Empress Unborn se-7

  Empress Unborn

  ( Savage Empire - 7 )

  Jean Lorrah

  Jean Lorrah

  Empress Unborn

  Chapter One

  Aradia, Lady Adept of the Savage Empire, paced the halls of Castle Blackwolf as she waited impatiently for her husband, Lenardo, to bring home her brother, Wulfston.

  I’m already thoroughly tired of being pregnant, she thought, and I still have six months to go!

  She wondered if Lenardo was humoring her, or if he, too, was concerned about Wulfston. Her brother had invited them to come for a celebration, but once they arrived he did not seem happy with their company.

  In fact, today he had walked out in the middle of a family gathering.

  And Lenardo had followed him, taking Julia-but not Aradia.

  I shouldn’t ride horseback at this stage of my pregnancy, she reminded herself. Nonetheless, it felt as if her husband had chosen his adopted daughter over his wife.

  I will not have such irrational thoughts! Aradia told herself. Lenardo loves me. He will help me through this pregnancy, and afterward I will regain all my powers.

  But it galled her to rely on others, when all her life she had depended on her own strong Adept powers.

  Only six more months, she reminded herself, laying a hand on her abdomen. Alone, she could hardly tell there was a second life growing within her. With Lenardo, she had Read the tiny living creature that would become a little girl… but it did not seem real to her.

  Sometimes Aradia worried that she had no feelings of maternity. Physically, she noticed nothing so far except a slight thickening of her body; she could still move freely, and of course her powers kept her from the sickness many women suffered in their early months.

  But those powers were weakening. She was so strong an Adept that only she would notice, but there was a change from day to day in the effort it took to perform any but the most ordinary Adept functions.

  And for what? To give Lenardo a child… when he was so obviously contented with the one he had adopted? Perhaps if the child were a son, rather than another daughter. But not even an Adept could govern that.

  Where was Lenardo? Why hadn’t he brought Wulfston back? Aradia strode to the tower stairs, and climbed up to where a Watcher stood waiting for signals. There were none. The day was calm, the land serene.

  “Lord Wulfston is riding toward the sea, my lady,” the Watcher told her.

  Just then flashes of light flickered from a hilltop beyond which lay the ocean. “There is a ship putting people ashore,” the Watcher translated, although Aradia knew the code. “My lord is riding to investigate.”

  But how could Wulfston have known? No message had been brought to him. Why had the ship not sailed into the harbor at Dragon’s Mouth? Was it a prearranged meeting?

  The Watchers’ signals began again-fast and furious!

  Aradia read them as they came in, her heart sinking. Her brother was under Adept attack!

  Julia rode happily at her father’s side. Lenardo was shielding his thoughts by bracing for the use of Adept power, but Julia could still Read his excitement.

  She was certain he’d had one of his precognitive flashes, but he had learned to shield so that he did not catch up every Reader in the vicinity in his visions. Julia hoped this one meant action. She had eagerly looked forward to their visit to Castle Blackwolf, but it ad turned out as boring as her days in Zendi.

  e adventure than most people have in a lifetime. When Lenardo took her from the people who would have killed her for her Reading powers, she had become part of the small group of Readers and Adepts who defeated Drakonius, brought down the Aventine Empire, and created their own Savage Empire.

  But then her father had married Aradia, and while they cleaned out the hill bandits and forestalled insurrections to establish a firm rule, Julia had spent most of her time studying, usually with old Master Clement, the Master of Masters among Readers.

  Master Clement had been Lenardo’s teacher, and she was fortunate indeed to have the tutelage of the Master of Masters. Nevertheless, Julia often ached for the action of her younger days. Todays ride after a petulant Lord Wulfston was the closest thing to an adventure she had had in months!

  As Julia and Lenardo topped the crest of the hill over which Wulfston had disappeared, they saw a ship anchored not far off shore. It had put down boats, in which people were rowing toward land.

  Wulfston was already down on the beach, riding to greet these strangers. He became blank to Julia’s Reading as he braced Adept powers—

  Thunderbolts exploded around the lone rider!

  Wulfston leaped from his saddle and hit the ground rolling, bouncing to his feet in an Adept’s fighting stance.

  The Lord Adept used his power to deflect the thunderbolts. People began clambering out of the boats.

  He sent three of them sprawling on the sand in Adept sleep.

  From their vantage point, urging their horses down the hill, Lenardo and Julia saw Wulfston’s attackers fan out, dividing his attention. He needed a Reader at his side!

  Julia kicked her horse.

  “No!” her father warned her. “We can’t help Wulfston if we fall down the cliff.” And he continued to guide his horse along the precarious path.

  Julia did the same, but her attention was seized by the impact of a bolt of lightning on the beach.

  She looked and Read: Wulfston was momentarily blinded, and his horse, Storm, screamed and fell, taking long seconds to die in an agony of burnt flesh.

  Julia fought nausea, deliberately turning her attention to guiding her own mount down the steep trail.

  When she dared to Read the beach again, she saw that Wulfston had identified the most powerful Adept among his attackers: a tall man standing in one of the boats. Under the full fury of a Lord Adept nearing the peak of his powers, the man gasped once, and fell unconscious into the surf.

  With a glance, Wulfston dropped another man rushing at him from the right.

  But not even a Lord Adept could keep up such steady use of his powers! If someone still on the ship were an Adept—

  Apparently no one was. Wulfston walked into the waves to grasp the last boat and beach it. There were only two people now in it: a woman and a little boy, huddled together in fear.

  At the bottom of the hill, Julia and Lenardo spurred their horses.

  Wulfston whirled at their approach, braced again.

  Julia expected the Lord Adept to make some joke about their belated rescue attempt. Instead he stared as if he hardly knew them, until Lenardo demanded, “Are you all right?”

  Then the old Wulfston was back, releasing his Adept mental stance on a wave of inner amusement. “Yes, I’m all right,” he said. “But-” He sobered as he glanced toward the smoldering corpse of his favorite horse.

  Julia Read weariness overtaking him now that the danger was past. After such rapid and extensive use of his powers, a Lord Adept needed to rest. Wulfston, though, started toward the man he had knocked out of the boat, who floated facedown in the water.

  Lenardo swung down off his horse and helped Wulfston drag the man ashore. “Why did you come out to face these people alone?”

  “I didn’t,” Wulfston replied shortly.

  “Well, you must have had some reason to leave a celebration at your own castle and go riding this far south! I should have been Reading.”

  Julia could Read her lather’s guilt. He could easily have Read the ship from Castle Blackwolf if he had not been relaxed, his attention on family and friends.

  But Wulfston could not Read, and was pursuing his own train of thought. “I was… restless. Something drew me to this place, to these people.”

  As she studied the people who had come ashore, Juli
a was not surprised that Wulfston had gone out to meet them. “But why did they attack you?” she asked.

  “I don’t know, Julia,” Wulfston replied. “I don’t even know who they are.”

  “You don’t?” she asked, Reading only bafflement from him. “But Wulfston, they’re all black-just like you!”

  The Watchers reported Wulfston’s defeat of his attackers, so Aradia had calmed herself by the time her family returned to the castle. It had cost all her patience to obey Lenardo’s instructions to stay, after he finally bethought himself to contact her.

  After all the excitement was over.

  Aradia’s Reading abilities were minimal, but Lenardo was the most powerful Reader yet known. He and Wulfston were rowing out to the ship before his mind touched hers, letting her look through his eyes, Read through his powers that her brother was unharmed.

  Assigning Julia to escort their captives to the castle, the two lords boarded the ship and instructed the Nubian captain and crew to move the ship into Dragon’s Mouth.

  Their interrogation of the ship’s crew provided little information. The ship had been hired by one Sukuru, the Adept who had attacked Wulfston. He and the others who had gone ashore were the only passengers, and the captain had asked no questions about their strange destination. They paid him, and he took them where they wanted to go. All the way from Africa.

  The mystery plagued Aradia long after Lenardo broke contact, and she went down to see the captives being brought to the castle. Sukuru was carriea in unconscious. The other men were obviously awed, and the woman with the little boy would say nothing. She was veiled, so that only her eyes showed, but mahogany skin was revealed around her eyes and on her hands. Every one of these people was as black as Wulfston.

  More irrational thoughts flickered through Aradia’s mind: in retaliation for her jealousy of Lenardo’s adopted daughter, some god she didn’t believe in had sent these people to take away her beloved adopted brother.

  But Wulfston had not come from Africa.

  His parents did, she reminded herself.

  What if he were the long-lost heir to an African throne?

  Then why did they attack him?

  Besides, he had his own throne right here, his own lands, his own people.

  And he is feeling restless, unhappy. …

  The moon was riding high by the time Lenardo and Wulfston returned. Lenardo wanted Aradia to go right to bed, but she insisted on talking to Wulfston first.

  She knew where to find him: an Adept had to replenish his strength, and his cook had prepared him a meal worthy of three ordinary men. He should have eaten hours ago, and long since been asleep, so it was little wonder Aradia found him uncooperative.

  “But why did you go out there in the first place?” she wanted to know. She was really asking why he seemed so alien, and his response only heightened the impression.

  “Aradia, why do you ask me when you know I don’t have the answer? Don’t give me that innocent look.

  I know that you were in contact with Lenardo the whole time.”

  You’re wrong there, little brother, she thought, but Wulfston continued, “For the last time, I don’t know why I left a celebration I’m supposed to be hosting and went riding along the cliffs. Now, will you please leave me alone?”

  His harsh words wounded. Reader or no, Wulfston must have realized it, for he reached across the table to put his hand over hers. “I’m sorry. I–I guess I’m more upset than I want to admit… especially about losing Storm like that.”

  She nodded in sympathy. Wulfston had planned to use the beautiful stallion to improve his stock, but it was more than that. He had always had a strong affinity for animals.

  “Do you think it’s possible,” she asked tentatively, “that you might have… Read that the ship was there?”

  To learn Read was his fondest dream-and Aradia, too, yearned to meet her brother mind to mind.

  There were times, such as now, when words were inadequate.

  But Wulfston shook his head. “If I could sense a strange ship several miles away-which neither Lenardo nor Julia did until they started following me-then I should be able to pick up someone’s thoughts nearby.

  But nothing has changed for me. I don’t know what drew me into that confrontation, but it wasn’t Reading. I’m still your mind-blind little brother,” he said with a rueful chuckle.

  Yet something had drawn him away from his family-something that frightened Aradia.

  When she went upstairs to the room she shared with Lenardo, her husband was already in bed, although still awake. His mind met hers, Reading her conversation with Wulfston and the vague, unsettling fears this day had brought.

  Without speaking, Lenardo got up and pulled on a soft woolen robe against the castle’s chill. Aradia’s maid was in the antechamber, waiting to help her mistress undress, but Lenardo went to the door and told her, “Go on to bed, Devasin. I will help the Lady Aradia tonight.”

  Devasin handed Lenardo Aradia’s chamber garments, and Lenardo closed the door. Then he turned to his wife. “You are upset.”

  “My brother was attacked today.”

  “His attackers were fools. Aradia, their combined powers are nothing to Wulfston’s. He didn’t need my help, or Julia’s. By the time we got there, the battle was over.”

  “I know. Yet… Lenardo, I have such a strange feeling about these people. Why have they come here, all the way from Africa?”

  “We’ll find out tomorrow,” he reassured her, and reached to take off her outer robe of silver-bordered velvet. Then he unhooked the satin overgarment, and helped her out of the layers of silk undergarments and into her chamber robe.

  She didn’t really need the help, of course, but her husband’s hands made every move a caress, soothing away her unexplained anxiety.

  When she sat down and began to unbraid her hair, Lenardo’s strong hands took over that function, too, untangling the pale blond strands, then brushing them smooth.

  Such ministrations were not routine. Lenardo did not even have a valet, having grown up in an Academy of Readers. Once he had professed surprise that a Lady Adept should require a maid to dress her, but he accepted Devasin as custom, and usually left Aradia to her care.

  Tonight, though, when Aradia needed the comfort of her husband’s touch, he gave it, putting her to bed as tenderly as he might a child. Then he lay down beside her, taking her in his arms.

  Lenardo was a tall man, with a body well formed by years of work and exercise. Aradia rested against him, feeling the lean hardness of his muscles irrationally reassuring. Even diminished by pregnancy, her powers far outweighed the physical strength of any man, even one as huge as Zanos the Gladiator.

  Nonetheless, she felt secure in her husband’s arms.

  Perhaps it was that Lenardo, with only Reading and no Adept powers, had proved his strength to her when they first met, defending her with his sword when she had exhausted her powers in their first battle with Drakonius. Later, Lenardo had learned to develop the Adept portion of his powers, but since exercising the abilities to affect the physical world with the mind impeded Reading, he had never become a Lord Adept. Master Reader satisfied him, and he satisfied her, in every possible way.

  “Lenardo?” she murmured.

  “Hush,” he said. “Go to sleep. We’ll talk in the morning.”

  “No-tell me. What did you see today?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I thought you were just humoring me when you went after Wulfston-but now I wonder. You had one of your visions, didn’t you?”

  For a moment he didn’t answer. Then, “Yes,” he said reluctantly.

  “What was it? Did you see him being attacked?”

  Again the pause, and even though Lenardo was far too skilled to let someone of Aradia’s meager ability Read what he didn’t want her to, she knew with a wife’s certain knowledge that he was considering lying to her. But he didn’t. “I saw Wulfston on board ship, that Nubian woman and her c
hild beside him, sailing away to the south.”

  Her skin prickling with cold sweat, Aradia whispered, “I was right! They are here to take him away!”

  His arms tightened about her. “We don’t know that. Aradia, you know how my flashes of precognition are. Yes, they always come true-but never in the way I expect. Wulfston may just sail a few miles south on that ship. Or he may decide to go and do some trading in our visitors’ lands.”

  “After they attacked him the moment they saw him?”

  “He was not a prisoner in my vision,” Lenardo offered. “He was standing freely on deck, urging the captain to hurry southward. Aradia, he wasn’t hurt, and he was clearly in charge. Wulfston is a grown man-you can’t think of him as your little brother forever.” — “Little, no. But Lenardo, he is my brother forever.

  Remember what Torio said? ‘Wulfston must seek his destiny far away, only to find where he began.’ ‘

  “Torio!” Lenardo snorted. “Don’t start me thinking about Torio, Aradia. I should never have let him go off to Madura, just when he had developed a new talent. And of all the irresponsible acts after he learned Adept powers there, to go wandering off who knows where instead of coming home here, where you and Master Clement and I could train him!”

  Aradia let him fume, knowing that having a second student he had trained go off to use his powers in unknown and possibly dangerous ways frightened Lenardo. He felt responsible for those he taught.

  It was his search for Galen, the student who had gone over to his enemies, that had originally brought Lenardo into Aradia’s path some five years ago.

  There was nothing she could say, except that she knew Torio to be strong-willed and unlikely to be used as Drakonius had used Galen. But the boy was young, inexperienced. He had learned strange things in Madura, according to the reports he had sent with Zanos and Astra. Lenardo’s fears that he might be tricked into using his developing powers for evil were certainly justified, and Aradia agreed wholeheartedly that Torio should have returned to his friends. But he hadn’t. And there was nothing Lenardo could do about it except worry.

  At last he came back to the original subject. “Anyway, prophecies are just like my visions: incomplete and misleading.”