Savage Empire

A sense of destiny rode with him as he remembered Nerius' dream. Perhaps it was prophetic, after all. Perhaps he was meant to help Aradia unite the warring lands of the savages with the empire. Now that her father was dead, people would turn to her for leadership, and she would require counselors.

But he was getting ahead of himself. Up ahead, Aradia and Lilith's combined army was outnumbered, and although they fought valiantly, they were being pressed steadily backward. A standard bearing Lilith's blue lion went down, only to be snatched up again and waved tauntingly by one of her men.

He saw the golden boar, signifying the troops of Hron, who had betrayed Aradia, as well as a brown horse's head and a green spear adorning other banners, but the largest, most numerous, and gaudiest banners bore the head of a dragon, black, on a field of gold. Drakonius' troops fought on, ignorant that their lord was dead.

Don't they know? he wondered. Didn't they wonder at the absence of Adept tricks? But then, there was little magic on either side-they must think the Adepts were still busy fighting one another.

There was some Adept activity, however. On both sides horses stumbled, foot soldiers found their swords heavy and awkward, and small fires surged up in what little brush there was. Volleys of arrows flew, many swerving to find their mark-but others were deflected in midair. Minor tricks, all of them, Lenardo now recognized, although a few short weeks ago he would have trembled before any one of them, thinking it the work of an Adept lord.

The majority of the soldiers on both sides simply fought, well and bravely. When they came within sound of the battle, Aradia spurred her horse. "Aradia!" Lilith called, "we must climb up where we can see the fighting!"

"My people need to know I'm here!" Aradia shouted back, riding harder.

Lenardo watched her in concern, and he saw the same expression in Lilith's eyes. Adept or no, Aradia had just lost her father and had exhausted a good deal of energy destroying Drakonius and his minions. How much strength could she have left?

He urged his horse closer to hers and said, "Aradia, your people will know you're there when they start getting your help. Lilith is right-let's ride up to the top of that hill-"

"You two go if you want to," Aradia replied without taking her eyes off the road ahead. "I'm going to the aid of my people!" And she kicked her tired horse again, spurring him out ahead of her companions'.

By now they could see the torches moving in the valley ahead, the nickering reflection of fire on metal. As they galloped along the road, a-sheet of flame suddenly flared before them. Their horses reared, and in the scuffle of regaining control Lenardo heard Lilith exclaim, "Who did that?"

"Drakonius' apprentice," he supplied. "I forgot about her." Indeed, he soon found the young woman on the opposite slope, watching the battle from behind a rocky outcropping. "Why wasn't she helping them before?"

"Conserving her strength," Aradia replied. "She won't be much trouble-she's hardly more than a child. Where is she, Lenardo?"

At the grim tone of her voice, he hesitated. Aradia reached out to grasp the bridle of his horse, pulling them both to a halt, the horses snorting at each other as their riders sat eye to eye. "What will you do to her?" Lenardo asked warily.

"Will you leave the dragon spawn to grow up and attack us again?" Aradia demanded.

"You said she's hardly more than a child. Can't you-?"

"After she's been trained by Drakonius? Lenardo, she knows that if I'm here, Drakonius is dead. But she doesn't flee-she fights! That is a grown woman, loyal to death to her lord. Where is your loyalty, Lenardo?"

To the empire, but that was not the issue here. To his Reader's Oath, which forbade him to use his powers to harm others-except, of course, the enemies of the empire. And Aradia need not be such an enemy. "With you, my lady."

"Then point the Adept out to me."

"You can't see her from here, but she can see you." As if to confirm his words, another wall of flame shot out of the earth before them, singeing the flailing-hoofs of Aradia's rearing horse.

"Get down!" cried Lilith, abandoning her own horse to dart behind some rocks.

Aradia scrambled down, and Lenardo followed her to shelter. "Drakonius' apprentice is almost directly opposite us now," he said. "Have you the strength between you to topple the rocks she's hiding behind?"

"It is simpler to create a fire than to move those rocks," said Lilith. "Even after we destroy that Adept, our armies are still outnumbered."

"Yes-fire," said Aradia. "Turn her own weapon back on her. I don't think she has the strength for much else."

"She's moved," said Lenardo. "There's a kind of trail- maybe just a rabbit track-and she's peering out just to the left over there-"