“I still don’t understand,” Tom said. “I have questions.”
Karen gave Gareth a sip of the medicine.
Gareth held it in his mouth until she turned to Tom. Gareth allowed it to dribble from the corner of his mouth. Little went down his throat. The medicine had numbed his mind and slowed him until he might as well have been asleep. What was needed was learning to keep his thoughts to himself. He forced his mind to act and feel as it had earlier, relaxed and calm.
Karen said, “Not enough to put him to sleep this time. We just need to quiet his thoughts down.”
“Explain more fully,” Tom said, more insistent.
Karen sipped water from her canteen and sighed, as if reluctant to speak. “Okay, really quick. Maybe one boy in a thousand can either send his thoughts to another or receive them, as the pairs of the Brotherhood do. They kept it secret and managed to maintain their association for hundreds of years. Men with the mental ability can sense the developing skill in young boys at age four or five. When the brothers locate a boy with the power, they “buy” him, which often means kidnapping. They train him to communicate with one other boy. Those brothers you see in the green robes are in constant contact with their opposite who is far away. They have that distracted ‘look’ because they are.”
Tom asked, “You only mentioned men. No women have this talent?”
She flashed a smile in the dim light of early morning. “We have another, related talent, at about the same ratio of one in a thousand, but only more recently discovered. Or found to exist, we do not know. Women of our sisterhood use their minds to communicate with animals, not other people.”
Tom growled, “I talk to animals, too. Explain the difference.”
“We do it without words. Of course, we don’t really speak, or talk to them, we ‘suggest.' Most of us find it’s easier to mouth the words we suggest, which makes us look odd to normal people. The smarter an animal is, the more complex ideas we can suggest. Dogs and pigs do a lot at our urging, like fetching or tracking a deer we’re hunting. A mouse can’t. Nevertheless, we can suggest to all the mice in a house that there’s a cat stalking them, and that if they run outside, they will be safe. Once they are all outside, we shut the door to keep them out and live vermin free.”
Tom helped Gareth stand again. Gareth intuitively understood the woman’s talent probably had other uses, including uses beyond what she was telling Tom. She minimized her explanation, but Gareth could accept that. Her brief explanation had told him much he needed to consider.
Gareth allowed his mind to decipher the puzzles in her explanation. She obviously held more power than she wanted to claim. Gareth imagined she might direct a mother bear to maul him while suggesting to the mother that he hurt her cub. Passive dogs would attack if urged on by fear of perceived dangers. Even geese are used as watchdogs in rural areas, and a honking goose is a formidable opponent.
Tom said, “Can the animals answer you?”
“In a fashion, I guess. They often return affection, even unlikable animals like cats. Mostly they just do what we suggest, and we save ourselves from days of hunting for lost sheep. We do not watch flocks at night because alert dogs do it, and we keep pests out of our homes.”
Gareth limped along, still exaggerating his weaknesses, but his mind capturing every word of their conversation. At her mention of animals responding “in a fashion,” his mind seized on the statement. He tripped and stumbled as he considered her meaning, and finally understood what she had not said, what she had not told Tom. Woman with the talent could probably see through an animal’s eyes as he learned today that he could do with his dragon. Probably only with animals the sisters knew well, like pet dogs or pigs, and perhaps birds. She hadn’t mentioned that skill, and his distrust grew. She also hadn’t elaborated on what her ‘suggestions’ could do with an angry bear or dog. Her entire conversation was a series of half-truths. He fought to keep his mind calm, and his sense of anger or excitement concealed from her.
Gareth pictured the tannery back in Dun Mare and himself lying in the sun near that old sour apple tree in late summer. Faring told his made-up ghost stories, swearing the tales were true, and they both laughed at the absurd fantasies. His breathing slowed. He didn’t totally relax, but his mind settled, and he calmed the portion he felt allowed others to peep into his thinking. Now that he knew others saw his thoughts, he tried to set his mind in the same manner as the bitter fluid did. It was like pursing his lips to prevent speaking, only different.
Tom walked quietly beside him, probably thinking about her answers too, and considering the consequences much like Gareth. So much Tom didn’t know.
Gareth listened to their conversation and had plenty of questions to ask, but didn’t want to make them aware of his interest, or wakefulness. Her evasive answers to Tom’s questions indicated she had an agenda of her own, but he had no idea of what it might be. It obviously included Gareth, and keeping him away from the Brotherhood, and the army. For now, that seemed to coincide with Tom’s ideas. Gareth wondered if she could order sharks to attack a fishing boat. Probably. Could a bird watch for someone she wanted to see from high in the sky and somehow relay that information to her? Could she watch through the bird’s eyes and direct it where to look as it flew, or where to fly? Probably.
But why was she trying to keep him from the brothers and army, and what limits would she go to in order to keep him out of their hands? A slit throat as she’d suggested earlier? A taste of copper filled his mouth as he realized he’d bitten his cheek so hard it bled.
Gareth decided she was far more dangerous than she made out. She might shoot arrows straight, but her real abilities were hidden in webs of tangled lies and half-truths.
Tom urged Gareth to catch up with her on the path, half-dragging Gareth along. When they caught up, Tom asked in a soft voice, “You and that other woman who delivered the medicine dress alike. Is that coincidence?”
She said over her shoulder, tossing a hand to one side in indifference. “You know it’s not. We learned to keep to ourselves and conceal our powers from the Brotherhood, as well as from normal people. We’re sometimes accused of witchcraft. Usually, one of the Brotherhood is responsible for starting the rumors, but we face the consequence. Those men do not like us. They don’t trust us, yet we share the same sort of mental ability. So we try to avoid them, and we live our own lives. Our common dress gives us a simple method to recognize each other.”
“One more question before we rest.”
“It sounds important.” Her voice conveyed the idea she wanted to continue their travels, not wait and talk about subjects she’d rather keep to herself.
Tom nodded, although she was facing ahead and only Gareth could see it. “If one boy in a thousand can send or hear another with their minds, how many can do both?”
She hesitated, and then said, “I’d guess Gareth is maybe one in a thousand of those with the normal mental ability men have. Maybe less. Perhaps it has never even happened before, and your friend is something entirely new to the world. So I cannot answer your question with any certainty. I can only say that I, and anyone I have spoken with, have never mentioned it.”
“Unbelievable,” Tom said, casting a glance at Gareth.
Karen drew a deep breath and turned to speak. Her face was dark, her voice a rasp of anger. “Want more unbelievable information? Your friend leaning on your shoulder can speak to animals like women of the sisterhood. He just learned of it today, but already he’s better at it than any of us. That’s after just a half day of bonding with his black dragon. I’m not sure about how he deals with animals besides his dragon, yet, or if he can. But you have to admit that his goat did seem to have an unusually firm attraction to him.”