other. The wall fell with a crash, and dust flew up from the mouth to settle over everyone.
In the next few hours, operating purely by rote, Lenardo Read the children and the rescuers, made sure that everyone with injury or strain was healed, distributed rewards to all who had helped in the rescue, and finally bathed the grime off himself in the cold water of the bathhouse. His order that everyone bathe at least twice a week had caused grumbling, but in the heat of summer it was being obeyed. They'd have to get the warm and hot baths functioning by winter. His people might think his insistence on bathing some personal quirk, but they did not understand how cleanliness could disrupt the spread of disease.
By the time Lenardo walked home, Cook had made Julia presentable, and he was beginning to think that he could face her. Home was now a large and beautiful town house that had been looted but not burned-the only choice, Helmuth had insisted, for the Lord of the Land. The place was still empty. Lenardo refused to set carpenters to building him furniture when they were needed to repair other buildings before winter.
His footsteps rang on the mosaic floor in the huge entrance hall. Eventually this might become an all-purpose audience room like Aradia's great hall. By the gods, I'm starting to think like a lord. The title still seemed implausible, and as her teacher, he had instructed Julia to call him Master Lenardo.
She was waiting in his room, which was furnished with a bed, two chairs, and a table, none of which matched. Julia sat on the window ledge, looking out into the courtyard. She did not turn at Lenardo's entrance, but he could feel her terrible tension as she tried to Read his mood.
'Julia,' he said, 'we must talk.'
//Can't we-//
'No. We will discuss this like nonReaders, because you have caused several nonReaders to be badly hurt.'
'Nobody was hurt bad,' Julia protested, turning to face him and pulling her knees up to her chin, balancing on the sill. 'Candida just got her arm broke. It'll be all right in a couple of days. When I got my arm broke, it took weeks to heal. Old Drakonius, he never healed nobody. You're lots nicer.'
Ignoring her attempt to placate him, Lenardo said, 'Candida's injury is the point, not that Sandor could heal her. He could not have healed her if she had died. Furthermore, Arkus and Josa were also hurt.'
'Huh?'
'They expended far more energy than they could afford. Both have collapsed in exhaustion. If I had not Read when Josa's heart went into spasms, Sandor might not have noticed soon enough. She could have died.'
'Everybody dies,' Julia said coldly, but Lenardo Read that her words were a defense against a world in which ordinary people were considered dispensable.
'People should not die because those in power are careless,' Lenardo began.
'Arkus'd be awful sad if Josa died,' Julia interrupted. 'They're funny, you know? She loves him and he loves her, and neither don't know it. Isn't that funny?'
'No, it is not funny. Neither is it your business. How can I stop you from Reading people's private thoughts?'
'They're always thinking about each other. How can I help knowing?'
'The same way I did not know until you told me-an even worse breach of Reader's Honor. Sometimes one finds out a nonReader's secret by accident. But to reveal it-' He let her feel the revulsion a Reader knew at such conduct and felt her cringe. Then he added, 'Tell me why you went into the well.'
'There's gold down there,' she said eagerly. 'More than twenty gold coins. I would've given it to you.'
'You are lying. You wanted it for youself. Why? What do you lack?'
'Money for when I grow up. Mama always said she couldn't keep man nor money. She said if she'd kept all the money men gave her, she wouldn't need no one to take care of her.'
'And why did you involve other children?' Lenardo pursued, ignoring the empty feeling her words produced in him.
'I couldn't get it alone. They'd each have got a gold piece. Then they'd have owed me more favors.'
'You risked their lives and yours.'
'I didn't know the well would fall in.'
'No, you won't have the skill to Read such stresses for years. Why can't you learn to obey? I wish you could be sent to an Academy. They'd teach you some discipline.'
Julia climbed down from the window and stood, shielding her thoughts as best she could. 'I need to learn to rule, not obey. If you don't want me, Lord Wulfston will take me.'
'What?' Then he remembered a recent letter from Wulfston: 'So you have found an apprentice. Congratulations. If you should find any more Readers, I can certainly use someone with even a portion of your skills.'
'You've been Reading my letters!'
'Well, you wanted me to practice.' Defiant pride.
He stared at her helplessly. 'What am I to do with you? Spank you? Helmuth, Josa, Cook-they've all punished you. What good has it done?'
Defiance melted as her eyes grew liquid. 'You never punish me. You're the only one that's got the right, Father. Don't you care about me?'
He suddenly remembered that she had called him 'Father' in her panic that afternoon. 'I'm not your father,' he said bluntly, not knowing how to approach the real problem.
'But you must be,' Julia insisted. 'There's nobody else like us, nobody that can talk in their minds. I feel it. You're the only one like me. You bought me from Mama. I thought you loved me because I was like you, but then you gave me to everybody else-and-and-' Angrily, she struck away the tears that rolled down her cheeks. 'My mother was right. Men don't care nothing about their children, except great lords for the pride of it or the fear. I've got your powers. You had to claim me, but you don't want me. You don't love me. You just want me to stop using my powers so I won't use them against yo«!'
Lenardo was astonished. How could he handle this savage child? His only weapon was truth.
Kneeling before Julia, he took her hands. 'Julia, you and I are not the only Readers in the world. I'm not your father, but if I were, I would certainly never have abandoned you. You're too young to understand that you're insecure because you never had anyone to rely on, not even your mother. Child, I will give you things you can trust in: your own abilities, the Readers' Honor, other Readers. But what you need right now is one person you can trust, and under the circumstances, that has to be me.'
The wide brown eyes searched his.
'I'm going to open my mind to you, Julia. Read me.'
Hesitantly, her thoughts met his. //You're not my father?//
//No. I never left the Aventine Empire before last spring.//
Because his memories were totally open to her, she caught a trace of the pain of his branding. //They hurt you,// she said, sliding her hand up his arm to rest over the dragon's head. Ill hate them!//
//No, child, you mustn't hate people you don't know. I have many friends in the empire, Readers like us. You can trust any Reader, Julia, if you yourself are trustworthy.//
Ill don't want other people, just you.//
//You have me. I promise, I'll take care of you. Trust me, Julia.// Stubbornness intruded, born of many disappointments. //Have I ever lied to you or broken a promise?//
//No, but you took me when you didn't want me.//
//I do want you. Can't you Read that?//
//Yes.// But she also felt walled off from him.
//Julia, I cannot give you every minute of my day. I have too much work. I'm the only Reader-// It suddenly occurred to him, //Child, would you like to help me?// In the empire, children were given Reading responsibilities within the Academies from the day they entered. There was no Academy for Julia, but the whole city could become her Academy.
//You'll let me work with you? All the time?//
//Not all the time but certainly a great deal more time, if you will work seriously. No tricks, and no spying on people's secret thoughts.//
Tears spilled again, but they were tears of joy. She flung her arms around his neck. Ill promise! I'll be good. Oh, Master Lenardo, I want to be with you. I love you!//
He let her hold on to him for a moment and then gently removed her arms.
'Don't push me away,' she pleaded.
