Telepath

by Jolea M. Harrison

  Dynan pushed away from the table, meaning to do exactly that. Dain was right. There wasn’t any reason now to uphold that vow. The idea he’d be married under normal circumstances was as alien to him as the local plant life. It wasn’t going to happen like that anymore. He didn’t want to wait. This girl was as good as any for what he had in mind.

  Xavier and Boral came through the door as Dynan stood. Boral set on him about the amount of food he wasn’t eating. Xavier nodded the maid out of the room when he noticed her, and that was the end of any thought or hope of doing anything with her. Dynan never saw her again.

  “You have the worst luck,” Dain said, but he was laughing.

  “Shut up.”

  He didn’t shut up or stop laughing for quite some time.

  Xavier wanted to talk about their future prospects, bleak though they were and kept Dynan well into the evening. After that thoroughly depressing meeting, Carryn finally woke up.

  By the time Dynan got there, she was sitting up in bed, sipping a mug of warm tea Dain had gotten her. He had already explained the details of what happened. She rubbed the red line at Dynan’s neck when he sat down at the edge of the bed.

  “He didn’t know it was you,” she said of Dain, her eyes worried. She always seemed worried about something and Dynan was starting to see why.

  He nodded that he understood. “Do you know what happened? You have visions?”

  “Not lately,” she said and then explained the history – how she had seen a number of dangerous situations, and warned the King about them. Something about that didn’t ring true.

  “Why all the secrecy?” Dynan asked.

  “There are certain forces in the universe that don’t lend themselves to sharing knowledge.”

  “Nice non-answer,” Dain said, leaning back in the big chair he’d dragged over.

  “What did you see?” Dynan asked.

  “I don’t know. Really. I don’t understand it. Lately, things haven’t been coming through the way they used to. When you were in Governor Alse’s Region at the inspection and those men did something to your transport, I saw it. If you’d gotten onboard, it would have crashed and you would have died. I told the King, and that’s why you didn’t get onboard. Any time there was danger, I saw it...I couldn’t always stop it from happening, but I saw it...until your father died. I didn’t see that. I didn’t see the attack. I don’t know why not still. This is the first vision I’ve had in months that had anything to do with you.”

  “And you still haven’t said what you saw,” Dain said.

  “Someone was running through the woods. I don’t know if it was you or Dynan,” she said and her voice changed as she spoke, deepening and lacking inflection. “There was a sense of great fear and great loss. It was overwhelming. I saw a creature of darkness, coming to take your soul.”

  “That must have been the wraith part,” Dynan said, rubbing the crystal in his fingers, being careful to keep it in mind. “What about the guy with the claws?”

  Carryn breathed deeply as if coming out of a self-induced trance. “That’s all there was. I didn’t see a man. I don’t know what it means.”

  “You know what some of it means,” Dain said. He stood and retrieved the pot of tea to refill her cup. “You just aren’t saying.”

  She nodded, putting the cup aside and almost missing the table. She seemed suddenly exhausted.

  “And we’re not getting anything else out of her tonight,” Dain said, pushing the mug more securely onto the table.

  Carryn thought to argue, but Dain just pushed her over, and then helped her move to lie down, she was that tired.

  “Do you want your clothes on or off?” he asked.

  Carryn muttered somewhat incoherently, but to Dynan’s surprise, the one clear word was ‘off’. He got up and headed for the door, certain before the end of the night, his brother and their new First commander would end up discussing more than bad dreams.

  “Not that you’re right, but do you want to know why it might happen?” Dain said as Dynan left.

  “No.”

  “Every moment of every single day, some one I know is thinking about getting laid. It’s constant.”

  “Shut up.”

  “It’s sometimes visually graphic, these thoughts that come through – guy has quite the imagination – so me trying to ignore these almost overpowering impulses—”

  “Look—”

  “Just go find a girl! Any girl. Trust me. After a moment or two you aren’t going to care who it is.”

  Dynan believed him easily enough, and once again felt he actually had the nerve for it.

  Ralion met him in the hall and didn’t understand the sudden slump of his shoulders or the string of whispered swearing. “Is she all right?”

  “She’s fine,” Dynan said.

  “You in for the night?” the guard asked at the door of his room, which was almost directly across from Carryn’s.

  “It would seem so.”

  “Tell him to go away!”

  Ralion was frowning. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. Yes, Ralion, I’m in for the night. Dain is sleeping with Carryn, in case you want to know what he’s going to be doing. But me? No. I’m going into my room—”

  The door to Carryn’s yanked open and Dain charged out. Dynan took the hint, and raced off down the hall for the back stairs. Sounds of pursuit didn’t follow. He glanced back and saw Dain going back into Carryn’s room. Dynan ended up in the main hall and thought maybe, just maybe he’d find some other girl. There were a number of them in the household, and sure enough, even as he stood there, another appeared at the end of the hall, carrying a stack of whites.

  Trying not to seem like he was rushing to cross the expanse of the hall, which for some reason seemed much longer, Dynan started toward her. He smiled at her, hoping that would convey enough of his intention that she’d wait a moment in her duties so he could get down there. She was smiling – a good sign. Curtsying – he didn’t care about that. She was pretty too. Brown hair. Blue eyes. But then a boy appeared at her side, a young man rather, one of the many house attendants and before he noticed Dynan, he’d taken the girl by the hand.

  Dynan kept the easy smile and hesitated only a little, so he hoped it wasn’t obvious the gaff he’d just made, thinking this girl was smiling at him or would hop right into bed with him. He felt stupid for believing she would. There was a level of depravity there he didn’t like looking at or feeling inside himself.

  He went to bed feeling that lack of character and he didn’t sleep for a long time.

  ~*~

  Chapter 5

  “If you think impressing the hell out of me twice in the space of one day is going to make me listen to you,” Dain said as he pulled his shirt on, “think again.”

  Carryn laughed, stretching like a cat under the sheets she’d pulled up to cover herself from the morning chill. “Just twice? I could have sworn there were at least three or four. But I understand.”

  Dain reached over to the nightstand and retrieved his dragon orb necklace that rested beside another identical to it, except hers was obviously less aged. He held it out, dangling it over her head a moment. “Do you?”

  “You don’t trust me,” she said. “Therefore you aren’t going to blindly follow my advice.”

  “You haven’t told us everything.”

  “It protects you,” she said of the orb, reaching to take hers in hand. “It’s a device to help you concentrate.”

  “Half answers seem to be your specialty.”

  “I got mine from Alurn Telaerin too,” she said, “just like you did.”

  For a moment Dain saw the First King of Cobalt standing at the foot of his bed, warning him of terrible things to come. With him, like a shadow of death, darkness gathered. Carryn put the crystal orb in front of his face, sitting up so it hung between them.

  “Do you feel it?” she asked. “As if there’s something trying to reach you from a great distance?” Sh
e pulled him inside the orb, standing naked against him, her arms tightened around him as if to protect him. “There are forces in this world, Dain, and they mean to destroy you because of who you are. You’re a telepath. You hardly know what that means, and the opportunity to learn may not be given to you before they break the barrier, this fragile oasis. You aren’t strong enough to face them, not yet. Believe me. I’m not either. So the only way to protect you is by keeping you ignorant of them and of yourself, as strange as that sounds. If you keep seeking them out, they will find you and they will take you.”

  “So you just want me to—”

  “Not think about them, about that odd sensation that starts in the pit of your stomach and if you feel it again, you come here. If you can’t come here, you run. Promise me, you’ll run. I know running isn’t in your nature.”

  “I seem to be doing a lot of it lately,” he said, the long flight down the cliff passage coming to mind.

  “Promise me. If they take you, it’ll mean the end of everything.”

  “And Dynan?”

  “Him too. They want him more. Maralt especially.”

  “So there’s a connection.”

  “Promise me you’ll run.”

  He hesitated over it, not sure he really would, but she was serious in such a way that he wondered if maybe she was right. He nodded then, and made the promise. “All right. I will.”

  “You’ll know when it’s time to fight,” she said in answer to the next thought before it even formed.

  She took him by the hand, pulling him closer.

  He blinked as the orb appeared, swinging between them and the room returned to its normal dimensions. The moment he paused to consider what she’d just told him, Carryn shook her head.

  “Don’t think, Dain,” she said, putting her hand behind his neck and pulling him to her again, only this time they didn’t go into the orb.

  “That’s really not—”

  “Don’t think,” she said, pulling his shirt off.

  “—an option for me.”

  “Don’t,” she said, undoing the clasp of his pants just before forcing him down onto the bed beside her. She was pretty strong, their new First Commander, and she pinned him to the bed without much effort.

  “You’re making me break my rules.”

  “Never sleep with your superior officer?”

  Dain shook his head. “Same girl twice.”

  “You’re not that much of a cad.”

  “Oh yes I am,” Dain said, rolling her over, getting on top of her and then inside her with about the same ease as he’d managed last night in the dark. She was all muscle, this woman. Even her breasts were firm.

  “Don’t worry. It won’t become a habit.”

  He was a little sorry to hear her say so since she was also incredibly talented in all the right ways. Carryn laughed, a low guttural sound that sent a shudder down his spine. He thought then to do something he hadn’t attempted before with her, a little afraid of the intimacy, but he told himself why not and sought to enter her mind too. She smiled that smile and allowed it.

  A field of flowers spread out around them with the warm sun above and soft grass below.

  “Flowers? Really?” he said around her kisses, but before the words died on his lips, the surroundings changed.

  A wave washed over him and he rolled her over again so they could both sit up and not drown. It was a strange sensation feeling the softness of the bed, the tangle of the sheets mixed up with the coarse scrub of sand and the rush of water. He’d never been with a girl on a beach before and had to admit that this was an interesting way to get there, but then he stopped thinking just like Carryn wanted, wrapped up in emotion and the sensations pounding through him timed with the arrival of the waves against the shore. Knowing what she felt doubled the intensity, but shortened his ability to withhold himself for more than a few breathless moments. Turned out it didn’t matter. He felt the odd little contractions start and she threw her head back as if she was in pain.

  It took twice as long to recover, oddly enough. “Maybe I should just toss that rule out completely,” he said once he could breathe normally again, and eased her over into pillows. The sand was gone but the bed had suffered.

  Carryn laughed, but she shook her head. “You shouldn’t.”

  “No? Why not?”

  “You aren’t going to have time, for one thing, to do much more than train. The task ahead is going to be so monumental. You have to be at your ultimate best, and you’re not.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “I almost beat you,” she said, smiling over it and Dain didn’t argue. She was right.

  “So from now on no more fun or fooling around. Is that it?”

  “Yes, more or less, and also, I’m not what you want,” she said, and again, he didn’t argue.

  “I don’t know what I want,” he said in a moment of total honesty. “Or who, or if she might even exist.”

  “You’ll find her.”

  “Is that something you’ve seen?”

  “I just know,” Carryn said, stretching again as she sat up. “And since it isn’t going to be me, it’s probably not a good idea to propagate the idea.”

  “Why then?”

  “Everyone will think it anyway, and it’s a distraction. Have they? Haven’t they? When will they? And now it’s they already have.”

  “Everyone? You mean the supposed troops we’re going to somehow come up with? You’re already worried what they’re going to think of you?”

  “Not worried. Just preparing.”

  “Why else?”

  “It will help me shield you,” she said while she looked around for her clothes, “from Maralt.”

  “How’s that going to work out for Dynan?”

  “He already has a shield,” she said, looking at him. “Maralt is going to come after you first, Dain, for certain. In order to get to Dynan, he has to get rid of you first.”

  He nodded to that, having suspected it already. He took her by the wrist, pulling her back to him, leaning in close. “Why else? No more half answers, Carryn.”

  When she hesitated with the answer, he knew he’d struck a nerve that had nothing to do with being First Commander, or the sister of a mad man. This reason went deeper and Dain wondered if she’d tell him.

  “I knew you wouldn’t say no,” she said after a silence. “I haven’t felt...anything... like myself, female in years. I’ve been fighting for one thing or the other, and the years ahead won’t be any different. Maybe even worse and I’ll have to put all of that aside. It occurred to me while we were in the courtyard that I could...I don’t know what—”

  “—Take back time,” Dain said. “Hide from the future. You think you’re any different from the rest of us? You’re not.”

  “I have to seem different,” she said. He knew she was right about that too.

  “So just this once,” he said, and she nodded. “If you change your mind about that, be sure to let me know.”

  Saying so made her smile. He got up and started getting dressed. She didn’t move other than to straighten the covers out and draw them up to her chin. A moment later, Dynan pounded on the door.

  “Come in,” she said before Dain could tell him to go away.

  He opened the door, walked in, but turned abruptly when he saw Carryn still in bed, shaking his head slightly. Dain couldn’t quite tell what he was pissed off about, other than not getting any himself. He was dressed more formally than normal. “Drake Mardon is coming through the front door any moment now.”

  Carryn swore, threw the covers off and started getting her clothes together.

  “The Queen is with him,” Dynan said, looking at her a moment, before averting his gaze.

  The First Commander swore again, dropped the handful of clothes she had gathered and went to Dain, picking up his shirt for him and stuffing it at him while she pushed him toward the door and then out it.

  “Why are they here?” Dain asked when Dyna
n stayed in the doorway. He kept glancing back while Carryn rushed around trying to find something to wear.

  “I don’t know. Xavier didn’t expect it,” he said and finally looked at him. “He might be here to tell us we have to leave.”

  “Right. I’ll be down as quick as I can.”

  “Hurry up.”

  Dain met the King and Queen of Trea in one of many large formal sitting rooms. Drake was recovering still from Maralt’s attack. He was younger than Ambrose had been by a few years, but he looked older now and weary. Marella stood near him for that reason, the only outward indication she was worried. She was one of the most beautiful women Dain had ever known, carrying the authority of the crown with ease. She had dark eyes and nearly black hair she wore netted in gold lace, and stood as tall as her husband. She immediately allayed any fears they were about to be thrown out.

  “We only came to see that you were all right,” she said, but looked to Drake who was talking to Dynan, Xavier, Carryn and Boral. “And he needed the time away.”

  “I take it your Governors are still unhappy as ever over our being here,” Dain said.

  “They’ll get over it,” she said and Dain laughed at her tone. “They understand the drastic nature of what has happened and have lately been more inclined to place the blame where it belongs, with Kamien. They remain incensed that so blatant an attack was mounted against us.”

  “You can’t attack Cobalt,” Dain said, fearing the possibility of a grave mistake in the making.

  “No,” Marella said. “We’ve all been reminded of the vast superiority of Cobalt’s military capacity. Drake is doing something to change that statistic, but it’ll take time.”

  “He’s ordered a troop increase,” Dain said without knowing the details. It was a move that made sense, except for one problem. “Which breaks a treaty negotiated and upheld for the last 42 years.”

  “It does.”

  “And opens the door for Cobalt to come here with reason.”

  At that she shook her head. “The rules of complaint are extensive, cumbersome and have to be presented to the full Council, a meeting Drake will find some excuse to postpone should the need arise. The other Systems are aware and are quietly making plans to increase their own military strength.”