Sorcerers of the Frozen Isles

Chapter Eight

Time was suspended as Torio held Melissa’s body, shivering with cold and shock. Then slowly, instinctively, he Read around them.

Maldek was alive… barely. Not only was he unconscious, but he did not Read like a Reader- there was no trace of his special powers.

Zanos and Astra lived, as did Cassandra. Gray struggled to crawl toward Torio, whining.

Dirdra and Kwinn lay dead in one another’s arms, Bryen fallen over them.

And Torio held Melissa’s lifeless body, too deep into shock for tears.

He could not have said how long he sat on the cold stone steps to the burned-out throne, frost settling onto his hair, onto Melissa… but finally Gray nudged him, transmitting urgency as he butted Torio with his great head, over and over.

Torio looked up-and realized that although the draining force was gone, the castle was colder than any winter he had ever known. If something was not done soon, those who now only slept would slip across into death.

More deaths to my account, he thought. There had to be something he could do.

Even if he had had Adept powers, he could not have started a fire-there was nothing left to burn!

Except-

Their clothing had escaped. In fighting the fire off their bodies, they had protected that as well.

Laying Melissa down tenderly, Torio took Gray over to Zanos and Astra, making the dog lie down against them. Then he moved Cassandra next to her daughter, and finally dragged Maldek down off the steps-only because any body warmth he might have left could serve to keep Torio’s friends alive.

Feeling like a grave robber, he forced himself to strip the outer garments off Dirdra and Bryen and placed them in the grate in the fireplace-but there was nothing with which to strike a light.

Fires here were started by people with Adept powers, of which Torio had none.

The numbing cold was making it difficult to think. They had not brought a tinderbox on their journey, for Zanos, Astra, and Melissa could all start fires. But he could Read no lighted torch, no glowing coal in the castle. All had been victim to the energy-draining power Maldek had loosed upon I his land. Torio realized he was going to die. Then he would be with Melissa. Gray let out a mournful howl-right into Zanos’ ear.

The gladiator came to sluggish wakefulness, looking around-but it was pitch-black in the windowless throne room. It took him long moments to begin to Read-and then he was as awake as possible in the unremitting cold. “Torio-what?”

“Can you… light the fire?” Torio forced out.

Zanos struggled to sit up, could not stand. Torio could feel his deep longing to sink back to sleep, but Zanos had the concentration of an athlete. He forced himself to focus. Finally a small flame flickered in the bunched-up cloth.

Zanos crawled to the fire and tried to warm his hands. “We’ll need more than this,” he said. “I’ve never been so cold in my life!”

“I don’t know if there’s anything left,” Torio said dully.

“You’re a better Reader than I am,” said Zanos. “You tell me where to find fuel, and I’ll get it.”

There were some charred remains of the doors to the throne room. A wooden chest in the hallway had been scorched but not consumed, and the two men dragged that in and broke it up.

Soon they had a small semicircle of warmth right around the fire-but ever at their backs hovered the implacable cold.

“We’d better wake everyone,” said Zanos. “They could die in their sleep before it’s warm enough in here to protect them.”

When her husband touched her on the forehead, Astra’s eyes fluttered open. She smiled weakly at him, then sat up and began to examine her mother. “Torio-”

“I Read it,” he replied. “Her hands and feet are frozen. She cannot recover without healing.”

“I’ll try,” said Astra-but her own powers were so drained that she could not produce the healing fire to restore Cassandra. “We need Melissa,” she whispered. But then she looked toward Maldek. “He has the power-”

“Had,” said Torio. “Read him, Astra. He is more in need of healing than your mother-his whole body has been burned, inside and out. He simply refuses to die.”

“Zanos,” Astra appealed. “Please help me!”

Cassandra’s heart rate slowed drastically. “No!” exclaimed Astra. “Mother, I’ve just found you. We’ve lost Zanos’ brother. Don’t you leave us, too!”

But Cassandra’s life was fading.

Torio was used to Adepts handling such situations-but he had had emergency training in his last years at Adigia, before there were Adepts to help with healing. Any boy old enough to participate in battle was taught life-saving techniques, including how to start a heart that had stopped with shock.

So as Cassandra’s heart stuttered to a halt, he knelt over her and began to press sharply on her breastbone.

“No,” said Zanos. “I have enough strength for that.” And as Torio sat back, he started Cassandra’s heart beating again at a steady rate. Soon it continued on its own. “Other healers must have survived,” Zanos said. “Astra, if we can keep her alive, as cold as it is her flesh will not turn putrid before someone can heal her. You will-”

“Zanos, I’m not half the healer Melissa is-was. Nor were the healers we met in the City infirmary. Oh, blessed gods, I know enough of healing to know that her blood will clot where her flesh is frozen-and eventually a clot will hit her heart or her brain-”

“Hush,” said Zanos, taking his trembling wife into his arms. “Astra-we’ve come this far together. We’ll heal Cassandra, or find someone who can.”

It wouldn’t be Maldek, Torio knew. The Master Sorcerer still showed no signs of consciousness- and he had not done what any wounded Adept did automatically: he had not gone into healing sleep.

Probably he would die.

Good riddance, Torio thought, stroking Gray and trying not to think of Melissa as Zanos and Astra comforted one another. Astra was murmuring words of sympathy to her husband now about his brother, as both wept shamelessly.

Not to intrude on their privacy, Torio Read elsewhere-and could not escape the fact that Melissa’s body lay at the foot of the steps, ice starting to creep-

It was not yet frozen inside! As he Read it, he remembered that moment when she had grasped Maldek’s hand, become a conduit herself for the terrible force-and her shock, surprise, fear-!

Blessed gods! Melissa never feared death. She had cried out to him-to say goodbye? To call him into death with her?

No-Melissa was a giver of life, not a taker.

But her cry had been an appeal, not a leave-taking. She had called on him for help-and he had let her die! Just as he had let Detrus die-!

It was not Melissa’s time to die. He suddenly knew that as positively as he knew any of his other prophecies. And if it was not yet her time-

What if she is lost among the planes of existence?

“Zanos! Astra!” Torio exclaimed. “We must have a healer-and Melissa needs my help!”

“What?” Zanos asked in confusion.

“Make Melissa’s body live!” he said. “You can do it-make her heart beat. Make her breathe!”

“Torio!” exclaimed Astra. “Have you gone mad? That is what Maldek did to create orbu. You do not want Melissa condemned to that!”

“I’ll bring her back!” he said. “She died Maldek’s death, not her own! That’s what the prophecy meant, I’m certain of it. It is not Melissa’s time to die. I’ll go among the planes of existence and find her-unite her spirit with her body.”

“Torio,” said Astra, “no one has ever done that.”

“Yes they have!” he insisted. “/ did it-along with other Readers and Adepts. We brought Master Clement back when he was lost on the planes of existence. Zanos, Astra-Melissa may be lost the same way. Please-bring her body back for me!”

Zanos and Astra stared at one another. “I don’t think we have the power-” Zanos began.

“All you have to do is start her heart, keep her breathing. Please!”

“Torio,” said Astra, “what if you are wrong? No one has ever found the plane of the dead… and returned.”

“Astra, I have to try. You’d do it for Zanos, wouldn’t you?”

She looked at her husband, and Torio Read the agreement pass between them.

Carefully, they brought Melissa’s body over to the fire. In the freezing temperatures, it had not begun to decompose. Her extremities were frozen- but if Torio was right Melissa would be able to heal herself, and then Cassandra, of any damage.

Together, Zanos and Astra had the strength to start Melissa’s heart, to make her lungs expand and contract-but unlike Cassandra’s, Melissa’s body did not take up the established rhythms on its own.

They did not know Maldek’s secret for making orbu do so.

At least, if Torio failed, Melissa’s body would not be condemned to that half-life.

He lay down carefully before the fire, Gray curling up protectively against him as if the dog somehow understood that his master’s body required protection.

Then Torio was out of his body, light and free as always-free of the painful, penetrating cold.

For a moment he looked down at himself, then at Melissa. She appeared to be asleep; only a Reader could tell that she was dead.

But now… how was he to find her spirit?

There were many planes of existence. What Readers called the “plane of privacy” was undoubtedly a different place every time one went there-or perhaps a different place for each person, since one had to lead the other when two Readers sought a private conversation, and no other Reader could follow at a later time.

The plane of privacy was empty. Readers were warned not to come here alone, for the emptiness could drag at one’s being just as the cold fire had sucked up energy-

At the thought, Torio was suddenly aware of-

It was a trace of that cold fire! Dead now, cut off from its source, it had nonetheless left its impression.

Torio followed it, and dared at its core to tilt into another plane-where again he found that slight trace of the dissipated power.

Never had Torio been more than two planes of existence from his physical self. It was possible to be lost even on the plane of privacy-but he could not stop now!

Again he followed the trace of dead energy, and found himself under a night sky filled with stars.

No-not under-in the middle of. He was out in the midst of space, stars off in every direction to the very edges of the universe.

How marvelous to remain suspended here forever, reveling in such beauty-

But Melissa was not here. He must go on. Again he Read outward, seeking that trace of cold fire, harder to find here amid the hot fire of stars, the cold ice of comets.

Just as he feared the trail was lost, he found it again, ashes of exhausted power. Again he put his “self in its center, and shifted to another plane.

Winds howled and groaned. Astral forces ripped Torio from the “place” where he had entered, whipping his presence about helplessly, disorienting him.

In the moaning, weaving wind, though, he sensed again the expended power-somehow found the current that would take him to where it alone hung suspended in the center of the storm-and there he shifted planes again, into more wailing-

But these were people wailing! Spirits lost on the planes of existence-helpless, hopeless, gone mad with their inability to find their way either back to their bodies or onward to the plane of the dead!

“Melissa!” Torio projected, both hoping and fearing to find her here. “Melissa-come back with me!

We need you, Melissa-/ need you!”

He was answered by mocking howls. “Mellllisss-ssaaaa! Melllisssaaa! Mellissaa!”

Incoherent beings surged around him, challenging his presence.

Minds grasped at his-twisted minds that echoed Maldek’s power-madness. Minds that rejected death.

And out of the chaos one mind he knew-

Not Melissa!

Another mind, recognizing him, bent on destroying him as he had destroyed her-!

“Portia!” he identified. The corrupt Master of Masters who had died in the earthquake at Tiberium!

“Torio!” she challenged. “Lenardo’s minion! You tried to kill me-but you killed only my body. I’ve been waiting for you-all of you, Lenardo, Aradia, Melissa-”

“Melissa? Is she here?” Torio interrupted, terrified that the evil woman had Melissa trapped in this place of madness.

“Yes!” she told him. “Melissa is mine, now. Come, Torio-enter our company if you wish to find her!”

But Portia no longer had the control of a Master Reader. Torio Read clearly her surprise at his question, and her spontaneous, opportunistic lie. In truth, she had not seen Melissa.

“You are lying,” he told her flatly-but he was unable to conceal his disappointment.

Portia answered him with angry laughter. “You’ve lost her, have you? Well, you’ve gained me, blind Torio! Still alive, aren’t you? Stay here with me awhile-and then when I have properly trained you, I will send you back to do my work. I left far too much undone, thanks to you!”

As Torio remained conversing with Portia, the chaotic mass of garbled minds drifted out to surround him-would trap him here if he did not escape.

As they could not escape-

He dared not go in such a way as to show them how, to spread their madness throughout the planes of existence!

He was trapped here, as effectively as Portia!

But he had learned something about manipulating those who could Read thoughts-from Maldek, of all people.

“Yes, Portia,” he told her, “you did leave too much undone. Teach me how to wield power. I am searching for Melissa to learn both Reading and Adept powers. But you can teach me to rule better than she can. Show me, Portia-show me how you, a Reader confined to the Academy, gained power within the Aventine Empire next only to the Emperor’s own!”

Her mental laughter was sarcastic this time. “He only thought my power was second to his,” she replied. “A few more years, and I would have ruled the empire, the Emperor merely my puppet. You wish to learn this, Torio? Yes, I knew you sought power when you fled the Academy. You will work well for me. Let me show you how I rose to power, that you may do the same.”

And her mind began to conjure up images of the past, of a royal child identified as a Reader, condemned-as she perceived it-to the poverty and powerlessness of the Academy, where she grew into the most powerful Reader within memory.

Not only Torio watched and listened; so did the others on this plane, drawn to the tale of manipulation and extortion, gathering mentally about the storyteller as Torio carefully edged his presence away from Portia’s self-absorption.

As he reached the edge of the circle of yearning minds, though, Portia noticed that her audience had shrunk by one.

“Torio-come back!” she projected-but she was too late. Other minds shielded him from Portia. His diversion had worked as effectively as Maldek’s.

He shifted planes, and quickly shifted again, the technique to guarantee privacy-or escape-even if someone succeeded in pursuing him through the first shift.

But he had lost all trace of the cold fire.

“Melissa!” he projected hopelessly. Her name echoed back to him-he was on a finite plane, it seemed.

Yes, he could Read its dimensions as he could not the others’. And, as with so many of the planes of existence, his was the only presence here.

Wherever “here” was.

He could go on shifting planes endlessly-but what good would that do? The chances of finding the plane Melissa was on were too small to calculate.

He was lost.

Still… he could not give up.

He shifted planes, and found a world where he was bombarded by tastes and smells instead of sights and sounds.

Another shift, and music such as he had never heard in the world he came from rang out in absolute purity. He was held, spellbound. There were no instruments or voices. It was pure music itself-perhaps the plane from which musicians like Zanos and Astra drew their inspiration? Or to which they contributed the pure forms of their compositions?

If so, then… artists also reached out to the planes of existence while in their bodies!

And most were not even Readers.

If an artist could tap this plane the way Maldek tapped the planes of power, then surely Torio could reach out to the plane on which Melissa was…?

He envisioned her, then let her mental image rise in his mind, her sweet thoughts, her gentle caring, her strong will when she knew she was right-Without knowing how, Torio suddenly discovered his

“direction,” shifted planes, and found Melissa.

She was with Dirdra, Kwinn, and Bryen.

They were visual-he could actually see Melissa’s heart-shaped face and curling hair, Dirdra and Bryen’s red locks-but both Bryen’s hands were there and whole.

As for Kwinn-

He was a man, close to Dirdra’s age, tall and strong and whole. The light of intelligence shone in the green eyes identical to his sister’s.

Torio understood that the nonReaders could not comprehend their nonphysical selves except in the form they were accustomed to-but perfected.

And this plane was also a plain-land below, sky above, lighted even though no sun was visible. It took the form expected by those who traveled it.

Ahead on the plain was a huge stone archway, other travelers walking toward it from many directions.

They might have burned or frozen to death in Madura’s conflict, but here they were whole and healthy, hurrying eagerly toward that entryway into light.

That archway-or was it a tunnel? — was the source of the light illuminating this world.

Realizing that they perceived his usual appearance, Torio stood before his four friends, blocking their way.

“Torio,” said Kwinn. “I know you-you are Dirdra’s friend, and therefore mine.”

“I am glad to meet you at last, Kwinn,” Torio replied, “but I have come for Melissa.”

“Torio,” she replied mildly, “you do not belong here. It is not yet your time.”

“Nor yours,” he reminded her. “Come back with me, Melissa.”

“I cannot,” she told him. “I died. I belong on the plane of the dead.”

“Maldek didn’t die-but he will not recover without a healer. If there is no one with the power to restore his lands, your death is meaningless. Everyone in Madura will die, and the land will remain a frozen waste.”

It was the right appeal, catalyzing Melissa’s need to care for others. “But I must guide-” she began.

“We are here now,” said Dirdra.

“We know the way,” added Kwinn, taking his sister’s hand.

“Tell Zanos,” added Bryen, “that I am happy we found one another again.”

Torio was rather surprised that the three showed no interest in returning to the world from which they had been so abruptly torn, but Melissa smiled at them. “We will remember you,” she said, not offering to touch them-nor did Torio. He and

Melissa did not belong here… yet. Apparently Dirdra and Kwinn and Bryen understood that they did.

They Read when their appearance vanished to the three nonReaders, although to one another Torio and Melissa were as much “there” as ever.

But in a moment Melissa confessed, “Torio-I do not know the way back.”

Ill think I do,” he replied. “Not the way I came- Portia will be lying in wait along that path.”

“Portia!”

“She is with those who refuse to accept death. I made certain she could not follow me.”

Ill hope so!” Melissa agreed. “How do we get home?”

“Zanos and Astra are waiting, keeping your body alive,” Torio told her. Ill think I know of a plane from which we can reach them. Come-”

Together, they moved from where they were, to-

Cold white fire!

“No!” Melissa screamed mentally as it tried to suck her back into its grasp.

In its own sphere, the white fire had utter purity, not evil here, where it belonged-merely existence.

“Melissa-stop fighting it!” Torio urged-for he recognized that just as Dirdra, Kwinn, and Bryen had made images of themselves for coping with a new plane of existence, Melissa had an image of that power sucking energy from her, trying to pull her in as it had done when it entered their world.

But here, it remained in balance so long as there was no entry for it into another plane.

Melissa struggled, her own expectations causing the power to attack her.

“Melissa-observe!” Torio commanded-like a Master Reader instructing a pupil.

Melissa’s Academy instinct took over. Her struggle subsided… and Torio showed her that out of body they could not feel cold-they had no physical energy for it to drain from them. Then he imagined the cold white fire drawing back from her, leaving her untouched, untainted.

“How-how did you do that?” she asked in awe.

“Read the power,” he replied. “It is in equilibrium here-it takes only a thought to manipulate it. Go ahead-you can do it as well as 1.

And Melissa discovered that she could.

Her relief, however, did not last long. “We are still lost,” she observed. “This is not where you meant to come, is it?”

“No, I meant to find the plane of music-but Melissa, there is also a direct path from this plane to our world. Through Maldek.”

“Through-?”

“How often did he tap this power? If we seek him from here-”

“What if we unleash this power into Madura again?”

“We won’t. We know how to control it now.”

“We do?” she asked skeptically. “What happens once we return? You know how different things seem out of body.”

Ill know,” he replied. “But Maldek controlled this power while in his own body-so can you. You will need it, Melissa. Your body died. Zanos and Astra are forcing your heart to beat, your lungs to breathe-but there is great damage from the cold. Probably to my body too, by now. You will have much healing to do. Only by using this power as Maldek did will you have the strength.”

She remained silent for some time, studying the cold white fire surrounding them, so quiet and harmless now. But open that circuit-

“Melissa,” Torio suddenly realized, “the secret is never to allow the power to reach beyond your own touch. Remember? Maldek sent it out to attack Rokannia and the other sorcerers-that’s when he lost control.”

“But it is an evil power,” she insisted. “Why did Madura turn so cold, long before we arrived? It had to be this power Maldek was using-”

“Or simply his neglect of the climate,” Torio speculated. “I’ve come to understand that power isn’t evil.

Only what we do with it is good or evil. You are good, Melissa. You will use this power to heal-we’ve seen it used for that.”

He got the impression of a nod from her. “You are right. So… let us try to go back before Zanos and Astra become too tired to keep my body alive any longer.”

Torio let the Master Sorcerer’s image enter his mind, Maldek’s body lying as he had left him with Cassandra, before the fire. Around him he envisioned the ruined throne room, and his own body and Melissa’s side by side, Gray curled up against his, Zanos and Astra sitting cross-legged, concentrating on keeping Melissa alive-

He was cold!

Cold and weak as he had never been in his life!

In shock, Torio let his “self drift upward again, and found that he had been drawn to Maldek’s body, not his own, as he had been visualizing the throne room from that perspective.

All he had felt was the physical discomfort- Maldek was still unconscious, in body but without thought.

His own body drew Torio home; he settled in to the unwelcome weight and clumsiness that he always felt upon returning, this time accompanied by cold and numbness. Before he dared move, he Read his body’s condition.

His fingers and toes were frozen, as were his ears and the tip of his nose. They would have to be warmed carefully, blood pumped through, healing fire sent-

Even as he thought it, not the heat of healing he had experienced so often, but the white fire of the plane of power tingled throughout his body, sliding into every cell, every nerve, restoring, then… warming? He didn’t understand how cold could warm, but it happened even as he Read.

In moments, all was well-he was even comfortably warm, although the room was still unbearably cold.

He sat up, opened his eyes-

And saw blurred light and hazy figures.

Torio blinked. When his eyes were closed, he Read the room perfectly, but when he opened them-

He was seeing!

Gray nudged him, and he absently patted the fuzzy gray blur.

“Torio-are you all right?” asked Zanos.

“Yes,” he replied, closing his eyes to blank out the disturbing vision-he would worry about that later. At the moment-“Melissa?”

He Read her, back in her body but, like Maldek, unconscious.

“She’ll be all right,” said Astra. “She started breathing on her own a few moments ago, and her heart’s beating. Read her, Torio-you succeeded. Melissa’s there.”

“Why didn’t she heal her own body first?” he asked.

“What do you mean?” asked Zanos, and then Read Torio in his clumsy fashion. “I see-you’ve been healed already.”

Torio was still Reading Melissa. “Why isn’t she healing herself? I don’t understand!”

“Torio, she’s unconscious,” said Astra. “There’s other damage to her body besides freezing. Maldek hasn’t gone naturally into healing sleep, either- they’re too badly injured to do so without the aid of another healer.”

“Then… who healed me?” he asked-opening his eyes when he turned to Astra, a polite gesture of ingrained habit, to appear to be seeing the person he spoke to.

But he did see Astra, blurrily in the flickering firelight. He frowned, and her image came clear. Then he understood: he had to learn to focus his eyes.

“It wasn’t me,” Astra answered his question. “It’s been all Zanos and I could do to keep ourselves from freezing while we maintained Melissa’s body.”

“But…”

A frightening suspicion formed in Torio’s mind.

He squatted down beside her and tentatively reached out to touch Melissa’s forehead, envisioning her warm, her ravaged nerves soothed and healed, her cells restored-

The cold fire tingled through his Fingertips and spread through Melissa’s body, performing its work as speedily as before. Melissa opened her eyes, looked into his, and smiled.

Torio was so astonished that he rocked back on his heels and sat down on the cold stone floor, hard.

Zanos and Astra were staring at him in amazement. “You’ve Finally learned-?” Zanos began.

“He’s learned Maldek’s technique!” said Astra. “Torio-”

“Yes-I know how dangerous it is,” he replied. “Melissa-can you do it now?”

“Melissa’s just been healed,” said Zanos. “You can’t expect her to have any strength until she’s had a meal and a good long sleep.”

“But I’m neither tired nor hungry,” said Melissa, sitting up. “I’m just frightened of that power.”

“You think I’m not?” asked Torio. “But if it means I can heal-”

“Yes,” she said, and got gracefully to her feet. “I really do feel perfectly well,” she reassured Zanos and Astra. “Torio-show me how to do that.” And she knelt beside Cassandra.

“All I did was to envision you well,” he replied.

But when Melissa tried it, she produced the usual heat of Adept healing, drawing on the energy of her own body as she had always done.

“You’re still afraid of that power,” said Torio. “It’s only dangerous when misused. Think of the plane of power.”

Tentatively, Melissa reached out-but could not tap the power. Yet she needed it-she was a healer who would do only good with it. Torio put his hands over hers, as Maldek had done before-and the cold white fire spread outward through their patient. In moments, Cassandra was sitting up, warm and healthy.

“Now,” said Zanos, “what are you going to do about Maldek?”

Melissa stared at him. “You’re not suggesting that we let him die, are you?”

“He ‘ tetyou die,” the gladiator countered. “Surely Torio wouldn’t think of-”

“Zanos,” Torio said quietly, “would you have us do nothing?”

” Yes! He was supposed to die, wasn’t he? You’re the one who said it-”

“Unless someone died his death. Which Melissa did. Now… it is Melissa’s decision,” Torio stated.

“Maldek owes her his life. She has the right to give it back to him or not-and also the power.”

“You say power is good or evil according to what we do with it,” Melissa reminded Torio. “It is also according to what we don’t do with it. Maldek did evil when he refused to use his powers for healing. I will not make his mistake. Help me, Torio.” And she knelt beside the Master Sorcerer.

When Maldek’s eyes blinked open a few minutes later, he stared at Melissa in disbelief. “You? Am I dead, too?” He sat up and looked around.

“No, you’re not dead yet,” said Zanos. “You just ought to be.”

Maldek frowned and climbed to his feet. “It’s cold in here.”

“It is cold everywhere in Madura,” Cassandra told him. “Read what you have done to your land, Maldek.”

“I will restore it,” he said, looking from one to another of the survivors. “Why did you revive me?” he asked suspiciously.

“Only because not to heal you would have been to let you die,” replied Melissa.

“Fools!” he sneered. “Now I suppose you expect gratitude?”

“No,” said Torio, “just a sign that you have learned something.”

“That I must restore my land and heal my people? I agree. It was foolish to neglect my property. Now, though-what shall I do with you?” He glanced toward the corpses of Dirdra, Kwinn, and Bryen. “I see you allowed Dirdra to die. That is a waste-she amused me. But then you also amuse me, Melissa. You will take her place.”

He held out his hand toward her, and became blank to Reading-but the power that he commanded merely tugged gently at Melissa. She resisted easily.

Maldek stared. “What have you done to me?” he demanded, bracing to use more force. Again it was not enough to make Melissa take a step in his direction.

“Answer me, woman!” he roared, lifting a huge hand as if to strike her. “How have you destroyed my powers?”

Torio stepped in front of Melissa. “You destroyed them yourself, Maldek,” he replied, Reading deep into the core of the man’s mind and body, discovering in his mental presence strange scarlike effects such as he had never Read before. “When you loosed that force through yourself,” he interpreted, “you overloaded your abilities. Whether time will heal you, I cannot tell-only that because you refused to yield your life, the power burned in you much longer than it did in Melissa, and consequently did far more damage.”

“This is nonsense!” said Maldek. ” Any damage can be healed. You think to cripple me, but I can use ordinary healing on myself-it will simply take longer, and then I will have my revenge,” he said, looking past Torio to Melissa.

It was obvious he was not Reading perfectly, either. “I am stronger than you, Melissa,” he warned.

“When I am well, you will be as helpless before me as Rokannia was-and you, too, will beg for my favors!”

“Rokannia defied you,” Melissa replied. “So will everyone you cannot cow into submission. Maldek-

why can’t you learn from your experience?”

“I don’t take lessons from people less powerful than I am!” he replied, and, shoving Torio aside, he stalked out of the throne room.

Melissa went to Torio. “Why did you let him do that?” she asked.

“I’m not used to thinking like an Adept,” he told her. “Besides-what good would it do Maldek to know that I now have more power than he has? He’ll find out soon enough.”

Indeed, Maldek discovered it the next day, when he came out of healing sleep and found his guests hard at work in the City, restoring his people.

The sun was shining, and a warm breeze had begun to melt the ice left from the freezing night. Torio and Melissa had spent part of the night shifting the prevailing winds into a pattern that would bring them over warm ocean currents before they crossed the island. They would not keep to that pattern without constant vigilance, but there were surely Adepts with the power to control the weather in Maldek’s land.

Torio was astonished at the uses of his new powers. He was not accustomed to being exhausted, like an Adept-but even Readers became tired after the loss of a night’s sleep. Now Torio found that he could call upon that source of power to refresh his own body, and go on working.

Torio, Melissa, Zanos, Astra, and Cassandra were all at the City infirmary when Maldek made his appearance-but by that time Zanos and Astra had exhausted themselves, and were sound asleep on a pallet in one of the wards. Cassandra and Melissa set people who were already well to gathering food for those recovering.

Maldek strode in to the usual starts of fear from his people-but today they were followed by resentment he could not miss. Everyone had lost friends and family, and they knew that out in the countryside others were dying simply because the healers could not spread themselves far enough.

More people came to the infirmary every hour. Here, away from the center of the attack, some without powers had survived-but they were both burned and frozen, and the healers wore themselves out healing them. All those who worked regularly in the infirmary were by now in recovery sleep, and Torio worked alone. Even with the speed of healing via the cold fire, he fell farther and farther behind as wagonloads of injured were brought in.

Concentrating on a patient, Torio was only vaguely aware of Maldek entering the room where he was working. But when the sorcerer began to Read what he was doing, it was with such lack of finesse that he was forced into recognizing Maldek- who registered both shock and fury.

“You’ve stolen my powers!” the Master Sorcerer accused.

Too busy to put up with trivia, Torio snapped, “If you’re awake and better, Maldek, use what powers you have to heal some of these people, or get out of here!”

But Maldek strode across the room to where Torio was turning from one bed to the next and grasped the Reader by the arm. “I am rested and healed so far as I can manage alone. But you have cut off the power-redirected it to yourself! Give it back to me!”

“So you can loose it again, to do even more damage?” Torio demanded. “If I could keep it from you, I would-but I suppose you’ll get it back eventually” he added, Reading that some of that peculiar

“scarring” he had noticed before had disappeared from Maldek’s presence.

The Master Sorcerer dropped Torio’s arm and cocked his head to one side, his cold blue eyes staring into the Reader’s. “You,” he stated flatly, “can see me.”

“Yes,” Torio told him. “As you said, it is convenient. But you are not. If you’re not going to be useful, at least don’t prevent me from healing your people.” And he turned to the next patient.

Maldek Read the woman’s wounds, then the line of patients outside-and more wagons approaching.

“My people,” Maldek murmured. Then, “Torio- there are no healers working but you.”

“The others worked all night-every one of them is exhausted.”

“So are you,” said the sorcerer, “but you don’t know it. One of the effects of drawing power from outside your own body is that you don’t realize how tired your mind is becoming. Beware the temptation not to sleep at all.”

“Thank you for the advice,” Torio replied acidly, “but I have Read more than thirty people die while waiting to be healed, simply because I could not work fast enough. You are disturbing my concentration, Maldek.”

“I will help you,” the Master Sorcerer replied, and turned to the patient who had just been brought in.

Using ordinary healing fire, Maldek cleansed the man’s burns of infection and started them to healing; the patient was carried out in deep restorative sleep. The sorcerer rapidly took care of three more, but then-

“Torio-you have healed fifteen people while I have healed four, and your patients are able to get up and help others, while mine must sleep for hours or days, and then rebuild their strength before they will be good for anything.”

The Reader stretched his muscles, relieving the tension of concentration. “That’s still four people who won’t die waiting for me,” he replied. “I’m grateful for your help.”

“You’re-?” Maldek laughed sardonically. “Why are you giving me your help, you fool? You and your friends could have walked out last night, sailed away from Madura, and left me to my problems. You know the condition I’m in. What’s left of my population would rise against me, exhaust my powers, and kill me-and then you could come back and claim this land as your own.”

“Is that what you would have done?” Torio asked.

“Yes,” the sorcerer replied, “that’s what I would have done… before.” Torio Read confusion in Maldek’s mind. “Now-I don’t know,” he confessed. “Perhaps your ways are better. They were my father’s ways, and Borru’s. When I followed them for a few days, I found it pleasant to be greeted with hope instead of fear. Even now, it is welcome to Read the gratitude of those for whom I can do so little.”

“Then you will regain your powers,” said Torio.

“… what?”

“It is what I was taught-and what the Adepts were taught in the savage lands. Abuse your powers, and you will lose them. Use them for good, and they will grow. Even though it sometimes seems to be untrue for a time, inevitably the debt must be paid.”

“Then give me back my powers,” said Maldek, “that I may do good.”

“Maldek, I haven’t stolen them,” said Torio. “I can’t just return them, like giving back a borrowed cloak!”

“No, for you will not lose what you have gained. But Read that line of injured people outside. Even the two of us. can’t heal them all before some die-but we can save more.”

Even as Maldek spoke, Torio Read a young man far back in the line give up his weak grasp on life.

Others hung on tenuously, infection eating at their wounds. Many were tossing in fever, some in convulsions.

“How do you think I can give you back your powers?” he asked.

“Direct the power through me, as I did with

Melissa. Put me in touch with it, and I will quickly have my strength back.”

Torio stared. If it worked, would Maldek use his powers for good? Or was this a trick? The Master Sorcerer did want to heal-and if his motives were not purely selfless, how many people’s motives were?

Besides-his own powers were now equal to those Maldek had had. The man had to know that Torio could counter any sinister move.

The death in convulsions of a child out in the hallway tipped the scales.

“Very well,” said Torio. “I will try.”

Together they bent over the next patient. Maldek placed a hand on the forehead of a boy with a skull fracture from being hit by one of the giant hailstones. It had taken hours for what was left of his family to dig him out of the rubble of their home, and bring him here.

There was a huge blood clot in the boy’s brain-it would be at least an hour’s exhausting work for an Adept healer to dissolve the clot, move the bone back into place, and restore the damaged brain tissue.

If it could be restored at all.

But with the cold fire, all was done in moments. Torio let it flow through his hand to Maldek’s- and when he broke the contact, the flow continued. The Master Sorcerer had been right: once he was put back in touch with that source of power, he knew how to retain contact with it.

While the attendants removed the patient and brought in another, Maldek let the power flow through his own body, soothing the last of the “scarring” away.

By that time Torio was healing the other patient in the room-and the two men worked rapidly on, one burned and battered body after another, pausing only when the attendants brought them food and drink.

It seemed as if it would never end.

Zanos and Astra resumed work in another treatment room. In a third, the Maduran healers did so as well.

Cassandra administered medicines to the few patients whose injuries were so slight that herbs and simples were all they needed.

Melissa used Adept power to heal a number of people, and had to go sleep it off.

Torio was peripherally aware of all those events, but his main concentration remained on his patients.

Until at last the attendants took away the man he had just healed-and did not bring in anyone else.

It was a new morning; he had worked through a second straight night.

Pressing his hands to the small of his back, he stretched-and let the healing power ease his tension as he yawned.

Maldek turned from his last patient, and grinned. “No one can say the Lord of the Land didn’t do his part this time!”

Torio restrained himself from reminding Maldek that it was his fault so many had died or been injured.

The healers and their assistants could take over the patients still in healing sleep. Everyone else had gone home, or to the shelters set up for those whose homes had been destroyed.

Torio and Maldek gathered Melissa, Zanos, Astra, and Cassandra, and returned to the castle. There the Master Sorcerer’s surviving servants had been at work. Most of the debris of the battle had been cleared away, and a new kitchen set up. A meal was waiting for them in the dining hall.

There was not much conversation, for even those who had had some sleep were tired. Torio felt peculiar-not sleepy, yet not quite himself. A few hours of sleep would do him good.

But as they rose to go to their rooms, Maldek said, “Melissa, you come with me.” And all could Read his intentions.

Melissa stared at him in disbelief. “Even if you loved me, which you don’t,” she said, “how could you be interested in making love after what we have just been through?”

“After a man has done something to be proud of? That is the very best time. Can you think Torio loves you, Melissa, when he does not want you now?”

Unfortunately, Melissa could Read only too easily that physical desire was the farthest thing from Torio’s mind at that moment-but she only smiled at him and said, “I know Torio, and I love him. The fact that we feel exactly the same lack of desire at this moment only proves how much we are alike.”

Maldek smiled in malicious delight. “But it is opposites who attract, Melissa. Come-let me show you what pleasures a Master Sorcerer can offer.”

Torio found himself shaking his head, confused by what he was seeing, hearing, and Reading. What was Maldek trying to do? And why at this inappropriate moment?

Then he Read arousal in Melissa-the same thing Maldek had done to Dirdra in the memory they had all witnessed what now seemed a lifetime ago.

“Stop that!” Torio said, moving between Maldek and Melissa. Gray growled threateningly at Maldek, but was silenced by a thought from Torio.

“Do you want her?” Maldek asked.

“I love her,” Torio replied.

“Will you fight me for her?”

“Fight? Why should I?”

“Because otherwise I am going to take her,” Maldek said in tones that indicated that he found his outrageous statement perfectly reasonable.

And Torio found himself paralyzed as Maldek reached around him and took Melissa by the arm.

Torio called on his newfound powers, and broke free to grasp Melissa’s other arm. “Let go, Maldek. I didn’t restore your powers so you could hurt Melissa!”

” You restored his powers?!” demanded Zanos. “Torio-have you gone mad?”

“Perhaps,” he replied. “At the time, there were dying people to be saved. But now-”

“Now you see how powers are to be used,” said Maldek. “It’s for good, Torio. I’m not going to hurt Melissa-you’ll see. Just ask her tomorrow.”

Melissa’s physical desire was increasing-and then she stopped resisting as Maldek reached into her very mind.

“No!” cried Torio. “She’s exhausted with healing. Melissa-fight him!”

But her lovely eyes stared at him as if he were the one being unreasonable.

Maldek draped Melissa’s arm over his. “If you won’t fight for her, Torio, you don’t deserve her,” he said, starting to lead her, unresisting, from the room.

“By Mawort!” exclaimed Zanos. “If you won’t fight him, Torio, I will! Can you call yourself a Reader and think she wants that beast?”

And Zanos picked up the carving knife from the table and flung it after Maldek.

Of course it did not connect; without even turning, the Master Sorcerer stopped it and let it clatter to the floor.

“Torio, do something!” pleaded Astra.

“Melissa!” he projected. “Break free, Melissa!”

And from somewhere deep within her mind, she answered, “Help me, Torio-oh, please-” And the thought broke off as Maldek found that part of her consciousness and turned it to desire for him as they started up the stairs toward the part of the castle where his room was-

Blessed gods! He is twisting her mind!

To his horror, Torio realized that he had actually doubted Melissa-

It was all Maldek’s doing!

He ran to the door of the dining hall, stared at Maldek’s retreating back-and willed a thunderbolt to strike him!

The crack shook the walls, and Maldek fell to his knees-only momentarily stunned, for he had been braced for an attack.

But it was enough to make him lose concentration on Melissa. She pulled free and ran down the stairs.

Maldek rose, laughing gleefuly, and turned to face Torio. “At last-the confrontation! Now my game comes to its final match!” And he flung lightning in his turn.

Some new instinct caused Torio to draw the cold fire into his body as protection-Maldek’s bolt bounced off him harmlessly.

He leaped for the Master Sorcerer, tackling him as Zanos had taught him, the two of them rolling on the floor. He was peripherally aware of Zanos holding Gray back, lest the dog join in the fray.

Maldek knew no ordinary defense for such an attack-with his powers, why would he ever need to learn it? So for a moment he was helpless with surprise.

Practice against Zanos’ huge size and strength stood Torio well. The larger man reached for his throat, and the Reader flipped him backward, to land with a breathtaking crash.

But Maldek was no street brawler. Even as he drew a burning breath into his lungs, he set Torio’s shirt afire.

That was nothing, out in an instant.

But the instant was long enough for Maldek to recover-and this time when he reached for Torio his hands sent currents of pain through the Reader!

“Give it up, Torio,” said Maldek. “The woman is mine!”

“No!” Torio gasped, struggling to break free. “Melissa is mine-you have no right to her!”

He remembered his powers once again, and drove the pain backward into Maldek, conjuring the searing of cold fire into the sorcerer’s nerves as he tried to burn him out, put him back to what he had been, helpless to force Melissa-

“Torio! Torio!”

It was Melissa’s horrified voice that broke his concentration, her cool hands that touched his, breaking him free from Maldek and taking the cold fire into herself.

Only then did he realize that his hands had been about Maldek’s throat, choking the life from him. He felt her disbelief at what he had done- and sank into self-loathing as he realized that he had been brawling mindlessly over the woman he loved, as if she were a piece of property. Shame burned his face.

But Maldek grasped his opportunity. Melissa was touching him. Torio was too distracted to oppose him.

The Master Sorcerer grasped Melissa’s wrists and pulled her to him, reaching out to take over her mind again, drawing her face to his for a kiss-

From Melissa, the white fire burned through him for just one moment, shocking him into dropping her hands, staring at her-

As she stared back in shock. Then she looked down at her hands, concentrated, and Torio Read the cold fire flow through her, too-as it should have been at her command ever since they had visited the plane of power.

Maldek, Melissa, and Torio all climbed to their feet. Maldek reached toward Melissa again, but she looked up into his eyes and said coldly, “Do not touch me.”

Then she turned to the Reader. “And you, Torio-I thought you loved me. But Maldek brought out your true feelings-exactly the same as his. Conquest! Proof of power! All you want is to possess me!”

There was no hiding Torio’s shame in the feelings Maldek had brought out of his subconscious. For that moment he had, indeed, wanted Melissa not for herself but as the prize he battled for.

When he could not reply, Melissa turned and fled down the hall to the stairs leading to her own room.

One by one, the others followed, going silently to their own chambers, leaving Maldek standing alone, knowing that there were now two people capable of countering his powers.

“But why won’t you stay?” Melissa asked Torio a few days later.

“Why will you?” he demanded in return. “Melissa, I’m so ashamed-my abuse of power caused you pain, but at least this time no one died.”

“No-/ am ashamed,” she replied. “Maldek tricked us both. You had not slept for two days. Of course he was able to bring out your darker instincts. I should have known what he was doing.”

“So should I,” said Torio, “with Maldek as an example of how unlimited power releases those instincts! I didn’t know such feelings were in me, Melissa. I cannot ever trust myself again until I learn how to control under every possible stress.

“Come with me-there must be other lands where people have both Reading and Adept powers, and use them without doing harm. They must have ways of training people to use power responsibly, as the Academies do for Reading.”

Melissa sighed. “Torio, I am a healer, and there is a whole land here in need of healing.”

“Maldek-”

“-is never going to change,” she replied. “Anyone can see that. The only thing that will keep him from destroying his land altogether is a counterbalance-someone with powers equal to his.”

“You,” he was forced to admit. “You saved his life, Melissa-and now you are responsible for him.”

“Yes,” she agreed. “When I realized that, I was able to tap the power. So you understand why I cannot go with you?”

He could not deny that he understood-but neither could he deny the imperative he felt more strongly with every passing day-a call from somewhere far to the east, lands no one he had ever met had visited.

He had spoken the words that brought Melissa here, to her destiny. Now he had to face the fact that his lay elsewhere. “It is as Maldek said-I found what I didn’t know I was looking for: a direction for my life. But I don’t know what lies in that direction.”

“Will you come back?” Melissa asked.

“I… I cannot answer that,” he said truthfully. “If I can return, Melissa, I will.”

“I love you,” she said softly. “I wish…”

“I do, too,” he replied, “but the time is not right for us to be together. I love you, Melissa-but only the gods know whether we will ever meet again. If we do, we will be different people, for we both have much to discover about life, and about ourselves.”

Melissa was not the only one of their party to stay behind; Astra’s mother, Cassandra, would not return to the Savage Empire with her daughter. “Even my poor powers are needed here,” she explained. “This was once the happiest home I ever knew. Now I have the chance to make it happy again.”

But Zanos and Astra had obligations to the Savage Alliance, to Lilith in particular, and so they perforce must leave once Madura showed signs that it would recover from the havoc of the battle of the sorcerers.

Torio sailed with them down the river to the sea, between banks beginning to show the first signs of green in recovery from the devastation. The sun shone, and once clouds came up and produced a warm shower. Maldek’s land would flourish under Melissa’s care-and Torio knew she had the strength to keep the Master Sorcerer in line.

They sailed across the narrow channel, and put Torio ashore just south of Brettonia. Not knowing where he was going, he found his feet instinctively taking the path while his newly opened eyes fastened on the horizon. Carrying only a small bundle of necessities, Gray trotting happily at his heels, he turned toward the east in search of his own destiny.