They cut cross-country at a diagonal, struggling through thick, overgrown forest as they approached the area Lenardo had Read. The trees overhead obscured the stars; the underbrush forced them to twist and turn to. find a way through. Anyone but a Reader would be certain to lose himself in such wilderness.

It was well after midnight when they finally reached the wall, leading their tired horses. Julia stumbled with weariness. Lenardo wondered whether she would be able to make the climb and had her sit down on a fallen log to rest while he stripped the horses and began to lighten their packs to what they could carry on foot. Julia slid off the log onto the mossy ground, fast asleep.

He couldn't help smiling at the exhausted child, when suddenly one of his precognitive flashes revealed the earth heaving, trees fallingHe dropped the pack and fell on Julia, shoving her against the log and covering her with his body.

"Father, what- What're you doing!" she protested in a child's tired whine.

"Lie still!" he said, and then the earthquake came.

Beneath them the ground trembled; leaves and twigs rained down on them. Then they were lifted as if on an ocean wave, the log sheltering them falling away and then back as they were dropped. The horses screamed and crashed off into the woods as trees began to wave like stalks of grain. Lenardo tried to protect Julia as they were tossed and buffeted. Trees fell, slamming into other trees, ancient oaks tottering and ripping from their roots.

Above them, a huge mossy trunk swayed and creaked. If ever I needed Adept power- Lenardo thought, but he was powerless to do anything more than clutch Julia, trying to keep his body between her and falling debris as the monstrous trunk cracked and whipped-and broke, with a huge piece falling toward them in a majestic, slow, inevitable trajectory.

Chapter Six

In a strange suspension of emotion, Lenardo Read the giant piece of tree trunk falling, falling, turning end over end as it hurtled toward him and Julia. It would crush both of them if it struck. Helplessly, he recalled Aradia's lesson in how an Adept would use the laws of chance. The earth was still heaving, moving Lenardo and Julia in and out of the path of the falling trunk and at the same tune making it impossible for them to run or even roll out of the way. They and the huge log they sheltered against were being tossed like snowflakes in a whirlwind.

Hopelessly he wished, he willed-and then he blanked out his oncoming death, clutching the child and Waiting. The wood was a thundering symphony of crashes, cracks, thuds, and moans, but suddenly there was a bone-penetrating whomp in chorus with a crack like a lightning bolt. Then something fell across Lenardo's back, knocking the breath out of him and crushing Julia beneath him.

In the searing pain of struggling to breathe, it took Lenardo some time to realize that he was still alive. The earth's quaking had settled to small tremors, slowly dying away. He heaved himself to his knees, throwing off a splintered section of the tree trunk that could have spelled his death. Then he Read Julia, badly bruised and dazed but alive and fighting for breath.

He Read her carefully, finding no broken bones or internal injuries. Her ribs were bruised, but their youthful resiliency had kept them from breaking. Lenardo could not say the same for himself. A stabbing pain in his left side told him that ribs were broken before he Read them, but fortunately they were in place. A tight bandage would hold them so that they could heal. His left ankle, though, had hit or been hit by something. No bones were broken, but it was already swelling, and it was clear that he would not be able to walk on it.

But we're both alive, he told himself as Julia began to cough and choke and then wail with a child's pain and fear as she regained consciousness.

He took her in his arms, saying, "It's all right. It's over. You're not badly hurt, just had the breath knocked out of you. I'm here, Julia. You're all right."

Her hysteria subsided, and she began to Read him, feeling his broken ribs stab with every breath. //You're hurt!//

//It's not serious. You'll have to help me with bandages before we can go on.//

//I wish we had Sandor here.//

//So do I, but we can get along without Adept talents.//

He let her go and tried to straighten his back. As his ribs stabbed again, he also felt a burning ache diagonally across his back. He remembered something hitting him.

//What happened?// Julia asked. //A tree was falling on us. You thought it would kill us. Why didn't it?//

The night was too dark to see anything in the forest; the air was filled with dust raised by the quake. To Readers, though, that made no difference. Lenardo studied the destruction in their immediate area and saw that his instinct to shelter against the fallen log had been their salvation.

The huge piece of tree trunk had been falling toward them end over end. The dent in the fallen log and the splintered shafts of the trunk told Lenardo that it had hit the log end on and split into many pieces. One of those pieces had struck him, but much of the energy of its long fall had been dissipated in striking the log and splitting. This was a small piece; it might have cracked his spine but hadn't. He would ache for days, but he was alive.

Julia Read with him and then Read him very carefully. //You lie down,// she told him. //I'll find our packs.//

He helped her in the search by Reading, but Julia dug through the debris to their supplies. She brought the water pouch, and they each had a long drink. Then, with the aid

of Lenardo's knife, they tore up one of his tunics, washed the many cuts and abrasions both of them were covered with, and spread them with healing salve.

Aventine salve. Lenardo had carried it with him into the savage lands but had used none in the months when Adept healing power was readily available to him. He had automatically tossed it into his pack today without thinking, but now it reminded him that he was returning to a land where healing was done with salves and potions, splints and bandages, and occasionally the surgeon's knife. If only he could have made that treatyNo. Even the most benevolent of Adepts could not resist the lure of power. They could never be trusted-never!

Bandaging Lenardo's ribs proved extremely difficult, for Julia's childish hands had neither the skill nor the strength for the task. Finally he thought to knot a stick into the bandage and twist it tight and then tie it into place. Then he dared bend to bandage his ankle. It was swelling badly. How was he to climb over the wall now?

Panting from pain and exertion, Lenardo leaned back against the log and Read the wall nearby. Aventine construction was a fine art: it still stood. Furthermore, the leaning trees that he had intended to use as their bridge to freedom had fallen in the quake. They were trapped.

But no one knows where we are, he reminded himself, and everyone will be busy repairing quake damage.

He Read outward, wondering how much his injuries had impaired his powers. It was easy to Read to Adigia. The gate tower had fallen, but the wall and gates had held, as had most of the buildings in town. The farther north he Read, the less the damage. In Zendi, people were all awake, discussing the quake and looking for damage, but there was little; the center had been somewhere near where Lenardo and Julia were.

"Did Aradia and Wulfston make the earthquake to kill us?" Julia voiced the question Lenardo dared not bring to mind.

Although he had avoided Reading the Adepts, he replied, "No," grateful now that she had made him think about it. "No, they could not. To make an earthquake, Adepts have to know where there is a fault under the earth. Then they must be much closer than from Zendi to here. No, that was a natural earthquake."