A Flame in Hali by Marion Zimmer Bradley Read Free Book Online Page A

peaking in a spasm. Eyeballs rolled up in their sockets, parted lids revealing crescents of white. Arms and legs flailed wildly, fell still for a moment, then began twitching again. Teeth snapped together. No breath came from between the lips pulled back in a rictus.
    Even through his psychic barriers, Eduin sensed the wild chaos of the other man’s nervous system, the agony of his straining muscles, the lungs screaming for air, the frenzied beating of his heart.
    Eduin took a deep breath. This man had pulled him from certain death in the snow, had given him a gift beyond imagining. He could not walk away now.
    He threw himself down beside the pallet and fumbled at his belt for the starstone in its wrappings. The crystal warmed instantly upon contact with his bare hand.
    The world shifted. He had been living without using his laran for so long, he had grown blind. Now every detail, every radiant nuance of color and texture, of sound and smell and inner sensing glowed incandescent across his conscious mind. He closed his eyes, ignoring the sting of renewed tears.
    Without visual sight, using his starstone to amplify his laran senses, Eduin narrowed the focus of his concentration. Saravio’s energy body burned like a flame. The channels and nodes that conducted psychic forces appeared as a spectrum of colors—reds and oranges, searing white and dull brown. The brilliance indicated the strength of the man’s laran, which was considerable.
    Rarely had Eduin seen such disorder, such a breakdown of the normal balances. Colors clashed, especially at the centers at the base of the brain. The node at the bottom of the skull pulsed wildly, throwing off sparks that bore a sickening resemblance to clingfire. Wherever they touched, they left gaping holes of darkness in Saravio’s energy body.
    Eduin searched his memory for a similar pattern. Once, in his first year as a fully qualified matrix technician, he had assisted in the treatment of a woman with falling-sickness. At unpredictable intervals, she would become unconscious and her body would jerk uncontrollably, leaving her battered and exhausted, but with no memory of what had happened to her. Otherwise, she appeared normal, except for the odd neural cross-circuits.
    Eduin opened his eyes. Saravio’s skin had turned blue around his mouth. He could not survive much longer without air, nor could his heart withstand the strain.
    Spreading his fingers wide, Eduin reached out his free hand to scan the other man more deeply. Normally, he would avoid actual contact with the patient he was examining. It was too easy to be misled by direct physical touch.
    Just then, Saravio’s torso heaved upward, contorting so that his arms wrapped around Eduin’s neck. Hands dug into the back of Eduin’s shoulders with iron strength, pulling him down. Desperately, Eduin pushed away. It was no use. He was held fast. Panic seared him. He struggled for breath. The mingled rankness of sweat and terror filled his nostrils.
    Somehow, Eduin managed to slide his free hand in front of his own shoulders. Gasping, he shoved as hard as he could. His hands slipped upward along the slope of Saravio’s rib cage. Under his fingers, he felt the hard line of jawbone. He curled his fingers around Saravio’s lower face. If only he could make contact with the brain centers that controlled the other man’s muscles. Even a moment of relaxation would allow him to pull free—
    He shaped his laran like a spear point to pierce the tumult.
    Almost without effort, Eduin swept through the other man’s chaotic barriers. Images flooded him, stark and vivid. He caught a flash of a Tower illuminated by lightning against a night sky, then a blizzard of swirling gray and white, a river in full flood, a figure in a long dark cloak. The eddies died, leaving only the figure turning slowly toward him.
    Hands pale as snow drew back the hood and he saw it was a woman. She lifted her face. Framed by hair the color of jet that dipped in