Jean Lorrah - Flight to Savage Empire

That “something” involved Vortius, which explained why he was visiting Portia. Did the man dare attempt to apply his filthy pressures even on the Master of Masters? No wonder Portia had been upset.

Maybe that’s why I was punished - not really for

anything I’d done, but because of something Vortius said. Something she was afraid I d overheard.

Astra grabbed one of the bars of the gate and stood there for a moment, now feeling more than angry.

Whatever was going on, she wanted no part of it. But the longer she remained in ignorance, the more vulnerable she would be to-to whatever disaster might be coming.

The gods have made me the most powerful Magister Reader in the empire’s finest Academy , she told herself. There must be a reason for it - it’s not right that all 1 do is suppress my powers. Yes, they bring me pain - but they find things other Readers can’t… like white lotus in that gladiator’s blood. If I don’t fight the corruption, am I not just as guilty as those who are spreading it ?

Not knowing exactly what she was looking for, Astra scanned the Academy’s main building, seeking Master Portia. If she was cautious enough, and Portia was otherwise occupied, the old woman might not notice she was being Read.

Portia wasn’t in her office. Neither was Master Marina, her assistant. Master Claudia was sitting at Portia’s desk, her attention focused on the yellowed pages of an ancient book. Astra carefully withdrew without calling attention to herself. ” Claudia is in charge, neither Portia nor Marina is on the Academy grounds. Again .

Unlike Portia, Claudia would not demand an explanation if Astra was late with her medical report. She could steal a little time to find out what was really going on.

But where to begin? She had no confidants, no informants-

Morella. Vortius claimed that Clavius had died in the arena because he went to Morella’s last night. Astra had not been Reading for the truth of the man’s statements, but it hadn’t rung true-could Vortius have known about the drug?

Morella owes me a favor , Astra thought as she hurried away from the Academy. Perhaps I can get her to repay it .

The southeast quarter of Tiberium was called The Maze by those who knew it well, a neighborhood of taverns, theaters, and brothels. Sumptuous apartments belonging to people made wealthy by these trades lined some of the narrow streets, which denizens of the quarter roamed in gaudy finery. Here lived people of new wealth-those who might display silken robes… and dirty fingernails.

Here also roamed many of the more unsavory people of the city. Despite the chill, Astra was glad she was wearing her black Magister’s cloak instead of her heavier gray one, for her position as a Reader would be respected even in this disreputable part of Tiberium. Without such indication, a woman who walked these streets alone risked insult, or worse.

Seven months before, she had walked through these same streets to Morella’s House of Pleasure for the first time. Licensed and taxed by the government, the bordello required a monthly health inspection of its employees by a Reader. Like the gladiatorial games, it was a task given to a Reader who had fallen into disfavor with Portia. That time, Astra had argued with Portia, and knew she deserved the punishment duty. Still, she disliked it.

Morella hadn’t made the job easy. A large, buxom woman of about fifty, she ran her establishment the way Portia ruled the Academy. But Astra had refused to be bullied into the superficial job other Readers must have done. She had thoroughly checked the fifteen prostitutes for communicable diseases or pregnancy-and then insisted on Reading Morella, even though she no longer “entertained. “

It didn’t take Astra long to find what the bordello owner was trying to hide: pain in her abdomen and opiates in her bloodstream. Further examination revealed not the cancerous tumor Morella had feared, but merely polyps which any surgeon could easily remove.

That good news brought tears of relief to Morella’s eyes and a great change in her attitude toward Astra.

After the operation and her release from the hospital, Astra had visited her often, both to check on Morella’s recovery and to cultivate the only friendship she had been able to gain since becoming a Magister Reader. Morella was, Astra had to admit, closer to a motherly counselor than Portia had ever been to her.

So close had Morella and Astra become that Morella had called for Astra some three months ago, to help treat one of her women whom Astra had never met before.

“Clea worked for me for almost a year,” Morella explained, “but she always complained that she didn’t make enough money. She loves jewelry-or she did. She has nothing left now.”

“What happened to her?” asked Astra, Reading the pale and silent woman on the bed. The bones of her face suggested that Clea had been beautiful, but now her skin was gray and taut, her face skeletal, her hands clawlike.

“Archobus lured her away,” explained Morella. “He’s an aristocrat who gambles with Vortius. He gave Clea all the silks and jewels she wanted-until he got tired of her. Then she became a hanger-on of Vortius’ crowd down at his villa in the southlands… and someone addicted her to white lotus.”

And that was how Astra came to recognize that particular taint in a person’s blood.

“Morella,” Astra said, “there’s no herb I can give her, nothing that will cleanse the drug from her body. At the hospital at Gaeta, all the Readers can do for someone addicted, whether to opiates or to one of these rarer drugs, is to lock the person up while his body purges itself.”

“I know that,” said Morella. “That is why Clea came to me. She wants me to restrain her-but she’s so weak, Astra! Can she survive?”

Although painfully thin, Clea was still in reasonably good health. Her heart was sound, and amazingly she had no disease. “Yes, I think she can survive,” said Astra, “but we should take her to the infirmary at the Academy, where better healers than I-”

“No!” said Morella. “She trusts me. She would see it as betrayal if I turned her over to strangers. I don’t suppose you know much about drug addiction, Magister… but I see it often here in The Maze. Clea has found the determination to cleanse the drug from her blood-but it will not last once the pain begins. And afterward…”

“Afterward, she is likely to go right back to the drug at the first disappointment in her life,” said Astra. “At Gaeta, too, people go through all that suffering, only to return to their drugs.”

“Because there are always vultures waiting to control them,” said Morella. “But Clea will be safe with me.

You’ve examined my girls often enough to know I will have no drugs here.”

The woman on the bed groaned and opened her eyes. “Morella!” she gasped on a wave of pain. Astra gritted her teeth against it.

Morella took Clea’s hand. “I’m here, child. You’re going to be all right.”

The young woman’s eyes slowly focused on Astra. “You… you are the healer?”

“Yes.”

“Morella says… you can be trusted. Please- please help me.”

Astra took Clea’s other hand, Reading her determination to be free… and the reason for it. Although the identities of the people were obscured in a drug-induced haze, the content of the scene that had sent Clea fleeing from her life of luxury was clear.

It was not the first time she had been given instructions just when the white lotus had taken over her will.

Without hesitation, she had read documents belonging to various lovers, and reported their contents. She had stolen keys, delayed men from appointments, and even deliberately destroyed a marriage. Everything had seemed to be her own desire- until the day when someone had handed her a vial of poison and instructed her to seduce another man, then slip the poison into his wine.