“Sorry, does he not like that?” Lynette withdrew her hand, seeing Koradan’s shocked expression.
“Um… no, he’s perfectly okay with it, actually. It just surprised me. He’s usually fairly picky about who he lets touch him. Actually, come to think of it, that’s something we need to discuss; who’s going to be riding which vreki. Ashd said it’s fine to put Markon and the stretcher on him, but I hadn’t thought about which of us will actually ride him.” Vreki were generally capable of carrying two riders. In an emergency, or for short distances, they might be able to take three, but there was no way Ashd could fly all the way to Minia with the weight of three people. And so they had to take two vreki.
Lynette, Ashd said, a strong determination attached to the thought.Mind merge. Fly. Like.
Koradan gaped at him in shock. “You want to… Um… I don’t think that’s actually possible,” he said.Humans can’t mind merge, he added silently.You really want Lynette to ride you? I’ll have to be on Bel.
Try, Ashd said simply.Try mind merge. Ashd teach Koradan before. Ashd teach Lynette now.
Yes, but I’d grown up with vreki, Koradan told him.I at least had an understanding of the concept, even if I didn’t have any experience.
Lynette clever. Like. Fly.
“Ashd says he’d like you to ride him,” Koradan said, feeling oddly off balance from the conversation. “And he also said that… If you don’t want to, please say so, but he said he’d like to try speaking to you telepathically.”
“Oh! Um… okay,” Lynette said, with such casualness that Koradan knew she hadn’t understood what was really being asked of her. “That wasn’t the right answer, was it?” she said a moment later. “You look almost offended.”
“Sorry,” Koradan apologised. “I’m expecting you to know things that you have no way of knowing. Being spoken to by a vreki is a deep honour. They only ever speak to the warrior class back in Chalandros. For Ashd to even suggest it means that he holds a great deal of respect for you.”
“Oh. Well, I’m honoured,” Lynette said, sounding like she meant it. “But I didn’t even know humans could do the whole telepathic thing. Is it magic? Or something else?”
“It’s a learned ability,” Koradan said. “And it comes with a few side effects. It can make you dizzy. It can hurt, the first few times-”
Not hurt, Ashd declared, sounding offended.Careful.
“Ashd says it won’t hurt because he’ll be careful,” Koradan repeated, to keep Lynette included in the conversation. “But you hurt me, the first time you tried to merge your whole mind with mine.”
Learned how to do better. Koradan teach Ashd good things. Ashd more clever now.
“Ashd says he’s learned to be more gentle now. Teaching me to mind merge was good experience for him.”
Lynette shrugged. “I’m going to be honest here. I don’t really understand what you’re asking of me. But presumably, I need to be able to talk to Ashd if I’m going to be riding him?”
Koradan nodded. “You’ll only be able to communicate simple things. A fully trained vreki rider can understand the vreki’s emotions, images, ideas, entirely abstract thoughts without ever putting them into words. For you, I’d suggest that Ashd keeps things to just communicating in words.”
“Does he want to try it now?”
Now, Ashd said.
“Yes. Just a little bit to begin with.”
“What do I have to do?”
“Relax your mind. It’ll probably feel like someone’s trying to squeeze your brain, but don’t resist it. That’s all I can really say. Aside from that, it’s like trying to explain the taste of a carrot to someone who’s never eaten one. It’s a unique sensation that you’ll only really understand once you’ve experienced it.”
Koradan merged his mind with Ashd, listening in on whatever he was about to say to Lynette – not to pry, but to assess whether Lynette was hearing him properly. He felt Ashd searching through the tangled web of Lynette’s mind, trying to find the part that would be receptive to his thoughts. Apparently, human minds were different from Chalandrians, according to the vreki, so it wasn’t as simple as connecting to a salas.
But after a minute or two, Ashd seemed to find what he was looking for. Koradan felt a third presence join their connection, only a feather-light impression of a vague, female consciousness.
Hello, human, Ashd said, the words as light as a feather on a breeze.
Lynette gasped, her eyes opening wide, her mouth falling open. “Oh! I heard that!”
Koradan couldn’t help his grin, remembering his own shock and delight the first time Ashd had spoken to him. “Shall we try again? Just a simple word or two,” he cautioned Ashd, not wanting him to overdo it.
Lynette ride Ashd. Fly safe. Good?
Lynette nodded. “Yes. I trust you, Ashd. I know you’ll keep me safe.”
