Jean Lorrah - Dragonlord of the Savage Empire

A soft weight dropped beside him on the bed, and Aradia's hand touched his forehead. "Lenardo! Lenardo, can you Read? Who's doing it this time?"

The tremor was already dying away as he tried to Read. He could. No vast range, but he could find the center of this slight quake and be thoroughly certain that no Adept was causing it.

"Just an aftershock," he said to reassure Aradia, opening his eyes to meet anxiety in hers.

She smiled in relief. "I can't Read well enough. I thought…" Her normal calm returned. "No, we have killed all of our enemies this time. You did it, Lenardo. You saved us..And we found all the bodies. No one escaped." "Galen?" "I'm sorry."

He sighed, too tired to feel genuine grief. His body felt like lead. Before he could allow himself to sleep again, he asked, "Julia? Torio?"

"They're both fine. They were of great help, though Torio was guarding you like some fierce animal when I finally reached you. He told me what you did." Her violet eyes glowed in triumph. "I was right, Lenardo. Now nothing can stop us."

He didn't have the strength to argue. It would have to wait until he was fully recovered. But he managed a sardonic smile. "It certainly stopped me."

She laughed. "You did what every new Adept does: expended far too much energy on a simple task. You'll learn. Sleep now." "If I'm needed-"

"You're not. It's all over. All the wounded are recovered or in healing sleep. The dead will wait for the funeral tomorrow. Now that I know you will recover, I can sleep as well."

"Recover? I wasn't hurt."

"You couldn't Read. Torio was terrified for you. I'll tell him that his fears were groundless. Stop fighting sleep, Lenardo. Your people are safe."

There was something else nagging at the back of his mind, but it would not come clear before he sank once more into unconsciousness.

The next time he woke, it was dawn, and Aradia lay beside him, her head on his chest, her pale hair shimmering in the morning light.

Aside from being ravenously hungry, Lenardo felt normal. He tried Reading, easily locating Julia asleep in her room, Torio in one nearby, Wulfston hi the suite on the other side of the courtyard, and Cook already preparing breakfast in the kitchen.

Outside, the forum was the same as on any morning, with a few people stirring, drawing water from the fountain. All the buildings, though, were as crowded as they bad been at the festival. His people would not go home until their familiar rituals had been completed.

Where Southgate had been, there was a huge crater. No need to barricade that entry point now. Repairs had already been effected at Eastgate, although surely after the abysmal failure of an alliance of four Adepts to take the city, there would be no further attacks.

I did it, he thought contentedly, and knew himself worthy to be Lord of the Land. Worthy in powers. Now I must be worthy in devotion. I will never desert my people again.

His powers. Would they be passed on to another generation? At last he Read Aradia. He had been wrong. She was not pregnant.

She woke and looked at him hi puzzlement. "What's wrong?"

"You are not carrying my child."

"No. You knew that.".

"I was so ready to run from you that I did not Read you thoroughly before I left, Aradia. It was unforgivable."

"You thought I lied to you?"

"No, I forgot how limited your Reading is and took your word. You could have been wrong, though you were not."

She sat up. "Lenardo, we must attend to our duties. Before we face the others, though, I must ask your forgiveness."

"And I yours," he replied.

She took his hand. "I want your child. I will risk my powers willingly. But I am glad I am not pregnant now." She squeezed his hand tightly. "Read the truth, please! I was glad I dared use my powers to the fullest in the battle just past and neither have them impaired by pregnancy nor fear that I might harm our child. You know that is true, Lenardo."

"Yes."

"But there is a more important reason to me. If I carried your child now, I would never know if it had been conceived in love or in deceit. It could have happened the day I tricked you, Lenardo. It may seem foolish to you, but I am very glad that I will never have to wonder if a child of ours was conceived against your will."

"Never fear," he said tenderly, drawing her into his arms and kissing her. Then he said, "We are still going to disagree, you know."

"I know," she replied, "but we'll do it openly. No more deceit. That goes for you, too, Lenardo."

"I deeply regret the one time I sought to deceive you."

"More than once. I was your liege lady, and you chose Julia as your heir without consulting me. My father would have considered that reason enough for anything I cared to do to you. My brother did not."

"Wulfston?"

"When I told him why you left-" she swallowed hard. "He is much like you, open and direct. He was horrified, not at my taking action but at my method. He is right, Lenardo: I should have told you plainly of my disapproval. From now on, I shall."

"I'm sorry, Aradia. I'm afraid I wasn't fully aware of what I had done. I intended only to make Julia my daughter. Whether she will be my heir-"

"Could have become a serious problem one day," said Aradia. "Fortunately, some good came out of this latest attack. We have acquired even more lands, and young as she is, Julia proved herself. So we shall set aside now the lands she will one day rule and thus avoid a potential rivalry between Julia and the child you and I will have." Lenardo groaned. "We sound like the family of the Aventine Emperor, intriguing about children not yet born.'' "No intrigue. No deception. But we must plan, Lenardo. We have a future to build. The law of nature is that those with power will rule, and so we must see that those with power have their own lands. Otherwise, they will challenge, and there will be more wars."

They raided the kitchen, to Cook's delight, and then got ready to face the world, dressing in gray funeral garments, for the preparations were already going on outside for the rite later in the day.

"As Lord of the Land, you must light the funeral pyre," said Aradia.

"Either I'll do it with a burning brand or I'll pretend and you light it, Aradia. I do not want to pass out at a public ceremony."

"You won't if you do it right. You're completely recovered now, Lenardo. Let's see what you can do. Lift something."

He was standing before the chest from which he had taken the clothes he wore. The wolf-stone still lay where he had left it when he fled with Julia.

Wulfston, he recalled, had been only three years old when he revealed his Adept powers by lifting the wolf-stone Nerius wore. Can I match the powers of a three-year-old?

As he tried to concentrate, he felt again the utter terror he had known when his Reading disappeared after he blew up the gate. It came back, he reminded himself, but he still fought down fear.

Aradia saw what he was trying to do. "You can move it," she told him. "Remember, work with nature."

Nature? Gravity held the pendant firmly to the top of the chest. The chain formed a kind of nest for the wolfs head, and so it did not even have a tendency to roll. It had, indeed, stayed right there through every vibration that had shaken the house in the past few days. Lenardo Read that the top of the chest had a faint slant toward the left front corner. He began to concentrate, stopped Reading, envisioned the stone tilting, rolling over the chain, sliding toward that left front corner. He put his hand there to catch it, although it had not yet moved.

Aradia stood beside him, saying nothing, but her presence was a palpable encouragement. The stone tilted, lurched over the chain, and then gathered momentum as it rolled to the edge and fell with a plop into Lenardo's hand.