Melissa could not wait a few hours. She, too, should rest.
He took her to the kitchen, where food was available any time, day or night, and left her eating soup while he sought out the seamstress, a motherly sort who quickly took Melissa in hand. Then he went upstairs to his own room.
As he passed the open door to the room next to his own, a voice called, 'Torio?'
'Yes, Rolf, I'm back,' he replied. 'I found a Reader who survived the storm. Hilda's taking care of her.'
Rolf sat up. 'Another Reader? Good. Do you think she will help us?'.
Torio stood in Rolf's doorway, Reading the boy-he was only a year younger than Torio, but at moments like this he seemed impossibly naive. 'After we killed seven of her fellow Readers and almost drowned her, why would she?'
'Oh.' Rolf leaned back on his pillows, although Torio could Read he was rested enough for the moment. The boy had used his talent to its full last night, for he was not a fully empowered Adept like Wulfston. Rather, he had a single Adept talent, the ability to control the weather-he and Wulfston together had created the storm, and then held the seas calm for the rescue work. Afterward, Rolf had barely made it back to his own bed before falling into exhausted slumber, while Torio, Wulfston, and several minor Adepts with the power of healing worked on until early morning.
'Melissa-the Reader-is down in the kitchen now,' Torio offered, knowing Rolf would be hungry.
The boy got up at that, pulling on slippers and robe and feeling for the stick leaning against the wall by his bed.
For Rolf, like Torio, was blind.
Illogically, Torio always felt uneasy around Rolf. Perhaps it would not have bothered him so much if Rolf were not exactly what Torio would be were he not a Reader. He felt guilty to have escaped the world of darkness when Rolf could not-an absurd feeling, for it was not as if Torio were withholding something he could have shared with Rolf. No one could give another person Reading ability.
Rolf and Torio were one of Wulfston's experiments. The Lord Adept had long theorized that Reading and Adept powers were two functions of the same ability. Then his own sister, Aradia, had proved him right by learning to Read. Later Lenardo confirmed that Aradia's double talent was not unique by developing Adept powers. Wulfston wanted desperately to learn to Read, but he had made no progress, nor could he teach Torio even the simplest Adept trick.
Since Aradia had learned to Read only after falling in love with Lenardo, and Lenardo had first conquered Adept powers to save Aradia's life, Wulfston now theorized that motivation was a prime force in manifesting a new power. Hence his bringing Rolf and Torio together. They were close in age, and both were blind from birth with the same defective nerves from eye to brain.
Torio knew Wulfston had another motive for wanting Rolf to learn to Read. The black Adept had been Lord of the Land for barely a year, but he felt an obligation to right the wrongs Drakonius, the former lord, had done to his people. Rolf's blindness was one of those wrongs-a sin of omission, for Wulfston claimed that any Lord Adept could have made those defective nerves regenerate in an infant.
Born in the Aventine Empire, Torio had never had the opportunity to be healed by a Lord Adept, but once he developed Reading skills his blindness hardly mattered. Most of the people Torio had met in Wulfston's land had no idea he was blind. Wulfston hoped that Rolf, motivated by Torio's abilities, would quickly learn to Read. Given the facts-and Torio had witnessed the dual abilities of both Lenardo and Aradia-it made perfectly good sense to the young Reader. Thus he became more and more frustrated that he could not help Rolf learn.
Rolf moved past Torio and down the hall, completely at home in the familiar castle. Torio went into his own room, undressed, and went to bed. He was tired enough by now not to risk leaving his body to report to Lenardo until he had slept-but just before he withdrew from Reading, Lenardo contacted him. //Torio-why did I have to hear about the battle in your land from the watchers?//
//It's all over,// Torio replied. //I've been up all night-I was going to rest before trying to contact you.//
Lenardo could not miss the fatigue that had finally caught up with Torio. //Very well-tell me anything I need to know, and then sleep. I can Read most of what is going on there for myself.//
//Seven Readers died,// Torio told him. //One survived-a girl, Melissa. She may Read you if you're not careful. Not that it matters, I suppose.//
//It doesn't. But I think I shall let Wulfston make friends with her first. We can certainly use another Reader, if it's possible to get her to trust us. Oh-one more thing. Master Clement seems to have lost Portia's trust. He was not able to find out when or where the fleet would land. If I had known, I would have been there, with Aradia.//
//It was more effective as it happened,// Torio replied, //although I've spent so much time outside my body the last three days that I'm almost surprised I have one to return to!//
//You did a fine job. Give Wulfston my greetings, and assure him that we will come at his call. Sleep now.//
For a moment Torio felt that same feeling he had known as a little boy at the Academy, when he had wakened screaming from nightmares in which his ability to Read had disappeared, leaving him blind and help less. Either Lenardo or Master Clement would come to comfort him, holding him and Reading with him until he was reassured, and dared let go of the world he Read, to sleep.
How absurd those childish fears now seemed. Today he had no lack of confidence in his powers-only in his judgment of what to do with them.
Torio woke at mid-afternoon, gathered clean garments, and went to the castle bath-a far different device from the Aventine baths he had been accustomed to. Cisterns on the roof of the castle gathered water, some of which went into a tank above a small stone room. By opening a tap like the one on a keg of ale, he would be showered with water-effective, if not luxurious.
The spring sunshine had warmed the water in the tank. Torio lavished the pleasant soap that was the unexpected invention of the savages all over himself, including his hair-a luxury he had seldom known at the Academy. As he scrubbed his face, he decided he needn't shave again for a day or two. He wasn't quite sure whether he shaved to keep some small link with his appearance as an Aventine Reader, or because his beard was still so sparse that he could not achieve the full growth that Lenardo and Wulfston wore.
When he had toweled off with fine linen, Torio put on the garments Wulfston's seamstress had provided him- the clothes of a savage lord. He wore a silk shirt and hose, and an embroidered tabard cut full enough to disguise the fact that his body was not yet filled out to a grown man's musculature.
If he had to wear such outfits, he was glad his legs were not thin, like Rolf's. Torio had had the enforced exercise of the Academy, the body expected to be as healthy as the mind-and in a sort of perverse insistence that his blindness should not keep him from any activity he chose, he had spent many hours turning himself into an expert swordsman.
But it was not just the regimen of exercise that had given Torio a healthier body than Rolf's: the young savage still bore the scars of malnutrition in childhood, as did so many people in these lands that had for generations been ruled by a series of Adepts all calling themselves by one name: Drakonius. Although everyone was now well fed and cared for, even Adept healing could do little for adults with bowed legs, missing teeth, crooked backs. Still, the children were thriving, and after Drakonius Wulfston was having little trouble gaining the love of his people.
Torio started downstairs to the main rooms of the castle, restricting his Reading to just ahead of himself as he always did indoors, to avoid breaching someone's privacy. As he crossed the hall to the main stairs, though, a door opened. Melissa Read him, and ducked quickly back into her room.
//We don't segregate male and female Readers here,// he told her. //There are not enough of us, and no Academies.//
//That's not it,// she replied sheepishly, reopening her door. 'I… don't understand what you intend to do with me,' she explained as Torio approached.
'I don't know-Lord Wulfston doesn't even know you're here yet,' Torio replied. 'But we're certainly not going to hurt you.'
'But I am your captive. You turned me over to Hilda. She fed me, helped me bathe, put me to bed-and when I woke up I found clothes laid out, and the door not locked. No guard. It doesn't make sense.'
