Robert smiled. ‘It’s not about winning. It’s about recognizing a no-win situation. See, he’s recognized that those four cards ensure that he can’t win.’ They watched as Talon gathered up the cards, leaving the lords in place, and started a new game. ‘At first, he went through the entire deck to reach the point of realizing he had no chance of winning. Now, less than two days later he’s recognizing the more subtle combinations that show he can’t win.’
‘Very well. So he’s got potential, talent even. That doesn’t address the question of what it is you plan to do with the boy.’
‘Patience, my impetuous friend.’ He glanced at Magnus, who watched Talon with a fixed gaze. ‘It would have been better had you more of your father’s temperament than your mother’s temper.’
The white-haired man didn’t shift his gaze, but he did smile. ‘I’ve heard that from you more than once, old friend.’ He then looked at Robert. ‘I’m getting better at reining in my temper, you know.’
‘Haven’t destroyed a city in the last few weeks, have you?’
Magnus grinned. ‘Not that I noticed.’ Then the stern expression returned. ‘I chafe at these games within games.’
‘Ah,’ said Robert. ‘Again your mother’s son. Your father has taught me over my entire adult lifetime that we can only deal with our enemies when they present themselves. Over the last thirty years we’ve seen so many different assaults upon the tranquillity of our lives that it defies imagining. And there’s only been one constant.’
‘Which is?’ Magnus turned his attention again to Talon’s game.
‘That no two ploys of the enemy have been alike. The servants of the Nameless One are cunning and they learn from their mistakes. Raw power failed, so now they achieve their goals through stealth. We must respond in kind.’
‘But this boy …?’
‘Fate spared him for a reason, I believe,’ said Robert. ‘Or at least, I’m trying to take advantage of an unexpected opportunity. He’s got … something. I think had this tragedy not befallen his people, he would have grown up to be simply another young Orosini man, a husband and father, warrior when the need arose, farmer, hunter and fisherman. He would have taught his sons the ways of his ancestors and died in old age satisfied at his lot.
‘But take that same lad and forge him in the crucible of misfortune and heartbreak, and who knows what will occur? Like fired iron, will he become brittle and easily broken, or can he be turned to steel?’
Magnus remained silent as Talon began another game. ‘A dagger, no matter how well forged, has two edges, Robert. It can cut both ways.’
‘Don’t teach your grandmother to suck eggs, Magnus.’
Magnus grinned. ‘My father never knew his mother, so the only grandmother I’m aware of did a fair job of conquering half the world; I wouldn’t have dreamed of teaching her anything.’
‘And you have your mother’s nasty sense of humour, too.’ He turned from the King’s Tongue to Roldemish to say, ‘Talon, that’s enough. It’s time for you to return to the kitchen. Leo will tell you what needs to be done.’
Talon put the cards away in a small box and handed the box to Robert, then hurried to the kitchen.
Magnus said, ‘I’m still uncertain what you think this boy will contribute to our cause.’
Robert shrugged. ‘Your father showed me many things when I was young, but the most important lesson of all was simply the very nature of your home. Your island provided refuge and school to all manner of beings I couldn’t have imagined in my most youthful dreams.’ He pointed towards the kitchen. ‘That boy may prove to be nothing more than a valuable servant, or perhaps a well-crafted tool.’ His eyes narrowed. ‘But he also could be something far more important, an independent mind loyal to our cause.’
Magnus was silent for a long moment. Then he said, ‘I doubt it.’
Robert smiled warmly. ‘We had doubts about you when you were younger. I remember a certain incident when you had to be confined to your room for … what was it? A week?’
Magnus returned a faint smile. ‘It wasn’t my fault, remember?’
Robert nodded indulgently. ‘It never was.’
Magnus looked toward the kitchen. ‘But the boy?’
‘He has many things to learn,’ said Robert. ‘Logic is only a start. He must come to understand that even the most important issues in life can often be seen to be games, with a sense of risk and reward and how to calculate them. He must learn when to walk away from a conflict, and when to press his luck. Much of his nature, what he was taught as a child among his people, must be taken from him. He must learn about the game of men and women – did you know his future wife was being arranged for him while he waited upon a mountain-top for his manhood vision?’
‘I know little of the ways of the Orosini,’ confessed Magnus.
‘He knows nothing of the most common knowledge in the city; he has no sense of duplicity and deceit, so he has almost no instinct for when someone is lying to him. Yet he has a sense in the wild that would rival that of a Natalese Ranger.’
‘Caleb told me he hunted like no city-born man,’ agreed Magnus.
‘Your brother spent years with the elves; he should know.’
‘Agreed.’
‘No, our young friend Talon is an opportunity. He is, perhaps, unique. And he is young enough that we may be able to educate him to be something few of us can be.’
‘Which is what?’ asked Magnus, clearly interested.
‘Unlimited by our heritage. He’s still able to learn, while most of us at his age are already convinced we know everything.’
‘He does seem a ready student,’ Magnus conceded.
‘And, he has a sense of honour that would serve a LaMutian Captain of Tsurani descent.’
Magnus raised an eyebrow. Those of Tsurani descent were as hidebound where honour was concerned as any men living. They would die to discharge a debt of honour. He looked for a moment to see if Robert was exaggerating and realized that he wasn’t. ‘Honour is useful, at times.’
‘He has a mission already, even if it has yet to come to the surface of his mind.’
‘Mission?’
‘He is Orosini. He must hunt down and kill the men responsible for the obliteration of his people.’
Magnus let out a long sigh. ‘Raven and his band of cutthroats. No mean feat, that.’
‘The boy’s already a hunter. When he is ready, he’ll seek them out. I would rather have him do so with better weapons than his bare hands and native wit. So, there is much we must teach him, both of us.’
‘He has no skill for magic, I imagine, or else you would have sent him back to Father instead of bringing him up here.’
‘True, but you have other skills besides magic, Magnus. I am not jesting; he has a nimble mind and there are far more complex tasks to discipline thought than playing games with cards. If he is to serve us, he must be as tough in spirit and intellect as he already is in body. He may not have any skill in magic, but he will face it, and he will face minds far more adept in backstabbing, double-dealing and deception than he could possibly imagine.’
‘If it’s double-dealing you’re worried about, you should have brought in Nakor to tutor him.’
‘I might still, but not yet. Besides, your father has Nakor down in Kesh on some errand or another.’
Magnus stood up. ‘Ah, then the prospect for war between the Kingdom of the Isles and the Empire of Great Kesh is now excellent.’
Robert laughed. ‘Nakor doesn’t wreak havoc everywhere he visits.’
‘No, just most places. Well, if you think you can ready the boy to chase down Raven and kill him, good luck.’
‘Oh, it’s not Raven and his murderers I’m concerned with. Hunting them is only part of Talon’s training, albeit his journeyman’s piece. If he should fail, then he would lack the true test of his skills.’
‘I’m intrigued. What lies beyond?’
