The Art of Courts and Lies (Book 1 in The Gifted Trilogy)

32- A Gift From the Gifted

Over the next week, in small intervals of time, I finally got the full story of what Tessa and Porter had been doing after I was captured. Tessa and I had settled to meet in various different hidden spots in the castle at specific points in the day. Slowly but eventually, Tessa had given me a complete explanation.

    They had seen me being led away on a horse, shackled and tied to the saddle. They had followed us far enough back to not be seen. When they saw me led past the gates of the Nature Court, they knew exactly what was meant to happen to me.

    Porter had wanted to storm the city and demand my release but luckily Tessa had talked him out of it. Instead, they waited there until another girl slipped through the gates, the one that had been dismissed in my stead. Porter had grabbed her and had barraged her with questions that she answered. She confirmed that I was now a participant in the Garner.

    With that new information, neither of them wanted to leave. Porter tried to talk Tessa into getting to the ship and ensuring that she was safe on a new continent before coming back for me, but she had threatened to scream and run away if he tried to put her on the boat. Grudgingly, they had both agreed that they're best option was for both of them to stay and come up with a plan to break me out.

    The riot that had taken place on our second week was partly Porter's fault. Since the day I was taken, Porter had been hard at work trying to convince the non-Gifted villages close to the Nature Court that they should fight to free the Garner participants. He had meant to join their mob but when he realized that they couldn't care less about finding the Garner participants and freeing them, and instead only wanted to kill the kings, Porter refused to join their riot.

    After then, Porter was a lot more discreet in his attempts. They had befriended the son of a village baker who allowed them to stay in their house. Porter and Tessa would spend most of their time helping out the baker in his shop and spend the nights devising a plan to break into the castle.

    On the morning that Porter was captured, they had set out into the woods that hugged the outskirts of the Nature Court gates as a way to get a subtle inventory of the city's defenses; count the number of guards stationed, find out how many entrances there were, other types of things like that. When Porter realized that some of the guards had seen him, he ordered Tessa to run and hide. He told her that he'd use his capture to find a way to reach me. The rest of the story I was well aware of.

    I continued my lessons, but few words were exchanged between Kesserian and I, if any. He had initially tried to get me to speak to him but stopped his attempts after he realized that they were useless. He may have protected my sister but I couldn't stop the memory of Porter's back being ripped open from surfacing into my daily nightmares.

    Now he only spoke to give corrections on my stance during our sparring or to critique the ways I held a dagger, my preferred form of weapon during combat training. It was the only weapon that didn't feel awkward in my hand and with every passing day I felt my moves becoming more instinctual. By the end of the week I was dodging Katrina's assaults without even thinking.

    My lessons with Marlowe became less regular, deciding to simply meet every other day and for a shorter time. I had mastered my mental shield and now we only worked at strengthening it so that my mind was never open to my enemies.

    I didn't tell him about how I managed to see into one of Nox's memories and decided I wasn't going to. He was either going to affirm my fears that it wasn't normal for a non-Gifted to do that and make me feel more like a freak, or he was going to tell me that it wasn't anything abnormal, and the small hint of power and assurance that had come along with my newfound skill would die.