Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 117336 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117336 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
I know that the thing that peers down from through the Rift means us harm. I can feel the evil in its thoughts, the hunger it feels. It wants this world. Wherever it peers down from, it has decided to claim this place as its own.
And it is mine now.
I can protect you, pipes up a small voice. It is nearly lost in the mental noise. I am strong.
I fight back a surge of amusement. It is Kael's child, Sallavatri. Arrogant, but curious. You are a newborn child. You are not as strong as me.
We are all strong, chimes in another. Luminoura. We can help. Do you want us to chase your bad dreams away?
Of course not, I send back. It is typical of most nights for the children of the drakoni-human matings to chime in and reach across to my mind. In the daytime, when I am focused on a thousand different things, they are easier to blot out. At night, though, they speak in my head, and loudly. It is another reason I sleep little these days. The drakoni children have loud, bright minds and communicate frequently with each other and with me.
But you are tired. It is obvious, replies Sallavatri, and then switches topics. My father tries to shield my thoughts from yours. Why? Are you bad?
I send a gentle wave of thought toward the children, soothing them. I need them on my side, and the last thing I need to point out is that their families do not trust me. It is nothing for you to worry over. Your fathers are protective. They do not know how to handle power such as yours.
And you do? Sallavatri asks, all innocence.
I want to lie. I want to lie and say absolutely, yes, I know exactly what to do with minds that are so clear they are like beacons across the darkness. But that is not true. This world puts a damper on our mental speech. I think it is what causes the drakoni to become crazed and mad, attacking everything in sight. It causes the females to be constantly in estrus, sending signals to the males to fight and to mate, and it only makes things worse. The minds that I have trapped are confused and murky, and even the mental speech of the drakoni that have mates is erratic. None of them are what they once were. But the children…the children are something different entirely.
You are something new, I tell Sallavatri. I do not have all the answers, but I am better equipped to help you than most.
My thoughts sink in, and I wait for the children to digest them.
You are not bad then.
No, I am not bad. I catch myself smiling. Bad is a simple word that does not adequately describe anything.
Are you good? Luminoura asks, her mind flaring into the conversation.
I fight back a wince, because when both the children start talking, it becomes near overwhelming. Not good, either. I am just me.
If you are not bad, then you are good, Luminoura declares.
I leave it at that, because I suspect I cannot teach the nuance of “good” and “bad” to infant minds easily. I am tired, I tell them. I want to sleep.
Do you want us to protect you?
Your mind is messy, Sallavatri says. How come it is messy?
Because I am holding the others, I point out. No doubt they can “feel” the tendrils I have that dominate the captive drakoni. I have ensnared them in a mental web, so that is the “mess” that Sallavatri speaks of. I am busy helping others.
If you stop helping them your mind will be nice—
I cut off the children's thoughts, silencing them. The last thing I want is for one of them to “help” me with the minds I have snared. I depend on those captive drakoni to not only keep the fort safe, but to keep me safe from other drakoni. I cannot free them. Not now, not ever.
The moment I blot the minds of the children out, the thing from the Rift sends its dark tendrils into my mind. I strain, pushing back against it, forcing it into retreat. It is a temporary measure. It always is, but I hope it will buy me a little time. Something must change soon. I cannot go on like this for much longer, and if that thing in the Rift that eyes this world with such interest decides to come through, we are all in grave danger.
Something must give before then. I must find a solution. I know the children are part of it, but I need to harness their minds somehow, direct them. They are easily distracted. Powerful, but easily distracted and the thing in the Rift will swat them aside as if they are nothing without some sort of guidance. But…I don't have enough power to guide them. Not yet. Not with my own thoughts stretched as thin as they are.