Ten

I gave the order for you to be placed in custody, Sarona repeated serenely, ignoring Maddie's outburst. I am sorry that you suffered, but it would have been far worse had you been allowed to roam freely.

A deep, throbbing pain was building above my right eye. Calm yourself, I told myself slowly. I could not afford to become angry here. It would only delay my comprehension of this absurd situation. Better to let Sarona explain herself and process her thoughts. Better to feel nothing. But Luciana's face shimmered into view behind my closed eyelids, and then I heard the shattering of glass and its music as the pieces rained over the floor. Maddie gasped and grabbed my hand, and I opened my eyes. She was pulling thin shards of what had once been a perfectly good goblet from my fingers and palm. The sting of it helped to draw the focus away from my sister's image.

Luciana is as you always believed her to be, Angelface, Sarona assured me. She is waiting for you even now. Remember that her life hangs in the balance with ours, and depends on the success of this mission.

"Tell me what I want to know," I said through gritted teeth. Why was it so difficult to control my emotions? And my head…it was pounding. I brought my uninjured hand to my brow and massaged it.

Controlling your thoughts and emotions will be difficult for you, now. The drugs administered to you in prison kept your mind clear and suppressed certain…talents with which you were born.

Maddie was still intent on my hand, and Riddick had removed his goggles and was staring at me as though trying to read me. It occurred to me then that Sarona addressed me, alone.

"Hey, Angelface," Riddick said, a warning note in his voice. "Get it together."

"I am," I answered, uncertain of whether I would want him to know what she had to say. He nodded once, and continued to watch me carefully. It had been his way of showing his concern. That struck a strange chord in the region just above my stomach. Did he honestly care? If that was the case, then…then…ugh, my head. Enough of this.

Tell me everything, I thought to Sarona. Tell me why I've had the dreams. Why I was imprisoned. Why I have to be the one to destroy the ship.

She bowed her head. Very well. This will not be easy for you to take in. We would have preferred that you learn it gradually, but I suppose we are running out of time. When you were very young, you were found on a planet called Tsuramm. It was inhabited by a benevolent race of beings, and one of these took you in and cared for you as her own child. You loved each other beyond words, and she could sense that you were special. You could predict events which had not yet happened, see into the minds and hearts of others, and move objects with only your mind. Your ability to transfer some of your own life force into others saved your adoptive mother's sister from death. All of these things manifested themselves within you before you were five years old. But then, disaster. Your small family was looked upon with a mixture of awe and fear, and one day, someone acted. She waited until you were both asleep, then set your home on fire. Your adoptive mother pulled you out of the fire, and you did not wake, because of the smoke in your lungs. Not until other rescuers came. By then, your mother had died of her burns and the inhalation of the smoke. When you woke, you were gripped with such fury and agony that your mind could not contain it. In a matter of seconds…

Every living thing on the entire planet was dead.

Yes, Angelface. Please understand, we tried to erase the memory for your own good. But your memory of the fire was so strong that we could not undo it. We had to attach fire to a new memory, a created one which you give you gratification and explained your place in prison. We arranged to give you the drugs in order to prevent you from accessing your talents. There was no other place we could keep you on the drug than Goliath. You have been there since shortly after you were discovered, starving to death, on Tsuramm by traders.

My mind would not allow me to touch the idea that I had wiped out an entire world. I had to push past it, for now. There was so much to be done, and I could not afford to think about such a terrible thing. "Luciana's memory was modified, too, to match the story, wasn't it? Does she have what I have?"

It was. We knew you needed someone to give you love and support, and to keep you from becoming a monster. Luciana, however, does not have your gifts. She is not your blood-kin. But what does blood matter? You love each other as sisters, and so sisters you are.

"Where did I come from?" I asked, ignoring Riddick's and Maddie's curious gazes.

A place called Oververse. While Underverse is a place of death available only to those of the Necromonger faith, Oververse is the birthplace of the spirit, and everyone can be said to have come from Oververse, though never physically—until you. Because you are a child of Oververse, you carry the power of creation and understanding within you, but also that of destruction and deceit, for one cannot have one without the other. What are you? Who can say? It does not even truly matter. When you were a child on Tsuramm, you were given a name. That has been forgotten, because your mother always fondly called you "angel", and you never learned your given name. You are now free to make your own name.

Angel. I felt the pain in my head ebbing slowly away as what Sarona said began to sink in. I now understood why I had been so analytical and perceptive in the past; when a man loses his sight, he begins to rely on other senses, which grow stronger. So it was with my mind. I could not deny the truth of what Sarona had told me, as much as I wanted to. It was possible, of course, that Sarona had reached into my mind and pulled out the images of the dreams, and then fabricated a story to match them—but to what end?

"Who is Mr. X, and is Luciana truly in danger?" I asked.

I had begun to get a sense of the meanings of the telepaths' facial expressions, and Sarona truly looked uncomfortable, now.

"Stop cutting us out," Maddie demanded. "I want to know what's being said."

Very well. Mr. X is the only producer of the drug which controls your abilities and keeps you sane. But not even I know who he is, or where to find him.

"Bullshit," Maddie said, cutting the air with her hand. "You're supposed to be omnipotent, or omnipresent, or whatever—"

"Omniscient," I said gently.

"Angel, this is not the time."

Angel. My adoptive mother had called me her angel. For one absurd moment, all I could think of was that I was glad I hadn't killed her. But…had I not been indirectly responsible for her death? No. No, that was wrong. Related, yes, but not responsible. We are not responsible for the actions of others. I had told Luciana that very thing many times in the past…hadn't I?

"I can find him without their help, Maddie," I said, shaking my head. "I intend to take Luciana from him if he truly does hold her, and I—I want those drugs back. Now, Sarona…what happens now?"

Now you will slowly regain the use of your talents. The first thing to reappear is the gift of foretelling. Next will come empathy, and a degree of telepathy. Then, telekinesis. And finally, the power to destroy life utterly with only a thought.

"What the…w-what the fuck?"

"I've gotta go with the old lady on this one," Riddick rumbled. "You've got a hell of a lot of explaining to do before we put our necks on the line. I'm not going in there blind."

If the timing is right, you should return here before your final abilities manifest themselves. It is a terrible risk to let you run free, but it is one we must take. A force from Oververse will cancel out those from Underverse. You can make the crossover and survive, unchanged. That is why you must go. But first, we must teach you to control your new mind.

Riddick's blades were at Sarona's throat before anyone had noticed that he had moved. He brought his face very close to hers and remained absolutely still. He said nothing, but I knew they must be communicating. To my great surprise, Sarona actually smiled. Riddick smirked and released her. I wondered what had passed between them; he the animal, she the intellectual. On some level, they had reached an understanding—that much was clear.

"Does that mean you agree to go, Riddick?" I asked him, standing up.

He moved toward me. "You've got guts. It'll get you killed someday. You've also got the only ship on the planet." He paused, leaning forward. "I could take it from you if I wanted to. Drag you to the door, put your hand on it, and take off without you."

"But you won't," I murmured confidently into his ear, "because you know you need me. An animal's most basic instinct is survival. And you want to live, Richard Riddick."

He crossed his arms. "Mm." He shook his head at me with a grim chuckle and turned away, but I caught him by the shoulder and steered him back to me. On a whim, I smiled and added, "And also…because of what Sarona said to you a few moments ago."

That seemed to strike a note. He almost flinched. I could see the cords of his neck—sternocleidomastoid left and right—tighten momentarily. "That so?" He had lowered his voice to a purr. "You think you know what she said?"

Behind us, Maddie suddenly looked at Sarona, and the two of them stood and exited the room, Maddie staring over her shoulder as she went. We were alone. For a brief moment, I wondered if it had been wise to bluff when I knew he would call it. I really, really wanted those drugs back. How could I read him now, the way I had so easily read Maya Umplett? His face told me so little. He seemed to have mastered the art of stillness.

"I'm not telepathic yet," I answered wryly. "But I do know that for now, you and she are at an impasse. You and I are, as well."

"No, you and me are somewhere else, Angelface. Protecting your ass isn't the only job I'm here to do. I'm not even here to let you use my brain for a map. I know you think these telepaths are on your side, but they're not."

"Of course they're not," I said, not without a note of weariness in my voice. "They're on their own side, the side of survival. They want to live, too. I'm a means to that end. So are you. So is Maddie."

"That's right. You know what's at stake." He cocked his head and brought his face closer to mine. "So what wouldn't you be willing to do to make somebody do what you wanted?"

"You think she's lying?"

"Just tellin' half-truths. Tell somebody something with just enough truth to it, and you can sell it to 'em easy. Especially somebody looking everywhere for something stable to hold on to."

"So what are you saying?"

Riddick shrugged. "Just don't believe everything these people tell you. The old lady said you were a real good reader back in the slam. Now that you're clean, you can't do it anymore. Makes you vulnerable. I think Sarona's tellin' the truth about you and your background. But that stuff about Mr. X? Bullshit. She knows where he is. She just doesn't want you going back and getting those drugs. You better believe that once all this is done, they're never gonna let you go. This'll be your new slam, for the rest of your life."

Of course….

"Mr. X told you to bring me here, but no one has ever heard of this place. It's not in any of the star-charts. But Mr. X gave you perfect coordinates. No one who knew anything about my past would want to lose me," I murmured in horror, "which means that Mr. X must answer to someone here. The drugs must be here. They couldn't possibly know what state I would be in when we reached this place. I could've easily wiped out the whole planet just like…last time. So they would keep them on hand." I began pacing restlessly. If only I could make my mind work properly! If ever there was a situation requiring proper analysis, it was surely this one! "And they'll need them when I come back—my bet is that Mr. X will hack the ship again and force us here. We need to—"

Riddick placed a finger over my lips. "Stop thinking. Don't talk. Don't think about anything except for breathing and listen to what I say. You don't need drugs; you need me. We're on a planet of telepaths. Making plans isn't going to work if they all know what we're thinking. They want to train you to be like them. A brainiac, a thinker, the way you were, but worse. But I'm gonna teach you what I do best. How to be an animal. Telepaths can't read instincts. But soon, you're gonna be able to feel them. No planning, no strategy. Just act. That's how we beat this. They probably already know we're gonna try something, but they don't know what, because we don't, either. But when the time comes, you just follow me."

"Why do you care?" I murmured against his finger.

"I've got my reasons."

"Naturally."

He moved his finger and put it under my chin. "Natural is the name of the game. Your training starts right now. You need to rely on all your senses and move with 'em, the way I do. I look at you. You're beautiful, and you've got a beautiful voice. But not just that. You smell beautiful, you feel beautiful, and you taste beautiful. I want you, Angelface, and I know you want me. That's not something I have to think about. It's instinct. So. Lesson one."

I felt his hands close over my waist, and as he lifted me into the air, his moonstone eyes swallowed me whole.