Dragonlord of the Savage Empire

The hauling on the rope began again, backs bent with a will, but tired now, Arkus and Josa on the brink of collapse, the well wall threateningLenardo grabbed the rope, adding his weight, instantly raising blisters in the uncalloused area of his hands between thumb and forefinger but not caring, needing to help.

The rope moved too slowly. The wall started to cave in. As guilt and fear ate at Lenardo, he Read Julia's panicked litany: III love you, Father. I'll be good. Help me, oh, help me, Father! Don't leave me again! Father!//

Chapter Three

The rope came up bit by bit. Then eager hands pulled Julia and the soldier over the brink as a cheer went up. Divested of ropes, Julia leaped into Lenardo's arms as Arkus and Josa let go, staggering and leaning heavily on each other. The wall fell with a crash, and dust flew up from the mouth to settle over everyone.

In the next few hours, operating purely by rote, Lenardo Read the children and the rescuers, made sure that everyone with injury or strain was healed, distributed rewards to all who had helped in the rescue, and finally bathed the grime off himself in the cold water of the bathhouse. His order that everyone bathe at least twice a week had caused grumbling, but in the heat of summer it was being obeyed. They'd have to get the warm and hot baths functioning by winter. His people might think his insistence on bathing some personal quirk, but they did not understand how cleanliness could disrupt the spread of disease.

By the time Lenardo walked home, Cook had made Julia presentable, and he was beginning to think that he could face her. Home was now a large and beautiful town house that had been looted but not burned-the only choice, Helmuth had insisted, for the Lord of the Land. The place was still empty. Lenardo refused to set carpenters to building him furniture when they were needed to repair other buildings before winter.

His footsteps rang on the mosaic floor in the huge entrance hall. Eventually this might become an all-purpose audience room like Aradia's great hall. By the gods, I'm starting to think like a lord. The title still seemed implausible, and as her teacher, he had instructed Julia to call him Master Lenardo.

She was waiting in his room, which was furnished with a bed, two chairs, and a table, none of which matched. Julia sat on the window ledge, looking out into the courtyard. She did not turn at Lenardo's entrance, but he could feel her terrible tension as she tried to Read his mood.

"Julia," he said, "we must talk."

//Can't we-//

"No. We will discuss this like nonReaders, because you have caused several nonReaders to be badly hurt."

"Nobody was hurt bad," Julia protested, turning to face him and pulling her knees up to her chin, balancing on the sill. "Candida just got her arm broke. It'll be all right in a couple of days. When I got my arm broke, it took weeks to heal. Old Drakonius, he never healed nobody. You're lots nicer."

Ignoring her attempt to placate him, Lenardo said, "Candida's injury is the point, not that Sandor could heal her. He could not have healed her if she had died. Furthermore, Arkus and Josa were also hurt."

"Huh?"

"They expended far more energy than they could afford. Both have collapsed in exhaustion. If I had not Read when Josa's heart went into spasms, Sandor might not have noticed soon enough. She could have died."

"Everybody dies," Julia said coldly, but Lenardo Read that her words were a defense against a world in which ordinary people were considered dispensable.

"People should not die because those in power are careless," Lenardo began.

"Arkus'd be awful sad if Josa died," Julia interrupted. "They're funny, you know? She loves him and he loves her, and neither don't know it. Isn't that funny?"

"No, it is not funny. Neither is it your business. How can I stop you from Reading people's private thoughts?"

"They're always thinking about each other. How can I help knowing?"

"The same way I did not know until you told me-an even worse breach of Reader's Honor. Sometimes one finds out a nonReader's secret by accident. But to reveal it-" He let her feel the revulsion a Reader knew at such conduct and felt her cringe. Then he added, "Tell me why you went into the well."

"There's gold down there," she said eagerly. "More than twenty gold coins. I would've given it to you."

"You are lying. You wanted it for youself. Why? What do you lack?"

"Money for when I grow up. Mama always said she couldn't keep man nor money. She said if she'd kept all the money men gave her, she wouldn't need no one to take care of her."

"And why did you involve other children?" Lenardo pursued, ignoring the empty feeling her words produced in him.

"I couldn't get it alone. They'd each have got a gold piece. Then they'd have owed me more favors."

"You risked their lives and yours."

"I didn't know the well would fall in."