Her mother introduced her by saying, “She is a garden child. I have never known a little one to spend so much time among bushes and plants. I can hardly get her to come in for meals. And the grass stains...” She lifted her hands in mock horror. “I have given up on keeping that child clean. I don’t know what Errol was thinking asking Ilias for his willow farm to stay at.”
“I was thinking of you, my dear,” Errol commented from beneath his square of cloth.
“However do you mean?”
Master Silas removed the fabric square and looked up at his wife. “Don’t you remember the trouble that we had with training Ilias? You kept complaining that the house was too small.”
“You kept insisting that everything be completely silent while he practiced concentrating, a bit difficult with small ones crawling, toddling, and capering about.”
“Exactly, my love.” Easing himself up into a sitting position with the help of the bench, Master Silas smiled at his wife. “Now we shall have enough room. The house has five bedrooms, a kitchen, dining room, parlor, workroom, and acres of land. Plenty of room for you to run the household, Gatatea to posture, Eloine to read, Candra to disappear into nature, and Zezilia and I to work. We would not be able to do all that on our small estate in the north. Besides, I want Zezilia as far south as I can get her. I don’t want to take the chance of her father changing his mind.”
“You are indeed wise. If the house is as you say, I shall be very pleased.”
“I knew you would,” Master Silas said before turning to me. “We shall begin your training.”
“Now?” I asked. “But we are traveling.”
“What better time to work on it than in the midst of chaos. Close your eyes.”
I was skeptical of what we could accomplish jostling along to the beat of the rain on the oil skin roof, but I obeyed.
“Now concentrate on one sound,” he instructed. I chose the steady creak of the wheel to my left. “Shut out all sounds but that one.”
It took a lot of work, the rain was easy to filter, a monotone and consistent rhythm, but the jostling of the wagon wheels in the ruts of the roads and the jingle of the horses’ tack were harder. Finally, I managed. I felt something brush my thoughts.
“Good,” Master Silas said.
For the next few hours, he kept me focusing on sounds. It grew easier as my mind adjusted to the process. Master Silas, or Errol as he repeatedly urged him to call him, seemed pleased with my progress.
“Now,” he said suddenly as I was trying to isolate the sound of one of the horses’ hooves. “I want you to close your eyes and imagine the area around you as a blank space.”
Abandoning the sounds, I complied. The space that came to mind was a vast grey field.
“Now reach out with your mind and try to sense where each of the living beings are within that field. Begin with myself. It will be easier since you have my voice to follow.”
I concentrated on the sound of his voice, shutting out all others. As I focused harder, an image grew in my mind of something glowing dimly to my left and before me. It flickered. It must be Errol’s mind. Then hesitantly, I withdrew my focus on that one and reached out, grasping in the darkness with my mental hand, seeking Adreet. It took a while, but I found her. Her glow didn’t flicker as much as I concentrated on it. Then suddenly, she moved. I heard it and the glowing representation of her moved too. It startled me so much that I lost the image.
My eyes opened to find Errol watching me with an amused look.
“Those images in my head,” I gestured to my forehead, “They are just images right?”
Errol laughed. “No, those are our actual minds. You are sensing them the way you select out sounds when you are listening and focus on objects when you see. I am teaching you to sense other minds.”
I just looked at him for a stunned moment. “You mean that when you close your eyes and try this, you sense my mind?”
He nodded. “How do you think I found you that first day?”
“I don’t know.”
“I kept picking up trace thoughts and feelings.”
“You mentioned that, but how do the two connect, the sending and the sensing?”
He studied me for a moment. “I will tell you what. I will talk you through a sending if you promise to never do it on your own, until I say you are ready.”
“I promise,” I agreed immediately. “But why can’t I do it on my own?”
“You can do serious damage to another person’s mind if you don’t know what you are doing. That is why so many of the young men who have no interest in using the talent are trained anyway. They need to know what not to do so that others are protected.”
“In that case, I would prefer to wait,” I said. I shuddered at the thought of hurting someone that way. “I wouldn’t want to hurt you.”
He smiled. “It is safe for me, Zezilia. I have guards and defenses up for protecting against such things. You aren’t trained in getting past them; so, you will not be able to do anything. Come, it will be good for you to get a taste of what is to come. Now, close your eyes.”
I reluctantly obeyed.
“Visualize the space and find my mind again.” This time finding his mind was much easier, as if my brain had memorized its glow. “Now
