He realized at last that it was no use. He leaned breathless and shaken, against the spire of rock.
A harsh cracked whisper came then from the ledge above. “Little sister—lift up the stone of thought.”
Emer raised the cloudy jewel in her hands.
It was an eery thing to watch. Carse did not understand at first. Then he saw that as the eyes of Emer and the Wise Ones grew dim and veiled the cloudy gray of the Jewel cleared and brightened.
It seemed that all of the power of their minds was pouring into the focal point of the crystal, blending through it into one strong beam. And he felt the pressure of those gathered minds upon his own mind!
Carse sensed dimly what they were doing. The thoughts of the conscious mind were a tiny electric pulsation through the neurones. That electric pulse could be dampened, neutralized, by a stronger counter-impulse such as they were focusing on him through that electro-sensitive crystal.
They themselves could not know the basic science behind their attack upon his mind! These Halflings, strong in extra-sensory powers, had perhaps long ago discovered that the crystals could focus their minds together and had used the discovery without ever knowing its scientific basis.
“But I can hold them off,” Carse whispered thickly to himself. “I can hold them all off!”
It enraged him, that calm impersonal beating down of his mind. He fought it with all the force within him but it was not enough.
And then, as before when he had faced the singing stars of the Dhuvian, some force in him that did not seem his own came to aid him.