Part 4
Late on a night near the end of Talia’s seventh month of pregnancy, while she was deeply asleep, her unborn children were bored and restless. For the first time, they projected their psionic awareness outside Talia’s body, and went exploring for something interesting. The boy sent his mind questing toward the settlement, lightly sampling the sleeping thoughts he encountered, but drawn to the stronger minds on the far side of the flats. One was too basic to be interesting, and two were so bright they were frightening, so they were avoided. But one was just right, and the unborn boy was drawn to that mind, to which he felt an affinity. But he found the mind was hidden behind strong barriers, so he began feeling around, trying to get past to the shining mind that so fascinated him.
His sister had been following along as he did this, her thoughts always deeply entwined with those of her brother. But then a bright spark of thought seemed to capture her attention, and her awareness went out to find it, behind the house, behind their backyard valley, deep in the mountains near the center of the island.
She found what she was seeking, but the mind detected her, resisted her, hurt her. She reacted instinctively, and made the mind stop hurting her. Then, with her tiny heart pounding with the excitement, she broke past the mind’s barriers to see what it was like inside.
Her brother observed this and copied what she’d done, and a moment later he was through the barriers around the mind he was considering.
Talia, Mark, and Alilia were blasted awake by Povon’s psionic shriek. “MIND YOUR CHILDREN!” she angrily demanded. “They just broke Kragorram’s psionic shields, and they weren’t gentle about it! He has the god of all headaches, and we cannot bar them from his mind without destroying them! Which I almost did, before I realized who was doing it!”
“By the source!” Talia gasped as she checked her children. “He has Kragorram, and she has… A Sylvan! Out in the mountains somewhere! Missing gods, she’s almost killed him! If he isn’t helped quickly, he’ll spend the rest of his days as a babbling idiot, if he survives at all!
“Mark, help with Reggie, and Alilia help me with Helemia!”
was furrowed with the effort and concentration of what he was doing. His effort was about half coaxing and half controlling his son as he desperately tried to ease the boy out of Kragorram’s mind as quickly and as gently as possible. The unborn babe was being stubborn about it. Mark would have thought Reggie would have fled from Kragorram’s anguish, frustration, and pain, not to mention Povon’s seething hostility, but the baby was uncowed. He was too ignorant of the meaning of others’ emotions and too fascinated by Kragorram to be intimidated. Finally, Mark
remainder of the Sylvan’s mind until Helemia was forced out. Mark was already singing loudly by then, having finished with Reggie, and the three adults cast a psionic shield around the three of them with enough power to contain the two young and inquisitive minds still forming inside Talia. Then Talia carefully cast Sleep on her children; which didn’t take much. Though still excited by their adventure, the two unborn
the Sylvan even as she woke Yazadril and Nemia by suddenly jumping
Mark yelled, both physically and psionicly. “Where the hell did that Sylvan come
her belly. “It’s in the Reading I just took of
beside them with his eyes tightly closed and
looked to Talia with an inquisitively
that is. A Sylvan god brought them here
Hiding, for him to have hidden them from the other
very serious tone indeed. “Rather, he is the Sylvan God of Stealth. The difference being that his choice of stealth rather than hiding as his mandate indicates that he is
Skilled enough that he became a god a few thousand years ago, chose his mandate, gathered followers, and established his religion among them, all without any of the other gods even noticing his existence. This is the first time anyone has become aware that there was a Sylvan God of Stealth without his permission. And still, I only know this because it was known by the injured Sylvan, whose mind and Helemia’s
you really saying that the Dragon God of Dreaming can’t match the psionic sensitivity of
for three long seconds before simply replying;