Intrigues

by Sharon Green

  A narrow ring of fire suddenly circled the woman, and her exclamation of fear suggested that the fire was a good deal hotter than it looked.

  “Only a fool believes everything she hears – and wants to believe is so,” Jovvi told the woman, her own voice on the cold side. “You’ve probably already announced your innocence far and wide, relying on that to keep you safe from summary execution. What a shame for you that we don’t believe in summary execution if it can be avoided, and in this case it can be. You’ll stand trial in open court for what you’ve done, but my first question still hasn’t been answered. Before the guardsmen take you away, tell me what made you do as you did.”

  “I was paid gold to eliminate those fools, and why shouldn’t I have?” the woman answered without hesitation, showing that Jovvi had her under control again. The ring of fire abruptly disappeared, telling Rion that Tamrissa had seen what he had. “It isn’t possible to explain to any of you how much better I am than you, how much better I am than everyone. Those puffed up fools found out the truth, and so will the bunch of you.”

  “I’m happy to say that we already know that particular truth,” Jovvi told her with a grimace. “Give me the name of the one who paid you that gold.”

  “See, you don’t even know there was more than one,” the woman answered with a sneer. “The first one was Edmin Ruhl, son of that fool Embisson Ruhl, and the second was Eltrina Razas. It was their privilege to pay me gold, and eventually things would have been turned the proper way around and they would have worked for me.”

  “I think it’s fairly obvious that the woman is insane,” Lorand said into the sudden silence after a brief hesitation. “Will the courts condemn someone who isn’t entirely responsible?”

  “I believe they’ll first try to see if a physician can cure her,” Rion replied when no one else offered an opinion. “If the attempt succeeds, the woman will be allowed to become a useful member of society. If it doesn’t succeed, they’ll most likely have her put down. Someone who kills for no true reason and without the least regret can’t be allowed another chance to harm the innocent.”

  “No, they can’t,” Jovvi agreed with a sigh, and then she turned to the leader of their guard. “Seldon, please have two of your men take that woman to the court authorities to be charged with the attempted murder of the previous Seated Five. Also tell them we’d like to be informed of her eventual disposition.”

  “At once, Excellence,” the man Seldon replied with a bow, and the guardsman behind the woman was quickly joined by a second guardsman. The two took the woman out of the room, and the fact that she began to shout out her outrage proved that Jovvi had released her again.

  “I think we ought to wait until tomorrow to interview most of the rest of those servants,” Lorand said, looking at Jovvi worriedly. “The only ones we can’t wait with are those two who are friends of our unconscious attacker over there. Are you able to do that much, love?”

  “Easily,” Jovvi reassured him with a smile and a touch of her hand to his. “Leaning on my link group is helping quite a lot, and there isn’t that much left to do. I’m only tired, love, not completely drained. And I’ve just noticed that High Master Mohr has arrived. Vallant, can we have Dom Mohr and those two men in now?”

  “I don’t see why not,” Vallant answered with a smile as he headed toward the door again, and then the smile faded. “Especially since I’m hopin’ Dom Mohr can do somethin’ about the situation.”

  Vallant stepped out of the room, and a moment later Rion watched Lavrit Mohr, High Master of the Guild, walk in by himself. Mohr was a tall, lean man who usually wore a pleasant expression, but at the moment he seemed perplexed.

  “Good day to you, Excellences,” Mohr greeted them, pausing to perform a small but respectful bow before continuing on into the room. “I hadn’t thought you would be requiring a report from me quite this soon.”

  “We haven’t asked you here for a report, Dom Mohr,” Lorand told him with something of a smile. “I’m sure your people in the Guild are doing all they can to coordinate a renewal of the shipping of goods from all over the empire, but it is too soon to expect obvious and tangible results. We have another problem we need your help with.”

  Mohr parted his lips, probably to ask about the problem, but his words were interrupted by the arrival of the two suspected men. They were being guided into the room by guardsmen, and Vallant was at the head of the small parade. Mohr glanced at the men behind Vallant, then quickly looked at them again with a good deal more attention.

  “Do you recognize them, Dom Mohr?” Jovvi asked gently as the tall man continued to stare at the newcomers. “There’s a third member of the group, over there on that couch.”

  Mohr only glanced at the still-unconscious third man, but his face had paled and his lips had become a narrow line.

  “No, I don’t actually recognize any of them,” Mohr said after an uncomfortable hesitation. “There’s little doubt, though, that those two at least ought to be Guild men. I can’t tell about the third man, not when he isn’t conscious… What have they done?”

  “The unconscious one attacked us with knives,” Tamrissa answered promptly as always, but without her usual dryness. “We asked some questions and discovered that the attacker had been hired a few days ago with two friends, so we rounded up the friends. We thought you might like to help us question them.”

  “Yes, I would very much like to help you question them,” Mohr replied, his tone having turned grim. “It disturbed me and the rest of my Guild members when some of our people refused to acknowledge you as the Chosen Blending, but forcing people to believe as we do isn’t something we approve of. We simply let the dissenters go their own way, but if their way now includes physical attack… What can I do to help you?”

  “We’re going to question these men to find out if they came here on their own or were sent,” Jovvi responded as she stirred in her chair. “If attacking us was their own idea, we can turn them over to the court system and let the proper authorities see to them. If they were sent, though, we need to know who sent them.”

  Mohr nodded to show his willingness to cooperate, so Jovvi touched Lorand’s arm. Lorand also nodded before looking at the unconscious man, and a moment later the man was awake. Rion was prepared to pen their former attacker in a prison of hardened air, but Jovvi had control of the man so fast that other action became unnecessary.

  “Please come over here and stand with your friends,” Jovvi told the formerly unconscious man gently, and when he obeyed her she continued. “Tell us why you and those others took positions here in the palace as part of the staff.”

  “So that we could kill one or more of you, of course,” the man answered immediately, the ghost of impatience behind his words. “The sooner you’re no longer a Blending, the sooner things will go back to the way they were.”

  “Do you mean with the nobility in charge?” Jovvi asked in the same gentle voice. “Haven’t you realized yet that the nobility will never be in charge again?”

  “Please, do you think we’re fools?” the man returned, faint disdain now to be heard. “All you and your tools have done is gather up the deadwood among the nobility. The real powers left the city soon enough to avoid arrest and capture, and when they come back and take over again there will be more than enough room for those who help them to become nobles as well. We’ll finally have what’s been denied us for so long, the position of power we deserve.”

  “I see,” Jovvi said as Mohr’s lips tightened to nothing but a thin line. “And is all this your idea, or did someone else let you share the dream?”

  “Our leader shares everything with us, including the dream,” the man answered, and now a smile curved his lips as dedication began to gleam in his eyes. “As he says, the power will be there for the taking, and we’ll be in the best position to do that taking.”

  “What’s the name of this marvelous leader of yours?” Mohr demanded, obviously unable to remain silent any longer. “I�
��m curious about whether or not I know him.”

  “Of course you know him,” the man replied, back to being faintly disdainful. “He’s Holdis Ayl, your second in command.”

  Mohr looked so thunderstruck that one of the link members quickly pushed over a chair for the man to sink into.

  “Holdis,” Mohr whispered after a very long moment, his face downright gray. “I thought he was my friend, and the one who would take over for me when I – How could he betray us like this?”

  “He’s not as much of a fool as you, and never has been,” the former attacker answered, happily speaking his mind without hesitation. “He knows these peasants aren’t chosen by anyone but the Guild, and if he’d been in complete charge those crippling rumors you started would never have been circulated. But he wasn’t able to stop you in time, so he had to think of something else to do.”

  “Something else like murdering the only hope our empire has of surviving,” Mohr growled, coming back to himself a good deal more quickly than Rion would have expected. “No, he isn’t a fool like me, he’s a deranged and mindless idiot. How many of you does he have under his thumb?”

  “I don’t know exactly how many of us there are, but we’re the best in the Guild,” the man replied proudly. “And not having everyone with us is to our benefit. There will only be so many titles to go around, after all.”

  “Titles,” Mohr echoed with a sneer as he rose again to his feet. “Yes, you’re perfect material to become one of the nobles. You never even stopped to wonder how long you would live if you did manage to kill one or more of this Blending. Are you really stupid enough to think that the survivors would have let you simply walk away?”

  “They would have been too demoralized to act quickly enough to stop or hurt me,” the man returned primly. “The point was explained to us carefully, so when I saw the bunch of them coming into the palace I grabbed my chance. But the element of surprise didn’t work, so next time I’ll have to try something else.”

  “Obviously, Ayl chose the most thickheaded members of the Guild as his dupes,” Mohr said to Jovvi, his disgust perfectly plain. “If you’ll lend me a few of your guardsmen, I’ll have Ayl arrested and questioned at once.”

  “Have him brought here tomorrow so we can help with the questioning,” Jovvi said to Mohr, at the same time nodding to Seldon that some of his guardsmen were to go with the High Master. “We don’t want any of those dupes to do something that will ruin the Guild’s new position. When people understand that they have their necessities again because of the Guild’s help, very few will continue to think of your members as freaks.”

  “Thanks to you,” Mohr said with a bow that was repeated for every member of their Blending. “If you like, we can have these three delivered to the authorities on the way to arrest my former second.”

  Jovvi agreed that that was a good idea, so in just a few moments the room was cleared of everyone but their Blending and the link groups.

  “And now it’s time for you to rest,” Lorand said to Jovvi as he and most of the others stood. “I think we can all accommodate our link groups in our various wings, so that way we can all get some rest.”

  “But first I’m goin’ to send for some of the other Blendin’s,” Vallant said as he stretched. “There’s a lot to be done, and no reason for us to be doin’ it completely on our own.”

  Everyone agreed that that was a good idea, so they left the meeting room and led their respective link groups off toward their respective wings. All but Naran, Rion couldn’t help thinking as he led his love into his own wing. But that would change as soon as possible, Rion vowed to himself. Naran would have her own wing of the palace just as the rest of the Blending did, even if she never did use it to sleep in…

  “I’m afraid, my love, that we have a disappointment coming,” Naran murmured as they walked. “That man Ayl… He isn’t going to be there when they go to arrest him. Which means, of course, that we haven’t seen the last of him and his followers.”

  Suddenly, Rion was no longer concerned about wings and places to sleep…

  Chapter 3

  “Tomorrow we’ll have to use my wing,” Vallant heard Tamrissa say from where she walked along ahead of him. “I liked what I saw of it when we took my link groups in and got them settled.”

  “Yes, your wing wasn’t bad at all,” Vallant agreed as he looked around critically as they moved. “This one can use a bit of fixin’, mostly tonin’ down the more garish items. Then we can set up a schedule and change off between the two wings.”

  “Speaking of schedules, I need some paper, a pen, and ink,” Tamrissa said, pausing to look back at him. “Now that we’ve gotten your link groups settled in their own bedchambers, where do you think we can look for paper and the rest?”

  “There’s got to be a study of some kind among all these rooms,” Vallant answered, still mildly in shock. There had been enough bedchambers so that all ten members of his link groups had been able to have one of his or her own, with a number of extras left over. Palace accommodations obviously went far beyond the houses of even the wealthiest of ordinary people.

  “Why don’t you ring for a servant,” Tamrissa suggested with a sigh as she glanced around. “If we try to find it ourselves, we could still be looking a year from now. And I’d enjoy having some tea when I start to make my list.”

  “Good idea,” Vallant agreed as he moved to a bell pull and pulled it. “Two good ideas, in fact, since I could use some tea of my own. What kind of list do you plan on makin’?”

  “I want to have that party tomorrow night,” Tamrissa answered as she moved closer to look up at Vallant. “We’ll have to talk to the others, but I think we ought to invite everyone we can and then use the occasion to announce the fact that we’re a six rather than a five. If they’re going to change their minds about wanting us to be Seated, I’d like it to happen as soon as possible.”

  “Before we get too comfortable in this place,” Vallant said with a nod, putting one hand to her arm. “That’s another good idea, and here comes the result of your first suggestion.”

  Tamrissa turned to see what Vallant already had, a male servant hurrying along the hall toward them. The man looked really nervous, and when he reached them he went down on one knee.

  “Please excuse the delay in my answering your ring, Excellence,” the man begged in a quivering voice, looking as though he was about to prostrate himself. “There are far too few servants left in the palace, and we had no idea you’d come into your wing – “

  “It’s all right, you don’t have to make excuses,” Vallant told the man quickly, interrupting what promised to be a very long monologue. “You weren’t long in answerin’ my ring, in my opinion you were very prompt. I can imagine what you and the rest of the staff went through with those fools who called themselves nobles, but you won’t have the same trouble with us. Stand up now, and tell me if there’s a room somewhere about that has a desk or two as well as paper, pens, and ink.”

  “Yes, Excellence, there certainly is,” the man replied as he stood, his tone cautious and his expression wary. “Please follow me, and I’ll show you where it is.”

  Vallant exchanged a rueful glance with Tamrissa as the man moved off in the direction he’d come from, the two of them following. It was obvious that the servant didn’t quite believe his days of being treated like a slave were over, not after having served one very important noble and possibly even two. It would take time for the palace workers to learn the truth of what they’d been told, and trying to argue that would be a waste of breath and effort.

  “Hopefully, this will meet with your approval, Excellence,” the man said after walking to a door and throwing it open. “It’s meant for the conducting of business matters.”

  Vallant stood aside as Tamrissa walked into the room past the bowing servant, and then he followed her to see what the room held. To the right was a very large, ornately carved darkwood desk with an equally large chair behind, and to the left was
a smaller desk probably meant for a secretary. Straight ahead were wide and beautiful windows, the dark red of their drapes echoed in the carpeting.

  “Yes, this is precisely what I was lookin’ for,” Vallant told the servant as he only glanced at the rest of the soberly colored decorations of the room. “Now I’d like two more things, one of them bein’ tea service for two. The other is more on the order of a question: Do you by any chance have a map showin’ where everythin’ is in this wing?”

  “Yes, Excellence, there is a map of the wing, usually used to orient new servants,” the man answered, a shadow of surprise hidden behind the words. “I haven’t seen the map in a while, but I’ll search for it and bring it as soon as I’m able. In the interim, your tea will be here in just a few moments.”

  “Good,” Vallant answered as he turned to smile at the man. “Thank you for your help.”

  The servant acknowledged Vallant’s thanks with a bow that hid the man’s wide-eyed surprise, and then he disappeared back up the hallway.

  “I think you’ve shocked him badly,” Tamrissa said with a chuckle as she turned and made for the smaller desk. “In his world, the strong and powerful don’t say thank-you.”

  “Knowin’ our Blendin’mates, that’s about to change permanently,” Vallant said with his own chuckle as he headed for the windows. “Are you sure you don’t want to use the big desk? I won’t mind in the least.”

  “This is your wing, so you’re entitled to use the bigger desk,” Tamrissa said, already seated in the chair and rummaging in the desk. “When we use my wing, then I’ll – Ah! Here’s paper and ink, and there are pens already on the desk. Hey, it’s raining.”

  “It only just started,” Vallant replied as he moved to the second window and opened it as he had the first. “Do you mind havin’ the windows open?”

  “Not as long as there isn’t a chance someone will throw something at us,” Tamrissa answered, her tone telling Vallant that she wasn’t seriously worried. “What kind of view can there be anyway?”