Destiny (4 page)

"What are you talking about?" Kail demanded, disturbed over the way Asri now sat staring at Driffin as though what she'd heard was too good to believe. "If there was a sixth talent, the Astindans would have told us about it. I don't know what you think you're playing at, but - "

"Engreath, the Astindans don't yet know about the sixth talent," Ruhl put in gently, and Kail could feel himself being calmed. "Driff told me that it was the sixth talent that let our Seated Blending defeat the Astindans when they came here to destroy the city. The sixth talent is Sight magic."

"Those with Sight magic hid out among the supposedly untalented," Driffin added just as gently while Kail sat with his mouth open, gripped in mild shock. "They were afraid to let anyone find out about their talent, since they knew without doubt that the nobles would have made slaves of them. The current Seated Blending somehow managed to have a Sight magic member as one of them, and after they won against all comers the people with the sixth talent revealed themselves."

"And now it's time for you two to eat," Idresia said as she put plates in front of Kail and Asri. "Revelations sit better on full stomachs."

"Is what you just said really true?" Asri asked the others, ignoring the plate of food in front of her. "I'm really not useless and I do have a talent? I don't have to give up my baby because he isn't untalented either?"

"No, my dear, you're really not untalented," Driffin said with a warm and reassuring smile. "The fact that you're sitting here being told about it ought to be proof enough of
that
. If you were an ordinary talent I might not be certain about your son, but since you have Sight magic the chances are excellent that he has the same. We'll have to wait until he gets old enough to speak before we can be certain, but I'm very optimistic."

Asri began to cry then, but the way she laughed at the same time kept Kail from being overly disturbed. Her tears were ones of relief, and if Kail didn't understand exactly how she felt, no one in the world did.

"The Astindans are still requiring 'the untalented' to give up their equally 'untalented' children?" Ruhl asked after a moment, faint surprise in the question. "I would have thought that they'd learned the truth by now."

"They don't seem to have," Kail confirmed as he began to give his omelet some attention. "I suppose I might as well admit now that we were sent to Astinda with the rest of our former peers, but we did well enough that we were given the chance to earn Astindan citizenship. I was in the midst of doing just that when Asri was told that she would be best off giving up her 'untalented' son. That's when we decided to come back here."

"What sort of thing were you doing there?" Idresia asked as she returned with two cups of tea. "Is it anything you could do here as well?"

"I'd love to do the same here," Kail answered ruefully after he swallowed a delicious bite of omelet. "A group of us were looking into new uses of talent, and we came up with a number of good ideas. If you know of any High talents who would be willing to help out, I'll be glad to share what we came up with."

"We'll accept that offer, but not right now," Driffin said after exchanging odd glances with the others. "Among other things, we have the Nolls and their plans to worry about. Those renegades have almost a hundred and fifty men to do their dirty-work for them, and we don't want to see any innocents hurt by their hired bullies. If you'd like to give us a hand with
that
project, we'd be happy to have you."

"I suddenly have the feeling that we'll be of more help to you than you expect," Asri said, the food on her fork ignored as she stared elsewhere. "Does the feeling have anything to do with my … talent?"

"It certainly does," Driffin agreed at once as he leaned forward with obvious interest. "That's what Sight magic is, being able to see into the future. Do you see any details to go along with the feeling?"

"Not really," Asri answered, sighing as she now looked at the forkful of food. "Obviously my talent isn't as … full as I'd hoped it would be."

"That's what
you
think," Driffin disagreed as quickly as he'd spoken a moment ago. "Being able to see into the future at all is nothing less than incredible, so being disappointed that there aren't all sorts of details to go along with the sight is downright silly.
You
might not think you're doing much, but you have to remember that it's a lot more than the rest of us can do."

"I knew there was a reason I would like you," Asri said to Driffin with a warm smile and a bit of amusement. "Thank you for saying that."

"Believe me, it's my pleasure," Driffin returned with his own amusement as he watched Asri begin to eat with as much enthusiasm as Kail already showed. "But if I recall correctly, Issini said she had a plan we could use against Noll's men. I'd like you to listen to that plan, Asri, and then tell us if you get any 'feelings' about it."

Asri nodded her agreement as she chewed, clearly enjoying the omelet as much as Kail did. Idresia was a really fine cook, and the food was excellent.

"I don't yet have
all
the details of my plan, but here's the outline," Issini said with a smile for everyone. "If one of you has a suggestion or something you'd like to add, please speak right up. The only thing I haven't really thought of a way to do is see the renegades' faces when they hear about what we mean to arrange."

At first Kail considered that an odd comment to make, but once he heard Issini's idea he quickly agreed. It
would
be worth quite a lot to see Noll's face when he learned what his plans had come to, or rather what they
would
come to. Kail finished his food quickly as he began to apply himself to the task of refining Issini's plan, and even Asri joined in with complete eagerness. The talk went on for quite a while, but Dereth's waking up hungry put a temporary halt to the discussion.

"Do you two actually have a place to stay?" Idresia asked as Asri began to soothe her son. "If not, there's another empty apartment here in the warehouse. Edmin and Issini have all but moved in, so you two - or three - might as well do the same."

Kail exchanged a glance with Asri, seeing the smile and nod he'd expected to. He mirrored Asri's smile, and then turned to Idresia.

"We haven't even been here two hours, but for some odd reason I feel completely at home," Kail said, looking around at the others as well. "I believe Asri agrees with me, so we'll happily accept your offer. I'll admit I never expected anything like meeting you four, but I'm very glad that we did."

"And
we're
glad we kidnapped
you
," Driffin said as the others smiled. "Your suggestions about Issini's plan will make the plan stronger, and we'd better not wait to put it into effect. Since the renegade can move onto the next stage of his own plans at any time, we need to be ready."

"I'll show you both to the apartment, and you can get some rest," Idresia said as she stood. "When I've gotten my people arranged into groups, we'll meet again and see if any of us have come up with additions or changes to the plan."

Kail joined Asri in nodding agreement as they stood, and then the two of them followed Idresia out. He hadn't been lying about how comfortable and safe he felt, and that despite his suspicions when they'd first arrived. These people were not lying or intending to use Asri and him, Kail was willing to bet his life on that opinion. He'd had to leave his good new life in Astinda, but it looked like he might have traded something good for something incredibly great…

Chapter Three

Lord Sembrin Noll sat in his study, enjoying the book he'd decided to read. He'd been enjoying quite a lot of things these past days, not the least of which was the return of his ability in Spirit magic. His ability wasn't all that strong, but having even a weak talent was better than having none at all.

Just a short time ago the thought of having had to do without his talent would have enraged Sembrin, but he'd had a number of days of pleasure which had soothed his need to feel rage. His loving wife Bensia and their children had kept him under their control for quite a long time, but Sembrin had gotten his hands on some of the drug Puredan and now had his devoted family under
his
control.

"And they've all paid quite a lot for what they did to me," Sembrin murmured, the memories making him smile. He now used Bensia every time the mood took him, her own interest being entirely secondary. And he did what he pleased to her, a good deal of which she most certainly did
not
enjoy. That last was a terrible shame, of course, but Bensia had no choice about cooperating. The Puredan saw to that…

"And my darling children are
much
more polite these days," Sembrin murmured again, enjoying
those
memories as well. He'd punished all of them, more harshly than had ever been done, and now they gave him every courtesy as well as complete obedience. Sembrin's family life had finally become a delight, and his public life would surely soon become the same.

A knock came at Sembrin's study door, pulling him out of his thoughts. When he called out permission to enter, the door opened to show Jost Feriun, the commander of the men Sembrin had brought into the city to help him gain control of the city.

"All the men have now reported back, my lord," Feriun said as he entered and closed the door behind himself. "I've spoken to them, and have their reports for you."

"Your expression isn't the victorious one I was expecting, Feriun," Sembrin observed aloud as he put his book aside. "Did something keep the men from putting on their little plays in the taverns and dining parlors? Too many city guards around, perhaps?"

"No, my lord," Feriun said, stopping in front of Sembrin's desk without making an effort to sit in one of the chairs. "Each set of the men was able to … put on their play in two of the chosen locations, but the reaction they got was so far from the expected one that they decided against trying a third location before reporting back for orders."

"How different could the reactions have been?" Sembrin asked with a frown. "When people complain about being taken advantage of with a large crowd around them and someone else pipes up to agree, there will always be
some
fool in the crowd who also agrees. All that agreement makes the rest of the crowd think, and they believe what they heard even if they've experienced the exact opposite of the claim themselves."

"I'm afraid it didn't work like that at
any
of the locations," Feriun returned sourly. "Instead of some fool in the crowd coming forward to agree with our men, the fool in each instance came forward to
dis
agree. And to make matters worse, the fools forced the rest of the crowd to agree with
them
instead of our men. Since the fools didn't have to get anyone to change his mind, the agreement they got was a lot more certain and forceful."

"And none of your marvelous men thought of accusing the fool of being a tool of the government before knocking him unconscious?" Sembrin demanded, hearing the growl his voice had become. "Do you have any more excuses about why
your
men ruined what I'd
thought
was a foolproof plan? Obviously, incompetents have the ability to destroy
any
plan, no matter how good."

"One of my men
did
try to stop the fool from the crowd," Feriun stated, all but interrupting Sembrin in mid-tirade. "He would have stomped the fool into the floor, but there were off-duty guardsmen in the tavern who made it clear what would happen if my man did as you suggested. Did you really want him to be arrested and questioned by members of the government?"

"Since his being arrested would have helped us enormously, of course I didn't want him to be arrested," Sembrin returned dryly, leaning back in his chair to study the commander of his forces. "The other two men could then have pointed out that the guardsmen were arresting people to keep them from speaking against the government, and the only one being protected by the guardsmen was the tool of that very government. If you'd chosen intelligent men the way I'd ordered you to, they wouldn't have missed the opportunity."

"You consider it an opportunity to put one of our people in the hands of the government?" Feriun came back, and the man actually had the nerve to sound disdainful. "If you do, I could always send a letter to the authorities telling them exactly what we're trying to do. That way the authorities will have the same information without our having to sacrifice one of our very few men."

"How dare you be sarcastic with me when you're admitting that one of your men would betray us?" Sembrin demanded, his anger rising. "You weren't supposed to send out anyone weak, and now you're telling me - "

"Where have you been, Lord Sembrin?" Feriun demanded in turn, actually having the nerve to interrupt his superior. "The government has Highs in Spirit magic, people who can make
anyone
tell everything they're involved with. If one of our men was taken, the man would talk no matter
how
strong and loyal he was. You can't tell me you didn't know that."

Sembrin wanted to snap at Feriun in the same way the man had done with
him
, but sudden unease kept him silent. Of course he'd known that the government had High talents, but for some reason he'd dismissed the knowledge. For some reason he'd been picturing anyone arrested being questioned in an ordinary way, possibly with the help of someone with Earth magic to apply a bit of coercion. Then it came to him why he'd dismissed the matter.