"And you don't?"
The sylph smiled. "Sylphs like to bask." She patted one of her arms. "Get more blue in the sunlight."
Sallis laughed. "So that's why the housework suffers on sunny days."
Lyssan blushed, so perhaps his little joke hit nearer the truth than intended. "Enya is busy inside," she said. "See you later."
Sallis watched her go, before he checked Polless had enough oats.
***
In the cool of the evening, Elvallon put Sallis through his paces.
He sympathized with the boy's frustration at not being allowed to try the healing he claimed to understand. Far more cautious than his pupil, Elvallon wanted to be sure Sallis had learned properly before letting him anywhere near a patient.
He watched his pupil attack imaginary enemies with his sword, moving faster and faster as he released the Gift. How much power did this skill need? Elvallon marveled. He kept going and going. The boy did not even look tired, though the older man knew he would sleep well tonight after this.
"All right, that's enough," he said.
Sallis ignored him and Elvallon was forced to put himself in the boy's line of sight and wave his arms at him. A dangerous thing to do while someone fought imaginary enemies with a real sword. How well did an eleven-year-old visualize imaginary enemies?
Sallis stopped.
"Don't exhaust yourself," warned Elvallon. "You'll have plenty of work to do tomorrow."
"Learning how to heal?" Sallis's eyes lit. No doubt the prospect of two incomes pleased him.
"Yes." Elvallon looked around in the gathering dusk. As bloodsuckers had no interest in blue blood, Elvallon had created the illusion only sylphs lived here. Small biting flies stayed well away, and searched for their meals elsewhere. "Looks to be a fine night, so I might be able to catch a couple of rabbits."
"You make them ill on purpose?" Sallis looked dismayed.
"Of course not. Even if I knew how, that would be an evil thing to inflict. But you must be able to read a living thing by touching it, and know what should be there and what should not." Elvallon grinned. "Though we might have them for supper tomorrow evening."
Sallis laughed. "Rabbit stew," he said. "Not had that for some time."
"Well," said Elvallon, "it is peasant food. But sustaining."
"So long as you eat other things as well," said Sallis.
"Oh?"
"Something my father said," continued Sallis. "If you eat nothing but rabbit, you eventually die."
"A new one on me," said Elvallon. "But then, I've never tried eating just rabbit. Either way, I would suggest an early night might be best."
***
Barely conscious, the rabbit lay limp in Sallis's hands. Elvallon must have done something to make it so docile; its eyes showed no fear. Most unusual in a creature so far down the food chain.
"You must reach in and connect with the Gift within the patient," Elvallon was saying. "Find anything that should not be there. Broken connections, external invasion, confused workings. When something interferes with a living creature, it also affects the way the Gift works. Look for disruptions and let me know if you find any. You saw me do it, now try with the rabbit."
Sallis looked down at it, felt its body warmth through its fur. Barely moving, but breathing. The boy closed his eyes and concentrated.
He became aware of the creature's heartbeat, fast but not unduly so. Every organ worked as it should and nothing felt wrong. The animal seemed calm and barely stressed; Sallis wondered if it would feel the same when it realized what Elvallon had planned for it...
The creature began to struggle and Sallis felt both lungs and heart quicken. A moment later and Elvallon took the rabbit from him.
"Is this a two-way thing?" asked Sallis.
"Yes."
"When I thought about what we're going to do with them later, it began to move."
"Who can blame it?" Elvallon laughed. "Healing is always two-way. Most strength needed for healing comes from the patient, which is why healing is sometimes too late. Some practitioners can give much of the needed strength and perhaps most of us give some to a greater or lesser degree. But it's a rare skill to give all the strength needed for healing."
"You're sure I can do this?"
"Tell me what you felt."
Sallis told him.
"Now I'm sure you have the talent," said Elvallon. "Nobody sees so well the first time."
"I've already seen you do it," protested Sallis.
"Few can even see that so easily, so soon."
Sallis shrugged.
"Often the way with those for whom the first, original touching of the Gift is so hard to accomplish," smiled Elvallon. "Once they succeed, everything else comes almost naturally. And I'm still impressed your first touching was time manipulation."
Sallis blushed.
"You can do this," promised Elvallon. "Criminal hunting and healing; you'll be some practitioner once your training is complete."
Sallis only blushed harder.
***
Chapter 17 - Disaster
The day started normally enough.
Sallis took his time in the washroom, splashing about happily. He caused the waiting Lyssan so much distress that the usually placid sylph eventually banged on the door and demanded her turn.
A normal breakfast of heated oats with water and sweetened with honey, that all three ate together, followed by the daily chores Lyssan no longer resented sharing with Sallis.
Once done with chores, Elvallon again chose one of the rabbits. Lyssan's pulse and bean soup the night before had granted the two rabbits a reprieve, and both had survived to see another day.
Elvallon might have chosen the same one, but Sallis doubted that. The moment he put his hands on the silky fur, he knew this was definitely a different animal.
"This one's not right," he said, immediately.
Elvallon gave him a wide smile. "You see! You have a feel for this."
"You already knew," said Sallis. "You must have."
"I did."
"You said you wouldn't make them ill on purpose!"
"Nor did I. Illness is not something I can create from nothing. Delve more deeply, find out where and what the problem is."
Sallis obeyed. He felt through the creature and quickly found a disruption in the Gift. That was the only way to describe it. Somewhere in the left foreleg...
"This bone's been broken and never healed properly," said Sallis.
"Good lad!" Elvallon patted him on the shoulder. "I expect the creature got trapped sometime and found it difficult to escape. Healers usually never bother with old injuries such as this. But if we cure a patient for one thing, we always cure older problems as well. We cannot pick and choose which illnesses or injuries to cure. Either we heal, or we do not."
"I can repair this," insisted Sallis.
"I'm sure you can. But be careful how you deal with it. Too much and you'll do more harm than good. Remember, this is only a small creature, and unable to handle large amounts of the Gift."
Sallis concentrated. A thin trickle of the Gift, barely manipulated at all, directed at the flow sustaining the rabbit. Gentle yet probing, finding the cause of the problem, a bone that had failed to mend as it should. A gentle manipulation, like...
The rabbit convulsed and kicked, eyes growing wider, then hung limp, all life draining from its eyes.
Sallis cried out in shock.
Even Elvallon looked surprised.
"What did I do wrong?" asked Sallis. "I did it exactly as you said!"
"We'll have to go through it together," said Elvallon. "Let's look at the first rabbit again and see what we can find there."
Sallis nodded, but he stared at the dead animal in consternation. He had worked the Gift properly!
Moments later, the original healthy rabbit lay docile in Sallis's hands. He and Elvallon touched it together, working as one. Sallis blinked. Not only was he aware of the rabbit, exactly as before, but also
of his teacher.
"Am I doing anything wrong?" asked Sallis.
"Not so far as I can tell," admitted Elvallon. "There's nothing to heal in this one. I'll go and find another."
***
The next rabbit had some sort of sickness that made it easy for Elvallon to catch without resorting to the Gift. It hung limply in his hands, already resigned to its fate, and did not need to be made docile.
"Whatever happens," said Elvallon, "we won't be eating this one."
Again, they both laid hands on the sick animal. Lyssan, who had come out to enjoy the sunshine, gave them one glance and quickly disappeared inside. As before, Sallis was also aware of Elvallon. Nothing wrong with the man, but the rabbit...
"A sickness I can feel in the muscles and blood," said Sallis.
Elvallon nodded. "Reach inside carefully."
Sallis took great care, only increasing his use of the Gift at his teacher's insistence.
"I can start now," said Sallis. "Am I doing anything wrong?"
"All feels good to me," said Elvallon, still touching the rabbit. "Go ahead."
Sallis reached inside and began to weave his healing.
The rabbit convulsed, twitched and died. Elvallon, still in contact, threw himself backwards and away. He regained his feet and stared at his pupil, rubbing first at a hand, then at his chest.
Sallis stared back and tears welled. He recognized the look in his teacher's eyes: a mix of loathing and fear. The shutters were back in place a split-second later, but Elvallon's expression was too carefully neutral.
"You're not a healer," he said, "but a killer with the Father's Gift in your veins. I cannot teach you."
Tears spilled from Sallis's eyes and he fled inside. He pushed the door to his room shut and flung himself on his bed. He lay there for minutes, struggling to regain his composure.
"I cannot teach you."
"You're not a healer, but a killer with the Father's Gift."
"I cannot teach you."
The words turned over and over in his mind.
"Killer... killer... killer..."
***
Lyssan listened to Sallis's sobbing for a few moments before she gave his bedroom door a gentle tap and walked in.
"Elvallon said my privacy would be respected," Sallis mumbled into his pillow.
Undeterred, the sylph sat on the edge of his bed. "I will leave if you wish," she said. "But you were here for me when I needed it. Will you refuse me the chance to repay the favor?"
Sallis relented. "He said he can't teach me any more."
Lyssan rubbed a gentle hand on the boy's arm and shoulder. "Why is that?"
"Because I can't heal, only kill. I don't want to be a killer!"
"You do not have to be," murmured Lyssan. "You can choose."
"Why would the Father gift me something that hurts others?"
"I do not know." Lyssan nearly added that she was only a sylph, then decided Sallis needed reassurance rather than a denial. "But there must be a reason."
Sallis gripped Lyssan's arm, firmly rather than to bruise. "Ask him to carry on teaching me," he begged. "Ask him!"
"All right." The sylph's earpoints wilted and she stilled her facial expression.
"Please?"
"I am going."
Elvallon, still sat outside and holding the dead rabbit in his hands, barely noticed her when she joined him.
Lyssan gave the dead animal one grimace. "Sallis is upset," she said. "He asked me to ask you to carry on teach-"
"No." Elvallon looked at her. "Go and help him pack; he's going home tomorrow."
"But enya..."
A warning note crept into his voice. "Lyssan."
The sylph pouted. "Se bata," she mumbled.
Elvallon looked across the river and she noticed his shiver, despite the heat of the day.
"What he did to the rabbit, he almost did to me," said Elvallon, seeing his sylph had still not left him. "Sallis is too dangerous to be trained. Siranva help us, Lyssan, but who or what have we unleashed on the world?"
***
Chapter 18 - New Plans
Sallis sat on the hilltop, staring west.
Re Taura, largest of the offshore islands, lay somewhere out there, and beyond that the continent. A land of opportunity and danger that beckoned to him. He doubted if he could ever settle to farming sheep again. He had glimpsed a new world, only to have it snatched away.
Hayland's hand closed on his son's shoulder.
"Elvallon has gone," he said.
Sallis gave the slightest of shrugs. Though he would miss Lyssan.
"He left a sword for you to practice with, and the staff," continued Hayland.
Sallis looked up at his father's face. "Why would I practice that?"
Hayland shrugged. "He also left instructions that you must practice touching the Gift."
Another shrug. "He said he would no longer teach me."
"About healing," corrected his father. "As for the rest of it, he seems to think you taught yourself. He also said he'd check up on you now and then."
Sallis drew in a shuddering breath. "He rejected me."
Hayland patted his son's shoulder. "The Father granted you the Gift for a reason. He gave you skills for a reason."
"I don't want to be a killer!"
"Few sane people do. But you have other skills. And slowing down time will come in useful once you're the only child of ours left here. We'll get more work out of you then."
Sallis shook his head and almost managed a smile.
"That's more like it." Hayland smiled down at the boy. He offered a torn scrap of cloth.
Sallis looked at it with distaste. "What's that for? I'm not crying."
"Never said you were." Hayland's smile widened. "Ollin has been losing sheep and he found this yesterday. Thinks it might belong to the thief."
Sallis took the cloth. Immediately, images began to form and he turned his head, questing.
"You can feel something?"
Smiling, Sallis nodded. "Oh yes," he replied.
Hayland gave his son a gentle thump on the shoulder. "Come on then, let's go get him."
Laughing now, Sallis ran down the small hill. He had a purpose again.
***
Though the cursed Father had made my Gift different, He had given me that Gift and the talents I displayed for a reason. I decided to continue learning and increase my efforts. I could still become the best.
My father was right: the chance to prove myself would come.
But right now, I had a thief to catch.
***
***
The End of Gifted Apprentice.
Nicholas A. Rose is the author of the Ilvenworld novels. He enjoys everything to do with the sea, the outdoors and the mountains, which he finds inspirational. Nicholas also enjoys the rather more sedentary pastimes of chess, reading, real ale and, of course, writing.
More Sallis ti Ath Novellas:
Gifted Hunter
Gifted Avenger
Markan Empire Trilogy (full-length novels):
Markan Throne
Markan Empire
Markan Sword
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