English Art/Literary Poetry & Literature

Without thinking I addressed her in truespeech.
"Salera, might I bespeak you? Human speech is difficult, and I know not if you have yet learned our own language."
She sat bolt upright, in the absolute image of Astonishment, and stared wide-eyed at me. Her speech instantly became all but incomprehensible. "How iss thiss done? Hwat iss this hyou ssay? I hear hyourr voice yet you haff not spoken!"
"Hadreshikrar, do you mean to say you have not bespoken this child?" I said, turning to Shikrar in amazement. "You, who are the first always to introduce younglings to truespeech!"
To my delight, he could not answer at first. It is not easy to surprise Shikrar, the Eldest of our Kindred, and it always pleased me when I was able to do so. "I—before she, before they were—oh, ldai, I have not even tried to bespeak her since she and her people awakened!" He turned to her, tenderly, and spoke quietly using the broadest kind of truespeech. "Lady Solera, I beg your pardon. My friend Akhor—Varien—told me that you could not hear him, but that was before you came into your own."
"Hwat iss thiss bespppeakking?" she asked him, her wings fluttering in her agitation.
"Calm yourself, little one," I said, trying to be as gentle as I could. "It is natural for our people. This is the Language of Truth, the language of the mind. With it, we may speak to one another when we are far apart, or when we are aloft and the wind will not carry sound between us."
"How isss it done?"
"It is done with thought, littling," said Shikrar calmly, and aloud. "Where most thought is scattered abroad, like clouds in the sky, truespeech is more like to a single star—focussed." He continued in truespeech. "This kind of speech, which we start with, may be heard by all who care to listen. It is the first kind we learn and the easiest to master. There is another kind, whereby we may speak only to one particular soul at a time." He paused a moment. "That usually takes some years to master, but you are not as young as you appear, I would guess. You might achieve that level of concentration much faster than is usual."
"How shall I do thiss?" she demanded.
"Let us begin slowly, and with a warning," said Shikrar, still speaking broadly. I managed not to laugh. I recognised the very words. It was the same speech he had given to every youngling he had ever taught. Teacher-Shikrar indeed!
"Thoughts are truth, and truespeech will reveal your inner thoughts, whether you want it to or no, until you have become accustomed to it. It is impossible to lie in this speech, for the lie will burn like a beacon, and in any case your underthought will give you away."
"Hwat iss to lie?" Salera asked, in all innocence.
Shikrar bowed. "It is to say that which is not so, little one," he said aloud. "Forgive me. I suspect ***it is not within you."***
She glanced at him shrewdly, for all her youth. "I suspect ***it is within me if it is within you,*** Master Shikrar. Though perhaps not yet." She gazed back at me. "I hwill try this truespeech. I cannot sshape my tongue around words sso well ass you." She bowed her head and closed her eyes in concentration.



Dear native English speakers!

It is an extract from a fantasy book about dragons. They can communicate with each other mentally, using so-called truespeech.
Here two old dragons (Shikrar and Idai) explains to a young dragon (Salera) what truespeech is and how it is used.

I can’t really understand what the asterisked phrase refers to. Is it supposed to mean that the young dragon cannot lie? Or that she is unable to use truespeech? Or something else, maybe?

Please advise!