Free Jeanne G'Fellers - Sisters Flight by Jeanne G'Fellers

in. I could feel her anger, but it didn't have the painful
mental pinch that she gave her apprentice. What did I tell the group?
    But —
    Apologize.
    I
was just —Laszlo flinched as she
received another pinch. Yes, Master Evangeline. She hung her head. Pm
sorry, Trooper Rankil.
    Do
not repeat the error. Evangeline
replaced her mental presence with her physical, hood drawn against the icy wind
as she sat next to me. "Laszlo's curiosity can get the better of her at
times."
    "It's
all right. I was just surprised to discover her presence." I pulled my
cloak tighter and tucked my blanket about my feet.
    "No,
you were feeling invaded, and rightly so. An unexpected phase can be quite
disturbing, especially if you are preoccupied." Evangeline stared at me
with those bewitching eyes of hers, evaluating me as she offered the peace I
had been finding difficult. When I dropped in to censure Laszlo, I came to
know the reason for your anguish. Would discussing it help?
    "I'd
rather not." I closed my eyes and unsuccessfully tried to push her mental
presence away.
    I
am offering you a chance to discuss your troubles, nothing more. We need not
speak about it with our voices. You have shared this very thing with someone
besides your Myrla. A healer Garrziko? I can stand in her place if it would
help.
    I’m
not comfortable with the idea. But
something inside me screamed otherwise. I needed a confidant, a listener,
someone who would not judge when I spoke of what lay inside me.
    I
did not promise comfort, said
Evangeline through her piercing gaze. But I can listen.
    I
can't be certain whether fatigue or despair took over at that point, but I
could no longer stand to remain silent in my anguish. I could feel myself being
drawn into Evangeline's eyes and beyond them, to a place I had only been with
one other. All right.
    Very
good, she said. It will be
intimate but only at the level you share with Sarah Garrziko. I cracked
open one eye to find Evangeline had come to lay beside me, not too close but
close enough to touch. My body stiffened with a familiar attraction. This was
not what I felt with Garrziko but neither was it what I felt with Myrla. I knew
this feeling all too well and it made me wonder all the more about Evangeline.
    What
did you learn when you were inside my mind? I asked in a stuttering mental wave.
    Not
so much learned as absorbed, she said
as she rolled more toward me. Shall we share what happened when you aided
Easton?
    I'm
sure you already know.
    I
know the emotions you felt, the memories it brought back, that you feel you
were unable to aid her.
    She
wanted me to kill her. The tears in
my eyes were no longer from the paints. There were seven of us there, not
counting Easton. Dee, Garrziko, two medical healers, two who helped hold her
down.
    And
yourself.
    I
wish I hadn't promised to be there.
    But
you did, and you fulfilled that promise. Evangeline's thoughts reflected honest admiration. Despite the
terror, you both knew it had to happen. She was on the verge of severe
hemorrhaging, yet she survived. Tekkroon surgical skills are amazing.
    But
they wouldn't sedate her, wouldn't let me phase away her pain.
    You
were in no condition to phase her agony away even if they had let you. Her mind
is far too dangerous for a phase and her body to fragile for even Tekkroon pain
medication.
    But
they hurt her worse than her Aut family ever did! The thought felt hollow even as it rose from my mind.
    That's
guilt talking. They saved her life.
    Some
life.
    Easton
is safe and well cared for, said
Evangeline. What else is there?
    She
isn't free.
    Your
thoughts told me she was a prisoner of her own mind long before she came to the
Tekkroon.
    Then
why didn’t they let it end and set her free?
    Guilt
again, declared Evangeline through
her thoughts. You wonder why she isn't you and you her. You believe it
unfair.
    What
do you know about fair? I could feel
her mental presence surrounding me like a blanket, a blanket I had no desire to
warm in.