Jean Lorrah - Flight to Savage Empire

Zanos stood over him, not even breathing hard, trident poised to gut him.

"Spear is not a good choice of weapon for individual combat in the arena,“Zanos told Astra.

“That doesn’t matter,” she replied. “What matters is that you felt your moves. Now, the same way, feel what it is like to start the healing fire through your body.”

That was more difficult; Zanos was not accustomed to visualizing his body at rest. “Wait-I know,” he said, and Astra was suddenly in pain.

It was a familiar pain to Zanos, the scrapes, strains, bruises ignored during the excitement of a bout, which made themselves known as he cooled off afterward. Ill wouldn’t bother with healing fire for just that,” he told Astra, sensing her dismay. “It’s nothing-just the way every gladiator feels after he’s won.”

"I'll hate to think how they feel after they’ve lost!” she commented.

“Dead, most often,” he replied flatly. “The normal aches and pains ease with some herb tea and a hot bath. But I recall a time my arm was broken- one of the bones in my forearm, but I managed to hide it, for I couldn’t let Lakus know I could heal a broken bone overnight.”

Astra felt with him the throbbing ache of the arm as he made his way back to his small slave’s cell, collapsed onto his pallet, and called up the fire even as with his other hand he forced the bone ends together, adding Adept strength, but having to endure feeling what he did because he could not Read it.

As the heat of Adept healing surged through his arm, Zanos’ pain faded. Probing the arm, he hoped he had set it properly-but he could not be certain until tomorrow. Carefully wedging the swollen arm between two cushions, he lay back and let the healing fire spread through his body as he fell into dreamless sleep.

“Yes!” Astra told him. “That is exactly what you must do! No matter how your body reacts, Zanos, you must set that same healing fire burning through it, until the drug is purged away. Is there… something that must be done to end the fire?”

“No. When all the foreign substance is cleansed from my blood, I will wake up… very hungry, but otherwise in perfect health.”

“Then… we must wait no longer. As you return to your body, be prepared for it to rebel.”

" I'll should be able to control for hours yet. The craving for the drug comes with the dawn.”

“Zanos… “look” at our cave.”

The first pale predawn gray was filtering down into the cavern, where the fire had burned to glowing embers.

“How long have we-?” Zanos broke off in astonishment.

“Several hours,” she told him. “Time has no meaning outside the body. It always feels strange to return.

I will Read with you, help you to remain oriented. Perhaps you can keep from waking up-”

“But I am awake.”

“Your mind is awake. Your body sleeps. I wonder… Zanos, why don’t you try to start the healing fire in your body before you reenter it?”

She Read with him as he concentrated on his own body below them, envisioned the warmth, fever, heat-

Nothing happened.

“It doesn’t work,” he said. I can’t “feel”-imagining it isn’t enough. There is something physical, Astra.”

She Read him observe the growing light. “Stay with me-give me strength to resist the drug craving.”

“I will Read with you every moment,” she promised. “Now, imagine yourself lying just above your body, in the same position. Your body pulls you home… feel your breathing… your heartbeat-”

As Zanos sank back into his physical form, Astra Read the assault of the white lotus in his blood. A cold craving tugged at his mind, trying to force him to seek the substance to fill and warm that icy emptiness.

He denied it-but some part of him yearned for the easy pleasure the drug provided.

“Fight it, Zanos,” Astra pleaded. “Stay in the trance state, so you can Read me .

III can’t-”

His breathing quickened, as did his heartbeat-if he came out of trance, she would no longer be able to project to him.

“The fire!” she told him. “Start the healing fire now , Zanos-cleanse the drug away!”

He was suddenly blank to her Reading.

Of course! The moment he prepared to use Adept power, he became unReadable!

With a roar of anger, Zanos woke, clambering to his feet. “Vortius!” he cried, stumbling out of the cavern into the tunnels, pushing Astra’s body out of his way.

Astra had to let him go while she returned to her body. Because it had been moved, reorientation was difficult. The leaden weight of physical reality hung hard on her as she forced herself to her feet, ignoring bruises where one arm and leg had hit the rock surface.

“Zanos!” she called, letting her Reading range free.

He had gone down one passage in the dark, come to a turning, and was trying to decide which way to go. Groping with arms outstretched, he fell over a knee-high outcropping and sprawled full-length.

Enraged, Zanos bounded to his feet and turned, rumbling his way back to the light from the cavern. He ran to Astra, grasped her by the arms, and shook her. “You will show me the way out, woman!”

“No,” she managed. “No, Zanos! Control yourself!”

He let go the bruising grip on her left arm, lifting his right hand in a threat to backhand her. “Show me!” he growled.

Determined not to be his means of returning to enslavement, she replied, “You may hit me-you may kill me, Zanos, but I will not show you how to get back to Vortius.”

Something in her voice must have told him threats were useless. He let go of her right arm, too, and as she rubbed her tingling flesh he pleaded, “Astra- Read me. Feel what I need. If you love me, how can you do this to me?”

“How can you do this to yourself, Zanos? You have the means to escape that craving. Have you so soon forgotten what you decided during the night?”

“I can’t,” he said, sounding like a stubborn child.

“Of course you can,” she told him. “You have overcome greater pain in the arena. You are brave, Zanos-and you don’t have to suffer for long. Just until you set the healing fire burning through your blood.”

“But I… I-”

She had to Read what he could not bring himself to say: he did not want to give up the pleasure the white lotus provided, glowing relief from care, relaxation of responsibility. It was easy to Read why the drug was so addictive-it took away all concerns, giving the momentary illusion of perfect freedom.

“Zanos-what the white lotus is doing to you now -is that freedom?”

“… no.” But it was a reluctant admission.

“Then free yourself. Clea did it, without your powers to help her. Ignore your pain, Zanos-it’s less than you suffered from a broken arm. Lie down, and call up the healing fire to purge your blood-”

Her hypnotic tones lulled him, and like an automaton he knelt once more, lay down-and saw the sky above the cavern.

“No, Zanos!” Astra cried as once again he jumped to his feet, his blood yearning toward the source of fulfillment.

As she had feared, the climb was not difficult for a man in Zanos’ prime condition. She tried to follow, tearing her hands and bruising her knees and ankles on the rocks-but Zanos was tough and calloused, levering himself easily upward toward the light- toward the freedom which was slavery-toward Vortius!

Hopelessly, Astra clung to the rock face high above the campfire, out of breath, her limbs aching with the exertion. She could not concentrate in her despair, and so her Reading was wide open, Zanos’ growing hunger for the white lotus turning her insides into a sucking vacuum, screaming to be filled.