Amaryllis by Jayne Castle Page B

was?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œI can’t be absolutely certain, but given the situation, I’d stake next year’s profits that it was Madison Sheffield.”
    â€œSheffield.” Amaryllis was astounded. “Senator Sheffield?”
    â€œThe next governor of our fair city-state, or so everyone claims. I guess you could say he was working the room.”
    â€œAre you serious?”
    Lucas eyed her thoughtfully. “You really didn’t understand what was going on, did you?”
    â€œNo, I did not. When I work with a talent, I can sense what he or she senses. You have the ability to detect other talents, so naturally I picked up the other talent in the room at the same time you did. As I told you, I also picked up the echoes of the other prism.”
    â€œYou said the prism’s style of working felt familiar.”
    â€œIt was. I would swear that whoever it was trained at the same place I did, the Department of Focus Studies at the university. I could feel Professor Landreth’s influence.”
    â€œWho is Landreth?”
    â€œHe was the head of the department for years.”
    â€œThe name sounds familiar.”
    â€œProbably because of the newspaper articles that were written about him after he was killed in a hiking accident last month. It was a terrible tragedy.”
    Lucas nodded. “I remember something about it now.”
    â€œHe was a brilliant man.” Amaryllis spoke forcefully because Lucas did not seem overly impressed with just who and what Professor Jonathan Landreth had been. “He contributed enormously to our understanding of the focus link and how it works. More importantly, he wrote the Code of Focus Ethics. His death was a great loss to the profession and to research.”
    â€œUh huh.”
    â€œIt was a great personal loss for me, as well.” Amaryllis’s teeth clamped together again. “He was my mentor. I admired him enormously. I miss him.”
    â€œI’m sorry.” Lucas looked as if he didn’t know what else to say. “Well, I should be on my way.”
    â€œWait, you didn’t tell me what sort of talent Senator Sheffield was focusing.”
    â€œFrom what little I got before he burned out his prism, I’d say that he was generating pure bat-snake oil and charm. In other words, charisma.”
    â€œCharisma?” Amaryllis repeated, uncomprehending.
    â€œIt’s a politician’s stock-in-trade.”
    â€œBut charisma is not a psychic power.”
    â€œWhat would you call it?”
    â€œI don’t know.” Amaryllis waved one hand in a small,vague gesture. “A personality trait or something, I suppose. But not a psychic talent.”
    â€œPower is power.” A smile came and went at the edge of Lucas’s mouth. “Regardless of whether or not it’s been documented and studied by the experts.”
    Amaryllis pursed her lips. “I’m not sure about this. I don’t think that it would be ethical to focus charisma, assuming it’s a form of psychic energy. Especially if the talent was a politician.”
    â€œDon’t worry about it. It’s not your problem. So what if the guy was focusing with an intent to convince people to vote for him and to donate to his campaign fund? That’s what politics is all about.”
    Amaryllis was not mollified. “But if charisma can be focused for those purposes, it would be an act of deliberate misrepresentation or fraud or something.”
    Lucas looked amused. “Welcome to the real world, lady.”
    She scowled. “Doesn’t it bother you that a very high-class talent in Sheffield’s position is using his abilities to con people?”
    â€œHe’s a politician, Amaryllis.”
    â€œBut he was using an academically trained prism to focus.”
    â€œSo what? I used one tonight, too.”
    â€œBut Sheffield’s prism should know better than to become involved in an