Part 52 (2/2)

At night when she was alone in her tiny room, she cried for what she had lost. And tried to imagine her future.

Then one night, the old man who worked in the kitchen came into her room and asked her what was wrong.

She had tried to hide her thoughts from him. But even then he had gotten past her defenses, and she had ended up pouring out her heart to him.

He was alone, too. His wife and little girl had died in a raid on the school when adepts from White Flint tried to wipe out the next generation of gifted psychics.

Sensing that he was as wounded as she, she had reached out to him, trying to give him peace. And the two of them had comforted each other. Like a father and daughter might.

In their sadness, they had forged an indelible bond. If one of them was hurt or in trouble, the other would always know it and find them.

As he reached out to find her now, she recoiled. He was calling her out of the sky, calling her to the man she hated and feared most in this world or any other.

She faltered in the air. For a moment her wings were paralyzed and she felt herself falling toward the ground.

But she wasn't going to give up so easily. With a mighty effort, she wrenched herself away from Haig's pull.

Dizzy, hardly able to see, she flapped away, landing in a tree about fifty yards from the men on the ground, her talons digging into the rough bark as she struggled to keep herself from tumbling off the safe perch.

Haig raised his head and began to move again, walking steadily toward her.

She watched him, trying to read the expression on his face. Finally, she rose into the air, moving a hundred yards away, hiding herself in a thatch of leafy branches.

From her refuge, she peered out, sure that none of the men on the ground could see her.

But Haig didn't need to find her through his sense of sight. He stood very still, like a man listening to something. Then his body jerked as though a string were attached to his chest, and he started off in her direction again. As she watched his awkward movements, she knew Haig was using the tie between them to find her.

Why? Because Falcone had subverted him? Promised him freedom or great wealth? Or because Falcone had put a compulsion on Haig? Earlier, she had been sure it was a compulsion.

Now she honestly didn't know. But she was sure that her oldest and best friend would find her again, no matter how long it took. There was no way to hide from him, because the two of them were tied together.

He could find her. And if she got too far out of his range, he would go to the places where she had been recently.

Their bond would lead him to her-or her haunts.

She heard a sound of horror and frustration rise in her own throat. There was no way she could stop him, short of killing him. And she knew she would never be able to do that, no matter what he did to her. As a child she had loved him fiercely because he was the only person in the whole frightening school compound who had been totally on her side. Then they'd been on their own in the badlands, and the bond between them had only grown stronger.

So he could find her. And if he couldn't locate her, he would lead Falcone to Logan's house. Falcone would torture him, then kill Logan when he couldn't say where she was.

She knew that as well as she knew anything about the Iron Man of Sun Acres.

Which meant that she had to protect Logan.

But how?

A desperate plan formed in her mind, and she took off from the tree branch, heading back to Logan's house.

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