Besides, they had to give Capero time to cheat Galerio’s stake and winnings away from him.
But as soon as the dice came around to Galerio for the first time, he threw a winning number. Julia was Reading; he had not used Adept power. Neither did Capero nor any of his men for the moment, letting chance have its way-perhaps until Galerio accepted the honesty of the game.
The surest way to fool a Reader was to have a number of minor Adepts about, posing as gamers, taking turns influencing the dice. It would be almost impossible for a Dark Moon Reader to detect, but Julia could Read the whole room at once. Perhaps Capero thought she was too young to do so.
Galerio threw another winning number before he lost control of the dice, then bet a small portion of his winnings on other players. Again, he won more than he lost, although his winnings did not pile up as Wicket’s were doing.
Julia was beginning to worry about the time; the later she stayed away, the greater the chance that she would be missed. Capero should be making Galerio lose by now, but he wasn’t losing, and Julia could detect no sign of Adept influence-no one going suddenly blank to Reading-anywhere in the room.
She started to Read more carefully-
“Reader! Spy!”
The Dark Moon Reader leaped up. She climbed up on her chair, pointing over the heads of the gamblers, shrieking like a harpy. “Look! Lenardo’s daughter! They’ve sent her in to spy on all of you, find out who’s gambling, who’s winning! Who’s here, who’s with them!”
Suddenly all eyes were on Julia. Some people gathered their money and began edging toward the doors.
“She’s already Read you!” Capero shouted.
“If she escapes,” said another man, whom Julia recognized as Tinius, money-changer and userer, “Aradia and Clement will know all that she learned here tonight.”
“No!” Julia shouted, climbing on a chair herself despite Galerio’s efforts to stop her. “I am not here as a spy, but just as a Reader protecting a friend. Capero agreed-
Capero drowned her words with a loud guffaw. “Is that likely?” he demanded. “Allow the like of her to spy on my good customers?”
There were, of course, no other Readers there. A woman shouted, “Kill her! Show Aradia what we think of her spying on us!” Julia recognized Octavia, who ran the largest brothel in Zendi. Tinius, Octavia-as well as all the rich merchants crowded in here tonight? Galerio had been set up all right-but to get at Julia! To discredit the Readers, who had disrupted their cheating and confidence games ever since Lenardo and Aradia had brought hundreds of them to the city.
Until this moment, Julia hadn’t been afraid. Now, alone, she faced dozens of people who hated her-some of them with Adept powers! “Help!” she sent out to any nearby Reader. “Capero’s establishment! They want to kill me!”
Galerio kicked over the dice table, Mosca and Antonius adding their efforts.
Julia jumped down from her perch, Reading that the three young men would clear a path for her to the door, Reading Wicket draw a knife, pretending to join the attackers but actually elbowing and tripping people trying to close off their escape route.
Galerio, Mosca, and Antonius also had knives drawn, but they faced swords, clubs.
Knives flickered through the air!
Mosca went down with a yelp as a knife lodged in his shoulder, then a horrifying gasp when a man ran his sword through him.
Antonius tackled a woman in their way, knocked her against a man trying to skewer Julia with his sword, and fell, head crushed by another man’s club.
Galerio plunged ahead, using his small Adept skill to stay the hands of those who would slash or strike.
They could see Wicket now, bumbling about as if very drunk and very angry, actually clearing a space near the door.
Still broadcasting her call for help, Julia followed in Galerio’s wake, Reading behind them.
Capero held a spear!
“Galerio!” Julia shouted, grasping his arm to pull him down as the weapon flew at them.
He came around instead of down-and the spear dipped in its flight, Capero’s Adept power keeping it aimed at Julia! It was about to impale her.
Galerio flung himself at the spear, trying to grasp it out of the air.
Julia Read his utter exhaustion. The last of his small Adept power was not enough.
The spear pierced his heart, and he fell across her, dead.
Chapter Six
Julia cowered on the floor, soaked in Galerio’s blood, too terrified and grief-stricken to do anything but Read.
Antonius and Mosca were dead.
Galerio was dead.
Wicket was trying to reach her, pretending to be a patron wanting to kill her.
Capero pulled Galerio’s body away and hauled Julia to her feet. “You’re not hurt-yet.” He had to hold her up, for shock had taken all the strength from her limbs. Her mind seemed to have gone numb.
Capero turned to his patrons. “What shall we do with this one? Let’s make her an example-let Lenardo and Aradia know what we do to people who try to control us!”
“Julia! Get down!”
The powerful voice in her mind broke through her numbness; she squirmed free of Capero’s grip and dropped to the floor-
As an arrow pierced the gambler’s heart!
Heads turned.
Some of Capero’s men started toward the door, where a shadowy figure fired three more arrows in rapid succession before people began to close on him. He dropped bow and quiver, kicked his closest assailant in the groin, slung a knife into the throat of a man poised to gut him with a spear, and moved through the gap he had thus created.
Pyrrhus.
The conflict between frightened people trying to get out of his way and angry people trying to get at him created a passage that he walked through, unscathed.
When he reached Wicket, his friend took a position at Pyrrhus’ back, knife at the ready.
They worked their way toward Julia amid a breathless hush.
Octavia pulled a long, wicked blade from her sleeve. Julia fought her lethargy, remembering neither man could Read, but was drawing breath to warn them when the woman moved.
Wicket met her descending arm with an upward blow so hard the whole room heard the crack of breaking bone. He caught the knife that fell from her limp fingers as she fainted from the pain. Now he had a knife in either hand, and no patron was foolish enough to challenge.
Capero’s men, however, moved in-seven of them forming a phalanx against Julia’s two rescuers.
As they moved to separate Julia from Pyrrhus and Wicket, weapons flew again. A bull-like man heaved a spear with both physical strength and Adept power, enough to pierce both men-except that they turned sideways and bent away, and it sailed harmlessly between them.
When they swung back, they were side by side.
Almost faster than Julia could Read, Wicket’s knives were buried to the hilt in two of their opponents, while Pyrrhus flung two knives as well, grasped a spear convulsively thrown his way by one of their death throes, and drove it through a third.
Two on two now, Wicket and Pyrrhus glanced at one another, crouched, and let their assailants spring.
Both were armed with knives, and both were dead by their own weapons in scant seconds.
Pyrrhus did not look at the men he had killed, but he studied Wicket’s victims one by one. Every weapon had pierced a vital organ; all were dead. “Congratulations,” said Pyrrhus dryly. “You’ve finally learned to fight.”
Julia Read Wicket’s start of conscience, but all he said was “Had a good teacher, didn’t I?”
The two men stepped over the bodies, and while Wicket knelt to examine Julia, Pyrrhus asked the staring people left alive, “Anyone else care to challenge our right to take this child home?” He smiled in that bone-chilling way that Julia suddenly understood, and everyone backed up a step.
Recognizing that they did not want to be caught here,“people started for the door-too late.