Jean Lorrah - Sorcerers of the Frozen Isles

Hwelda screamed, and began to keen in the way of the village women at the death of one of their family.

Zanos stood frozen in disbelief-this could not be happening!

Bryen somehow came to his senses. “Hwelda- come on!” he cried. “Zanos-help me!”

Bryen grasped his sister’s hand on one side, Zanos on the other-but the five sailors caught the three children easily. “Let go, damn you!” growled one with a blond beard, trying to shake Bryen’s grip off Hwelda’s arm. “Let me see what I’ve caught!”

“No! Let my sister alone!” shouted Bryen.

“Let her alone!” Zanos echoed, taking courage from his brother.

The sailors laughed, and one shoved Zanos aside, another grabbing his arms as he tried to reach for Hwelda’s hand again. He squirmed and kicked, but aroused only laughter in his captor. “This one’s got spirit,” said the sailor. “With that red hair and hot temper, he’ll bring a good price in Tiberium!”

Bryen was still trying to haul Hwelda away- and for a moment succeeded in dragging the trembling girl loose from the grip of her captors. “That’s enough!” said one of them-and with his sword he slashed off Bryen’s hand.

The hand still clung to Hwelda’s wrist as she shrieked again. Bryen made no sound, but fell to his knees, eyes wide in disbelief as he instinctively clasped his good hand around his mutilated wrist.

“You’ve ruined a good laborer, damn you, Shoff!” exclaimed the blond-bearded one. Then he turned Hwelda toward the light, and cursed roundly. “This one’s fat and freckled-the boy’d have brought three times as much! No use taking any but pretty women in the space we’ve got!” And he grabbed Hwelda’s hair, tilted her head back, and slit her throat.

“We’ll take that one,” he added, pointing at Zanos-and the boy found himself being picked up bodily and carried toward the pier.

“No!” he shouted, kicking as hard as he could.

The blond one paid no attention as he turned with his knife to dispatch Bryen-but over his captor’s shoulder Zanos saw that his brother was gone.

“Should I go after him?” asked one of the other men.

“Nah-he’s no good now. He’ll bleed to death anyhow. Come on-let’s get down there and see if we can catch us a good woman!”

Zanos’ memory came to an abrupt halt, as his eyes traveled about the circle of his friends and he realized that all the Readers had experienced it with him.

Then he stood, grabbed up his half-dry woolen cloak, and stalked out of the cottage.

“Zanos-” Torio began.

“Let him go,” said Astra. “He has dreamed of coming back for so long, and finding his home still here, his brother still alive. Now he must come to terms with the reality.”

“Maldek did it on purpose!” Dirdra said angrily, the only one who had not experienced the vision. “He must have Read what Zanos was searching for-and he brought us right here, just to hurt him!”

“He said we would each find what we came looking for,” said Melissa. “At least Zanos came with the knowledge that it was possible he would find his home exactly like this.”

But some time later, leaving the women to get ready for their journey, Torio went out to find Zanos.

The gladiator sat huddled in his cloak, on one of the mounds of stone on the beach. He was unReadable, using his Adept powers to keep warm. Wordlessly, Torio handed him leggings and boots.

Under that gray sky, even Zanos’ fire-red hair seemed faded. The drizzling rain obscured the cottages from the beach. Torio stopped visualizing, wondering how nonReaders coped by sight alone on such days-it was less depressing, too, merely to Read where he was going by the “feel” of it, without having to see the bleakness of the seascape.

Even the waves pounding the shore sounded desolate in Torio’s ears. Zanos, though, had recovered some of his optimism. “I knew it might be like this,” he said. “Just because no one’s living here anymore, that doesn’t mean my brother isn’t living somewhere else. I didn’t see him die-he had the strength to run away from the slavers. Men have recovered from such wounds. Since our home is gone, it will simply be harder to find him, that’s all.”

And Torio felt the sea wind whip through his cloak again as the roar of the waves sounded for a moment more like the rumbling of doom, bearing down upon them in their helpless darkness. Yet… “When you find your brother,” he said, “he will have his hand again.”

Zanos stared at him. “Is that-?”

“Yes. I don’t know how I know it, and I don’t know any more than what I just told you… but you will find your brother.”

The gladiator managed a small smile. “Thank you, Torio… even though I somehow knew that much myself.”

But then Melissa called, “Torio! Zanos! We’re ready!” and the two men joined the three women for the long, weary journey to the town Torio had found.

Everything went amazingly as planned. Although they were all weary when they arrived-especially the three with Adept powers, who had shored everyone up along the way-there were actually rooms at the inn, and Torio and Dirdra were able to haggle down the price of horses so that all could ride in the morning.

After a good meal, they retired to their rooms just as most people were arriving at the inn. Dirdra took the first watch-on the assumption that if anyone planned to attack them, it would be later, when it was more likely for travelers to be asleep. After four hours, she woke Torio, for the Adepts were the ones who needed to restore their energies.

He Read all secure-suspiciously so. Had Maldek forgotten them? Been distracted by something else?

Or was it part of his game to give them this time to recover? Possibly he had some notion of fair play, or simply lost interest if his opposition were too easy to defeat. Torio longed to go out of body to spy on Maldek, but dared not do so without someone guarding his body. So he Read as far as he could, and waited.

Whatever the reason, absolutely nothing happened that night, and in the morning the travelers ate a hearty breakfast and set off on the road north to the capital city.

It was a two-day ride-and Torio could Read no place to break their journey except within the forest.

Although there were many people on the road when they left the seacoast town, the farther north they traveled the fewer people they saw, and the worse the road became.

They had bought some more layers of warm clothing before leaving town, and today the sun shone, although the breeze was brisk. Once they were a few miles away from the sea wind, they were actually comfortable on their ride. Everyone cheered up.

Until they entered the forest. It loomed abruptly, like a wall across the road ahead-although once they got there they could see the road disappearing into it. Huge trees cut off the sun, and met above the roadway-which in many places was overgrown to a narrow path where they had to ride single-file.

Dense undergrowth spread in every direction, and beneath the canopy of trees the sunny day became dim as twilight.

The Readers kept a watch for dangers, and for the proper trail, for there were often forks and byways.

Off in the woods, a few deer fled at the sound of their passage, but wolves and bears sniffed the air and listened, deciding whether they were hungry enough to risk attacking.

Although he Read no people in the forest, Torio was reminded powerfully of a journey he had made with Wulfston over a year ago, when the roads between Zendi and Wulfston’s lands were not yet free of bandits. Noticing Dirdra shivering, not with cold but with apprehension, he said, “Don’t worry-you’re with Readers and Adepts. We can handle wild animals, or anything else that comes along.” And, to pass the weary miles, he began to tell of the adventure he had had that day with Wulfston.