(no subject)
Chapter 33.
As Wert and I neared the sewing room, I suddenly heard a cry for help in my head. It sounded like my sister. She had to be in trouble to be using her mind to call out to me when I'd told her never to do that. Without thinking, I responded by telling her to let me 'see' where she was. The image of the solarium hit me at the same time as the single word. “Solarium!”
“I just remembered that there's something I have to do before I go back to work,” I told Wert and practically ran toward where Morna was, not waiting for him to tell me I couldn't. I hadn't heard the bell, but I knew it had to be close to break time anyway.
I burst into the room and immediately saw my sister in the clutches of Toren. The man was an utter menace! But I knew how to handle him. I used my mind to 'shout' at him. He tried to fend it off, but noticing immediately what I was doing, Morna joined in. He didn't know what hit him, or maybe he did, since it had happened before. He let go of Morna and fled just as I reached Morna and pulled her into my arms.
But Toren didn't get away. Blane and Madoc suddenly appeared, dragging him back in.
“You obviously didn't learn the last time,” Madoc was telling him.
“Last time?” Morna asked.
“He attacked me in the library and I was able to fight him off the same way we just did,” I told her. “That's how I knew he could use his mind like we can.”
“Toren, I think you and I need to have a little talk,” Madoc said. I could have told Toren that when Madoc used that tone of voice, you did exactly what he said.
“I'll take them to their workrooms,” Blane suggested, and Madoc nodded, but his eyes were fixed on Toren.
Once we were out in the corridor, I asked Morna, “What were you doing in the solarium?”
“I just wanted to see what it looked like,” she said. “When the bell rang for morning break, Gita told me where it was. I never even knew there was one until you told us this morning. But why didn't you tell me everything about Toren?”
Blane and I exchanged a look. I'd told him and Carys the details, but never thought to tell Morna. “I'm sorry,” I said. “I should have told you more when we talked about his ability to sense it when we use our minds to communicate.”
Morna nodded. “I didn't want to, but you told me Toren was the one who could tell when we communicate with each other that way, so I thought it would be alright to do so to call for help.”
“Well, I'm afraid not. We don't know whether there are others here who would 'hear' us.”
Morna nodded. “Are there any more secrets you're not telling me?” she asked.
“I think we've told you all that we know for sure,” I said. I thought back on my conversation with her in the bathing room. There may have been some things I hadn't told her. Had I mentioned Dulno Lake?
“But there are things you suspect...”
“Morna, we're not trying to keep anything from you,” Blane said.
The bell rang, signaling that it was time to return to our work.
“I'm going back to the animal nursery,” Morna said, turning away from us.
Blane and I watched her go. “Perhaps we should tell her more about what is going on,” he said.
“And what could we tell her? What good would it do?”
“It might protect her to know more,” he argued.
I knew he was right. “I'll talk to her again this evening.”
“Do you think Madoc will be able to convince Toren to leave us all alone, and keep him from giving us away?”
“I think Master Toren has learned his lesson, that we know how to use our ability to defend ourselves,” I said. “And we've already convinced him that if he tells anyone about what we can do, Oskar and others will learn what powers he still has.”
“Well, I have to get back.”
I realized I still had his coverall in my arms. I was surprised that Morna hadn't asked about it. “This is done except that now I have to add pieces to hold some equipment, devices that Zara told me you'd be carrying on your dive.”
“Zara?”
“Katya and Talia's mother. She works in one of the labs. Did anyone tell you that you'll be using a diving helmet?” I kept my voice low, since there were others in the corridor, on their way back after the break.
“I heard something, but I was waiting for someone to tell me what that was,” he said.
“I've seen one. It attaches to the coverall so that no water gets in and it has a device that will let you breath underwater.”
He nodded. “I still don't understand why they chose me, but I'm looking forward to this.”
“You're not worried about having to dive and swim?”
“Supposedly, they'll show me how before I have to dive deep,” he said.
“That's good. I'll see you at luncheon,” I said.
“You know I'll be there, although that rescue mission early this morning has left me very tired!” Blane said, walking off in the opposite direction from me.
Despite everything that had just happened, I'd been thinking how I could make pouches or pockets to hold the devices. Once I arrived back at the sewing room, I took some more of the remnants of yellow fabric from the box under the table. My more important decision was where to place the pouches on the garment. If the wearer never needed to touch a device, it could be held on his or her back, but if they had to use it during their dive, it needed to be at hand, maybe on the waist. Would a pouch on the upper arm interfere with the divers movement? I didn't know.
In the end, I created several 'pockets' in various positions. When I brought the completed garment to Zara, I was sure she'd tell me which of them would work for the purpose.
I became so absorbed in what I was doing that I almost missed the bell, telling us that it was time for luncheon, not that anyone could ignore the clanging. It was much louder here than in the corridors leading to the labs.
I looked at what I'd done and decided, barring some last minute changes, it would do. I put away my work and left for the refectory.
Donal, Kerr and Blane were the only ones of our group who were already there when I arrived. With them were two other men, one with his right arm in a sling and the other with obvious bruises to his face.
“Nissa, this is Dreas,” Kerr said as I sat down with them.
“I'm pleased to see that you are recovering,” I told him.
He smiled at me and turned to Kerr. “You were right, she's very pretty.”
“And taken,” Donal put in.
“And this is Vander,” Blane said, introducing the other man. “He was with the party from the Standia factory.”
“You had a difficult journey.” What else could I say to the man?
As the others arrived, they were also introduced to the two men. There were many questions for Vander, of course. About the marauders and the fall into the ravine, about Col, Blane and Kerr's rescue and the machines they were bringing, and about what he knew of the 'outside' world.
He answered the questions quite frankly. It appeared that the marauders were becoming more organized, and it was probably unsafe for anyone to travel far in any of the lands between the Stronghold and Standia, a distance of some forty thousand dulnos.
Vander mourned the man who'd died in the fall, but hadn't known him well. There was some speculation that he had connections to the marauders, as he'd only been at the factory for a short time before their journey, and yet had insisted on accompanying the party.
I'd expected that all people from Standia looked like Col, Gita, and Rani, but Vander was as blond as any Solwinish man, yet shorter. Still I didn't feel comfortable asking where he was originally from.
His description of the machines they were bringing fascinated Donal of course. One was some kind of cutting machine for very large pieces of wood or maybe even stone. That one was only partially destroyed by the fall, and it was hoped it could be repaired. Another could dig holes in the ground at a very fast rate and had survived almost intact. But it was the last, a machine to move a heavy cart without the use of horses that had suffered the most damage. They hadn't dared to use it on their journey because it was so intricate and delicate.
“Will you be able to rebuild it?” Donal asked.
“Well, I was one of the people who built it in the first place, so maybe,” Vander said.
“What about the rest of your party?” Katya asked. “Are they so badly hurt that they couldn't come to luncheon?”
“Rohas may be,” Vander said. “He broke his arm like Dreas here, but he also broke his leg or his ankle, I'm not sure which, and his eyes are still unfocused. And the woman who led us, Tiana, is still talking to the other scientists and engineers here about what to do about our machines.”
Despite the focus of our group on Vander, I'd noticed that Morna had joined us but wasn't saying much. She wasn't eating, either, and was sitting as far from me as possible. Every once in a while I caught her looking my way with a frown on her face.
I felt bad. I should have warned her about Toren, but I couldn't have told her all that I knew. Still, she was my sister and she'd never been angry with me in all our years.
Rani must have noticed, too, for she asked me quietly, “What's wrong with Morna?”
I shook my head. “She thinks I'm keeping things from her.”
“Well, of course you are,” Rani said. “We can't tell each other everything!”
“But I've always confided in her,” I explained.
“She's probably disappointed,” Rani said. I didn't understand what she meant. “She looks up to you,” she said, and then grinned. “And not just because you're taller.”
I shrugged.
“She admires you, wants to be like you, and probably thinks that you're not telling her things because you don't trust her.”
“But I do!” I exclaimed.
“Of course you do. So you just have to show her you do in some way.”
I nodded. I looked down at the food on my plate. I usually had a tremendous appetite, but I couldn't eat any more. I tried to concentrate on the conversation around me, Kerr telling Dreas about his assignment as a hunter after he recovered, and everyone speculating about what Vander would be doing if he wasn't asked to repair the machine.
Before I knew it, luncheon was over. I returned to the yellow sewing room and was soon back to work making pouches and pockets in the yellow coveralls that were done. I knew I still needed to alter the ones for Neelo and Baca, and add pouches and pockets to those. I developed a method for doing that systematically and efficiently and it went even faster. But I was happy when the bell rang again for the afternoon break. As always, there was much I needed to discuss with Madoc.