Books In English "City Of Illusions" Ursula K. Le Guin | Page 41

All-Alonio. Right? Now pull up to the fire, get warm."
"I'm getting warm," FaIk said.
The old man's gray braid flipped across his shoulders as he moved
about, quick and frail, his soft voice running on; he never asked a real
question, never paused for an answer. He was fearless and it was
impossible to fear him.
Now all the days and nights of journeying through the forest drew
together and were behind Falk. He was not camping: he had come to a
place. He need not think at all about the weather, the dark, the stars and
beasts and trees. He could sit stretching out his legs to a bright hearth,
could eat in company with another, could bathe in front of the fire in a
wooden tub of hot water. He did not know which was the greater pleasure,
the warmth of that water washing dirt and weariness away, or the warmth
that washed his spirit here, the absurd elusive vivid talk of the old man, the
miraculous complexity of human conversation after the long silence of the
wilderness.
He took as true what the old man told him, that he was able to sense
Falk's emotions and perceptions, that he was a mindhearer, an empath.
Empathy was to telepathy somewhat as touch to sight, a vaguer, more
primitive, and more intimate sense. It was not subject to fine learned
control to the degree that telepathic communication was; conversely,
involuntary empathy was not uncommon even among the untrained. Blind
Kretyan had trained herself to mindhear, having the gift by nature. But it
was no such gift as this. It did not take Falk long to make sure that the old
man was in fact constantly aware to some degree of what his visitor was
feeling and sensing. For some reason this did not bother Falk, whereas the
knowledge that Argerd's drug had opened his mind to telepathic search had
enraged him. It was the difference in intent; and more.
"This morning I killed a hen," he said, when for a little the old man
was silent, warming a rough towel for him by the leaping fire. "It spoke, in
this speech. Some words of…of the Law. Does that mean anyone is near
here, who teaches language to the beasts and fowls?" He was not so
relaxed, even getting out of the hot bath, as to say the Enemy's name—not
after his lesson in the house of Fear.
~ 39 ~