“With practice, you say?” William added.
“You’ll have your time with Claire,” Edyth added as an incentive. “Not only will you be helping her stay alive during these dangerous times, but you’ll have the opportunity to know one another better than most people would ever dare to imagine.”
William threw up his hands in mock surrender. “What do I have to do?”
“The first thing you must do is forget that most everyone says that it’s impossible to do. Remember, someone watching you work with horses might say the same thing. William, you’re a natural because you developed your abilities with horses before people noticed what you were doing; before they could tell you that what you were doing wouldn’t work. Now I’m asking you to expand those abilities, and as you do so, to help to foster that in Claire.
“You two were drawn together for a reason. You are cut from the same cloth. But it’s best to remember, William, she’s the granddaughter of an earl. And even though I love you as a son, you are not of our blood. Her family would never condone you being with her.”
With that, the lady again kissed him on the forehead before turning to leave the room.
Stunned by her words as well as her actions, William stared at the empty doorway for some time after Edyth had vanished. Then with a shake of his head, he cautiously adjusted his position on the bed and said, “Of course. What was I thinking? I had best remember my place.” But all he could think of was his first sight of her on the bridge.
Chapter 19
Claire slipped quietly into William’s room. She didn’t want to wake him if he was sleeping. If he was asleep, she planned to leave and come back in the afternoon. It was the first time Claire had been to see William since she had accidentally let him know that she could read his mind.
Claire was used to people thinking of her as a bit different from everyone else. It made her feel good in a way; maybe even a little superior that she could do things that others could not. Plus, if she was considered too different, she had had her grandfather to protect her. But when it came to William, she wasn’t so sure she wanted to be different in the way that she was.
Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she looked toward the bed. William was awake and regarding her with an amused look on his face.
“Are you trying to sneak up on me, Claire?” he asked. “You wouldn’t be trying to listen to my dreams, would you?”
“Oh, Will,” Claire said forlornly. “I just didn’t know what to do. Lady Edyth said you needed to keep learning to do things your own way, so I thought it would be interfering with that if I told you anything. And …”
“And?”
“And … I was afraid that if you knew what I could do, you would think me a witch or worse.”
“If I thought you a witch, what did you think I would do?” William asked quietly.
“I … thought,” Claire swallowed with difficulty, “you might report me to the authorities.”
The smile that had been playing around William’s lips suddenly disappeared. He looked away for a moment then slowly turned back to her.
“So, you think I’m the type of person who deals with things in that way?” He shook his head. “Well, that is disappointing, Claire. Very disappointing.”
“Will!” she cried. “I—”
“Look,” he cut her off. “If you have such a high opinion of me, maybe it’s best if you go back to your studies, and I go back to my stable and horses. That way, you don’t have to worry about me going to the authorities about you.”
“Will, I’m sorry!”
“Your ladyship doesn’t have to apologize. That would be beneath her.”
“Of all the ridiculous things to say!” Claire spluttered. She stared angrily at him for a moment, then turned on her heel and stamped out of the room.
***
That afternoon, Claire was once again standing before William. Nervously clutching the sides of her dress, she said, “Lady Edyth told me you have something to say to me.”
William nodded. “The lady explained that she had asked you not to let me know certain things about you. She also explained why. I want to apologize for what I said to you.” He stopped for a moment. “But it really bothered me that you would think I’d report you.”
“I can see how that would make you upset, Will. But how was I to know what you would do? We hardly know one another.”
“And yet,” William said, “when we first saw each other, it was like we knew who the other was.”
“Yes,” Claire said, sitting down on the bed, “like we have known each other before.”
“That’s kind of what it feels like,” William agreed. “Or that we have an understanding of the world about us that is different than what others see.”
“It’s a little hard to figure it out, isn’t it?” Claire laughed. “Maybe we should just let it go, and work on what Lady Edyth wants us to. She’s a really wise person. Maybe we can learn more about ourselves and what we are to each other by learning what she wants us to.”
“Agreed,” William said. “So how do we start?”
For the next week, thirty minutes in the morning and another thirty minutes in the afternoon, William and Claire would sit on his bed, and focus on each other, trying to read each other’s thoughts. Once they accomplished that, they were supposed to try projecting to each other.
‘How the heck is this supposed to work?’ William thought as he looked at the beautiful girl before him. ‘I really don’t want her to know what I am thinking at the moment.’ He tried to suppress the thoughts of kissing her that were, once again, driving him to distraction.
Claire was having her own struggles with their assignment. Her thoughts were running along the same lines that William’s were, but she had the added pressure of having to keep the information that Edyth did not want William to have access to under wraps.
What started out as a time that both were looking forward to as a time to be with each other, turned into a tortuous experience. Both were having so many thoughts that they were trying to suppress, that neither were able to successfully delve into the other’s mind. Fear, embarrassment, and absolute panic built a wall of energy capable of keeping the most perceptive of minds separate. Finally, William had enough.
“Look, this isn’t working. Maybe, if we just talk a bit …”
“Yes, please. I was about to ask you the same thing,” Claire admitted. “I was just thinking about when you first got hurt and how we would talk about horses and herbs, and how nice that was.”
“Let’s go back to that for now,” William said. “For one thing, I have a question that’s been on my mind for some time.”
Claire relaxed and settled herself comfortably on the bed, happy to have the pressure of mind reading gone.
“What’s going on with my body? No disrespect meant, Claire, because I know you stitched me back together skillfully, but I’m still as weak as a kitten. The cuts hardly hurt at all now. But walking to the end of the hall seems a daunting task. Claire,” William said, shifting uncomfortably, “I have always felt I could work all day and swing a sword against Harold’s best soldier in the evening, and not be tired. And,” William glanced at Claire and then quickly looked away, “right now, I don’t feel I could beat you at swordplay.”
“Oh, Will. Don’t be hard on yourself. You are healing well. You’ve had a good nurse,” Claire said, giving him a bright smile. “It’s still the poison in your system making you feel so weak. William, no one that Edyth or Jorunn know of has ever recovered from the poison. We don’t know how long before you recover … because you are the first to live.”
William nodded thoughtfully. “Okay, I’ll try to be patient, and maybe the amazing nurse I have will figure out a way to clear the poison. That way, I can get back to teaching her how to ride.”
Claire laughed. “I’m not sure that is the best incentive for your nurse.”
“Ah, but it should be. If you were riding well, we could take Brunneis an
d Luto and ride back to Northumbria so you could see your family again. What’s it like anyway—Northumbria?”
Claire told William what it was like to grow up in Northumbria and what it was like to be the granddaughter of an earl and a gifted healer. William, in turn, shared a little of what his life had been like before he was sold to the earl, but mostly his life after that point. As the days passed, they were so at ease with each other that neither noticed that they had left their conversational comfort zones. They were talking as best friends would, sharing pretty much everything except the secrets Claire had promised to keep from William.
By then, William was also regaining a great deal of his mobility. One day, after Claire had left for her next training session, he decided to head for the stables. It had been three weeks since he had seen Brunneis or Luto. He missed them, and when he got outside into the fresh air, he felt so good, he ended up walking faster than he should have.
Finding the stables empty, William made his way to the pasture tunnel. The tunnel was gated at both ends for defensive purposes. The gates were heavy and hard to move. Still, he managed to open the first gate, and now more slowly, made his way to the second gate.
The outside gate opened into the pasture. It took a good deal of effort for him to open it enough to slip through, and by then his body was tiring. The effort to get this far had taken more out of him than he had anticipated.
Disheartened by how weak he felt, William looked about hoping the horses were nearby. But there were no horses to be seen. The empty field meant more walking; either back to the keep without seeing his horses or to the crest of the field to find them. Either direction seemed like a task too daunting to undertake.
William leaned weakly again the gate. ‘Luto … Brunneis … I just need to see you. Where are you?’ His heart was filled with longing as he stared out over the field. He felt so empty without them.
Abruptly that emptiness was filled with a joyful thought that slammed into William’s consciousness, ‘We’re coming!’
“What?” William gasped.
***
Claire had just finished her telepathy session with Edyth and was on her way to meet with Jorunn. Her past two weeks had been quite intense. Her sessions with William were getting to be fun, but she was bothered by the fact that she did not feel they were working toward what Edyth wanted them to. She had begun to feel like her two hours of riding were getting somewhere. Her seat was feeling more secure, and she was no longer grasping at the horse’s mane when they turned a corner or sped up.
Then there was the intimidating exercise of swinging a sword at flying cantaloupes. That was Jorunn’s idea. The Lascion’s torture was invented to strengthen Claire’s muscles and reflexes; those reactions necessary to lop off the heads of monsters. Claire knew that her upper body was getting stronger, but every session ended with her not being able to lift the sword, much less swing it high enough to reach the neck of something so much taller than herself. And the number of cantaloupes that flew by her without being touched was so disheartening.
In addition to all that, Claire had two more hours of extrasensory work. Edyth’s sessions were focused on hiding one’s thoughts from mental intruders. These exercises were not just for keeping William from what Edyth did not want to expose him to yet. The monsters also fell into that category. They could sniff out your thoughts just as well as they could your blood. Jorunn’s sessions, on the other hand, were about expanding one’s thoughts—specifically to the animal kingdom.
With such a full day, the only other things Claire had time for were food and rest. And when the occasional sickness or wound needed tending, those were the two things that were sacrificed to take care of the ailing one. But the satisfaction she gleaned from helping the people or animals more than made up for sleep lost or an empty stomach.
Her days also had a special highlight. The time spent with William was the time she loved the most. When she was around him, any guilt she felt for not being able to read his mind was forgotten. There was too much fun to be had. Achieving anything was not mentioned, nor was it anticipated. They did try to project to one another somewhat, but mostly it was just for talking, laughing, and sharing.
At the moment, though, Claire was thinking of her animal-speak sessions. It was next on her schedule, and it, too, was going nowhere.
For three weeks now, Claire had been trying to send and receive thoughts. So far, the only successes were the incoming projections forced in by Edyth and Jorunn. They had yet to receive her projections, and as far as her animal-speak went, she still could not get the animals to do as they did with Jorunn. Though she had to admit that the rabbits, squirrels, and an occasional fox were beginning to act less wild when she came upon them.
Were they sensing her intentions or just getting used to her presence?
Sighing deeply because of lack of an answer, Claire thought of Jorunn’s reply when she had asked him if she was making any progress in animal-speak.
“Proof of mind-speak is straightforward. If you find someone else’s thoughts inside your head or you get a response to your thought, you have achieved your goal.”
Claire wanted to be able to do that in some ways, but there was also a problem. It was all right with her if she was to project and have her thoughts in someone else’s head but to have another’s thoughts in her mind, even if it was an animal, made her quite uneasy. Even so, the importance of becoming adept at this had been impressed upon her, and she was determined to try.
The first session with Jorunn had been astounding. He had pointed to one of the horses in the field and told Claire he was going to ask the horse to do something. After running through the entire herd with each horse doing what Jorunn said he was going to ask of it, Claire was a believer.
That’s when he asked her to try to do the same. So, she did. Focusing on one animal, she would think about what she wanted it to do. Claire then watched to see if the animal would do it. There was no surprise when the animal didn’t.
She had meant to ask Jorunn if there was any give-and-take with animals. Not once did she consider the possibility that an animal would ever talk to her. After all, everyone knew that animals do not speak. But could there be anything else—a mind picture perhaps?
“I’d be happy if they could, at least, do what I wanted them to do.” She frowned as she walked through the front gate. She was scheduled to meet Jorunn at the roadside pasture fence. She looked about until she spotted him at the far corner of the field.
‘The herd must be bunched up down there,’ she thought as she picked up her pace. She was not all that anxious to get to her animal-speak lesson, but she had to get through that and either riding or whacking at cantaloupes before she could go to lunch. She wasn’t really hungry either. It was just that after lunch came her second session with William.
That thought made her glow. As she walked, she thought about the young stable manager, dreaming about being close enough to look deep into his eyes …
‘Claire, wait up!’ The words hit with the subtleness of a winter’s bath in a cold stream, spreading goose-bumps to her toes. Claire stopped in her tracks, allowing time for a second thought to surge into her mind. ‘We come.’
Claire recognized the first thought as William’s, but the second? She had no idea.
Searching the field for a clue, she saw two horse galloping toward her. Squinting at the beasts, she was stunned when she identified the rider on the black horse.
“That’s … that’s impossible,” Claire declared as she recognized Brunneis, Luto, and Will.
‘Can you hear me?’ the shout seemed to explode inside her skull.
‘William?’ she did not think about what she was doing; she just reached out to him.
‘Yeah, it’s me! Claire, you won’t believe it. They can hear me!’
Claire was having a hard time believing any of it—most of all that Will was on the horse’s back.
‘What? … How?’ she fumbled.
‘He ca
me back to us!’ a voice answered.
‘He is still hurt,’ another voice cautioned.
“No way,” Claire gasped as her legs gave out.
By the time the three made the stone fence, Claire was still sitting in the middle of the road. Seconds later, the Lascion had joined them. ‘You heard them?’ Jorunn projected to her.
‘They use words,’ Claire responded in wonder.
‘We talk our talk,’ a voice said. It sounded a lot like what Claire thought Brunneis would have sounded like, “if she could speak to me,” Claire whispered.
“I heard it, too,” William shouted as he answered Claire’s thought.
‘No gibberish, please,’ a voice begged.
‘Luto?’ Claire questioned.
‘I don’t talk gibberish,’ he answered.
Chapter 20
The walk back to the keep was leisurely. Jorunn and Claire did not want to push William, for he looked exhausted. The chatter of mind-speak between the three of them was also an effort for William and Claire, and they often stopped in their tracks as they tried to formulate what they wanted to say. Claire had even more of a struggle as she also practiced keeping the thoughts, that Edyth did not want William exposed to, hidden.
Claire and William were laughing as they interacted, though Claire did notice that William turned serious for a moment and projected, ‘No, I’m fine,’ for no apparent reason. The look the two men exchanged imparted to her what had happened.
‘Jorunn,’ she asked, ‘is it possible to speak to just one person so that others are not able to listen in?’
William turned to her with a quizzical look on his face.
Jorunn laughed. ‘William,’ he said, ‘this young lady is far too perceptive for you to hide anything from her. You might as well tell her what went on. And Claire,’ he added, ‘yes, it is possible to direct your thoughts to just one or several people and keep others out of the conversation.’
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