Ortai Legacy

9 - Hidden Dangers (L)

I nibbled on my food, not having much of an appetite. Mar'kost finished eating first and read a book. Well, he held a book and occasionally flipped pages while his eyes stared off into the distance.

As if that wasn't weird enough, the book's cover was written in English. It was already strange that I could understand spoken words, but telepathy probably explained that. I had no idea how to explain the book. Maybe they really did speak English here? I hadn't watched anyone's mouth too closely to see if it lined up with what I was hearing.

"Do you need something?" His large eyes focused on me, distracting me from watching his lips.

"Uh, how can you read the book if you're not looking at it?"

"My eyes are for show. I'm technically blind, but I can sense the ink on the pages." His lips didn't move in sync with the words. It was like watching an audio dubbed show, only infinitely more unnerving because it was in real life.

That supported my telepathy theory but didn't help explain how I could read the book. Maybe I was picking up on the translation because he'd just read it?

"Have you read that entire book before?"

"No."

I took it, flipped past where he'd been reading, and found perfectly legible English awaiting me. Trying to look nonplussed, I returned the book.

His feathered head crest rose. "Did you see something interesting?"

"Not particularly." I stood. "I've got to shower. You need the bathroom first?"

He shook his head.

I retreated to the bathroom, stewing over my new-found discoveries. Judging by the fact that Mar'kost obviously hadn't been speaking English, the chances that the book was written in English were slim. That meant I could have more than one magical ability. Reading other languages wasn't especially impressive, but it was certainly useful on an alien planet, and it might indicate that I had other undiscovered skills.

I started showering, grateful to get the dust and sweat of a day's work out of my hair. Guilt reminded me how lucky I was to be here, staying in a hotel with a man who was magically obligated to protect me. If Mar'kost hadn't found me, I'd be dead at the bottom of a tunnel. The other human-Ortai hybrids might have already met that fate. Or they could be facing similar danger right now, while I was having a relaxing shower.

There was no guarantee that all of them could even understand the language; I'd had a connection to Mar'kost for months before I came here, but I'd never heard Grace talk about having hyper realistic dreams. She could be alone, starving and unable to communicate with anyone.

Maybe someone knew English. After all, they had humans here, even if they were rare. Those humans must've come from Earth at some point, right? Unless they weren't human at all and my telepathy had just translated their species name into "human" because we looked similar. In that case, they would be as alien to Grace as a longstrider.

After washing my clothes in the bathtub and hanging them up to dry, I wrapped myself tightly in a robe. It dragged behind me, but at least it wasn't too short. I left the bathroom to find that Raeve and Thyr had returned. They were looking over a notebook written in English letters, but some of the phrases weren't English words. Maybe they were proper nouns or names of items that didn't exist on Earth.

I didn't want to interrupt, but I had a pressing issue to discuss with Mar'kost. I needed to know whether he would help me find the other Ortai. Asking outright might not get the most truthful answer, but if he wouldn't promise to start tomorrow—and fulfill his promise—then I would find help somewhere else, maybe by selling my polearm and hiring someone.