Schism: Part One of Triad by Catherine Asaro Read Free Book Online Page A

tonight, until he put right the strain between them or Althor convinced him it was impossible.
    He sat on the bed. “What did I do to make you angry?”
    “Angry?” Althor looked down at him. “What do you mean?”
    “You left Lyshriol.” He wished Althor didn’t tower over him so much.
    Althor sat on the bed, bringing his eyes closer to Shannon’s level. “Is that why you didn’t write? You thought I was angry?”
    “Weren’t you?”
    “Only that you didn’t write.”
    Shannon tried to read his mood, but Althor was shielding his mind. “When I first came in here tonight, you were different.”
     
    Althor -answered awkwardly. “You looked like someone I know. It startled me.
    That’s all. You’ve changed. Grown up.”
    Shannon remembered his brother’s surge of recognition. Althor had responded to him in a way Shannon had never known, even imagined. He didn’t mind mat Althor had thought he was someone else. It intrigued him. He wanted to explore it, understand this new reaction, swirl it into the sea of his emotions.
    He touched Althor’s cheek. “Yes. I have grown up.”
    Althor gently pushed his hand away from his face. “Don’t.”
    “Why?”
    “Shani, I’m an empath. I feel what you want.”
    Wryly he said, “Then perhaps you will tell me.” He wasn’t certain himself.
    Althor thought for a moment. “Maybe it has to do with the Blue Dale Archers.
    You are so much like them, and they are so unlike other humans.” He spoke as if he were still working it through. “I wish I knew more about that part of our heredity. I think you have no barriers in your emotional responses to people.”
    Shannon wasn’t certain what he meant. When you loved someone, you loved them in all ways. It permeated your life. If you hated them, you cut mem out of your life. “Why would I want barriers?”
    “Most humans make them between different types of loving.”
    Shannon set his hand on Althor’s arm, feeling the muscles beneath his black pullover. ‘Tell me about Chad.”
    “Shani, don’t” Strain crackled in Altiior’s voice. He pulled his arm away.
    Shannon felt cold. Bereft “You act as if I am your enemy.”
    “You don’t understand—”
    “I can’t, not here, not in Dalvador.” Shannon struggled to express what he barely knew himself. “It is about loving, somehow, but I never understand. It blends into confusion. I think only of Blue Dale girls, silver and emereal, but here all the girls are—too much. I don’t know if I will ever find someone like me.” Loneliness poured into him, but it filled nothing. “I feel empty.”
    “Do you mean empty with girls?”
    “I wouldn’t feel safe with the daughter of a farmer.”
    Althor spoke carefully. ‘Tell me something. How many children would you like to have?”
    “Children?” The question perplexed Shannon. “I don’t know. It will depend on my wife.”
    “In Dalvador, most boys your age have begun to consider marriage and a family.”
    “Girls here aren’t like me.” Althor was searching for an answer, but Shannon couldn’t figure out the question, and Althor was guarding his mind too well.
    It didn’t bother Shannon. Emotions were better absorbed than studied. It would become clear in time. “Someday I will search for the Blue Dales and find a wife there.”
    Althor rubbed the back of his neck. “Then die reason you hesitate is because you haven’t met a girl you like.”
    “Yes.” Shannon waited.
    “You seem lonely,” Althor said.
    “I probably repulse Dalvador girls.” He couldn’t keep the hurt out of his words.
    “Shani, no.” Althor touched Shannon’s hair as if he were brushing a treasure.
    “You are incredibly beautiful.”
    Shannon exhaled, then moved closer and put his arms around Althor’s waist.
    When Althor hugged him back, he felt as he had in Moonglaze’s stall, content to absorb affection. It permeated his empath’s mind. Remorse filled him at his coldness these past years. His brother had