“I told him to come here,” Aradia replied, and yawned again. It was contagious; both Lenardo and Julia yawned.
“It’s been a long day,” said Lenardo. “I’ll have Devasin help you get ready for bed. You too, Julia. I’ll go get Wulfston.”
Julia didn’t know why she was so sleepy, when she should be excited. In the next room, she could hear Devasin telling Aradia to lie down-something about being asleep on her feet. Julia put on her nightgown, and a robe over it, wondering why her father hadn’t come back yet with Wulfston.
As she sat down on the edge of her bed to put on her slippers, a wave of dizziness swept over her. She tried to Read for Lenardo, but couldn’t find him… and then couldn’t remember why she wanted him as she sank onto the bed, sound asleep.
Aradia woke to a touch on her forehead. Her brother was bending over her.
“Wulfston, what-? Why have I slept so late?” she asked as she realized that strong morning sunshine was slanting between the curtains. She sat up, looking around, and remembered last night. Her husband had gone for Wulfston. “Where’s Lenardo?” she demanded.
“Aradia, we were drugged,” Wuflston explained. “The wine Sukuru served us-”
“Drugged?” A bolt of pure fear shot through her body, and she clasped her arms across her abdomen.
“The baby! Oh, Wulfston-get Lenardo to Read whether the baby’s been harmed!”
“I don’t know where he’s gone,” Wulfston replied.
“Aradia? Wulfston?” It was Julia’s voice at the door to the adjoining chamber.
“Julian-come in!” Aradia cried. “Can you Read where Lenardo is?”
“Not in the castle,” the girl replied at once. “What’s the matter?”
“Please,” Aradia told her, “Read the baby-see if she’s been poisoned.”
“Poisoned!” Julia’s eyes grew round with horror, but she laid a hand on Aradia’s abdomen and concentrated. Aradia Read with her, finding the baby still there, its tiny heart beating as usual. “No,” Julia said. “At least I
can’t Read anything but a healthy baby, Aradia. I’m sure Father will confirm that.”
“You don’t have a headache, Aradia,” Wulfston said, thus telling her that he must have been so affected.
“Your body instinctively protected your child-you probably went directly into healing sleep and purged the poison from your blood at once. The drug knocked me out so completely^ that I couldn’t cleanse it away until I woke this morning.”
She remembered how sleepy she had been-Devasin had had to support her. Yes, it had been the same weariness she knew when her body needed to heal an injury.
But when she asked again for Lenardo, Wulfston shook his head. “Our uninvited guests have gone.
Perhaps he followed them.”
Aradia saw that Julia didn’t believe that any more than she did. She remembered the moment Sukuru had let slip the knowledge that a fleet was on the way to attack them: Lenardo had covered his surprise by taking a long swallow of the drugged wine.
As Aradia drew breath to say it, though, Julia suddenly spoke, her eyes focused on something not in the room with them. “I can Read as far as the harbor, and I can’t find Father anywhere.” Then she gasped.
“The ship! Wulfston-the ship is gone!”
“Julia,” Aradia demanded, “is there really a fleet of ships out there?”
“No,” the girl replied, and Aradia heard the respect in her voice. “Father Read that it was a lie.”
“Designed to fool Readers!” said Aradia. “And it did. In the excitement of thinking Sukuru was the point of an invasion, nobody Read the poison in the wine!”
Wulfston went to awaken Zanos and Astra, for a Magister Reader could go out of body to Read over great distances. Astra verified that there was no invasion fleet, but she found Sukuru’s vessel, and with it Lenardo-still asleep, and locked in the hold.
Wulfston called for a ship.
Aradia heard the news from Astra, who came to verify her baby’s health. Zanos and Astra were going with Wulfston, the Magister Reader explained. With their abilities and Wulfston’s, they would quickly catch the fleeing vessel.
Aradia agreed. As soon as Astra had gone, she began preparing herself to join in the rescue of her husband. Dressed in serviceable garments for travel, she joined Wulfston in his room just as he was turning his private coffer out on the bed.
It was just a precaution-taking enough money for a long journey-but nonetheless it made Aradia uneasy. “Hurry, Wulfston,” she said. “We don’t want to miss the tide.”
“Aradia-” he began.
“I’m going with you,” she told him firmly.
“No, you’re not.”
“Wulfston, it’s my husband they’ve taken!”
“And that’s his child you’re carrying,” he reminded her. “You were fortunate that the drug did not harm the baby-for Sukuru still let you drink the wine after he knew you were pregnant. You don’t know what these people are capable of if they have no care for the health of an unborn babe. Will you be as careless as they are? Will you take your child into the midst of Adept conflict?”
“I can take care of my baby and myself,” Aradia insisted.
As if the matter were settled, Wulfston turned away and began putting coins into a leather pouch.
He thought she wasn’t capable of helping! To prove her strength, she let her powers reach out to her brother, grasping control of his body, paralyzing his muscles.
As if her powers were nothing, he straightened and turned on her, moving as freely as if she had done nothing! “You see?” He spoke her own horrified thoughts. “Aradia, you just don’t have your old powers right now.”
It was true! She had always been stronger than
Wulfston. Now he was coming into the full strength of his powers, while hers…
She tried to fight down tears. I never cry, she told herself, but even that weakness would not be denied.
Wulfston saw, and gently put his arms around her. “Please… we both know it’s best that you stay here. I know it wont help for me to tell you not to worry, but I promise you this: we will bring Lenardo back to you, safe and sound. I swear it.”
It was just as difficult to persuade Julia that she could not go along. “If I’d only developed Adept powers instead of Reading!” the girl fumed as she and Aradia stood on the quay, watching Wulfston’s ship sail out through the entrance to Dragon’s Mouth.
“Julia, we need a good Reader here, to follow their progress,” Aradia told her.
Julia did not dignify that offering with a response. She knew she was no more able than Wulfston’s Reader, Rolf, to tell where Sukuru’s ship was out on the ocean- and since it would be even father away by the time Wulfston caught up with it, they would have only the Watchers’ reports from Readers closer to the action to let them follow Lenardo’s rescue.
The ship dropped below the horizon, but Julia could still Read it, and Aradia Read through the girl. For a long while they stood there, but finally Julia put out her hand to Aradia-something the girl had never done before. “Let’s go back to the castle,” she said. “There’s nothing more we can do.”
“We can prepare for a homecoming party,” Aradia suggested, and Julia managed a small smile.
Together, Lenardo’s wife and his daughter walked up to the end of the quay, where servants waited to take them back to Castle Blackwolf.
All that day, Watchers sent Readers’ reports on the progress of the two ships, but by morning there was nothing more. The last thing anyone Read was that they had disappeared into a storm.
A storm, Aradia wondered, or an Adept battle? If the latter, then surely they would be home soon, for Wulfston’s powers were far superior to Sukuru’s.
But the next day passed with no word, and then a third day. Aradia did not sleep well the first two nights; she kept waiting for Lenardo’s mind to touch hers, and would not deliberately put herself into deep slumber lest she miss his first contact. She knew he would go out of body, to tell her as soon as he was safely on his way home!