“Oh really?” Kat said politely, glad she could understand what was being said. She’d forgotten all about the convo-pillar still stuck in her ear until Mother L’rin had started speaking. Deep, of course, had wanted her to take it out. He’d said he or Lock could translate for her, but Kat had refused and demanded to speak to the healer alone.
She wanted to be able to talk confidentially with the old woman the twins said had saved her life. There were things she wanted to say and questions she wanted to ask that she didn’t feel comfortable having Deep and Lock hear. Besides, she was dying to get away from their suffocating emotions. After the fight she’d had with them, riding in the tiny shuttle car all the way to the Healing Gardens had been like breathing in choking lungfulls of second hand smoke. Putting some distance between herself and the two brothers was a breath of fresh air.
Now she was sitting in a lovely little meadow with flowering bushes all around and a golden stream tinkling musically to one side and she felt much calmer. She didn’t know where Deep and Lock had gone—she just hoped they stayed away for a good long while.
“Very ill, you were. Nearly dead, mm-hmm.” The old woman nodded wisely and Kat nodded back. The convo-pillar seemed to be working much better today, though it did kind of make Mother L’rin sound like Yoda.
“Deep and Lock say you saved my life,” she said. “I wanted to thank you for that.”
“Healing my profession is. Necessary thanks are not.”
“Uh, okay.” Kat nodded uncertainly. “They also say you told them to form a soul bond with me—whatever that is.”
“Half of a true bond, a soul bond is—the joining of three spirits as one.”
“And the other half is the physical bond? When you…?” Kat trailed off, blushing.
“Have sex that is bonding,” Mother L’rin finished for her, eyeing her sharply. “But this you have not done.”
“No, of course not,” Kat blurted. “Look, I never meant to get involved with Lock and Deep in the first place and now everything is all messed up and my whole life feels out of control! I can feel their emotions filling me up until I think I’m drowning. Can you help me block them? Lock said you might be able to.”
Mother L’rin shook her head. “Only with a full bond is mind privacy possible.”
Kat’s heart sank. “So you’re saying in order to have any kind of peace I’d have to tie myself to them for life?”
The wise woman nodded solemnly. “Bonded to them you must be.”
“But I can’t be. I don’t want to be,” Kat protested.
“Until you are, weak you will be.” Mother L’rin poked a finger at her. “The pain…return it will.”
“It will?” Kat felt sick. Come to think of it, she hadn’t felt anything like the symptoms she’d had while she was aboard the Mother ship since she woke up. But just the thought of enduring that splitting headache again was hideous.
“You must touch them—one at least. Both is better.” Mother L’rin nodded sagely. “As greater your weakness grows, the more deeply must you touch.”
“You mean like a…” Kat cleared her throat. “Like a sexual touch?”
“Yes, yes.” Mother L’rin nodded vigorously. “The bond it strengthens. Your pain will ease.”
“But I don’t want to be bonded to them,” Kat said, feeling like a broken record. “I mean, Lock is really sweet and I like him a lot but Deep is so angry all the time—”
“Much loss has Deep suffered,” Mother L’rin interrupted her. “Took your pain he did.”
“What?” Kat stared at her, confused. “You mean the headaches and dizziness I was having?”
“Yes,” Mother L’rin said simply.
Kat was still confused. “How could Deep take my headaches away?” The sharp, stabbing ache behind her eyes had been intensely painful but she couldn’t imagine how it could have been transferred to another person.
“Show you, I will.” Mother L’rin raised her voice. “Doby! The whip.”
There was a rustling in the nearby bushes and a giant with pink mottled skin appeared. He was taller than a professional basketball player and about three times as broad. His loincloth was made of large, flat leaves and he carried a green wooden box carefully in his huge hands. For some reason he looked familiar to Kat. That’s silly. How can a nine foot tall giant in a leaf loincloth look familiar? But she couldn’t shake the feeling and the sight of him made her vaguely uneasy.
“Here I have it, Mother,” he said in a high, almost feminine voice.