“And that I can’t Read,” added Lenardo. “We’re going to try to draw them out at dinner tonight.”
Aradia smiled wryly. “And then you and Astra will provoke the rest of us by Reading something important, but being bound by your Reader’s Oaths not to reveal it!”
“You are bound by the same Oath, Aradia,” her husband reminded her.
“Yes, but how likely am I to Read any secrets? I still can’t even Read our baby. I tried again today, but Astra had to Read with me.”
“At least you can Read,” Wulfston reminded her. “I won’t get to meet my niece until after she’s born!”
When Wulfston had gone, Lenardo said, “Our daughter is developing well. Read with me.”
Through her husband’s powers, Aradia Read the shape in her womb, the tiny being already equipped with arms and legs, eyes and mouth. But there was no consciousness yet. “Soon,” Lenardo promised.
“Soon she will become aware, and then I’m sure you’ll be able to Read her, Aradia.”
She wanted to. She wanted to love the baby, Lenardo’s child, product of their love. But how could she love someone she didn’t know? Automatically, she braced as if to use her powers so Lenardo would not Read her thought: I don’t feel like a mother- I just feel as if I have some nagging minor illness draining my powers.
At dinner that night, Julia watched and Read with interest as Lenardo, Aradia, and Wulfston told their African guests how they had first met and joined their powers to defeat Drakonius. Part of her preparation to govern lands of her own one day was to learn Trader’s Common, and she found that she had little trouble following the conversation.
Lenardo ended the story by emphasizing the strength of their relationships: “So Julia is my adopted daughter, though I don’t think either of us often remembers that she’s adopted. Aradia is my wife, and that makes her brother Wulfston my brother, too.”
Sukuru asked, “How comes it, Lord Wulfston, that these pale folk claim you kin?”
“Ties of love may be as strong as ties of blood,” Wulfston replied. Julia glanced at Lenardo, trying to take comfort in the thought. She often wondered if the baby Aradia carried would take her place in his affections.
Her eyes focused on the ring her father wore, matching the one on Aradia’s hand. Wolf and dragon intertwined in gleaming gold. Their wedding rings, a gift from Wulfston. Julia knew he had meant them as a symbol of unity. To Julia, though, they seemed to mean that Lenardo was joined to Aradia, shutting his adopted daughter out. She knew that was an unfair thought, and tried to put it out of her mind.
Wulfston was telling how Aradia’s father, Nerius, had spirited him out of the Aventine Empire when his Adept powers manifested at the age of three, and the folk of his village would have killed him. In those days, only Readers were accepted in the Empire, and any child who showed Adept talent was killed.
Aradia finished up, declaring that the child she carried “will not be only our daughter; she will be Julia’s sister, and Wulfston’s niece. That is the kind of family alliance you must have to fight a tyrant.” Julia Read only sincerity from her stepmother. Why did she distrust her?
Sukuru expressed amazement, but seemed disappointed at Wulfston’s advice to raise an alliance of people with powers in his own lands to fight the tyrant. Although he said, “We will heed your advice, most excellent lord,” Julia Read that he did not really mean the words.
With her mind, she reached out to Lenardo, but he replied with an unverbalized warning to keep mentally silent. Were there Readers among the Africans that she had not recognized?
Her father was on his guard-if these people were hiding something, Lenardo would find it out.
Sukuru, meanwhile, was presenting Wulfston with a bottle of wine from his native land, insisting that they all drink a toast “to our success in gaining from you the means to save our land.”
Now what did he mean by that? Julia wished she could get her hands on something of Sukuru’s. She had one of the unusual Reading talents, the ability to Read the history of an object by touching it, including the stories of the people who had handled it. Perhaps before they left, she could touch something of this man’s and find out his secrets.
Meanwhile, the wine was poured from a vessel like none Julia had ever seen before. It was pointed on the bottom, so it couldn’t stand on a table, and painted in brilliant, jewel-like colors.
Julia reached for her goblet as soon as the wine was poured into it, but her father was right there with the water pitcher. When would he believe she was grown up enough to drink her wine like an adult, not watered down like a baby?
Sukuru raised his goblet. “To the defeat of Z’Nelia- and anything we must do to free our land from her evil!”
As she raised the goblet to her lips, smelling exotic spices in the wine, Julia suddenly Read Sukuru’s only half-hidden thought: “Z’Nelia will be pleased with the way I have fooled them-they’re completely unprepared for her attack!” And with it came a picture of an armada of heavily armed ships full of black warriors, waiting out of Reading range.
Aradia, having Read it through Lenardo, leaned over and whispered to Wulfston, but Lenardo just took a drink of the wine, giving no reaction to indicate that he had Read the man’s secret thought.
Julia followed her father’s example. Wulfston called for sweets and fruits and a drier wine, for even Julia found the one their guests had served them unbearably sweet and overloaded with spices. She took a long drink of plain water to wash the taste out of her mouth.
Why didn’t Lenardo challenge Sukuru with what he had Read? Or ask Wulfston to end the dinner, so they could meet and make plans? Julia Read agitation from Aradia, who would want to alert all their allies, and prepare for invasion.
As the musicians played once more, Lenardo watched Sukuru through slitted eyes. Julia cautiously Read with him, careful not to let thoughts or feelings project, just as her father had taught her. Astra, sitting farther down the table, Read with them, while Aradia braced her Adept powers, for she could not possibly Read without being Read herself.
Sukuru could not be a very good Reader to make that slip-if he was a Reader at all. Lenardo was the only Reader known who could Read any Reader at all without being detected. Astra could do it with many Readers, but Julia was just learning. She felt warmly proud that her father trusted her now, and she fulfilled that trust, Reading only through him, making no attempt to reach Sukuru’s mind on her own.
Lenardo found only Sukuru’s feelings, however; he was now lightly braced for the use of Adept powers, his thoughts unReadable. When Lords Adept like Wulfston and Aradia braced for full use of powers, even their feelings became unReadable. But Sukuru was no Lord Adept. Although he kept them from Reading his thoughts, a definite smugness came through, and something more…
When she recognized it, Julia dropped out of the rapport before she allowed herself to react. Closing her mind in upon itself as Master Clement had patiently taught her, she realized, He was lying! There was no invasion fleet!
Lenardo’s hand touched her arm. When she looked up at him, he smiled at her and nodded, and she glowed with the knowledge that she had done well in her father’s eyes-and under circumstances in which a childish slip might have proved fatal. Sukuru did not know they had discovered his deception.
“What do you think he thinks we’ll do?” Julia asked once they were in their suite of apartments after Wulfston had dismissed the musicians.
“Gather our allies, perhaps,” replied Lenardo. “Then I suppose he’ll try to get us all to join in his fight.”
“That’s a…” Aradia paused to yawn. “… terribly foolish plan.”
“What’s keeping Wulfston?” Lenardo wondered.