Captives

Melissa took him along the edge of a newly planted field to an area some men were clearing. 'How many people?' she asked him.

'Four-no, five. And four horses.'

'The people-male, female, ages, sizes?'

'Oh, Lady Melissa, I can't tell that from this distance! I'm only now starting to sort out the people I know from a few paces away, unless I hear their footsteps or they speak or think to me.'

'Then can you tell me what the people are doing?'

He concentrated, Melissa deliberately not Reading so that he could not Read through her. 'I can't make sense of it,' Rolf confessed. 'They are digging? But what? Now they're trying to lift something-and digging some more.'

'They're clearing some big rocks out of a field, so they can cultivate it,' Melissa explained. 'They've got lots of them in the wagon already, and that's why there are four horses-it is really heavy. They have to dig some more around the boulder they're working on before they can lift it. There are five big, strong men. I haven't seen many like that around here, except in the army.'

'They were probably in Drakonius' army,' said Rolf. 'He sent his officers to our villages every so often, and took away all healthy boys over fourteen. In the army they got good food, and healers to work on them. The people in my village were glad I'm blind-the army didn't take me, so they had someone to control the weather. What are the men doing now, Melissa?'

'They're trying to lift a boulder. It's too heavy for them-they shouldn't-' She shouted, 'Hey! You'll hurt your backs! Let me get an Adept to-'

The five men, straining, had lifted the rock to waist height, their muscles bulging as they staggered toward the wagon-but Melissa had distracted them. Two looked over their shoulders in her direction, and she realized that they did not understand her. 'Rolf, tell them-'

One of the distracted men turned his ankle on the uneven ground, throwing the others off balance. They lurched, trying desperately to hold on, unable to drop the boulder without dropping it on themselves-but their muscles were giving out. A second man's leg gave even as the first was scrabbling to regain his hold-both went down, the rock on top of them!

The other three men were forced to let go, and the boulder crushed one man's arm, the other's chest. Screams of pain filled the air-then the man whose chest was crushed fell silent, unconscious.

Melissa rushed to where the three uninjured men were dragging the boulder off the others. 'Hold him!' she said, pointing to the man with the broken arm. 'He'll be all right if he doesn't move it.' When they stared blankly, she said, 'Rolf-translate!'

Rolf spoke to the men in the savage language. One of them soothed the conscious man, while Melissa bent over the unconscious one.

'We need a healer,' she said, then 'No, Rolf!' as the boy started away. 'Send one of these men, and you help me!'

//Lord Lenardo!// she broadcast, //Torio! Lady Aradia!// But she could not Read for a response as she concentrated on the injured man.

Rolf knelt beside Melissa as one of the men ran off toward the castle. 'Rolf, this man is bleeding into his left lung. Stop it.'

'I'm not a healer. I can only control water-'

'Blood is mostly water! Read for it, then stop it.'

She Read with him, showing him where the flow was. Rolf went unReadable, and the blood stopped. Melissa sighed with relief-the man would survive until an Adept reached them. But even as she relaxed, he began going into shock. His heart raced-then suddenly stopped. 'Rolf-his heart!'

'What?' Rolf's concentration broke; blood flowed sluggishly into the lung again.

'Don't stop!' Melissa cried, realizing she would have to try to pump the man's heart from outside his body. But splinters of broken ribs jabbed inward-she Read that if she tried pressing on his breast bone, she would drive one into his heart. It was a miracle that it had not gone in and killed him.

But he was a dead man now if she could not make his heart pump blood again, make him breathe-

The patients who had died in her care at Gaeta seemed to stare up at her from the man's unconscious face. For a moment he was Jason, cold in her arms. She knew the power was in her, if only she could reach it. She Read back toward the castle-but the man Rolf had sent for help was only now entering the courtyard as Torio hurried down the stairs to see what was wrong. They won't be here in time.

She Read the man's heart, saw that it was uninjured, and tried to envision it pumping normally. Nothing happened. No-I can't Read at the same time, she remembered, stopped Reading, concentrated-something inside her twisted, and she gasped in fear. She forced concentration, and tried again, laying her head against the man's bloody chest to try to hear what she dared not Read. As she concentrated on envisioning-pushing-squeezing-the man's heart, the twisting feeling came again, and with it the reward of a faint lub-dub from inside the man's chest. In a moment there came another-she tried to straighten up, felt impossible weakness, and fainted dead away.

Melissa came to lying on the ground with Rolf, Torio, and Aradia bending over her. Automatically she tried-

'I can't Read!' she cried, putting her hands to her head.

Aradia took her hands. 'It's temporary,' she said in a reassuring voice. 'Relax, Melissa. You just overdid it.'

'The injured man!' She tried to sit up, but Aradia pushed her back. 'He's fine-already in healing sleep. Rolf tells me-'

'You did it, Lady Melissa!' Rolf said excitedly. 'You really did start his heart! I Read you do it!'

'You used too much energy,' Aradia explained. 'It's a common problem. But you saved that man's life-I would never have reached him in time. Do you think you can walk now? A nap and a meal, and you'll be good as new.'

Melissa found that she could Read faintly. As soon as she had that relief, excitement buoyed her up. 'I don't want to sleep! I want to learn more!'

Julia came running up, followed more sedately by Wulfston. 'Oh, that's not fair!' the little girl cried. 'Why can't/learn it?'

'No one is preventing you, Julia,' Wulfston said in a warning voice, and the child subsided from her threatening tantrum. 'Congratulations, Lady Melissa,' he added, not allowing the slightest twinge of envy to mar his words.

Melissa was sitting up now, feeling normal enough-except that she could not Read even to the castle. Aradia noticed her testing herself. //Your powers will return to normal with a night's sleep-but using Adept power will temporarily reduce your Reading ability.//

//If it's temporary, it's worth it,// she told her, and added aloud, 'When can I learn more?'

'After food and rest,' said Wulfston.

Despite her protests that she felt fine and wanted to try more Adept tricks before she forgot how, Aradia took Melissa upstairs and made her lie down. 'Sleep if you can,' the Lady Adept told her, 'and at lunch eat what Wulfston and I tell you to-never mind what my husband says.'

Melissa forced down about half the huge slab of roast meat Aradia insisted she have for lunch. Born of Readers, she had never eaten meat, even before her powers had developed. The taste and texture were strange… and she had to remind herself not to think that this had been a baby lamb, or she could eat none of it. She half expected to be sick, but she wasn't-she was fascinated by the work Wulfston did in the rock-riddled field the men had been trying to clear, splitting the rocks into smaller pieces so they would not have to strain themselves again.

Like Rolf's Reading ability, her Adept power was small, but Lord Wulfston carefully taught her how to use it to best effect without draining herself. 'Look for ways to work with nature,' he told her. 'You can bring a whole mountain down by crumbling one bit of clay at its base-gravity will do the rest. If you must kill a man, to keep him from killing you, stop his heart. Don't try to push him back with the force of your mind.'

To split rocks, Melissa Read the natural stress lines in the boulders for Wulfston, making his job easier and finding that she could split one or two herself. The next day she had a lesson in healing-but with horses, not people.