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arm. "Let go, Maldek. I
didn't restore your powers so you could hurt Melissa!"
"
You restored his powers?!" demanded Zanos. "Torio have you gone mad?"
"Perhaps," he replied. "At the time, there were dying people to be saved. But
now "
"Now you see how powers are to be used," said Maldek. "It's for good, Torio.
I'm not going to hurt
Melissa you'll see. Just ask her tomorrow."
Melissa's physical desire was increasing and then she stopped resisting as
Maldek reached into her very mind.
"No!" cried Torio. "She's exhausted with healing. Melissa fight him!"
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But her lovely eyes stared at him as if he were the one being unreasonable.
Maldek draped Melissa's arm over his. "If you won't fight for her, Torio, you
don't deserve her," he said, starting to lead her, unresisting, from the room.
"By Mawort!" exclaimed Zanos. "If you won't fight him, Torio, I will! Can you
call yourself a Reader and think she wants that beast?"
And Zanos picked up the carving knife from the table and flung it after
Maldek.
Of course it did not connect; without even turning, the Master Sorcerer
stopped it and let it clatter to the floor.
"Torio, do something!" pleaded Astra.
//Melissa!// he projected. //Break free, Melissa!//
And from somewhere deep within her mind, she answered, //Help me, Torio oh,
please // And the thought broke off as Maldek found that part of her
consciousness and turned it to desire for him as they started up the stairs
toward the part of the castle where his room was
Blessed gods! He is twisting her mind!
To his horror, Torio realized that he had actually doubted Melissa
It was all Maldek's doing!
He ran to the door of the dining hall, stared at Maldek's retreating back and
willed a thunderbolt to strike him!
The crack shook the walls, and Maldek fell to his knees only momentarily
stunned, for he had been braced for an attack.
But it was enough to make him lose concentration on Melissa. She pulled free
and ran down the stairs.
Maldek rose, laughing gleefuly, and turned to face Torio. "At last the
confrontation! Now my game comes to its final match!" And he flung lightning
in his turn.
Some new instinct caused Torio to draw the cold fire into his body as
protection Maldek's bolt bounced off him harmlessly.
He leaped for the Master Sorcerer, tackling him as Zanos had taught him, the
two of them rolling on the floor. He was peripherally aware of Zanos holding
Gray back, lest the dog join in the fray.
Maldek knew no ordinary defense for such an attack with his powers, why would
he ever need to learn it? So for a moment he was helpless with surprise.
Practice against Zanos' huge size and strength stood Torio well. The larger
man reached for his throat, and the Reader flipped him backward, to land with
a breathtaking crash.
But Maldek was no street brawler. Even as he drew a burning breath into his
lungs, he set Torio's shirt afire.
That was nothing, out in an instant.
But the instant was long enough for Maldek to recover and this time when he
reached for Torio his hands sent currents of pain through the Reader!
"Give it up, Torio," said Maldek. "The woman is mine!"
"No!" Torio gasped, struggling to break free. "Melissa is mine you have no
right to her!"
He remembered his powers once again, and drove the pain backward into Maldek,
conjuring the searing of cold fire into the sorcerer's nerves as he tried to
burn him out, put him back to what he had been, helpless to force Melissa
"Torio!
Torio
!"
It was Melissa's horrified voice that broke his concentration, her cool hands
that touched his, breaking him free from Maldek and taking the cold fire into
herself.
Only then did he realize that his hands had been about Maldek's throat,
choking the life from him. He felt her disbelief at what he had done and sank
into self-loathing as he realized that he had been brawling mindlessly over
the woman he loved, as if she were a piece of property. Shame burned his face.
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But Maldek grasped his opportunity. Melissa was touching him. Torio was too
distracted to oppose him.
The Master Sorcerer grasped Melissa's wrists and pulled her to him, reaching
out to take over her mind again, drawing her face to his for a kiss
From Melissa, the white fire burned through him for just one moment, shocking
him into dropping her hands, staring at her
As she stared back in shock. Then she looked down at her hands, concentrated,
and Torio Read the cold fire flow through her, too as it should have been at
her command ever since they had visited the
plane of power.
Maldek, Melissa, and Torio all climbed to their feet. Maldek reached toward
Melissa again, but she looked up into his eyes and said coldly, "Do not touch
me."
Then she turned to the Reader. "And you, Torio I thought you loved me. But
Maldek brought out your true feelings exactly the same as his. Conquest! Proof
of power! All you want is to possess me!"
There was no hiding Torio's shame in the feelings Maldek had brought out of
his subconscious. For that moment he had, indeed, wanted Melissa not for
herself but as the prize he battled for.
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