’s anus.
No spark of life-?
They were breathing! He could see no injury; they appeared merely to be unconscious. Then why couldn’t he Read-?
Wulfston grasped Chulaika’s shoulder, intending to turn her over.
At the touch, — something grabbed at his mind! The more he fought, the more he was dragged into seething chaos. His mental shout to Tadisha and Kamas for help was swallowed up in the maelstrom, along with every thought, every memory, that made him a separate being!
Chulaika, Chaiku, and Sukuru stood before Norgu. Sukuru was defeated, Chuklaika controlling Chaiku’s powers to hide her thoughts. Norgu must not find out how much power his half-brother had, or he would either kill the boy or take him from her to use as his own weapon.
For Chaiku was Chulaika’s weapon, carefully crafted to use against Z’Nelia. No one was going to take her son from her before the time was ripe!
“I don’t care what you do, Sukuru,” Norgu was saying. “You’re worthless to me. Shall I kill you? You have been of service to me, even though you did not intend it. You might have brought Lord Wulfston, but you also brought me the hostage who will deliver him right into my hands. Wulfston’s coming here, thinking to take Lenardo from me as easily as I took him from you.”
The young Mover turned his attention to Chulaika. “What do you think, dear aunt, betrayer of my mother? You chose this stranger from a distant land to be your champion. A fine champion! The only way you could get him here was to kidnap his brother. Are your charms fading, Chulaika? Couldn’t you seduce the Beast Lord as you did my father?”
Chulaika stood impassively. Let Norgu reveal just how much he knew of her plan. “You’d never help me,” she said.
“Why should I share the throne of the Zionae with you and your bastard?” Norgu demanded. “You pinned your hopes on that poor little baby-you thought he’d have my father’s powers. But he’s just like you, without power, a weakling. He can’t even talk! That’s the kind of offspring you produce, Chulaika.”
Norgu lounged back on his throne in an attitude of disrespect, waiting for Chulaika’s response. She refused to give him one. Finally he prodded, “Should I let you go with Sukuru? You’d make a good family. Bunch of weaklings. Maybe I should make you marry him. “
Suddenly Norgu sat up straight. “What-?”
His servants were running in the corridor outside the main hall, men dashing up the great staircase toward the room where Lenardo was kept.
Chulaika Saw with Norgu, Lenardo on his feet, braced for the onslaught. The white man had some minor Mover’s powers, certainly enough to handle those servants.
But not Norgu! From the young Mover’s mind, the command to sleep struck the stranger lord. The man fought it easily until Norgu backed it with his Mover’s powers, physically overpowering the Seer. The white man slumped into unconsciousness. The servants entered the room, and began to carry Lenardo out-
Where? Why?
Norgu had seemed surprised when the servants appeared. Yet it must have been on his order.
Chulaika stared at Norgu, and suddenly he turned, fixing his eyes on her.
It wasn’t Norgu!
Chulaika’s Seer’s powers were very dim; she had recognized only the overlay of Norgu up to that moment, but in those eyes she recognized the look, the madness.
Norgu’s hand rose clumsily, still fighting the force within his body.
Chulaika screamed and flung herself behind Sukuru, shielding Chaiku with her body.
The thunderbolt struck Sukuru, killing him instantly.
“No!” Norgu howled, fighting the demon in possession of his body.
Chulaika slithered out from beneath Sukuru’s charred body and ran, dragging Chaiku by the hand. The boy began to wail in fear. “Quiet!” she hissed, and his sounds stopped, although tears still rolled down his face.
Where could she hide?
Thunderbolts were striking randomly throughout the castle as the witch possessing Norgu improved her control.
Hangings burst into fire, and servants dropped in their tracks.
Chulaika scurried into the kitchen, where a number of Norgu’s staff cowered, waiting for orders. “Under the table!” Chulaika told them, diving beneath it herself, clutching Chaiku close. The servants crowded in around them, their terror providing a psychic shield. Chulaika took Chaiku in her arms, calmed him, and entered the mother/son bond in which she could brace her son’s Movers powers. It made them nearly invisible to Seers.
But their attacker had firm control of Norgu’s powers now, and was methodically destroying his castle.
The kitchen fireplace was large enough to roast a buffalo. When the fire leaped from it to the table, the servants scattered, Chulaika and Chaiku with them.
Carrying her son, Chulaika ran with the servant who spilled out into the hall, until they came to the stairway leading down to the dungeon.
Praying desperately to Shangonu that the intruder had not been able to follow her, she fled down the winding stairs, stumbling in the darkness, catching the rhythm until the stairs ended abruptly and she hurtled into darkness, falling onto a damp stone floor.
Breathless, she clung to Chaiku, making him enforce the Mover’s shield with all his strength, a strength amazing for a child so young, but still a child’s strength. In moments, the effort dragged them both into unconsciousness.
“Lord Wulfston! Wulfston, come out of it!”
The voice came from a great distance, calling somebody she vaguely knew.
“Let go! Come out of the woman’s mind, Wulfston!”
He gasped with the mental anguish of releasing memories that for long moments had been his, but Tadisha’s mind was there to support him.
He was kneeling, frozen, with his hand on Chulaika’s shoulder. Tadisha’s warm hand touched his cold one, lifting it from the contact.
The weakness of relief flooded him as he forced himself up on legs gone numb. “Thank you. I’ll be all right now.”
“What happened?” Tadisha asked. “We couldn’t find you! Finally the dogs led me down here.”
“The woman is Chulaika,” Wulfston replied, staring down at her. She was not veiled now. He had seen that face before, in Barak’s vision. “Z’Nelia’s twin sister.”
Tadisha used her Seeing power to examine the woman and her child. “They’re just unconscious. We’ll take them upstairs and put them to bed. Which is where you belong, too.”