//It must have been Jason,// Master Florian said miserably. //I trusted him completely-I never understood why Portia suspected him. Now I see what he did to this girl, a fellow Reader-his student. By the gods, I was wrong. Portia knew what she was about, making Jason chief navigator for the fleet. He had to lead us to the enemy-and with so many other Readers-better Readers-in the fleet, there was no way for him to warn them.//
//They killed him for betraying them,// said Master Corus.
//No-// Melissa began. Torio had been broadcasting to the Readers in the fleet to turn the ships, not telling Wulfston where a particular Reader was. Then she realized the implications of what Master Florian had just revealed. //Portia made Jason chief navigator-to test him?//
//Maybe he did warn them,// mused Master Amicus. //He was on deck-and so was this girl, on her ship. They may have meant to jump ship and join the savages. Jason may be guiding them against us at this very moment.//
//No!// Melissa protested. //No-Jason never did anything wrong. He died because Portia put him in that lead ship! She killed him!//
//We must make camp,// said Master Corus, and began to broadcast that to the other Readers.
//No!// Melissa told them. //Keep moving. They want you to stop! They'll have time to gather their army-//
//Ignore Melissa,// Master Amicus told the Readers. //She has betrayed us. Our enemies want us tired out when we meet. Make camp. The Readers will keep watch.//
Melissa could not believe what had happened, her consciousness drifted above the Aventine army making camp in the mud while warm, dry pallets were prepared for the Master Readers so they could leave their bodies.
If they discovered that Melissa had told the truth, what would that mean to them? To people who could callously send a fellow Reader to his death because they distrusted him…
The Council of Masters had killed Jason. They-Portia foremost, but all of them who had agreed to her plan-had placed him in the forefront of that fleet expecting him to betray himself or die. But he had remained loyal. And what had it gotten him? Death, while those who were supposed to be his friends and protectors gleefully assumed his guilt.
Oh, Jason!
If only the Readers were not turning on one another, she seemed to hear his mental voice. You will be suspect, he had told her. They will seek to render you harmless. He had meant that they would marry her off, to blunt her powers. How innocent he had been-he would never have dreamed that, without evidence, they would call her traitor. But he had known they would distrust her. How could Readers, of all people, distrust one another?
She had no place to turn now. Jason was dead. Home was closed to her. The Master Readers had no interest in rescuing her-if they thought her mind had been tampered with, why did they not want to take her back to Gaeta, where sick minds could be cured? Obviously, she wasn't worth the effort!
Shock and despair slowly melted away before a new emotion: anger. How could they be so… vengeful? She had always looked up to the Master Readers-and now she learned that the Council of Masters would rather have a suspected Reader killed than let him prove his innocence. The true intent of this expedition was to kill Lenardo and Torio-and now Melissa would be added to the list.
What did it matter?
//Have you Read enough?//
Melissa was startled to find Torio's presence nearby-and to feel, when he contacted her, a despair to match her own. //How long-?//
//Long enough to learn what the Masters did to your teacher. To see that they will not trust you-you, who until yesterday were dutiful and obedient. I ran away, you know, because Portia failed me without a test. There's little wonder they wouldn't trust me, Melissa-but they had no reason but their own ingrown fears to mistrust you.//
//Why did Portia fail you?//
//I was Lenardo's student and friend. I… knew too much. She would first have married me off, to blunt my powers, but I doubt she would have stopped there. She could have found dangerous assignments for me, as she did for Magister Jason.//
//Because you know she failed in her duty to keep the government informed of your plot.//
//How did you know that?// Torio asked.
//Jason found out in Tiberium. He knew too much, too, because his one failing was insatiable curiosity. His questions brought suspicion on him.//
//Suspicion,// said Torio. //Distrust. Readers turning against Readers, using pretense-// His bitterness cut off. //What are you going to do now, Melissa?//
//That depends on what you are going to do. You and your Adept friends. What are you going to do to the Aventine army?//
//Turn it back before it reaches any of Wulfston's villages. The watchers have spread the word through the whole land now-look.//
Torio directed Melissa's attention beyond the infertile sandy plain on which the army was making camp to the first village in their path. Some thirty men and boys-and a few women, she noted-were arming themselves with swords, spears, bows, and even knives and pikes. The rest of the women, with their children, were packing to flee.
//They can't hold off an army of thousands!// Melissa protested.
//They'll have plenty of help before the army gets this far. Read.//
He guided her along the road to where a troop of over a hundred people marched toward the village-ordinary people, a little better armed than the first, following a white banner carrying a black wolf's head symbol.
//But where is Lord Wulfston's army"!// Melissa asked.
//Those people are the army. Every man-and every woman who has particular skill with the bow-is a member of the Lord of the Land's army. Wulfston's father began the practice, when he achieved peace in his lands. There is no need to keep the able male population in a standing army, as Drakonius did. They are home with their families most of the time-that in itself has gained Wulfston their devotion. They will fight now to save their own homes and families from an aggressor. They may be outnumbered at first, until Lenardo and Aradia's troops get here-but which side do you think will fight harder?//
//With both Adepts and Readers on your side, does it matter?//
//My side? Melissa, will you not join us?//
// I am tempted,// she told him honestly. //I have been betrayed-but not by the Readers with the army. How could I guide someone to kill Magister Phoebe or Master Florian?//
//I understand. Come back to your body-I think I know a way to turn the army back without killing anyone.//
//Will Lord Wulfston-?//
//Gladly. We want a peace treaty with the empire, Melissa-not a conquest.//
As they retreated toward Wulfston's castle, Melissa Read more and more troops marching southward, well-armed now, and carrying wagonloads of shields and weapons. There were more wolf's head banners, and men in leather armor decorated with the same symbol.
//Why were the best-armed men not to the south,// Melissa asked, //where you might expect an attack from the empire?//
//We had the army clustered near where the fleet meant to land, although we didn't expect to need them at all.//
//And you didn't. We never knew they were there!//
//That was the idea-to demonstrate that one Adept, with the aid of a Reader and one minor Adept, could destroy the whole fleet if he so chose. The empire's generals are stubborn-they refused to learn in one lesson, so we will have to give them another.//
They were back to Wulfston's castle now-Melissa Read the Lord Adept sitting in the armchair in Torio's room, only his impatience clearly Readable. She slipped back into her own body, sat up, stretched-and felt for the first time hampered by gross physical form after the freedom of being out of her body. She realized that she had felt no fear tonight, and no great relief upon returning. If her powers were not improving, her confidence in them was.
She Read Torio also sit up and stretch. He told Wulfston, "Lenardo and Aradia are on the way. The Aventine army has made camp as you hoped they would-Wulfston, did you intend them to camp on that sandy plain?"
"Not necessarily-but where else could they bed down so many people, without splitting up… They could have split up, of course. They have Readers."
Torio smiled. "You're learning to think like a Reader-and I'm learning to think like an Adept. How much more water can you and Rolf pour down on that plain in the next few hours?"
"We can probably keep it raining all night, but if we attack them there, our own people would have to fight in the mud." *