The Enhancer

by McCullough, Teresa; Baxter, Meg

  When Meeral worked her way up out of sleep, the rocking motion was gentle and regular. She thought she heard water splashing and wondered if she were really awake. She opened her eyes but it was dark. She tried to reach the black that covered her face, but she strained against something tight around her wrist.

  A voice said, "Meeral. Can you hear me?" The man's voice was distorted, as if it were coming out of a well.

  She shook her head to try to clear the strangeness of the sound but it came again. "Can you hear me, Meeral?"

  "Yes."

  "Do you remember the girl who was with you -- Lenera?"

  Had something happened to Lenera? Meeral answered, "Yes. Is she all right?"

  "Yes. She will continue to be if you cooperate. If you try any tricks -- any enhancing -- hurt any one of us, she will suffer."

  "Where is she?"

  "Too far for you to rescue her. She's on another ship."

  Another ship? That must mean that Meeral herself was on a ship. Where was MorToak? Had Chak killed him?

  "How do I know you're telling the truth?"

  "You'll find out if you do as I tell you. We've been ordered to deliver you in good condition, and it's not good for you to be drugged all the time. If you don't try to escape or harm us we'll allow you to move around on this ship until we're ready to land in Binrel."

  "Binrel?" Meeral asked then she remembered it was the capital of Drarie before he told her. She was on a ship that was heading far away from her country of Lurdoa, deep into the country of the enemy. She said, "I will not endanger Lenera's life -- if I know she is alive."

  "If you try to escape, or do anything that we could interpret as dangerous to us, she will die. You understand?"

  "Yes."

  She felt hands working on her wrists while other hands removed the black hood that was over her head. The man had been talking through an odd looking horn -- she supposed it was to confuse her in case she tried to attack him through her ability to enhance. He did not understand enhancing.

  A woman helped untie her bonds, and then showed her where she could take a bath. The water was cold, but she could not heat it. All her things had been brought from the carriage including her flute. She put on her blue linen dress and the wool shawl in case it was cold on the deck.

  What did they want with her? Revenge? She began to add up all the damage she had done to the Draries and shuddered.

  "You may walk on the deck," the man told her, "but do not open any doors except the door of this cabin and the room in which you had your bath. If you do, we will tie you up, drug you, or, if necessary, kill you."

  Meeral didn't know what she expected as she stepped out on the deck. The ship sailed parallel to the shoreline. She could see a trace of land in the direction of the setting sun. The wind was blowing and she pulled her shawl around her. A man came toward her, his back to the sun. She recognized the outline of his figure immediately. MorToak

  "Meeral!" he said, and opened his arms to her. He enclosed her and she almost felt safe.

  After a moment they stepped away from each other, each a little embarrassed.

  "I saw them put Lenera on a another ship," he said. "They said I should tell you."

  They walked on the deck. The sailors sang as they worked, but when Meeral came near them they stopped in the middle of a phrase and moved as far from her as they could while continuing their work.

  "They don't know much about enhancing," Meeral said.

  "They know you are responsible for winning the battles. They set a trap for us."

  "But we left so quickly."

  "We didn't keep it a secret. They guessed correctly that we would head for Lurdoa City when we thought their ships threatened it."

  "What happened to Chak -- the man in the tavern?"

  "He's on the same ship as Lenera. He wanted to come on this one with you, but they don't trust him. What does he have against you?"

  Meeral shook her head. "I ran away from him. You rescued me from him, do you remember?"

  "Of course, I remember," he said, brushing his hand across her hair.

  They spent their days together, but always someone watched them, sometimes the man who had first talked with Meeral, sometimes the woman. Fortunately, Meeral and MorToak could talk together without being overheard. Since he knew about Shejani, she could talk about her. They exchanged childhood memories. He felt out of place in his own home when his father had remarried; she felt out of place in Cyrtuno because of the way Shejani raised her.

  "Do you think your mother was happy?" he asked.

  "Yes."

  "Would you be happy -- living the way she did?"

  Why was he asking her this? Was it a serious question? The expression on his face did not give her the answer. Even when she said, "No. I wouldn't," she did not know if he were suggesting she follow in her mother's path. If she had been in Pactyl she would have told him that the question was insulting, but here on the ship, surrounded by enemies, was not the time to express her anger at the hint of such a proposal.

  Every day they walked the narrow, cluttered deck, or sat with their backs against the cabin, talking, trying to figure out what they would find when they landed. If the Draries wanted revenge, why didn't they kill her immediately? Would King ParToak pay the Draries a ransom for the return of MorToak?

  MorToak told her about the Drarie royal family. One hundred fifty years ago the crown prince had gone to Lurdoa and brought back an enhancer for his bride. Yorlorn, a strong-minded woman, was not popular with the members of the nobility. Those who snubbed or criticized her, died mysteriously at one of her candlelight dinners. The members of the royal family and the titled nobles decided that being gracious to her was the wisest action.

  After the birth of Yorlorn's first son, she held the small baby in her arms and announced that, when he was old enough, he would marry an enhancer who had noble blood in her veins. Three dukes and a count got busy and acquired brides from Lurdoa who were enhancers. The men worked diligently producing babies of the required noble blood.

  Yorlorn's edict became custom; royalty married within the circle of the five noble families. Unlike the many enhancers in Lurdoa who were strictly taught that enhancing was a gift and a responsibility, in Drarie, only the nobility were able to enhance. They used enhancing as a weapon for political or personal gain.

  Though the Draries on the ship did not know how enhancers used their skill, they knew enough to keep all flames out of Meeral's sight. They served her dinner during the daylight. When it grew dark, they gave her simple food and drink and locked in her room.

  The further south they sailed, the hotter it became, especially in the prison of her small cabin. Her only comfort was her flute, which she played in the dark. When she first heard shuffling sounds and murmurs outside her door she stopped playing, indignant that the Draries were listening to her private music. But she missed the comfort the flute gave her so she continued to play, ignoring her uninvited audience.

  One night she played the tune that always set Shejani dancing. She heard more scraping and shuffling outside her cabin than she had ever heard before. Then, over the sound of her flute, she heard singing. The sailors sang with as much rollicking vigor as Shejani had given her dance. Even when Meeral stopped playing, the tune continued, Shejani's tune. Finally, with fading laughter, the song stopped.

  The captain was a sour man, with a thin face and frame. At dinner he never let his eyes meet Meeral's.

  Once he said, "The captain of one of the ships you sunk in Pactyl Harbor was a good friend of mine."

  MorToak said in a low voice, "Meeral lost a good friend. A cannon ball from a Drarie ship hit the house. She was burned to death."

  The captain pushed his food around on his plate for a moment then said, "We never understood how the ships were sunk."

  MorToak's eyes met Meeral's for a moment.

  The captain lifted his pewter tankard to his lips and took a long drink. He gave a quick glance that almost touch
ed Meeral, then said, "King Quanzar will find out how it's done."

  That night Meeral's room was hotter than ever. The woman gave her a large pewter mug of lemonade to take to her room. She tried enhancing it by reaching down to get the cold, but she only succeeded in making it slightly cooler. She kept thinking about what the captain had said. Is this why they kidnapped her, so she would show them how she had sunk their ships? The dark and the heat seemed to close in on her. Perhaps if she reached further down in the earth she would find the coolness and at least have the comfort of a cold drink.

  She held the pewter mug in her hands and far, far reached down into the earth. It felt wrong. Cautiously, she enhanced the lemonade. Suddenly the lemonade bubbled and spit hot liquid over the top of the mug. She cried out and dropped the hot mug on the floor, splashing hot lemonade on her legs.

  She heard a sound outside her door. Someone was always nearby. Please, she thought, don't let them come in until the lemonade has cooled.

  A voice called, "What happened in there."

  "I dropped something. I'll find it tomorrow."

  Meeral helped the woman clean up the sticky lemonade the next morning. Later Meeral sat with her back against the cabin staring out at the water. People watched her as they always did. She wanted to see if she could reach down into the hot part of the earth again. She'd have to wait her chance.

  Sometimes MorToak told her how the Draries were using machines to increase production of many of the things that the Lurdoans made with the help of enhancing.

  "Machines will come to Lurdoa," he said. "Then the enhancers must find new skills."

  "The High Priestess of the Ezant church, Zavona, will teach women new skills," Meeral said, wondering if she would ever get back to Pactyl.

  They talked of many things. They discussed the Ezant and the Gurkonian religions. They watched porpoises playing with the stern of the ship. MorToak talked of his uncle's estate, High Pastures. Perhaps some day he could show it to her. Sometimes he held her hand or brushed a strand of hair from her face.

  They had been becalmed for several hours when the captain said at dinner, "We'll land in Binrel tomorrow if we get a good breeze. You'll recognize it when you see the high bluffs of Janshei's Leap. ItÕs the remains on an extinct volcano and is higher than everything else around here."

  "Did Janshei leap?" MorToak asked with a smile.

  "She certainly did. Her father told her she had to marry a cousin twice her age. She said she'd rather die. She jumped off the top of what used to be called Binrel Overlook. I hope the wind picks up. I'm anxious to get home."

  "I guess there's nothing you can do about that," MorToak said idly

  "Someday, maybe soon, we'll have machines that make the ships move faster than these sails. We're working on different kinds of wheels that turn under water. Then we won't have to sit out here and wait for the wind."

  But the next day there was only a whisper of wind.

  "Imagine,Ó MorToak said, "a machine that can make a ship go faster."

  Meeral said in a low tone, "An enhancer could do it." She was staring at a sailor fanning himself with a stiff fan made from a leaf.

  "How?" MorToak asked

  Suddenly there was a shout from the sailors. They pointed to the sail as it billowed away from its slack droop against the boom. The taut sail lasted for only few seconds, then fell back limply. MorToak's eyes widened, but he talked about his horse and several other irrelevant subjects until he was sure no one was looking at them. When the sailors had given up on the wind, MorToak asked Meeral in a low voice, "Did you do that?"

  Meeral nodded.

  "Don't ever do anything like that again. They could use that as an excuse to kill you." The way he spoke sounded like a military order but his eyes showed her more.

  Meeral did not tell him about her next experiment with enhancing. The next morning the ship was in sight of Janshei's Leap. The sailors looked eagerly at the outline of the city, and talked of who would greet them. Meeral sat at the stern of the ship. She focused on a spot far off in the water. For months she had extended the distance she could enhance. She had reached out across the water to destroy the Drarie ships. Now she reached down into the earth, looking for the heat that made her lemonade boil. The full force of her enhancing hit the water for a fraction of a second. A cloud of steam rose from the spot she had selected. Any sound it might have made was covered by the wind and waves.

  As they sailed closer to shore the captain insisted Meeral and MorToak go to his cabin and eat their dinner. He said they would not be fed again for a long time. Nor would they be allowed on deck until the ship was in port. While she ate, Meeral thought of ways she might use her new enhancing skills. Her mind was still on enhancing as she left the captain's cabin. Suddenly the ship seemed to rock. She lurched to one side and would have hit her head if MorToak had not caught her. All her strength left her body. She heard MorToak say, "Couldn't you have warned her? She might have hurt herself."

  As everything turned black she heard the captain answer. "What difference does it make?"

  CHAPTER 20

  Meeral had been there before, in the uncontrolled part of her head that was muddled with drugs. She no longer felt the rocking motion or the cool breeze of the ship. She must be in Drarie, the land of her enemy. She reached up to fondle the pendant that hung from a chain around her neck, but, as she should have expected, her hands were tied. The black that covered her face felt heavy and stiff. And hot.

  "Can you hear me, Meeral?" a woman's voice asked. It was the voice of the woman from the ship.

  "Yes."

  "I'm allowed to untie your hands but you must have the hood on your head."

  When Meeral ran her fingers over the hood she decided it was a fiendish device, made of leather, with a hole for her mouth and her nose. It was fastened firmly by a strap around her neck that was locked in place. Inside the hood some soft material had been placed over her eyes, blocking out any light that might creep in.

  Someone held her arm and led her on hard floors that echoed the sound of her feet and the feet of those who escorted her. Then she was guided into a chair and told to wait. She heard a door open.

  "Meeral?" MorToak's voice sounded distressed.

  There was the shuffle of feet as a voice she did not know said, "You're not allowed to go near her."

  "Why do you have that awful thing over her head?" MorToak demanded.

  "It's the best way we know of dealing with enhancers." The man's voice sounded a bit uncertain as he added. "If she wanted to hurt me, she wouldn't try because she might miss me and hurt you."

  MorToak spoke in formal tones as he said, "Meeral, let me introduce you to Prince Xankald. We are his prisoners, but he has been most gracious to me, giving me comfortable quarters." Then, in an anxious voice he asked, "Are you all right, Meeral?"

  Meeral shrugged her shoulders to indicate that she wasn't pleased with her situation.

  Prince Xankald said, "MorToak. We will continue to treat you as a prince. This woman is an enhancer and dangerous. My father has instructed me to be very careful with her."

  Though MorToak's voice was controlled, Meeral could hear his hidden anger as he said, "Lurdoa values their enhancers. You've created dangerous women in Drarie by letting them behave as monsters. Meeral, do you remember I told you that enhancers in this country are quite different from our enhancers? You may find it amusing to hear that Prince Xankald, when he was young, considered that living in the palace was so dangerous that he joined the army. I guess that no matter how many perils a man finds in army life, it's safer than living in Binrel among relatives. What do you think of that?"

  "What a terrible waste," Meeral said.

  Then MorToak seemed to address Prince Xankald. "Is that how you lost your older brother and sister, through enhancers?"

  "So you've heard about them," Xankald said. "My sister's death was an . . . accident, but my brother was foolish enough to announce one day that he would not marry eithe
r of the two women who were eligible to be his wife. He died before the day was over. When soldiers moved to arrest them both, one woman killed the other, saying the dead woman was the murderer. When someone questioned her, she killed the questioner. We had to wait until she fell asleep before we could dispose of her."

  After a short pause Xankald said, "My father is anxious for me to marry, but the quarrels between enhancers have left so few eligible women available."

  The room became silent. Meeral almost felt the silence was speaking to her, but she did not understand what it said.

  Finally Xankald addressed her in a soft voice. "Meeral, is it true that enhancers in Lurdoa only kill if their own life is in danger?"

  "Their own life or the life of an innocent person." She replied, remembering Thera and the sailor.

  "Does it work? I mean, do enhancers obey those rules?"

  "Absolutely. We are taught the rules from the moment we know we can enhance. When we are older we find that the rules are the law, and the law is enforced." Meeral wanted to point out to this man, whom she knew only by his voice, how valuable enhancers could be. He sounded like a reasonable man, but she was distracted by her own discomfort. She wiggled restlessly in her chair.

  Xankald must have noticed because he said, "We're waiting for soldiers to bring your friend Lenera. King Quanzar ordered her locked up since she arrived. I haven't seen her but I hear she is well."

  "By the way," Xankald said, and Meeral realized he was speaking to MorToak. "You are not likely to be king."

  Did this mean they were going to kill MorToak? Xankald must have sensed the reaction to his statement, for he laughed, without apology. "That's not a threat. We just had news that your crown prince, DotToak, and his wife, Roaneffi, became parents of a son. In a place called Pine Hills. Does that mean anything to you?"

  "It certainly does. I have hunted there often."

  Meeral listened while MorToak and Xankald compared their hunting experiences, then shifted to the breeding of cattle and planting of wheat. Two men, made enemies by war, had found many peaceful subject to talk about. Meeral would have enjoyed it more if the hot leather mask did not press against her face. Yet she liked hearing MorToak tell about Princess Roaneffi's Pine Hills and the adjacent estate of High Pastures where DotToak had grown up and MorToak had lived for many years. She might have ignored the cursed mask if she could watch MorToak, the slight wave of his hands as he spoke, and the way he tossed his head to move his blond hair from his face. Now her ears drew what they could from his voice. MorToak talked about farming with boyish enthusiasm while Xankald language was blunt and amusing.