Savage Empire

//I cannot communicate with Tiberium from where I am now, but I can if I come near to Adigia on the other side of the border. Even if the academy moves, so you and Master Clement are not there, Portia never leaves Tiberium. You must not worry about me, Torio. I am safer than you can imagine, and if my plans work out, life in the empire will be much better in the future.//

//Master Lenardo-where are you? If Master Clement wants to contact you-//

Lenardo considered. //No, you had best tell him to wait until I contact him.//

//You're keeping something from me,// said the boy. //So is Master Clement. When he contacts me, I can tell there are things he's holding back. He's worried, Master Lenardo.//

//Of course he is-he's worried about me! But now you can tell him I'm safe. I'm with friends.//

//Friends? But how can that be?//

//Torio, you are far too good a Reader for your age, and that should tell you you've nothing to worry about on your exams. But you will have to accept that I cannot explain everything now. It will all be clear when I come home.//

//Please come soon. I miss you, Master Lenardo.//

//I miss you, Torio. I'll come as soon as I can. But for now you'll be happy to get back to your friends at the academy.//

//You've always been my best friend,// the boy told him.

//Then trust me.//

//Oh, I do!// Lenardo felt Torio's reassurance like the unReaderlike hug the boy bestowed on those he loved.

//Good. Then give Master Clement my message, and apply yourself to your studies-for I am going to have work for you as a Reader such as you have never dreamed of!//

It was with regret that Lenardo broke contact with Torio's mind. It would be so good to get back among Readers No. It would be so good to have daily contact with Torio and Master Clement, his dear friends… but he would miss Aradia and Wulfston. I am going to have work for you, he had told Torio. I don't suppose there's any hope of persuading Master Clement to venture beyond the pale. I wonder if Aradia could ease his rheumatism?

Lenardo lay back, hands clasped behind his head, contemplating the future. It looked good. He felt good. All his wounds were healed again, but the source of his sense of well-being was not physical. Rather, he felt satisfied with himself for the first time since his failure with Galen.

Lifting his right arm, he looked at the dragon's-head brand in the flickering candlelight. The mark of the exile- but he did not feel exiled. He felt at home. Readers were having problems in Tiberium; Lenardo would have the power to demand that then- rights be recognized. The senate said there were no funds for a new academy? Suppose it were built here, at Castle Nerius! No-better yet- restore the academy at Zendi! It had been a female academy in Lenardo's childhood, but with the male academy gone from Adigia Yes, he must speak with Aradia about Zendi! He longed to see the city restored to its former glory, and what better way than to make it the neutral ground on which Readers and Adepts could meet and learn to work together?

Perhaps, thought Lenardo, I was not well suited to the cloistered life of the academy. Or perhaps being there on the border, I Read without being able to accept it that we should not be fighting one another.

He had taken Galen's exile, Decius' wound, Galen's death, all as his own fault. But they were all part of the perpetual war between the empire and the savages.

He stroked his beard, thinking, Now I'm part of both, the Aventine Empire and the savage – No, not an empire, but perhaps one day an amalgam of alliances such as Aradia had forged with Lilith. Their alliance had withstood the power of Drakonius.

Filled with hope for the future, Lenardo slept the sleep of deep contentment.

The next day everybody in and about Castle Nerius slept late except Lenardo. He was up at dawn, as usual, and for the first time found the kitchen not only deserted but in a shambles-clearly even the cook and his staff had finally joined in the celebration last night. He found fruit and bread and met the bleary-eyed dairyman bringing in fresh milk-cows, the man grumbled, had to be milked no matter how one had spent the night before. Lenardo helped him pour the milk into the cool stone vats and earned for his efforts a mumbled thanks and, "I don't suppose you can cure a headache, Master Reader?"

"No, I'm afraid you'll have to ask one of the Adepts for that."

"Aye, but they'll be "too busy curing their own today. Good day to ye!"

Apparently everyone knew who he was by now-even the proper way to address him-but there was none of the fear Nerius had predicted. Aradia's sworn man, wearer of the wolf-stone…

When Aradia appeared downstairs, looking none the worse for her night of revelry, Lenardo approached her with his ideas.

"An academy of Readers at Zendi?" she asked. "How will you persuade the empire to risk their precious Readers outside their borders?"