Slave Empire - Prophecy (12 page)

"Then I can't
help you. Now, what have you decided to do?"

Rayne bit her
lip, but Rawn shot her a wry smile and lay down. "Hey, I'll try
anything once."

Mindra sat
beside his head and gazed down at him. His trust surprised Rayne,
for he was usually more suspicious of strangers than her, but the
little cat-alien appeared to have inspired his confidence. In her,
he seemed to sense an uncompromising integrity, and her gentle
nature would not allow her to do him harm. Rayne sensed it too.

Mindra said,
"You're correct, Rawn, and I'm flattered by your perception. Now,
please empty your mind."

He smiled.
"That's easy."

Rayne took his
hand and cast him an encouraging smile when he glanced at her, then
he closed his eyes and relaxed. Mindra sat like a statue, staring
into the middle distance. Several moments passed before Rawn gasped
and gripped Rayne's hand. She chewed her lip, her eyes darting from
his impassive face to Mindra's. He grunted, twitching, and Rayne
leant closer to put a hand on his arm. He winced four more times
before Mindra's eyes regained their focus, and she relaxed.

"All right,
it's over, you can think again."

He stared up
at her. "What did you do?"

"I cleared a
few blockages, but you'll never have any great ESP power. Now you
have improved intelligence and memory. You might be able to hear
telepathically, but that's about all I can do for you, I'm afraid.
You just don't have the ability for more."

Rawn sat up.
"Why not? I mean, what gives some people the ability and others
not?"

"People with
the ability have pathways in their brain through which the power
flows, but you don't have them. That's the best way I can explain
it."

Rawn looked
disappointed, but shot Rayne an encouraging smile. "Go on, it's not
too bad. You can handle it. Maybe you'll get more from it than I
did."

Mindra nodded.
"She will, but that also means it may be more painful."

Rayne looked
from one to the other. "How painful?"

"It will be
over quickly," Mindra said, "and you'll be glad you did it."

"This was
Tallyn's idea? I wonder what I did to him."

"It's for your
own good. Now relax and clear your mind."

With a sigh,
Rayne lay down, closed her eyes and blanked her mind. A slight
tingling sensation started inside her head, almost itchy. It moved
from front to back and side to side, then stopped. There was a stab
of pain, like a plucked nerve, and she yelped in surprise.

The tingling
sensation continued to explore her brain for much longer before the
next stab made her yelp again. Rawn took her hand and patted it.
The pain faded, then another stab made her grimace and grit her
teeth, squeezing Rawn's hand until he winced. Five more stabs of
pain followed, then the tingle vanished, leaving her head
throbbing.

"Rayne." The
voice was in her head and much stronger now, clearer. "Sit up. It's
over. You're now able to receive and speak telepathically. You'll
be able to teleport objects over short distances, but nothing too
heavy. Mostly your power is healing."

Rayne sat up
and rubbed her brow, grimacing. "Healing?"

"Yes." Mindra
rose and stretched, then settled herself again, her tail wrapped
around her feet. "You'll be able to see sickness and heal it by
projecting your consciousness into the patient's flesh and
commanding it. I can't explain it, but when you meet a sick person
you'll know what to do."

"Could it work
the other way? In self-defence?" Rawn asked.

Mindra glared
at him. "Such uncharitable thoughts do not exist amongst my people.
A true healer would not think such things." She turned back to
Rayne, her tail twitching. "I also discovered a weak path for
creation, which I tried to clear. I'm not sure whether I succeeded,
but try."

"What do I
do?"

"Concentrate
on something, like the tip of your finger, and imagine a tiny flame
growing from it."

Rayne
hesitated. "Won't it burn me?"

"Only if you
do it wrong."

Rayne stared
at the air above her finger, concentrating with all her might. Her
head pounded, but, after a few seconds, a tiny flame appeared,
flickered, and vanished.

"I did it!"
she crowed, grinning.

Mindra
snorted. "That will never do you any good."

"I could light
a fire."

"You have no
idea of true power. Allow me to demonstrate, so you'll know what
you're striving for." She wandered a few feet away and sat down
again, settling her still twitching tail around her paws. "First,
teleportation."

Rayne gasped
and flailed as she floated into the air, Rawn beside her, his face
stretched in surprise. They rose to the roof, where they hovered,
along with all the other objects in the room. The rocks and plants
around the pool, the water, still in the shape of the pool, and
Mindra herself, calmly washing her face, cat fashion. Ending her
impromptu bath, she gazed at them with smug eyes.

"This is
nothing," she said. "I could lift this whole building, and the
rocks it's built on, but that might upset some people."

Everything
settled back down where it had been.

"Next,
creation."

A pillar of
flame exploded in the far corner with a dull boom and grew to the
size of a bonfire, filling the room with stifling heat. It
vanished, and the air cooled. Mindra nodded at the floor in front
of her, and a pile of fruit appeared, dewy fresh.

"Try some, if
you like. It's perfectly real, not the images some charlatans
project."

Rawn plucked
an orange, lumpy fruit from the pile and bit into it. Juice ran
down his chin. Mindra's tail stopped twitching. Evidently she
enjoyed showing off.

"Next, shape
changing."

Her form
contorted and her features melted, then expanded into a scaly,
seven-foot tall dragon-like creature. It gazed down at them,
lifting its lips to reveal rows of shark-like teeth in a parody of
a smile. Then the dragon melted into a dark-eyed gypsy woman.

"Like it?" She
giggled.

Rawn gaped at
her, the fruit forgotten. "Is that... was that... Which is your
true form?"

The gypsy
woman sat next to him, the little bells on her clothes jingling.
"My true form is the one you met me in, dear boy." She laughed
again.

"So you could
become anything you want?" Rayne asked.

"Anything."

"That was why
we didn't see you when we came in?"

"Yes, I was a
rockery plant."

"And you could
stay like that as long as you like?"

"Yes."

"Do I...?”

"No, my dear,
you don't have that pathway."

The gypsy
woman became Mindra again. "Then there's telekinesis." She looked
at one of the rocks around the pool, and it split in two with a
sharp crack, then the water bubbled, steam rising from it.

"I also heal,
but that's difficult to demonstrate." She looked from one to the
other. "Any questions?"

Rawn wiped
fruit juice from his chin. "Can you do more than one at a
time?"

"Yes. I could
hold my shape as a gypsy woman and do one of the others, or I could
teleport and do one of the others, but some combinations don't
work, for instance, I couldn't create and do telekinesis at the
same time, or creation and healing, or telekinesis and healing.
Some things require more concentration, you see."

Rayne smiled.
"No wonder the Atlanteans didn't bother you. No one could match
your people. "

"Yes, that's
true. We're respected amongst the alien races, although we don't
travel much."

"So do you
just create a spaceship when you want to travel?" Rawn bit into
another alien fruit, this one bright green and hairy.

"No, we just
teleport. There are two ways of teleporting, this one, which is
really levitation," She drifted into the air, "Or this one." She
vanished and reappeared several feet away.

"So you
just... vanish here and reappear at home?"

"That's
right."

Rayne leant
forward. "You said I would be able to teleport. Will I be able to
do that too?"

"I don't think
so, dear. Your powers are limited, though Tallyn was right about
your being talented. That's not your strongest talent. You're best
at telepathy and healing, concentrate on improving those things.
Now that you can communicate with your brother, practise that, and
visit a hospital."

"Why don't you
heal the sick?" Rawn munched the apple.

"I do, when
I'm asked to, but I have other things to do at home. These are not
my people. Besides, they have healers of their own."

"You said I
had a talent for empathy. Did you strengthen that too?" Rayne
asked.

"No." Mindra's
ears flicked back. "That's one talent you're better off without.
The ability to sense other people's emotions is fraught with
disadvantages. You're better off without it. If I could, I would
even remove that talent, but unfortunately pathways are far more
difficult to close than they are to open. Your channel for empathy
is large, but you appear to be unable to use it, for some reason.
Rather leave it that way."

Rayne pondered
this, no new questions springing to mind. The rock drifted over to
her again.

"Lift it,"
Mindra commanded.

Rayne
concentrating on it, and it wobbled. She tried harder, her head
pounding. The stone rolled, then rose a few inches.

"I did it!"
she crowed, and the rock cracked down on the floor.

"Very good."
Mindra's eyes twinkled.

"But it hurts
my head." She rubbed her forehead, where a steel band
tightened.

"It will at
first. You're using areas of your brain that you've never used
before. The pathway is weak. You must exercise it, then it will get
stronger and the pain will stop."

Mindra stood
and stretched, arching her spine like a cat. "Now, if you have no
more questions, I think my job's finished."

Rayne glanced
at Rawn, unwilling to let this fascinating alien go, but not
knowing how to delay her. His gaze was blank, and she turned to
Mindra with a sigh. "We're very grateful for your help. Is there
any way we can repay you?"

Mindra's ears
flicked back, and her tail twitched again. "I have no use for
money, if that's what you mean. I did it for Tallyn as a favour. If
you wish, you can both owe me a favour. How's that?"

"Agreed." Rawn
rose and helped Rayne to her feet.

Mindra looked
up at them with mischievous eyes. "Well, good luck, and farewell."
She vanished.

After staring
at the place where she had been for several seconds, they turned to
leave. Before they reached the door, Mindra's voice spoke in
Rayne's mind. "Oh, I almost forgot, I slowed down your ageing to
the same as the Atlanteans'. For some reason, you evolved into a
far shorter-lived race than them, or maybe they did it to you.
Anyway, you'll live a lot longer now."

They spun
around, scanning the empty room.

"Mindra?"
Rayne said.

"Yes,
dear?"

"Are you at
home?"

"Yes."

"How long will
we live?"

"Several
hundred years. Same as everyone else."

Outside, dusk
spread cold fingers through the forest. Soon after they emerged,
Tallyn arrived to take them back to his dwelling. Rayne found that
her experience with Mindra was too personal to share, even with
Tallyn.

The following
day, Rayne studied ESP. Tallyn gave them access to the data web
through the web line screens in his house, where they found a
treasure trove of information. Rayne was a little surprised when
Tallyn revealed that he was a telepath, and that most Atlanteans
were, to varying degrees, but none had the awesome power of the
Shyanese. Rayne added the Shyanese to her list of interests, and
Rawn shared her curiosity. A vast amount of information was
available from the technical library. Rayne knew that even if she
lived to be three hundred she would never learn all it contained,
even with their enhanced abilities.

They learnt
how to operate the gravcar, and Talon brought one for them to use.
With this, they visited the local library, where they found extra
facilities for studying the store of knowledge. They often spent
the whole day with the flocks of students that attended the various
lectures and demonstrations.

Time seemed
irrelevant, and Rayne was surprised when six months passed without
her noticing. The council seemed content to let them live with
Tallyn, and he appeared to enjoy their company. Rayne asked him if
he had ever had a wife, and he told her he had made contracts with
four women, two of whom had borne his children. He explained that
Atlanteans made temporary contracts of a few years, during which
time they might have children.

When the
couple terminated the contract, the children stayed with their
mother and the father supported them. To Rayne, it sounded a lot
like a human marriage, only all parties knew from the outset that
the end would come. Tallyn saw his children once a week, spending a
day with each of them.

Tallyn
explained the semi-defunct cast system, which was a casual ranking
based on hair colour. In the past, it had been an important part of
Atlantean culture, and only those of high cast were allowed to hold
high office. Now it was a symbol of status, but its use to advance
careers was frowned upon.

The more
diverse an Atlantean's hair tones were, the higher status he or she
held. Tallyn was therefore exceedingly well bred, which he admitted
was the reason for his many contracts. The same rules precluded him
from making a contract with a woman whose hair tones were
insufficiently dissimilar, however. The whole thing sounded rather
cold-blooded to Rayne, but, from her experiences with Tallyn,
Atlanteans did seem to be a reticent and undemonstrative race.