Sorcerers of the Frozen Isles se-5 Page 8

  Young Zanos sat on the pier, sunburned, hands blistered from the net he was trying to repair with as yet unskilled hands. He’d rather have been out with the fishing fleet, but his father insisted that he wait until he was ten-“Then maybe ye’ll get some strength to ye, lad!”

  The first of today’s small fishing vessels were back already, and the air was redolent with the smell as women cleaned the fish that would become tonight’s supper all through the village, throwing the refuse off the pier for the gulls.

  The strangers, it seemed, were looking for a tavern. The village had only old Walvo’s, where jugs of mead or ale were sold to be carried home. The newcomers insisted that would be fine-“We’ve got a great thirst on us,” said their leader, whose sunburst tattoo attracted Zanos’ immediate attention.

  Maybe one day he would leave this small village and see the world. Maybe he would wear a tattoo like that one-which he saw on other arms and realized marked every member of the ship’s crew. Many wore gold hoop earrings, too-and one man’s grin displayed a golden tooth!

  As the scouts waved the others ashore, Zanos left his work and tagged along in wide-eyed delight, only to lose the strangers’ attention to the village girls until their mothers called them in to help with supper.

  Then the sailors, who could not possibly have all crowded into Walvo’s, sat on the sandy beach and played games with dice, or with throwing knives.

  In the hubbub, Zanos found it easy to pretend he couldn’t hear his mother calling him as he mingled with the strangers, finding the ones who spoke some Maduran, begging for stories of far-off lands.

  As the tide came in, so did the rest of the fishing fleet. The village men were none too happy to find their wives cooking extra food for strangers who had brought pins, scissors, and small, sharp paring knives-or their sons and daughters hanging on the sailors’ every word.

  But the sailors bought a round of ale for everyone, and handed out glass and cork floats for the fishnets-and soon what had started as an ordinary day turned into one big party.

  Zanos’ older brother, Bryen, had been out with the fishing fleet-he had just turned eleven, and had gone out with their father for a year now. Zanos’ had envied him-until today, when Bryen had missed half the fun.

  But now Bryen came to spoil Zanos’ fun. “Mother needs you to do your chores, Zanos!” the older boy announced. “She needs kindling cut and water drawn-hurry up, now!”

  All the household chores had fallen to Zanos once his brother started going out with the fleet, and he resented being the younger, smaller one, getting stuck ashore. I’ll show Bryen, he thought.

  I’ll sneak aboard that ship and sail away-and-when I come back I’ll be as rich as those sailors, with gifts for everybody!

  Muttering to himself, he set about his chores with bad grace-but as he trudged from the well with two heavy water buckets suspended from the yoke across his shoulders, he heard a sudden commotion from the beach. Looking down toward it, he saw that the ship had come in on the tide, and was now anchored at the end of the pier-and in the light of the flickering fires they had built on the beach at sunset, people were milling about-To his horror, Zanos saw two sailors grab one of the village men and stab him through the heart!

  Others were reaching for the women, shoving them toward the pier as they drew their weapons and slew unarmed fishermen right and left.

  Letting the water buckets fall, Zanos sped toward his home, shouting, “Mother! Hwelda! Run-runV

  His mother and his sister came to the door of their cottage to see what the commotion was.

  “Run! Hurry!” Zanos cried as he ran up to them and tried to grab their hands and pull them toward the garden, where the smell of roses filled the air.

  “Hwelda-go with Zanos!” their mother directed, and started toward the beach.

  “Mother-no!” cried Hwelda. She was fifteen, stocky, and too strong for Zanos to hold. All he could do was tag after the two women, begging them to come back.

  Then they saw Zanos’ father and brother running toward them. “Go back!” shouted their father. “Up the hill and onto the moor! Hurry!”

  But five sailors ran after them-Zanos’ mother screamed as she saw her husband struck down from behind, brains and blood splashing across her feet.

  With a shrieking wail, she fell to her knees beside her husband-and the same sailor stabbed her in the back. She slumped across her husband’s body.

  Hwelda screamed, and began to keen in the way of the village women at the death of one of their family.

  Zanos stood frozen in disbelief-this could not be happening!

  Bryen somehow came to his senses. “Hwelda-come on!” he cried. “Zanos-help me!”

  Bryen grasped his sister’s hand on one side, Zanos on the other-but the five sailors caught the three children easily. “Let go, damn you!” growled one with a blond beard, trying to shake Bryen’s grip off Hwelda’s arm. “Let me see what I’ve caught!”

  “No! Let my sister alone!” shouted Bryen.

  “Let her alone!” Zanos echoed, taking courage from his brother.

  The sailors laughed, and one shoved Zanos aside, another grabbing his arms as he tried to reach for Hwelda’s hand again. He squirmed and kicked, but aroused only laughter in his captor. “This one’s got spirit,” said the sailor. “With that red hair and hot temper, he’ll bring a good price in Tiberium!”

  Bryen was still trying to haul Hwelda away-and for a moment succeeded in dragging the trembling girl loose from the grip of her captors. “That’s enough!” said one of them-and with his sword he slashed off Bryen’s hand.

  The hand still clung to Hwelda’s wrist as she shrieked again. Bryen made no sound, but fell to his knees, eyes wide in disbelief as he instinctively clasped his good hand around his mutilated wrist.

  “You’ve ruined a good laborer, damn you, Shoff!” exclaimed the blond-bearded one. Then he turned Hwelda toward the light, and cursed roundly. “This one’s fat and freckled-the boy’d have brought three times as much! No use taking any but pretty women in the space we’ve got!” And he grabbed Hwelda’s hair, tilted her head back, and slit her throat.

  “We’ll take that one,” he added, pointing at Zanos-and the boy found himself being picked up bodily and carried toward the pier.

  “No!” he shouted, kicking as hard as he could.

  The blond one paid no attention as he turned with his knife to dispatch Bryen-but over his captor’s shoulder Zanos saw that his brother was gone.

  “Should I go after him?” asked one of the other men.

  “Nah-he’s no good now. He’ll bleed to death anyhow. Come on-let’s get down there and see if we can catch us a good woman!”

  Zanos’ memory came to an abrupt halt, as his eyes traveled about the circle of his friends and he realized that all the Readers had experienced it with him.

  Then he stood, grabbed up his half-dry woolen cloak, and stalked out of the cottage.

  “Zanos-” Torio began.

  “Let him go,” said Astra. “He has dreamed of coming back for so long, and finding his home still here, his brother still alive. Now he must come to terms with the reality.”

  “Maldek did it on purpose!” Dirdra said angrily, the only one who had not experienced the vision. “He must have Read what Zanos was searching for-and he brought us right here, just to hurt him!”

  “He said we would each find what we came looking for,” said Melissa. “At least Zanos came with the knowledge that it was possible he would find his home exactly like this.”

  But some time later, leaving the women to get ready for their journey, Torio went out to find Zanos.

  The gladiator sat huddled in his cloak, on one of the mounds of stone on the beach. He was unReadable, using his Adept powers to keep warm. Wordlessly, Torio handed him leggings and boots.

  Under that gray sky, even Zanos’ fire-red hair seemed faded. The drizzling rain obscured the cottages from the beach. Torio stopped visualizing, wondering how nonReaders coped
by sight alone on such days-it was less depressing, too, merely to Read where he was going by the “feel” of it, without having to see the bleakness of the seascape.

  Even the waves pounding the shore sounded desolate in Torio’s ears. Zanos, though, had recovered some of his optimism. “I knew it might be like this,” he said. “Just because no one’s living here anymore, that doesn’t mean my brother isn’t living somewhere else. I didn’t see him die-he had the strength to run away from the slavers. Men have recovered from such wounds. Since our home is gone, it will simply be harder to find him, that’s all.”

  And Torio felt the sea wind whip through his cloak again as the roar of the waves sounded for a moment more like the rumbling of doom, bearing down upon them in their helpless darkness. Yet… “When you find your brother,” he said, “he will have his hand again.”

  Zanos stared at him. “Is that-?”

  “Yes. I don’t know how I know it, and I don’t know any more than what I just told you… but you will find your brother.”

  The gladiator managed a small smile. “Thank you, Torio… even though I somehow knew that much myself.”

  But then Melissa called, “Torio! Zanos! We’re ready!” and the two men joined the three women for the long, weary journey to the town Torio had found.

  Everything went amazingly as planned. Although they were all weary when they arrived-especially the three with Adept powers, who had shored everyone up along the way-there were actually rooms at the inn, and Torio and Dirdra were able to haggle down the price of horses so that all could ride in the morning.

  After a good meal, they retired to their rooms just as most people were arriving at the inn. Dirdra took the first watch-on the assumption that if anyone planned to attack them, it would be later, when it was more likely for travelers to be asleep. After four hours, she woke Torio, for the Adepts were the ones who needed to restore their energies.

  He Read all secure-suspiciously so. Had Maldek forgotten them? Been distracted by something else?

  Or was it part of his game to give them this time to recover? Possibly he had some notion of fair play, or simply lost interest if his opposition were too easy to defeat. Torio longed to go out of body to spy on Maldek, but dared not do so without someone guarding his body. So he Read as far as he could, and waited.

  Whatever the reason, absolutely nothing happened that night, and in the morning the travelers ate a hearty breakfast and set off on the road north to the capital city.

  It was a two-day ride-and Torio could Read no place to break their journey except within the forest.

  Although there were many people on the road when they left the seacoast town, the farther north they traveled the fewer people they saw, and the worse the road became.

  They had bought some more layers of warm clothing before leaving town, and today the sun shone, although the breeze was brisk. Once they were a few miles away from the sea wind, they were actually comfortable on their ride. Everyone cheered up.

  Until they entered the forest. It loomed abruptly, like a wall across the road ahead-although once they got there they could see the road disappearing into it. Huge trees cut off the sun, and met above the roadway-which in many places was overgrown to a narrow path where they had to ride single-file.

  Dense undergrowth spread in every direction, and beneath the canopy of trees the sunny day became dim as twilight.

  The Readers kept a watch for dangers, and for the proper trail, for there were often forks and byways.

  Off in the woods, a few deer fled at the sound of their passage, but wolves and bears sniffed the air and listened, deciding whether they were hungry enough to risk attacking.

  Although he Read no people in the forest, Torio was reminded powerfully of a journey he had made with Wulfston over a year ago, when the roads between Zendi and Wulfston’s lands were not yet free of bandits. Noticing Dirdra shivering, not with cold but with apprehension, he said, “Don’t worry-you’re with Readers and Adepts. We can handle wild animals, or anything else that comes along.” And, to pass the weary miles, he began to tell of the adventure he had had that day with Wulfston.

  As he and Wulfston rode through the glorious spring afternoon, Torio Read carefully ahead. Nothing difficult lay before them; the streams had calmed from their recent torrents, and they could relax and enjoy a pleasant ride.

  Suddenly, though, something out of the ordinary impinged on Torio’s contentment. “Wulfston-there’s a band of men waiting in that wood ahead of us.”

  “Can you Read anything about them? Fear? Anger?”

  “Some of both. They haven’t seen us yet… but we’re what they’re waiting for. It’s an ambush!”

  “Foolish!” said Wulfston. “You’d think they’d know by now that with a Reader to guide him, a Lord Adept is practically invulnerable. Do you recognize anyone?”

  “No-not your people. Hill bandits, from their dress. They might be waiting to try to take any travelers who come along.”

  “They probably don’t know you’re a Reader, even if they’ve recognized me.” The black Adept knew well how conspicuous he was. “Are they on both sides of the road?”

  “Yes.” Torio explained how far ahead their would-be attackers were, and watched as Wulfston concentrated.

  Torio didn’t know what the Adept would do. He must find a way to work with nature, not waste his strength working against her, for they had spent the morning aiding flatlands villagers to dig a well to water their fields in the dry season, Torio guiding and Wulfston using his Adept power to break through rock layers and hold back the debris so that the villagers could shovel it out without hindrance. The Adept had used considerable power, but had taken only a meal and a short rest before they started for home.

  Torio feared Wulfston would use fire against their ambushers-it was one of the first powers he had learned to use as a child, and once started, it would take on a life of its own.

  But the woods were full of new growth, baby animals—

  Before Torio could draw breath to protest against fire, he Read that Wulfston had called upon a different power. On one side of the road, a mother bear stood up and sniffed the air, scenting the gathered bandits as danger to her cubs. She began lumbering in their direction as on the other side a pair of wolves herded their young into their den and set off at a lope toward the second group of hiding men.

  Ordinarily, both bear and wolves would have ignored the men near the road, for the animals were not hungry and the men had made no actual move toward their cubs. But under Wulfston’s strange power to

  “call” animals, they moved swiftly through the underbrush.

  Wulfston urged his horse forward, Torio following.

  The bear broke through the brush behind the first group and rose to her full height with a growl. Horses shied and men panicked, dashing for the road as across from them the pair of wolves raced between the legs of the other gang’s horses, nipping and snarling.

  Both groups of bandits swarmed onto the road, running into each other as Wulfston and Torio converged upon them. The Adept raised his hand, and a thunderbolt roared toward the terrified men, missing the nearest of them by a handspan.

  All three wild animals, released from Wulfston’s hypnotic power, turned tail and ran back into the woods at the flash and noise, but the bandits fled along the road, Wulfston and Torio now in pursuit.

  “We didn’t have to chase them far,” Torio finished, noting with satisfaction that his audience were all grinning at the image of the fleeing bandits. “I’m sure they’re still spinning tall tales of the day they had the bad judgment to ambush a Lord Adept-although we never saw them again.”

  “I wish I’d been there,” said Melissa. “I’ve never seen Lord Wulfston use that ability-but Torio, don’t you agree that it has to be related to Reading? How does he know there are any animals out there to call?”

  “I don’t know,” Torio replied. “All I know is that it works-but nothing any of us have done can get Wulfston to le
arn to Read, any more than I can learn Adept tricks.”

  “You will,” said Zanos. “It’s all the same-”

  Suddenly, without warning, the wind rose, howling into cyclone force right there in the’ middle of the forest. Trees whipped, birds screamed, and the five travelers had to fight their terrified horses. Ahead of them, huge trees were ripped up by the roots-and fell right across the path they had to take.

  It was over as fast as it had come, the wind dropping to nothing, forest debris floating down through the dappled light, the birds and animals still silent in their fear.

  With one mind, the Readers Read outward to their limits-but they could find no sign of Maldek or anyone else spying on them. Then they turned to the trees in their path-four of them, tangled into a pile that thoroughly blocked their way forward.

  “This is only the beginning,” said Zanos. “We don’t have the physical strength to shove them aside. Is there a way around?”

  The better Readers only confirmed what the gladiator already knew: there was not.

  “Then it’s fire,” said Zanos. “I’ll start it. Astra, Melissa-you confine it, so it just gives us a path. I’ll have to concentrate on keeping it small. We don’t want to start a forest fire.”

  Torio was accustomed to Wulfston’s Adept strength; this situation would hardly have been a challenge to him. But Zanos’ powers were small compared to Wulfston’s; he coaxed a small flame to begin among the dry leaves, then guided it along a branch to the trunk. It was slow work, as they dared not let it leap into flames which might be beyond the powers of the three with Adept ability to control.

  It took almost an hour, first to guide the fire, then to Read for every spark and make certain it was completely out before they could ride their horses over the ashes now paving the trail.

  And no sooner were they beyond that wearying task than Torio Read a pack of wolves slinking up on them, fearful but hungry.

  This trial was easier. Astra said, “I’ll scare them off,” and reached for the animals’ minds with hers. It was a technique neither Torio nor Melissa had studied, but they knew it was the way Readers treated sick minds, combined with Adept powers. Astra let herself Read the wolves’ simple thoughts and desires, then somehow, becoming unReadable, twisted them so that instead of five people and five horses-potential food-the wolves saw five huge, angry bears. Saw them, smelled them-and turned tail and ran.