word which would not trespass
too strongly on his emotions. "Exchanged-confidences. You don't have to tell us
about that."
Funny, how these people can get so close to you, know almost what you're
thinking. Andrew was aware of Damon's attempt not to trespass on his privacy, or
on the more intimate things he had shared with Callista. Intimate. funny word
when I've never set eyes on her. To have come so close, so close to a woman I've
never seen. He was also aware of Ellemir's sullen face and knew that she, too,
sensed something of how close he had come to her twin; and that she did not
approve.
Damon, too, sensed Ellemir's resentment. "Child, you should be grateful that
anyone, anyone at all, could reach Callista. Just because you could not come to
her and comfort her, are you going to resent the fact that a stranger could?
Would you rather that she should be all alone in her prison?" He turned back to
Andrew and said, as if apologizing for Ellemir, "She is very young, and they are
twins. But for your kindness to my kinswoman, I am ready to be your friend. Now,
if you can tell me anything she said, about her captors-"
"She said she was in the dark," Andrew said, "and that she did not know
precisely where she was, that if she knew precisely, she could have left the
place somehow. I didn't quite understand that. She said that since she did not
know exactly, her body-that's how she seemed to differentiate it-had to stay
where they had confined it. And she cursed them."
"Did she say who they were?" Damon asked.
"What she said made no sense to me," Andrew answered. "She said that they were
not men."
"Did she tell you how she knew that? Did she say that she had seen them?" Damon
asked eagerly.
"No," Andrew answered. "She said that she had not seen them, that she suspected
they had kept her in darkness so that she should not see them. But she suspected
they were not men because-" Again he hesitated a little, trying to find a way to
phrase it, and then thought, Oh hell, if Callista didn't mind talking about it
to a stranger it can't be anything to be so embarrassed about. "She said she
knew they were not men because none of them had attempted to rape her. She took
it for granted that any man would have done just that, which says something
funny about the men of your planet!"
Damon said, "We knew already that whoever would stoop to kidnapping a leronis, a
Keeper, would be no friend to the people of the Domains. I had surmised that she
was stolen, not as any woman might be kidnapped, for revenge, or slavery, but
quite specifically because she was a trained telepath. They could not have hoped
that she could be forced to use her Keeper's powers against her own people. But
if she was kept a prisoner, and her starstone taken from her, she could not be
used against them, either. And kidnappers, if they were men, would know that a
Keeper is always a virgin; that there was a simpler, less dangerous way to make
a Keeper powerless to use her skills against them. A Keeper in the hands of her
people's enemies would not long remain a virgin."
Carr shuddered in revulsion. What a hell of a world, where this kind of war
against women is taken for granted!
Once again Damon followed his thoughts and said, with a little wry twist of his
mouth, "Oh, it's neither that easy nor that one-sided, Andrew. The man who tries
to ravish a leronis has no easy or innocent victim, but takes his very life, not
to mention his sanity, in his hands. Callista is an Alton, and if she strikes
with her full Gift, she can paralyze, if not kill. It can be done, it has been
done, but it's a more equal battle than you would imagine. No sane man lays
hands on a Comyn sorceress except at her own desire. But to anyone who has good
reason to fear that a Keeper's powers will be used against him, it may seem
worth the danger."
"But," Ellemir said, "she has not been touched, you say."
"She said not."
"Then," Damon said, "I think my first surmise is true. Callista is in the
too strongly on his emotions. "Exchanged-confidences. You don't have to tell us
about that."
Funny, how these people can get so close to you, know almost what you're
thinking. Andrew was aware of Damon's attempt not to trespass on his privacy, or
on the more intimate things he had shared with Callista. Intimate. funny word
when I've never set eyes on her. To have come so close, so close to a woman I've
never seen. He was also aware of Ellemir's sullen face and knew that she, too,
sensed something of how close he had come to her twin; and that she did not
approve.
Damon, too, sensed Ellemir's resentment. "Child, you should be grateful that
anyone, anyone at all, could reach Callista. Just because you could not come to
her and comfort her, are you going to resent the fact that a stranger could?
Would you rather that she should be all alone in her prison?" He turned back to
Andrew and said, as if apologizing for Ellemir, "She is very young, and they are
twins. But for your kindness to my kinswoman, I am ready to be your friend. Now,
if you can tell me anything she said, about her captors-"
"She said she was in the dark," Andrew said, "and that she did not know
precisely where she was, that if she knew precisely, she could have left the
place somehow. I didn't quite understand that. She said that since she did not
know exactly, her body-that's how she seemed to differentiate it-had to stay
where they had confined it. And she cursed them."
"Did she say who they were?" Damon asked.
"What she said made no sense to me," Andrew answered. "She said that they were
not men."
"Did she tell you how she knew that? Did she say that she had seen them?" Damon
asked eagerly.
"No," Andrew answered. "She said that she had not seen them, that she suspected
they had kept her in darkness so that she should not see them. But she suspected
they were not men because-" Again he hesitated a little, trying to find a way to
phrase it, and then thought, Oh hell, if Callista didn't mind talking about it
to a stranger it can't be anything to be so embarrassed about. "She said she
knew they were not men because none of them had attempted to rape her. She took
it for granted that any man would have done just that, which says something
funny about the men of your planet!"
Damon said, "We knew already that whoever would stoop to kidnapping a leronis, a
Keeper, would be no friend to the people of the Domains. I had surmised that she
was stolen, not as any woman might be kidnapped, for revenge, or slavery, but
quite specifically because she was a trained telepath. They could not have hoped
that she could be forced to use her Keeper's powers against her own people. But
if she was kept a prisoner, and her starstone taken from her, she could not be
used against them, either. And kidnappers, if they were men, would know that a
Keeper is always a virgin; that there was a simpler, less dangerous way to make
a Keeper powerless to use her skills against them. A Keeper in the hands of her
people's enemies would not long remain a virgin."
Carr shuddered in revulsion. What a hell of a world, where this kind of war
against women is taken for granted!
Once again Damon followed his thoughts and said, with a little wry twist of his
mouth, "Oh, it's neither that easy nor that one-sided, Andrew. The man who tries
to ravish a leronis has no easy or innocent victim, but takes his very life, not
to mention his sanity, in his hands. Callista is an Alton, and if she strikes
with her full Gift, she can paralyze, if not kill. It can be done, it has been
done, but it's a more equal battle than you would imagine. No sane man lays
hands on a Comyn sorceress except at her own desire. But to anyone who has good
reason to fear that a Keeper's powers will be used against him, it may seem
worth the danger."
"But," Ellemir said, "she has not been touched, you say."
"She said not."
"Then," Damon said, "I think my first surmise is true. Callista is in the
Similar Books
