Steven Harper - Dreamer

“We’d like to see what you can do,” Grandfather Melthine continued. “Why don’t you start by telling us?”

I hesitated.

“Go ahead, Sejal,” Kendi said. “It’s all right.”

“I can make people do things,” I said nervously.

“Like what?” Melthine asked. His voice was still gentle, not at all stern. I concentrated on him, blocking out the aliens in the room, and was able to relax a little bit.

“I can freeze people in place,” I told him, “and they don’t remember what happened when I let them go. I can also make people want to do something so bad, they do it.”

“Can you give an example?” Melthine said.

“Well, I froze six Unity guard in place so we could get back on the Post Script. And another time I made a guard want to punch his partner so bad that he couldn’t help doing it.”

“A powerful form of whispering,” murmured one of the other humans. “But without entering the Dream.”

“I don’t do it directly,” I added. “I have to sort of… reach through another place. It might be the Dream, but I’m not sure.”

Melthine’s hand was on his walking stick, even though he was sitting. “How does the freezing work, Sejal? What do you do?”

I thought about it. “It’s like I can…see what they’re feeling. Well, not really see. I just sort of know. And then I reach through the weird place and make one of those feelings really strong. The feeling already has to be there. I can’t make new ones.”

“Whispering,” the other human said again.

“How do you ‘freeze’ people, as you call it?” Melthine said.

“I shut their feelings down completely,” I said. “I looked it up once. It’s called apathy. You don’t have feelings, you don’t any reason to do anything. You don’t even care enough to remember what happened.”

Melthine nodded. “You don’t possess people then? Put your mind into someone else’s body and take it for you own?”

“No.”

Everyone in the room gave a little sigh, like they were relieved or something. I didn’t understand it. Several of them looked at Kendi like like he had done something wrong. I didn’t understand that, either. Was Kendi in trouble?

“Sejal,” Kendi said quietly. “Have you ever tried to possess someone completely?”

“No.”

“Can you, do you think?”

I thought about it. “Probably.”

The people at the table got all tense again.

“Try it with me,” Kendi said.

I looked at him. “Take over your body?”

“Sure. It’s nothing new, Sejal. Silent do it all the time. Do that freeze thing, but push harder. You can’t hurt me. It’ll be all right.”

So I did. Before any of the others said anything, I touched Kendi with my mind, like I did with that first jobber back with Jesse. Then I pushed.

The world jumped to the right. I was sitting in a different place. I looked down at my hands. They were bigger and darker. I drew in a sharp breath. The noise sounded different in my head. I looked sideways and saw…myself. My eyes were shut and I was slumped sideways in my chair. I leaped up, knocking the chair over. My heart pounded, but the rhythm was wrong. I panicked.

A hand landed on my shoulder and I yelped. It was reflex-I took that mind, too. I was seeing the room from two different points of view. There were two of me, but only one, at the same time.

The other people-and aliens-in the room scrambled to their feet. The sudden movement scared me again, and then I had three, four, five, and six people. Then seven and eight and nine. My eyes looked in a dozen different directions all at once. I had two legs-no, four legs-no, a dozen. My hearts were thumping so hard they hurt. In panic, I saw my body, still slumped in the chair. I wanted to be back inside it. I wanted to be me again. I lunged for myself.

And then I was there. I opened my eyes and looked down at my hands. My hands. My arms. My body.

I looked up, shaking. The room was dead silent. Everyone was looking at me. Then a babble broke out as everyone started talking at the same time. One of the humans, a blond man, was shouting. The caterpillar waved its arms. Kendi looked stunned. I just huddled in my chair. They were angry. They were going to do something to me. I wanted to run.

Finally Grandfather Melthine quieted the room and got everyone to sit down again. He was the one who’d put a hand on my shoulder. His face was pale.

“That was…impressive, young Sejal,” he said. He wiped his forehead with the sleeve of his robe. “I think you made history today.”

I didn’t say anything.

“We’ll need to analyze this more closely later,” Melthine added. “We thought Brother Kendi was powerful because he can split his mind into two pieces in the Dream. But you, Sejal…well, your abilities go rather beyond that.”

I still didn’t say anything.

Grandfather Melthine took a deep breath. “Well. Mother Adept Araceil Rymar also reported that you can pull other people into the Dream. Is that correct?”

I nodded.

“Tell us about it in your own words.”

I did. It took some time. Kendi got me some water, and I was glad for it. I was still nervous. Everyone listened carefully, and they didn’t interrupt. I got the feeling they’d heard the story before and mentally kicked myself for not realizing that Kendi and probably Mother Ara had already told it to them.

When I was done, Melthine nodded. “Is there anything else you can do?”

I hadn’t told them about my empathy talent. I was going to, but then I changed my mind. I can’t say why. Eventually I’d have to tell someone, probably Kendi, but then I could say I forgot about it or that it was new. So I shook my head.

One of the Ched-Balaar chattered something from where he (she?) was squatting on the floor.

“Father Adept Ched-Farask wants to know more about this ability to bring people into the Dream,” Melthine told me. “Can you do it with anyone? Including non-Silent?”

“I don’t know,” I said truthfully.

“Have him try it with me,” said a new voice. Everyone’s head swung around and I twisted in my seat. Harenn was standing in the doorway. I wondered how she had known about the meeting and figured Kendi must have mentioned it to her.

“Harenn Mashib,” Grandfather Melthine said. “You weren’t invited here.”

Like that ever stopped Harenn. She walked straight up to the table as cool as an ice trader. “I volunteer to be a test subject,” she said, “to see if Sejal can take the non-Silent into the Dream.”

“Harenn-” Kendi said.

“I’ll try it,” I said suddenly. Until that moment, I hadn’t really liked Harenn. But now here she was, facing down a council of powerful people. And I also knew what she was going through. I had felt her panic and her pain for a few seconds. Harenn had told me how she was hoping to use the Dream to find her husband, the guy who’d kidnapped their kid and run off. I wanted to help.

“Sejal is too early in his training to enter the Dream unaccompanied,” Melthine pointed out. “He has been forbidden to do so.”

Harenn snorted behind her veil. “Do you honestly think that has stopped this boy? As good to leave an open box of sweets on a child’s bed and tell him he can only have one. He has entered the Dream often, you may be certain.”

Kendi turned to me. I couldn’t read his eyes. “Have you entered the Dream since I told you not to go there?”

And suddenly I was pissed. Sure, the Children of Irfan had gotten me off Rust, and sure, they were giving me an education and a place to live and some great clothes. It didn’t mean they owned me.

“Damn right I have,” I said. “It’s easy. I can get in and out like that.” I snapped my fingers. “Why shouldn’t I go?”