Different Talents

Dancing With Death: Part Nine of Ten

Dancing With Death is the sixth in the Tales of The Lesser Evil and this is the ninth chapter.

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This is a fantasy series—not quite grimdark, but dark nevertheless—with complicated and believable characters doing their best to survive in a world simply indifferent to their existence.

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Different Talents

Mart was slumped against the rough wall and, at first, Flin feared he was dead, but then she saw his chest rising and falling. Her own head hurt, and she sat down hard, next to him.

The still-unnamed woman appeared a short time later.

‘Can you do anything for Mart? I think his arm is broken, and maybe something is wrong inside too.’

‘Yes. I have never been the best healer, but simple injuries I can deal with. Battlefields have been my home for many years.’ She squatted down, bouncing the creature’s ring on her palm, then laid the other hand on his head.

There was a crack and he gasped loudly, waking for a heartbeat, before he slipped back into unconsciousness.

‘He’ll sleep for a time, and awake with a terrible hangover, but he is well.’

Flin nodded and noticed a water flask on Mart’s wide belt. She unhitched it and took a long swallow, before passing it to the woman. As she moved her head, she realised the floating lights were gone and her brain felt clearer, less padded.

‘Now, please tell me how you know my name? Who do we know in common? What is your name? You are one of those who use power, like you said, but you stay like this? How?’ she gestured and the woman smiled in response.

‘Yes. It is time for questions and answers and stories. I do use the power, of course I do, and I and some friends of mine have a way to stay sane, to not lose ourselves.’ Her face clouded briefly and she took another mouthful of water, before handing the flask back to Flin, ‘It is not easy, but it has worked for us for a long time. One of those friends found you, after you met someone we both know, someone who gave you that.’ She pointed at the green amulet Flin wore.

‘Did you follow me to Taura Furnace? I saw you on a boat at the harbour and, again, here in the city by the serpent steps.’

‘No. I was following the rumour of the vampire. I had been in Mamak, dealing with something else in the Mamak Drowning, when I heard whispers of her. At that time, I did not know it was something I had met before, but I caught the next vessel available. You, I felt as we approached the city.’

‘Felt, how—the amulet?’

‘Partly, yes. Partly just you. We who have used the power can feel one another over short distances. I suspect that was how you were found by Yara, by the woman who gave you that.’ She pointed again. ‘It is certainly how my friend found you. He has always been better at moving around, finding others. I think he wants to try and help them, stop them turning into, well, you saw. We all have different talents and a balance needs to be kept.’

‘Are you saying,’ Flin paused to swallow, then repeated herself. ‘Are you saying that will happen to me? Are you saying I have magical powers?’ She could not help but shiver, her sense of fear definitely returning.

‘I do not know. Sometimes it depends on what you do in your life, whether you strive to learn more about this, or let it go. I never know how it works, I just know that sometimes it does.’ She shrugged, the tattoos which climbed her arms moving in the light.

Flin looked at her, silent for a time, studying the intricate designs on the woman’s darkly tanned skin. Some of the lines were wrought into pictures of animals, weapons, and birds, but others were simple lines and crosses, still others patterns, swirling together, weaving around her arms. She had short black hair, straighter than Flin’s, and dark eyes. Her face was smooth and unlined and she looked no older than her fourth Sixthday.

‘What is your name?’

‘I have been called many things. At the moment, I prefer to be called Leaf, but it changes often. I don’t like being pinned to one name, it makes no sense to me when I don’t have to.’

Before she could respond, a sudden jolt to the ground made Flin gasp.

‘Is that her? Is she free?’

‘No, that is the mountain. I suspect it is waking up again. She, however, is definitely asleep. Now, Flin, I would like to know more about Youlbridge. About you, and what happened. I had some of it from Lang, but…’

‘Wait! Lang! That is who you mean! You know Lang! He saved my life, after Kadan, without him…’ she stopped talking, a sudden and surprising ragged sob breaking free, tears welling in her eyes.

She was surprised when the woman sat beside her and enfolded her within a tight embrace, letting her cry on her shoulder, all the while making soft reassuring sounds. She smelled of leather, of metal and honing oil and fresh sweat.

Eventually, her tears slowed and stopped. Flin hugged Leaf and then pulled away, taking another mouthful of water. Her head still hurt but, somehow, crying seemed to have helped. She felt a profound sense of peace, the like of which she had not felt since she and Lang had followed different paths.

‘I told you,’ Leaf said, gently, ‘Lang likes to try and help people. He has spent a long time trying to be the best version of himself he can possibly be. Me, I am more fluid, I go with what I am given and my idea of good and bad is perhaps a little bit more flexible. Now, can you tell me the whole story?’

‘Mart, will he wake soon?’

‘He will wake when I am ready. Not before.’

‘Wait!’ Flin called again, what about the other man, Dinavi? He was badly injured, he…’

‘He sleeps too. He will be fine, with bed rest and time. I healed the worst of his injuries, but I can do little to remedy the mind, what he saw. I clouded some of it, as best I can, but he may be damaged. A healthy mind is easier to manipulate than a terrified one.’

Flin felt a moment of shame that she had forgotten the injured man, but she knew it had been the blanket of the mushrooms, softly subduing senses and doing strange things to her mind. She rallied her thoughts and spoke.

‘For the first dozen years of my life I played in the woods, climbed the hills, ran through the meadows, and swam…’

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