Read Online Mind Over Psyche by Karina L. Fabian - Free Book Online

thing to normal I’ve got—and that’s not saying much.” He hoped Deryl would take that as the joke he’d intended and felt relieved when his friend gave him a sardonic grin. Deryl had come a long way since the beginning of the summer, when he couldn’t even say the word “crazy.” “You seemed pretty happy to be here until just a minute ago. So what happened?”
    â€œIt’s nothing,” he hedged, but Joshua pinned him with his stare until he added, “It’s just… The healers didn’t do anythin g for me.”
    â€œOh? What about y our hand?”
    Deryl looked at his hand as if remembering it for the first time. Rather than a nasty, scabbed cut, a narrow, jagged scar cut across his palm.
    â€œFine,” he acquiesced. “But what about the rest? I was out for almost a whole day thanks to Malachai’s ‘cocktail,’ and they never touched me. It’s like they were scar ed of me.”
    Joshua crossed his arms, considering. “T he drugs?”
    â€œI asked Tasmae. They know how to expel poisons.”
    He shrugged. “Then maybe they were afraid. You are t he Ydrel.”
    â€œSo?”
    â€œSo, up until a few weeks ago, our weeks, that is, the Ydrel was—as you put it—some kind of cross between an angel and a supercomputer, right? Now you suddenly appear on their world—acting very strangely, I might add. You kind of scared me back at SK-Mental even before you freaked out and took me hostage.”
    â€œYeah. I’m sorry about that.” Deryl studied the floor.
    â€œDon’t worry about it.” Joshua’s stomach growled loudly. “Know where we can get s ome food?”
    Again, Deryl led them down a twist of halls that Joshua couldn’t keep track of.
    â€œIs there any method to this architectural madness?” He finally c omplained.
    â€œThere are direct routes, if you know how to find them, and if the ‘mandrake’ as you call it, will let you in. I’m not sure I’m trusted, yet, so we’re taking the common public ways everywhere. Certain areas, like the healers’ den, are hard to get to on purpose, except when taking someone who’s seriously injured there—then a direct path opens up. Some places are hard to get out of. You can lead the enemy in, trap them, and collapse part of the building on them.”
    Joshua stopped to examine the walls suspiciously. “Really? That’s vicious.”
    Deryl shrugged. “It was Tasmae’s idea, not mine. I did tell you that the invaders tried to kill her in the last war? Well, that was how she destroyed the Traitor’s forces after they sneaked inside her city and killed her mentor and about half the people attending her installation ceremony. Let’s go. I’m hungry, too.” He hurr ied ahead.
    â€œRemind me not to get on Tasmae’s bad side,” Joshua muttered as he hastened to catch up. He shuddered against the feeling that the walls were going to come down on him out of sh eer spite.
    Soon, the hallways became a little wider and straighter. Just before a turn, Deryl stopped Joshua with his arm and paused with his ey es closed.
    â€œChecking your shields?” Josh asked. Deryl nodded. One of the first things Joshua had helped him learn to do at SK-Mental was to develop multiple layers of shields against the psychic impressions that bombarded his senses. Joshua wondered if he had a tougher time protecting himself here, where everyone had psychic abilities, or on Earth, where no one did but where uncontrolled thoughts projected themselves to Deryl. He filed the question away to ask when they had privacy, like maybe when they got back home.
    They crossed the hall and went through a larger than usual door which opened into a cafeteria. Like all the rooms they’d seen so far, this one lacked familiar angles and flat surfaces. Everyone ate sitting on cushions at low tables.