the sand. They were soaked, mud-covered, and exhausted. Before them were fresh, well-armed soldiers… and if they attempted to fight them, might not the ground beneath their feet start swallowing them up again?
While the Readers reported to the officers, each unit was taking a head count… and discovering no fatalities! There were injuries, but no one had been killed except some who had gone into that first conventional skirmish.
Torio's heart swelled as he Read the news. //Melissa! Tell Wulfston this time we got it right! Nobody died!//
He felt Melissa's joy as she told Wulfston. Then the Lord Adept had her contact the Readers, and inform them that he would meet with the leaders of their army under a flag of truce. Torio, meanwhile, found a safe resting place for Rolf with some of the other minor Adepts, and joined Melissa at Wulfston's side.
There was suspicion as the generals marched forward, surrounded by as many of their men as could locate arms, but the officers were themselves unarmed. So were the Master Readers, Amicus and Corus, who accompanied them.
Commander of the entire army was Verinus, a tall, straight man approaching sixty, with dark eyes looking firmly at Wulfston as if defying him to attack. Mud-smeared he might be, but he wore full armor, including his helmet with its caked plume, and walked tall.
He was announced to Lord Wulfston, and then stepped forward to demand, 'What truce do you offer us?'
'I am Lord Wulfston, whose lands you have invaded. I offer you hospitality. Move your people out of the mud onto the meadows, and rest for a time. Our people are already healing those who were injured in the battle this morning, but I regret to tell you that eighteen of your men were killed. Their bodies will be returned to you for whatever funeral rites you desire.
'In two days' time you will leave my lands. Your ships are at anchor some five miles to the southwest of this plain. You will board them and return to your empire.'
Verinus blinked in amazement. When Wulfston said no more, he asked, 'What do you demand of us in return?'
'Two things. First, you will carry a message to your Emperor: We will brook no more attacks across our borders. We are tired of war, but the next time you force us to defend ourselves we will not take such care merely to disarm you and let you live. Tell your Emperor to keep his army at home, and in return we will keep ours in our lands.
'Second, I have in my castle nearly fifty of your men who survived the shipwreck. My allies and 1 planned to trade these people later for a meeting with your Emperor. However, except for one ship's captain and two officers of your army, they are common soldiers and sailors, taking up space in my dungeons because I have no place else to keep them. Such a large number of hostages are a nuisance. I will trade them for two or three more… valuable ones.'
Verinus said, 'I will gladly pay for the release of my men with my own freedom, and I am sure my officers-'
'No,' Wulfston interrupted him, 'you are of no use to me. Your Readers may have reported that we had… some small difficulty in communicating while we were immobilizing your army. The severe scarcity on this side of the border is of Readers. I will take these two.' He pointed to the Masters who had accompanied the Commander.
//Torio! Stop him!// Melissa warned. //He will be planting spies in his own castle!//
//Like you?// he replied cheerfully. //Wulfston knows what he's doing, Melissa. If these Readers report the truth, we will soon have that peace treaty!//
Masters Amicus and Corus were both fighting fear. 'Commander Verinus,' said Amicus, 'the girl, Melissa, has been with these people only since she was washed overboard in the storm. Within a single day they twisted her mind and made her work for them. If you order it, Commander, I will stay-but you must warn the Council of Masters that nothing reported by hostage Readers is to be accepted as true.'
Torio Read the man's horror increasing as he spoke.
He understood the blind terror of losing control of his own mind, and sought to reassure him. //Masters, you will find out quickly enough: No one will tamper with your minds.//
Oblivious to the silent communication, Wulfston said, 'You must do any work I ask of you, Master Readers-with the exception of anything harmful to your empire.'
'We will have no choice but to obey you,' Master Corus said stiffly, refusing to expose his deep fear to this nonReader.
'Only if you give me your word, and only in matters in which I require your skills. No one will prevent your communicating with your homeland-and, the more quickly a meeting can be arranged with your Emperor, the more quickly you will go home.'
//Go home as spies!// Master Corus realized.
//Never,// Master Amicus told him, and calm descended on both men.
It was Melissa who recognized the meaning of their sudden change in attitude. She stepped up beside Wulfston and whispered, 'They feel just the way Magister Jason did when he decided to die rather than let you take him. They will find a way to kill themselves before they ever reach your castle.'
'Suicide.' Wulfston's dark skin blanched to gray at the thought-he might have been born Aventine, but he was savage through and through in his code of beliefs. For a savage, suicide was the ultimate defeat, the most dishonorable way to die. In the empire, however, it was considered an acceptable way to escape dishonor-or the forced action against their beliefs that these men feared.
'Your word, Master Readers, that you will not attempt to take your own lives. Torio-Melissa-what oath will bind them unconditionally?'
'By the Readers' Code,' they chorused. 'Make them swear on their Oaths,' added Torio. 'No Master Reader would break a vow sworn on his Master's Oath.'
The Readers turned to appeal to Verinus, but he said, 'You have seen what they can do. For some reason they are letting us escape with our lives. What revenge will they take if we refuse their single demand?'
Despairing, the two Readers swore, and the parties separated. Wulfston was fighting deep tiredness; he would have stopped to sleep except that the watchers reported that Lenardo and Aradia had crossed into his lands, and were headed in the direction of the battle. 'Torio-hasn't Lenardo Read us?' he asked. 'Doesn't he know the battle is over?'
//Yes, I do,// Lenardo replied, and Melissa started. //I've been watching your arrangements, and since I agree with everything, I did not wish to interfere.//
Torio relayed to Wulfston, who said, 'I hope I did the right thing in taking Readers.'
//You certainly did no harm, and it may possibly do some good. I watched most of the… battle… if you want to call it that. Who thought of quicksand?//
//I did,// Torio told him. //It almost went wrong again-//
//But it didn't. You kept it under control. A good idea, Torio-I wish I'd thought of it.//
The captured Master Readers were trying to locate Lenardo-but he was far out of their range. What they could not know was that he was not out of body; since becoming a savage lord he had increased his range to unheard-of distances, and learned the trick of Reading without being Read. He had some other interesting abilities, too-but it would be best if Masters Amicus and Corus did not find out about them for the time being.
It was arranged that Lenardo and Aradia would divert to Wulfston's castle with their small train, and send the rest of their army home. Wulfston's army was to care for the Aventine soldiers-and incidentally guard against their attacking their captors. Supply wagons were unloaded, and Wulfston commandeered three to take him and the minor Adept talents home-those who had not already collapsed were practically asleep on their feet. Someone had dug Torio's horse out of the mud, but he hadn't yet found out where it had been taken. He was still riding Rolf's horse. The boy's walking stick hung from the saddle. Torio laid it beside the sleeping boy on one of the wagons, hoping he would never need it again.
With Wulfston sound asleep, Torio was left in command. The trip home would take much longer than the journey to the battlefield. He sent the wagons ahead, and took Melissa and the other Readers to the field hospital where the healers worked over those wounded in the single battle.
Hevert, the best healer in Wulfston's land, had things well under control when they arrived. Healing was one of the many things the empire would benefit from if they ever made peace with the savages. The four Readers Read the fact that the wounded were healing without medication, purely through the efforts of the healers.
