“No one is,” she said.
“Good. We won’t be interrupted.” He looked at her silently for a long moment. “What happened?”
Her eyes slid away from his. “I don’t know. I was just nervous, I guess.”
“Of course you were. The trick is not to tell everyone about it.”
She looked at him again, frowning, her small, expressive face a mask of concern. “Doro, I saw them in my mind and they didn’t scare me. I didn’t feel a thing. I had to keep reminding myself that they were probably dangerous, that I should be careful. And even when I was reminding myself, I don’t think I really believed it. But now … just meeting one of them …”
“You’re afraid of Rachel?”
“I sure as hell am.”
It was an unusual thing for her to admit. Rachel must have thoroughly shaken her. “What is it about her that frightens you?”
“I don’t know.”
“You should know.”
She thought for a moment. “It was just a feeling at first?like the feeling I ignored when I tried to read you this morning. A feeling of danger. A feeling that she could carry out those threats she kept not quite making.” She stopped, looked at Doro. He said nothing. She went on. “I guess the dangerous thing about her is the one you hinted at just before we went up. That if she can heal the sick, she can probably make people sick too.”
“I didn’t say you should guess,” said Doro. “I said you should know. You can read her every thought, every memory, without her being aware of it. Use your ability.”
“Yeah.” She took a deep breath. “I’m not used to that yet. I guess I’ll be doing it
automatically after a while.”
“You’d better. And when I’m finished with you here, I want you to read them all. Including Karl. I want you to learn their weaknesses and their strengths. I want you to know them better than they know themselves. I don’t want you to be uncertain or afraid with even one more of them.”
She looked a little surprised. “Well, I can find out about them, all right. But as for not being afraid … if a person like Rachel wants to kill me, I’m not going to be able to stop her just because I know her.” She paused for a moment. “Now I know?I just found out?that Rachel can give me a heart attack or a cerebral hemorrhage or any other deadly thing she wants to. So I know. So what?”
“What else did you find out about Rachel?”
“Junk. Nothing that does me any good. Stuff about her personal life, her work. I see she’s a kind of parasite too. It must run in my family.”
“Of course it does. But she’s got nothing like your power. And you’ve seen a thing you don’t realize you’ve seen, girl.”
“What?”
“That you’re at least as dangerous to Rachel as she is to you. Since you can read her through her shield, she won’t be able to surprise you?unless you’re just careless. And if you see her coming, you should be able to stop her.”
“I don’t see how, unless I kill her. But it doesn’t matter. I was reading her again as you spoke. She’s not about to come after me, now that you’ve ordered her not to.”
“No, she wouldn’t. But I won’t always be standing between you and her. I’m giving you time?not very much time?to learn to handle yourself among these people. You’d better use it.”
She swallowed, nodded.
“Do you understand what Rachel does? Do you see that you are to her, and to the others, what she is to her congregations?”
“A kind of mental vampire draining strength … or something from people. Strength? Life force? I don’t know what to call it.”
“It doesn’t matter what you call it. She has to take it to do her healing, and healing is the only purpose she’s found for her life. Can you see that what she sets up at each of her services is a kind of temporary pattern?”
“Yes. But at least she doesn’t kill anybody.”
“She could, very easily. Ordinary people have no defense against what she does?the way she feeds. If she took too much from her crowds, she’d begin killing the very old, the very young, the weak, even the sick that she intended to heal.”
“I see.”
“See, too, that while you can take from her, she can’t take from you.”
“Because I can shield her out.”
“You don’t have to shield her out. Let her in if you like.”
“What do you mean?” She looked at him in horror.
“Exactly what you think I mean.”
She frowned. “Are you telling me it’s all right for me to kill now when, just a few hours ago, you said?”
“I know what I said. And I still don’t want anyone killed. But I’m gambling on you, Mary. If you survive among these people, I have a chance of winning.”
“Winning your empire. Is there anybody whose life you wouldn’t risk for your Goddamn empire?”
