Chapter 7 Even the air tasted wrong. Mara could not explain the changes that had come over the farm in the past couple of weeks. Those changes were subtle, but they were most definitely real. On an outward level she could see her friends walking around with body muscles tensed, as though preparing for some fight that never came. Little items were constantly being knocked off shelves and broken as people moved with exaggerated motions. Tempers were short, despite the fact that there could be few legitimate misunderstandings between telepaths. On an inward level, communication decreased. It could not stop altogether, not in an environment like this, but Mara felt a communal drawing inward and apart that she did not like. There was no specific cause she could point to, no one to accuse of