THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

with his steady, dark-eyed one, she felt a stronger thump on her mind this time and realized Jaxxson wanted to speak to her silently.
    She panicked for a moment as he waited patiently then slowly opened her mind. Trusting a child was very different than trusting someone who said he was her enemy. When she didn’t hear anything, she asked him, Can you hear me?
    Yes. When we bring Be’tallia out of this protective dome, she will lose the soothing effect I infused in the bed beneath her. She’ll begin to remember that she’s been torn from her family. I’ve found one thing that seems to help ease the children through this difficult time.
    You mean separation anxiety? Gabby asked.
    We have other terms, but yes, that’s correct.
    What do you do?
    I’ll show you.
    After telling Be’tallia that she was going to leave the dome and that she might feel different but to remember that she was safe, Jaxxson lifted her into his arms and stood. When Gabby popped up next to him, Jaxxson wrapped his fingers around her wrist before she could stop him.
    He murmured a brief string of strange words.
    In the next moment, all three of them stood outside the dome in the canopied area with the other children.
    She withdrew her wrist from Jaxxson. “Why’d you do it differently this time?”
    “Before, you’d have become upset if I’d touched you. You now know you’re not controlled by your gift, but that you’re in charge. You knew I wouldn’t force my mind on you and that you were safe with my touch. Another step in developing your gift.”
    He was right about one thing.
    She’d never trusted contact with another person since losing her mother, but she did believe that Jaxxson wouldn’t harm her.
    She wasn’t sure she liked that knowledge, after all Tony was still stuck back in the prisoner hut. So until all of them were free, none of them were free. She might trust Jaxxson now, but could she trust him if that Zilya chick and Mathias wanted her dead?
    Jaxxson carried Be’tallia to where a group of children huddled together on the ground giggling over something. When he asked them to make a space, the children parted, revealing a pile of odd little puffy animals that squirmed and crawled all over each other.
    The critters reminded Gabby of furry four-legged troll dolls with large blue-green eyes, fat lips and a pug nose. Their ears sat up like a horse’s and short, thick, multi-colored hair sprouted out the tops of their heads. They had plush cinnamon-colored coats except for the same poofs of rainbow hair sticking out around their paws and at the ends of their long rat-like tails that dragged behind them.
    “What are those?” Gabby asked, grinning at the funny creatures.
    “Pupples.”  Jaxxson sat Be’tallia down on a woven mat covering the ground and petted one of the little animals. “They’re the dugurat offspring.”
    “They look too young to be weaned from their mothers.”
    “They are. We rescue as many as we can and bring them in for the children. The dugurats breed constantly, but are easy prey. They’ll defend their young, even attacking viciously to protect their pupples when threatened, but are otherwise docile.  They have a low percentage of survival, because a dugurat brain never grows much beyond the size it is at birth.”
    “Never heard of a dugurat before.”  Well, except for Etoi using that term to call Rayen an “idiot.”
    “I hadn’t either prior to coming here, but we have V’ru of the Records House with us. He knows just about everything there is to know about all things.”
    “V’ru? That’s a strange name.”
    “He was named after an ancestor and is a rare MystiK who was gifted with the knowledge of all his ancestors upon his birth.”
    “Shut the front door.”
    “What?”  Jaxxson stopped moving his hands. “What door?”
    She lifted a hand, waving her fingers. “Sorry. It’s an expression from my time we say when we hear something phenomenal. If this V’ru came to life with all that knowledge, did he still have to study?”
    “Oh, yes. His has been a life of continuous study, but that’s expected of a gifted one such as he, to whom current leaders turn for valued information.”
    Poor guy. She thought her life sucked, but she definitely wouldn’t want his job . Gabby took in Be’tallia who’d sat down quietly, now looking like a ragged princess doll that had been dragged through the dirt. Her face was starting to show the stress of her thoughts. A tear