The Talented (10 page)

“
Rare in soldiers, maybe,”
the guard said. “That doesn’t mean—”

Captain Garrett cut him
off. “Lieutenant Rydaeg is innovative and always working toward
improvement, and has recently been charged with instructing all of
the new recruits and is doing a remarkable job of it.” Captain
Garrett’s voice did not warm, but it flowed with smooth assurance
and the conviction that what he was saying was absolutely true.
“Even without the condition that the soldier be young, I would have
considered Rydaeg as a candidate.”

“
A likely story,” the guard
scoffed. “I think it more likely you wish to unload this aberrant
female soldier on us.”

Adrienne ground her teeth
together.

The other man, who until
this point had remained silent, waved his pudgy hands and gave his
guard a placating look. “Perhaps you are being rash, Ilso. This
lieutenant might be a capable soldier.” His eyes swept over
Adrienne, and she had no doubt they were taking in her long black
hair and short, curvy body more than the way she wore her sword or
how she held herself ready to fight or defend at any second. “It is
not totally unheard of for women to be soldiers.”

The man named Ilso crossed
his arms in front of him and snorted rudely. “Perhaps not, but if
Kyrog is all that it’s cracked up to be, they should be able to
offer more than a mere woman.”

Captain Garrett must have
seen the fire burning in Adrienne’s dark eyes, for he made a small
gesture cautioning her to contain herself. “If you would like, you
can arrange to test Lieutenant Rydaeg’s abilities yourself,” the
captain said. “However, I promise that you will not find her
lacking in skill, and as your mission seems important and time
precious, I hope that my vouching for her will suffice.”

Ilso seemed about to
argue, but the other man stopped him once more. “It was my friend
here,” he said with a gesture to Ilso, “who advised me to come to
Kyrog, and to you, Captain, to find the soldier I seek,” he said.
“Unlike Ilso, I embrace the unexpected in finding the recommended
soldier for our purpose to be a woman.”

He turned to Adrienne.
“Can you be ready to leave in an hour?”

“
No,” Adrienne said,
earning surprised stares from everyone in the room.

“
Lieutenant…” Captain
Garrett said in a rising tone of warning.

“
You see! Not just a
female, but an insubordinate one as well,” Ilso snapped.

“
I’m not declining to go on
this ‘mission’ of yours,” Adrienne said, though she wondered just
what the mission would involve. “However, I have responsibilities
here, and preparations to make before I depart. The earliest I can
be ready is tomorrow morning.” Even then, she would have to work
hard to see that the training of the recruits was maintained at the
high standard she had set.

“
Rydaeg, I am sure we can
manage without you,” Captain Garrett told her. The expression on
his dark face revealed his displeasure, though no one who did not
know him well could have read it.

Adrienne stood even more
at attention, pulling her shoulders back and holding her chin high.
“With all due respect, sir, I believe that the transition in
training the Yearlings will go more smoothly and yield better
results if I am allowed to choose and meet with my replacement
before I leave.”

“
This upstart is the
soldier you are saddling us with?” Ilso asked. “If she can’t even
follow orders—”

“
Lieutenant Rydaeg has no
problem following orders,” Captain Garrett said, “and this matter
is none of your business. You may take Lieutenant Rydaeg with you
tomorrow morning, or not at all.”

Ilso jerked his head in
acknowledgement, and the other man bowed out with smiles and
thank-yous as they exited the room. Finally, it was just Captain
Garrett and Adrienne left.

“
Captain, what is the
mission?” Adrienne asked for the first time. If the captain told
her to go, she would go, regardless of what the mission entailed,
but she hoped it was something worthwhile if she had to leave Kyrog
in the company of a misogynist like Ilso.

“
Have a seat, Adrienne, if
I may call you that.”

“
Of course,” Adrienne said,
for once actually taking his advice and sitting down, though it was
an uneasy feeling. She fingered the cord of her necklace, running
her thumb over the pendant. The use of her first name had unnerved
her.

“
They would not give me the
details of their mission,” Captain Garrett said. “Tam, the scholar,
is in charge, although Ilso seems to be the only one with any
experience with soldiers.”

Adrienne’s hand dropped
into her lap and she let out a breath of air that was almost a
laugh. “If you could call it experience.” It had been obvious by
Ilso’s total disregard for her and the captain that, whatever Tam
believed, the guard was no more familiar with soldiers than he was
with the sword he wore so awkwardly at his hip.

Captain Garrett inclined
his head. “I believe this is a civilian mission, Adrienne, but they
hinted that whatever they are planning would help the war efforts
against Almet.”

Adrienne’s focus sharpened
at that information. “What have civilians to do with the war,
Captain?” The role of civilians in war was typically restricted to
three things: supporting the soldiers, hampering the soldiers, or
dying at the hands of enemy soldiers. In Adrienne’s opinion, they
were good for little else when it came to war.

“
I do not know, Adrienne.”
He tapped an envelope on his desk, one with a broken wax seal that
was still unmistakably the seal of the king. “I must trust that
King Burin has a plan, even if he is unwilling to share it.” He
smiled, and his gray eyes were kind. “If you wish, you may call me
Luis, as you are temporarily relieved from duty now that you have
accepted the civilian mission.”

Adrienne felt strangely
bereft as his meaning became clear. She was no longer a soldier, at
least not for as long as this mission lasted. A major component of
her life since the age of four was now gone, and she clung to the
idea that it was only temporary. “I would prefer to stick with
Captain,” Adrienne said. “I’m a soldier at heart, if not currently
in practice.”

“
As you wish,” Captain
Garrett said. “Now tell me about your plans to keep the recruits’
training on track. We don’t have much time.”

••••••

“
You can’t leave,” Ricco
said for what must have been the tenth time in as many
minutes.

“
I have to,” Adrienne said,
frustrated that she had to explain her decision yet
again.

“
No, you don’t. Blood and
flaming death, Adrienne, Captain Garrett didn’t order you to
go!”

“
Ricco,” Adrienne said with
fraying patience, “listen to me. I have to do this.” Leaving Kyrog,
the place that had been her home for the past thirteen years, was
hard enough. Leaving Ricco, the only true friend Adrienne could
remember having, would be even more difficult. Her hand rose to the
leather cord around her neck, comforted by the presence of the
necklace. The cord was worn, but still tough. It was no weak silver
chain, easy to snap, it was good and solid and real.

“
You can’t leave me in
charge of them,” Ricco said. She thought she saw desperation in her
friend’s eyes, and the look tugged the edges of her mouth into a
reluctant smile.

The “them” Ricco referred
to were the Yearlings. Although he was not a lieutenant, when
Adrienne had suggested that Ricco replace her in training the
Yearlings, the captain had agreed with her choice. “You know more
about their training than anyone,” Adrienne told him. “You were the
obvious choice.”

“
That’s bullshit and you
know it,” Ricco said. “You just want me to be miserable while
you’re gone.”

The tension that had
filled the room since Adrienne had informed her friend that she was
leaving the next day disappeared at the ring of Adrienne’s
laughter. “You enjoyed working with Rosch and me,” Adrienne said
once she had regained control of herself. “You enjoy working with
the two recruits assigned to you now.”

“
Yeah, but only because
you’re in charge,” Ricco said. “All I have to do is show up and do
what you say.”

Adrienne knew that Ricco
had never asked for the responsibility, but she also knew Ricco
would do it well, because it would be the last thing she asked of
him before leaving.

“
You’ll have help,” she
assured him. “The other soldiers already in the program will help
you, and Captain Garrett said he would talk to Mylig so that you
can get some pointers in training if you need them.”

“
Pointers! I’m going to
need more than pointers, Ade. I’ve never done this
before.”

Adrienne saw real concern
in her friend’s brown eyes. His dark face was etched with the same
worries, and she had a sudden urge to hug him.

She didn’t.

“
I’m assigning Rosch to
you,” Adrienne said, her tone belying none of the more tender
emotions she was feeling. “He’s the most advanced of the Yearlings,
and he’ll be able to tell you what steps I’ve gone through with
him.”

“
Shit,” Ricco said.
“Flaming Abyss, Adrienne, why do you have to go?”

For the first time,
Adrienne saw that it was not only training the Yearlings he was
worried about. He looked more tired than angry now, and Adrienne’s
heart squeezed painfully. “You don’t have to worry about me,” she
said. “It’s not as though I’m going to Almet.”

“
You don’t know where
you’re going,” Ricco argued. “And you’re going there
alone.”

“
I’m sorry.” Her voice was
hardly more than a whisper. “But this is something I must do.
You’ll be fine.”

“
I don’t want to be fine,”
Ricco said, crossing his massive arms. His lips formed into an
expression that on anyone else would have undeniably been called a
pout.

Such a childish expression
on her fierce-looking friend was an interesting sight, and one that
at any other time would warrant merciless teasing, but Adrienne had
too much to do before she left tomorrow to become distracted. “I
need you to do this for me, Ricco. I’ve put a lot of time and
effort into coming up with a program to train the Yearlings, and
you’re the only one I trust to run it right.”

“
To run it like you would,
you mean.”

Adrienne smiled.
“Yes.”

Ricco uncrossed his arms
and huffed out a disgusted breath. “Fine, I’ll do it, but you
better hurry back.”

Adrienne wished she could
say that she would. She didn’t know where she was going or what she
would be doing. There was too much mystery surrounding the mission,
and even though she would be undertaking it as a civilian, not an
active duty soldier, she knew as surely as Ricco did that every
time a soldier left the training camp there was a chance she might
never come back.

She hoped that was not the
case this time.

“
I’ll do my best. I don’t
want to give you too much time to mess up my recruits.”

Ricco looked uncomfortable
for a moment, and then he did something that took Adrienne
completely by surprise. He hugged her, pulling her up tight against
his massive chest. “Be careful,” he whispered. “Come back to
me.”

Then he was
gone.

Meeting with Jeral Rosch
was almost as hard as meeting with Ricco, though not nearly as
confusing. Ricco was her longtime friend, but Jeral was her
student, and one of the main reasons Adrienne had finally attained
the rank of lieutenant. Jeral was nice, and his admiration and
respect for her were always apparent. He was her friend, and
Adrienne would miss the shining young man when she left.

“
Lieutenant, what can I do
for you?” Jeral asked. Adrienne had pulled him from the barracks to
take a walk with her around Kyrog. Even at night, the training camp
was full of life, but people gave Adrienne and Jeral the space she
wanted. Something about the two of them must have indicated that
whatever conversation they were having was private, because
soldiers that might normally have stopped to greet Adrienne and
Jeral kept their distance and gave them what privacy the busy camp
allowed.

“
Tomorrow morning, you’ll
join Ricco for training instead of me.”

“
Okay,” Jeral said easily.
It was not the first time since becoming a lieutenant that Adrienne
had been unable to meet with him in the morning. There had been
whole weeks that Adrienne had been too busy to see to his training
herself.

Adrienne saw that the
Yearling did not understand. “Rosch—Jeral. Ricco is going to be
your new trainer.”

“
What?” Jeral asked,
appearing completely blindsided. “What do you mean? Did I do
something? I—” Jeral halted his words, pulling himself together.
“May I ask why?” he said in a more moderated tone.

“
I’m leaving Kyrog,”
Adrienne told him.

“
Leaving?” Jeral’s
expression made it plain that he still didn’t realize what she
meant.

“
I’m going on a mission,
and I’m leaving tomorrow. I don’t know when I’ll be
back.”