"We get it," Nedra answered evasively.
"What do you do, raid the low country for supplies, like Cuso's men?"
"No, colonel, hardly that. We are not thieves." Her face showed displeasure.
"Well, where do you get it? I don't know how many of you are here, but if you have as many as a hundred, keeping this place supplied calls for some doing." He was fishing for information on the number of people hidden in this old mine.
"Actually, very little food is needed."
"How come, don't they eat?"
"Are you reading my mind?" the girl demanded. "If so, you might as well learn right now that this is not considered good manners here!" Momentarily, she was angry. "And besides, if you do it again, I'll close off my thoughts to you."
Zen, with a forkful of mush halfway to his mouth, was so surprised that he tried to speak and to swallow the mush at the same time, with the result that he choked. The inference back of her words opened up wide horizons of speculative thought. Was mind reading actually commonplace here?
"I'm sorry you choked," Nedra said. She pounded him on the back.
"Why don't you put me over your shoulder and burp me?" Zen complained. "Lay off with that pounding."