
As Morgone said, there was no widespread dissatisfaction among Wulfston's people. Only the bandits
who preyed on travelers were unhappy that the new Lord of the Land did not take the attitude of
Drakonius, who had ignored them as long as they did not interfere with his plans for conquest.
Wulfston's first impulse had been to give the bandits fair warning to mend their ways—and then wipe out
the ones who refused to turn to farming, hunting, woodcutting, or other honest occupation. However, too
many outlaws were distrustful, having suffered many years of Drakonius' unpredictability. Furthermore,
they considered this new lord, with his preference for alliance over conquest, to be dangerously
weak—easy prey for the next Drakonius.
Over the nearly two years of Wulfston's reign, though, he had made the main roads safe. Many outlaws
had decided that the risks of being caught now that there were Readers in the land outweighed the risks
of pledging loyalty to the new lord. The rest moved northward, out of the area ruled by the alliance of
Adepts and Readers who called their union the Savage Empire.
It was not Torio who had persuaded Wulfston not to track down all the outlaws and summarily execute
them. It was Jareth, his chief adviser from among his newly inherited people, who had pointed out that
under Drakonius' rule many, many people had been so plundered as to be left with little choice except to
prey on others to survive. While the majority had returned gratefully to honest work at Wulfston's
invitation, there were enough suspicious ones that nearly everyone had kin or friend still outlaw.
Wholesale slaughter of the hill bandits might well have turned hesitantly loyal followers against Wulfston
once again.
Torio had agreed with Jareth, although for a Reader's reasons: enduring the pain and death of other
people turned any Reader against violence as a solution to violence.
After today's experience, though, he wondered if he could have been wrong. Might there have been less
suffering in the long run had the bandits been permanently eliminated? They had obviously taken
Wulfston's decision as a sign of weakness. How many other bands of minor Adepts were there? What
would they learn from what had happened today?
At least they would be easier to find in the future. This trip to Zendi was to meet with some of the
Readers who walked the Path of the Dark Moon—those who had not the strength or skill to attain the
rank of Magister or Master, but whose numbers had formerly made them the eyes and ears of an empire.
Wulfston intended to offer them his protection and a comfortable living in exchange for their forming such
a network in his land.
Today, though, there was only Torio. Having determined that there were no other bandits hiding within a
day's ride in Wulfston's lands, he Read along the little-used trail to the north, out beyond the border.
There, in the rough terrain where the chain of hills became the foothills of mighty mountains, Torio found a
camp. There must have been two hundred people, men, women, and children living in makeshift shelters,
tents, covered wagons, and pine-branch lean-tos. It was a sort of semipermanent community which could
easily pack up and move—as they seemed to be preparing to do soon.
The camp buzzed with excitement and expectation. Torio had no trouble Reading what was on every
mind: within the next few days their leaders would return to tell them they had killed the upstart Wulfston,
and they would move in and take over his lands, turning them into an outlaw kingdom where they could
live at ease, plundering the foolish ones who still toiled in the fields.
No one here knew that their leaders, those with some Adept powers, lay dead in the quarry far inside
Wulfston's lands. Not one had escaped to tell the tale.