Jean Lorrah - Empress Unborn

Zendi was a thriving city now, rebuilt after the series of battles that had raged over it during its years in disputed territory. The old wood and mud-and-wattle buildings were replaced with stone; fire was no longer the plague it had once been. The water and sewer systems were back in repair, and Lenardo’s current project was to bring water and safe, comfortable heating into the homes of even the poorest of the citizens.

There was plenty for the Adepts and Readers to do: weather to be controlled so the crops would thrive, the sick and injured to be healed, the young people with their burgeoning talents to be trained.

The Academy system already existed to train young Readers, but there had never before been systematic training of those with minor Adept talents. Healers had apprenticed themselves to other healers, those with power over weather had been valued by the farmers, but the rest had generally used their powers sparingly, lest the local Lord Adept take too sharp a notice of potential rivals.

Then there was the ongoing research to bring out Adept talent in Readers, Reading in Adepts. Now that it was understood that the two talents were one, it was hard to see why so many who were skilled at one could not evoke the other. Wulfston longed to learn to Read, but had somehow never made the breakthrough. Master Clement only laughed when Aradia offered to teach him Adept tricks, saying, “I’m too old to start a new way of life. Teach Decius-he’s eager to learn.”

Decius was approaching his examinations for the rank of Magister Reader, a source of irritation to Julia.

“I’m a better Reader than he is,” she fumed, “but he gets to learn to go out of body and I don’t!”

“Decius is eighteen,” Aradia reminded her. “When you are his age, you’ll learn those techniques.”

She wished Decius and Julia were a little closer in age; she’d have much preferred Julia to focus her growing interest in the opposite sex on the young Reader than on her friend Galerio, a sixteen-year-old minor Adept who led a gang of youngsters with similar small talents. Aradia was hard put to explain why she didn’t like the boy. He had no family, and lived by his wits and talents. Normally she admired such spirit.

But neither Galerio nor any of the young people he led would attend the classes designed to help them make the best use of their abilities. “He doesn’t want you to tell him what to do with his life,” Julia explained.

“Julia, you know that’s not the purpose of the classes,” Aradia protested. “You’d be doing him a great favor if you could persuade him to attend.”

“He doesn’t listen to girls’ advice!” Julia exclaimed, and Aradia suddenly saw one reason Julia was fascinated by Galerio: he was one of the few people her age who did not treat her with the deference due Lenardo’s heir.

Decius might have been a similar challenge, if he had paid attention to Julia at all. Aradia decided to throw them together. She had a valid reason: both were powerful Readers, but neither had mastered a single Adept talent.

So she told Julia she wanted to work with her and Decius together, apart from her other pupils. Julia agreed eagerly-she longed to add Adept powers to her talents.

Decius arrived right on time, striding confidently despite the peg leg he wore. When he was only thirteen, he had lost his left leg in a battle Drakonius had taken into the very Academy at Adigia, where Decius had then been a student. Those wars were over now, but they had scarred an entire generation.

Decius’ scars were only physical. Emotionally, he was as sound as any young man Aradia knew-and today he was flushed with triumph as he joined Julia and Aradia in the private chamber where they would have their lesson. “It’s my day for learning!” he told them. “This morning I moved to another plane of existence-it’s even more exciting than going out of body!”

Aradia had never done either, but she knew that

Readers on the advanced levels could go into other dimensions, other… places, she supposed, where not even the best Readers could spy on them. Not physical places, though. For her, it was a strange concept-but she did not let it concern her, because she would have no occasion to try it. Let Lenardo worry about other planes of existence.

But she congratulated Decius, and then got down to the business at hand.

Before them on the table she placed a fireproof bowl, in which were shavings and tinder. “Fire is the easiest power to manifest,” she said for the thousandth time, “although one of the most difficult to master.

Never practice without an Adept skilled in fire control present.”

Julia said, “I’ve tried this a hundred times, Aradia. It won’t work. “

“It won’t work if you think it won’t,” said Decius. “I think it will.”

“Do you, Decius?” Aradia asked.

“Yes,” he said firmly.

“Then try. Concentrate. Envision the flames. Feel the heat. Put your mind to just that bowl, just the kindling-Decius, you’re Reading!”

He blinked, and looked at her. “Sorry,” he muttered, and returned to staring at the kindling. He was still Reading it, his disciplined mind probing the air passages beneath it, imagining how the draft would come up through-

“Decius-”

“Wait,” he forestalled her. “Let me-”

Suddenly he was blank to Reading-and the kindling burst into flame!

Decius sagged, catching himself by hanging on to the table. He stared at the bowl in astonishment, and a sudden grin seized his features. “I did it!” He looked at the two women. “I did it!”

“Show me how!” demanded Julia.

Decius smiled at her. “You just have to know you can. Really, Julia-Master Clement’s been trying to teach you that. All I did was take the feeling I had this morning, when I knew I could move to the plane of privacy, and apply it here-I made myself know I could do this in just the same way!”

“But I know I can do it,” said Julia, “and I still can’t!”

“Julia,” said Aradia, “you are getting upset. In that condition you won’t learn anything at all. Use your relaxation technique-”

“I don’t want to relax,” the girl fretted.“I want to start a fire.” She fished more kindling from a container by the empty fireplace and piled it into the bowl, where the original fire had quickly burned itself out.

“Julia, don’t,” said Aradia. “Not being able to do it when you are agitated will contribute to your belief that you can’t do it later, when you’ve calmed down.”

“Why don’t you want me to do it?” Julia demanded. “I’m as good as Decius! Master Clement teaches him to leave his body, but he won’t teach me. Now you teach him to start fires, and you won’t even let me try it. It’s not fairl” And the girl got up and stomped out of the room.

Decius rose, but Aradia put a hand on his arm. “Let her go. She’ll calm down. If we keep her here now, shell just go on arguing.”

“Girls sure are different from boys,” he observed.

“You’re an expert?” Aradia asked.

“I’m in charge of one of the boys’ dormitories at the Academy,” Decius explained. “It’s all right, except when I’m also on sleep duty. ‘

“Sleep duty?” she asked.

“Young Readers have to learn not to Read in their sleep-one boy with a nightmare would set off the whole group. Besides, you don’t want other Readers knowing your dreams. So we older students have to take turns staying awake, and waking up any of the little boys who start projecting dreams.” He shook his head. “It’s hard on them-I remember. But we’ve all got to learn, or we’d be afraid to go to sleep.

Dreams can be very embarrassing!”

“I know,” said Aradia, thinking of the strange dream she kept having about her unborn child. Any number of times she had started to tell Master Clement, but decided it was unimportant. Why shouldn’t she dream about what her daughter would look like as a young woman?