The more he tried to think of other things the more intense his vision of a naked Mary became. Gareth didn’t move to take the flask. “What is it?”
“Medicine. I was bringing it to Karen when she had to leave you. It’ll stop you from telling your enemies where we are with your every thought. A herb that will numb your thinking to an extent, and make you sleepy. It’s important you drink it right away.”
Her persuasive manner and calm confidence made him want to trust her. Yet he didn’t know her and drinking what she termed medicine seemed foolish. He glanced at the goat and found it lying down, eyes closed, legs curled under it. The dragon slept on, breathing deeply and snorting occasionally. Strange for them to sleep so soundly in the middle of the day. Gareth nodded with his chin. “Do you have anything to do with them sleeping?”
She nodded. “We sisters have a way with animals.”
“Can you make them obey you, too?”
“No. At least, not like you. We only suggest, but your dragon is bound to you or bonded, as some say. You communicate directly. Bound or bonded means that if your dragon does not see you for ten years, it will still think you are its mother. Your minds are as one. Sisters hold a less powerful link with animals. We simply trigger basic reactions in animals, like telling them they need to sleep, but if they do not want to, they will ignore us. With the two of you bonded, it is like one person thinking two thoughts.”
“Can you order me to sleep?”
“I could try, but you’d resist.”
Gareth shook his head. Some of her explanation made sense, but much did not.
She continued, “Don’t worry about it, especially now. You are taking the first step on a long staircase. For now, you need to remain calm and keep your thoughts to yourself so the others do not find you. That’s why the medicine. It’ll calm your mind.”
“Karen said others can hear every word I think.”
“Most people ‘hear’ your feelings and think they are their own, if they have a little touch of the power, and most people do. They do not hear the actual thoughts or sentences unless they are brothers or sisters. However, there are times when you are so blatant about your feelings they may as well be words that everyone can hear.”
He held the flask to his mouth and allowed a drop of the amber liquid to touch his tongue. Bitter. “If I don’t drink this?”
“I won’t force you if that’s what you’re asking. What I will do, is leave this place as fast as I can, because anyone near you is certainly going to be captured or die. Including you. Probably by burning in a mire of dragon spit from those overhead, but don’t count out swords or spears. You are drawing your enemies to you like flies to honey.”
She eyed the full flask, stepped back and straightened her tunic with a tub to the bottom hem as if to leave, her attitude of indifference impressing Gareth more than her words alone. He said, “This will help me from spreading my thoughts everywhere? Keep me safe?”
She nodded.
Gareth carefully watched her reactions to his words and tone. She seemed sincere in her concerns about dying if she stayed near him, and that scared him more than the contents of the flask. He tipped it and allowed the bitter concoction to fill his mouth before sliding down his throat, ignoring the taste. He kept his eyes locked on hers.
She accepted the empty container and spoke softly. “Sit. Very soon your mind should stop sending your thoughts out like an angry swarm of bees after the hive is attacked, but too many people have already heard you. Most have determined roughly where you are and are already near here, or they are on their way, traveling fast. Everybody wants you.”
“I don’t understand why.”
She shrugged, and settled herself next to him. “Normally sensitive men pair with another with the same ability when they’re young. One listens while the other speaks. They can only pair with one other man. Communication is in a single direction. You break all the rules.”
Gareth tried to follow her thinking, but his mind already felt dull and slow, like it had been running up a long hill, slowly. “Men?”
“Of the cloth. The Brotherhood, I’m sure you’ve seen them. They wear long green robes and look like their minds are a hundred leagues away, which they are.”
“Teachers.”
“Yes, they sometimes teach. You know of them?”
His tongue felt thick and slow. “They travel in pairs like you said.”
“Yes. One of the pair listens and the other speaks, but not to each other. Their partners are far away, where they can relay their information to those who sell it.”
“I can’t hear them.”
She paused, nodded as if coming to a decision, and said, “I believe that in time you will. Soon. You just don’t know how, yet. You had only bonded with your dragon a day ago. But as your talent improves, you will hear so much I don’t know how you will shut it all out, let alone filter it to hear what you want.”
“I would have to filter the thoughts? Can that be done?”
She snorted and almost smiled. “You already do it with sounds. Right now around us, there are sounds of leaves rustling, insects calling to one another, your dragon snoring, and probably a hundred others. Yet you only “hear” my voice. You filter out the others without even trying.”
Gareth fought to keep his mind active. Mary was sharing information he’d wondered about his whole life, and he fought to think of what he should ask her next while he was still able, and while she was willing to share. Should he ask about the night whispers? For some reason, he quickly decided not to. “Who buys information from the Brotherhood?”
“Tradesmen, farmers, kings, generals, and fishermen, like your friend, Tom. Anyone.”
“Why?”
“You mean; why would someone pay the Brotherhood of men for information? Well, suppose you’re a farmer and learn that a drought ruined the wheat crop in Drakesport, and you can sell your wheat for much more if you send it in a wagon to their market, instead of to Tanner’s Crossing. Perhaps to the north seas far more fish being caught this year than normal. Would you pay for that knowledge if you fished for a livelihood? Or, if you were a general in the King’s army and could know the size and location of the enemy, what would you pay?”
Gareth heard her and understood the value of selling information, but his mind grew ever slower under the influence of the drug. He concentrated on her words, as well as the concepts, but much of it felt lost. There were many more questions he wanted to ask, but he couldn’t think of them. His thoughts felt soft and directionless. He closed his eyes but did not sleep.
She continued, speaking as a mother to a newborn to calm it, “Information of the right sort is often more valuable than gold. The Brotherhood travel in pairs and they are in constant communication with their opposites, rumored to be located in a valley far beyond the Blue Mountains. They walk the lands of all kingdoms and observe everything, reporting what they find. Invent a new weapon and they see it today and sell it to far lands, tomorrow. A rival king takes ill, and the best healers flock to him. For a price.”
The mini dragon sluggishly escaped his bag and curled up at Gareth’s waist. He didn’t have the will or energy to shove it away. The woman continued talking, but he couldn’t concentrate enough to understand her words. She seemed more relaxed, as if safer. Mary tipped his head back, and he felt cool water trickle down his throat.
A smile crept onto his face as he remembered Odd’s daughter, Sara, giving him water on the farm during plowing season or when working to harvest the fields. Funny he often thought of that one simple action more than any other.