The Talented (36 page)

“
The commission put him in
charge,” Adrienne said. “Whether you like Ben or not, whether you
think he should be in charge or not, he is. And you have to tell
him.”

Malokai’s vivid blue eyes
stared at her out of that dark face as if he was searching for
something more. “They don’t deserve your loyalty.”

Adrienne refused to look
away from those eyes, although she wanted to. Instead, she kept her
voice firm, her back straight. “I am a soldier. My loyalty is with
my commanding officers.”

“
Then I will discover my
Talent without your help,” Malokai said. “And I won’t tell Ben what
happened tonight. Whether you tell him is your
decision.”

••••••

Since Malokai had
discovered Oneness so suddenly, the relationship Adrienne had been
developing with him had become strained. Malokai continued to help
her train the guards most days, often using his
urahu
, the strange spearlike weapon
he had brought with him from the Modabi Mountains. Adrienne enjoyed
pitting herself against a skilled opponent with an unfamiliar
weapon, which he used sometimes like a quarterstaff, sometimes like
a spear, and always with incredible effectiveness.

Her only regret was that
what had passed between them nearly four weeks before, when she had
refused to help him past the point of learning Oneness, had halted
their growing friendship. They rarely spent time with each other
when not training the guards, and when they were together their
interactions were stiff and formal.

Ben had finally allowed
Malokai to move on to attaining Oneness, and when Malokai had done
so immediately, the scholar began trying to help him discover his
Talent. So far there had been no progress on that front.

Although Adrienne had not
really talked to Malokai since the night she had taught him Oneness
without the commission’s permission, she knew he was growing
frustrated. She could sometimes feel the frustration radiating from
him like heat from a hearth, and she thought that might be the only
reason he still practiced with her and the guards. Physical
exertion was a way to release some of the pent up frustration,
perhaps the best way for people like Adrienne and
Malokai.

And as far as Adrienne
knew, Malokai did not have another outlet for his frustration. She
still had her books, and the paper written in Almetian that she was
bent on deciphering. The more she learned about the Dark Mage and
the armies that had grown up around him, the more she thought that
the mage and his armies, more than slavery, was the real cause of
the rift between Samaro and Almet.

There was something there,
some missing piece, that had led to King Zuka, who Adrienne had
learned had been the son of King Ignatio, freeing the slaves after
his father’s death. It had not been, as Adrienne had been taught, a
sense of justice that had caused King Zuka to free the slaves.
There had been fear there, and an underlying benefit to freeing the
slaves despite the fact that it had initially taken an economic
toll on the country.

If only she could read the
Almetian script, she felt she might have the answers.

Adrienne sat at the small
table in her room, studying the copy she had made of the original
text found in the book. The paper it had been written on was
brittle and fragile, and Adrienne did not want to risk damaging it.
The characters written on her copy were easy to see, but no easier
to read despite their clarity. She studied the words, looking for
more patterns in the text that might reveal some meaning. She could
not read Almetian, but she hoped that if she studied it long enough
she might find some similarities between the two
languages.

When her study was
interrupted by Malokai knocking on her door, she was surprised
enough that it took her several seconds to invite him in. “I wasn’t
expecting you.”

Malokai ran a hand over
his tightly curled black hair, the first nervous gesture she could
remember seeing from the imposing warrior. “I was wondering if you
would accompany me to Louella’s,” he said, his words a bit
rushed.

Adrienne was immediately
concerned. “Are you sick?” she asked worriedly. Malokai didn’t look
ill, but she didn’t doubt that he was one of those men who would
look and act well until he passed out cold. Ricco was like that,
and had once collapsed at her feet from a fever she had not even
known he had. Luckily, he had recovered without the aid of a
Talented healer, but the memory had never quite left
her.

“
No. I’m fine. I just want
to talk to her. To you and Pieter as well.”

“
Okay,” Adrienne said,
feeling more relieved than was perhaps warranted in a city where
Talented healers made sickness little more than an inconvenience.
“We can go now,” she said in an attempt to cover up the extent of
her concern. “Pieter’s home is on the way.”

The streets were growing
dark with the coming night, and Malokai was silent as they made
their way through the city. Adrienne tried to figure out why the
M’bai warrior would need to speak with all three of them tonight,
and failed to come up with anything plausible.

Pieter asked no questions
about why they had come to his home, or why they were now all going
to Louella’s. He had patience, something Adrienne all too often
lacked, and was willing to let people tell him things in their own
time. Given his size and strength, Adrienne thought it was probably
good that Pieter was a patient man and not one given to rashness or
violence.

Louella was obviously
surprised to see the three of them when she opened the door, but
she quickly put away the stockings she had been darning and invited
them all in for tea. “What brings you by tonight?” she asked as she
set the kettle over the fire to heat. “I have biscuits if you’d
like something to go with the tea.”

Louella prattled on as she
got the biscuits and set them out along with plates and cups for
the brewing tea, and Adrienne realized she was talking to ease any
tension amongst the group. “Malokai asked us to come,” Adrienne
told the other woman.

“
I figured as much,”
Louella replied calmly, making sure everything was placed on the
table just so before sitting down herself. “I’m only wondering
why.”

“
I need help discovering my
Talent,” Malokai told her, told everyone. He looked even grimmer
than usual, with his dark face stony and his blue eyes
serious.

Louella smiled in
amusement, and Pieter shook his head, low laughter rumbling in his
barrel chest. “We can’t help you,” Adrienne said, the corner of her
mouth quirking up.

“
Ben said I was to try and
discover if I had an ability,” Malokai told her. “You won’t be
disobeying him if you help me.”

There was an edge to his
voice, and Adrienne knew the words were aimed at her in particular.
And she knew that she deserved them. “This isn’t about Ben or the
commission,” she assured him. “We can’t help you because our
Talents are all different. We wouldn’t know where to
begin.”

“
It’s true,” Louella said
when Malokai looked to her for confirmation. “I never could have
taught Adrienne to do the things she can with fire. She discovered
that Talent quite by accident when she was angry.”

“
What about you?” Malokai
asked. “You weren’t the first healer to develop a Talent. Surely
you had help from the others.”

“
I did have help, to some
degree,” Louella agreed. “I had more help than Pieter and Adrienne,
at any rate. Maureen Cassin helped me.” Louella sat primly on her
chair with her legs crossed and her hands folded in her lap like a
lady about to give instructions on proper etiquette. “However, my
Talent and Maureen’s are not exactly the same, and so she could not
show me what to do or how to do it. She did advise that I go about
my healing while in a state of Oneness. Eventually, my Talent
manifested itself while I was sewing up a particularly nasty cut. I
was in a state of Oneness and suddenly I knew what to do to stop
the bleeding and knit the flesh back together without the aid of
needle and thread.”

“
So I’m supposed to
maintain Oneness until I figure out what I can do?” Malokai
asked.

“
Not necessarily,” Pieter
said. “When I discovered my Talent, I was working on a particularly
difficult tool. I was on the last stage of shaping it, a crucial
stage where one mistake could ruin all of my previous efforts, so I
took a deep breath to calm myself and something came over me.
Oneness, I suppose, though I had not consciously reached for
it.”

Adrienne had never heard
this story, and was as interested in it as Malokai seemed to be.
“What happened?”

“
I suddenly understood the
metal in a new way. I could feel every strength, every weakness.
The slightest difference in width or thickness was blazingly
apparent to me in that state. And I knew just where and how to hit
it to get the shaping exact.”

“
Did the metal turn blue?”
Adrienne asked, her hand wandering to the sword at her hip. The
other objects Pieter had forged using his Talent had been blue as
well, though not all as brilliantly blue as her sword.

“
In certain light,” Pieter
said. “The extreme color of your sword is because I used my Talent
throughout the entire process, from heating to shaping to treating.
Nonetheless, at the time I forged that tool it was my best
work.”

“
So you weren’t even trying
to use an ability,” Malokai said. “Not even trying for
Oneness.”

“
Being in a state of
Oneness while working at the forge had always seemed like a bad
idea before that day,” Pieter said without apology. “I still don’t
go completely into a state of Oneness to use my Talent. I don’t
find it necessary or useful to do so. I have used my Talent enough
that I don’t need to go that far to understand the
metal.”

Louella leaned over and
placed her hand over Malokai’s. “You can see now why we can’t help
you,” she said. “All of our experiences are too
different.”

“
There has to be some way,”
Malokai said, moving his hand and shoving himself away from the
table. He paced the small room. The kettle over the fire began to
boil and he stopped to retrieve it. He poured the scalding water
into Louella’s delicate teapot before replacing the kettle and
resuming his pacing. His long legged strides carried him quickly
from one end of the small room to the other, and Adrienne was
reminded of the lion she had once seen in a menagerie. It had been
contained in a small cage, and had looked just as restless. Though
many of the spectators had thought the sight magnificent, Adrienne
had felt sorry for the caged beast.

“
Maybe Adrienne can be of
some help,” Pieter suggested. “The two of you have the most in
common.”

Malokai shook his head. “I
thought about that,” he explained. “I can’t do anything with
fire.”

“
Have you considered…”
Louella looked apologetic for what she was about to say. “Have you
considered that you might not have a Talent?”

“
Of course he will,”
Adrienne said. “He can already achieve Oneness.”

“
Being unable to achieve
Oneness means you will never develop a Talent,” Louella said
gently, her blue eyes compassionate in a face the color of fresh
cream, “but being able to achieve Oneness is not a guarantee that
you will be able to develop one.”

“
What?” Adrienne
asked.

“
There have been people in
Kessering who have achieved Oneness but never become Talented,”
Louella answered. “Oneness is difficult, but can be learned with
time and patience.” She looked sympathetically at Malokai.
“Evidence suggests that Talents can only be discovered, not taught.
That they are inborn somehow.”

“
Why was I never informed
of this?” Adrienne asked.

Louella shrugged her thin
shoulders. “It would not have helped your training to know, and
once you became Talented the information was no longer
important.”

Malokai was silent, but
Adrienne refused to believe what Louella was suggesting. “I’m sure
Malokai will discover a Talent,” Adrienne said. “He must. The rate
of his progress—”

“
Doesn’t mean anything,”
Pieter said bluntly. “To be honest, I’m surprised Malokai was
brought to Kessering at all. He doesn’t have a specialized
profession, and that seems to be the one common link between
everyone who has been able to develop a Talent.”

Adrienne came halfway out
of her chair in frustrated anger. “He’s an excellent fighter. One
of the best I’ve ever encountered.” She was angry that Malokai’s
skill would be belittled. Worse, she was upset by the idea that she
could once again go back to being the only Talented—or potentially
Talented—fighter in Kessering.

“
But he’s not a soldier,
not as his sole profession,” Pieter said more gently. “Fighting
isn’t all he does.”

Adrienne waved her hands
angrily. “None of us here are only our jobs—” Her hand shot out and
knocked into the porcelain teacup, sending it over the edge of the
table.

She and Pieter, the
closest two, reached for it automatically, though it was too late
to catch it. When the cup froze a bare two inches from the ground,
they looked from it to each other and stared.