The Search for Kä Read Free Page B

twinge.
    â€œI think it good that we are going no farther than Thagorn,” Tarani said. “When I asked you if it would harm the cubs for me to ride her, as she wished, do you recall what you said?”
    â€œThat she’s the best judge of that,” I answered.
    â€œShe may not be,” Tarani said seriously. “She is the first of her kind to bear cubs outside the Valley, and she can rely on instinct only to a limited extent. She will know when the cubs
are
endangered, of course, but I do not feel sure that she can prejudge what
will
endanger them. Do you see?”
    â€œI see,” I assured her. “But remember that in Thagorn, she will be in as natural an environment as we can provide for her—forested hills, free-running game, the company of other sha’um. Please don’t worry, Tarani,” I said, aware that I was repeating the same thing I had told Keeshah. “Yayshah will not suffer harm from any action of ours.”
    â€œI hope not, Rikardon. I—I couldn’t bear it. Volitar died because of me, and Lonna—” Her voice choked off. I felt an odd sensation, like the crawl of an electric shock up my arm. Only this was
not
physical. It tingled in my mind. And it seemed to be getting stronger.
    Is Tarani doing this?
I wondered.
Or is somebody doing it to her?
    Whatever it was, it was most certainly affecting Tarani. She was kneeling in the viney ground cover. Her hands—long, finely boned, graceful—tensed on her thighs, and her whole body went rigid. She started making gasping sounds.
    Yayshah twitched awake and looked at Tarani.
    â€œForgive me, Yayshah,” the girl gasped. “I would control it—but I cannot—”
She’s doing it herself,
I realized.
She’s doing it to herself.
    â€œTarani,” I whispered, scrambling over the short distance between us to encircle her wire-tense body with my arms.
    She struggled, pushing at me almost feebly, as though her hands had gone to sleep and she couldn’t quite judge where they were. “Rikardon, please let me go,” she moaned.
    I held on to her squirming body with some difficulty. The fur on the back of my neck and on my hands stood on end. A charge was building inside Tarani, a kind of pure-thought energy that seemed to reach out to touch my mind, which recoiled as if it had been singed. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Yayshah surge to her feet, her eyes wild, the fur around her neck rippling out.
    â€œGet away,” Tarani said, her voice muffled against my shoulder. Her efforts to free herself intensified. “Please, darling, move away,
get away from me I do not want to hurt you!”
    â€œNo,” I said—yelled, rather, for the sensation felt like a physical noise. “I won’t let you go. Whatever this is, we’ll beat it together.”
    In a sudden reversal, Tarani threw her arms around me and held on desperately. Her whole body was trembling; I could almost feel her fear in my fingertips. The shift in balance tipped us over. My shoulder struck the ground just as all hell broke loose.
    Tarani screamed, and the sound was both expression of and reaction to the searing raw emotion that burst forth from her. It was as though everything she had lived through in the past five years had been gathered together and distilled to the essence of experience, mixed liberally with Tarani’s power of illusion, and broadcast in one giant feedback whine.
    Fear joy guilt love loneliness disappointment shame frustration anger anxiety pride triumph love grief fury sadness satisfaction pride shame terror fury love guilt rage fear …
    It was instantaneous.
    It was devastating.
    I blacked out.
    Keeshah woke me, nuzzling my shoulder with a whiskered cheek, my mind with his anxious questions. My head hurt. Something … something had happened—but what?
    *
All right? Rikardon? All right?
*
    *
Uh-n-n … yes, Keeshah, I’m okay, I think.
*
    I