The Talented (35 page)

She saw Maureen standing
off to the side and ran toward her.

Adrienne grabbed Maureen’s
arm and began dragging the healer in the direction of the burning
stables, ignoring her protests and struggles to get loose. Adrienne
was coughing out smoke, and her throat was too sore to attempt an
explanation. No explanation was necessary once they got within
sight of Malokai and the unconscious boy. Maureen rushed forward,
kneeling next to Thom, her attention focused on him to the
exclusion of all else.

Adrienne knelt beside her
and gave in to the explosive coughing that had been threatening as
her lungs tried to expel the smoke they had inhaled. Malokai was in
much the same condition, and Adrienne could only imagine how thick
the smoke had been in the hayloft. Just the thought brought on
another round of coughing.

Through tearing eyes,
Adrienne saw Maureen lift her hands from Thom’s chest. Fear gripped
her until she saw the boy’s chest rising and falling by itself. Her
head went light with relief and she sagged, forced to brace her
hands against the ground to keep from landing on her face. “He’s
okay,” she repeated over and over, her voice a harsh whisper as she
tried to make herself believe them. “He’s okay.”

She looked up and saw
Malokai watching her. “You saved him,” she croaked.

“
You thought to look for
him.” Malokai’s voice sounded as though he had been swallowing
razors, and Adrienne winced in sympathy. Her own throat felt as
though it was on fire. It was at that moment that Adrienne realized
that Malokai was shirtless, and that there were angry red burns on
his chest and shoulders, and probably more on his back that she
couldn’t see.

Malokai seemed unaware of
the burns.

“
He’ll be fine,” Maureen
said, coming over to the sorry pair. There was a moment of
hesitation before the healer placed her hand on Adrienne’s shoulder
and closed her eyes. Adrienne felt quiet shivers coursing through
her before Maureen broke contact.

Adrienne’s lungs no longer
spasmed, and her throat felt smooth and unharmed by the smoke. The
painful marks left by Strider’s hooves had begun to fade as
well.

Maureen then turned to use
her Talent on Malokai, and Adrienne noticed some of the tension
fade from his face as the pain left his body.

“
Thank you,” Malokai told
the woman he knew only by sight, his voice back to its usual
musical quality. Malokai was as alienated from the other Talented
as Adrienne was, but Adrienne realized for the first time that
despite their differences, Maureen was not a bad person. She would
not have had to heal Adrienne and Malokai, they had been in no real
danger, but the healer had done so without being asked.

Adrienne was
humbled.

“
Keep an eye on the boy,”
Maureen told Adrienne.

Adrienne nodded. Maureen
began to turn away, and Adrienne stopped her by putting a light
hand on her arm. “Thank you, Maureen. You saved that boy’s life
tonight.”

“
So did you. Both of you.”
Maureen smiled, and there was respect in her eyes. “My Talent is
with sickness,” she said. “I did what I can, but have Louella check
on you. And on the boy.” She looked back at the burning stable.
“How did it go up, do you suppose?”

Adrienne shook her head
and Maureen walked back into the crowd.

“
Go to Thom,” Malokai told
Adrienne once Maureen had gone. “I’ll look over the
horses.”

••••••

“
I need you to teach me
Oneness,” Malokai said.

Adrienne raised an
eyebrow. She had been just about to climb into bed when Malokai had
knocked on her door, and she was not impressed that that was all he
had to say. “I was planning to sleep tonight,” she said,
readjusting the belt on her robe. She wore nothing underneath but
the thin sleep shirt she had invested in after the incident with
the stables, and she wished Malokai had come only a few minutes
earlier, when she was still fully dressed. It was hard to look
imposing wearing a robe.

“
Teach me, and I will let
you sleep.”

Adrienne sighed and opened
the door wide enough to allow Malokai entrance. She waved a hand
and the candles scattered around the room lit so that more than the
dying fire provided light. “Have a seat and tell me why you need to
learn Oneness tonight and not tomorrow when I’m awake.”

Malokai sat in the single
chair in the room, pulling it away from the table to sit facing the
bed where Adrienne took her own seat. The room was small enough
that their knees almost touched, and Adrienne wished that she could
adjust her robe over her legs without looking nervous. She was used
to wearing her
swa’il
when in the company of men, not flimsy cloth.

“
I finished the book. Ben
said we would begin working on Oneness in a week or two, once we
had discussed the book thoroughly.” The disgust in his melodic
voice was interesting, as was the fact that he had said “Ben”
rather than “Master Ruthford.” Malokai had never before referred to
Ben informally, and Adrienne doubted it was friendship that had
prompted the change.

“
That sounds about right,”
Adrienne agreed, raising a hand to smother a yawn. She was tired;
she’d spent the day training guards and practicing with her Talent.
“Ben—all of the scholars—like to discuss and understand every bit
of information before moving on to the next step in
training.”

Malokai growled. “I do
understand the information,” he said impatiently. Although they had
talked regularly over the past week, especially since the night the
stables had caught fire, Adrienne was surprised by the amount of
emotion Malokai was showing. “We discussed the book for three hours
tonight, and I didn’t need any clarifications. I don’t need another
two weeks of talking.”

Adrienne understood
Malokai’s frustration. She preferred action over long discussion
herself and remembered keenly her own frustration when the
commission had wanted to hold her back, but she had to carefully
weigh her choices. This decision could mean bringing the wrath of
the commission down on them both.

The wisest decision would
be to not help Malokai with Oneness. She knew Ben and the rest of
the commission would be against her telling Malokai anything; they
would tell her to wait and to mind her own affairs. The soldier in
her felt compelled to obey their unspoken commands, but there was
another part, equally strong, that railed against wasting time. The
commission wouldn’t even know if Malokai could develop a Talent
until he tried to achieve Oneness. It could take weeks—months—for
him to do so once he started trying. She looked at Malokai, and
thought that a two week head start wouldn’t hurt.

“
Oneness is about…Ben says
clearing your mind, but I’m not sure that’s the best way to explain
it,” she said. “I would say that you focus your mind and feel the
connection we have with everything around us.” She leaned toward
Malokai, resting her elbows on her knees, forgetting for the moment
that she was dressed in just a robe and a thin shift. “We are not
separate from our surroundings, from the world. We are One with the
elements, with each other, with everything around us. You have to
feel that.” She smiled ruefully and sat back. “The first step is to
completely clear your mind.”

Malokai nodded.

“
From what Ben told me, and
what Louella said, most people sit and meditate, but I found it
helped me to move,” Adrienne said. Malokai continued to sit there,
seemingly unaware of anything else, before suddenly looking
up.

“
What is next?”

“
You clear your mind, and
in that state, you hopefully achieve Oneness, where you can feel
that connection to everything. Asmov referred to a connection to
the universe in his journal, and it really does feel like
that.”

“
What’s after Oneness?”
Malokai asked.

“
I don’t know if I can
explain it until you reach that level,” Adrienne said. “I don’t
think it would make sense.” And that, she knew, would be stepping
way outside of anything the commission would allow. Stepping over
those bounds would be beyond anything even she could
rationalize.

Malokai closed his eyes
for a moment, taking deep, even breaths. When he opened his eyes,
the blue orbs were intense and locked on hers.

“
I can feel your
heartbeat,” Malokai said in a voice that sounded oddly detached.
“It sped up just now, when I spoke. I can feel the grain of the
wooden table, the draft from the window.” He turned as though he
could see out the dark panes into the night outside. “Two men are
arguing. Fighting in the street. I believe one of your guards is on
his way to break it up.”

A shiver raced down
Adrienne’s spine, and she slipped into Oneness as well. She could
feel Malokai, his existence, but she had to concentrate to really
feel his heartbeat: it was slow and steady, not the quick, almost
nervous rhythm of her own. There were three people on the street
below, but she could not feel anything more about them than their
presence. She could not tell who they were or what they were doing.
“You can feel all of that?”

Malokai looked momentarily
puzzled by her question. “Can’t you?”

Adrienne didn’t know where
to start. That he had achieved Oneness so quickly and with such
apparent ease was almost unbelievable. The level to which he could
apparently sense things was nothing short of astonishing. “No,”
Adrienne answered weakly. “I can’t feel everything, not as strongly
as what you describe.”

The strongest things in
the room to Adrienne were her sword and the flames of the hearth
and candles. Those things seemed almost to reach out to her,
standing out in the sea of sensations she experienced whenever she
was conscious of her Oneness. Louella had said it was like that for
her with injuries. For Pieter, he could most clearly feel his tools
and the metal he was shaping.

“
You can only feel some
things?” Malokai asked, looking as puzzled as Adrienne
felt.

Adrienne nodded. “Yes and
no,” she said. “I can feel everything, but some things I have an
affinity for. Fire I can feel most strongly,” she explained. “My
Talent lies there, and fire feels…different to me than everything
else. Pieter forged my sword using his own Talent, and what I feel
when I focus on the sword is similar to what I feel for fire.”
Pieter’s other tools also stood out clearly, but they did not call
to her like the one made for her did. It did give her an idea,
though. “What does my sword feel like to you?”

Malokai glanced at the
sword that was leaning against the wall next to the bed, within
easy reach had Adrienne been lying down. “Hazy,” he said after a
minute. “Not clear like everything else.”

It was the opposite of
what Adrienne had been expecting. “What about the fire?” she asked,
wondering if, because he too was a fighter, he would have a Talent
similar to hers. It was true of Louella and the other healers,
after all.

He gazed into the hearth
and winced. “The fire is clear, but if I try to…reach for it…it’s
hot.”

That Malokai would try to
reach for it, the only way Adrienne could describe what she did
when using her Talent, was interesting. The fact that Malokai
thought the fire was hot was just confusing to her. Adrienne was
aware of the fire’s heat when she used it, but never uncomfortably
so. As far as she knew, Louella and Pieter had never been able to
reach for fire at all, or at least had never felt compelled to
try.

“
Painfully hot?” Adrienne
asked, wanting to understand.

Malokai tilted his head.
“Had I kept trying, yes, I think it would have been painful.” He
shook his head. “What does it mean?”

Adrienne didn’t know.
Maybe Ben would have some idea, but telling him she had taught
Malokai Oneness was not something she looked forward to doing. “I’m
not sure,” she told him. “How did you learn Oneness so
quickly?”

“
The Modabi Mountains are a
dangerous place to be unaware of your surroundings. The skill of
connecting to everything around you is essential for a warrior. Now
that I have Oneness, how do I develop a Talent?” he
asked.

Adrienne held up her hands
to ward him off. “I can’t help you anymore,” she told him. “Ben is
going to be upset enough about what I have already done. I can’t
add to that. I won’t.”

“
Ben doesn’t have to know,”
Malokai said. “When he wants me to try Oneness, I will, and I’ll do
it quickly, but he doesn’t need to know it’s not the first time
I’ve done it. I’ve been using this Oneness since I was eight. Had
Ben explained the concept to me, I would have discovered Oneness
just as quickly with him as I did tonight with you.”

“
You can’t keep this a
secret from Ben,” Adrienne protested, though she wondered what kind
of eight year old would need such a skill. The mountains must be
dangerous indeed to require such a connection to keep safe. “He’s
in charge of your training.” Despite her earlier
self-justifications, such a level of deceit was too much. Adrienne
would tell Ben herself if Malokai refused.

“
He shouldn’t be in charge
of our training in the first place,” Malokai told her. “He lacks
any real leadership traits; he shouldn’t be in charge of more than
chronicling what happens here.”