Savage Empire

Beneath the boy's ramblings, Lenardo caught thoughts, suspicions: the Code a hypocrisy… Lenardo trying to keep Galen from achieving rank as a Readfcr… betraying him in his testimony at the trial… jealous of Galen, refusing to admit he was becoming the better Reader…

It was all nonsense-but how had Drakonius found these strange thoughts, to knit of them a snare for Galen's mind? Or was it possible they were not of Drakonius' invention, but rather the result of Galen's exposure for two years to the Adept's manipulations, transferred to his own disappointments?

At that moment, Lenardo could have wished for an Adept's skill to force Galen to calm down. The boy seemed not to have grown up at all-if anything, his adolescent mood swings had gotten worse. //Galen, I want to help you-//

//You! You coward! You let me be exiled-branded! You said you'd stand by me, and you didn't. You hate me because I'm a better Reader than you are. Everyone who's the best at something is hated. Now you want to trick me into going back to be executed. It won't work, Lenardo. I know you now, and I hate you!// Lenardo's mind flinched, • but he could not avoid the intensity of the boy's hysteria. //I hate you! I'm going to find you and kill you, Lenardo, so you'll never betray me again!//

Chapter Six

The Wolf Stirs

When Lenardo's consciousness returned to his body, he was almost glad of the pain in his back, knees, and ankles, competing with the pain of his confrontation with Galen. He had been sitting tailor-fashion, not the proper posture from which to leave the body.

After the onslaught of aches, his next impression was that someone was touching him. He opened his eyes to find Aradia kneeling before Mm, holding his wrist with a finger on his pulse, concern hi her violet eyes. "Are you all right? You slumped-I thought you'd fainted, but I was afraid to move you."

"I'm glad you didn't," he replied. "Ill be all right in a moment." He stretched his cramped legs, rubbing them, then stood up to stretch his back.

"Was it too far? What happened to you?"

"It was too far for a closely focused Reading, but I found Drakonius' stronghold. There is no army there now. As for Adepts-I'm afraid I couldn't concentrate enough to separate them from the others. There weren't more than thirty people in the entire stronghold."

"Are you sure that's what you found? Not just a castle?"

Oh yes. Galen would not be anywhere but in Drakoniusf stronghold.

"It's not a castle. Drakonius has expanded some caves in a cliff, and built fortifications along the river's edge. It seems to be a new place that he's still working on."

"Did Drakonius' Reader detect your presence?"

"Yes," he admitted.

"Has he followed you here? Is he Reading us now?"

"No-I saw to it that he couldn't follow me, and besides, he can't Read this far. I fear Drakonius has chained his mind."

"Wulf ston thinks-"

"What I thought: that Galen broke the commands implanted in his mind and bided his time until he could bring that avalanche down on Drakonius' army." "But you don't think that now?"

"I don't know what to think, Aradia. Galen is young- only twenty-and his training as a Reader was cut ofi when he was exiled at eighteen. I don't know how far he may have progressed, but certainly not as far as If he'd stayed at the academy. I could not have Read so far at his age. I don't know whether he can break a command planted in his mind by an Adept, because I have no example but my own. It was easy enough for me once I knew what you had done. In Galen's case…" "What?"

"First, it's possible he has truly come to hate the empire. Second, if Drakonius implanted that hatred in Galen's mind, how do I get Galen to want to break the command? I wanted that door to open for me, but suppose you had implanted in my mind the suggestion that I simply wanted to stay there?" He frowned. "Could you do that?" "I could have. I would not." "Why not?"

"I want your true loyalty, Lenardo, of your own free will. That is what Drakonius wants of Galen too. If he implanted false loyalties, he certainly learned his lesson at Adigia. If Galen were working against his true feelings, a 'mistake' such as bringing the avalanche down on Drakonius' troops is exactly the kind of thing to be expected. He wouldn't know, consciously, that he had done it deliberately."

Lenardo smiled in relief. "Thank you. I did not want to think Galen a traitor."

"Unfortunately," she replied, "I ca

"Apparently not. He kept asking me where I was." "Could he tell anything to lead Drakonius to you?" "No. But if I was observed after I left Zendi…" "Yes-it won't take Drakonius long to find you. I don't suppose you thought to lie to Galen-to suggest that no one knows you're a Reader?"

"I didn't say anything either way, but if I hadn't been delirious when Wulfston found me, you wouldn't know. However, I can't be sure Galen credits me with common sense, or that he knows what sense is any more. Now what do we do?"

"Wait for Drakonius to act. Now lie. down for a while, and then we'll eat before we ride home."

"Lie down? What for?" Then he laughed. "I told you- Reading doesn't use up energy. I'm as rested as you are."

But his real mood for the rest of the day was somber. Why would Galen feel such a personal hatred for him? They had been such good friends…

As they rode home, Lenardo said, "I fear Reading for Drakonius was not a good idea. Now Galen at least knows I'm still alive, and so does Drakonius. I may have brought your enemy down upon you."

"You found out that he was already looking for you. At least we can be prepared. He will find you eventually; his watchers are as good as mine."

"Those people-the watchers. They watch the weather, I know, and I suppose some go over and mingle among Drakonius' people to bring you information. But it's half a day's ride even from here to your castle, and more in bad weather. How do you get news through so fast?" "Heliograph," she replied. " 'Sun-writing'? Is that an Adept trick?" She chuckled. "You mean you've never played with a mirror, flashing light around a room?" "Of course," he said, still puzzled. "Well, the watchers use the same thing, or a lantern at night, to flash messages from one hilltop to another. It takes only a few minutes to get a message from one end of the land to the other."

"Then that's what I saw the day I escaped! And how Wulfston found me so quickly."

"Of course. We sent out your description, and Wulfston was on the road soon after dawn. For as weak as you were, you got quite far, actually. You crossed the border into Hron's lands, but he is my ally, and so his people returned you."

"Your system is as effective as having Readers, it seems -and almost as fast. We must relay messages too, when they have to go beyond a single Reader's range."

"But Readers can do it without the rest of the world knowing," said Aradia.

"If you sent out my description that day…" "Drakonius may already know where you are." "Galen didn't know."

"Drakonius may not trust Galen, and Galen ca

"Very well. I was his teacher and often tested him." "I know you want to think he deliberately caused the avalanche-but can you assume for a moment that he didn't mean it? Suppose he was truly intent on destroying Adigia. Is he capable of misjudging, of making that kind of error?"

"Yes," said Lenardo. "I could have made it myself. I was Reading the fault and the stresses flowing through it. The vibrations spread in both directions through the mountain. I didn't know myself which way it would go. I remember standing there helplessly, willing it to go the other way…"