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Tamra sauntered toward a pillow at the other side of the group, each step slow and deliberate. Gilberto waited. I would have clobbered her…with something. He just gave a slow and lazy smile, and I shivered.

Tamra smiled back sweetly.

Krystal giggled.

Gilberto turned to the group even before Tamra seated herself. “The weapons you have in your hands are the weapons most suited to your temperament.” Gilberto’s voice was dry. “That does not mean they are the best weapons for your defense—right now. If you choose to learn them, they will become the best weapons for your defense.” The weapons-master surveyed the group, as if asking for questions.

“You keep talking about defense,” asked Tamra. “Is your purpose only to teach us self-defense?”

Gilberto hesitated, glancing toward the open doorway to the tunnel through which we had entered, as if looking for Talryn. Finally, he answered. “Anything used as a defense can be a weapon. Violence is not the way of Recluce, or of the Brotherhood. You may use what we are able to teach you in any way you wish.” He smiled faintly. “Those who find more joy in using weapons than in avoiding their use will appreciate Hamor or Candar.”

Once again, one of the Brothers really hadn’t answered the question. I was finding the lack of direct answers tiresome. I might conceivably be a child, but certainly none of the others were. Yet Gilberto treated all of us as if we couldn’t be trusted to understand a complete answer.

“What do you mean by that?” snapped Dorthae. “You’re not talking to children.”

Gilberto shrugged, lifting his shoulders with an exaggerated care. “Very few people in Recluce enjoy weapons. The opposite is true in Hamor and Candar. If you enjoy using weapons for more than exercise, you probably belong in Candar or Hamor.”

Krystal giggled…again. Her hair was up, this time in golden cords, and instead of playing with it, her fingers ran along the sword blade. For some reason, I remembered how surgically she used a knife at meals.

Wrynn frowned. She carried a brace of throwing knives.

Gilberto paused while he looked us over again. “Here…you will get exercise, and you will learn weapons, beginning with the ones you have picked out. Not those exact ones, but the same type.”

“Why not these?” asked Myrten, grasping his pistol tightly.

“They’re enchanted to seek affinities…which reduces their effectiveness. Now, please put them back where you found them, and I’ll take you to the student armory, where you will be issued a set of weapons based around the one you chose.”

The whole business seemed odd. Why have us choose weapons at all? Certainly the Brotherhood could have told who was suited for what weapons. Why did they bother? And what was the basis for deciding who was “suited” for what?

“What is the basis for these ‘affinities’?” I asked, as Gilberto started to turn toward the other doorway—the one across from where we had entered.

“Your underlying character is the most important thing. If you have training with a weapon that is not suited to your character, that can confuse the issue, but Talryn indicated that was not the case for any of you.”

“How would he know?” asked Wrynn.

Gilberto shrugged. “I just teach weapons. The masters know what they know.”

He wasn’t telling all he knew, but what else was new? That didn’t exactly surprise me. Gilberto walked toward the doorway, then turned to wait for us to put back the charmed weapons.

I got up to return the staff. I liked mine better.

Tamra didn’t look at anyone as she walked across the springy greenish floor toward the racks. Krystal took a long time to let go of the sword.

Staying more than a respectful distance behind Tamra, I followed.

The practice weapons were scarred, but sound. The cutting weapons had rounded edges, from what I could see, since I received a club, a truncheon, and a staff. As far as I could tell, only Tamra, Sammel and I received no edged weapons at all.

XII

GILBERTO HAD BEEN right