Seventh Born

by Rachel Rossano

  “You are still going?” Tristan’s eyebrows rose.

  “I have to.”

  “At least take an armed guard. The Mesitas has basically called for your head, and who knows who might be listening. It would be a quick way for someone to get on the goddess’ good side.”

  I met Tristan’s worried gaze with a solemn nod. “I will be taking an armed guard and I shall be as cautious as I can, but my life is in the Almighty’s hands. If it makes you feel better, Renato will be with me at all times and he is well trained in the offensive and defensive strategies. Besides, no one has tried anything yet.”

  “It is the yet part that bothers me. Remember that you are still a man, vulnerable to poison and an assassin’s knife.”

  “I shall remember,” I assured him as I waved him away. “Now leave me to deal with these.” I gestured to the stack of letters on my desk.

  Saluting me with a concerned look, he left.

  Taking up Blandone’s letter, I quickly broke the seal and unwrapped it from the waxed paper cover. Three pages crammed with small writing on both sides fell into my lap. I snatched up the first one and began reading.

  Honored Sept Son,

  The women that you feared for are here. You were correct about the use of mind control. I was given one of them for a wife, and she is displaying all of the usual signs of one who has been pressed. According to your descriptions, she appears to be the one named Donata. Since they have taken her name from her memories as well as all recall of her time before, I cannot refer to her by her real name. She is a sweet girl and what they have done to her sorrows me. Every time I look on her, I think of my sister.

  According to the instruction that I have been given, I am to get her pregnant as soon as I am able. The other two girls were given to men who already have pregnant wives. Since I have no intention of violating her, I can only hope that when she remains unfruitful they will not give me another wife. There is one man, who is in a similar situation, and they don’t speak against him. Instead, they say it is the woman’s fault that she isn’t with child and let him keep her.

  My stomach rolled as Blandone continued to tell of how the women were treated and the social arrangements. In the small community of ten men, there were fifteen wives and seven children. The oldest three offspring were a girl and two boys. The girl was ignored, to be tested when she reached childbearing age, but the boys were nurtured and spoiled.

  The boys were reaching their fourth year, the year of discovery when some talent first showed. Already, the leadership prepared testing so that the first glimmer of talent among the young would be encouraged and trained. All the women in the settlement of child bearing age were kept pregnant and at least four births were currently expected any day.

  Parzifal speaks of rebellion and dominion. He promises his followers a kingdom each, a piece of Pratinus to rule and a whole host of untalented to do their bidding. His followers lap it up like thirsty dogs with lolling tongues. The only contention they have is that they do not have enough women to build their army fast enough.

  I can only hope that the breeding doesn’t work and the children are weak. Only time will reveal that. If Parzifal is right and these offspring are powerful talents ready for molding into the warrior force he envisions, we are going to need to act soon, before he permanently scars these children. I shall write when I have more news. Hopefully we can avoid anymore successful raids.

  Blandone Ilar

  I stared down at Blandone’s scrawl and tried to ease the grip on my stomach. It was worse than I had feared. Parzifal planned total control, not just a partial segregation. The only way he would accomplish that would be by full-fledged war. If I didn’t stop him, it would be a war of talents against Elitists with hapless non-talents caught in the middle.

  Closing my eyes against the image, I dropped the letter to the desk. What could I do? I could send others in to join Blandone, but if a number of men began not producing children for the cause, Parzifal would grow suspicious. Rubbing my temples, I struggled to think.

  We could decrease the supply of talented women by moving all talented women east and in from the coasts. It would be a temporary measure since they already had quite a beginning and they could always raid over land. Still, it was a measure. I noted to myself to look into the effort such a procedure would require.

  “Hadrian?” Renato’s worried voice edged in on my thoughts. I looked up to find him watching me anxiously from the open doorway. “I have been calling your name for a few seconds now. Are you feeling alright?”

  “Yes,” I assured him and tried to smile reassuringly. “It is just bad news from Blandone.”

  Renato frowned. “The disappearances were connected?”

  I nodded. “All three women appeared in the community.” I summarized the contents of Blandone’s missive. “I was just trying to work out our next course of action.”

  “Remove the local talented women.”

  “I have already thought of that, but it seems like a temporary step to take, very temporary considering their size. I keep asking myself if there is anything more I can do and the answer is always the same. Nothing.” I clenched my fists in frustration. Almighty, please open my eyes to Your plan. I am at a loss for what to do. I can thwart their growth by minimizing any future raids, but beyond that I cannot see a way to stop them short of violence. Please, God, there has to be another way.

  “I can keep thinking on it and researching,” Renato offered. I looked up to find him watching my face with concern.

  “That seems to be all we can do.”

  “Was there anything else in the packet?”

  I welcomed the change in topic. Setting aside Blandone’s letter, I gestured toward the stack of requests for advice. “Those need reading and answering. I also received a letter from Errol, which I have yet to open. Why don’t you read those and I will see what Errol’s news is.”

  Renato complied. Settling into a nearby chair with the letters on the table before him, he opened the top one and began skimming. Retrieving Errol’s correspondence from my desk drawer, I broke the seal and began to read. I was eager for good news and Zezilia’s progress never failed to fill Errol’s letters with the praise and hope that I longed for after Blandone’s news.

  Zezilia

  A HUMID HAZE FILLED the air, smothering my ability to breathe. Stale air filled my senses as I focused on the temperature outside the windows. Sunlight, bright and hot, flooded the world, painting the grass brown and wilting the plants. Only the trees, tall and strong, seemed unaffected by its blistering gaze.

  A tentative trace of plum, cool and sweet, touched my tongue. It beckoned me to linger on the taste, much pleasanter than the oven beyond the windows. I pushed the thought away and continued to admire the trees as they stood motionless in the nonexistent wind.

  “Well done,” Errol commented from his place behind his desk. Considering the topic of study, he had allowed a temporary lifting of the no talking ban. “You can release the image now.” He closed the book as I slowly withdrew my focus from the heat. “You have now mastered the ability to block Thought-leading with Image-fixation. Well done.” He scribbled something in his notebook before setting it aside.

  “Now let us try shutting out completely. This will be your first line of defense. Image-fixation, Mental-blocks, and Safety-zones are all tools for when they have gotten through your defenses, which are Walling, Sealing, and Shuttering.”

  “And these are all defensive forms against interrogation?” I asked to make sure I was clear of what to use when.

  “Correct.” Errol readjusted himself in his seat. “Walling is a defensive measure that talents in precarious positions use at all times. Within their thoughts, they build a wall around certain topics. For example, a talent who is undercover among other talents must wall off all topics, facts, and ideas that are not in keeping with his persona. By doing so, he protects them from detection by a mind brush, random thought exchange, or sending.”


  “So the Sept Son must use this.”

  “Constantly,” Errol agreed. “Now choose a thought that you do not want me to access.”

  Choosing the image of Selwyn watching Candra hammer a nail, I carefully built a mental stone wall around it.

  “Ready?” Errol asked.

  I nodded. Instantly, plum filled my taste buds. I watched with interest as he skimmed my thoughts, nudging gently at some, while completely avoiding others. Then suddenly he was at the wall.

  “Well done,” he sent. “That is the best first attempt I have seen in a long time.”

  He poked at the wall, and then pushed. Finally, he shoved. I felt the barrier shudder, but it didn’t give.

  “Very good. Now, seal it.”

  I obeyed. It was harder than I expected. I visualized pouring mortar in between the bricks and over the top, shutting off the thought from the others that roamed across my consciousness.

  Again, Errol prodded the defenses, checking for cracks, holes, and weak spots.

  “Now shutter it.”

  I obeyed and suddenly the defenses and thought were no longer detectable. I wouldn’t have known it was there, except I had been the one to cloak it.

  Plum filled my thoughts as Errol looked for the Shuttered thought. After a few moments, he withdrew. “Now, maintain that until Korneli comes in the fall. I will have him look for it and we shall see if he can break your defenses.”

  He made some notes in his log and then reached for my code book. I interrupted his movement with a question. It had been bothering me since we began studying the defensive training a week ago. “When am I ever going to need this? Are you planning on me being undercover or something?”

  Errol pinned me with an amused glance. “This is standard material, Zez. Every talent trainee covers this stuff.”

  “But what are you planning for me to be?”

  “You already know the position opportunities available: Trainer, Assistant to the Sept Son, Defender, Tester, Recruiter, User, and other odd jobs.”

  “But you and Selwyn have something specific in mind for me,” I pointed out.

  Errol raised an eyebrow in my direction. Every aspect of his body language and facial expression spoke of innocent surprise, but I knew better. Somehow an essence of concerned fear flickered in my mind’s eye. He was trying to hide the fact that I was striking close to home. They did have plans for me, but I was not going to get them from him.

  “Open your code book, Zez. It is time again to copy the allowed and disallowed offensive uses of the talents.”

  I complied, flipping the heavy tome to the appropriate page and taking up my quill. However, my thoughts were not on the words I was writing. They were caught up in trying to figure out why Errol didn’t want me to know what he and Selwyn had planned.

  “OVER HERE,” CANDRA answered my call from her perch on top of the tree house. “Could you come up? I am on the last row of thatch.”

  “Go ahead and practice lifting yourself up,” Selwyn suggested as he poked his head out of the window below Candra. “I am here to spot you.”

  I waited until I felt the tentative brushing of his energy around me. With my newly mastered energy-sight, I could see his field around me, floating grey specks in my peripheral vision. Touching my amoveo, the refreshing rush of the liquid energy flooded my being. With practiced care, I extended the field as Korneli had taught me. My own energy filled my senses, mingling my green with Selwyn’s gray.

  Flicking slightly against the ground, I pushed off toward the overarching branches of the oak. I reached out toward the edge of the roof with my hands, checking my upward motion when my shoulders cleared the lip. The interaction between the physical and amoveo forces had taken me weeks to master, but now I could confidently use them both interchangeably and together.

  “Do you need help?” I asked Candra.

  Looking down at me from beneath her arm, Candra shook her head. “Not at the moment.”

  “Then I will go help Selwyn.” I swung my feet toward the window sill, catching it with my bare toes. With practiced ease, I slipped in the window and landed firmly on the rough wooden boards of the floor. The darkness blinded me after the brightness of the outside, but I could still see Selwyn’s energy speckled among my green. “I am on my feet,” I informed him.

  “I know, but you aren’t supposed to be in here.” Selwyn’s voice came from the far corner where the darkness was thickest.

  “Don’t you need help?”

  He laughed softly. “Don’t tell Candra, but I am taking advantage of the cool shade in here to recover from last night’s birthing.”

  “Another foal?” I asked. When he wasn’t hanging around helping Errol or spending time with Candra and me, Selwyn ran his own estate slightly farther south. Unlike the willow farm, his estate bordered on the coast. His staff raised horses and the crops to support their herd.

  “Yes, it was a female. She promises to be just like her mother, feisty and beautiful. Perhaps I shall give her to you when you pass your final testing.”

  “I was just asking Errol about that,” I commented, making myself comfortable on the floor below the window. “He wouldn’t tell me what is going to happen to me after I pass.”

  With that strange new sense, I felt Selwyn stiffen even though he made no sound and I could still not see him in the dimness.

  “He listed the opportunities that are available, right?”

  “Yes,” I admitted. “However, he didn’t explain how I would choose.”

  Selwyn relaxed. “Usually the Sept Son suggests one based on the trainee’s strengths.”

  “But what about you? You aren’t fulfilling any of those positions, except when you help Errol teach me. You don’t have students like a Trainer would; you don’t travel as a Recruiter would; and you don’t serve on the Sept Son’s compound. What role do you play?”

  “You didn’t mention defender,” he observed with a hint of amusement.

  I stared into the darkness in his direction. “You mean you are a defender?” Somehow the role of Defender of the Sept Son didn’t seem to fit his laid back manner and easy going nature.

  “Could be.”

  As I ran through the list of positions in my head, I suddenly realized he could also be a User, a trained talent who was retired from service. “You are too young to only be a User,” I surmised.

  Selwyn laughed. “The User qualifications do not include an age restriction. I am a retired defender, if you must know.”

  I was instantly curious. “Why did you retire?”

  “It is a long story,” he replied. My sense picked up a strong defensive wall rising around him. If there was any doubt as to his abilities or expertise, the tangible feel of the barricades around him erased all of them.

  “Why hasn’t Errol had you help me with my defensive lessons?”

  “I told him I wasn’t available.”

  I frowned. “You aren’t available to help me with my lessons, but you are available to help Candra with her tree house and nap in the shade on a summer afternoon?” I magnified the slight hurt I felt at getting prioritized below Candra and sent it at his defenses. I felt his dim twinge of regret as it found its mark.

  “There is much more to it than that, Zez.” His voice grew deep and serious. “I don’t want to scar you. I have seen and done things that I hope you will never even dream about. I have memories within my mind that would shake you so badly that you would never be able to concentrate ever again.”

  “But you concentrate.”

  “I have learned coping mechanisms that help me act normally. It was a long slow recovery, and I am limited in what I can do. Besides, the same techniques that help me also make my mind a terrifying minefield for any student to negotiate. In simply pressing beneath the surface, you could touch one of these memories and suddenly be inside one of my nightmares. Something I don’t want you to ever experience.”

  “I keep getting the feeling that Errol has huge plans for me and I am a
fraid that he will not prepare me enough in this area. This isn’t exactly his expertise.”

  “If I feel you need to know more than Errol is teaching you, I will make sure you get it, Zez. You are just going to have to trust me to know when and how to tell you.”

  His tone confirmed my intuition that Errol and he had something grand planned for me to do once I finished my training. At the same time, I knew it would be wrong to push Selwyn for more information. The pain and concern that came from him were genuine. He cared and felt that he was doing what was best for me. For now, that was going to have to be enough. I pushed back the impatient curiosity that nagged at me to pursue the topic.

  “So, what are you supposed to be doing instead of napping?” I asked.

  He relaxed at the change in subject. “I am supposed to be sweeping the floor and measuring for the rope ladder that I promised to make her.”

  “Have you even started on the ladder?”

  He laughed. “It has been done for a week. I just haven’t told her.” He leaned forward conspiratorially and whispered, “I am going to install it tonight. It will be there to surprise her tomorrow morning. I am planning on playing innocent; so, don’t tell her that I did it.”

  I nodded my agreement.

  A loud thump on the roof above us made us both jump. “I am ready to come down now,” Candra announced. “The roof is done.”

  Selwyn moved out into the light with a look of concentration on his face. With my energy-sight, I saw the grey specks of his energy spread out and then focus. Candra appeared in the doorway a few moments later, a proud smile on her face.

  “Now the only things left are the door, shutters, and the ladder. Did you measure for the ladder?” she asked Selwyn.

  “Of course,” he protested. “I even measured for the door and shutters. I will work on them tomorrow.”