Page 38 of Hot Zone

“But…” he prompted.

Darn his perceptiveness, anyway.

“But I am not typical of the females of my people, no.”

“How so?”

He just wouldn’t leave it alone. She remembered what General Ashton always said—the best defense was a good offense. “What about you?” she asked. “You’re a sorcerer. Are you common among your people?”

Apparently, her tactic worked. He frowned deeply, looking nearly as uncomfortable as she felt right about now.

He answered slowly. “Among my own people, I am not strange. But among these Persians, I seem to be a rare and fascinating creature.”

“They did seem more than a little afraid of you,” she commented.

He abandoned his attempt to rest and sat up, plucking a long stem of grass and twirling it idly between his fingers. “I cultivate that fear. They leave me alone that way.”

She nodded. That made sense.

“Why are you not afraid of me? Are magicians commonplace in your home?”

She jolted. He’d turned the tables on her and gone on the offensive himself. She shrugged. “People like you are not common but neither are they unknown.”

“Do your people fear them?”

“I don’t.”

“Yes, but you are a sorcerer, too, are you not?”

She gaped at him. A sorcerer? She supposed that wasn’t a bad label for her psychic abilities, to someone of this time period.

She shrugged. “I guess so. My talents don’t run in exactly the same vein as yours seem to, though.”

“What vein do your talents run in?” He pinned her with an intense look, making no effort now to hide his interest in her answer.

She sighed. “I have a talent for finding lost things. Or at least I used to. Coming here seems to have dulled my ability somewhat.”

He snorted, as if he knew exactly what she was talking about.

Was he implying that this place had dulled his psychic talents, as well? She asked eagerly, “Have you found your skills to be less here?”

He grunted. “You have no idea.”

Her jaw sagged. So it wasn’t just her! She’d been so upset that she’d let down the entire Anasazi Project. But it was this place that was the problem! She leaned forward intently. “Have you discovered any trick to magnify your skills here?”

He glanced up at her, startled. “I can still do things when I’m in close proximity to people, particularly when I touch them.”

She nodded. “Like that shape-shifting thing you did. Could you have projected the image to anyone outside that room?”

He shook his head.

Interesting. Maybe all she had to do was get closer to the medallion to be able to sense its exact location. Athena had sent her to Xerxes’s court because it was practically on top of the Karanovo piece, and indeed, that first night when she’d arrived, it had definitely been nearby. But since then, it had just as definitely moved away from her…and out of her sensory range, apparently.

Mightily relieved, she was suddenly eager to get going again, despite her aching legs and lower back.

Rustam laughed quietly. “Relax, Tessa. The horses need a good hour of rest and grazing before we continue. We have a long ride ahead of us. Be grateful for and take advantage of this stop, for you will not get much rest later.”

It was hard, but she followed his sensible suggestion. She closed her eyes, her thoughts spinning, and was surprised to find when she opened them later that some time had passed. She’d actually fallen asleep. The sun was up in the eastern sky and the air was already warming around them.

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