The Blood-Rage (28)
CHAPTER 29 What is absolute truth? It is a mathematical limit that can be approached but never reached. -From the Thoughts of Night Mist- Darkcian sat on a rock, looking down at Erendria's still form. She was lying on her back, arms flung out wide, legs apart. Her wet hair was matted to the sides of her face and left shoulder and appeared to be almost gray in color, so filled was it with sand. She had been unconscious for almost fifteen minutes now, and it was getting dark. He was very worried. He straightened his shoulders and winced at the sting coming from the deep claw marks on his back. Damn the lok and all other machines of Agon, he thought. The learning device didn't speak of coupling in these terms. There was no mention of the fierceness of the act and the following unconsciousness. No mention of the cries of pain and pleasure, of the oscillation of the woman's mental ecstasy. I was unprepared, as always. Damn the unknown. Damn! A soft moan came from Erendria. He leaped to his feet and retreated until his back bumped against a large boulder. He suddenly felt more fearful and uncertain then before. She sat up and looked around, a confused expression on her face. When she spied Darkcian, she rose quickly to her feet, never taking her gaze from his. She stood there, then, staring at him and breathing deeply, her breasts swollen hard. She said, finally, "I warned you about doing this to me. I'm going to kill you now." Her voice seemed to be very calm. He stepped away from the rock. "You wanted me to. I didn't start it." "I'm not talking about the coupling. I'm talking about the control during the act. You took it away from me. You made me crazy." He peered at her closely. "That's the first time you have ever lost a battle, isn't it?" She inhaled and stopped breathing. Her face was starting to turn red as she finally released her breath and said with a rush, "The fight isn't over yet." "Why did you lose consciousness?" "The experience was too intense. I couldn't stand it." "Is that normal?" "I don't know. That was the first time for me." "The first?" He was aghast. "But . . . I thought you knew." "No. That's why I decided to let you live a while longer. I wanted to know what it felt like . . . to really know." He didn't know how to reply to that. It left him feeling strange, with a nagging, scratching feeling at the back of his mind somewhere. I have an important piece of information that will correlate to this situation, but I can't drag it out. What? "How did you do it," she whispered. "Do what?" "Make me feel that way." "Feel what way?" She suddenly exploded into movement, running toward her clothes. Leaping upon the small pile, she searched franticly for her dagger. "Looking for this," he asked, holding up the weapon that he had been hiding behind his back. She whirled toward him then froze her movements. "Give it to me," she snarled. Is that uncertainty I see in her face? "Give," she repeated, motioning with her right hand. He walked toward her. Her eyes got wide and she backed away. He stopped, uncertain again. "You'd like to kill me," she said. "I know it. Your calm face doesn't fool me." But Darkcian wasn't listening to her any longer. He had cocked his head, and his eyes had taken on a faraway look. Danger, he thought, danger behind us. Suddenly he twisted around and threw the dagger, lightning fast, as Sulamith had taught him. The healer screamed as the blade pierced his shoulder, and he dropped down out of sight behind the stone ridge he had been peering over. Darkcian flinched out of her way as Erendria jumped past him and raced toward the hiding place of the wizen-looking killer. As she rounded the rock, Darkcian could hear scurrying sounds further off. The healer, he realized, was obviously in quick retreat and clearly not mortally wounded. He listened to more fading sounds of small rocks sliding over other rocks; that told him Erendria was in pursuit. He stood in wonderment: Does she want the death of that freak or her dagger back in order to kill me? Soon there was silence. The chase had receded faraway. Patra looked up from gazing into the camp fire and said to Darkcian as he approached her, "Where's Erendria? Didn't she leave with you about an hour ago?" "I don't know where she is," he answered truthfully. The older woman sighed and looked back into the fire. "No matter. If she's lost in this darkness, she can energize her cupola and sleep the night out there. I think she needs some time to herself anyway. She's been like an angry, explosive volcano since her adult-becoming ceremony. One would think the battles we have been in lately would have given vent to her aggression. Instead, these encounters seem to have increased that trait. I don't understand her any more." As she shook her head, Darkcian could see the firelight dance off her hair. He sat on the ground beside her and looked at the gray ashes on the periphery of the campfire. On impulse, he switched his eyes into their night-mode and watched the white glow from the coals leap out at him--they were still hotter than the surrounding ground. He reached out with his mind and explored the composition of a rock pebble in the middle of the ash, sorting out the electrons, protons, and neutrons that made up its structure. Again on impulse, he pushed at one of the electrons, moving it to a higher orbit around the nucleus. YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG, came an inner thought. Damn, he mused silently, there goes that involuntary thinking again. All right. What's the correct way? THE MENTAL ETHER, THAT INFINITE SEA OF THE PSYCHIC, FLOWS EVERYWHERE, EVEN INTO OTHER DIMENSIONS. TO CONTROL IT--OR PERHAPS FOR YOU, TO AFFECT IT--ONE CAN PICTURE IT IN ONLY THREE DIMENSIONS RATHER THAN IN ITS TEN TRUE DIMENSIONS. YOU MUST TRY TO SEE-FEEL THE PEBBLE AS AN ISLAND IN THE MIDDLE OF AN INCREDIBLY CALM LAKE. TRY IT. He squinted at the pebble and felt it again with his mind. NO. NO. IGNORE THE OTHER DIMENSIONS. TRY TO SEE-FEEL THE PEBBLE AS BEING ALONE. NOTHING ELSE EXISTS. He made a mental adjustment. YES! THAT'S IT. NOW . . . CREATE A MENTAL WAVE, MUCH AS YOU WOULD IN A LAKE WITH YOUR HAND. SEE THE RIPPLE EXPAND OUTWARD. AS IT HITS THE PEBBLE, IT WILL ROCK IT UPWARD. The pebble leaped up about an inch. SEE. HOLD IT THERE AND SEND ANOTHER RIPPLE. The pebble rose another inch. He thought: This is easy. ALL ACTIONS APPEAR EASY ONCE THEY'RE LEARNED. HOWEVER, WITH THIS PEBBLE, IT'S CONCENTRATION THAT COUNTS. YOU MUST KEEP YOUR FOCUS ON THE DESIRED RESULT. He glanced up quickly at Patra and Gravestone. The flames had mesmerized them both. Their eyes were dull with some inner thoughts of their own. At least he was certain they were oblivious to what he was doing. He looked back at the pebble to see it fall to the ground. SEE WHAT I MEAN? came the inner thought with some overtones of disgust. All right voice, just what or who in Agon's hell are you? YOU MAY CALL ME NIGHT MIST. NOW REPAIR THE SCRATCHES ON YOUR BACK. I WILL TELL YOU HOW. CHAPTER 30 The only thing worst than the hate of a loved one is the love of a hated one. -From the Thoughts of Night Mist- It was now six nights in a row since Darkcian had seen Sulamith. He had searched for her every night but found nothing, not even a trace. He wondered if she was dead. The thought brought a cold sweat to his body; and he shrugged, trying to throw off the feeling. What does it matter anyway? he thought. I'll be dead myself in another month. Yet he did care, there was no denying it. She had developed an awful hunger within his mind and heart. ACCEPT . . . ACCEPT, came the thought of Night Mist. No, I don't want the pain. WITHOUT THE THOUGHT, YOU CANNOT ENJOY THE WARMTH. What warmth? THE WARMTH THAT COMES WITH THE THOUGHT OF SULAMITH. Ah, yes, that warmth. It's different than the one from Erendria. OF COURSE. YOU MUST NOT CONFUSE LUST WITH LOVE. Love? No, that's insane, he knew. He even chuckled aloud and looked up at the sky. "That's better, student," Patra said from her mu-lynx that was positioned to his right. "I've been wanting to see you laugh. Do you play with the shapes of the clouds in the sky? I do that, too, often." He turned his head in her direction and played along. "There are some animals leaping there, even ice-tigers, although I haven't seen them for real yet. The lok has put their pictures in my mind." He tilted his head upwards. "See that one there?" "Yes, and the one over there." Her head swiveled to the left. "You two are disgusting," Erendria muttered. She was riding to Darkcian's left.
Go to part: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44
Copyright © 1992 L Clayton Bennett |