The Talented (31 page)

Elder Rynn held up a hand
to halt any further explanations from the eager scholar. “You can
fight?” he asked Malokai.

“
Anyone can fight,” Malokai
responded.

Elder Rynn scowled,
causing the brackets around his mouth to deepen so that they looked
like gouges carved into charred wood. “I don’t appreciate glib
answers,” he told Malokai.

Malokai’s bland expression
never changed. “Anyone can fight,” he repeated. “If you wanted to
know if I was skilled, that should have been your question.” His
words and tone were lyrical, but they revealed nothing of his
thoughts, and there was no sign that he was at all invested in the
outcome of this interview. Adrienne wondered who this person was,
and why he had agreed to come to Kessering in the first
place.

“
Are you skilled?” Elder
Rynn asked with mounting impatience. “Have you had formal
training?”

“
Yes.”

Elder Rynn seemed
dissatisfied by the lack of elaboration. With an impatient gesture,
he motioned Adrienne forward. “You will ascertain his skill level,”
he ordered.

Adrienne knew without
testing that Malokai would be well able to handle himself, but she
was curious to test her skills against his. “Now?” she asked,
looking to the commission for direction. They did not even like to
discuss fighting, and she doubted they truly wanted to witness the
fight between her and the formidable M’bai warrior. There would be
nothing civilized about it, and she doubted that the commissioners
like Franklin and Ben were ready to see such a fight.

“
Yes,” the Elder told her.
“There is no use continuing until we know he has the requisite
skills.”

Franklin coughed nervously
and a few of the commissioners shifted in their seats, but no one
dared speak against Elder Rynn, and no one left the
room.

Adrienne turned to face
Malokai. She had fought many men, and the idea of sparring with
this one should not have frightened her, yet her heart was
hammering in her chest. “No weapons,” she told him, unbuckling her
sword and scabbard from her belt.

“
As you wish.” Malokai
leaned his strange spear-like weapon against the wall. “Would you
like me to place my knives aside as well?” he asked. The musical
lilt to his deep voice was a surprising sound coming from the
serious looking man.

“
No, that won’t be
necessary.” Adrienne placed her sword beside Malokai’s spear-like
weapon, out of the way of their coming match. Her dagger she kept,
though she would not use it in the fight.

Without a word, it
began.

Adrienne watched Malokai’s
feet for a sign that he was slipping into a pattern, his eyes for
any sign that he was about to make a move. Still, she did not see
the punch that sent her to the ground, her head spinning dizzily
from the impact of his fist against her cheek.

She rolled left on pure
instinct and avoided a second blow.

Adrienne leapt to her
feet, blood humming, more alert now than she had been in months.
This was not a fight like the one she’d experienced with the
marauders, a fight of life or death. This was a test of skill, and
it was thrilling in a completely different way.

He was fast, but no faster
than she, and when she faked a punch his instinctive move to block
allowed her to land a brutal kick to his left leg. It was not
enough to knock him down, but it gave her enough time to plant a
hard kick in his short-ribs.

Malokai grunted
satisfactorily but did not double over as a lesser man might—as
Adrienne had expected him to do. Instead, he moved forward,
surprising her, and even as she danced back he made a chopping
motion with his right hand that connected with her shoulder and
made her left arm numb.

Then they were on the
floor, each struggling to remain on top, raining blows on each
other. Adrienne thrust her hips upward and was able to roll so that
the warrior was below her.

The sound of flesh against
flesh mixed with grunts of effort and pain in a way that was purely
primal.

When it was over, Malokai
had Adrienne pinned to the floor. Everything ached, her ribs
protested every breath, and the taste of blood warned that her lip
was bleeding.

She felt
wonderful.

Malokai’s nose was
bloodied, and his right eye was starting to swell, but even through
the blood and swelling Adrienne thought she saw a glimmer of
respect. It brought a smile to her bloody lips.

“
He’s impressive,” she told
their audience.

“
More so than you, it
seems,” Lady Chessing said imperiously. Adrienne looked over and
saw that, far from the disgust she had expected, there was a light
of excitement in the noblewoman’s eyes.

Adrienne’s focus shifted
as Malokai rolled off of her more smoothly than she felt he had a
right to move after a round like that, then reached down for her
hand. She accepted it and allowed him to help her to her
feet.

For a moment she dismissed
the commissioners as unimportant and regarded the strange man
seriously. “What rank are you?” she asked.

“
M’bai have no rank,” he
told her, his stunning, surprisingly blue eyes holding hers
steadily. “I am an M’bai warrior, not one of you lowland
soldiers.”

Adrienne nodded and turned
to face the commission. “Although he may not call himself a
soldier, he is a skilled fighter with obvious training and
dedication to his craft,” she told them.

“
You didn’t even use
weapons,” Lady Chessing said disparagingly, though that light had
not yet left her eyes. “Any idiot can roll on the floor and throw
punches.”

“
There are many different
styles of fighting,” Adrienne patiently informed Lady Chessing and
the rest of the commission. “I am sure Malokai is as skilled with
weapons as without.” Adrienne looked at Malokai for confirmation,
but he was back to staring impassively at the commissioners as
though he was not interested in their verdict.

“
I believe we should trust
Lieutenant Rydaeg’s judgment,” Ben said, seeming to be happier
about her presence at the commission meeting now that she had
proven useful. “She has not yet been wrong when it comes to
fighting matters.”

Her relationship with Ben
had grown more comfortable since the day she had fought the
raiders, but the fact that she was pleased by such a tepid
compliment worried her. She had been away from people who truly
appreciated her skills for far too long if such a comment could
mean so much. “You can trust me in this,” she assured
them.

“
In that case, let us
continue the interview,” Elder Rynn said.

The questions the
commission asked Malokai about his history, his beliefs, his skills
and experiences, were all answered as succinctly and with as little
detail as possible. Even at the end of the extensive interview,
Adrienne still felt that she knew nothing about him. He had managed
to answer all of their questions without revealing anything
meaningful about himself. It was intriguing, and it made Adrienne
wonder what he was so carefully hiding.

“
Adrienne, you will escort
Malokai to the inn,” Ben told her. “I will meet with him this
afternoon.”

“
Of course,” Adrienne
said.

She waited to say more
until she and Malokai were well away from the library and the
prying ears of the commission. “Who are you?” she asked, stepping
in front of him so that he had to either stop or run her
down.

“
Malokai Kyzeka,” he told
her, not looking at all surprised or perturbed by her abrupt
behavior. He did look a bit frightening, though, with his eye
swollen and blood drying on his shirt.

“
Of the M’bai,” Adrienne
added. “A group that no one knows anything about.”

“
We live in the Modabi
Mountains,” he said.

That was about all
Adrienne did know about the M’bai. They lived in small tribes in
the mountains to the northeast, and although that land appeared to
belong to Samaro on maps, in truth the M’bai were largely left to
self-rule. Tales of their savagery were rampant on the plains, and
some stories painted the M’bai as monsters who snuck down from the
mountains to abduct children and decimate crops. Adrienne did not
believe these stories, but she thought there must be a reason the
M’bai were left alone.

She wanted to learn the
truth about the M’bai, and was about to ask Malokai another
question when she remembered that she was supposed to be training
the guards. Adrienne had told all of them to continue without her
should she ever not arrive for practice, but she didn’t trust that
they would.

“
Would you like to help me
train the city guards?” she asked Malokai. It would be good to have
another person with fighting experience there to help her. He would
bring a different view and style to the sessions, just as Ricco and
other volunteers had done for Jeral.

“
You were showing me to the
inn,” he reminded her, and despite the musical quality to his voice
it was clear that he was not interested in more than
that.

“
Ben won’t go looking for
you until this afternoon,” Adrienne said dismissively. “There is
plenty of time.”

Malokai shook his head.
“The inn,” he repeated.

Adrienne’s mouth
tightened. Although she had been mad at the commission for not
informing her of Malokai’s presence in the city, she’d still been
excited by the fact that she was no longer the only soldier in
Kessering.

What she had not expected
was such aloofness and lack of interest on Malokai’s part. “Fine,”
she said sharply, increasing her pace as she led him toward the
inn. It was irritating that his long legs made it so that he could
keep pace with her without effort, and she struggled to control her
temper.

“
This is the inn,” Adrienne
said, stopping in front of The Golden Trumpet. “Master Inbaum will
have a room ready, I’m sure. I should return sometime this
evening.”

Malokai nodded brusquely
and headed into the inn, ducking his head so as not to hit it on
the low doorframe.

Adrienne stared at his
receding form in disbelief. He had not asked her a single question,
not even what her Talent was, despite the fact that Elder Rynn had
revealed that she possessed one. With a sound of disgust, Adrienne
headed to where the guards should be training. She thought sparring
with them three-on-one would be a good way to work out some of her
aggression, and after the workout she had just had, it might even
present a challenge.

“
Lieutenant!” Flynn called
out when she entered the training yard. “We didn’t know if you were
coming.”

Only twenty men were
present, and only a few of those were sweating to indicate they had
been doing more than standing around. “I have instructed everyone
to continue training regardless of whether or not I am present,”
she snapped. “Where are the others?” After Malokai’s brush-off she
was especially displeased that some of the guards had disobeyed
her.

“
They left, Lieutenant,”
Edward said. “Charles said that training without you was a waste of
time, so he and some of the others decided not to stay.”

Adrienne’s hands curled
into fists, her short nails digging into her palms. Though a fight
might be satisfying, it would cause far more problems than it would
solve. Luckily, she knew of other ways to get revenge. Maybe none
quite so satisfying as bloodying the guards, but certainly less
likely to get her into trouble.

“
Three-on-one sparring
today,” she announced, knowing the men would enjoy the activity,
and that those who had left would be sorry to miss out. “Practice
swords, three of you against me.”

There was an excited
flurry of movement as everyone grabbed their practice swords and
broke into groups, planning their strategies.

“
Lieutenant?” Flynn asked
cautiously as he and two other guards faced her.

“
Yes?”

“
What happened to your
lip?”

Adrienne ran her tongue
against the tender inside of the split lip. It stung, but was not
nearly as painful as her aching ribs. “I had a warm-up
round.”

••••••

Two soft knocks pulled
Adrienne forward several centuries. She shook her head in an
attempt to orient herself to the room around her. She had been so
immersed in reading one of the old journals that she hadn’t noticed
the dimming light of the candle burning on the table or the
stiffness in her neck. There had been another mention of the Dark
Mage, and of an even darker force that gave someone control over
the dead.

Another knock
sounded.

Adrienne was about to call
out to ask who was at the door, but reached out with Oneness
instead and felt Ben’s unmistakable presence.

She hurriedly took the
journal she had been reading and shoved it under her bed with two
other books, then folded down the blanket on her bed so that the
books were hidden before crossing to the door.

“
I didn’t know you were
coming by,” Adrienne said as she opened the door to allow Ben
inside.