slaves. They earned their freedom and citizenship, and moved from Tiberium to a small village near the border, where they made pottery. It wasn't easy for a black family outside the capital, but their work was the highest quality, and they made their way. My sister was born first, and I was born a few years later. I can't remember much except being happy there. I was only three when-'
'You began showing Adept powers,' Lenardo marveled.
'Yes. At first it was great fun. I didn't know what I was doing, but I could make the birds and squirrels and rabbits come to me. The other children loved that-and no one associated it with Adept powers, which they always thought of as destructive. In fact, I think people thought it was an early sign of Reading.'
The young Adept pointed to the design of fine lines in the bowl Lenardo held. 'No one recognized that as an Adept skill either.'
'I wouldn't,' said Lenardo. 'It's beautiful, the work of an artist-but why Adept?'
'Because it's all done freehand. My mother would just take a stylus and inscribe the design-but it has a precision an ordinary human hand cannot match. Nerius recognized – it, but of course he didn't say anything.'
'Nerius?'
'Our village was near the border, but not on one of the main roads. When Nerius wanted to come into the empire-'
'What! An Adept going in and out of the empire?' Lenardo was stunned.
Wulfston laughed at his dismay. 'Lenardo, there is nothing to keep an Adept out of the Aventine Empire! If I want to go in, I can climb a wall in a deserted area, or enter through one of the gates, making the guards open it for'me and then forget I'd ever been there-'
'By the gods,' whispered Lenardo. 'You could have been among us-'
'Yes. The only danger is the chance of encountering a Reader.'
And he might not notice you, Lenardo realized, recalling how hard it was to find the Adepts in Drakonius' strong-, hold. 'And even if you were recognized,' he murmured, 'no prison could hold you.'
'However, we don't want the Aventines to know we walk among them.'
'Then you should not have told me, Wulfston.'
The black man studied Lenardo. 'You won't go back,' he said. 'Certainly not back to your old way of life. You don't know how much you've changed in the time you've been here; If you go back at all, it will be as Nerius' representative.'
'Do you still think you can force me to think your way?'
'No, and I never thought so. But you are an intelligent man. You already know that an honorable peace is the only chance for the empire to survive. What you have yet to accept is that Nerius is right about how to obtain that peace.'
'You still have not told me how you came to be Nerius' apprentice, Wulfston. What did he do-steal you away from your family?'
'Not exactly. He saw the Adept skill in my mother's work, and- so he watched her children. He knew the danger if either of us showed Adept powers-unless, of course, they were similar to our mother's. My parents, like all new citizens, were fiercely loyal to the empire. Nerius dared not reveal his identity prematurely. He could not come to our village often, either-perhaps once in three or four months, each time stopping with us on the pretext of buying pot-tery. He would play with my sister and me. I know now that his games tested our powers.
'In those days, Nerius wore the wolf-stone-the same one I wear now. I was fascinated by it, and even though I was only three I can remember very clearly that one terrible day. It was Nerius' first visit since I had learned I could call the animals. When he arrived, I wanted to show him my new game. My parents' wares were on display on a stand in front of our house. When Nerius rode up, I ran to him, all excited-but there were other customers, a man- I don't remember who-and a woman who was frantic because she'd just broken her cooking pot but didn't want to pay our prices for a new one. I remember her saying that she didn't care about fancy decorations, didn't we have a nice, plain, sturdy pot?
'I didn't care about any of that. I wanted to show Nerius my game, so I tugged at his cloak until he finally picked me up and set me on the wall beside the stand. He told me he'd see my game later, and he turned to wait for my father or mother to be free to talk to him.
'I sat there, kicking my heels, ignored. Then I noticed Nerius' wolf-stone. I had wanted it since the first time I'd seen it, and it occurred to me that if I could call the other animals, maybe I could call the wolf too.
'So I started to call it. Not knowing anything about Adept powers, I called out loud, the way I called the birds and animals. And it came to me.' 'Everybody saw it?'
'I couldn't have been more conspicuous if I'd planned it. I started calling, and my father turned and told me to hush-and just as that drew everyone's attention, the stone lifted from Nerius' chest, pulled free of the loop sunk into it, and sailed into my hands. Here-' he showed the stone to Lenardo, 'you can see the hole at the back where the metal loop was set in. It wasn't meant to take the force of an Adept! Now we put a hole right through the stone- you'd have to break the pendant to get it off.'
'But a three-year-old boy was able to pull the pendant free from a metal loop,' Lenardo marveled, 'with his mind!'
'Yes. If Nerius had wondered about me, now he knew- but so did my parents, and the man and woman buying pottery. I was thoroughly pleased with myself for a moment, until both women screamed. My father was staring at me as if he'd never seen me before. Then the two villagers started shouting, 'Adept! Adept! Kill him!' and my parents started toward me from behind the stand. They would have pulled me over the wall and taken me into the house, I think, but Nerius knew that if they tried to protect me the people would turn on the entire family. He snatched me up from his side of the wall and ran for his horse.
'Of course I was scared and squirming, and the man and woman were shouting while my parents were frying to keep Nerius from kidnapping their son and at the same time to keep the others from killing us. And other people were running out of their houses along the lane, picking up stones to throw. A few hit us, and the horse, and with a rearing horse and a screaming child, it's a wonder Nerius ever got us out of there.
'He was able to stop the stones from hitting us-a good thing, because by now some people were throwing knives and axes. We galloped off and rode hard for quite a distance before Nerius was sure we had eluded pursuit. Then he took a terrible chance-we hid out until dark and then rode back. Nerius said we were going to get my family to go with us. But we were too late.'
Lenardo knew the dread terror inspired by.the very idea of an Adept within the empire. Even now, surrounded by Adepts whom he had come to regard as friends, he felt the old fear stir at the helplessness of anyone, even a Reader, before their power. And so he didn't have to ask what had happened to Wulfston's family.
The young Adept told him, calmly and quietly, speaking of an old wound, long healed. 'The villagers had killed my family and burned down our house. I suppose they thought we were all secretly Adepts-although they must have known that Adepts would not stand still to be murdered!'
'Mob frenzy doesn't stop for rational thought,' said Lenardo.
'No,' Wulfston agreed sadly. Then he straightened. 'I have learned to be grateful that Nerius was there that day to steal me away, or else I would surely have shown my powers in some unmistakable fashion soon and been killed along with my family.'
Lenardo wondered if it had ever occurred to Wulfston that Nerius might have planted the suggestion to try his powers in the little boy's mind. No-he surely would not have intended a public display that gave away his own identity.
'So Nerius brought me home,' Wulfston was saying, 'and raised me as his own son. I was very young. It didn't take me long to recover. And there was Aradia, who thought I was the best present her father had ever brought her.'
'She does tend to take possession of people,' Lenardo agreed.
'I'd been a nuisance to my real sister, who had to take care of me while our parents worked. Aradia, though, was starved for the companionship of another Adept child.
That's why the difference in our ages meant so little, although it's certainly the reason she got me into so much trouble.'
'What about your name?' asked Lenardo. 'I understand why naming you after the wolf-stone that revealed your powers is appropriate, but you already had a name.'
'An Aventine name,' said Wulfston. 'Nerius decided that it would be best for me to leave my old life behind
