Mind of My Mind (27 page)

someone. Actually, Karl did a good job."

"I think I'll pass on the favor," she said, "by doing a good job for Clay Dana before

his brother helps him to death." She went to Seth, told him what Doro had just told her,

then told him that she, not Seth, would attend Clay at Clay's transition. Later she repeated

the conversation to Doro.

"You've got to be kidding," Seth had said. "No. No way."

"You're too close to Clay," she had told him. "You've spent more than ten years

shielding him from pain."

"That doesn't make any difference."

"The hell it doesn't! What's your judgment going to be like when you have to hold off

shielding him—when you have to decide whether he's in enough trouble for you to risk

helping him? How objective do you think you're going to be when he's lying in front of

you screaming?"

"Objective . . . !"

"His life is going to depend on what you decide to do, man—or decide not to do." She

looked at Clay. "How objective do you think he can be? It's your life."

Clay looked uncomfortable, spoke to his brother. "Could she be right, Seth? Could

this be something you should leave to somebody else?"

"No!" said Seth instantly. And then again, with a little less certainty, "No."

"Seth?"

"Look, I can handle it. Have I ever let you down?"

And Mary broke in. "You probably never have, Seth, and I'm not going to give you a

chance to ruin your record."

Seth turned to look at her. "Are you saying you're going to force me to stand aside?"

His tone made the words more a challenge than a question.

"Yes," said Mary.

Seth stared at her in surprise. Then, slowly, he relaxed. "You could do it," he said

quietly. "You could knock me cold when the time came. But, Mary, if anything happens

to my brother, you'd better not let me come to."

"Clay will be all right," she said. "I plan to see to it. And I'm really not interested in

knocking you out. I hope you won't make me do it."

"Then, tell me why. Make me understand why you're interfering in something that

shouldn't even be any of your business."

"I started it, man. I'm the reason for it. If it's anybody's business, it's mine. Now, Clay

has a better chance with me than he has with you because I can see what's happening to

him both mentally and physically. I'm going to know if he really needs help. I'm not

going to have to guess."

"What can you do but guess? You're barely out of transition yourself."

"I've got seven transition experiences to draw on. And you can believe I've studied all

of them. Now it's settled, Seth."

Seth took it. Doro watched him with interest after Mary reported the conversation.

And Doro caught Seth watching Mary. Seth did not seem angry or vindictive. It was

more as though he was waiting for something to happen. He had accepted Mary's

authority as, years before, he had accepted Doro's. Now he watched to see how she

handled it. He seemed surprised when, days later, she gave him charge of her cousin

Jamie, but he accepted the responsibility. After that, he seemed to relax a little.

Rachel was on her feet again two days after her attack on Mary. Jesse, more severely

weakened, was in bed a day longer. Both became quieter, more cautious people. They,

too, watched Mary—warily.

Mary sent Rachel to kidnap the Hansons. Forsyth was a small city; Rachel could go

across town without much discomfort. She wouldn't be staying long, anyway.

"Make their parents believe they've left home for good," Mary told her. "Because, one

way or another, they have. You shouldn't have much tampering to do, though. The

parents aren't going to be sorry to lose them."

Rachel frowned. "Even so, it seems wrong to just go in and take them—people's

children . . ."

"They're not children. Hell, Jamie's a year older than I am. And if we don't take them,

they probably won't make it through transition. If they don't manage to kill themselves by

losing control at a bad time, somebody else will kill them by taking them to a hospital.

You can imagine what it would be like to be a mental sponge picking up everything in a

hospital."

Rachel shuddered, nodded, turned to go. Then she stopped and faced Mary again. "I

was talking to Karl about what you're trying to do—the community of actives that you

want to put together."

"Yes?"

"Well, if I have to stay here, I'd rather live in a community of actives—if such a thing

is possible. I'd like us to stop hiding so much and start finding out what we're really

capable of."

"You've been thinking about it," said Mary.

"I had time," said Rachel dryly. "What I'm working up to is that I'm willing to help

you. Help more than just going after these kids, I mean."

Mary smiled, looked pleased but not surprised. "I would have asked you," she said.

"I'm glad I didn't have to. I didn't ask you to help anybody through transition because I

wanted you standing by for all three transitions in case some medical problem comes up.

Jan broke her arm during her transition and you probably know Jesse did some kind of

damage to his back that could have been serious. It will be best if you're sort of on call."

"I will be," said Rachel. She left to get the Hansons.

Mary looked after her for a moment, then walked over to the sofa nearest to the

fireplace, where Doro was sitting with a closed book on his lap.

"You're always around," she said. "My shadow."

"You don't mind."

"No. I'm used to you. In fact, I'm really going to miss you when you leave. But, then,

you won't be leaving soon. You're hooked. You've got to see what happens here."

She couldn't have been more right. And it wasn't just the three coming transitions that

he wanted to see. They were important, but Mary herself was more important. Her people

were submitting now, all but Karl. And she would overcome Karl's resistance slowly.

Doro had wondered what Mary would do with her people once she had subdued

them. Before she discovered Clay's potential, she had probably wondered herself. Now,

though . . . Doro had reworded Karl's question. How many latents did she think she

wanted to bring through? "All of them, of course," she had said.

Now Doro was waiting. He didn't want to put limits on her, yet. He was hoping that

she would not like the responsibility she was creating for herself. He was hoping that,

before too long, she would begin to limit herself. If she didn't, he would have to step in.

Success his and hers—was coming too quickly. Worse, all of it depended on her. If

anything happened to her, the pattern would die with her. It was possible that her actives,

new and old, would revert to their old, deadly incompatibility without it. Doro would lose

a large percentage of his best breeding stock. This quick success could set him back

several hundred years.

Mary gave Karl charge of her bald girl cousin, Christine, and then probably wished

she hadn't. Surprisingly, Christine's shaved head did not make her ugly. And,

unfortunately, her inferior position in the house did not make her cautious. Fortunately,

Karl wasn't interested. Christine just didn't have the judgment yet to realize how totally

vulnerable she was. Mary had a private talk with her.

Mary gave Christine and Jamie a single, intensive session of telepathic indoctrination.

They learned what they were, learned their history, learned about Doro, who had

neglected their branch of Emma's family for two generations. They learned what was

going to happen to them, what they were becoming part of. They learned that every other

active in the house had gone through what they were facing and that, while it wasn't

pleasant, they could stand it. The double rewards of peace of mind and power made it

worthwhile.

The Hansons learned, and they believed. It wouldn't have been easy for them to

disbelieve information force-fed directly into their minds. Once the indoctrination was

over, though, they were let alone mentally. They became part of the house, accepting

Mary's authority and their own pain with uncharacteristic docility.

Jamie went into transition first, about a month after he moved to Larkin House. He

was young, strong, and surprisingly healthy in spite of having tried every pill or powder

he could get his hands on.

He came through. He had sprained his wrist, blackened one of Seth's eyes, and broken

the bed he was lying on, but he came through. He became an active. Seth was as proud as

though he had just become a father.

Clay, who should have been first, was next. He came through in a short, intense

transition that almost killed him. He actually suffered heart failure, but Mary got his heart

started again and kept it going until Rachel arrived. Clay's transition was over in only five

hours. It left him with none of the usual bruises and strains, because Mary did not try to

restrain him with her own body or tie him down. She simply paralyzed his voluntary

muscles and he lay motionless while his mind writhed through chaos.

Clay became an active, but not a telepathic active. His budding telepathic ability

vanished with the end of his transition. But he was compensated for it, as he soon

learned.

When his transition ended and he was at peace, he saw that a tray of food had been

left beside his bed. He could just see it out of the corner of his eye. He was still paralyzed

and could not reach it, but in his confusion and hunger, he did not realize this. He reached

for it anyway.

In particular, he reached for the bowl of soup that he could see steaming so near him.

It was not until he lifted the soup and drew it to him that he realized that he was not using

his hands. The soup hovered without visible support a few inches above his chest.