“And what of you, Leelan?” I said, remembering well enough how I’d assumed she would take the throne after the battle was won, and how surprised I’d been that no one, including her, considered her qualified. “As it was you who failed to recall the need to inform me of the great honor awaiting my success in besting Farian, perhaps you will now make amends by becoming my surrogate. As your mother sat the place of Chama before Farian, who would there be to say you had not the right?”
“Terril, Leelan has not the power,” Deegor said gently but firmly as Leelan looked down at the goblet in her hands, the minds of everyone else agreeing. “She, of course, would be ideal, and yet does she lack that which even a surrogate must have. To rule, even in the name of another, requires the presence and use of the power.”
Again most of them began talking at once, all of it suggestions as to who might be strong enough—and trustworthy enough-to be my surrogate, the sudden noise mounting too high for me to have the chance to say that Leelan did have the power. Even as I reexamined her embarrassed and self-accusing mind I could see how much power she had, and wondered as I had before why she didn’t use more than a small fraction of it. She was able to feel power or the lack of it in the minds around her, but as far as using her own was concerned . . .
My mind-tool of calm control slid into place as my inner sight moved closer and closer to Leelan, the rest of me floating along with no more than faint curiosity to be felt. Most of me was so relaxed I was almost asleep, but one small crew of tiny, invisible workers was briskly busy and getting on with the job in hand in a businesslike way. The job in hand was Leelan’s mind, a mind that had somehow seemed strange without my knowing why, and the crew was busy checking into the matter. Her mind was healthy and strong, well adjusted to life in general and her own life in particular, no hidden hang-ups keeping her from doing something she could but didn’t believe she could. My inner sight went closer and closer to her, my mind blending and meshing with hers, the two flowing together, breathing together, feeling together
And then we reached the block, the small, badly constructed block that only did part of its job, crude workmanship that also felt as though it was supposed to be temporary. I suddenly had a very strong suspicion as to what it might be, but understanding it wasn’t the important part, removing it was. Leelan had been living with it so long it had almost become a part of her, and I couldn’t simply dissolve it without bracing her, or the sudden shock could damage her mind. I brought more of my strength into her mind, then slowly and carefully withdrew to leave her on her own.
I had to blink a couple of times before I saw her face instead of her mind, and then it was another moment before what I was seeing made sense. Leelan sat bolt upright beside the cushion she’d been leaning on, her legs folded stiffly in front of her, an amazed look on her face, wine spilling to the carpet fur past her knee due to the slack hold she had on her goblet. The world had suddenly widened and brightened for her, and it would take a short while before she got used to it.
It was only a matter of seconds before someone noticed Leelan and what she was doing, and then Relgon, Deegor and Siitil, the three other active minds in the group, also noticed her inner difference. There was a small riot as everyone left their places to crowd around the happily grinning w’wenda to throw questions at her, or perhaps I should say almost everyone. The sole exception stirred where she sat to my right, as though coming out of a daze, and then her hand touched my shoulder.
“How in hell did you do that?” Ashton demanded in as low a voice as the noise in the room permitted, sounding faintly outraged. “And for that matter, what did you do? From where I was sitting it looked like you just-touched her—but touching shouldn’t have- What in hell happened?”
“She was blocked,” I answered, stretching up straighter where I sat and taking a deep breath as my mind-tool faded back out of control. “All I did was dissolve the block to let her natural ability come through. Building one in Kel-Ten’s mind was harder, but in his case I didn’t have to brace him.”
“You dissolved a block I couldn’t even detect,” Ashton said, this time speaking flatly and looking at me in an odd way, her hand leaving my shoulder. “Every now and then someone in the community is found to have the ability for such fine inner sight, but that’s usually all they can do. I’ve never heard of a Prime being able to—”
She broke off with the odd look still peering out of her eyes, then shook her head as though to chase it away. When her gaze came back to me it was the faintly impatient, faintly irritated one I was used to, and she raised her hand in a banishing gesture.
“That isn’t something to be discussed here, only between the two of us,” she said, not far from giving the impression I was the one who had brought the subject up and was insisting on talking about it. “Let’s just add it to the list for when we get home. But to get back to Leelan, how could she have been blocked? Did some enemy of her family decide to try keeping her from becoming Chama after her mother?”
“It’s possible, but I doubt it,” I said, fleetingly wondering how well that list of my abilities would go over with the fine folk back “home.” I was supposed to be one of them, but people have been known to turn against an odd bird in the nest even if the bird grew up with them. Which I hadn’t.
“My guess is that Leelan was the victim of an unintentional accident,” I said, glad that my curtain was still firmly over my mind. “If you stop to think about how powerful her mother had to be to qualify for the place of Chama, and then picture a woman trying to concentrate on something important while her baby is broadcasting the way talented babies do- She probably never even noticed wishing there was something she could do to stop the noise just for a little while.”
“You mean you think her mother constructed the block without even knowing she was doing it?” Ashton asked with her brow wrinkled, and then she was slowly nodding her head. “Something like that would never have occurred to me, but I’ll bet you’re right. She blocked little Leelan’s output to give herself a break, having no idea she was doing it so she couldn’t undo it. It looks like those who keep insisting we bring all actives into the community as soon as possible are right. If Leelan’s mother had been a trained Prime she could have shielded, and then the accident would never have happened.”
I didn’t quite know what to say to that, but it turned out to be a good thing I wasn’t well prepared to ask Ashton all sorts of carefully calculated questions. The women in the room with us had finally figured out that I was the one who had freed Leelan’s mind, and their wild delight suddenly came spilling over onto me. Everyone seemed to be laughing and shouting words which were totally incomprehensible, and then Leelan was crouching beside me, her hand reaching for my shoulder.
“Indeed are you one whose like I have never before seen, Terril,” she said, looking as though she were in the midst of a dream she intended enjoying to the full before waking up. “Each time you seek to chastise me for having cozened you, you give me more than ever before was mine. It occurs to me I would be wise to anger you again, merely to discover what new marvel you would gift me with.”
“There is a limit to the marvels even I am able to produce, Leelan,” I answered, laughing along with everyone else at what shed said, feeling how gently but firmly her fingers tightened in thanks. “Best you concern yourself with learning the use of that which you now possess in full, and leave the angering of me to others. After having spent the time I did among my enemies, giving me anger may well bring gifts few would be eager to have. And now that my surrogate is chosen and accepted, I must be on my way.”