Mind Over Psyche by Karina L. Fabian Read Free Book Online Page A

imagine, though how you managed it is a mystery. The storms in the Void are fierce; none can travel them right now. Perhaps that is why your recovery has taken so long. Or is it because of th e poison?”
    â€œProbably both,” he bluffed. He had started to feel more sure of himself, at least enough to think more clearly. He still wasn’t ready to believe in this world, in this miracle. It was too much to think he’d escaped Malachai’s clutches, that he’d found a world where being psychic was as natural as being able to see, where he wouldn’t have to constantly guard against the unwanted thoughts and emotions of others. For the most part, anyway; he was still very aware of Tasmae’ s concern.
    She watched him in that direct, probing way of hers. He stared back, taking in her features, searching for some clue as to whether or not she was truly real. Her long black hair, in a tight braid that curled around an elaborate headpiece he knew held a sheathed dagger, drank in the light of the room while her eyes, nearly as dark, glowed with intensity. Her alien features didn’t quite meet the human standards for lovely—her face too narrow, her eyes too close together—but she had the most amazing cheekbones, and her body was attractive enough by Earth standards; at least, as Joshua had once told him, if you like Xena-body-builder types. He wondered for a moment what this Xena’s skin color was; Tasmae was a lovely honey brown. He hadn’t been able to capture that in the pencil sketches he’d made after taking Joshua’s advice and confronting her in the Ne therworld.
    Do I look as I did in the Netherworld? she asked telep athically.
    He nodded, feeling a lightheadedness that had nothing to do with drugs or hunger. Without quite realizing it, he answered with a telepathic affirm ation. Me?
    She sent to him images of the Ydrel she had known in the Netherworld and how he looked to her now. They weren’t too different—same shoulder-length blond hair, same sky blue eyes over a slightly sharp nose—but his Netherworld image was at once more ethereal and heroic. He wondered if he disappo inted her.
    She cocked her head, considering. Perhaps it was my lack of skill. I have only been to the Netherworld to communicate with you, and until your suggestion, did not know it could be a place with scenery, objects, a nd people.
    And we’re not in the Netherworld now? he pressed, seeking some way to reconcile what he thought he was experiencing with what he thought should be reality. Perhaps what he’d felt was just her Calling him from cons ciousness.
    He sensed her negation, along with a detailed description of the keep where they’d brought him and what had happened.
    So, he was on Kanaan, physically as well as mentally—and he had traveled there by his own psyc hic power?
    She nodded. And you brough t another—
    â€œJoshua?” He gasped in surprise. “He’s here? He’s a ll right?”
    â€œHe’s here,” She responded, following his lead in switching to spoken tongue. “Though I cannot if say he’s all right. His behavior is most…odd.”
    â€œTake me to him!” Deryl found his shoes and slipped them on, trying to quiet the thundering of his heart. If anyone could help him figure all this out, it w as Joshua.
    But Tasmae did not move, nor acknowledge his demand. Why are you here?
    He felt the force of her will against his weary shields, and strengthened them against her, meeting her will with his own stubbornness. After I s ee Joshua.
    She met his stubbornness with her own. He didn’t care. He concentrated on his friend as he walked to the door, hoping to sense his way to him if necessary.
    He had to see Joshua. Somehow he knew that the intern held the key to keeping h is sanity.

Chapter 5
    Joshua lay on a bed too comfortable for a jail cell and stared at a wall too alien for comfort. Still, he