Jak volunteered to stand watch.
Ryan couldn’t summon up the strength or the inclination to respond, and he didn’t awaken until Krysty shook him. The others were all waking, sitting up, rubbing bleared eyes, looking around.
The same girl as before brought them food, placed it on the table and silently left. Breakfast was the same simple fare as supper, but instead of fruit juice, the jar contained a strong yet stimulating tea, probably boiled from bark. It was more palatable than the similar tea in Amicus.
As they finished eating, the burly Little Mountain came in and gestured curtly. ” Okihe .”
“Where’s Joe?” Ryan demanded.
Little Mountain shrugged and gestured again, repeating impatiently, ” Okihe . Follow.”
Obviously Joe had taught him only that one English word to speak to the outlanders.
The six people made sure their weapons were primed and loaded and walked out of the room after the big-shouldered warrior. They went through a curving wooden corridor that opened up on a small room.
The chamber’s walls were lined with clusters of crystal formations. Light swirled, sparkled and danced from the countless points and facets. The shades of color were variegated, shifting from light blue to a deeper amethyst to purplish tints.
Ryan was impressed by the chamber’s beauty, but he was surprised to see that the mineral clusters conformed perfectly to the circular dimensions of the room, as if they had been grown by design.
In the center of the chamber, secured by a heavy, braided length of rawhide affixed to a wooden staple in the floor, crouched Blood-sniffer. Joe stood in front of the wolf, glaring down at the imprisoned beast. In one hand he held the wafer of gold, pressing it to his forehead.
“Guess he’s talking wolf,” Jak said, an edge of doubt in his voice.
Joe heard, lowered the wafer and strode toward them, his expression impatient and irritated. “That is exactly what I’m doing. You outlanders have much to learn about the ways of Ti-Ra’-Wa.”
“That is quite the understatement,” Doc said, jauntily angling his cane over a shoulder. “Perhaps you’ll be so good as to educate us.”
“During the early epochs of my culture,” Joe replied stiffly, “the vast caverns wherein crystals grew were adapted as healing and communication chambers. Our forefathers knew how to tap the energy within them.”
Lifting the wafer of gold, he continued, “When combined with gold or silver, my people learned the art of sending telepathic messages, using the Inyan Wakan, the Holy Stones, as receivers. Last night you all saw me call to Little Mountain for help. He stood in this room and was able to receive my thoughts at a distance.”
“You can read minds with your little doodads?” J.B. asked, cocking a doubtful eyebrow.
“No. These ‘senders’ were created by the First People, who taught our forefathers to use them to communicate, one mind to another, not to use them to invade another’s mind. Individual thoughts cannot be detected unless the mind is consciously prepared to receive or to send.”
Looking at the disbelieving faces, Joe waved at the shimmering facets and points on the walls of the room. “Come into this room, then you will understand.”
No one moved.
Smiling sardonically, Joe said, “It won’t hurt you.”
A little hesitantly they entered the mineral-lined chamber. Joe directed each of them to find a crystal point and to stand before it, touching it with a hand. Tentatively they followed his instructions, hands pressed to the crystals.
The mineral structure was warm, not cool as Ryan had expected it. He experienced a not-unpleasant pins-and-needles tingling that spread up his fingers, along his arm and then flowed all over his body.
Can you hear me?
Ryan began to answer Joe’s question, then he uttered a startled exclamation when he realized the Lakota hadn’t spoken the question.
“Dark night,” J.B. whispered in shock, jerking his hand from the wall as though he had been scalded.
All of them reacted with various degrees of surprise to the words in their minds. Only Krysty appeared unmoved, as if she had expected something of the sort. Joe was pressing the metal rectangle against his forehead and smiling a cold, superior smile.