Branded (The Branded Series) (18 page)

“Their brand.
You know—tattoo?” he said, seemingly searching for a word that we might be able
to relate to in our day and age.

“I'm sorry?”
Noah asked, puzzled. Thankfully I wasn't the only one.

“I guess the
newcomers wouldn't necessarily be aware of this. My apologies.” Mr. Chisholm
raised his hands, which commanded everyone's attention. “Newcomers, in order to
officially become a Gifted One, you must receive the mark of the Gifted Ones.
Upon graduation at the end of the weekend, you will enter into a covenant and
become branded in Sunday's closing ceremony.”

“That's cool,”
Noah muttered.

James turned
to Noah and said, “Sorry? Was that a question?”

“No, nothing,
sir,” Noah covered. “Well, actually, I do have a question.”

“Sure. What's
your name and gift, son?”

“I’m Noah
Morgan from Halifax, and I am gifted with Languages,” Noah said proudly.

“Oh,
Languages.” James clapped his hands together in delight. “What a great gift to
have. A lot of good work will be done through you, son.”

“Thank you,
sir. Looking forward to being of service,” Noah said, giving a little salute
with his hand.

“Now what is
your question?”

“I was
wondering how many gifts there are altogether?” Noah asked.

“There are
eight gifts altogether,” James began. “They are Wisdom, Faith, Healing, Miracles,
Prophesy, Discernment, Helping and Languages.” James circled the fire as he
spoke. “I'm going to explain briefly what each gift is and I want everyone to
raise their hand when I call out their gift. Take note of the people that share
your gift as you will see them in your training groups tomorrow.”

There were
murmurs of agreement throughout the crowd.

“The gift of
Wisdom,” James began, pausing to survey the dozen or more hands in the air,
“enables one to retain any and all information they've ever seen, read or
heard, and in advanced cases, even information they've never seen, read or
heard. Someone gifted with Wisdom can know detailed information about a complete
stranger. They also have a way of being able to manipulate your mood, calming
you in a situation if need be. They are said to be people readers.”

He paused
before continuing on to each gift.

“The gift of
Faith can be powerful. With the ability to believe anything, you can literally do
anything. Anything from lifting three thousand pounds to moving mountains.
People gifted with Faith are often called free-spirited people. They are scared
of nothing.”

I noticed that
there were even more people gifted with Faith than with Wisdom. Mostly females
though, and I wondered if there was a reason behind that. The only males in
this category were young children.

James
continued, “The gift of Healing”—he gave a nod in my direction—“is extremely
rare. As you can see, we only have two healers amongst us. A healer cannot only
heal one's body, but in rare instances, can even heal the mind and spirit.”

I casually
checked out the other healer. He was a tall man in his mid-fifties, I guessed.
I wondered how talented he was at healing and if he'd be able to teach me
anything.

“The gift of
Miracles is also extremely rare.” James looked around at the crowd until he
spotted a little boy sitting on an upper bench across from us. “Simon.”

The little boy
nodded shyly.

“Simon is our
only miracle worker. With this gift, Simon will be able to do great things. He
is currently under continuous supervision, as this gift could easily get out of
hand. You can imagine a five-year-old running around and wishing for new bikes
for all of his friends. And I'm sure if we left him to his own devices, his family
would have won the lottery by now. Right, Simon?”

Everyone
laughed, including little Simon who probably had no idea what was going on. He
sat comfortably close to an older woman, who I assumed was his mother.

James went on,
“Because miracle workers are extremely rare, they are always at great risk from
the Defiers. Simon will be under constant surveillance to ensure his safety. It
is our job as Gifted Ones to protect Simon.

“Next we have
the gift of Prophesy which enables one to be able to see the future. This gift
can range in depth. Perhaps one may only see flashes of the future for certain
events, and with other events they may see the whole thing unfold before their
eyes. Some may only be able to see the future in their dreams, and others can
have visions in the middle of the day, no matter what they’re doing. Prophets
are essential to our cause. They allow us to see what is coming—both good and
evil.”

There were
only a handful of prophets, Rachel being one of them. She seemed pleased that
her gift wasn't diluted.

James continued,
“The gift of Discernment enables one to be able to instantly distinguish a good
person from a bad person. Someone who is well-trained in Discernment can sense
evil without even seeing it. Once you are trained enough to be able to sense
evil from a mile away, so to speak, you can even begin to read minds. Very rare
though.”

I noticed
that, again, there were about a dozen people who raised their hands for this
gift, including Nick and Claudia. I wondered if they could read minds too. That
would be embarrassing. I wondered if Claudia read my mind when I was thinking
about how she reminded me of Anna.  I wondered if she was reading my mind right
now. I decided I should just shut up. I heard Claudia giggle, but I wasn't
about to turn around to find out why.

“The gift of
Helping is a gift you don't see in action very often,” James said. “Someone
gifted with Helping has the natural instinct to want to help others, and can do
pretty magnificent and unbelievable things in order to achieve that. It could
mean being able to run a marathon with a broken leg just to help raise money
for a good cause.

“Lastly, the
gift of Languages is one of my personal favourites. Those gifted with Languages
are able to speak and understand any language, including cryptic code. An invaluable
tool. Also, many of you don't know this, but those gifted with Languages are
also able to imitate the voices of others around them.”

I nudged Noah
who appeared puzzled.

“Let me
demonstrate,” James said. “Can I have a volunteer please?” He looked around the
crowd. “Chloe? Can you come down here, please?”

A girl about
my age made her way down the benches. She stood next to James with a wide smile
and freckled cheeks.

“Chloe, I want
you to tell everyone your name, age and where you are from, please.”

She obediently
replied, “My name is Chloe Stevenson. I’m seventeen years old and from Phoenix,
Arizona.”

“Thank you,
Chloe, you may go sit down now,” James instructed.

I gave Rachel
a quizzical look as we waited. James closed his eyes and smiled, then opened
his mouth and the voice of Chloe came out as he repeated, “My name is Chloe Stevenson.
I’m seventeen years old and from Phoenix, Arizona.”

Dumbfounded
looks spread across the whole crowd. His voice was exactly like hers.
How
did he do that?

“So that’s what
you can do with your Languages gift. You can literally speak the language of
anyone.”

Noah’s gift
was no longer useless, I thought. I could think of many ways that could come in
handy.

As if reading
my thoughts again, James added, “I urge all of you not to misuse your gifts.
They have been given to you to help fulfill your purpose.”

One brave
person in the crowd asked, “And what happens if you misuse your gift?”

And without
hesitation, he responded, “Hell happens.”

It was after
midnight when
James Chisholm finished answering questions and dismissed us to bed. The crowd
started dissipating and the fire was left to die down. The little ones had
retired hours ago, leaving the rest of us to ask more in-depth questions about
the dark side.

“So what'd you
think?” Nick asked, breaking the silence.

“It was good,”
was all I could think of to say at the moment.

“He sure knows
a lot, doesn't he?” Rachel said.

“That's why
they call him the Mighty Counsellor,” Claudia laughed.

“What is his
gift?” I asked, turning to face Nick and Claudia.

Nick grinned.
“James has all of the gifts, actually.”

“What?” Noah
gasped. “I didn't know that was even possible.”

“It’s not,
really,” Claudia clarified. “He’s the only one who has all eight.”

I hadn’t seen
that one coming. I knew he had
some
special powers because he was able
to mind read and
imitate voices, but I had no idea he could do
everything else too. This created a newfound respect for the man.

As I thought
about this, the tall, mid-fifties healer got up from his bench and announced to
his friends that he was heading to bed.

“Nick, do you
know him?” I asked quietly, nodding toward the man.

“Not really,”
he said, “but I know he keeps to himself a lot and that he's one heck of a
healer.”

“Really? How
do you know that?”

“He's often
summoned all over the world when one of the Gifted Ones gets injured. He's done
some pretty amazing stuff.”

I was excited
to get on with my training the following day. I was sure I was going to do
well. I'd just keep Anna on my mind and imagine myself healing her. Just like I
did at the ski hill.

“Okay,” Noah
began as he turned to face Nick and Claudia, “so you guys are gifted with
Discernment.”

“The both of
you? How did that happen?” Rachel asked.

“Well, we met
here at camp a few years ago,” Claudia began. “We got to know each other
because we were in the same group. Nick was living in Toronto at the time, but
convinced his mother to move to Nova Scotia so we could be together.” Claudia
looked dreamily at Nick.

“Best move I
ever made.” Nick gave her a soft kiss on her lips.

I looked away
uncomfortably. It brought back a painful reminder of how I couldn’t be with
Anna.

“So, how did
you discover you were gifted?” I asked.

Claudia nodded
to Nick for him to go ahead, but he wouldn’t have it. “You go,” he said.

“Well, I was
sort of born into it. Both of my parents are gifted with Discernment. My dad is
a police officer and my mom is a judge, which are great professions for people
who can instantly tell if someone is good or bad or telling the truth or not.
But I was about thirteen when we discovered that I was gifted too. I was on a
three-month exchange student program in Australia. I was excited to go, had
talked to the host family before I left and they supposedly had a daughter my
age, so I was really looking forward to it. But then when I got there, I just
didn’t feel right about the situation. I was sick to my stomach, which I
figured was either food poisoning or really bad jet lag. Anyway, Dad called
later that day to see how I was making out, and I told him how I was feeling.
He immediately got Interpol involved and did an intense background check on the
family. Apparently, they used fake names for the mandatory criminal checks.
They didn’t have a daughter after all, and when Interpol busted into their
house, they found a thirteen-year-old girl tied up in their basement, almost
dead. It was a girl they had kidnapped and used to pretend to be their daughter.
Anyway, I’m still not sure what they were planning on doing to me, but I’m just
glad that my gift kicked in when it did.”

“Holy crap,”
Noah blurted. “That’s insane. And I was actually thinking about doing an
exchange program.”

“Don’t get me
wrong. They are completely fun and really rewarding. I’ve done a half dozen or
more since then. I would totally recommend it,” Claudia assured him. “Interpol will
be checking out any family you go with now anyway, so no worries there.”

“What about
you, Nick?” I asked.

“I came about
my gift a bit differently,” Nick began. “I was always a people person. I loved reading
people. I sometimes felt really judgmental because I would meet someone and
instantly not like them, but I couldn't explain why, so I'd find something
about them physically that I could use as an excuse or reason. It was hard because
my mom would bring home her boyfriends to meet me and sometimes I'd get this
really bad vibe about them and for as long as she'd date that guy, I would act
out. I guess it was my way of standing up for her.

“Anyway, there
was this one time when I was thirteen, my mom was dating this guy who I hadn't
met yet. She was telling me all about how great he was, how he was a pilot in
the air force, and so on. I liked the sound of him. I thought he would make a
great dad and I was really excited. They were dating for a few months, so she
decided to invite him over for dinner so that we could meet. Before he got
there, I started feeling sick. I chalked it up to being nerves, and when the
knock came at the door, I ran ahead to get it. Before I opened the door, this
feeling of disgust came over me. I couldn't explain it but I knew I already hated
this man. I slowly opened the door and he stood in front of me looking nothing
like the pictures of the distinguished man my mother had shown me. He looked
like a monster. A sick, twisted monster. I just froze there, staring at him
while everything inside me told me to run. He reached out his hand to shake
mine and . . . well, that's when I threw up all over his shoes.”