"No, no, Julia." He took her in his arms, trying to reassure her. "I'll never let Portia have you."

It all fit together now: Years ago, when he was tested for the rank of magister, Lenardo had failed Portia's personal test. He had been completely sincere in his adherence to the Reader's Code, just as Master Clement had taught him. So he had been sent back to Adigia, perhaps to die in one of Drakonius' raids but certainly to be kept ignorant of the true power of the Council of Masters. And Portia would never let him on that council.

When he volunteered for exile to stop Galen, Portia had been agreeable, even eager, after Master Clement had elevated Lenardo to Master rank. She had not expected him to return. Julia was right. All Portia had to do was have someone "recognize" Lenardo, reveal his brand, and irate citizens would kill him. Master Clement need never know that it was other than tragic chance.

And when I am dead, what will happen to Julia? The child clung to him. She had no faith left in him, but she also had no one else. He had failed her, failed all his responsibilities, had never wanted any beyond those of a teacher in an Academy. He was not a questioner, and so he had failed Galen, who was.

I don't know what I am. Other people always define me.

Reader. Fate had made him that.

Teacher. Master Clement had encouraged his star pupil to remain in the Academy.

Traitor. Galen's treachery had prompted the plan; Galen's words spoken by Lenardo had sealed his doom.

Exile. Portia's plan to be rid of him, the dragon's-head brand on his arm defining him for all to see.

Lord of the Land. Aradia had made him that.

Father. Julia's idea, not his, but he had accepted it.

I accepted it all, and then I ran away from it all. Failed, even at being an exile, for here I am, home again.

Where Portia had expected him to fail, he hadn't-and one other thing he had not failed at. He was a Reader, the most powerful Reader ever known. Portia had attempted today to define him as a failed Reader by allowing him into her presence. But… I do not accept her definition!

His powers were the one thing no one else could give or take away, and through them he must get Julia to a place of safety. They had sneaked into the Aventine Empire, and they would sneak out again. Portia would not expect it; she didn't know what Julia had Read in the scroll, and she expected Lenardo to do exactly what he had always done before: whatever she told him. Besides, she thought that he had no place to go.

But I have a land to rule!

Wulfston was alone in Zendi now, still telling people that he was Lenardo's regent. /'// make him live up to it, Lenardo thought in sudden glee. Wulfston's definition, but I'll make it come true. I'll ride into town, thank him in a public ceremony, and politely throw him out.

Thank the gods, Aradia had gone back to her own land. Lenardo would not have to face her again until he had truly established himself as the lord his people expected. That meant using his powers, not fearing them. If he decided to define himself once and for all as Lord of the Land, he must be prepared openly and honestly to exercise power.

Let the corruption in the Aventine government work until it destroyed itself. Lenardo and his allies would be waiting just beyond the pale, ready to take advantage. There would be no need to attack; Lenardo's powers would tell them the right moment to move in. Aradia, Wulfston, and Lilith would welcome him back on those terms.

Aradia. She had been dishonest with him, but was her drugging him really that much worse than his plan to seduce her, not because he loved her but to blunt her powers? She had not intended to harm him. Her motive had been to conceive a child.

Suddenly what he had overheard at Portia's Academy today flashed into his mind. Celia, the healer's patient, had feared that she was not pregnant because her flux had begun. Aradia-Aradia had assumed the same thing.

Aradia may be carrying my child. Blessed gods, why was I so angry I did not think to Read her to be certain?

He knew what to do now. He could easily Read Castle Nerius from here, contact Aradia, and Read her condition. She had been so positive she was pregnant, terribly disappointed that she was not.

She is. I'm sure she is, and with a child to unite us, we will find a way to work together. She will help me now, once I get out of the empire.

"Julia," Lenardo told the weeping child, hugging her, "I know what to do now. We're going back to Zendi!"

She looked up at him. "Can we?"

"We came all this way, didn't we? We escaped Aradia and Wulfston. We survived an earthquake. What can a few Readers do to us? Now wash your face and go to sleep, because we're going to sneak away in the middle of the night. I'll wake you."

She clung to him, daring tentative hope. "Yes, Father."

Lenardo tucked her into bed, supervising the meditation exercise he had taught her to send her to sleep despite her excitement. Then he Read outward, beyond the city, beyond the pale, to Castle Nerius. There he had first met Aradia, helped to cure her father, and fought in the battle of Adepts. There Aradia had made him a lord.

Bright moonlight flooded the landscape as Lenardo "traveled" in his mind. Strange-from here he ought to "see" the castle towers. Hopeful expectation turned to concern and then to fear. He found the hills, the road, the forest. In a nearby field, the flat rock where they built the funeral pyres lay empty, cold in the pale moonlight.

As he approached the castle, his anxiety increased, and then he saw it, its walls and towers fallen, smoke rising from the remains of the houses that had clustered about its gate. There was no sign of life.

She's dead! By all the gods, I deserted her, and now she's dead, and our child with her!

Lenardo's panic subsided slightly as he remembered that he had Read Aradia in Zendi only a few hours before. She could not possibly have reached home yet, could not have been in the castle when it was blasted.

He found her in the rocky hills on the border between their lands, alive but besieged, trying desperately to Read where the blows were coming from that struck all around her. People and horses lay dead, and as Lenardo watched, another thunderbolt roared down just beside Aradia's horse. The horse screamed and reared. She fought it down and turned, constantly moving, zigzagging, for if she stopped, she became an easy target. There was no place to hide.

Her Reading powers could not begin to cover the distance between her and her attackers, until Lenardo Read with her. When his mind touched hers, she gasped.

//Lenardo! Where are you? Oh, Lenardo, I'm so sorry.//

//So am I. Read with me!//

He guided her northward, to where a circle of Adepts surrounded a Reader relaying instructions to them. //Get the Reader,// Lenardo instructed, but to project to Aradia, he projected to the renegade Reader as well. Aradia went blank to Reading to exercise her Adept power, and the thunderbolt she cast sizzled through the ground where he had been a moment before.

"It's Lenardo," the Reader told his Adept cohorts. "Even with him to guide her, Aradia's only one against four. Keep moving!"

The Reader… was Galen.

//But he's dead,// said Aradia.

//We never found his body,// Lenardo reminded her.//

//And I've fought one of those Adepts before: Hron. He and Galen must have survived the battle last spring. Never mind. Ride for Zendi while I distract them.//

//Is that where you are?//

//No, but I'll be there as soon as I can. Ride!//

Lenardo could sense that Galen was equally confused, Reading what Lenardo projected but unable to find him physically to give the Adepts a target. They would return to trying to kill Aradia unless he could distract them somehow. An idea formed slowly, a deception through Reading. Was it possible?