In The Beginning, Gail Daley [red white royal blue .TXT] 📗

had gotten warm. They tumbled into bed and fell immediately asleep, already comforted by the others presence.

The clan stayed three more days at Glass Manor while the new immigrants were sorted into their various new professions and everyone worked at becoming better acquainted with their new spouses. Both Katherine and Corrine were a little too pre-occupied with their new wifely duties and Genevieve too busy, to notice that Drusilla was spending a great deal of time with Lucas. Partly it was the fact he took every excuse to seek her company and she didn’t object; he was young, good looking and the first man her age to pay her the attention a man pays to an attractive woman.

Drusilla, Lucas and Jayla traveled back and forth to Port Recovery several times to make sure the materials and supplies brought in by the Dancing Gryphon were loaded on to the barges. She also met with Captain Heidelberg about the trade goods he was taking with him from Vensoog. Lucas stuck closely to her side, but Jayla soon became bored with the negotiations and Drusilla saw no harm in letting the girl explore the shops around the spaceport.

Rolling On The River

ON THE THIRD day after the Handfasting Ceremonies, except for Glass Manor’s permanent staff of caretakers, the assembled clan packed up onto five paddlewheel barges and floated down the river toward Glass Isle. The paddlewheel boats had three decks, two above water and one below to hold cargo. The top deck was the ships control center. On the Second deck were crew and passenger cabins. To the front of the boat was a raised platform used as the Dragon Talker station. An outside rail ran the entire length and width of the boat, with a gate opening on the Port side to let down a ramp for loading cargo and passengers.

Katherine and her family sat on the second deck of the lead boat, the Riverwitch. The large paddle wheel boats laden with a burden of cargo and people, moved ponderously through the crowded waterway between the chain of islands. On the banks of the channel, an occasional family of Nessies could be seen feeding on the lush reeds and grasses growing along the banks of the channel.

"Why do they call them Nessies?" Rupert asked. "I thought they were Water Dragons."

"Well, when the colonists first saw them, they named them Water Dragons because someone thought they looked like a dragon. A little later, someone else thought they looked like the Loch Ness Monster and called them Nessies. They couldn’t agree, so now we use both names," Katherine responded. The creatures in question did look like a cross between the two mythical beasts. They were huge, each of them at least the size of the boat and had a long neck to allow them to reach down into the water for food. The head might have resembled that of a horse with backwards facing ears if not for the oversized mouth. They were also covered in what looked like scales, but was actually a hard, semi glossy skin plate resembling a very thick fingernail. Like several other Vensoog animals, they could change color to adapt to their surroundings. As they watched, a young male slid off the bank and into the water, his rippling hide changing to a mottled green. Feeling full of himself, he floated toward the larger boats whistling a challenge and intent on showing off for the females watching from shore. In the prow, Drusilla and the other Dragon Talker focused their talent on the intruder and pushed, causing him to veer off to the side of the boats. Drusilla remained in the prow, watching the others while the second Talker paced alongside the Dragon until she could hand him off to the next boat.

"Now that’s interesting," Gideon remarked. "Why did he turn aside?"

"That’s what a Dragon Talker does," Genevieve answered. "Drusilla used her talent to push at his emotions to make him not want to get too close to us."

"Is this part of the Vensoog psychic abilities I’ve heard so much about?" Zack inquired.

"Well, it’s a part of it," Katherine responded. "We don’t have telepathy but most of us can push a little bit to encourage animals to obey us. It takes a lot of power to affect the Dragons though, especially if a Talker is trying to move a whole herd."

"Can people be—what did you call it—pushed in the same way?" Gideon asked.

"Sometimes," Genevieve admitted. "If the person doing the pushing is very powerful it can affect humans, but most Vensoogers can feel when it happens. Largely humans seem to have a natural ability to resist a push, especially if you know it's happening."

Down in the front of the boat, Lucas was asking very much the same thing. "How did you do that?"

Remembering the conversation at the first meeting at Glass Castle, Drusilla told him the truth. "It’s called a Push," she said. "In our Clan, all children are tested and those with the highest EMPH rating are sent for training at the Dragon Talker Center."

"What is EMPH?"

"It’s a shortening of the word empathy."

"Is it hard? What you did, I mean?"

"Well, it can be. If you get too close to the Dragons it can overwhelm you."

He looked at her curiously "You mean too close physically?"

Drusilla laughed. "No, not that. When I reach out to push, I need to tune into the Dragon’s mind and emotions. If I’m reaching out to a lot of Dragons, their minds and emotions can overwhelm me, especially if they are angry or excited. Most Talkers who work with herds use a second Talker as an anchor. If the first Talker gets too emotionally involved, the second one can pull her back. It’s not so much of a danger if there is only one of them, like today."

The trip to Glass Isle took almost ten days. Even though each boat was crowded, there was a carnival atmosphere among the passengers. Many of the