Astra shook her head in confusion. “Why would he rescue Aventine citizens from a storm he created? He could have drowned them all. Zanos, you can’t suggest it was out of the goodness of his heart. Wulfston and Torio were the Reader/Adept pair who devastated the hospital at Gaeta!”
She was right-anyone capable of such an act would not be motivated by humanitarian principles. “I don’t know,” he replied. “But there’s more to these savages than we thought, Astra. We certainly can’t assume we understand them!”
The next morning, Vortius broke camp and continued north. Zanos and Astra did the same, using hill trails that paralleled the gambler’s course, but always kept them out of his sight. In recovering from his ordeal with the white lotus, Zanos had remembered that ten of the caravan’s packhorses carried nothing but sacks of gold, a fortune to rival the Emperor’s treasure house.
“That gold represents misery and death, all caused by Vortius,” he told Astra. “Before I kill him, I have to find out what he plans to do with it, why so many had to suffer for his greed.”
Zanos was unReadable, waiting for Astra to offer to try to Read Vortius’ plans. She refused to take the cue, reluctant to take part in his vengeance. I’m afraid again, but why fight if we don’t have to, and for no good reason?
When the caravan stopped to rest and feed the horses, so did Zanos and Astra. And that was when Zanos insisted on beginning his wife’s lessons in swordsmanship.
The short sword he gave her might have been light by his standards, but she found it unwieldy. And Zanos was a harsh taskmaster, insisting that she repeat the primary exercises until her shoulders ached and her palm was blistered-and although she put her best efforts into following his instructions, he soon lost patience.
“Astra, you’re not even trying!”
“Yes, I am!” she cried, throwing the sword away from her in disgust. “Zanos, I’m not a fighter! I can barely lift that thing, let alone make all those fancy moves.”
The gladiator took several deep breaths, obviously bringing his temper under control. “I’m sorry,” he said softly. “It may seem I’m asking too much of you,
but I know I’m not. You may not be a swordswoman, but you are a fighter. You fought the corruption in the Readers’ system-”
“No, I didn’t,” she said on a stab of shame. “Tressa wanted to fight it, but I was too frightened. I fought Portia only when she attacked first-she forced me to defend myself.”
“And we may meet attackers who will force you to do much worse,” Zanos stated matter-of-factly. He picked up the sword and wiped the blade clean. “Here.” He replaced it on the belt too large for Astra’s slim frame. “That’s enough practice for the moment, but I want you to keep wearing it.”
“Keep tripping over it, you mean!”
“You’ll learn to move with it. Come on-Vortius will be moving soon.”
They covered several miles of hill trails without exchanging a word. Astra’s powers monitored Vortius’
party without her having to concentrate on the task, leaving her conscious mind free to think about what she had left behind. Tiberium might have become too dangerous for her to stay there, but it had been home, and she missed it. She remembered teaching music to the young girls at the Academy, ignoring her current aches and pains by remembering-
Smoke!
She was jolted out of reverie by the sight and smell of a thick black cloud on the northwest horizon. Far too big to be a campfire.
“Zanos-”
“I see it,” he said, pulling up next to her. “Can you Read that far?”
It was about two miles away. “By the gods!” Astra breathed. “It’s a village being raided!”
“Vortius?”
“No. I don’t know who-”
Three score of men were setting fire to the wooden huts of people who could barely fight back. She saw a young girl carried off by an ugly brute who laughed at her terrified screams.
An adolescent boy snatched up a sword and ran at the man, only to be cut down from behind by another raider, who laughed, “Gotta share her now, Yorgo!”
Astra screamed at the boy’s death agony, and withdrew into herself, separating her mind from the pain.
Zanos touched her shoulder.
“I’m all right,” she said tersely. “But those people are being slaughtered!”
The gladiator looked to the east, then back at the smoke column. His indecision lasted only for a moment. “Come on!” he said, kicking his horse to a gallop.
Astra slapped her horse’s flank and took off after Zanos, the sword slapping against her thigh.
They rode into a scene of devastation. Bodies littered the ground, the cries of the dying mingled with the crackle of flames. Astra Read a handful of survivors as she and Zanos dismounted.
“Which one first?” he asked, eyeing the bleeding bodies.
Astra ran to the side of a girl of about twelve. She lay unconscious, a large gash in her right side. Even with her limited medical training, Astra could tell that no Aventine healer could stop that bleeding- but…
“Zanos-?”
He knelt beside her, placing his hands over the wound. The bleeding stopped almost immediately, and the girl drifted from unconsciousness to healing sleep as her severed flesh drew together.
As Astra began Reading other survivors, Zanos suddenly exclaimed, “This one!”
She whirled at the intensity of his voice, to find him kneeling over a leather-garbed man who writhed in pain. Her husband gripped the man’s upper right arm in anger, not concern.
“He’s one of the raiders, Zanos, not-”
“I know that! Read him for me!”
Startled at his tone and manner, Astra nonetheless complied. “Internal bleeding, and severed tendons in his upper calves.” She guided Zanos in stopping the bleeding and reconnecting the tendons, but in the midst of it their patient suddenly passed out.
“There,” Zanos said with satisfaction. “He’ll stay unconscious until I can question him.”
“Question him about what?” Astra wanted to know.
“Later. Right now there are his victims to help.”
With Astra’s guidance, Zanos used his healing powers on two other severely injured villagers, then asked,
“Are there any others in danger of death?”
“No, but-”
“Good.” But as he turned back toward the unconscious raider he coughed. Their eyes watered in the acrid smoke. “Maybe some of their homes can be salvaged,” said Zanos-and where he looked, the flames died away, revealing that several dwellings might be made habitable.
But Astra saw that Zanos’ efforts were depleting his strength. “Please,” she told him, “use your powers for healing.” There were still an old woman with a skull fracture and concussion, and a young man with a broken collarbone. Zanos worked on them while Astra Read the others-but when he joined her at the side of an unconscious middle-aged woman, he staggered against her, breathing heavily, close to exhaustion.
Just then a scream from behind them caused both Reader and Adept to turn. From the other side of the village came a young woman, hair loose and disheveled, shrieking an attack cry as she charged them with a sword.
The moment of surprise brought Astra’s Reading wide open. She could sense the girl’s frenzy and Zanos’
weakness in the same moment.
Instinctively, Astra jumped to her feet and stepped in front of Zanos-
Within five paces of Astra, the girl suddenly seemed to trip and fall. She landed at the Reader’s feet, unconscious.
With a sigh of relief, Astra turned to thank her husband, who was sinking back on his haunches, barely able to stay awake-
And only then did she realize that she had drawn her sword, and was gripping the hilt tightly with both hands.
Zanos woke to find himself lying on a straw mat in one of the huts he’d saved from the flames. Astra sat tailor-fashion not far from him, cleaning her sword with an oil-soaked rag.
“Good morning,” she said as he sat up. “How are you feeling?”