"Are you-are you all right?" Jedra asked him.

"It clawed me on the leg," Kitarak said, limping slightly and using his gythka for support as he stepped toward them.

"No, I mean the light."

Kitarak clicked his mandibles together. "Ah, yes, that." He ducked his head. "It's ah... it's... I'm fine."

"You're glowing blue," Kayan said. "How can that be fine?"

Kitarak looked back at the crater with the lizard at the bottom of it, then at Kayan again. "I am radiating the energy from your blow," he said. "It will fade soon."

"You what? How can you do that?"

Kitarak held his hands out in a four-armed shrug. "Ah... psionics," he admitted.

Jedra and Kayan looked at one another. Psionics? Jedra mindsent. I thought he didn't like psionics.

"No, it's magic I disdain," Kitarak said. "Psionics follows the rules of tinkercraft." "You-you heard that?"

"All right," Kayan said, bending down to examine his leg. Its glow bathed her face in blue light. "We'll see if it works."

"Wait a minute," said Jedra. "Did he say something to you?"

She looked up toward him. "Yes, didn't you hear it?" "No. But you-" he spoke to Kitarak "-you hear whatever we say to each other?"

"Yes," the tohr-kreen admitted.

"You've been listening to us all along?"

Kitarak clicked his mandibles, then said, " 'Don't let him know we can communicate without speaking. Or mind-merge. We may need the advantage if he's not what he seems.'"

Jedra balled his fists angrily. "You... you lied to us!" Kitarak ignored his threatening posture. "I most definitely did not. You never asked if I knew psionics, and I chose not to tell you. I figured I might need the advantage."

Jedra didn't know what to say to that. While he fumed silently, Kayan bent over Kitarak's injured leg and passed her hand along the deep gouge the lizard had made in his hard exoskeleton. The blue glow made the bones of her hand show up like dark shadows beneath her skin. "I don't know if there's much I can do here," she said. "I can heal the tissue damage underneath, but most of the surface isn't alive in the first place. I can't heal that. Your leg will still be weak where it's been clawed."

"That will heal on its own, in time," Kitarak said. "In the meantime, I will simply be careful with it. Repairing the inner damage will be fine for now."

Kayan nodded.

"What was that thing that attacked us?" Jedra asked while she worked. "Another one of your little tests?"

Kitarak leaned back on his arms. "If it had been a test, I would not have been careless enough to let it reach me.

No, the tokamak was a surprise to me as well. I was too engrossed in repairing the jernan to notice its approach."

"Tokamak?" Jedra asked. "I haven't heard the name before."

"That's the tohr-kreen name for them. I have heard your kind call them id fiends. They project fear at their prey, so you find yourself tormented by whatever you are most afraid of."

"I kept seeing Kayan getting hurt," Jedra said. "That's why I couldn't hit it; Kayan was always right there."

She looked up at him. "With me it was agony beetles. They were crawling all over me, going for my back so they could tap into my spinal cord and burn out my nerves."

That would explain her frantic slapping. Jedra looked to Kitarak, who merely said, "Tinkercraft. Magically animated tinkercraft. I was able to see through most of the effect, but even I couldn't block it entirely."

" 'Even I'?" Jedra asked. "What do you mean by that? Who are you, anyway?"

"I am Kitarak," Kitarak said. "Tohr-kreen noble of the House of Antarak." He paused. "And psionics master."

"Psionics master?" Jedra sat down heavily. "You knew all this time that we were looking for someone like you, and you didn't say anything?"

"Seek and ye shall find," Kitarak said. "You made a false assumption when you met me. I looked powerless and helpless, so you assumed I was. I allowed the deception to continue, for it gave me opportunity to study you."

"You weren't dehydrated?" Kayan asked. "I checked you psionically. You certainly seemed dehydrated."

Kitarak clicked again. Definitely laughter. "I can seem many things> when I choose to. Including disinterested. But in truth, I am very interested in you, and have been ever since I detected your presence over Tyr. Yours is the strongest manifestation of psionic synergy I have ever encountered."

"You knew about us?"

"Oh, yes. I make it my business to be aware of the major psionic talents in the region. In fact, as soon as I noticed you I intentionally put myself in your path so I could meet you."

Kayan bent back to her work on his leg, but Jedra said, "How did you know where we were going? We didn't even know ourselves that we would go north."

"You?"

"Of course me. I drew your attention with a flash of light while you were searching for an oasis. I projected the image of the city for you to see when you came to investigate the light. And I planted an attraction in your mind so you would be sure to come, even though it may not have felt like the logical thing to do."

Jedra couldn't believe what he was hearing. Going to investigate the city hadn't been his idea? Sure it had seemed a little reckless, but there hadn't really been any other choice, had there? Kayan had thought so, but she had finally agreed with him to try it. Of course she had probably been under the tohr-kreen's influence as well.

"Why did you lure us to an abandoned city?" he asked.

Kitarak looked away. Softly, he said, "I might have had to kill you. And strong as you were, it might have been dangerous to innocent bystanders."

"Oh." Jedra focused on Kitarak with all his ability, trying to see through the surface to the psionics master's true intentions, but he still felt no threat. He had trusted that impression before, but now he wasn't sure what to believe. It sounded like Kitarak could project whatever he wanted Jedra to receive, no matter what his real thoughts were.

Don't worry, Kitarak mindsent to him. If I had wished to do you harm, I would have done so long since.

Well, that's a relief, Jedra sent back, hoping the sarcasm would translate as well.

Evidently it did. Kitarak said, You have an interesting attitude for one so naive. It's a wonder that hasn't gotten you killed by now.

What attitude? Jedra asked, but Kitarak merely clicked his mouthparts in laughter for reply.

His blue glow had begun to fade already, especially along his leg where Kayan practiced her healing power. Evidently she was using some of the energy for her work. The glow had nearly disappeared from his entire lower leg when she leaned back and said, "That's as good as I can make it. How does it feel?"

"Good as new," Kitarak said. He stood up and tried his weight on it. "Ah, yes, I can still feel the weakness in the chitin. Hmm. I'm not sure I want to travel on it, especially with the added weight of my pack."

"Maybe we can splint it," Kayan said.

Kitarak weaved his head from side to side. "There is a better way... provided you're willing to accept me as the mentor you've been searching for."

Kayan looked to Jedra. What do you think? she asked.

I think it's pointless to mindspeak around him, Jedra replied.

"All right, then, what do you think-out loud?"

Jedra wasn't sure what he thought. Kitarak obviously knew his stuff, but...

"I don't know," he said. "It'd be hard to trust someone who started out manipulating and deceiving us."

Kitarak made a chittering sound. "Think of it as your first lesson: Don't let your initial impression blind you to hidden possibilities."

"That may be good advice," replied Jedra, "but the best lesson I ever learned on the streets was to never make the same mistake twice. I'm just trying to decide whether or not trusting you was a mistake the first time I did it."