The Talented (33 page)

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response to the healer seemed to have been replaced by curiosity,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.

“
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.

“
I don’t think anyone
really knew what to expect of blacksmiths,” Louella said. “Not that
they knew what to expect of the first healers, either, of
course.”

“
So what
happened?”

“
Everything Pieter creates
while using his Talent is better. It works better, lasts longer,
stays sharper.”

“
Like a weapon?”

“
He made my sword,”
Adrienne said, unsheathing the first couple inches so that he could
see the blue-tinged blade.”

“
The color…”

“
Part of his Talent,”
Louella explained. “He doesn’t try to make things blue, but that
just seems to be part of it.”

Malokai nodded, as if that
made perfect sense, and Adrienne realized that in a strange way it
did. As much sense as any of what they were telling the M’bai
warrior. They told him more, and he sat and listened attentively,
asking questions occasionally.

Malokai might not be a
soldier, but she knew from experience that he was an exemplary
fighter. The commission might have doubts about him as a potential
Talented, but to Adrienne that quiet intensity, that focus, was as
important as the active skill of fighting when it came to making
war. And to developing a Talent.

Pieter arrived while
Louella was telling Malokai more about the Talents manifested by
others in Kessering, and it wasn’t until after the four of them had
eaten lunch that Adrienne said she needed to see how the guards
were doing without her there.

“
Hopefully they kept up
their training,” Adrienne said as she rose from the table. The
guards were getting better at obeying her even when she wasn’t
around to enforce their behavior, especially since the day Malokai
had arrived and some of them had missed the impromptu three-on-one
sparring session, but she didn’t trust them for too long without
her. Charles still refused to fully accept her command, and there
were other guards who tended to follow him when the opportunity
arose. They preferred sloth over the rewards of hard
work.

She wanted to get rid of
Charles, but could think of no way to do it that the commission
would accept. Explaining to them why she removed an experienced
guard from the watch would not be easy, and could wind up hurting
her long term goals for the guards.

“
How long are you going to
keep them training all day every day?” Louella asked. “It’s no
wonder that they tire of it.”

Adrienne knew that Louella
didn’t mean any offense, but the healer could not understand the
time it took to become truly proficient in the art of fighting.
“They don’t train every day,” Adrienne said. “Six of them are now
on duty at all times, which means every five days they get a day to
do little more than walk the streets or watch the gate.”

“
That still isn’t a day
off,” Louella pointed out.

Adrienne ground her teeth.
“Maybe if I had more than thirty guards I would be able to give
them more time off.” Adrienne’s voice had come out more sharply
than she had intended, mostly because she knew that Louella had a
point—a good one. But Adrienne knew her own point was just as
valid. Eventually, she would cut back on the training time, but not
yet. The guards were too new, too undisciplined to be given time
off. Too vulnerable, if there was another attack. If she eased off
on their training early and one of them was killed because of
it…

“
I would like to see these
guards,” Malokai said in his musical voice, cutting through the
tension between the two friends.

Adrienne had been hoping
to get Malokai involved with the guard’s training since his first
day in Kessering, and she allowed herself a small smile. “Then
follow me.”

When they got to the
training grounds, all of the guards who were supposed to be
training were present, and all practicing as they had been
instructed. Satisfaction turned to confusion when she realized that
one of those men training was Edward, not Flynn.

“
Guardsman Witter, aren’t
you on duty today?” she asked Edward. He was not the kind of man to
skip out on guard duty, but she couldn’t figure out why he would be
at practice instead of where he should be.

“
Yes, Lieutenant,” Edward
answered, sheathing his sword with practiced moves and snapping to
attention. “However, due to your absence, I thought it prudent to
oversee the training myself. Flynn agreed to take my place
today.”

Adrienne nodded. It was a
smart decision on Edward’s part; the other guards were more likely
to listen to him than to young Flynn or anyone else besides
Charles. Adrienne had been considering making Edward Captain of the
Guard, and she knew that she would have to do so soon. He was a
natural-born leader, and one of the most talented of the group.
“Good work,” she told him before turning to the group at
large.