Kei's Gift (83 page)

“Yes, Arman—if you would come with me, Kei?”

“Wait—Arman, what about the...you know, masters?”

Arman nodded. “I’ll have them come to you this morning. I believe the healer will be down too. Go on, Kei. I’ll speak to you later.”

Arman was obviously busy. Even as Kei stood to follow Ev, Arman was shuffling notes and getting them in order. He didn’t need Kei hanging around like a whiny child. “Goodbye, Arman.”

Arman looked up with a polite smile. “I hope they can help you. If you need me, please send a message, understand?”

Kei nodded, and thought he would cut his arm off before he disturbed Arman with any stupid request. Ev took him to the floor above Arman’s.

“Where are we going?” he asked.

“We have a few rooms that we maintain for visitors from the villages or Andon when they come to see the Rulers.”

“Wait—I don’t need anything like that,” he protested.

Ev gave him a dimpled smile. “Well, Kei, it’s either that or one of the Ruler’s rooms. Would you prefer one of those? I think we have one free.”

“No! I meant, I don’t need anything fancy.”

“Lord Meki was very specific. You and your friend are to have the best we have to offer—and the guest rooms are nicer than the Rulers’.”

“Oh.” Kei’s face burned in embarrassment, but he was also intrigued by her comment. The truth of it was soon proved when she opened a door onto a large, bright, very clean apartment with fine furniture and well-maintained drapery. It was a much more elegant suite than Arman was using. “I can’t stay here,” he protested. “It’s too much.”

“Hmm, I thought you villagers were supposed to have such nice manners. Would you behave like this if you were offered hospitality there?”

Kei mumbled an apology, feeling every inch the country bumpkin. Ev wasn’t really annoyed though—she probably didn’t expect any better from him. She showed him where everything was, and told him to call if he wanted anything. “You can go anywhere in the House or the gardens, Lord Meki told me to tell you. Your clothes will be brought to you, and if you need to speak to the general, ring for someone to take a message.
He
was very specific on that point.”

He thanked her and she left him to it, to his intense relief. He hardly dared to sit down—he’d only seen furniture of similar quality once before, in Arman’s house, although this was far more to his taste. Myka would adore it, he thought numbly.

Finally he sat gingerly in a chair by the window and looked across the pretty gardens to the sea. He really shouldn’t be here. He was putting Arman to trouble, making the Rulers accommodate his needs when they were so busy with rescuing the hostages, and he wasn’t even needed for that. If he hadn’t been expecting the gift masters, he would have walked out and returned to the inn.

He sat in a funk for a while, his head throbbing painfully, and feeling utterly miserable. When a knock came, he expected it to be the teachers from the academy, but instead it was a short, grey-haired man he’d never met before. “Good morning, Kei. I’m Loti—the healer.”

Ah, Arman had said the healer was going to visit. “Thank you for coming. Loti. It wasn’t necessary to trouble yourself.”

Loti smiled and came over to him, taking Kei’s chin in his hand without ceremony to check his eyes and pulse. “No trouble at all. I’m sorry I was late, but Lady Nera was worried about her daughter—she’s a little colicky and since the child is being fed from the bottle, she imagines everything is to do with that. I told her all babies are colicky sometimes. Hmm, you look fine. Head hurt?”

“Like you can’t imagine.”

“Can’t do much about that unless you want more pijn.” Kei shook his head. “Thought not—then it’s rest and cool cloths and time. You know the procedure.”

He did indeed. “Lady Nera hasn’t been able to feed the child?”

“No, sadly. Her milk dried within the month, but her daughter tolerates the jombeker milk well. She had a difficult birth and this on top of it—it’s made her a little cautious about the child’s health, but in truth, the baby is thriving.”

“Good,” Kei said. He didn’t know the Lady, but it was always a relief when a child was successfully born and raised in Darshian.

Loti checked Kei’s head injury and it hurt. “Sorry,” Loti said in response to Kei’s wince. “You’ll have a tidy little scar there, I think. You’re lucky it wasn’t worse. It would have been a tragedy to have lost Erte’s son so pointlessly after losing her.”

“You knew my mother?” Of course he did.
Everyone
knew his mother.

Loti nodded. “We studied together, and she mentioned you in her letters. She never said you had two gifts though.”

How did...?
“I honestly didn’t know it was important or unusual. There’s only the one other gifted in our village—I’ve not met that many before.”

“Hmm, perhaps not important, but certainly unusual. Well, you seem fit, lad, although you need feeding—”

Another knock at the door interrupted him and this time it
was
the gift masters. Kei stood hastily and bowed to the two men who’d briefly instructed him at the academy, and Loti made his excuses to leave.

“No, healer,” Bikel said. “We’ll have need of you, please stay, if you would.”

“Of course.” Loti sat down again.

“This would be best done where you can lie down, Kei.”

Kei pointed to the bedroom and was ordered to undress and get on the bed. “What are you going to do?” he asked politely.

“We need to look inside your mind,” Bikel said impatiently, as Diza silently drew two chairs over to the bed. “It’s probably going to hurt a good deal and I’m going to ask Loti to dose you with pijn.”

“Is that really necessary, Master Bikel?” Kei asked, pausing as he removed his trousers.

Bikel gave him a severe look. “Would I suggest it if it were not? You’ll thank me later, I promise you.”

Diza had slipped out of the room to speak to Loti, and returned with the healer in tow. Loti looked dubious. “How numb do you need him to be?”

“Conscious, but only just. But he will want to sleep afterwards, I’ll warrant, so prepare a second dose, if you would, please.”

Kei’s anxiety about what would happen was ratcheted up by the moment—and he thought it was most peculiar neither man had even asked what was wrong with him yet.
Arman
. He had to have given them all the details.

Loti gave him the pijn to drink, and then, dressed only in his loincloth, Kei lay down on the fine soft bedspread. The pain in his head receded almost immediately, but simply lying down might have achieved that. Bikel sat at a chair near his head and watched him intently, one hand on his wrist, and the other on Diza’s arm.
I want you to tell me when your sensitivity to pain is gone, Kei. When your head stops hurting completely.

Kei nodded, already feeling drowsy. In a couple of minutes, he told Bikel he thought he was ready.
All right—now, Diza is going to touch you. I’m warning you, it will still hurt, but it’s necessary. I’ll do what I can to ease it, but you need to be brave.

Kei nodded again, and then had only a moment’s warning as Diza’s hand touched him. His mind exploded in agony and he screamed as he struggled futilely against the grip on him. He dimly heard people shouting but it was just a faint backdrop to the torture of his mind....

He came to only slowly, and groaned. Immediately a cool cloth was laid on his head. “Don’t try to move,” someone said.
Loti?

He couldn’t have moved even if he wanted to. He opened his eyes. The light was very different from when he’d last been aware of things. “How long?”

“It’s after lunch—you’ve been asleep for five hours.”

Five?
“Where...?” His mouth was dry. He swallowed. “Where’s Master Bikel? Everyone?”

Loti moved where Kei could see him, and changed the cloth again. “Bikel is with Diza, who’s lying down in another room. He’s nearly as badly off as you are. Reji arrived earlier and was asked to go away until we send for him.”

“What...happened?”

Loti’s mouth turned down in a grim line. “Diza passed out, that’s what happened.”

“What?”

Kei struggled against the pain and the lethargy to try and sit, but only succeeded in making his headache worse. Loti held him down easily. “Don’t move, I said.”

“Tell me.”

“Only if you stay still and calm.” Once Kei agreed, Loti told him. Apparently when Diza linked to him and Bikel had called up the memory of the executions, Kei’s pain overwhelmed them both, and though both Loti and Bikel had struggled to control what was happening, Diza couldn’t bear it and had eventually fainted dead away. Loti had given Kei more pijn and Bikel had taken Diza away to rest.

“The screams from both of you brought a lot of people running, including Reji. Calming him down was fun,” Loti said grimly. “Fortunately, General Arman is out of the building so I didn’t have to deal with
two
over-protective men.”

“I’m sorry,” Kei said quietly. “I didn’t want anyone hurt.”

“Stupid boy, do you think anyone blames you?” Loti took the cloth and wrung it out in a basin of water on the table beside the bed, before placing it back on Kei’s forehead. “Bikel will be here later. If you sleep now, you should feel a little better—I daren’t give you any more pijn, so the cold cloth is all I can offer.”

“It helps,” Kei mumbled, then he realised something else was wrong. “I can’t sense you—why?”

“Partly the drug, I think, but Bikel did something, he said. It was the only way to stop what was happening to Diza. He said your control was shattered.”

Kei closed his eyes, exhausted and hurting and utterly mortified. Not only had the experience been excruciating for all concerned, it hadn’t helped either. If he could do that to a gift master, those who had the best control of all of their kin—so good they could train others—there was no hope for him at all.

He dozed fitfully for a couple of hours, and woke with the late afternoon sun blazing into the room. His head was less painful, and he could move without the pain crippling him. Loti was also dozing a little in the chair by the bed, but in response to Kei’s quiet call, came instantly alert. “How do you feel?” he said, taking the cloth away and replacing it, even though the water in the bowl was now tepid, bringing less relief than before.

“Better. I could get up, I think.”

“And then I could be set upon by your anxious supporters and torn to bits,” Loti said tartly. “You sit still, my boy. Get out of bed and I’ll feed you tirsel leaf until you explode.”

Kei nodded. Healers all over the country had learned that threat was highly effective. He disobeyed Loti only so far as getting himself into a sitting position, pillows behind his back. He felt empty and depressed, wondering what now could be done for him. This had been what he’d feared—that there wouldn’t be any answer to his problem, because the damage was too grave.

A few minutes later, Loti returned with Bikel behind him. Loti was then abruptly dismissed and Bikel closed the door behind him before coming to sit at Kei’s bedside. “How is Master Diza? I’m sorry he’s been hurt, Master Bikel.”

“Don’t be a fool, Kei, it wasn’t anyone’s fault, save mine.” Bikel looked drawn and tired. “But he’s fine—resting. He’s not coming near you again today, though.”

“I understand. So it’s hopeless? You can’t help me?”

Bikel shook his head regretfully. “I can’t, no. Neither can he.” He wiped his face with a weary hand. “I’m going to explain this carefully. It will take some time because it’s complex, and I confess I’ve never encountered anything quite like this before, so some of it’s guess work.” Kei nodded. “The problem has many layers. The first relates to your degree of sensitivity. When I was trying to break the connection between you and Diza, I found it very difficult, nearly impossible to block your gift. Normally I can do so easily even with someone as well-trained as he is. Your gift is far stronger than many soul-touchers, verging on the truly Gifted—and yet it was not thus when you were here two years ago.”

Kei answered his enquiring look. “Jena—that’s the healer from Ai-Rutej who was taken hostage, a mind-speaker—thought gifts like ours got stronger with age and with certain experiences. Could a series of shocks, griefs, cause that?”

Bikel looked thoughtful. “It might,” he said doubtfully. “Never seen anything quite like this—the only two factors which might explain it are that you have two gifts of very different types, and this experience with the executions. Either might be the reason. Whatever the cause, you’re much more sensitive than you should be, at least now. You’ll need to learn much greater control, and keep a constant guard on it until that control is second nature to you. This will take time and effort, and you’ll always be at risk of being overwhelmed if you’re not careful or don’t maintain your mental exercises.”

Kei nodded unhappily—it looked like the control he had once taken for granted would never be so easy again. “Then there is the experience you had in Utuk which would distress anyone—the nightmares, the random memories, these will be afflicting your fellow hostages as much as you. For this, there is no answer but time, and the understanding of those who love you. In a way, it’s good you’ve alerted us to this. When we have the hostages home, we can warn their families and friends to be supportive. I suspect it will always be something that sets them apart from their clan.”