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“What is happening?” Hadrian addressed Errol the moment the door closed.
Ignoring him, Errol turned to me. “Explain.” Selwyn and Hadrian turned and regarded me with identical questioning gazes. I suddenly wondered why I hadn’t seen the familial similarities between them.
“When there was a knock on the door, I detected a sending to the Sept Son. Then I heard his reply.”
I suddenly had the Sept Son’s complete and intense attention. “What did I say?” he asked.
“I am fine, Renato. Give us a chance to get to the door.” I sent it to him with exact emotional undertones he had used. Surprise flickered in the depths of his eyes.
“How long has this been going on?”
“This is the first time I have heard a sending not sent to me.”
“And you did not hear Renato’s sending?” Errol asked. I dropped my gaze to regard him thankfully. The force in the Sept Son’s regard was unnerving. He sat at his desk, watching my face.
“I did not.”
“Is it possible that she is more sensitive to intensities?” Selwyn asked from his corner.
Errol nodded. “It is possible. We will have to test it.”
“So, you are saying she can hear me because I project more strongly than other talents?” the Sept Son asked.
“That is exactly what I am thinking.” Errol leaned forward to place his elbows on the desk. “She can detect sending activity around her, but until now she has not been able to detect words. You are the strongest talent we have known of in fifteen generations and from what we have seen within the past few months, she is displaying talent above yours.”
The Sept Son frowned. “And you have not notified me?”
“You were not exactly accessible,” Selwyn pointed out. “I sent word that she was ready for final testing four months ago and I know that you didn’t receive it until two weeks ago.”
Head bowed, arms crossed over his chest, the Sept Son stood in the center of the study projecting a struggle to stay calm. For some strange reason, I could feel him wrestling with something deep within. Strands of weary exhaustion threaded his next words. “You are right. I am sorry for the outburst. I didn’t expect this complication.”
“Then you are not going to like what I am going to have to say next,” Errol warned.
Lifting tired eyes to regard Errol, the Sept Son sighed. “It isn’t going to stop you is it?”
“No, but I suggest you inform Renato that you are going to be in a meeting for a few hours.”
He reached out to a flickering center located in the front room. “I am going to be a few hours.” His rich taste touched my tongue.
My brother’s response was respectful and curious.
“Something important has come up with your sister.” I looked up abruptly at his words and encountered his guarded gaze. “No, she is fine. I will explain later.” “You heard that.” It was more a statement that a question, but I nodded anyway.
“So, it wasn’t a fluke.” Errol sighed and leaned back again. “Make yourself comfortable. This is going to take time.”
I slipped across the room to my usual place beneath the windows. Selwyn smiled encouragingly from his corner. The Sept Son leaned back against the heavily laden bookcase, re-crossed his arms, and pinned Errol with an even gaze.
“I know that you planned on coming here, testing Zez, and leaving her in my care until you found a way to marry her off to someone.” I stared at Errol. True, I had gotten that impression from what the Sept Son had said up to this point, but phrasing it that way sounded so harsh. “As you can see, you do not know of her full capabilities and neither do we. She has known all that I can teach her since a year and a half ago. Since then, Selwyn has been filling her head with defender knowledge, techniques, and strategies. She knows and understands enough to be a defender, but we both know that her capability goes way beyond that. In fact, for the past three years she has displayed the indicators of a child in the period of discovery. Basing our estimate on the usual child’s development, she still has two years of encountering new skills. Two years during which she will need guidance and training.”
The Sept Son’s frown deepened. “And I am the logical choice. You do realize what pressure I am under, Errol. I am surreptitiously preparing the talents for war. I have a contract out on my life, a High Religious official calling for my removal from power, and a Elitist cancer growing on the Eastern coast of this county that the High King is going to be panicking over soon. The talented children entering training are sadly under prepared for any disciplined study, and the trainers are under staffed. I have parents in an uproar over the new standards for admission into training, and now you want me to take on a special case.” He turned to me and said, “It is nothing personal against you.”
I nodded my understanding, but Errol spoke before I could reassure the Sept Son.
“You agreed to this three years ago, Ilias. There is no possibility of stepping away from this now. We agreed with her father that we would train her, and I have trained her to the best of my abilities.”
“She will be useful to you, Ilias,” Selwyn commented. “She has within her all the skills that I could share. It would be as if I was at your side with my knowledge and skills, except her abilities are so much stronger. She ConProped in our first lesson.”
The Sept Son’s dark eyes found my face and I could feel his gentle probing of my thoughts. I ConProped without hesitation, my talent-related senses went blind, but I didn’t need them to recognize the astonished look on his face. I opened up my senses again.
“She also can tell when others are sending and receiving,” Errol pointed out.
“She reads intents, emotions, and reactions,” Selwyn offered.
Seeing that he was going to need a physical demonstration, Errol prompted me. “Show him.”
I spoke. “Renato is about to knock on the study door and he intends to be heard.”
A loud pounding on the door proved my point. The Sept Son crossed to it and flung it open. Renato stood there frowning like a gold-flecked thunder cloud. He opened up his mouth, but the Sept Son raised a hand and stalled him. Turning to Errol, he asked, “Are you going to tell me next that she can inform me what he is going to say?”
“No, Ilias,” Errol retorted.
“What is wrong with you?” Selwyn demanded. Anger rolled off of him in waves.
The Sept Son turned on his brother as the swells broke around him. An answering emotion snapped in his brown eyes, and he clenched his fists as he struggled to control the well of frustration and indignation that filled his being. His energy was rising with the flood. I tentatively touched my own amoveo and spread my energy in a thin barrier around him. Perhaps it was presumptuous, but I didn’t want him hurting anyone.
“What is so difficult about taking her with you?” Selwyn asked.
Closing his eyes, the Sept Son leaned his head back a moment before answering. “I have watched six men die in my place in the past two years. I am dangerous to be around. If I take her with me and train her as you ask, she will have to be with me all the time. I cannot watch over her wellbeing and concentrate on my work. All it will take is one distracted moment and she will die, or worse, the Elitists will get to her and tear her mind to shreds. Meanwhile I shall have that guilt resting on my shoulders, another death on my conscience. She is safer here.”
Errol rose and came around the desk to stand before the Sept Son. “The man I knew would have never made that speech. The Almighty chose when it was time for those men to die and why. He alone decides when Zezilia, you, or I shall breathe our last breath and nothing that you and I do will change that.” Raising his hands to his face, Ilias sank into a nearby chair. Errol’s voice grew softer. “Stop acting like you are in control, Ilias. You are not. The Almighty is. Start living like He has a plan.”
“How long has he been like this?” Selwyn asked Renato.
I turned my attention to my brother, fighting through the storm coming from the Sept Son and reaching out to sense him.
“It has been about a month. Ever since the death of his latest defender bodyguard, he has been more tense.”
Errol nodded. “Always a sign that something is going on. Renato, could you take Zezilia out? I am sure that the two of you have a great deal to talk about. This is going to take a while to work out.”
Renato looked over at me and then worriedly at the silent form of the Sept Son. “I guess that answers my question. We will be staying the night.”
“Yes, and perhaps a few after tonight. He is not leaving without her, and it is going to take time to convince him.”
“Come Zez,” Renato extended a hand toward me.
As I passed the Sept Son on my way out, I brushed the edge of the black clouds of acute pain shrouding his mind. Please open his heart to Your words again, Almighty. He is in such agony.
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MONTHS OF PAIN PRESSED against my eyes, throbbed in my temples, and ached in my chest. This was not what I had come here for, but it seemed to be in the Almighty’s will. Errol was right, as he usually was. For months I had been struggling with feelings of guilt. This job was too big for me, the work too difficult; the torture of watching good men die in my place left me swinging between anger and depression.
“So, when did this truly begin?” Errol asked.
“When Lorne died.” I lifted my head and regarded him over my folded hands. “I realized what the Elitists were capable of doing to another being. Immediately we began taking precautions, closing off the compound and giving Renato, Tristan, and the other aides bodyguards. Everyone watched everyone else day and night.”
“But it didn’t work.” Selwyn’s voice hinted at the foolishness of the hope that it would.
I closed my eyes against the sight of Blandone’s slack face. “Blandone appeared with his pregnant wife and I became angry. How could the Almighty do this to him? How could He allow Blan’s mind to be razed, leaving so little behind? He wasn’t even a shadow of what he had been.”
“We do not understand the workings of the Almighty’s plan.” Errol’s voice repeated the very thing that I had told Renato that day. My words were just that, words. Somewhere, elusively flickering in the depths, there was the faith that gave them value, but for months it had slipped through my fingers. I highly doubted that one session with Errol would whip it back into my grasp.
“He was so gone that he didn’t even know that his wife was going to have their child, Errol. It took two months of work to bring back the memory of their marriage. After that, he has no recollection of their life together. They wiped his mind of everything.”
“It wasn’t in your control, Ilias.” Errol’s low voice
“Yes, but...”
“But nothing.” Errol leaned forward in his chair. “Who is the Almighty?”
“He is creator, king, all-knowing, all-powerful, and sovereign deity.”
“How often has He imparted to you His plans?” Errol asked.
I looked at him in surprise. “Never.”
“So what makes you so sure that He is going do so now?”
“Nothing.”
“Then stop feeling sorry for yourself. He has a purpose. He always does, but that doesn’t mean that He has to unveil to you or me. Shall not the Sovereign of the universe do right? Of course He will.”
“And if He has chosen to not let me see the future, then my role is...”
“The same it has always been,” Errol interrupted. “Seek His face, follow His will, stay close to Him, and continue to fight with His strength. Without him, you will fail.”
I hung my head as the realization of what I had been doing washed over me. Forgive me, Lord, I prayed. “I have assumed more than my measure.”
“Seek Him. In your humility, He will make you strong.”
I nodded and closed my eyes.
“I will leave you to work it out with Him,” Errol said as he rose to his feet.
“Tell Renato we will be staying for a few days. I will seek him out later.”
“And apologize to Zezilia?”
I looked up and laughed mirthlessly. “I seem to be constantly be apologizing to her.”
He nodded. “Then, we will talk about her future.” He turned to leave, but paused to lay a hand on the tome resting on table to the right of the door. “This is a copy of the Revelation should you need it.” Then he exited, closing the door softly behind him.
I lowered my head into my hands and lay my heart bare before God.
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RENATO LOOKED DIFFERENT. I watched my brother giving instructions to a gathering of talents, defenders, and non-talented servants. Outwardly he looked the same, medium height, golden brown, and confident. But now there was an essence of authority to his voice and manner that I didn’t remember from when we both lived at home. That time had seemed so far away before, but seeing him now brought the memories as though it was yesterday. A sensation of homesickness hit my stomach, and I wondered how Mother and Father were doing.
Just then Renato turned toward me with a smile as the group around him dissipated. He wrapped me in a big hug before linking arms. “Now we can escape for an hour or so and catch up. You have to tell me all about your training.”
“Where do you want to go? I can show you the tree house that Candra and I built.”
“You built a tree house?” He raised his eyebrows and grinned. “Wait until I tell Mother.”
“Oh, please don’t. She will only get angry. You know I was never allowed to climb trees.” I led him off into the woods.
He laughed. “If she got a look at you now, Zez, I doubt she would be worried about whether or not you are acting tomboyish.”
I frowned at him over my shoulder. “What do you mean?”
He flashed me a half-smile. “You look the opposite of tomboyish and that is what is important when it comes to husband catching.”
“Husband catching?” I asked, half-puzzled and half-worried. “I am too young.” I looked down at myself. It was the same body that I had dressed this morning.
“You are turning eighteen in three weeks right?” he asked. “Actually you are running late. It is a good thing that Hadrian promised to pull strings to make sure you are married off soon.”
I frowned up at my brother. “What are you talking about?”
“You mean Errol didn’t tell you?”
I stopped and confronted him. “What?”
“Hadrian and Errol made a deal with Father to allow you to train. Hadrian promised that he would find you husband or marry you himself.”
Visions of marriage to the Sept Son sent shivers through me. It wasn’t that he wasn’t attractive. He was, in an older man way. He was handsome in a rugged, noble manner that I did like, but he was the Sept Son, the second most powerful man in the country.
As unsettling as it was to think of Errol and Hadrian deciding my future marriage partner, I had been doing that regarding my future role as a talent. This new information added a whole new dimension to the future that I had been lead to expect. An aspect that needed further discussion, but not with my brother.
“Let’s talk about something else. How is Mother doing?” I turned away and led the way toward the tree house.
“Organizing parties, gossiping, matchmaking, and socializing, she keeps busy. She and Hadrian also made a deal, but I have yet to find out what it was about.”
I turned to confront my brother. “Can’t you speak of anything but secret alliances and gossip?” I asked.
“You are an adult now, Zez. You should know about the arrangements that have been made about your future without your knowledge. I am just trying to give you a clear view of the world you are about to step into.”
“The world is full of people who want to exploit me, use me, abuse me, and kill me. As you have pointed out, I am an adult, but I don’t need to know details yet. When it comes time, Errol will tell me what I need to know. Right now I want to know about our family. How are our brothers?”
A cloud passed over his features. “I was hoping you wouldn’t ask.”
“Not likely,” I responded as I watched his face intently. “What is wrong?”
Renato turned away and lowered his gaze to the ground and the thick grass that cloaked the forest floor on either side of the trail. “Something happened to Blan.”
A sinking feeling settled in my stomach. “Last I knew he was working on a project in the west. What happened?”
Renato stopped in the path and turned away to look into the dim recesses of the woods. For a long moment, he didn’t speak and I watched as his stance changed. Before my eyes, his façade of self-assurance and bravado fell away. When he finally turned back to regard me, his eyes had a haunted look and his face had aged. He crossed to a fallen log and sat down. Gesturing to the clear place next to him, he spoke.
“The mission was to infiltrate the Elitist movement that had settled in a compound on the west coast. Once entrenched, he was to leak information back to the Sept Son. Blan was perfect for the job and willing to do it.”
I nodded. He would be the ideal operative for that kind of work. His quiet charisma drew people to him and enticed them to trust him. He wasn’t loud enough to catch attention or foolish enough to ask for it. He would entangle himself in the social network just by being there. I sank into the seat next to Renato and waited for him to continue.
“Everything unfolded beautifully. They accepted him and gave him a house to live in and land to farm. Then with the next successful raid, they gave him a brain-altered, talented wife. It appeared he was well set.
“Then a year and a half ago, that changed. Blan’s contact noted his unusual agitation and then sudden silence and began to worry. He sent word to Hadrian that he suspected that Blan had been discovered. Three days later, a strange woman appeared at the gate with a man in tow. She asked to speak to Hadrian by his given name and would talk to no one else.”
“Blandone’s wife?” I asked. Dread settled around my heart. Surely if Blan was dead, Renato would have told me already.
Wearily Renato nodded. “I am glad you were not there to see it, Zez. His face hanging slack and eyes vacant, he didn’t even recognize me.” He clenched his hands into fists at his sides. “It took four months before he could look at me and understand that I was his brother. After that, reconstructing his memories of before his time in the service of the Sept Son were easier. Hadrian believes he defended those memories more than any others. Memories of home, us, and growing up were the most dear and thus the most fortified within his mind. Within their depths, he hid information that he didn’t want the Elitists to access. The healers kept stumbling across random facts about the Sept Son and our organization.”
“So, he preformed well?” I asked, half fearful that all his sacrifice had been in vain. The thought of Blan so changed tore at my heart, but I continued to struggle for distance despite it. I didn’t feel comfortable enough with Renato to drop all of my defenses with him yet. Too much had changed since we had last truly conversed.
Renato nodded. “Very well. According the healers who are experts in this type of mind-razing, the Elitists couldn’t find what they were seeking. Then in frustration, they razed everything they could reach.”
“Everything?” A shiver crept up my back. In my studies with Selwyn I had learned a great deal about the functions of the mind. The technique Renato was describing wiped all memory and personality from the victim and the chances of recovery were minimal.
Grief slipped leaden fingers around my chest. My brother was never going to be the same. The images of how I had seen him that last summer I had been home flashed before my mind’s eye. Head thrown back in laughter as he watched a playful, witty insult dawn upon Janus, Blandone had turned to wink at me. His dark eyes glinting with merriment at his older brother’s expense, he was strong, solid, and alive. Never again will he be the same. I grieved for the brother I had known and loved knowing full well that I still would love what he had become.
“He has recovered much. I must remember that.” Renato looked over at me. “He knows me, he recognizes his wife, knows that he is a father, and he vaguely remembers all of us.”
“He has a child?” I asked in surprise. A glimmer of joy amongst the laden clouds of grief, I was an aunt. “Why didn’t you let me know?”
Renato’s smile was bittersweet. “Hadrian doesn’t want anyone to know. As far as the Elitists know, Blan and his wife died by an assassin’s hand two months after their escape. Father and Mother don’t even know.”
“Janus is going to disappointed that he and his wife didn’t provide the first grandchild. Is it a boy or girl?”
“A girl.” Renato watched my expression of joy with amusement. “Leave it to you to find something to rejoice about in the midst of tragedy.”
I purposefully ignored his comment. “When can I see them?”
“Soon. They are traveling with us for protection. Donata is probably directing the food preparation, and Blandone will be watching Ardyne play with the other children. I will just have to clear it with Hadrian first, though.”
I frowned. “Then it will have to wait.”
“Why?”
“Well, when we left them, the Sept Son was debating with Errol whether or not I was joining the Sept Son’s entourage.”
“You are joining us?” He raised his eyebrows. “Hadrian isn’t going to like that.”
“I understood that much,” I replied. “He sounds overwhelmed, and he wasn’t very happy about the thought of taking responsibility for me.”
“He has had a great deal to oversee and this Elitist threat is rattling him more than he is letting anyone see. Besides, you can be a handful.”
I pulled a face I hadn’t made since I last saw him. “I have grown up since the last time you had to watch over me.”
“Not that I could tell you had matured from that expression,” he commented with laughter. “I have missed you, Zez.”
“And I you,” I admitted as a wave of homesickness washed over me. Suddenly, I desperately wanted to see all of my brothers. I contented myself with pestering Renato with questions about them.
