The Seeker - Isobelle Carmody [29]
Catching my expression, the thin boy turned to his companion and poked him in the chest. “Can’t ye feel how uncomfortable she is, ye great gawk?” he asked him. He turned to me and said cheerfully, “Dinna worry about Dameon. He’s as blind as a bat.”
Horribly embarrassed, I was shamed to think of the icy look I had given him and was thankful he could not see me.
Dameon grinned apologetically. “I’m sorry if I seemed to stare,” he said disarmingly and held his hand out. Startled, I took his hand and wondered at his elegant manner and grace of speech.
“An’ I’m Matthew,” said the dark-haired boy. “An’ you’re Elspeth.”
I did not know what to say, for his knowledge of my name suggested he had made inquiries about me, yet he did not act like an informant.
“What were you both admiring?” Dameon asked, before I could decide how to respond.
Matthew answered. “We saw a Guanette bird, an’ ye know how rare those are. It came from near th’ maze. Queer to see one here, though. They dinna usually come down from the high mountains.”
The door to the inner courtyard opened, and a group of other Misfits arrived, most of them those who had come on the tour the day before. Ariel arrived last with Cameo in tow. He unlocked the maze door, then relocked it when we had gone through. As he took the lead, I moved to follow, but Matthew caught my arm and held me back until the others had passed. The twins went last, looking at us curiously. Furious, I shook Matthew’s hand off and followed them, wishing that I had completely ignored him as my instincts had warned. Did he not understand the danger in doing anything that drew attention?
We walked in silence for a bit; then Cameo began to chatter to Ariel. With her masking prattle, the twins began to talk in low, intense voices. Curiosity made me send out a probe. They were planning some sort of escape, so I withdrew smartly. I didn’t even want to think of escapes, intended or otherwise.
Matthew came to walk beside me, and I glared at him, determined to snub any further attempt at friendship—if that was what he wanted.
“Can you hear me?” asked a voice in my thoughts.
Shocked, I stumbled. Righting myself, I fought to calm my clamoring thoughts. I told myself sternly that I had imagined Matthew’s voice inside my mind, but now he reached out and put his hand on my arm. “I thought so,” he said quietly. “I sensed you ‘listening’ to the twins. But I suspected ye before that.” He was positively delighted.
I could only feel numb. Even surrounded by Misfits, I had never really thought there would be anybody else like me. “I … I don’t understand,” I said doggedly.
Matthew smiled again in an impish, knowing way. “I thought there was only me and me mam who could do it. Then for the last few sevendays, I began to feel like I did when me mam was about, and I started wonderin’ if there was another. I felt it during meals, an’ I was gannin’ through everyone, dippin’ into their minds to see if they could hear me. I couldn’t reach ye, though, for ye’ve a powerful shield. I realized the only way I would ken for sure was to catch ye in the act of farseeking. So I waited, and now I know, Elf.”
I shivered at the added proof of his intrusion into my mind, for how else could he have known Jes’s nickname for me?
“It is dangerous to talk of such things here,” I whispered, for I realized there was no point in pretending. It was too late to be cautious. But could he be trusted? I reached into his mind some little way, intending only to find out if there was any chance of betrayal. But before I could learn what I wanted to know, Matthew’s eyes narrowed, and I sensed a slight withdrawal in him.
“Interestin’,