by Sharon Green
It was over and they'd lost, they'd actually lost, lost everything… lost… lost!
Bensia Noll paced back and forth in the sitting room, much too agitated to read the way she'd been doing earlier. She knew she should have heard from Sembrin or one of his men at least an hour ago, even if they'd had a small bit of trouble at the palace. Everyone in the peasants' new government ought to be dead by now, so why hadn't someone returned to tell her that? Possibly she ought to send one of the guards left at the house to find out…
"And why aren't the children down here with me?" Bensia muttered, stopping to glare at the empty doorway. "I sent a servant to fetch them, so they should have been down here by now. Do I have to do everything myself?"
"Your pardon, Lady, but there are callers here to see you," one of the servants appeared to say, making Bensia jump just a bit. "Shall I show them in?"
"Of course you're to show them in!" Bensia snapped, hating the stupidity those peasants always showed. Imagine, asking if they ought to show in men who were in this house until just this morning. "I've been waiting for those callers, so get them in here fast!"
"Yes, my lady," the servant said with a bow, and then he stepped aside. Bensia was all ready to demand that Sembrin's men tell her what had taken so long, but the first sight of her "callers" froze the words on her tongue. Instead of it being Sembrin's men who were shown in, the callers were three strange women, two strange men, and Edmin Ruhl!
"Well, Bensia, how delightful to see you again," Edmin all but purred as he and the others came farther into the room. "I must say you're looking fit, and that's a lucky thing. You'll soon need all the fitness you can get."
"Guards!" Bensia shrieked, both furious and frightened at this unexpected turn of events. "Guards! Get in here now!"
"You want your guards?" Edmin drawled as he and the others stopped only a few feet away. "Oh, what a pity. We didn't realize you'd want them when we put them under arrest, thinking they'd be much better off with the rest of their ilk. We have them all, you know, including their leader and your poor husband."
"Mother, what's going on?" Travin demanded as he and his brother and sisters came hurrying in. "Who are these people?"
"No one of any importance, dear," Bensia replied with a smile, relief flooding through her. "I'm afraid we've lost your father's services, but the assistance of these people will probably prove to be a good deal more valuable. Why don't we see if we can convince them to cooperate with us? There's a good chance they even have access to the palace, the place we'll be going next. The place we're destined to be."
"If they have access to the palace, they must be servants there," Travin said with a sniff, properly identifying the group as one of peasants. "But I think we can still make use of them."
Travin smiled then, and his brother Wesdin and sisters Solthia and Liseria smiled as well. Bensia's children were more than ready to assist their mother, but in another moment her smile began to waver. She had tried to reach the power at the same time her children did, but for some reason she couldn't… quite…
"Is something wrong?" that wretched Edmin Ruhl inquired as the children lost their own amusement and became as agitated as she felt. "I thought you were going to ask us for help of some sort."
"Really, Edmin, they need more than just a little help," the trollop on Edmin's arm drawled just the way he had earlier. "That woman is so thick in the head that she thought we would walk in here without taking precautions. I'm not surprised that those children are living in a fool's fantasy, but isn't she too old to do the same?"
"She is getting a bit long in the tooth," Edmin answered with an air of consideration while Bensia gasped with insult and outrage. "That means her actions aren't necessarily due to stupidity. They might be due to senility."
"How dare you!" Bensia demanded with furious mortification, but then she remembered something and forced herself to smile. "And how is your dear father, Edmin? Still going on as usual, I trust."
"Oh, he's doing quite well these days," Edmin answered blandly instead of falling to the rage Bensia had expected to see. "He's recuperating in the palace, coming back beautifully from a small accident he had. Driffin there was good enough to treat him, and he tells me the healing took only moderate effort."
"You're lying!" Bensia snarled, hating the way all six of the strangers - especially the one Edmin had gestured to - were all but laughing at her. "But you've always been a liar, Edmin, so I'm not surprised that you're still at it. Now you and your peasant friends can get out of my house. My children and I will be taking tea soon, and - "
"Now, now, Bensia, we all know that this isn't your house," Edmin interrupted to wave a finger at her. "In fact it wouldn't be yours even if you'd owned it originally. All property formerly owned by those people known as nobles has been confiscated, and the nobles themselves finally given something useful to do. Very soon now, you'll be doing that same useful thing yourself."
"I'd rather die," Bensia stated as she drew herself up, speaking nothing but the truth. "You might find it possible to kill me, Edmin, but you'll never be able to force me to cooperate with peasants."
"I have no intentions of trying to do so, Bensia," Edmin returned as other strangers entered the room. "Our Astindan allies there will do any necessary forcing, and they're rather difficult to argue with. But you do need to learn that for yourself, so we'll be going now. Thank you so much for your hospitality."
Edmin and the two men with him performed ironic little bows, but the three women simply smiled. That really infuriated Bensia, but before she could think of something to say to the six peasants they turned and began to leave. And then the other peasants came closer…
"Mother, make them stop!" Solthia demanded shrilly as her sister and brothers simply made sounds of distress. "They're forcing us to obey them, but they're only peasants! I don't want to obey peasants!"
"Leave my children alone!" Bensia commanded, but instead of being obeyed she felt … strength being used on her. She was made to move closer to her children, and then all five of them were forced out of the room.
Bensia could never remember being as humiliated as when the five of them were taken past the peasants who had been their servants. The peasants laughed and applauded as they walked past, the hold she and the children had had on them clearly gone now. Those peasants were enjoying the sight of their betters being brought low, but their amusement would be remembered and avenged. As soon as she escaped capture, she would find those peasants again even if it was the last thing she did!
Anger carried Bensia outside and a short way down the drive without her noticing anything else. The children were walking in front of her, and the sudden sounds of protest they made caused her to pay attention. Bensia had naturally expected that they would be taken to a coach, but an old, worn wagon stood in the driveway and that was what they were being told to climb into. Another wagon was already filled with her former guardsmen, but they were peasants so it made no difference.
"You can't seriously expect us to ride in this - this - thing," Bensia said as their escort helped her sons and daughters into the wagon. "We have two perfectly good coaches, and I demand that we be allowed to use them."
"You'll only be riding in this wagon to the place where the rest of your people are," one of the peasants commented without really looking at her. "Once we have you all together and out of the city, you'll spend most of the trip walking. Up you go."
Bensia found herself in the wagon with the children in a very abrupt way, with nothing to sit on but dirty wooden planks on both sides of the conveyance. The girls were protesting in outrage and the boys had their hands curled into fists with anger, but all four of them were sitting down on the left-hand side of the wagon. Bensia couldn't understand why they would cooperate like that, but when she found herself sitting on the bench to the right she understood only too well.
"This is not happening," she muttered, staring down at her tightly folded hands. "This is nothing but a nightmare tha
t I'll soon be waking up from. This cannot be happening to me."
Bensia held firm to her belief even as the wagon began to move. The wagon with her former guardsmen had gone first, and when it reached the road it turned left. When their own wagon reached the road they turned right, and both drivers of Bensia's wagon glanced at the quickly disappearing first wagon.
"I don't envy our Gandistran hosts," their driver said to the peasant beside him, speaking only just loud enough for Bensia to hear most of what he said. "Our lot here will simply be put to work. What the Gandistrans have to decide is what to do with those others. If there's no way to reclaim that group as useful citizens, they may have to - "
"Yes, I know what you mean," the second peasant said rather quickly. "Even putting down a dog would be hard for me, but if there's no way to keep those men from hurting innocent people, they mustn't be turned loose. And I can't decide which would be worse, making sure those men can't hurt the innocent, or putting them down. You're right. I'm glad the problem isn't mine."
The two peasants went silent then, but Bensia's distress still increased. That peasant government couldn't possibly kill or neutralize her guardsmen. Somehow her men would escape and free her, somehow they would!
But no one had come to free her when the wagon turned into the drive of another house. It was beginning to get dark so torches had been lit along the drive, but the wagon didn't stop at the house. It continued on to the stables, and that was where it stopped.
"What fools these peasants are," Travin sneered as he looked around. "They don't even know that we should have been let off at the house. Now we'll have to walk back to it."
"You won't have all that far to walk," one of the peasants said as he put down the tailgate of the wagon, clearly having heard Travin's comment. "Come right this way."
Bensia had meant to stay in the wagon and refuse to move, but the peasant's words caused her to rise along with the children and let herself be helped down. Once they were all on the ground they were led toward the stables themselves, of all places, and walking inside brought even more of a shock.
"Aren't those people most of our former neighbors from the country?" Wesdin asked his older brother as he looked around with widened eyes. "If they also came to the city, why didn't they offer to help us?"
"I … don't think coming to the city was their idea," Liseria ventured, appearing as unsure as Wesdin did. "And we won't have any choice about what's done to us either, will we?"
"Nonsense, child, nonsense," Bensia said at once, looking sternly at her youngest daughter. "We are nobles, Liseria, and that means we have every choice. No one will ever be able to - "
"Guess again, you bitch," a voice suddenly interrupted Bensia, making her look quickly to the right. Just as she'd thought, it was Sembrin who had spoken, staring up at her from where he sat leaning against the wall of one of the stalls.
"You have no idea how glad I am to see you and the children again, Bensia," Sembrin went on with what looked like true enjoyment. "At first being captured was shattering, but once I had a chance to think it came to me that you and the children would be joining me in captivity. Picturing you and your precious brood toiling at your own labor will make mine infinitely easier and more pleasant. And no, I didn't need the peasants' help to escape your control. I was already free when I left the house this morning, so you would have lost no matter what happened. I hope that thought comforts you in your hour of travail."
Bensia began to scream then, and the screaming didn't stop until complete darkness took her over.
Chapter Sixteen
Idresia still felt wildly happy when she and the others got back to the warehouse. They were all laughing and giddy, in fact, looking and acting like children instead of adults.
"Did you see her expression when I called her stupid and old, Edmin?" Issini asked as they walked into the kitchen area. "The only way I could have bothered her more would be if I'd slapped her face. I wanted to slap her, and would have if the Astindans hadn't been there."
"Actually, it's a good thing our allies were there," Edmin answered, following Issini toward the tea service. "If they hadn't been, I probably would have hurt my hands rather badly showing her husband what I thought of him. If he hadn't been a complete fool, his wife would never have managed to make as much trouble as she did."
"He'll be paying for that foolishness in just a little while," Driff said as he joined the others in going toward the tea service. "In fact they both will, along with their children. I feel very fortunate that we aren't in their place. I'm not all that fond of working outdoors."
"But we have what might prove to be a harder job ahead of us," Asri said, looking less exhilarated than she had. "I took just a peek at the probabilities to see what we might be doing next, and now I wish I hadn't. We'll have to interview all those men our entity took over, and decide which of them can be saved and which can't."
"That decision won't entail what all of you seem to think it will," Driff said, looking from one to the other of them where they'd stopped to stare at Asri with expressions of shock. "We'll definitely separate out the men who are willing to work at an honest job, but doing something with the ones who are lost won't be our problem. We'll only have to keep them quiet until the Highs are brought back to themselves."
"And then we get to dump the decision on the Highs," Idresia said with a nod of relief. "Since they're the ones with the stronger talent, it's only fair if they get the harder jobs."
"I … don't think that's exactly what Driff has in mind," Edmin said, faint disturbance creasing his brow. "We won't have to do anything to the men who don't measure up, but I think we'll be expected to make a recommendation."
"But if they take our recommendation, won't it be like disposing of those men ourselves?" Kail protested. "I mean, assuming we decide that the men should die. I don't think I can recommend that they be put under control for the rest of their lives. I had too much of that myself while growing up to be able to consider doing it to someone else on a permanent basis."
"And I think those men deserve whatever happens to them," Issini said with a shake of her head. "We all had it hard growing up, but none of us decided to get even with the innocent along with the guilty. A lot of those men just don't care about anyone but themselves, a fact that's clear enough to me. I can see, though, that the rest of you don't agree, so we'll have to talk it over. But only after Driff goes to work on the High talents and brings them out of their coma or sleep or whatever. After they're awake, they may decide they don't want our recommendations after all."
"Now that I would enjoy," Idresia said briskly, deciding it was time that someone took charge. "Let's have a cup or two of the tea we all obviously want, and then we'll go out to dinner. I think we've earned a small celebration, don't you?"
"At least a small one," Driff agreed with a chuckle. "Putting Noll's hired men under control before we had our people arrest the ones doing the talking was easier than I expected it to be, but I still feel almost empty."
"I've been feeling the same since our entity cut off Noll's children and wife from the power," Edmin said while the others just made sounds of agreement. "I suggest we have only a single cup of tea, and then get on to the food."
"Why don't we forget about the tea and just go out to eat?" Asri asked, holding up one hand. "If I weren't so fond of Kail I could broil and eat him, and since my son is in the very good hands of his new nanny, I won't feel guilty about leaving him behind."
"Yes, let's go right now," Driff said, glancing around to see that the decision was unanimous. "We don't know how long it will take us to bring the Highs back to themselves, so we ought to get an early start tomorrow."
"Why do we have to start early?" Idresia asked as they all turned back to the door. "We don't have anything else to worry about, so what if rousing the Highs does take an extra hour or two? What difference will it make?"
They all began to tease Idresia about her hatred of getting up early, but she was fully p
repared to defend her position. After all, now that the renegades were accounted for, they didn't have anything else to worry about…
"Yes, do join us, my friend," Honrita Grohl said to Arbon Vand, their new Fire magic user. Vand was being led into the room by Stelk Faron, their Water magic user. The room was part of a small and shabby abandoned house that the group had taken over for its own use, and Holdis Ayl wasn't present. Too many people knew about Ayl, and his presence would only have made Honrita's job harder.
"Are you the one who needed to see me?" Vand asked as he looked first at Honrita and then at the room. "If the matter was all that important, why didn't you come to my house?"
Arbon Vand had brown hair and eyes and looked rather average, but that was only until he began to speak. Then his strong personality became obvious, supporting proof for the reason why Honrita hadn't tried to put him under her control from a distance. They needed Vand too much to take unnecessary chances with his enlistment.
"I didn't come to your house, Dom Vand, because there are too many people in and near your house for us to have a private conversation." Honrita had gotten to her feet as she spoke, and now she added a smile. "Please take a chair and I'll explain why I asked you here."
"Why does our conversation have to be private?" Vand asked as he stopped next to a chair rather than sit in it. "And who are those other women?"
Kadri Sumlow, their Earth magic user, and Seeli Tandor, Air magic, had just come into the room, and now the two stood next to Stelk Faron. Kadri looked even heavier and more ridiculous standing next to the taller and thinner Stelk and Seeli, but that couldn't be helped.
