Rhiannon - Dragonrider

Chapter Eighteen - Mind Grip

When I woke up, the next morning, there was a watery light filtering in round the edge of the roof so I knew it was still early. I tried to get back to sleep but the bed was hard and uncomfy. I didn't want to disturb the others with my tossing and turning so I got up and made my way down into the quad.

I drank a bit of water and then, because my muscles were totally stiff, I tried to copy the stretching things my dad did when he'd been out running. Stretch out those aching muscles to the point of pain... hold... hold... then release. I was leaning against a wall, stretching out my calf muscles, when I worked out that this would be a good time to practice my brain stretching exercises too. So I started pulling together my protective tower thing.

In the cool, fresh air of the morning, I felt calm and relaxed for pretty much the first time since I'd been on the island. And, with the whole calmness thing, I knew I was being much quieter than I'd ever managed before... and the tower was looking much more solid too.

I gently jogged round the quad for a couple of laps. I mean... my legs grumbled at first but then they sort of loosened up as the blood started to flow. Then I relaxed again and leaned over to stretch my back, kind of reaching down to touch my toes. I saw a pebble on the ground and tried to reach down to it with my mind.

And here, with the whole calm thing I had going on, I could, at least, control the thing's height to within a couple of inches,

Mind you, it was still trembling and jittering in the air as if it was alive.

Suddenly I felt eyes on the back of my neck so, without letting go of my pebble, I kind of reached out behind me with my mind and wasn't surprised to find Zalibar was there. I carefully brushed past the solid fortress round his mind... close enough to sort of say, 'Good morning'... but plenty far enough away to make it clear I wasn't trying to probe him in any way.

He gave me this slight mental nod thing by way of an answer.

I plucked the pebble out of the air then turned to see he was standing at an upper window of the Master's Lodge, looking down on me with a piercing stare. So I dropped the pebble into my pocket and walked back up to our dorm.

Carodoc was just waking up.

"Thanks for covering for me last night," I said to him, keen to stay in his good books. "I owe you for that."

"That's okay," he replied with a smile. "You were good for nothing anyway. It'd have been more trouble than it was worth trying to get anything out of you. This way, at least, you've got a chance of getting through today."

"Geraint and Bryn," he called across to two of the tyros who were slowly waking up, "you two've got house duty. Get going now or the nonda'll have no hot water when they wake up and they won't be happy."

"Jenko and Olwyn, I want you to go down and check up on the practice kit. I wouldn't be surprised if Zalibar wanted to pop in to take a look, so make sure you do it properly.

"Katie, you and me have got the nags this morning. Let's go!"

"Okay," he said as we made our way carefully down the stairs. "If you make a start on drawing water, I'll go and get the yoke. You might as well fill the troughs up whilst you're about it."

I went over to the well in the corner of the quad by the kitchen. There were two troughs, one for the nags and one for the people. I started hauling up buckets of water and emptying them into the troughs. Soon Carodoc returned with the yoke thing: a couple of buckets dangling from a bit of wood that went over your shoulders. He filled the buckets and started lugging them across to the mews.