“Finesse?” Leisha asked, not really understanding what he meant.
“Yes, you can enter people’s minds by pounding on the door and shouldering your way in, or you knock politely and use the handle. Watch how I do it and then you try.”
Though skeptical at first, when she paid attention Leisha could feel the difference in the way he slipped into her thoughts. The first few times she tried, Avrid winced dramatically though she could tell it did not really hurt him all that much.
He kept her at it for an hour, repeating the lesson over and over, correcting her when she made the smallest mistake. Leisha had very little endurance, and when she tired, Avrid chided her for it. “Cursed children work harder than this and at an earlier age.”
Looking up from his book, Zaraki put an end to that. “You’re not driving her to exhaustion,” he said, scowling. “You’ll take a break now.”
Leisha blew out a long breath and sprawled in her chair. She wanted to keep going, but could see darkness gathering around the edges of her vision. “Can I ask you questions about the Cursed instead? Maybe I can learn something that would help us.”
The other mind reader shrugged and took a seat near her. “Please feel free. I’ll tell you what I can.”
“Tell me about the compulsions. What are they? How do they work? I only know what I saw when I removed yours.”
Avrid considered the question for a long minute, for no single answer existed. “The compulsions are a way to hijack the normal pathways thoughts take through a person’s mind. We’re unable to disobey orders given to us. When given an order not to speak, my mind could not make my mouth form words. When told to follow someone into battle, I could not stop my legs moving forward.”
“I remember you saying your compulsion was complex. Does that mean the compulsions can be different?”
“Very perceptive.” Settling into his role as teacher, Avrid launched into his lecture. “It takes intense study to learn to place the compulsions. There are different areas of the mind that control movement, speech, reactions, and emotions. The person placing the compulsion must understand this and know all the areas to be bound up, harnessed. But not all compulsions are created equal. Some are more or less sophisticated than others, as determined by the person placing them. A child found to be especially talented will be taken to someone who is also very strong and experienced to weave a more refined compulsion. A weak talent will receive one less so.”
Cocking her head to the side, Leisha considered his words. “Avrid, are you saying the Cursed are forced to enslave their own kind?”
“Yes, of course,” he said, with no inflection in his voice. “Who else could do it?”
Horrified, Leisha stared at him, trying to deny the knowledge that leapt to her mind. “And you were one of those who did it, weren’t you?”
“Yes,” he said, anger coloring his words and thoughts. “I’m very talented, so I was forced to study and learn how to enslave others.” His placid facade fell aside as his face twisted in hatred. “And that’s why the Deojrin should be wiped from the face of this world, their books burned, their cities and monuments pulled down, their temples destroyed. Every person, man or woman, who knows anything about the compulsions should be put to the sword. Myself included.”
Avrid stood suddenly, thrusting himself out of his chair. “Please excuse me, Your Highness.” He stalked out of the tent.
***
The next morning Avrid appeared again and saw Sarika sitting with Leisha and her husband. They greeted him and explained the young woman wanted to see what he could teach her as well. Settling on a bench, he felt Leisha’s concern and regret for upsetting him. “I’m sorry for my outburst yesterday, Your Grace. You should feel free to ask anything you like.”
Leisha felt the air between them swirl with reassurance and apologies. “I have so many questions,” she explained. “But I don’t want to force you to relive unpleasant things.”
“I’m not responsible for what they made me do, Your Highness. Please, ask.”
Ever since the day at Cheylm when Zaraki had rushed to her side without her calling to him, Leisha had wondered how it had happened. Nothing like that had ever occurred before. When she described it to Avrid, he looked puzzled.
“You have a deep connection with your husband. Of course, you can find him nearby. You had a need and your mind reached out for him. Because I spent so much time with my masters, I had some sense of where they were. In the back of your mind, you’re always aware of him. You’ve never noticed it before?” The more they spoke, the more it convinced Avrid no mind reader should ever grow up without their own kind. Leisha’s ignorance of her abilities astounded him.
Considering his words, she asked, “Can I find him anywhere?”
Avrid tried to keep the condescension out of his voice and failed. “Within reason, yes. There are limitations to the distance, for sure. But in close proximity to you, just relax and search. You’ll find him. You do know how to do that, right? Search for people?”
The novelty of sharing her abilities with others mind readers had not yet worn off, and Leisha tried to ignore his tone though it grated on her. “Yes, I’ve done it before.” She described the flat black plane with all the pretty swirling motes she went to when she needed to find people and remembered discovering it the night her uncle tried to murder her. It seems so strange and exotic to her and she wanted to know if Avrid and Sarika saw the same things.
However, instead of being excited, Avrid blinked at her several times before sighing, sounding disappointed. “That’s how children use their gifts.” He stumbled over the last words, still struggling not to call them curses. “Your way is fine, but it’s imprecise and prone to mistakes. You need to learn to this the way adults do, Your Highness.”
This time, he went too far. “Avrid,” Leisha warned. “I’m willing to tolerate a great deal from you and make a number of allowances. But do not presume to overreach with me.” She stood and swept through the curtain dividing the tent in two.
Avrid watched her go and flushed bright red. He had not meant to upset her so much, only prod her into thinking more about her abilities and what she could do. Standing, he made an awkward bow to Sarika and Zaraki both. “Forgive me,” he began and then stopped, unsure what else to say. “Yes, forgive me. I’m sorry.” Then he hurried out of the tent.
Once he had gone, Sarika sighed. “Sire, I’m sorry. He’s really not so bad, but, well it’s—” she paused, wanting to explain, but not sure how to.
Zaraki rolled his eyes. “He annoys me and that’s not your fault. But I don’t like the way he talks to her.”
Feeling embarrassed and self-conscious, Sarika looked down at her hands. This did not reflect well on her kind. “I’ll let you in on a secret. He does it on purpose. It’s something we all do, honestly. Mind readers, that is. Because we read your emotions, we have a tendency to bait you all, to get a reaction, an emotional response. It’s immediate gratification for us. We can see exactly how it affects you. It’s not a great deal different than playing pranks on people.”
Now she lowered her voice, hoping Leisha would not hear. “We all do it, to some degree or another,” she whispered to him. “Avrid definitely does it. I try not to, but I grew up surrounded by other mind readers. It’s considered incredibly rude amongst my people. The queen does it.” She stopped again, curious to see if Zaraki took offense. Seeing none, she said, “She enjoys arguing for the response she gets, though she keeps it in check better than Avrid. It’s not one of our better traits, is it?”
Casting a glance at the tapestry dividing the tent, Zaraki smothered a laugh. This explained so much about his darling, argumentative wife. “At least she enjoys the challenge. Avrid just likes annoying people.”
Enjoying their conspiracy, Sarika covered her mouth and giggled. “He does. I think it’s partly because of the compulsion and partly just his winning personality.”
***
After that, Avrid tried a b
it harder to remember not to antagonize Leisha quite as much. Though still, he enjoyed needling people, something the Deojrin prevented him from doing once his keepers grew tired of it. As a young man, he knew the strength of his talents meant he could get away with certain things. Until, that is, one priest suggested altering his compulsion to prevent him from speaking rudely to them.
One day, they halted early and set up near a small river. Leisha said the army would camp here and meet up with the smaller force that had been dispatched westward. They would rest for a few days, gather supplies and move on.
“Today,” Avrid said when they began their practice, “I want to talk to you about the cord, the thing binding you back to your body. You’ve noticed it?”
She had. Once, she lost it and could not find her way back to her body.
“You need to be aware of it and familiar with it. Have you experienced what it feels like when you reach too far?”
Leisha considered before saying, “No, I don’t think so. Is there a limit? Something to stop me from reaching out to someone very far away?”
“Your tether will only stretch so far, just like any rope,” Avrid said, as if indulging questions from a precocious child. “Your strength determines how far that is, but even you have limits. For the strongest of us, the limit is four to five hundred yards. But this is extremely rare and they’re stretched so thin they often cannot do much. You may be able to reach that far, but be careful.”
After lecturing for half an hour, Avrid declared it was time to practice. Sarika, he said, had gone to the western edge of camp and waited there for her to find. “You know her well, so you should be able to sense her easily,” he said, with a hint of annoying skepticism.
Together they sat and reached out, flinging themselves away from their bodies. With Avrid’s help, Leisha had learned to do away with the strange black plane with its dancing motes of color. Instead, she could see the camp below her, though it appeared as if she viewed it all through a spyglass, only seeing what lay directly ahead of her. Blackness lay around the edges of her vision unless she shifted her perception in that direction. Where she cast her mind’s eye, tents and men, campfires, horse pickets, wagons and piles of supplies all stretched out below her. The scene shifted like an embroidered scene on a tapestry unrolling before her.
You feel it, the tether? The thing that binds you back to your body? Avrid asked as they raced to the edge of camp.
Leisha nearly crashed back to her body, shocked by his intrusion. Watching the world unfurl itself, she had forgotten the purpose of their practice or even that he sat in her mind. But yes, she did feel the tether. It lay like a leash around her neck, and pulling at it caused an uncomfortable feeling of choking as she approached some limit. But it also felt springy. As if, with a hard tug she could go further. The power that usually lay quiet at her feet surged, cajoling her, daring her to try.
You must always be aware of this. Not only does it guide you back, but the further you go, the less aware you are of your surroundings. And as you move away from your body, the less attention you pay to other things, as you just found. It is very easy to be distracted when you forget about your body. In battle, that will get you killed.
Surprised at his mild rebuke, Leisha said, I don’t imagine I’ll be getting anywhere near a battle, but thank you for the warning.
Now find Sarika. Listen for her thoughts. You know them.
But try as she might, Leisha could not. She tried to still her mind and force herself to listen to the hints of thoughts wafting on the breeze, like the scent of flowers or perfume wafting on a breeze. She could not distinguish one owner of the murmuring thoughts from another. Without the swirling motes of color she had grown used to, she struggled.
You’re looking with your eyes, Highness. Not your mind. Listen, Avrid chided as she tried again and failed.
They continued the attempt for another hour before Zaraki put a hand on her shoulder and drew her back to her body. Annoyed because she knew this should come easy, Leisha brooded over her failure.
Seeing her frustration, Avrid explained it was likely caused by her late start in life. “Cursed children,” he said, “begin these exercises very young. We’re taught to listen rather than see. It will come with practice, Highness.”
Andelko
Leisha sat enjoying breakfast by herself after Danica finished braiding her hair. Zaraki had left early to help Symon with some project or another. Avrid and Sarika would arrive soon. For the first time since her rescue, she found herself able to enjoy being alone. The silence did not press down on her and she could not feel the fear lurking around the edges of her mind.
Her peace could not last long. Outside she heard rapid footfalls and then the guards rushing to pull the flaps to her tent aside.
“Your Majesty?”
“I’m here,” she said, passing through the curtain that separated the front half of her tent from the sleeping quarters.
Bowing and panting, the winded servant said, “A patrol’s returned. The Lord Constable asked for you to please come with me, Your Highness.”
Ani would be annoyed at her for not waiting for Jan or Eamon, but this seemed important enough to ignore the spymaster’s rules. Together they hurried across camp with two guards in tow, and found several armed men waiting with Symon and Andelko. Between them, a stranger stood.
Leisha tried not to recoil from the raging storm surrounding the dirty, battered man the patrol had brought in. They had not even allowed him to wash or found him a change of clothes. A confusing tumult of images cascaded through his mind and she finally shut them out. “What’s your name?” she asked, pitching her voice low.
“Danult, Your Highness.”
“We found him outside Otokar, my lady,” one of the soldiers said. “Stumbling around. But I’ll let him tell you about it.”
The man trembled and kept bobbing his head at her. “The Visarl, Your Majesty,” he began, wrestling with the unfamiliar title. “He came to Otokar, three weeks ago.”
Next to her, she saw Andelko frown. That made no sense. Their last report put Gerolt with the northern army still making slow progress on its way south towards Cheylm. Any reason for the Visarl to suddenly race to join the smaller, southern force eluded and alarmed him.
Continuing, Danult said, “He came to the city—ordered everyone rounded up. They drove us into the buildings around the main square. Wives and children. There were,” the man stopped to choke back a sob. “There were soldiers everywhere, Highness.”
He stumbled over the words and Leisha could barely understand them. Forcing herself to look once more at his thoughts, she shook her head and drew back in horror at the images she saw in Danult’s memories. People pressed together inside a cramped, dark shop. The whimpers and scent of fear and panic as they realized they were meant to die. She made herself watch and listen as the man continued.
“Gerolt came. As they were driving us into the building, he told us it was because you had visited there. That you tainted the city and we had to be cleansed. Then they set fires all around, at the door and windows. Everyone was screaming, trying to get out of the shop. Soldiers killed anyone who escaped.” Danult stopped, weeping again.
Leisha saw his wife and three children died in a shop selling cloth. Separated from his family by the press of people shoving and trying to escape, luck spared his life. The back portion of the shop did not burn completely.
“Symon, please find my doctor and see to him. Find him clothes and a place to bathe at least. After, find him a place to sleep.”
“Of course, my lady.” Symon took the man by the arm and led him from the tent.
The soldier escorting Danult shifted and sighed. “Highness,” he said, sounding mournful. “On the way here he said he thought it was maybe six or seven hundred people.”
“I don’t understand,” Leisha said, looking around at her friends, grief evident on her face. She wanted to deny this, protest this could not happen in her kingdom or to
her people. Massacres did not happen in Tahaerin anymore. “How would he know I’d ever been to Otokar?”
“Lukas,” Aniska said into the quiet. “He had to have met with them at some point. He could have mentioned it.”
The others around the table nodded sadly. Leisha looked incredulous, shaking her head and wanting to weep in frustration. First Andelko’s secret and now this. “How much damage can one man cause?”
***
Avrid refused to put their lessons off, regardless of the events of the morning. “Your Majesty,” he said with a smug superiority that annoyed Leisha, “You have to learn to control your abilities better regardless of any inner turmoil you’re feeling.”
She almost told him to go to hell. But since they had started practicing together Leisha could feel her endurance and control improving. Avrid even complimented her skills once, grudgingly. It excited her to improve, and she had always loved learning new things. It also took her mind off Otokar and Danult.
Their training for the afternoon consisted of repetitions of the lesson with Sarika—sending herself out, over and over, further and further. Avrid had her hunt for people, find Andelko, find Sarika, find Symon. It required her to concentrate deeply, listening for the barest whisper of thoughts as they lofted around as if carried on a breeze. Once, Leisha did find Andelko following the faint trail to the tent where he sat with Ladvik and Vially, but most of her other attempts ended in frustrating failures.
Let’s try something different, Your Grace. Avrid’s patient tone surprised her, and they withdrew back to their bodies. “Remember the cup?” he asked her. “The one you moved?”
“How could I forget?” Leisha asked with a tired laugh.
“Here.” He set a child’s toy, a carved, painted little horse, on the table. “I want to have you do something new, since you’re still struggling with finding people at a distance. Try to move this a few times, but carefully. I’ll need to return it to its owner eventually.”
As Dragons from Sleep (The Tahaerin Chronicles Book 2) Page 35