Jean Lorrah - Empress Unborn

Twas only a dream, my lady. Your baby is well.” She glanced over Aradia’s shoulder at Julia, who took the cue to Read the fetus. Everything was normal; the child in Aradia’s womb slept peacefully despite her mother’s nightmare.

“The baby is fine, Aradia,” Julia said.

“She’s stealing my powers!” Aradia said.

“No, they’re just weakened by pregnancy,” Julia assured her, trying to hide her distress at seeing the strong, steady Aradia reduced to quivering terror. With Lenardo and Wulfston gone, who would protect Zendi?

But she joined her efforts to Devasin’s, then encouraged Aradia to Read the baby with her, to see it developing normally and sleeping peacefully. Finally, between them, Julia and Devasin got Aradia calmed and back to sleep.

When they left Aradia’s room, Julia asked Devasin, “Has this happened before?”

“Just once,” Devasin replied. But Julia Read worry in Devasin that went beyond concern over a few nightmares.

“There’s more to it than that,” said Julia. “Tell me.”

“I don’t know if…”

“Would you tell my father?”

“He already knows.”

“But he isn’t here, Devasin. So I have to help Aradia for him. If I don’t have all the facts, how can I help her?”

“Oh, young mistress, I don’t know if anyone can help her! It’s happening all over again, just as it did with her mother-and nothing Nerius could do would save her!”

Nerius, Aradia’s father. And the mother who was never mentioned.

“Tell me,” said Julia.

“I was a child,” said Devasin. “My mother was Tarina’s maid. “

“Tarina?”

“Aradia’s mother. Afterward, Nerius would not allow her name to be spoken. He loved her very much-as your father loves Aradia. They risked their powers to have a child. Nerius recovered, but Tarina had a difficult pregnancy even with his help. As her powers waned, she became more and more demanding, more angry at the child.

“But then Aradia was born, such a beautiful little girl. Everyone thought Tarina would recover, and love the child.

“Only… Tarinas Adept powers did not return. Months passed, and she became more and more distraught. She imagined that Aradia showed Adept talent. A baby less than a year old! Tarina started saying Aradia had stolen her powers.

“Nerius tried to help Tarina, but she became more and more hysterical. My mother stayed with her constantly, because Tarina would fly into rages and threaten to… take back the powers Aradia had stolen, was the way she put it.

“Finally, Nerius would not allow Tarina to see Aradia unless he was there. And when Aradia was two, she really did start to show Adept powers.”

“At two years old!”

“Yes. Nerius was delighted-but it set Tarina off worse than ever. I remember her rage, and my mother trying to calm her. Aradia was walking by then, but a closed door kept her in her nursery because she could not reach the latch. Then one day, when she had been left napping, she found that she could unlatch the door with Adept power, and went exploring… into Tarina’s room. I was there, with my mother and Tarina. Mother was teaching me embroidery. The door opened.

“Tarina’s chair faced the door. When she saw the child, she snatched up a heavy candlestick to set the girl on fire. The flame blew out, though, so she tried to crush Aradia’s skull with the base.

“My mother grasped her arm to stop her-and Tarina hit my mother instead.

“I screamed. Tarina picked up the bloody candlestick and went for Aradia again, shouting that she would kill her and take her powers back.

“By this time Aradia was screaming and crying. I don’t know how Mother remained conscious, but when I tried to help her, she said, ‘Save the baby!’ and I turned to try.

“Tarina lifted the candlestick to crush Aradia. When I tried to pick up the child, Tarina hit my shoulder, knocking me aside, and was about to swing at Aradia when the candle lit again. That was Aradia.

“Tarina screamed, swung-and the candlestick exploded in her hand.

“That was Nerius, running to see what all the noise was.

“Tarina shouted. ‘You want her! You don’t want me!’ and ran out of the room.

“Nerius picked up Aradia, made sure she was all right, then came over and healed Mother. Then he healed my shoulder. And all that time, no one thought of Tarina. None of us will ever know whether Nerius knew what she was doing. She ran to the end of the hall, took a knife from the display, and plunged it into her heart. Tarina died by her own hand.”

A tear trickled down Devasin’s cheek. “And now Aradia dreams she is like her mother. May they be only dreams! She never says such things when she is awake. But the dreams frighten me, Julia-almost as much as they frighten Aradia.”

The next day, Aradia seemed normal. Julia was back to her lessons, with Aradia and Decius in the morning, Master Clement in the afternoon. In the days between lessons, Decius had been practicing harmless Adept tricks, and had learned to move small objects. “The only trouble is,” he explained with a laugh, “moving a stylus from one side of my writing table to the other sent me to sleep for an hour. It’s much simpler just to pick it up by hand!”

“You’ll learn not to expend extra energy,” said Aradia. “That is excellent progress, Decius.”

Knowing that she must go out tonight, at a time Aradia would not approve, Julia was on her best behavior. She tried to duplicate Decius’ tricks, to no avail. However, she did not allow frustration to upset her today, although she was glad when Aradia took Decius off to the hospital to start teaching him to heal.

Wicket appeared at the noonday meal, and murmured to Julia, “Contact made. All set.”

Pyrrhus raised an eyebrow to see his friend sharing a secret with Julia, but for once made no snide comment. He looked exhausted, and Julia wondered fleetingly what Master Clement had put him through.

Then it was Julia’s problem to hide her excitement over the evening’s plans from Master Clement when she joined him in the Academy library.

It was not difficult to hide her thoughts, however, when the Master of Masters said, “I have found the records we’ve been looking for,” and held out a scroll to her. This one was new, still supple, but Julia Read without unrolling it. And without touching it. She did not want to feel the essence of Portia in those last days of power-madness. What the woman had written was poisonous enough.

The technique used on Pyrrhus was an experiment- one Portia deemed highly successful. The only reason it was not repeated was that the Adept she had used left Tiberium. If he had returned, or if she had been able to find another who could do the job, Portia would have crippled others.

When she had Read it, Julia asked, “Do you think Pyrrhus will feel any better knowing he is the only Reader they did that to?”

Master Clement replied, “I don’t know. Possibly there are some acts that cannot be forgiven. I never believed that, but now I wonder. How could Pyrrhus possibly forgive Portia? Could I, if she had done that to me? But if Pyrrhus cannot forgive, he cannot heal.”

There are some acts that cannot be forgiven . Julia understood why Aradia’s father might have allowed his wife to die after she tried to kill their daughter.

Should she tell Master Clement about Aradia’s dreams? No, she should urge Aradia to tell him. It was what Aradia would urge on Julia were their situations reversed.

Master Clement was piling scrolls on the desk. “Julia, take these home with you, and read them in the order in which they were written. Seeing how Portia changed over the years may help you understand her, as it has helped me.”

Julia only nodded and gathered up the scrolls. Her thoughts were on how to get away to join Galerio an hour after sunset.