His right hip and both his legs hurt. When didn’t they? He could tell his body to ignore the pain, and he often did, but it took energy to keep the pain away, and he was too tired. He had been doing too much.

  It would not be so bad, he thought if he were still off-world, among the Civvies who like to have chairs and benches 40 or 50 centimeters off the ground. It was having to kneel or crouch next to the low beds and tables in the infirmary that pulled his damaged hip and the rest of his lower body out of alignment. How he hated it.

  Someday, he thought, I will have the time I need to heal after I have my hip broken and reconstructed. Three moonspins? Four? He knew that the longer he waited the longer it would take to recover, but he could not be spared for even one moonspin—not after Glato-nor had died. He had to keep going because Malchi and Kusan had not made it either. They had lost so many valuable people! There were only four or five healers as powerful as he was now, and the current Chief Healer was old, and difficult to work with. He stayed in Enachar, teaching those who had the gift that could come to him, but no one thought he would be much use in an emergency. Eulet was needed. He could not take the time to be healed, just because he didn’t want to be limping.

  The warm pool was just what he needed, he thought as he lowered himself into the water. He would float and let the warm mineralized water soothe the worst of the aches. He was all right, he knew. His body was strong and fit except for the problem with his hip. He had eaten well all day. There was always food at the infirmary to restore the energy of the healers. It had been a long day, but not a bad one.

  He fluttered his hands in the water to propel himself gently around the pool, relaxing his neck, letting his long hair float around his head. Not a bad day at all. They had been able to heal everyone. No one had died and no one was near death any more. A good day, really.

  It got better when he sensed that she was there.

  “Edaskina,” he said in pleased surprise. “You snuck up on me. Why didn’t you say you were coming?”

  “To surprise you, of course,” she replied, chuckling. She was shedding her clothes and undoing her braids as she walked to the edge of the pool. “I was afraid Niagmo would tell you I was here, but he was good about keeping the secret.”

  He laughed as he walked across the water to meet her at the edge of the pool

  “You have Nimna with you?” he asked. It was an unnecessary question. She had stopped nursing the little girl a while ago, but she still took her everywhere.

  “Uh-huh,” she said lowering herself gracefully into the pool and sliding into his arms.

  “I wasn’t expecting you until tomorrow.”

  “We finished the collection early,” she said, making a face. “Unfortunately—because there just isn’t going to be enough food for South Daásin.”

  “But enough to distribute across Jaásin?” he asked.

  She had been in Jaris, overseeing the surplus food collection for Jaásin continent.

  “Yes, it will be tight, but Jaásin should do okay. The area around Trinar is still a mess, and the valley will not recover for a few more sunarounds, Uncle Adigni says, but up north they have been doing well. They were even able to trade a large quantity of golgrain with South Mehlin, so they will be getting most of the Aton squash crop to make up for the absence of produce from Sidar, I believe.

  “They don’t have much to spare though, once they meet the needs of the people. They don’t have much to send east.

  “North Daásin is not doing so badly, from what I hear,” he said rubbing her shoulders gently.

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  “Beans,” she said. “They have a surplus of beans. The students at Karbana and Enachar are going to be sick of beans,” she finished with a chuckle.

  “Do they have enough to send south?” he asked.

  “Yes, but it won’t be enough,” she said with a sigh. “And just getting what we have to the towns and villages without running into the Kron will be a challenge.”

  “You are not thinking of doing it yourself?” he asked.

  He had been enjoying his arousal as he held her loosely in his arms, but desire suddenly ebbed at the idea of her taking such a risk.

  She laughed and pressed herself against him, restoring his desire.

  “No,” she said. “I am not that foolish. South Daásin is not safe for telepaths—or any other obvious psion. You never know where the Kron and their ‘patrols’ will be. I won’t risk it or let anyone else with even a bit of telepathy try it.”

  “Good,” he said relieved. She sometimes took too many risks. He loved her so much.

  Her legs went around his waist. In the water all movement was so easy.

  “I have missed you, edaskina,” he said, kissing her deeply.

  “And I you, edaskinot.”

  Her legs went around his waist. In the water all movement was so easy.

  *****

  “Your father tells me,” she said later, while they were eating. “That he has warned the Council again about the danger of not approaching PASS now that they are here.”

  “Oh? Does he want us to do anything to support him from here?”

  “No, I think he was just reporting his most recent attempt to get the Council to see the light.”

  “Small chance, so long as Bortham Ilten is Chief Councilor.”

  “Bortham Ilten is living in the past,” she said. “Do you realize he believes that we could negotiate something with Kronval—offer a trade deal, in exchange for peace?”

  “The Kron don’t want peace. They want to dominate Jaraida,” he said angrily.

  “And to kill off all the psions,” she added.

  They both remembered what the Kron had done to any psions in their power during the first two sunarounds of The Troubles. For a moment, neither of them had any appetite. But they were used to overcoming the nausea that rose when the considered the way the Kron treated people and animals. She took a bite of fruit, then a handful of nuts. He drank the parsho in his cup and felt better.

  “What did the other councilors say, when my father spoke?”

  “Some agreed, others disagreed,” she said with a shrug. “And Bortham shut down the discussion with one of his usual speeches about the questionable intentions of all off-worlders.”

  He made a gagging noise and got a grin in response.

  “I don’t think Gim Maio expected much to come of it,” she went on. “He only told me because, he knew how strongly I would agree.”

  Yes, she would agree strongly with the call to approach the Alliance for help. She had been quiet for the first couple of sunarounds, when it had appeared the Alliance was ignoring them and letting the Kron have their way, but since PASS had started setting up bases to provide some humanitarian help at least, she had become a strong supporter of the idea that, as third-tier members of the Alliance, they had the right to ask for protection from their encroaching neighbor.

  He agreed with her—and with his father—on the need to get help from the Alliance, but he wasn’t so sure about her willingness—even eagerness—to be involved. The Council had required Jaraidans who had been off-world to make a special commitment to observe the “no unnecessary contact” rule. She had almost violated it by talking to the PASS agent who was present when Taasi had been hurt, but her argument that she had come to care for her ward and that when she discovered that the agent was ignorant of some of the issues with Alliance medicine she had felt it “necessary” to inform him. Officially, the incident had ended there, but it had led to Taasi wanting to intern with PASS.

  “Is Taasi still pestering you about an internship with PASS?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she replied. “Pretty regularly, in fact. I have an idea, but I have to work out some of the details. She’ll be 20 sunarounds shortly, and that will give me a bit more freedom to allow it.”

  “The Manandis won’t object?”

  She gave one of her characteristic half-shrugs, lifting only one shoulder slightly while tilting her head slightly towards it.

  “I can’t be sure. Her grandfather is usually reasonable.”

  *****

  Taasi was assisting at the infirmary, partly because it was necessary for someone to be with Niagmo when all the adults had other tasks, and partly to give her something to do besides the gardening and food prepping that she hated. There was only a limited need for her to carry produce from one stonework to another, and it was better to have her occupied with something more interesting than, as she put it, “watching the parsho drip.” The escapade that had led to her meeting with the PASS agent could have ended much worse than it had. No place was safe these days, but she was safer in the infirmary than running around alone.

  He liked Taasi, whom he’d pretty much watched grow up in the past four sunarounds. She was good with Niagmo—not letting him get away with things without acting like an authority figure he would have resented. She made herself useful in other ways too.

  She had learned to work with the intake computer easily. As an empath, she was good at making patients feel comfortable until a healer could get to them. She was beginning to show her father’s gift for communicating easily with strangers, though she was still a bit awkward.

  Her telepathy was also valuable when all the others with her level of ability were busy healing patients. He was pleased that in spite of not having the healing gift, she was interested in how to tend patients and assist the healers. She was picking up important bits of medical knowledge that could come in useful in an emergency. I should teach her how to set bones, he thought wrily.

  North Daásin includes two important cities which, to the relief of Jaraidans, the Kron don't seem to have paid much attention to. Karbana is dominated by educational institutions. Enachar is the site of one of the major temples of the Jaraidan religion, and also has colleges to teach psions how to use--and control--their specialized gifts.