Foundation's Edge - Isaac Asimov [134]
"Apprehensive," muttered Gendibal.
"You look--concerned. Is that the word?"
"It depends. What do you mean by concerned, Novi?"
"I means you look as though you are saying to yourself, 'What am I going to do next in this great trouble?' "
Gendibal looked astonished. "That is 'concerned,' but do you see that in my face, Novi? Back in the Place of Scholars, I am extremely careful that no one should see anything in my face, but I did think that, alone in space--except for you--I could relax and let it sit around in its underwear, so to speak. --I'm sorry. That has embarrassed you. What I'm trying to say is that if you're so perceptive, I shall have to be more careful. Every once in a while I have to relearn the lesson that even nonmentalics can make shrewd guesses."
Novi looked blank. "I don't understand, Master."
"I'm talking to myself, Novi. Don't be concerned. --See, there's that word again."
"But is there danger?"
"There's a problem, Novi. I do not know what I shall find when I reach Sayshell--that is the place to which we are going. I may find myself in a situation of great difficulty."
"Does that mean danger?"
"No, because I will be able to handle it."
"How can you tell this?"
"Because I am a--scholar. And I am the best of them. There is nothing in the Galaxy I cannot handle."
"Master," and something very like agony twisted Novi's face, "I do not wish to offensify--I mean, give offense--and make you angry. I have seen you with that oafish Rufirant and you were in danger then--and he was only a Hamish farmer. Now I do not know what awaits you--and you do not, either."
Gendibal felt chagrined. "Are you afraid, Novi?"
"Not for myself, Master. I fear--I am afraid--for you."
"You can say, 'I fear,' " muttered Gendibal. "That is good Galactic, too."
For a moment he was engaged in thought. Then he looked up, took Sura Novi's rather coarse hands in his, and said, "Novi, I don't want you to fear anything. Let me explain. You know how you could tell there was--or rather might be--danger from the look on my face--almost as though you could read my thoughts?"
"Yes?"
"I can read thoughts better than you can. That is what scholars learn to do and I am a very good scholar."
Novi's eyes widened and her hand pulled loose from his. She seemed to be holding her breath. "You can read my thoughts?"
Gendibal held up a finger hurriedly. "I don't, Novi. I don't read your thoughts, except when I must. I do not read your thoughts."
(He knew that, in a practical sense, he was lying. It was impossible to be with Sura Novi and not understand the general tenor of some of her thoughts. One scarcely needed to be a Second Foundation for that. Gendibal felt himself to be on the edge of blushing. But even from a Hamish-woman, such an attitude was flattering. --And yet she had to be reassured--out of common humanity--)
He said, "I can also change the way people think. I can make people feel hurt. I can--"
But Novi was shaking her head. "How can you do all that, Master? Rufirant--"
"Forget Rufirant," said Gendibal testily. "I could have stopped him in a moment. I could have made him fall to the ground. I could have made all the Hamish--" He stopped suddenly and felt uneasily that he was boasting, that he was trying to impress this provincial woman. And she was shaking her head still.
"Master," she said, "you are trying to make me not afraid, but I am not afraid except for you, so there is no need. I know you are a great scholar and can make this ship fly through space where it seems to me that no person can do aught but--I mean, anything but--be lost. And you use machines I cannot understand--and that no Hamish person could understand. But you need not tell me of these powers of mind, which surely cannot be so, since all the things you say you could have done to Rufirant, you did not do, though you were in danger."
Gendibal pressed his lips together. Leave it at that, he thought. If the woman insists she is not afraid for herself, let it go at that. Yet he did not want her to think of him as a weakling and braggart. He simply did