Although she knew that she would be virtually unconscious from the moment she lay down, Aradia insisted that Lenardo come and sleep with her. He finished his interrupted work, inspected the city as he did each evening without leaving his room-but with more thoroughness than usual-and then crossed the forum to Aradia's pavilion. The guards and Aradia's maid said pleasantly, 'Good night, my lord,' as he passed. His presence on this night when Aradia was already deep in the Adepts' recuperative sleep confirmed their certainty that whatever the reason a Reader and a Lady Adept were spending their nights together, it wasn't sex.
Lenardo slept almost as deeply as Aradia but woke as the pale light of early dawn filtered into the pavilion. Beside him, Aradia lay curled up on her side, her hair spread across the pillow, the covers pulled up to her chin against the chill of early morning. I think it's time, he told himself, that I stop having the rain diverted around Zendi and invite Aradia into my house. But instead, she might leave. Yes, Lenardo admitted, he knew perfectly well why up to now he had avoided suggesting the obvious.
Aradia would probably not waken before noon, but he had time before he had to be up, and so he lay comfortably in the warm bed and Read outward. In the outer chamber, Aradia's maid was also sleeping. Outside the pavilion, her guards were moving back and forth to keep awake until their replacements came. Otherwise, the forum was empty, but Lenardo Read a few early risers wakening here and there. Soon, from his own house, Dom came to fill buckets at the fountain, and he read Cook poking the kitchen maid to make her get up and start work.
It was a shivery cool morning with a promise of autumn. Lenardo began to Read visually to enjoy the beauty of the sunrise. It was something he did perhaps four or five times a year, but each time it brought back the morning he had taken seven-year-old Torio up to the Academy tower and let the little blind boy see the sunrise through his eyes. Master Clement had scolded Lenardo, who had just passed his own exams the year before, for awakening in the boy a yearning for something he would not be able to do for a year or more. But within six months Torio was Reading visually with ease, and Lenardo was quite certain that it was because he had learned to want to see such beauty.
This morning the sunrise was equally beautiful, breaking through the clouds in a palette of magnificent colors. I wonder if Torio is watching the sunrise today.
As effortlessly as forming the thought, Lenardo was in a room he had never seen before, where Torio, still in his nightshirt, was standing 'looking' out the window. Before the boy's sightless eyes were the buildings of a city, blocking any view of the sun until it was far overhead. But Torio was indeed watching the sunrise, seeing it in unrestricted glory by Reading.
Confused, Lenardo wondered where the boy could be, so close by? And then he recognized the city: Tiberium.
Heart pounding, Lenardo sat up in shock, but even so he lost neither clarity nor contact. He was really Reading Tiberium, and directly, all the way from Zendi, without leaving his body!
But that's impossible!
//What's im- Master Lenardo! Is that you?//
Beside Lenardo, Aradia woke with a start. 'What's wrong?'
Not knowing what to tell Torio, Lenardo withdrew without confirming contact. Let the boy think it was his imagination.
'Nothing's wrong,' he assured Aradia, although he did not at all understand what had happened. Could it have been my imagination?
'Did you have a bad dream?' Aradia asked. 'I was having such a beautiful dream until you shouted and woke me up.'
'I didn't shout,' he said. 'That must have been part of your dream.'
She laughed. 'Yes, you did. As clearly as anything, you said, 'That's impossible!' '
Could he have said it aloud? Never. Not after all his years of training. He was not delirious now. But how could Aradia know? Yesterday she had heard a scream that wasn't uttered. But that is completely impossible.
'Will you stop saying it's impossible and tell me what you're talking about?'
'Aradia,' he whispered as chills crawled up his spine. 'Tell me what you were dreaming.'
'Mmm? It wasn't prophetic or anything. I was just watching the most beautiful sunrise.' At his stricken look she broke off, eyes wide. 'Lenardo, were you Reading me?' she asked in a small, frightened voice.
'No,' he said, slowly shaking his head. 'Aradia, you were Reading me.'
'But that's-' her eyes searched his 'impossible?'
He nodded. 'Exactly what I was thinking.'
'Coincidence?'
//I was Reading the sunrise,// he projected at the intense level used to test children.
'Well, at this time of day, anyone-' She froze. 'You didn't say that, did you?'
//No.//
No. It can't be!
//Obviously it can be, for it is.
Her eyes grew wide with terror, and she reached for Lenardo, overwhelming him with panic as she clung to him, pleading, 'No. Stop it. Tell me how to make it stop!'
Chapter Five
Fighting his way out of Aradia's desperate fear, Lenardo tried to project soothing calm. //Aradia, Reading is nothing to be afraid of.// He had never seen such a reaction before. The awakening of Reading ability was a cause for rejoicing, not despair.
//But you can Read me, everything I'm thinking!// Flashes of incoherent scenes that meant guilt to Aradia but nothing to Lenardo.
//You'll learn to shield your thoughts. Besides, there's no one here but me to Read them, and I love you.//
He let the warmth of his caring flow to her, feeling her respond and open to it, giving back joy for joy. Her fear dissolved as she yielded her mind to him as completely as she had her body. For a long time, neither had a coherent thought, but such a height could not be sustained.
Lenardo's own thoughts began to intrude. How could this have happened? And what of his own experience just before Aradia wakened? He had to find out if it had been his imagination, half a dreamVery gently, he removed himself from Aradia's embrace, remaining with his hands on her shoulders. She looked at him expectantly.
He said, 'You'll be confused at first about whether people are talking or thinking. Try not to answer their thoughts. That is very disconcerting to nonReaders. It is also against the Readers' Code. Whatever you Read by accident, you are supposed to forget.'
'Lenardo, I'm not a child. I can exercise discretion. What I must learn are techniques. Most important, how do I keep you, or especially Julia, from Reading me?'
'The simplest way is to stop Reading.'
She frowned. 'I can't. Right now I'm getting a sort of echo effect-what you're going to say just before you say it.'
'Is it gone now?'
'Yes. What did you do?'
'Stopped Reading. You see? That keeps you from Reading me. There are ways to Read and at the same time keep other Readers from Reading you, but they are difficult to master. They won't work against any Reader more sensitive than you are, and you can slip up and reveal yourself to a less sensitive Reader. For the moment, what you need is to be able to guarantee your own privacy of thought. Refinements can come later.'
'How do I stop?' she asked, screwing up her face in concentration.
'Not like that.' He laughed. 'All right, I'm open to you again.'
'I can tell.'
//Very well.// He fell into the exercise for teaching children. //Hear the tune playing in my head? Stop listening to it. Just blot it out.//
He sat concentrating on the music, but Aradia's feelings intruded: frustration, anger, fear.
