Jean Lorrah - Sorcerers of the Frozen Isles

“That’s a lie!” Dirdra snapped. “Do you think Kwinn wanted to be turned into a mindless animal?”

“He wanted you to be well cared for, Dirdra… and he wanted to be with you. Now he has just that. And you, my dear, will soon give me what / want.”

It was obvious that all were finished eating. Maldek bid them good night, and servants showed them to their rooms, all clustered in one wing of the castle.

As soon as the servants left them they all gathered in Dirdra’s room, to examine Kwinn. Gray lay down in front of the door.

Astra was the only one of the group to have completed medical training at Gaeta, and she was also the most skilled among them at the fine discernment required to Read down to the level of nerve synapses and minute chemical changes.

“Dirdra, your brother’s mind Reads something like that of a stroke victim,” Astra said. “What Maldek has done is very cruel, but very easy given his combination of Reading and Adept talents. He has injured the part of Kwinn’s brain that controls language-he can no longer find words for what he wants to think or say.”

“Can he be cured?” Dirdra asked.

“I don’t know,” replied Astra. “I don’t think I could sort out and reconnect all those tiny fibers. Melissa?”

“It would be like trying to-” She searched for a less painful image than the one that came to mind, but Dirdra knew it already.

“To unscramble an egg,” she said bitterly. She rocked her brother in her arms. “It was his mind Maldek took first. Only when that did not persuade me to come to him freely did he begin to amuse himself by twisting Kwinn’s body.”

Melissa shivered. “He has such power for healing! Why would he distort it to do deliberate harm?”

“As a demonstration of strength,” said Zanos. “There doesn’t seem to be anyone capable of opposing him-those empty beaches we passed to the south are an open invitation to an invading army.”

“Oh, they’ve tried,” said Dirdra. “Three years ago, Rokannia of the Western Isle sent a fleet of ships against Madura. Maldek did not even bother to raise the wind. He let the army come ashore, and met them with his minions-no army, just Maldek and some forty minor sorcerers against an army of over a thousand.

“Rokannia and her sorcerers sent fire and thunderbolts, but Maldek ignored them. Using his minions to shield him, he took her army, turned them orbu-and when Rokannia had exhausted herself he sent her own army against her. She was brought to his castle in chains, and there was a great celebration.

“Rokannia still rules the Western Isle, but she pays tribute in gold and grain every year. And it is rumored that every year when she comes to pay her tribute she begs Maldek to let her bear him a child to carry on his powers-but he refuses.”

“I can see why you intrigue him so, Dirdra,” said Zanos. “A Master Sorceress begs for his favors, but you spurn him.”

“And what would you have me do?” she demanded. “Let him use me and cast me aside as he does his orbu?”

“Not at all,” replied Zanos. “I spoke out of admiration for your courage.”

“Besides,” added Astra, “it is clear that Maldek does not want you unwilling-and he is too good a Reader not to know your feelings. What is intriguing is that he has never simply implanted the desire for him in your mind.”

“It may be,” Melissa said pensively, “that Maldek is just discovering that his power has limits.”

“What do you mean?” asked Torio.

“He can have anything he wants,” she replied, “except friendship… and love.”

“He’ll never have that in this land,” said Dirdra. “The only people who want to be friends with Maldek are those who seek to profit by the association!”

Finally, since there was nothing they could do for Kwinn and Dirdra tonight, they retired to the rooms assigned them, and slept the sleep of utter exhaustion.

Torio woke in a cold sweat, out of a nightmare he could not remember. The castle was coming to life for the day. The guards were securing the drawbridge, which had just been let down, and servants scurried about, preparing for the awakening of their master and his guests.

When Torio sat up, Gray raised his head from where he had been sleeping at Torio’s feet in the huge bed. “You were on the floor when I fell asleep,” Torio informed him. “How did you get up here without waking me? Do you have Adept power, too?”

The dog stretched, then pushed his face under Torio’s chin until the Reader rubbed the big shaggy head.

That ritual completed, he jumped off the bed, went to the door, and whined. Torio opened the door for him, Reading the dog run down the stairs and across the courtyard, then over the drawbridge into the forest.

Apparently Gray’s not worried about me this morning , thought Torio, and Read the other nearby rooms.

Dirdra was in the dull sleep of emotional exhaustion, her face still showing signs that after the others had left last night she had cried herself to sleep. Kwinn was curled up atop the coverings at her feet-just as Gray had been on Torio’s bed.

Melissa still slept in her room across the hall, and next door Zanos and Astra were in one another’s arms, her head on his shoulder, one arm about his waist as if her small body could shield his great one. On either side of the bed, their swords were hung within easy reach. And what good are they against power like Maldek’s ? Torio wondered.

He was Reading surfaces only, invading no one’s privacy-but he was wide awake and too tense to go back to sleep. What was the “game” Maldek intended to play with them? And where was the Master Sorcerer now?

In another wing of the castle, he Read Maldek… also asleep. So, the man was human after all.

Torio had slept in the nightshirt he had found laid out on his bed. The clothes he had worn last night were gone, but an embroidered robe hung over the chair by the bed, fur-lined slippers beneath it.

More demonstrations of power: someone had been in and out of the room, not only without waking Torio, but without disturbing Gray.

Furthermore, just as Torio put on the robe and slippers, a servant started up the stairs from the kitchen with breakfast on a tray. The woman was Reading him-inexpertly enough that she instantly attracted his attention, but Reading nonetheless- yet when she reached his door she became blank to Reading for a moment, and the door opened by itself.

Someone with both Reading and Adept powers employed as a serving maid? Another symbol of Maldek’s power.

“You be up early, young sir,” the woman said as she laid the tray on the table. “Have a good breakfast, and then Devon will be up to help you dress. The Master says you be welcome to explore the castle till he rises. You may find summat of interest in his library.”

“Thank you,” Torio replied. The smell of fresh-baked bread was too good to resist. There was fruit mixed with soft farmer’s cheese, as well, and a pot of fresh hot tea whose scent he did not recognize. As before, everything Read perfectly wholesome, so he ate and drank-and by that time Gray was back.

When the door opened by itself to admit the dog, Torio Read outward, amazed that anyone, except perhaps Maldek, could have been Reading the room without his knowing it.

But the man sweeping the dust out of the corners of the hall had been Reading the dog, not Torio.

Gray eagerly accepted the leftovers of Torio’s breakfast. “But that’s not enough for you,” he realized.

“We’ll go down to the kitchen and-” He stopped, smiling grimly. “No-we don’t even have to ask!”

This time the door opened to admit a manservant in Maldek’s black-and-silver livery, followed by a small boy with a platter of meat scraps and bones, and a bowl of water. Hesitantly, he set them before the huge dog, then scurried out of the room.