The Talented

by J. R. McGinnity

  She thought it was ironic that after everything that had happened the commission would ask her to be an influence on someone else. “I don’t know what I can do about that,” Adrienne told Ben.

  “The rest of the commission thinks that you can relate to him better than we can,” Ben told her. He sat back in his chair, crossed his ankles, and stared down at his folded hands. “We’re hoping the two of you will be able to find common ground. He doesn’t seem to care for books and knowledge.” Ben looked up at her again, his dark eyes displeased.

  The critical tone she heard in his voice, the tone that implied that the M’bai warrior was stupid, nearly made her laugh. Although she had hardly spoken to Malokai since the first day they had met, she had sensed an intelligence in him that would probably surprise the young scholar. It was more likely that Ben, young and interested in little outside of the library, was what Malokai did not care for. “He wouldn’t have been brought here if he wasn’t smart,” Adrienne pointed out.

  Ben shrugged his thin shoulders. “Who knows how the M’bai measure intelligence?”

  If this was the opinion Ben was expressing to the warrior, Adrienne could understand why Malokai wasn’t being overly cooperative when it came to his training. “I’ll talk to him,” she agreed. Perhaps she would be able to learn more about Malokai—and the M’bai people—if she approached him instead of waiting for him to come to her. It would give her something else to do other than train and puzzle over her books. Perhaps talking with someone who was not from Samaro—not really—would give her a new perspective.

  Ben smiled and stood to leave. “I will check in tomorrow to see how it goes.”

  “Tomorrow?” Adrienne asked, catching his arm to hold him in place a moment longer. “I’ll need at least a few days to broach the subject.”

  “Why?”

  Adrienne released him and pinched the bridge of her nose, wondering how someone so smart could be so completely lacking in people skills and common sense. “I can’t just walk up to him and tell him to try harder,” she explained. “We need to build some sort of rapport first.”

  “Elder Rynn isn’t going to like this,” Ben said. “He’s disappointed in how the commission’s work is progressing, and told me to take care of it.” For the first time Adrienne could remember, it seemed that Ben had a problem with how the commission was going about its work.

  Adrienne just shook her head. The commission did little more than sit around and talk all day, and discussion alone rarely accomplished anything in Adrienne’s experience. It wasn’t surprising that Elder Rynn wouldn’t be happy with their progress when there wasn’t any, and wasn’t likely to be any. Ben changing Malokai’s attitude about training would not solve the underlying problem. “I will speak with Malokai over the next few days,” she said again. “That’s the best I can do.”

  “Good. Perhaps a positive result with Malokai will improve Elder Rynn’s outlook on the project.”

  “Perhaps.” Adrienne wondered if the king knew that his commission showed no real signs of assembling a useful force against Almet. Aside from Adrienne, none of the Talents could be used in battle, and although Adrienne’s Talent could be useful, they had made no move to begin training her on using it for that purpose. Then again, from what she had heard of King Burin, he probably didn’t have the stomach to order a battle that could result in active war between Almet and Samaro. If the conflict turned to war, Burin would have to take a real role.

  Ben turned to leave; then turned back and offered Adrienne a weak smile. “Has your ability progressed?” he asked, as though only just remembering that he was supposed to be her instructor, not a commissioner asking her for help in gaining the cooperation of one of his other trainees.

  Adrienne held out her hand and a ball of flame appeared two inches above her palm, flickering weakly before dying. Ben’s face fell, then lit again as Adrienne flung her hand out and had flame erupting in what had been a cold fireplace.

  “I’ve given up on fireballs,” she admitted. “But lighting fire…that I can do.”

  “Are you sure you can’t throw fire?” Ben asked. “That would be useful in…That’s what the commission is hoping you can do.”

  “I’ve tried, but there was no progress. However…” She pulled her sword from its sheath and held it out. With little more than a thought she sent fire racing up and down the blade. It was not the fury of flame that had engulfed the sword in battle. It was gentler, and left as quickly as it had come. “I think this will accomplish something similar to what the commission was hoping for.”

  Ben shuddered but nodded. “Yes, that seems like it would be an effective weapon. Perhaps without the distance of fireballs, but…Yes, it should do.”

  “I’ll keep working on it,” Adrienne said. “There might still be better ways to use it.”

  “That’s good.” Ben looked around her small room awkwardly. “I have things I need to get done today,” he said, the hunch of his shoulders becoming even more pronounced as he drew in on himself.

  Adrienne reached up and touched the leather cord of her necklace idly. She wished once again that things could have been different between them, that they had been able to develop some sort of friendship. “I understand,” she said. “I’ll see you soon for more training.”

  “Yes.” Ben looked relieved as he left, and Adrienne sank down onto her bed to think about how she would approach Malokai the next day, forgetting for the moment the book she had been reading.

  ••••••

  When Adrienne went downstairs for breakfast the next morning, she saw Malokai sitting alone at one of the tables. She had expected as much.

  Like her, Malokai got up with the sun. And being M’bai, an even more dangerous version of a soldier in the eyes of the inn’s patrons, there was no one who would dare eat with him, even if they were awake so early in the day. All of which worked in Adrienne’s favor.

  “What do you think of Kessering?” Adrienne asked as she sat at Malokai’s table. He was eating a bowl of lumpy porridge and a piece of bread with a stingy amount of butter. Adrienne was happy she had made friends with the cook, earning her more butter and lump-free gruel sweetened with honey. Good food made the time in Kessering more bearable.

  “It’s big,” Malokai said, barely glancing up from his bowl.

  Adrienne was surprised by his opinion of Kessering. As far as cities went, Kessering was not much larger than a decent-sized town. It was far richer than its size indicated due to the abundance of artisans, but most of the goods were traded outside of the city. Kyrog was home to nearly as many people, if the craftsmen, families, and women who flocked around soldiers were included. “Not so big,” she said. “Your cities must be smaller up in the mountains than those here.”

  “There are no cities in the Modabi Mountains,” Malokai said, eating another spoonful of porridge. Adrienne had heard that the M’bai were heathens and savages, but she didn’t believe they were so uncivilized that they really lived in caves like animals as some stories suggested. Malokai seemed too comfortable indoors for that to be true.

  “Surely there must be some,” Adrienne said.

  Malokai shook his head. “Cities are for lowlanders,” he told her. “Tribes live in small villages, not cities. There is no flat land in the mountains for cities, and cities are vulnerable. Weak. Men huddled behind walls like children.”

  Adrienne wasn’t sure what to do with that information, so she let it go and moved on to another topic. “Don’t let the fact that the townspeople avoid you bother you,” she advised. “Just about everyone here is afraid of soldiers. Or people they view as soldiers,” she added, remembering that he was opposed to that term. She recalled clearly him telling her that he was an M’bai warrior, not a soldier.

  Malokai finished his piece of bread, chewing and swallowing completely before answering. “I’m not concerned with what they think.”

  Out of sight under the table, Adrienne rapped her fingers on her thigh in a stacc
ato rhythm. He wasn’t answering in monosyllables as he had with the commission, but it was hardly a conversation that could lead to sharing confidences and her giving him advice. “Good,” she said, irritated. “If you’d like, I can introduce you to some people today. Other people with Talents.”

  She thought she saw a glimmer of interest in his intense blue eyes before he banked it. “What of the guards?”

  Adrienne nearly smiled. Malokai must have been paying attention to her whereabouts to know that she spent most of her days training the city guards. “They can do without me for the morning.”

  Malokai nodded. “I will meet these people you speak of,” he said. “This must be what Master Ruthford asked you to do.”

  Adrienne flushed with embarrassment. She hadn’t meant for him to know that she was talking to him because Ben had asked. “My introducing you to other Talented has nothing to do with Ben,” she said, which was at least partly true. Ben had never mentioned introducing Malokai to other Talented. In truth, Adrienne suspected the commission wouldn’t be pleased when they found out what she had done, but she was past the point of caring what they thought. If they ever got the nerve to punish her, she would accept whatever punishment they deemed fit. Perhaps they would decide to send her home. To Kyrog. Day by day she realized that was a punishment she would gladly accept.

  “We can leave whenever you’re ready,” Malokai said, gesturing to Adrienne’s half-full bowl.

  Adrienne took her time finishing her porridge. There was no reason to let Malokai know how unsettled she was by him, no reason to rush to suit his mood. He acted as though nothing anyone said or did had any emotional effect, and she wouldn’t let him see that their interaction had disturbed her in the least.

  When they got to Louella’s, the diminutive healer was nowhere to be seen. “Louella?” Adrienne called.

  “I’ll be out in a minute!” Louella’s voice sounded distant, and Adrienne thought she must be in the back storage room. “I’m mixing up a salve for Master Tyrn. His joints ache.”

  “Take your time,” Adrienne said, crossing her arms and leaning up against the counter that housed some of Louella’s herbs and healing supplies.

  Louella emerged from the back room a few minutes later. “Hello.” She greeted Malokai with her warm smile. “You must be Malokai.”

  Malokai looked startled by Louella’s appearance, and his hand traveled halfway to the weapon strapped to his back before he controlled the telling motion. Adrienne watched him closely, wondering why the delicate looking Louella would elicit such a reaction from the warrior. “This is Louella,” Adrienne said, studying Malokai’s reaction. “She is a Talented healer.”

  Although Malokai looked calm enough now, Adrienne paid attention to the hand that had earlier reached for his weapon. It was back down by his side, but there was no relaxation in it.

  “You’re not sick, are you?” Louella asked, looking Malokai up and down with the eyes of an experienced healer. “Some of the healers can tell if someone is sick as part of their Talent, but I still have to ask.” She shrugged, having accepted that having to ask after someone’s health was not a terrible limitation in light of the things her Talent did allow.

  “I’m fine,” he said curtly. Adrienne didn’t like the intensity of the looks he was directing at Louella. There were not many in this part of Samaro with such light coloring, but surely a man from the Modabi Mountains, which bordered Almet, would be familiar with such features. Adrienne knew that light skin and hair were normal in Almet, and Malokai himself had blue eyes.

  “Good,” Louella said, oblivious to the tension in the room. “When I first met Adrienne, we had a bit of a demonstration of my Talent,” Louella said. “Since you both seem well and unharmed, someone would have to change that before I could demonstrate, if a demonstration is what you’re after.”

  Adrienne remembered cutting herself so that Louella could study the particles in her blood, but decided that if Malokai wanted to see Louella’s skills firsthand then he would have to be the one broken or bleeding. There was only so much Adrienne was willing to do to catch Malokai’s attention.

  “What kinds of things can you do?” Malokai asked Louella. Adrienne had hoped that meeting with Louella would make him interested in the process of becoming Talented, and it seemed it had. Whatever had provoked his initial response to the healer seemed to have been replaced by curiosity, for the moment at least.

  “Well, so far as we can tell, the Talents people develop are in line with their profession,” Louella told him. “My particular strengths when it comes to my Talent are healing cuts and sores and mending broken bones.” She smiled, mischief glinting in her sky blue eyes. “Sewing and setting were my strong points before I developed a Talent.”

  Malokai studied Louella, his eyes as hard and cutting as ice. “What do you mean when you say you can heal cuts?”

  “With my Talent I can heal a cut, like one from a knife, almost instantly,” Louella explained. “The skin will heal over as if it had never been broken. More serious injuries can take longer, and it takes more time for the patient to recuperate, but I can heal wounds that would have been fatal had they not been treated by a Talented healer.”

  “The guards were attacked several weeks ago,” Adrienne said, putting it into a perspective that a soldier—a warrior—would understand more readily. “Three of the men died. Two more probably would have, were it not for Louella and the other healers.” She remembered the gruesome wounds that in any other city would have made it so that all that she could do was to try and make the men comfortable as they died.

  “Adrienne was badly hurt as well,” Louella added, glancing over at her friend.

  “It wouldn’t have been fatal,” Adrienne objected, not wanting her own experience with healing to be central to the conversation. There was no reason for Malokai to know that she would have lost the fight—and her life—had she not had a Talent of her own.

  “What about illness?” Malokai asked.

  Louella wrinkled her nose. “My Talent in that area never really developed. My poultices and herbs seem to work the slightest bit better, but other healers have experienced great improvement in dealing with illnesses after discovering a Talent, to the point that they can cure the illness right then. For me, my Talent lies in healing physical injuries.”

  “Maureen’s ability is more inclined toward illnesses,” Adrienne added.

  “Maureen?” Malokai did not recognize the strange name, and Adrienne tried to put herself in his place. He had not been in Kessering for very long, and new information was being given to him very rapidly. It was a wonder he had kept up with their conversation so far.

  “Another Talented healer,” Louella said amiably. “There probably isn’t a regular healer in Kessering anymore. No point, when the rest of us can heal better and faster. Those that weren’t trained as Talented have all moved away.” Louella rose to her feet. “Why don’t we all go into the back room and have some tea? Perhaps send for Pieter?”

  “That would be good,” Adrienne said before Malokai could speak and possibly decline the invitation. She straightened up from where she had been leaning against the counter and grabbed Malokai’s arm to steer him to the back room. Despite growing up around soldiers and being one herself, Adrienne was still impressed by the iron-hard muscles cording his arms.

  Adrienne ignored the unfamiliar tug in her gut and focused on why she was here. She had heard Malokai say more since meeting Louella than at any time since the commission had questioned him, and she was curious to see what else he might have to say now that he was talking.

  “Could you get the fire going?” Louella asked, pointing to the hearth that had only a few sullen red embers remaining.

  Malokai moved toward the hearth, but Adrienne stopped him. “I’ve got it.” In seconds the embers were flaring to life and Adrienne was adding logs from the woodbox to an already lively fire.

  “How did you…?” Malokai asked, blue eyes growing wide.
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  “My Talent manifested in fire,” Adrienne said. “It can be useful even for such mundane chores.” She thought of the flames running up the blade of her sword to devour her enemy. The memory was stronger than any death she’d caused since her first, and she knew that was what her Talent had been meant for. She’d promised Ben she would keep looking for new ways to use it, but she had already found its purpose.

  She could see that she had finally captured all of Malokai’s attention. The normally stoic warrior could not fully hide the look of shock on his ebon face. “Didn’t Ben tell you about my Talent?” she asked.

  Malokai slowly shook his head. “I only knew that you had one. You, the healers, some blacksmiths, and a few others. He did not say what any of you could do. I know Master Ruthford can memorize, and another scholar can locate books…”

  “Did you think all of our abilities were like that?” Adrienne asked.

  Malokai’s broad shoulders rose and fell in a shrug. “Master Ruthford only said he was hoping for a more active result with me.”

  Adrienne looked at the ceiling as if there were answers carved into the roughhewn logs. “Ben should have told you what we could do.” Adrienne wouldn’t have been too eager to discover a Talent herself if she had thought her future ability was limited to one like Ben’s.

  But she had learned about the Talents from Tam before she had ever read about them, and the commission had told her even more. She wondered for a moment why they had been more forthcoming with her than with Malokai, and came to the conclusion that they had trusted her more than they trusted him. She looked again at the dark, dangerous looking M’bai warrior and could see why the commission had made that choice, though she did not agree with it.

  Adrienne knew what it was like to be eaten up with curiosity about what was being done in the small city and dissatisfied with the commission’s decisions, and felt a new sense of kinship with Malokai. She realized he must be feeling now what she had felt when she first arrived in the city.

  In a move of sympathy Adrienne explained what she could about her own Talent to Malokai, and passed the job of explaining Pieter’s Talent to Louella.