The Seeker - Isobelle Carmody [151]
There were books on every conceivable subject. Books on machines that carried men and women over land, over sea, and even up to the stars. The more I read, the more I understood that the old world really had passed away forever. So much had changed; so much knowledge lost that could never be regained. The teknoguilders’ fascination with the past suddenly struck me anew as pointless. The future was what really mattered. And perhaps the past was better lost, if it had led the Beforetimers to the Great White.
“It is such a waste,” Pavo lamented, wrapping books in waxed cloth to be carried by Jik to the foot of the stairs. “Now that we have broken the seal, the books will decay quickly. You must tell Garth to send another expedition soon, before they are lost to us.” I felt a chill at Pavo’s calm acceptance that he would not be there to do the telling.
I was about to turn into another aisle when my gaze fell upon a particular title.
Powers of the Mind.
I stared at the book as if it had eyes and might stare back. Breathing fast, I took it down. I let it fall open where it wanted, then struggled to read the tiny script.
Every mind possesses innate abilities beyond the five known senses. For most people, these abilities remain hidden and untapped. Sometimes, they are used accidentally or imperfectly and called hunches, insight, or inspired guesswork.
Even those who have demonstrated these mental abilities, or extrasensory perceptions, are barely touching the edge of their true potential. It would take some immense catalyst to break through the mind’s barriers and allow men and women to use and develop that hidden portion of their minds …
I felt hot and faint, for what could it mean but that the Oldtimers had speculated about Talents? I trembled at the revolutionary idea that the powers we had always imagined to be caused by the Great White might have existed before the holocaust—that they were not mutations but some natural development of the mind.
I flicked a few more pages and read.
For time eternal, some men and women have exhibited flashes of future knowledge and been called fey. But who is to say they are not simply the forerunners of some evolutionary movement, destined to be scapegoats and ridiculed, tormented and even killed for their strangeness, until the rest of the human race catches up.…
My eyes flew down the page. Flicking back and forth feverishly, I found the book mentioned many of the abilities I knew to be real and even some I had not encountered.
My head ached with the tremendous feeling of having made a discovery that might well change our future. If the Council saw such a book, they would have to admit Misfits were not mutations. But the Council called such books evil and burned them.
And the discovery might only make things worse for us; if our kind was the future and not some freakish sideline, what were ordinary people but a dying breed?
I shivered and read on more soberly.
The Reichler Clinic has conducted a progressive and serious examination of mental powers and has produced infallible proofs that telepathy and precognitive powers are the future for mankind. Reichler’s experiments have taken mind powers out of the realms of fantasy and set them firmly in the probable future.
I shivered again, knowing in my deepest heart that the truths contained in the book would not make us more accepted.
“Elspeth?” Jik asked. I started, instinctively closing the book. “Are you all right?” he asked curiously.
I nodded. “What is it?”
“It’s Reuvan. I was taking books to the stairs, and I heard him call out,” Jik said.
I bit my lip, slipping the book into my pocket and cursing the unyielding tainted earth that would not let me reach Avra mentally. Then I told myself to be glad the taint was not lethally strong, as in the Blacklands. I left Pavo to his books and returned to the stairs, climbing up to poke my head aboveground. It was nearly dawn, and pink light showed faintly in the east. I sent a query to Avra.
“He has gone,” the mare sent