“I’m worried. What if Commander Zens—”
“I won’t let anything keep me away from you. You’ve given my life meaning.” With Roberto’s thoughts came a powerful surge of emotion that left Ezaara breathless.
“You feel that strongly about me?” she asked.
“You know I do.”
He kissed her. Not like their first kiss, just five days ago in this very orchard. This kiss ignited a slow flame that burned inside her, like a beacon for him to come home to.
His face grew serious. “Before I go, I need to teach you two more mental techniques. In Naobia, I taught you to fixate, to block a mental intrusion by fixing an image in your mind, but there are two other techniques that are just as valuable: submerging and the silent witness.” His voice rumbled through her head, “You’re outnumbered. Tharuks are hunting you.”
Roberto’s midnight eyes seemed to swallow her. Gods, she could lose herself in them. She had to focus.
Suddenly, tharuks were in her mind, firing arrows and gashing people with claws. Tusks dripping blood, they tracked her scent through the forest. Fear ratcheted through her. How did he do that? Kick an image into her head so powerful she wanted to cower?
Roberto’s voice was gentle. “How can you prevent them from finding you?”
“Take freshweed and hide.” Ezaara’s voice shook, even though she knew these horrific beasts weren’t the real thing. “Hopefully, they’d pass me by. Especially if I doubled back. My scent …”
A tharuk loomed in her mind. Smaller than the others, with black eyes, it seemed to stare right through her. A vice tightened itself around her head, the way it had in Roberto’s memories. A mind bender. “No,” Ezaara cried out. Shards, this was crazy. It was only a mental image. The monster’s roar ripped through her head, and she hunched, hands over her ears.
Roberto was doing this. No wonder he hated his talents. No wonder Tonio feared him.
“You’ll recognize mind benders because their eyes are black, instead of red. Mind benders can find you by sensing your thoughts—unless you submerge by going so far inside yourself there’s no trace of what you’re thinking.” The tharuks in her head disappeared. “I’ll demonstrate. Stay melded and notice the difference.”
Ezaara closed her eyes.
Roberto’s mind was vibrant. His thoughts faded, slipping away like water through fingers, until they were barely a whisper. Then, like a candle snuffed out by a draft, he was gone.
Ezaara cast out her mind. Strange, usually Roberto slammed a wall between them when he was blocking her, but there was nothing. She opened her eyes.
He was still there.
“How?”
“Peel away your mental habits—your anxieties, thoughts, fears and passions—and reach a state of calm. Go to the true center of your being and remain still for as long as you can.”
“Sathir.” That’s what he meant. “Feeling the connection with nature and becoming one with it.” She’d done this in the desert.
“Sathir is life energy.”
Ezaara shrugged. “To the silent ones, sathir also means reaching a meditative state.”
“Try.” The sun cast a golden sheen on Roberto’s skin. His voice was soft, eyes warm. His mind, sharp.
Ezaara submerged by sensing sathir and finding her still place. Roberto probed. He found her several times, when she was distracted by his dark eyes or soft laugh.
She sighed. “It’s not exactly easy with you loving me.”
“It’s not going to be easy in battle, either.” He raised an eyebrow. “Try again.”
Twice, he couldn’t detect her.
“Better. Now, I’ll teach you the hand signals.”
“Hand signals?”
“I’ve developed signals for each of these mental techniques, for communicating when a mind bender is near. A subtle circle with the thumb means fixate.” Roberto flicked his thumb around in a small circle.
She copied him. “So, this is fixing an image in my mind?”
“Right, and a twitch of your middle finger is for the silent witness, and lifting your smallest finger is the signal to submerge.”
“I think I’ve got them.” Ezaara demonstrated each gesture. “Thumb circle for fixate, small finger for submerging, and middle finger for silent witness—whatever that is.”
“We’ll get to that in a minute. The last signal is a flat hand, palm down, telling you to flee immediately.”
“Flat hand, flee. I hope I never need it.”
“So do I. Now, the last thing is the silent witness. You need to mind-meld with me, without leaving a trace of your own thoughts. I’ll show you.”
“How would that be useful, melding if you can’t hear my thoughts?”
“I’ll show you. There are two parts of your mind that are active in mind-melding, the part that reaches out to make a connection, and the part that produces thoughts. To perform the silent witness, you need to make the connection, but shield your thoughts. Observe.”
Roberto placed his hands upon her temples.
She was in the sacred grove in Lush Valley again, the alps rising high above the forest, and Zaarusha overhead. Sunlight blazed through her—she was imprinting with the queen.
Roberto murmured in her mind, “I hope you enjoy this experien—” His voice was gone.
“Roberto, are you still there?”
In a swirl of colors, Ezaara was swept up onto Zaarusha’s back and, heart pounding, flew away from her family.
“Could you sense me?” Roberto gently brought the experience to a stop.
“Only at the start.”
“You try.”
Ezaara melded with Roberto. His mind was buzzing. He and his sister Adelina were swimming in a sparkling sapphire lake. She raced him, diving deep and entering a long channel in the rock. Roberto swam strongly, chasing Adelina, and they both came up inside a cavern, gasping
