Jean Lorrah - Sorcerers of the Frozen Isles

Spring sunshine warmed the air. Birds sang, butterflies danced among the flowers, and Torio, Lord Reader of the newly expanded Savage Empire, brooded as he rode beside Lord Wulfston. They were on their way to Zendi, temporary capital of their strange alliance and home to Lenardo and Aradia, unofficial leaders of that alliance.

But no place here is my home , Torio thought.

He had grown up in the Academy at Adigia, a powerful young Reader expecting to spend his life using his powers to benefit citizens of the Aventine Empire. Now there was no more Aventine Empire.

And it’s my fault.

No, it wasn’t his doing alone, but he had been a major factor in the force which had quite literally tumbled an empire, creating an earthquake that caused the earth to open and swallow up its capital city. Now they had a huge area to try to govern-a country full of hostile people whose lives had just been devastated.

They had left the worst of it to Lenardo and Aradia after the fall of Tiberium, and Wulfston had returned to his own lands, acquired only the year before. Even though the new Lord of the Land had made life much better for his people in his short reign, there was still a danger that their trust in him could not survive a long absence.

So Wulfston had gone home to secure his seaside kingdom-and Lenardo had urged Torio to continue to work with the Adept. “Wulfston knows how to teach people to obey him,” his teacher had said, “and still to love him. That is an ability you must have before you can rule your own land.”

Ruling a land-it was not what Readers were born to in the Aventine Empire. But Lenardo insisted that Torio’s insecurity stemmed from youth. He had been only eighteen when his teacher told him that, and a Magister Reader-or at least Lenardo and Master Clement insisted he was.

Torio had never taken the formal tests of his powers, but if there was one thing he was secure about, it was that he would have passed the most stringent tests the Council of Masters might have devised. His Reading was the one stable element in his life-it had to be, for he had been born blind. Without his Reading ability, he would have spent his life as a helpless liability to the family he had been born into. As it was, he perceived the world far better than any sighted nonReader.

But what was he supposed to do with those powers now? All the rules had changed. Grown up in the communal life of the Academy, barred by law from owning property or holding public office, now Torio had treasures beyond imagination, and lands held in his name that he would rule one day. Expecting to be sworn to celibacy once he entered the top ranks of Readers, now h? was told he could marry if he so desired, without risking the loss of his powers.

He often thought about that possibility… about Melissa. When his thoughts turned to her, they lightened-one good thing about this journey to Zendi was that he would get to see Melissa again! In the past year he had seen her only three times in person, although as Readers they had frequent mental contact.

In the midst of his pleasant reverie, the sunny day suddenly plunged into blackness. Torio heard a rumbling, felt the jostling of a crowd. He was being pulled along, trying to escape-

The noise grew louder, nearer, more terrifying, bearing down as people shouted incoherent warnings-Screams!

The tug at him was suddenly gone-he was alone in a crowd, lost, panicked, as something rumbled and rolled over human flesh, crushing bones, the smell of blood and fear sweat rising- “Torio!

Torio-what’s the matter with you?” At Wulfston’s voice, Torio suddenly realized that he was Reading something actually happening not far away. He focused his powers, and found-

“Wulfston-a man’s being crushed to death! We’ve got to help him!”

“Where?” was Wulfston’s only question. They were still in the Lord Adept’s lands-he would never withhold his powers when one of his people needed him.

“This way!” answered Torio, and set off at a gallop, first along the road, then off it toward a stone quarry scarring the side of the range of hills that would intersect the road in a few more miles.

Wulfston did not need to be told what had happened-when they reached the scene, everything was instantly obvious.

These people were a family, earning their living by cutting rock from the hillside for building in Wulfston’s lands or in Zendi. The quarry was new, for the latest Lords of the Land had begun a spate of building such as had not been seen in most people’s lifetimes.

Beneath the steep walls created by their work, they had been easing a huge block of granite down an earthen ramp, controlling it with block and tackle, when the ropes had given way. The stone had trapped the legs of a young man in his twenties, who now lay helpless while the others tried to remove the rock or dig him out from under it. Shock had left him unconscious, so Torio no longer had to endure his pain as he Read beneath the rock.

“Wulfston, his left leg is almost torn off-he’s bleeding to death. They’ll never get him out alive!”

Indeed, the old man and two strong young men flinging their picks at the ground were making little progress-the pathway down which they slid thequarried stones had been worn to the living, unyielding rock.

Another young man, shivering even though his skin was covered with sweat, swore steadily as he triedto make his shaking hands ravel together the broken ropes to haul the stone off… his brother, Torio Read.

Two women, the younger one obviously pregnant, knelt beside the pinned man, wiping his face-but there was nothing they could do. His life was slipping away as his mother and his wife watched.

Another woman grabbed a pick and added her unskilled efforts to the task as Wulfston and Torio rode up. Down the slope, near the house, four children watched with huge eyes, not understanding what was happening, but too frightened to cry.

The three women looked up as the riders approached, but the men would not leave off their efforts.

“Me lord!” cried the older woman. “Oh, me lord-please help my boy! I’ll do anything-”

These people might never have seen Wulfston before, or perhaps have glimpsed him only at a distance at some ceremonial or other, but they knew the Lord of the Land at once. He was the only black man Torio knew of north of what had been the empire’s border.

As he and Torio got down from their horses, Wulfston hushed the mother and the rest of the family, saying, “We’ll help. Torio-is he alive?”

Gray with shock, the young man lay so still that it was impossible to tell by looking at him, but Torio Read him. “Yes, but he won’t be for long. If he’s not out from under there in minutes-”

“Oh, Bevan!” groaned the young man’s wife.

“Then there’s no choice but to move the rock,” said Wulfston. “You men-get over on the other side and haul on the ropes. I’m going to use your strength as well as mine. When I tell you, tilt the block toward you.”

Torio knew moving that huge block, of granite by Adept power alone-working directly against gravity-would tax Wulfston’s strength close to its limit.He almost started to tell the Lord Adept not to allow himself to become so vulnerable-but he shook off that thought. There was no question but that Bevan’s life had to be saved! How could such a selfish idea even cross his mind?

He had no time to examine where a thought so unlike his normal Reader’s instinct had come from, for Wulfston was bracing to use his powers, becoming completely unReadable as the strong quarrymen took their places on the opposite side of the rock, tightening the ropes.