Killa gave a snort, not as derisive as she might have been because she was not going to exacerbate Lars's despair."Now that's asking a lot, love," she said wryly."You know how paranoid singers are.Put something down that another singer could find and locate?"She shook her head."Not to mention roping singers back to Ballybran before they absolutely have to return."
Lars looked deeply in her eyes."That's why your cooperation is so vital, Sunny.You're senior among the working singers.If you can be seen to accede to executive orders," he said with a bitter smile, "the others will accept them.Especially if you start bringing in more crystal, better crystal, because you know exactly how to get back to workable sites."
"I've already cut more crystal than any other singer…"
"You have that enviable reputation, Sunny," he said with a hint of his customary ebullience.
"So how does this regression process work?"
He straightened up, his eyes losing their grimness."Under hypnosis.Donalla's become expert.She found the coordinates I needed to access one of our old claims the last time I went out."
"You-by yourself?"The notion that he had risked himself like that made her choke with fear.
"As Guild Master, I had to set the example, despite my partner's illness.I can't ask singers to do what I won't do myself, you know."
"And you talk about capricious singers!"
"Don't shout, Killa.I cut, I got back and at least filled another order."
"Order?Order!"She was indignant.
"An order that's been unfilled for twenty years, Killa!It's no wonder the Guild's reputation has been suffering.I've finally got permission to inaugurate a more active recruitment campaign, but it's experienced singers I need and right now-and out in the Ranges, not carousing on Maxim's or Baliol and spread out across the galaxy."
The bleak expression of a man who was not given to desperation, the flat, despairing edge to a voice that had always been rich with humor and optimism, moved her more deeply than any other moment in a basically egocentric and selfish life.She owed Lars Dahl, and now was the time to repay him in the only coin that mattered.
"So, let's get back to the Cube and let Donalla beguile me, or whatever it is she needs to do."
"Regress your memory."
"I can't, and that's that," Donalla said, swinging her stool around and projecting herself off it.She paced angrily about the room."You don't trust me, Killa.It's as simple as that.Until you can trust me, hypnosis can't happen."
"But I do trust you, Donalla," Killa insisted, as she had over the past few days and the increasingly frustrating sessions she had had with the medic.
"Look, ladies," Presnol said, coming out of the corner of the room where he had been as unobtrusive as possible, "there are some folk who are psychologically unable to release control of their minds to anyone, no matter how they trust the operator.Killa's been a singer a very long time now…"
"Don't keep reminding me of that."Killa heard the edge on her voice, but she was too keyed up by failure to control the reaction.
"Habits are ingrained…"
"I've never been a creature of habit," Killa protested, trying to inject a little humor into the tensions that crackled about them all.
"But," he said, turning to her, "protecting your site locations has played a dominant role in your subconscious.I mean, I've sat in on Donalla's sessions with some of the inactive singers"-Killa approved of his euphemism-"and often it's sounded to me as if they were keeping the information from themselves: the subconscious refusing to permit access of knowledge to the conscious."
"Ha!"Killa folded her arms across her chest."I go to sleep telling myself to remember.To dredge up the necessary referents, I dream of fardling spires and ranges and canyons and ravines.I dream of the act of cutting; I dream of crystal until I wake myself up thinking I'm asleep on a bed of the fardling shards!"
"Like a mystic?"Donalla tried to cover up the giggle that had slipped out.
Presnol looked shocked, but Killa grinned."I know the sort you mean-total disregard of the purely physical.Mind over matter!Oh, Muhlah, if I only could…" And she groaned, covering her face with her hands.
"Wait a minute," Donalla said, drawing herself erect at a sudden inspiration."You get thralled, don't you?By crystal?"
"It can happen to any singer," Killa said guardedly.
"Yes, but thrall's a form of hypnosis, isn't it?I mean, the crystal triggers the mesmerism, doesn't it?"
"Indeed it does."
Presnol caught the significance of their exchange."But that would mean you'd have to go into the Ranges."
"What's wrong with that, Presnol?"Killashandra asked, slapping her hands to her knees."I'd be doing something constructive at the same time, instead of sitting on my buns here accomplishing nothing.Sorry, Donalla.You've tried.I just can't comply!Maybe, in the Ranges, and in thrall, you can get through."
"But-but-" Presnol floundered.
"But you've never been out, have you?"
"Only to rescue singers."And a convulsive spasm shook the medic's frame.
"Well, it's about time you saw the Ranges at their best," Killa said, amused.
Presnol gulped.
"No, I'll go," Donalla said, giving her lover a reassuring smile."I'm-supposedly-the hypnotist.And I'm not afraid of the Ranges."
"I'm not, either," Presnol protested, but both women exchanged knowing glances."I'm not, truly."
"Donalla's presence is sufficient, I'd say," Killa said.
"One of us should remain here, Pres," Donalla said, "and you could continue the hypnotics with-" She hesitated, glancing at Killashandra-"another patient."
"Yes, I could," Presnol said, beginning to relax.He was not as adept at the process as Donalla, but he had been successful with two of the inactive singers."That would be a much more useful disposition of my time right now.Ah, when will you be going?" he asked, turning back at the door.
Killa and Donalla exchanged looks.Killa shrugged."We'll check with Lars…"
But when they explained their plan to Lars Dahl, Killa could see plainly his resistance to the idea of her going out into the Ranges without him.She herself had had to override her own reluctance to go out in the company of a nonsinger, however dispassionately involved with the singing of crystal.
"There's been no tradition of nonsingers-" Lars began.
"Ha!Since you've been demolishing tradition all over the place, why cavil at this one?The results could be exactly what's needed.At least with me," Killa said."As you point out, I'm one of the oldest still active singers…"
"Killa!"His tone held a warning not to try his patience just then.
"Look, we can rig lots of safeguards.Weather's behaving itself right now, so we can cancel that worry.Donalla can wear a combutton direct to your console, so if you have to do a rescue flit, you'll be the first to hear," Killa went on, perversely determined to undermine any argument he might voice."Donalla's stronger than she looks, if it comes to her having to break thrall."She grinned."Know any good throws?" she asked Donalla, who dismissed the question."So, teach her your special techniques, up to and including setting my cutter sour.Muhlah knows that the reward could be worth the price of a cutter."
"Don't let Clarend hear you say that," Lars remarked with a good attempt at genuine humor.
"Hmmm, too right," Killa grinned back at him.Over the decades they had both taken plenty of abuse from the cutter.
"You'll lend us the double sled then?"Killa asked.She looked out of the broad window, beyond the Hangar."Hell, it's only midday.We could be deep in the Ranges and cutting in a couple of hours."She leaned across the desk toward him, daring him, silently urging him to agree."Of course, if you happened to have some black-crystal coordinates handy, I could be productive on several levels."