Jean Lorrah - Wulfston's odyssey

Wulfston exchanged passwords with the sentries, then walked down the hill a short way to where someone had felled a tree to form a bench. The view in the moonlight was exquisite, but he was in a little hollow where he could not be seen from above or below; he suspected that this must be a favorite courting spot for young people from the village whose fires twinkled below.

He felt Tadisha’s mind touch his, and gave her a wordless welcome. In moments she came to sit beside him.

“Can you See to Norgu’s castle from here?” he asked.

“Not without going out of body,” she said in a soft voice that would not carry beyond their sheltered hollow. “You should not be attempting to See it, either. We want Norgu to think our movement is simply positioning our troops against the Savishnon assault. And who knows what Savishnon Seers might make of your thoughts?”

“From what Barak showed us, they simply take anything foreign as something to be destroyed.”

“Let’s not talk about the Savishnon,” said Tadisha, “or Norgu, either. Is your land so beautiful in the moonlight, Lord Wulfston?”

“The moon shines on the whole world,” he replied. “Its light reveals beauty everywhere.” He turned to look at her face, silvered, with golden glints in those eyes that glowed like a cat’s.

She turned her face to his, but before he dared follow his own desire, she leaned toward him, murmuring,

“Then you could learn to love this land as much…” Her voice trailed off as her lips brushed his, producing almost a spark as he started back.

Tadisha straightened, peering at him. “Wulfston, are you afraid of me?”

“Of you? No. Of another woman trying to control me? I will always be wary of that.”

“I’m not trying to control you!” she said indignantly. “I like you!”

“And you would like me to stay in Africa,” he observed.

“This is your homeland.”

He shook his head. “No, Tadisha. This is the home of my ancestors, but it is not my home. I understand now why my parents never wanted to return to Africa; they would not have wanted me here, where Chulaika and Z’Nelia use me as a pawn in their games of power, and you and your mother- I’m tired of women pushing me around!”

Tadisha smiled. “You sound just like Kamas!”

“I understand just what he’s going through,” he told her seriously. “My parents often left me in the care of my sister until they were killed, and then Nerius took me home and handed me over to Aradia. It’s difficult to explain. I don’t want you to think I don’t love her. I do. And she loves me, but she is only now beginning to accept me as her equal. And I don’t know if she’ll ever stop trying to manipulate me.”

“And you think I am trying to manipulate you?” Tadisha asked. Wulfston heard what sounded like honest amazement in her voice. Then she said thoughtfully, “I must be very careful how I treat Kamas. I would not want his having an older sister with stronger powers to confuse his thinking. I certainly don’t want my younger brother to have trouble understanding the difference between manipulation and caring.”

Queen Ashuru caught up with them on the road the next day, bringing good news. “The combined army of the Assembly has driven off the first assault of the Savishnon. They have turned eastward, traveling across the plain rather than rampaging through our lands. But such an army needs supplies. When they grow hungry, they will turn southward again. Can there be any hope of gaining Norgu’s cooperation?”

“Perhaps,” suggested Wulfston, “now that we know why he hates his mother we may persuade him to join us against Z’Nelia.”

The next day they reached Terza, the small city grown up around Norgu’s castle. No one paid them much attention as they rode up the main street toward the castle walls. Obviously Norgu frequently had distinguished visitors.

But while the streets bustled with morning activity, the castle was strangely quiet. The gates were still closed, and no guards stood watch atop the walls. Drifting high above the castle’s turrets Wulfston saw-

No, it can’t be ! Surely not the eagle he had seen at the lake. Yet curiosity prompted him to try to see through this bird’s eyes, for it commanded a view of the entire castle.

At his mental touch, the eagle broadcast such a rupulsion that he was rocked in his saddle. Obviously not the same bird !

Yet the memory of seeing through the eyes of that eagle prompted another memory: the view Norgu had given the Assembly of the Savishnon armies. Strange… it had been much like the eagle’s view, from above. Had Norgu also used an eagle, perhaps this one-?

Tadisha, who had been watching and Reading him, now turned her Seer’s powers toward the castle.

Wulfston opened his own powers to the full-

Where was Lenardo? Why didn’t he greet them?

Tadisha, Ashuru, and Kamas all were Seeing now, for they met no minds guarding against intrusion.

Wulfston Read with them the empty courtyard, the gates closed but unbarred, the empty stables-

And inside, empty rooms. No servants, no retainers… and no guests.

But in Norgu’s main hall, devastation.

The place had been firestormed.

Charred and blistered remains of furnishings surrounded a blasted corpse. And Norgu, seated in the midst of the ruin, physically unharmed but mentally blank, his eyes fixed in a glassy stare, seeing nothing.

Wulfston moved toward Norgu, who was obviously in shock. Ashuru brushed past him. “Ill care for the boy. It’s his mind that needs healing.”

She was right; people injured physically needed Wulfston’s skills. He spared a glance at the corpse to confirm his expectations; it was Sukuru.

Then where were Chulaika and Chaiku? And where was Lenardo? Why had the Master Reader not given a mental call for help?

Traylo and Arlus ran out of the main hall, then back to Wulfston, coaxing him to follow. Unable to Read anything to guide him, he accepted the dogs’ direction through the corridors and down a stair that narrowed as it wound into darkness. For the first time, he experienced the Readers gift of movement without hesitation when there was no glimmer of light to see by.

Norgu’s dungeons stank of agony and death. By the time he came to the bottom of the stairs, Wulfston was holding his breath. Why had Traylo and Arlus brought him to this empty place?

He could Read no one there… alive.

The dogs, though, whimpered and fussed. Wulfston concentrated on a rushlight on the wall, until it burst into smoky flame. In the dim light he saw two bodies on the floor.

Chulaika and Chaiku, mother and son wrapped in one another’s anus.

No spark of life-?

They were breathing! He could see no injury; they appeared merely to be unconscious. Then why couldn’t he Read-?

Wulfston grasped Chulaika’s shoulder, intending to turn her over.

At the touch, — something grabbed at his mind! The more he fought, the more he was dragged into seething chaos. His mental shout to Tadisha and Kamas for help was swallowed up in the maelstrom, along with every thought, every memory, that made him a separate being!

Chulaika, Chaiku, and Sukuru stood before Norgu. Sukuru was defeated, Chuklaika controlling Chaiku’s powers to hide her thoughts. Norgu must not find out how much power his half-brother had, or he would either kill the boy or take him from her to use as his own weapon.

For Chaiku was Chulaika’s weapon, carefully crafted to use against Z’Nelia. No one was going to take her son from her before the time was ripe!

“I don’t care what you do, Sukuru,” Norgu was saying. “You’re worthless to me. Shall I kill you? You have been of service to me, even though you did not intend it. You might have brought Lord Wulfston, but you also brought me the hostage who will deliver him right into my hands. Wulfston’s coming here, thinking to take Lenardo from me as easily as I took him from you.”