Captives

small as possible and to shorten the time the patient was exposed. But medical skills were not all she was here to learn.

She was expected to continue her lessons in Reading-and those did not go well at all. She had barely managed to learn to leave her body behind while her «self» went out of body. She hated the feeling, fearful that she would lose herself, never to return to the physical. And she was completely incapable of leaving the simple plane in which another Reader might perceive her for one of the planes of privacy. She must learn to do that before she could become a Magister Reader, and be safe from being married off as Alethia had been.

She saw Alethia often, and knew that there was absolutely no pretense to her friend's happiness. She began to understand more clearly the joy of Readers united both mentally and physically, and sometimes-especially when she had failed again at one of her Reading tests-she thought she might not mind being married off… if it were to the right man.

Facing surgery on Alethia's son, she almost wished that she had been failed by now, and thus could avoid this responsibility. Hers were the best techniques anyone had for abdominal surgery; she could not ask another surgeon to perform the operation or she would be denying the child his best chance to survive, small as that chance was.

It was time, Melissa decided. She sent an aide she trusted to scrub the child with the precious soap smuggled in from the savage lands while the authorities looked the other way.

She supervised the preparation of the surgery herself, the swabbing of the table with alcohol, the boiling of the instruments. She and her assistants scrubbed themselves with soap and rinsed their hands in alcohol-but it was not enough. Their hands were where the infection clung, in their pores, to sweat out as they worked. And they could not boil their hands.

Primus was brought in, drugged with opiates. He was unconscious, his pain gone for the first time in days. Melissa breathed a prayer to the gods to assist her. She worked rapidly but thoroughly, Reading to be sure she cut out every bit of infection, and sewed up the wound with greatest care. Then she just stood there, wishing, willing, that the wound remain clean. She concentrated so hard that her Reading blanked out for a moment, and she became dizzy. But that would accomplish nothing. There was nothing to do but wait.

Alethia woke to the news that the surgery had been done. She sat by her son all night, while Melissa slept only fitfully. In the morning Primus was awake and crying at pains in his abdomen, but they were only gas, and Melissa did not want to drug him again. The herbalist gave him tea, and they placed fresh compresses over the incision. It was still too early to know what organisms might be breeding in the child's intestine-but Melissa could not Read anything that seemed dangerous. She slowly let hope creep up on her. As the hours passed, her hopes grew. The second morning Primus asked for breakfast-and hope became certainty.

Melissa asked Magister Jason to Read Primus before she would believe it-but the boy was healing. There was no infection. She turned to Alethia, who had been Reading with them, and the two women embraced, tears running down their faces. 'Oh, Melissa,' Alethia sobbed, 'how can I ever thank you? No one else could have saved my little boy.' And for a moment Melissa felt as if Magister Jason's arms were around her, too.

The next morning she was called for the first time into one of the privacy rooms. The screen was set up- Magister Jason wanted to talk with her.

'Melissa, yesterday I was so proud of you that I went to Master Florian to recommend that we keep you here at the hospital. I have never seen a healer progress so rapidly! You have more than a year to study; by the time you finish, there will not be a more skillful surgeon in the empire.'

'Thank you, Magister,' she said, blushing under his praise… but something in his voice warned her that he had not called this conference to congratulate her.

He sighed, part sorrow, part exasperation. 'Do you know what Master Florian told me?'

'Probably that my Reading skills are not progressing as they should.' She wished she could see him, and resisted the temptation to Read through the screen.

'You have made almost no progress since you came here. Soon you must go on to the healing of minds rather than bodies-and you cannot do that if you have not advanced much further. We should not be using this clumsy apparatus-by this time you should achieve the plane of privacy with ease. I am removing you from hospital duty three mornings each week. You will spend that time improving your Reading.'

'But Magister-!'

'Be prepared in your room immediately after breakfast tomorrow. I have been remiss-I assumed that you were doing as well in all your studies as you are in surgery. I do not want to lose you, Melissa.'

And with that she was dismissed.

That afternoon she told Alethia of her problems. 'It's obvious you love your work,' her friend said. 'How important is it to you that you learn the healing of minds, when you are so successful at the healing of bodies?'

'I cannot imagine anything more satisfying than saving Primus' life… but then, I have never yet been involved in trying to save a patient's sanity.'

'I think you had best resign yourself, Melissa,' said Alethia. 'The word is that since a Master Reader turned renegade, all tests have been tightened immeasurably.'

'A Master Reader-? Alethia, what are you talking about?'

'Master Lenardo, from the Adigia Academy.'

'He was exiled last spring. Yes, I know about that.'

'But he came back! Sneaked into the empire, right past all the Readers along the border-claimed to be a savage lord! They say he's learned their sorcery.'

'That's nonsense. They'll execute him, and that will be the end of it.'

'They can't execute him, because he escaped. They say he took two young Readers with him, right across the border at Adigia-made the gates open by magic!'

'If this is so, why haven't I heard anything about it?'

'It's all the gossip along the Path of the Dark Moon. I would think that all Readers would have heard about it.'

The next morning, Melissa prepared for her lesson with Magister Jason. After a light breakfast, she returned to her room, smoothed the bedclothes carefully, and lay down, taking care that her light summer dress had no wrinkles to irritate her helpless body. When Jason's mind touched hers, she left her body behind with an effort. He was already out of his, feeling light, free, joyous. That was how it was supposed to feel; for her it had gone from terrifying only as far as uncomfortable.

Jason Read her feelings. //You are still afraid that something will happen to your body while you're out of it. Look back, Melissa. Read your own body as if it were a patient's. You are breathing regularly, your heart is beating strongly. Your body could stay for a day or two like that with no harm done-in fact, it can be left that way for survival if you should ever be trapped without enough food, water, or air.//

//I know that.//

//No, you don't. You can parrot it back when you are being examined, but you don't know it, Melissa, and that is why you fear to leave your flesh behind.//

//You're right,// she said-and did as he told her, deliberately Reading into her own body as if it were that of a stranger. She was in perfect health, merely in a coma. If that were one of her patients, she would be satisfied to leave her alone without fear that she would suddenly die.

Feeling more secure, Melissa tried to follow Jason's next instructions, but to no avail. She Read him as he tried to show her what could not be described in words:. how to make the transition to another plane of existence. In deep rapport, she felt him take his bearings and then-disappear! The shock was as great as if he had died-she had to fight her instinct to return to her own body and go in search of his!

Moments later, he was back. //You did not follow.//

//I couldn't. I don't know where you went.//

//Try it again. Read with me.

She tried… but did not succeed. She simply could not Read «where» his consciousness disappeared to. They spent a frustrating hour in futile attempts, and then Jason told her, //That's all for today. I have patients to see. Master Florian will work with you tomorrow.//

//Magister-//

He did not retreat to his body. //Yes?//

For a moment she did not know why she had tried to keep his presence with her. Then she remembered: //Is it