Jean Lorrah - Sorcerers of the Frozen Isles

In Maldek’s throne room, Torio stood sweating and shaking as he did when he awoke from that same nightmare. Now he knew why he could never remember it.

Tears streaking his face, he sank to his knees, whispering, “Now you know-now we all know. I’m responsible. I killed my brother.”

From all around the throne room, waves of anger washed through Torio’s battered mind.

Overpowering surges of guilt ripped through him as he knelt, exposed, before the people who had been his friends. Shielding from their fury, he withdrew into himself, as blind and helpless as he had been as a small boy.

Claws clicked on the stone floor, and Gray licked his face, nudging him under the chin, offering unquestioning comfort even though the dog had Read Torio’s experience along with all the other Readers.

Then a gentle hand touched his shoulder. “Torio.” It was Dirdra’s voice. “Don’t let Maldek do this to you.”

“You don’t understand,” he said wretchedly. “You couldn’t Read-” He threw his arms around Gray, not caring that the dog still loved him only because it couldn’t comprehend the enormity of his guilt.

“I could Read it,” said Melissa, kneeling on Torio’s other side and putting her arms around him.

“Torio-do you think we would blame you for an accident? You were too young even to understand what was happening! Torio?”

He could not respond, keeping his face buried against Gray, his mind firmly closed. Melissa’s pity was even worse than her anger of the moment before.

Then strong hands grasped his upper arms. “Stand up!” said Zanos, lifting him to his feet. “Torio- Read’t For Hesta’s sake-we’re angry at Maldek, not at you! What kind of evil mind tries to cast guilt on a man for what happened when he was a four-year-old child?”

“But it was my fault-” Torio began.

“Nonsense!” declared Zanos. “Have you Read Bryen blaming me for the loss of his hand? Or me blaming him for letting me be carried off into slavery? Or either of us laden with guilt for the deaths of the rest of our family? By the gods, Torio, you take responsibility for everything that happens, as if to make up for that one event that was not your fault .”

Hesitantly, Torio allowed himself to Read-and found that Dirdra, Melissa, and Zanos spoke the truth. It was not even that his friends forgave him-they found nothing to forgive!

Unlike his mother.

For the two years he had remained at home after Detrus’ death, Torio had lived with a silent woman who blamed her crippled son for the death of her perfect one. She had neither punished nor neglected him-but she had not loved him. And Torio’s growing powers had only revealed more and more how much his mother blamed him for something his young mind had banished from memory.

But he remembered clearly how happy his mother was to be rid of him when then-Magister Lenardo had discovered his potential as a Reader and taken him off to the Academy.

The Readers had taken four boys from six to eight years old out of their town that day. Torio, the youngest, was the only one who did not cry himself to sleep in his strange bed that night… the only one who did not want to go home again.

What he felt this evening in the throne room of Maldek’s castle was the same sense of relief he had known at the Academy, where his teachers had cared only about his Reading potential, and no one had blamed him for anything beyond boyish pranks.

This feeling was even more welcome. His friends knew -and they didn’t hate him! He Read their love, their caring as they gathered around him, even Bryen and Cassandra joining the circle to put their arms around him, protecting him against the malice of the Master Sorcerer-

Who stood partway up the steps to his throne, watching the scene in growing anger.

Astra turned to him. “We won’t let you pull that trick again, Maldek. We have our differences-but you will never again divide us!”

And as if her words were a signal-thunder roared outside, and people began to scream!

They Read outward, to find the city under attack.

Fire rained from the sky. Thunderbolts struck the castle. The forest roared into flame, animals fleeing, leaping into the river and the moat-

“Rokannia!” shouted Maldek.

But there was more than one Adept attacking!

In savage glee, the Readers felt Maldek recognize that the very tricks he had been using on his visitors had been turned against him.

While Maldek had been preoccupied with trying to divide and conquer his guests, Rokannia had taken the opportunity to gather two other Master Sorcerers against him-one of them Borru of Meliard, with whom he had been fostered as a boy.

Torio felt Maldek’s shock of recognition-Borru was his mentor, Rokannia his sworn vassal, and Shivahn his neighbor to the northwest, with whom he had an uneasy truce.

“How dare you attack me?” he demanded.

Rokannia answered for them all. “You destroy my people with your demands, Maldek-and your ruin of your own lands is spreading to those of your neighbors on Madura! You are at war with us, whether you declare it or not.”

“Borru,” Maldek appealed, “Master. You taught me to use my powers. How can you turn against me?”

“You have misused your powers, Maldek, against your people, your land. You must be stopped before you destroy everything your father left to you.”

“This is my land,” Maldek told them. Ill will do with it as I please!”

“No,” said Shivahn, “the land is not yours, nor the people-you are theirs! And your loss of control of the climate has crept year by year into my lands, until my crops fail under early and late frosts, my herds die in the winter storms-and my people suffer hunger! No more, Maldek. You will be stopped, once and for all!”

“Give it up, Maldek,” said Rokannia. “Your powers may be greater than ours individually-but our combined powers are greater than anything you have.”

“You are wrong!” Maldek roared aloud even as he projected the thought. Ill know where you are-and I will destroy you!”

And with that he sent a thunderbolt crackling to where Rokannia was hidden in the forest on the other side of the river-for, Torio realized, while Maldek was distracted with the games he was playing with his visitors, the three Master Sorcerers had left Rokannia’s ship and traveled inland on the same road Torio and his companions had taken.

Of course-these three had the power to fool Maldek’s Readers. They had not even known two other sorcerers were aboard Rokannia’s vessel. The ship was still proceeding around the southeast tip of the island, as if to sail up to the City by the river, as expected. No one had reported that it had put people ashore.

Rokannia and her cohorts easily deflected Maldek’s first blow and sent their own barrage against the castle, shaking its foundations. But it was built to withstand Adept attack, and nothing happened beyond a loud rattling.

Kwinn, however, wakened in terror and galloped down the stairs squealing, looking for Dirdra. When he found her, he flung his arms around her and buried his face in her skirt to be stroked and comforted.

Outside, local minor Adepts had already put out the forest fire-but Torio could Read that such an effort quickly used up their meager powers.

He caught Rokannia Reading him-in fact, Reading the whole group gathered before Maldek. “Join with us!” she directed. “Maldek has proven himself your enemy-help us to kill him, and you will have three Master Sorcerers in your debt!”

But it was not their war-at least not yet. Torio Read the consensus that they protect themselves, but not attack-a spontaneous response from all who could Read Rokannia’s offer.