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warming his fingers long enough for the purple gemstone to catch Jebediah's eye and
remind him, if only on some deep, inner level, of the reason for this unequal sharing.
Then he brought that hand to the back of Jebediah's neck, to cup the already tilting head
in the fan of his fingers. Jebediah responded immediately to the familiar touch, breathing
out with a sigh and letting his head loll against Camber's hand, eyes fluttering dreamily as
he began to open to the contact. Camber let a little more of Alister's personality seep
through the bond being forged and felt Jebediah's consciousness stilling in further
response, no hint of suspicion yet fogging the clarity of that well-ordered mind.
"Let go now," Camber said softly, as much a thought as a whisper, as he stretched to the
furthest limits of revealment which he dared, using only Alister's memories.
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And to his amazement, Jebediah did let go, taking the sparseness of the Alister contact
for natural caution as his old friend explored the limits to which he might share and still
retain the security of his office.
Camber marveled at the naive trust, at the same time hating himself for having to betray
it. Gathering all his resources for one massive onslaught, quick and without warning, he
poised and then swooped, seizing so many avenues simultaneously that Jebediah never
had a chance to realize what was happening until it was too late to resist effectively.
Jebediah gasped and flinched under Camber's hands at the force of the contact, mind
staggering with the shock of an alien consciousness overwhelming his own. He could not
do more. Physically and psychically blind now, he struggled helplessly against the bonds
already formed, shrinking from the constant new incursions, fruitlessly trying to prevent
the imposition of knowledge which he had not expected, had not wanted, would not have
considered, had he retained control of his own mind.
Only in sheer body reflex was he at all able to resist Camber's bidding, warrior's muscles
responding to the threat even if the warrior's mind could not. Almost independent of his
mind's frantic struggling, his right hand crawled to the dagger at his right side, closing
half-paralyzed fingers around the ivory hilt, dragging the blade slowly from its sheath.
Camber saw the movement, and shifted quickly to block the rising hand. Relenting not
one iota from his task of education, he twisted around to straddle the now-sprawling
Michaeline and redouble his assault, left hand locked around Jebediah's powerful wrist in
a separate war of strength as his will forced knowledge into Jebediah's mind, giving all the
necessary details, from Alister's death to the present.
Jebediah shook his head in denial and cried out, a despairing animal moan of grief, as he
stared up at Camber with blank, unseeing eyes. His left hand lashed out to twist itself in
the neck of Camber's mantle, pulling Camber down closer as the dagger hand rose slowly
against the grasp of Camber's, nearer and nearer to Camber's throat.
But Camber would not be distracted. Relentlessly he drove home the final realizations:
the benefits already accrued to Cinhil; the smallness of their numbers who knew the truth
of Camber-Alister; the consequences if the play did not go on, in terms of anti-Deryni
backlash already brewing in small ways among the restored human nobility; the trap of all
of them who were now committed to play out the charade and that Camber and his
children were willing to make any necessary sacrifice for the sake of Gwynedd. Was
Jebediah?
With that, Camber disengaged from all controls save one: a touch which would bring
swift unconsciousness and, if necessary, death. At the same time, he bade his long-
borrowed shape melt away from him, his own Camber face gazing down at Jebediah in
hope and compassion. The dagger was resting against his throat now, near to drawing
blood, but he ignored its deadly pressure, praying that Jebediah's good common sense
would keep him from rejecting what had been revealed and forcing Camber to use his
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