Jean Lorrah - Empress Unborn

After breakfast Master Clement contacted Aradia from the Academy, not subjecting himself to a walk outdoors in the bitter cold which held the city paralyzed.

“Our weather controllers are trying to dissipate the cold. It came in last night, out of nowhere.

Yesterday’s snow is frozen, making the streets nearly impassible. But the strange thing is, the snowstorm we so casually evoked left here at dusk and traveled up the North Road, to empty into the passes in the hills north of here. Our weather controllers could not stop it. Unless she is willing to expend a good deal of Adept strength, Lilith will not be able to get through until the cold lets up and the snow melts.”

Aradia tried to hide her pang of disappointment, excessive response to the news that Lilith would arrive a day or two later than expected.

But Master Clement said, “I will be glad to have her here, too, Aradia. We need a fully functioning Lord Adept. Pyrrhus will be that soon, but right now he is still learning to control his powers, and he lacks experience.”

Pyrrhus didn’t lack energy, however. Before Master Clement had finished reporting what had happened in the night, the ex-Reader was charging up to the villa, melting a path for himself through the frozen snow, Wicket trailing in his wake.

Although well wrapped up against the cold, both men were also using Adept powers to keep themselves warm, a technique Aradia could no longer sustain. As both were braced to use Adept powers, they could only be Read visually-and the impression Aradia got was that Pyrrhus’ angry eyes were melting the snow as he looked at it.

“I had hoped after yesterday,” Master Clement commented sadly, “that Pyrrhus was losing his furious response to every small setback.”

They soon learned, however, that Pyrrhus was not overreacting. The moment he and Wicket were ushered into Aradia’s study, he asked, “Is Master Clement in contact with you?”

“Yes,” Wicket responded before Aradia could reply.

Pyrrhus glanced at his friend, almost apologetically. But his mind was on a new problem. “Good. I’ve been working with the weather controllers since dawn-and we cannot break this cold wave with all our combined strength!”

“Then we will have to gather more Adepts,” said Aradia. “Form a stronger circle.”

Pyrrhus nodded. “Yes% The weather talents can direct the strength of other Adepts, correct?”

“That’s right,” agreed Aradia.

“Our problem, then, is to define what must be done. Clement, have you Read how far this cold extends?

All Wicket can tell is that it goes beyond the city to the north as far as I can Read.”

Wicket said, “He says then it has to be intended to delay Lilith, as they suspected.”

Pyrrhus’ fists clenched and his jaw set. “They used me!” he exclaimed furiously. “Whoever did this used me to bring that snow in. Why waste their energy if they could find someone foolish enough to do it for them? Just for children’s games and trying out my powers!”

“You couldn’t know,” Wicket echoed Master Clement, putting his hand on Pyrrhus’ shoulder.

Pyrrhus shook him off and began pacing. “I should have known! If I could Read-”

“I didn’t Read anything,” said Wicket. “Julia didn’t.

Even Master Clement didn’t. Come on, Pyrrhus-you never Read better’n the Master of Masters!”

For a moment Aradia expected an explosion, but Wicket was the one person Pyrrhus took such raw truths from. He stopped in his tracks, and acknowledged the statement with a snort of self-derisive laughter.

Aradia said, “Then perhaps Master Clement can Read the extent of the cold for us.”

“I will leave my body,” the Master Reader said. “Surely no weather front can extend beyond my range in that state.”

Aradia was glad of her small Reading ability, for it allowed her to Read with Master Clement after he had left his body, and his mind touched hers and Wicket’s again. She was seated at her desk, aware of the murmur of Wicket’s voice as he tried to describe his first experience of what it was like to leave the confines of the body, to float, pure mind, untouched by heat or cold, hunger or thirst, pain or pleasure.

Even vicariously, the only way Aradia or Wicket would ever know the experience, it was beautiful beyond belief. She felt Wicket force his thoughts away from the fact that Pyrrhus had once known this state, and never could again.

Master Clement focused on the North Road, keeping his disciplined mind on the extent of the devastating cold. Although he could not feel the lack of warmth, he could Read it, and the farther north they traveled, the colder it became.

There was no physical effect from the cold on pure mind. The landscape, coated with snow and frost, was a sparkling fantasy in white, blue, gray, and the occasional black of tree trunks. Where the sun shone through the scattered clouds, had they been there in person they would have been blinded by the brightness of its reflection on the snow.

But beneath that snow, a herd of cattle lay frozen.

Birds, fluffed into little powder puffs in their attempt to survive, stood erect although quite dead, frozen to the branches they had taken shelter in.

And still the cold grew more intense.

Travelers caught by the unexpected storm had built a lean-to and a fire. The fire was out, their dog a lump of icy brown fur frozen in position to guard them, their horse slumped lifeless against the side of their wagon. Man, woman, and child lay stiff in one another’s arms.

My people , Aradia mourned.

Inexorably, the cold grew worse as Master Clement’s mind followed the road northward. They were coming close now to the border between Lilith’s lands and those Aradia and Lenardo ruled. Aradia’s heart began to pound as she “saw” blue shapes against the snow. Lilith’s pavilions.

There was no smoke from campfires. Everything was still as death.

But a fully functioning Lady Adept surely could not freeze to death!

At Aradia’s panicked thought, Master Clement focused quickly on locating Lilith. She was inside one of the pavilions-alive! She lay on a pallet, fully clothed, a blue woolen cloak covering her. She appeared to be asleep, perhaps healing sleep, which would automatically keep her body warm and living. Except… it was not healing sleep they Read. It was something Aradia had never Read before-and neither had Master Clement!

Unconscious, her face utterly serene, her dark hair framing her pale features as smoothly as ever, Lilith was a powerful source of Adept energy.

And the terrible, life-draining, soul-freezing cold was emanating from here-

— created by the Adept energies of the Lady Lilith.

“What’s wrong with her?” Wicket asked.

“Wicket, what have you found?” Pyrrhus demanded.

“Lady Lilith. Master Clement’s Reading her.”

“Why can’t you talk to her through her Readers?”

“They’re unconscious. Let me concentrate! I’ll tell you as soon as I know anything.”

“Her energy is draining away!” Aradia recognized.

Master Clement said. “She must be stopped!”

“If only someone could wake her,” Aradia fumed.

“Everyone is asleep. Some are dead. Aradia, could Lilith drain away to death?” Master Clement asked.

“A Lady Adept should not to be able to. Oh, Clement, what can we do against a Lord Adept powerful enough to use Lilith this way?”

“Surely not only one,” the Master Reader reassured. “It has to be a circle, and they have gone to great pains to prevent us from completing our own. Once we have Lilith here, we can combat them. We have done it before.”