"I thought you were dead," Rushton said again, as if that explained everything.
I did not pursue it. Instead, I answered the question I knew must be forming. "I got away, then I heard... I heard you had been caught." I stopped, thinking it was not safe to say everything. Not when we might be overhead. Alexi and Vega returned then and we fell silent.
"I have the diaries here," Alexi announced, holding up a small pile of letters and a brown notebook. "In themselves, they are less than useless. I want you to use your ... ability to see what she was thinking when they were written, I know that is possible because Selmar could do it. But we hadn't the right papers then. This is her scientific diary and certainly she will have thought of the map while writing these notes. If you cooperate, I will not need to use the Zebkrahn. If you tell me where the map is, you will be allowed to go back to Obernewtyn."
"You will kill me whatever happens," I said defiantly.
"You will tell me," he screamed in rage. He turned to the machine and Vega hovered behind him with anxious eyes.
"Be careful, Alexi," she said.
"She will talk. I will not have her defy me"," he snarled. He did something to the buttons and several colored lights began to pulsate. The machine hummed very faintly. He took a bowl-shaped helmet and placed it on my head, his strange, black eyes burning down at me.
Looking at the machine crouched over me, I wondered if it were possible for a machine to be evil. What kind of people had the Beforetimers been to invent such machines?
All at once I felt a faint buzzing in my head. It was only slightly distracting. If this was the extent of their torture, the secret of the map would be safe with me. I wondered if Marisa had known the truth of the map she had hidden. I thought of that cold enigmatic face, and I knew she had.
"Even if you find what you want, the Council will not let you rule them," Rushton said, obviously trying to distract them.
"I will be the next Master of Obernewtyn," Alexi said, grandiosely. "It is my destiny."
"Can't you see he's just trying to get you mad?" Ariel sneered.
"I will kill you too if you say anything else that annoys me," Alexi hissed, turning his hot, mad gaze on Ariel, who visibly quailed. But the damage was done.
"She will talk, and so will you," Alexi said, more calmly. He went back to the machine, turned a knob, and the buzzing increased. It was still a long way from being painful, but again I thought uneasily of Cameo and Selmar. Especially Selmar. Could this machine do to me what it had to her? Alexi brought the diary and letters and placed the book under one of my hands and the letters under the other. I sensed Marisa's thoughts but I did not try to understand them. I clamped a block over my perceptions.
Alexi leaned close, his eyes glistening. "I have dreamed of the power that will come to me," he said. "I have dreamed of the great and beautiful darkness that will rise to my bidding."
It was odd that he used the word "darkness" to describe the terrible power of the Great White. Somehow Maruman and Cameo and Sharna had shared something that was beyond a true dream, for they had seen that the weaponmachine that caused the Great White slumbered only, and that I must be the one to find and destroy it. That was almost laughable. There was no help for me now—even if the others arrived in time.
Alexi moved a lever on the machine and the buzzing became more forceful. Still painless, it set my teeth on edge.
"Release your power, tell me where the map is," Alexi said. I might be able to endure a great deal, but I did not think he would stop. He had destroyed Selmar's mind and he would destroy mine if I did not obey.
His madness could not allow me victory. I wondered if I could reach out to Rushton. Again I craned my neck and sought an entrance to his mind. I encountered a block, similar to Jes's, but was undeterred. If I could find a weakness, I would force my way in. It would be painful, but at least he would know there was hope for him. I found a weakness, forced myself against it, and tore my way in. Distantly I heard him moan.
"What is the matter with him?" Vega asked.
"He's fainted again," Ariel said contemptuously.
But he was wrong. Rushton had retreated into his thoughts to deal with my intrusion. Quickly I identified myself.
"You." I heard Rushton's thought, and with astonishment, recognized the mind of my rescuer.
"How?" I demanded, for I could find no farseeking ability in his mind.
"But there are many among my friends here who have mental abilities, though none like you. We worked together," he answered, and I remembered the echoing effect in the mind probe of my rescuer.
Knowing I would have to be quick, I told Rushton his friends were on their way with help.
"Who?" he asked urgently.
I told him everything that had happened since we parted last. It took but a moment because I used mental pictures rather than words. I also read in his mind that he was unaware of the truth about the map and what it led to. I decided not to enlighten him. Such a secret was safer with one. He asked if I could do what Alexi wanted. Before I could answer, the effect of the Zebkrahn increased dramatically. I tried to withdraw from Rushton's mind but he held me.
"Let me go!" I begged. It would have been easy to tear free, but he would be hurt.
"No. I can help. Draw on me," he insisted. "I can help you endure." I warned him that he would feel whatever I did so long as we were linked but he still insisted. Gratefully, I allowed myself to draw on his strength.
"The weapons shown in the map are terrible ones. They must not have them," I said.
"This is taking too, long," I heard Ariel say impatiently. The power of the intruder increased sharply and the vibration was like twenty men with hammers. Even with Rushton's help I would not be able to resist forever. I prayed his friends would hurry. On the other side of my shield I could sense Marisa's thoughts clamoring.
"Don't be afraid," Rushton told me. I heard him moan and realized with horror that he had been keeping the pain from me. He had only a weak ability, and he was suffering far more than I.
"What is wrong with him?" Vega snapped. Alexi sprang forward and looked into my face.
"He's helping her!" he screamed.
"No!" I cried.
His eyes drew together in triumph. "Tell me where the map is or I will kill him," he whispered. I dragged my mind away from Rushton and took the full brunt of the machine. "Vega, get a knife," Alexi instructed. He looked back at me. "Tell me or he will die."
"Elspeth!" Rushton shouted.
In that moment, despair weakened me so badly that the block that separated me from Marisa's thoughts was as thin as a web. I saw right through it and knew where the map was. The doors! It was carved into the pattern on the front doors. And I saw more, a vision of a dark ehasm in the ground from which rose a thick brownish smoke. I knew I was seeing the very place indicated on Marisa's map!
Terrified at what else I would see, I found the strength to block the vision and push Marisa from-me. "Very well, kill him," Alexi snarled.
I threw back my head and saw Vega's hand raised with the knife. "No!" I begged. "Tell me," Alexi whispered.
"We come," said an unknown voice in my mind. Startled, I opened my eyes wide. I recognized the disjointed tone and realized it was Rushton's friends, and they were not far away.
"Tell me!" Alexi snarled. "Tell me or I will kill him."
I hesitated. I could not tell him where the map was. That was too high a price for either my life or Rushton's.
Yet I could not bear the thought of doing nothing while they killed him. I had to delay them long enough for his friends to arrive, but how?
Alexi's eyes narrowed. "All right. Kill him."
Madam Vega lifted her arm slowly.
I heard running footsteps and at the same time the machine seemed to be overheating. Sparks started from it. One of the sparks fell on my boot and began to smolder.
Vega's hand lifted slightly, to give her downward blow strength. Something inside my head crackled violentl
y, a power stirred in me completely unlike any other ability I possessed and all at once I knew that Rosamunde had spoken the truth. Jes had killed that soldierguard, and I knew how.
The wild surge of power rose from the deepest void of my mind and I felt a sense of exaltation at the knowledge that I could control it. It was part of me! I directed every bit of that uncanny power into Madam Vega, and I felt my battering mind plow a terrible furrow into her. She screamed horribly just as I felt flames lick at the soles of my feet.
"Rushton..." I called him dreamily with my thoughts. I felt the heat of the flames but could feel no pain. I seemed to be floating away from everything. Dimly I saw people running and shouting.
"Is she alive?" asked a voice I knew but could not recognize.
Am I? I wondered and a dark wind swept me away.
XXIX
"Ye nowt well enough!" Matthew said stubbornly. The look on his face told me what I already knew. I looked haggard even after all this time.
"It might be better ..." Dameon said diplomatically, but I would not let him finish.
"Stay here and miss this mysterious meeting, not on your life," I said. I sat back after that outburst, feeling the now familiar weakness roll over me. It was still incredible to think die machine had taken so much from me. That and the strange power I had tapped in myself. I had been unconscious for days after.
"You look different," Matthew said, and for a moment I thought he had read my deepthought. I did feel different, stronger somehow, despite my physical weakness. Even now I could feel the tingle in the depth of my mind that told me the power was there, waiting to do ... whatever it was to do.
"So would you be different if some machine was inside your head," I snapped.
Matthew grinned.
"Where is Rushton today?" I asked casually.
He looked quickly at Dameon, but the blind boy's face remained as inscrutable as ever. I had not seen Rushton since the cavern. Louis and his friends had freed him. Both Alexi and Vega were dead. Ariel had rushed out into the night and it was believed he had perished in the blizzard.
It was known now by all those who dwelt at Obernew-tyn that Rushton was its legal master, and that the mysterious Doctor was his defective half brother. None doubted his claim and he openly spoke of taking it to the Councilcourt, where it would be formally recognized.
I was amazed at how many different varieties of mental prowess lay among Rushton's friends. There were even two with abilities identical to Dameon's. Rushton did not believe that people with new abilities were demon-tainted or deformed. If anything, he was fascinated by the powers, and slightly envious that he had so little above the ordinary.
He planned to have Obernewtyn in order before the thaw, when he would make his legal claim. I did not doubt he would achieve it. This meeting was to explain his plans. From what I understood, only those trusted by him would be present. That meant almost all Misfits. Quite a number of others, such as the cook, Andra, would not attend. I wondered whether Andra would transfer her matchmaking thoughts to Rushton and smiled at the thought.
The meeting was the cause of our dispute. I wanted to go, but Matthew and Dameon felt I was not fit enough. Rushton had apparently left word that I was not to get up until I was completely better. The numbness and pain in my mind had gone, but there was still a crushing weakness in my strength and the burns on my feet were yet to heal fully.
"He's the master here now," Matthew said, as if answering my thought. "He's everywhere. But he'll be back for the meeting. He has plans for Obernewtyn, and for people like us."
I frowned.
"He has been busy making sure things run smoothly. Wintertime is no time to be idle," Dameon said. "He came to see you several times, but you were always asleep and he would not let us waken you."
"No doubt he was busy," I said coldly, wondering why I felt annoyed that he had not spoken to me, given he did not know I had stopped Vega from killing him. In truth, I was not sure I wanted anyone to know that. I admitted to myself that my desire to attend the meeting arose from a wish to see Rushton again. I felt oddly shy at the thought. I had been inside his mind, but I hardly knew him really.
"We're going to stay," Matthew said. "Nearly all the Misfits want to stay. He's going to make Obernewtyn a secret refuge for people like us. He has plans."
"So you said." I smiled. Dameon seemed to be staring at me with an odd expression on his face. I was tempted to read him but the bruises in my mind dissuaded me. Besides, I had decided it was immoral to barge into the minds of people with mental abilities like mine. It occurred to me there would be some adjustment before a community of so many people with unusual powers could harmonize.
"What about the Druid?" I asked suddenly. Rushton had met the Druid several years before, when he had first traveled to Obernewtyn. Then, he had known nothing of his parentage and had made the trip at the request of his dead mother. He had stumbled accidentally on the secret encampment of the rebel Herder, but instead of being killed or made prisoner, the Druid had befriended him and allowed him to go free.
I thought there was bound to be much more to that story than was known.
Rushton had arrived at Obernewtyn and been hired to work. He had stayed because he was curious about why his mother had wanted him to come. She had told him nothing, expecting his father, whom he resembled closely, to recognize his son. She had never considered that Michael Seraphim would die before her. The wonder of it was that recognizing him at the outset, Madam Vega had not killed him.
Reading between the lines, I guessed Louis Larkin had given Rushton the first real hint about his origin. After discovering the truth, Rushton thought to go to the Council with his claim, but friendship and allegiance with the Misfits he had come to know, and his growing knowledge of their special nature, made him think again.
Instead, he had returned to the Druid with the offer of aid from the Master of Obernewtyn in exchange for the Druid's help in establishing himself at Obernewtyn. I knew the old Herder sought the same things as Madam Vega and Alexi. He had accepted, no doubt seeing the joint benefits of help from Obernewtyn, and free run of the mountain country.
Matthew shrugged. "They haven't contacted Rushton since he failed to meet them the night you escaped. He says he'll deal with that when the time comes."
I thought of the front doors and remembered there was something I, too, had to deal with, but not now. Matthew said the Druid would probably send someone after the pass thawed, and by then Rushton's hold would be secure. Secretly I vowed to myself to make sure no one ever knew the truth of Marisa's map or what it led to. There were too many people greedy for power, no matter what the cost.
"What about the Doctor?" I asked, because everyone still called him that.
"I don't think Rushton is quite sure what to do with him," Dameon said in an amused voice. "He really is rather harmless."
Looking at my two friends, I thought this business had wrought a change in them, too. Dameon was quieter and rather sad, while Matthew bore the scar of Cameo's death. Yet they were more certain of themselves more purposeful. Perhaps it was because Rushton had offered them a place in his world and his scheme of things.
I found myself yawning and knew I did not really want to go to the meeting. I grinned at their relief when I said so and wondered what I would do once I was recovered. I did not think I would stay at Obernewtyn. I felt restless, partly because of the new power I had discovered, and partly because the mountains held a darkness that called me.
I also felt an urge to look at the sea again, and also to return to Rangorn. That was the effect of freedom. What a- sweet taste it had. That made me think of Maruman and I wondered fieetingly if I would ever see him again.
"Will you be staying?" Dameon asked, with again that faint bitter twist at the edge of his mouth.
"I don't think so," I said.
"There would be a place for you. Rushton said you're stronger than all of us. He has the notion of starting his own Council," Matthew said
enthusiastically.
I stared and Dameon nodded, sensing my curiosity and incredulity. "He wants to govern Obernewtyn with the ' help of a Council elected from our ranks. He wants it to be fair. He wants us to work to better our abilities and to train others like us to be better at what we do."
"He wants us to form groups, guilds of special abilities," Matthew added.
"And this Council will be a sort of guildmerge," I quipped.
Dameon's mobile mouth twitched. "A good name. I will suggest it," he said.
I laughed.
Then another question occurred to me.
"What happened to those Councilmen?" I was amazed that something so intimately important to me was so readily forgotten. To my surprise, Matthew only laughed.
"There's a story," he said with a twinkle in his eyes. "Madam Vega made the mistake of leaving the Coun-cilmen to Alexi's tender mercies. Alexi, lacking any subtlety, fed them drugged wine and threw them in one of the underground storage chambers."
I gaped.
"By the time they were discovered, it was all over. Rushton got them out and told them what had happened—with a few omissions."
"A few omissions!" I gasped. Matthew grinned widely, enjoying his audience.
"He told them Madam Vega had been up to mischief for ages, plotting against the Council, and that she had organized to have the Councilmen knocked out and murdered in case they found out what she was up to. Rushton gave them the impression the whole revolt had been made to free them. His own claim was secondary. They were sick to their stomachs from the stuff Alexi gave them, and only too happy to believe anything they were told. They rushed back to Sutrium and civilization with the promise to present Rushton's claim to the Council-court. Rushton said he couldn't leave in wintertime, but that he would come in the spring to make his formal petition."
I laughed aloud at the thought of the self-important Councilmen thrown into a storage cupboard. Then I sobered.
"What about me?"
"What about you?" Matthew inquired pertly. "You're dead. You ran away during the battle and were almost certainly eaten by wolves."