A Flight of Ravens by John Conroe (thriller books to read TXT) 📗

and clinics for care.  It may be a carefully thought-out strategy, but it’s still the right one.  I want to work for people who would avoid the kinds of actions that killed my family while protecting the country and still taking care of the people, even if their ultimate motivation is cold and calculated.”

It was my turn to be surprised.  Few are the people who see Brona clearly.  I nodded at her words.  “She’s more complicated than that, but you are not wrong in your observations.”

“And somehow, as much as you are her weapon, I think you somehow act as her balance.”

“Perhaps, although no one stops Brona if she deems an action to be vital.  Now, back to this trinket.  You think it was impressed as you say, with something that changes people?  Can you read all that?”

“No. I sense just a little of it.  But I think you could read it.”

Chapter 22

I must have stared for a moment too long as she suddenly shifted in her seat.  “Kassa, I think you are seriously overestimating what my particular Talent is about.  I can locate objects and people. That’s it.”

She tapped the side of her head.  “I am gifted with a memory for things I hear that is almost perfect… better, in fact, than Trell’s trained bardic memory.  I can literally hear my grandfather’s voice talking about Finders.  He was much impressed with that particular ability.”

“And what exactly was he impressed about?”

“Kassa, my darling, one of the most interesting Talents is the ability to Find,” she intoned in an eerie impression of a man’s voice. “As you have no doubt memorized by now, it is an offshoot of Knowing, but it is a very particular one.  You see, dear girl, a Finder must establish a connection from what they are Finding to either a person or a related object.  A Knower reads the vibrations of an object, but a Finder both reads the vibrations and tracks them across distance and even, get this, across time.”

“What?  What did he mean by time?”

She reached up and touched one of her gold earrings.  “If I misplace this, you could locate it, without ever having seen it before, simply because I have worn it and it is therefore imprinted with vibrational energy that is particular to me.  Or if I lost it and, say, Trell brought you the surviving twin, you could track it based upon the similarity between them.”

“Yes, that’s pretty accurate, but it doesn’t answer my question of what your father meant.”

“I’m getting there,” she said with a smile, clearly enjoying her role as teacher.  I could see why Trell was smitten.  She was not only very attractive, but she was very sharp, highly observant, and clearly brave.  “Tell me, Captain: Did your sister or mother ever ask you to find some valued trinket that had been lost for a considerable amount of time?  Say, a childhood toy or keepsake that had been misplaced and forgotten years ago?”

“Yes,” I said, remembering doing just that for both Jolanna and Brona.

“I’ll tell you something you might not know, in the interest of our agreement for me to pipe up.  People’s vibrational energy changes as they age.  Your sister’s energy as a child was different from what it is now as a grown woman.  Sometimes it varies just a little, sometimes a great deal, yet I would hazard that it wouldn’t matter to your gift.  You could still track the traces of childhood Jolanna DelaCrotia despite her now being adult Lady Jolanna Jens.  That is what Father meant.”

“Isn’t that just because the energies are still so similar?” I asked.  “Not really across time at all, is it?”

“From my father’s perspective, what you do is quite different from what I do or your… the crown princess’s Reader does.  We read the mental energy of the individual and translate that in our heads to understand thoughts or intentions.  You, on the other hand, somehow sample, as my father called it, the entire vibrational energy of an individual or object, then reach out into the environment around you and find a similar pattern, even if it has become different because of time. Quite remarkable, really.”

I took a second to process all that.  “And you think I can do, what?  Read the vibrations from this trinket and track the eslling that modified it?”

She nodded slowly.  “I do.  It will be tricky, though, as you can’t touch it or you risk that whole running amok thing we discussed earlier,” she said with a sardonic smile.

“I don’t even know how to begin,” I said.

“Then it is a very good thing that you have me on your team,” she said.

“I came to that realization when Fontina first came to the Knife and Needle. The entire team is well aware of your value,” I said.

“Hmm, maybe not the entire team, but it’s early yet.  And I’m just checking how you feel.  I have a considerable regard for my own abilities, and I want anyone I work with to have the same opinion,” she said.  I simply nodded, amused at her forthright nature.  This young lady would be very good for Trell, setting his considerable ego in place on a regular basis.

“Now,” she said, “to begin with, just hold a hand over the object. Not too close!” she added when my right hand was the width of my palm over the artifact.

“Now just relax, close your eyes if that helps, and just try to let your mind run free,” she said, watching me closely.  “No eyes closed?  Don’t trust me?”

“Kassa, if you watch any of us over time, you’ll realize that we only close our eyes when we’re sleeping.  A Shadow with any of their senses shut down is usually a dead Shadow.”

She held my gaze for a moment, then nodded.

“I feel something,” I said as I suddenly realized it.

“What?” she asked.

I couldn’t answer right away, as I hadn’t figured it out yet myself.

“It’s like an itch.”

“A rash, then?” she smirked.

“Not how I’d