Choices Read Online Free Page B

laughing a
little at my white lie.
I knew it would be hard for you at
first. I wanted you to have time to adjust
.
    He had been right. He had waited for me to
think of him, guessing I would not have the energy to accept his
visit before. And now that he was here there was nothing much to
say, only the pleasure of being in his company, the enjoyment of
completeness. It was like the warmth I had felt on my first night
here, snuggling into my bed after the freezing ride. Basking in
Dominic’s presence I fell sound asleep, and when I awoke for the
moonrise ceremony he was gone. But the feeling stayed with me, into
the remainder of the night, so that I went through the new day’s
demanding lessons with greater confidence and cheerfulness.
    The next night, as soon as my aide was gone
and I was alone in the room, Dominic was with me. This time I had,
not only the sensation of his thoughts and his voice, but his
touch. It was as if his arm were around me, as if he lay beside me
in the bed. Startled, I sat up and made the inner flame, flicking
my body’s heat into a soft light at the end of my thumb with a snap
of the fingers. Surely there would be an indentation on the bed,
the vague outline of a body. There was nothing.
    What is it, beloved?
Dominic
asked.
    I can feel you
, I said.
I can
sense your arm, your body
. I was delighted in a way, because
his touch was thrilling to me, but I was also frightened. It was
weird to have such definite physical sensations without a material
source, and I wondered if all this
crypta
work was
disordering my brain.
    My love
, he said, amused but
contrite.
You are perfectly rational, and very talented. You
are perceiving what I am sending to you, my desires, what I would
do if we were together. We can share more than thoughts. We can
experience touch and other senses, as I think them to you
.
    The possibilities intrigued me.
Can I
touch you?
I asked.
Show me how
.
    Dominic laughed at my enthusiastic acceptance
of this strange new art.
Soon, my love. You have enough to
learn at present
. His arm around me tightened, and I felt the
brush of lips against my cheek.
Sleep now
, he whispered,
relaxing the arm as I dozed off.
    Each night as I crawled into bed, Dominic
would visit. I would lean back against the strong arm that was
always there for me, confiding the day’s successes and failures,
accepting his congratulations or his sympathy as a matter of right.
He enjoyed my story of the broken window.
I blew out all the
windows of Netrebko Seminary when I was fourteen
, he said. I
knew he was smiling at the memory.
And all the lamps. We were
cold and in the dark for a whole day and night
. His mental
shield came up and he was silent.
    I was glad that he had at last relaxed his
guard a little to share his memories with me. Although we occupied
each other’s mind, almost like one consciousness, there were areas
in which Dominic had erected impenetrable barriers. They were not
so much to keep me out, but as if he couldn’t bear to think about
some things himself and hoped the memories would disappear, be
forgotten, even by him, if he built his internal walls thick
enough.
    I had sensed this earlier, when I had
inquired once or twice about his life in Eclipsia City. There had
been incidents early in his tenure as Commandant of the ‘Graven
Military Academy, some trouble that had left him wary of confiding
in anyone. I had decided to let it be, too absorbed in my own
concerns to fret over his. If he wanted my help or my advice, such
as it could be, a foreigner in his country, he would ask.
    Waking up these mornings I was happy,
convinced that my training would progress swiftly, and determined
to become a sibyl worthy of such a love.

CHAPTER TWO
     
    W hen I had been
working diligently for eight days, an Eclipsian week, Edwige again
called me into her study. I had learned the routine now, and I knew
that Edwige did not usually have private conferences with novices.
She did not teach the beginners’