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ghosts, Lenardo." "Then what is the point of living?" "Life! It is all we
have!" she said vehemently. "I shall live my life to the full, until it is
taken from me by force!" Remembering what Wulfston had said about Aradia's
mother, Lenardo tactfully shifted the subject. "We believe that the point of
life is to please the gods. However, that philosophy does not solve the
problem of good and evil, any more than yours does. Even today, it is possible
to get a debate going as to whether something is good because it is pleasing
to the gods, or pleasing to the gods because it is good."
"And what good does it do to please the gods?" asked Aradia.
Lenardo was stopped cold. In ten years of teaching, he had fielded every
possible question on the subject he had thought. But Aradia approached from a
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different direction, attacking the question instead of seeking an answer. He
thought about it for a moment. "Presumably it does the same good to please the
gods as it does your people to please you."
Aradia laughed, then said, "Here is the best place to stop. A bit further on
is the trail into the borderland, where you were attacked by the bandits. This
is the closest we can come to Drakonius' lands and remain within my borders."
A small spring flowed from a rock into a pool the size of a hand bath a
natural fountain. Grass and a few trees grew where they could reach the
moisture, forming a tiny park. Someone had placed small rocks to form a
fireplace, but Lenardo and Aradia had no need of a fire this warm spring day.
"Tell me how to search for Drakonius," said Lenardo. "He was not in Zendi
when I was there, but it is a place to start, as I can Read it easily. I once
lived there." "You have to have been there?" "No, but it is a great help in
Reading over long distances. An even greater aid is to have someone to contact
at the other end."
"Try your powers. Read to Zendi. See how far recovered you are."
It took a slight effort, but Lenardo knew the exact location of the city. In
a few moments, he was in the middle of the town, "looking" around at the
milling crowds, the beggars, the filth it was exactly as he remembered. He was
grateful he didn't have to smell it.
The sun darkened for a moment, and Lenardo "looked" up to see a cloud
passing, other clouds piling up in the west.
To Aradia, he said, "It's going to rain in Zendi by evening, and the clouds
will reach here by tomorrow."
"You're better than the watchers!" said Aradia. "They won't know until
tomorrow. Did you see anything interesting?"
"No nothing but the same overcrowded conditions I saw in person. How do I
find Drakonius from here?"
"He's got a string of fortresses in the Western Hills that he built as he
forced the walls of the empire back. If you can find him, try to Read how far
he has progressed in rebuilding his army. And whether he has other Adepts with
him."
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"You think he may be preparing to strike against you?" "I know it must come.
Had Drakonius won at Adigia, he would have been able to say to us, 'You see?
You'd better come in with me next time!' But as he lost, he will try to force
us to join him, to prove his strength. And if he finds out where you are, my
lands will be his first target."
So Lenardo Read back to Zendi, then allowed his perceptions to rise, heading
west, finding the hills with ease, although details were blurred. Following
the river southward, he began to feel stretched, tenuous, as if his connection
with his body might snap. It was pouring rain here, making visual Reading
difficult.
When the river took a turn directly west, increasing the distance he was
trying to Read even more rapidly, Lenardo almost gave up. He was beginning to
wonder if he would be able to Read anything smaller than a river or mountain
anyway when suddenly a cluster of human minds drew his attention.
There were twenty or more people, spread through a warren of caves hi the
cliffside. Below was a large stretch of beach, where an army might camp but
there was no army there now, although defenses had been built along the beach.
Aradia wanted to know how many Adepts were here; that would mean attempting
to Read everyone, to see how many could not be Read. It was getting harder and
harder to focus. How could he ?
Suddenly, a lighthouse in the fog, there was the touch of a compatible mind.
Galen!
//Yes? WHAT? Who's there?// //Galen are you well?//
//Lenardo!// All the joy of the boy's enthusiasm welcomed him. //Magister
Lenardo 1 You've come at last! How did you find me? Where are you?//
Something behind that final question, a certain tension of hidden motives,
made Lenardo recklessly drop contact with his body. He'd pay when he returned
with cramped muscles and pinched nerves, but now he could Read freely . . .
and Galen could not follow him back to Aradia, even if the boy could Read that
far.
//I'll come to you, Galen,// he temporized. //Are you well? You haven't been
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hurt?//
//Where are you?// again, with an edge of desperation.
Maybe the boy was hurt. He was certainly frightened.
//Ill find a way to get you out of there // Lenardo began.
//No!// A burst of panic, followed by enforced but tenuous control. //Why
should I leave? I'm never going back to an empire that locks Readers up in the
academies and out of the senate, an empire that's afraid of us. Come join me.
I'll prove I was right, Lenardo. I'll show you what our powers are for.// But
the boy did not believe his own words.
//Galen can't you see what they've done to you?
You've broke one of the commands they implanted you can easily cast out these
thoughts. They're not your own.//
//They said you were exiled! I've been Reading all over the land for you.
They told me you had come to see things our way, that you were in Zendi, and
then you disappeared. Where are you?//
Lenardo tried another approach. //Galen, you were right; it is possible to
make peace with the savages. Everyone will know you destroyed Drakonius'
army //
//You destroyed them!// Galen raged suddenly. //I felt you touch my mind,
distracting me! Now they don't trust me, because of you! I should have killed
you when I had the chance!//
Beneath the boy's ramblings, Lenardo caught thoughts, suspicions: the Code a
hypocrisy . . . Lenardo trying to keep Galen from achieving rank as a Readfcr
... betraying him in his testimony at the trial . . . jealous of Galen,
refusing to admit he was becoming the better Reader . . .
It was all nonsense but how had Drakonius found these strange thoughts, to
knit of them a snare for Galen's mind? Or was it possible they were not of
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Drakonius' invention, but rather the result of Galen's exposure for two years
to the Adept's manipulations, transferred to his own disappointments?
At that moment, Lenardo could have wished for an Adept's skill to force Galen
to calm down. The boy seemed not to have grown up at all if anything, his
adolescent mood swings had gotten worse. //Galen, I want to help you //
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