The Blending Enthroned, Book 1, Intrigues

by Sharon Green

  “But that’s nonsense,” Zokill said as the muttering came again from those in the crowd. “We’ve already been denied our abilities far too long, and Dom Henris would never – “

  Her words broke off when she saw the expression on Henris’s face, a mixture of anger and embarrassment. It was clear that Henris did intend that the practice and use of magic be limited, and once he realized that the matter was no longer his own little secret, he puffed himself up and tried to defend his position.

  “It won’t be anything like what the nobles did,” he said, looking around at the crowd at the same time. “Just for now there will be too many other problems to take care of, so using magic more will just have to wait a while. It won’t be forever, just until things settle down, and then we’ll have classes and everything.”

  “That’s undoubtedly what the original members of the nobility said to people,” Rion put in, letting his disgust show clearly in the words. “As soon as things settle down we’ll provide everything everyone wants. What they really meant was they wanted time to form a strong enough guard force to make people toe their line, and that’s probably what you mean as well. And even if it isn’t, who are you going to get to run all those classes?”

  “It won’t be hard at all to get people to run classes,” Henris blustered, carefully ignoring the first part of what Rion had said. “There are lots of people who are strong enough, and I may even run one of the classes myself.”

  “You?” Vallant challenged with a sound of scorn. “What could you teach people, aside from the nonsense you’ve been spoutin’ last night and today? How much trainin’ were you put through by the nobles callin’ themselves Adepts?”

  “I don’t need any other training, because I’ve been training myself over the years,” Henris growled in answer, glaring angrily at Vallant. “There isn’t anyone I know who’s stronger in Water magic than I am, and that certainly includes you! Why don’t we step outside so I can prove what I say.”

  “You just proved the exact opposite,” Vallant told him with a snort. “You want to go outside because there’s too little moisture in the air in here for you, but I don’t have that problem. If you’re all that good, let’s see how easy you find stoppin’ me.”

  For an instant no one understood what Vallant meant, but then Henris cried out and we saw that all his clothing was suddenly dripping wet. Henris was furious, of course, especially when the people behind him started to laugh, and I could almost see him reaching for the power. If he really hadn’t been opened to the power before, just the way most of the untrained tended to be, it was no wonder he thought he was all that strong. He hadn’t been able to compare himself to someone with real strength…

  “No, this isn’t possible!” Henris shouted, still dripping wet. “For some reason I can’t remove the water! It has to be a trick, that’s what, it has to – “

  His words broke off as he suddenly looked up to stare at Vallant, his mouth open and a look of shock on his face. It seemed hard to believe, but apparently Henris hadn’t paid full attention to Vallant as my Blendingmate used the power. Right now, though, Vallant had every bit of the attention Henris was able to give, and the annoying man’s mouth moved without any words coming out.

  “I think you now have a better understandin’ of what the difference between a High talent and a Middle talent is,” Vallant told the shocked man dryly. “Why don’t you try holdin’ on to that water instead, while I work to get rid of it.”

  Henris nodded woodenly, but a moment later his clothing was as dry as it had been when he’d first arrived. Henris moaned as though in extreme pain, and Lavrit Mohr patted his shoulder.

  “Don’t be upset, Dom Henris,” Mohr consoled him, his tone of voice full of what seemed like real sympathy. “You’re certainly a very strong Middle, but the Excellence Vallant is a very strong High. In point of fact, as I’ve said more than once, the strongest High in Water magic we’ve ever come across. There’s nothing to be ashamed about in losing to him.”

  Henris stood with his head down and his eyes closed, the pallor of his skin telling the whole story. His entire world had been turned around and his beliefs shattered, and for the moment at least he no longer had what to say.

  “You could have done a bit better against me if you knew which of the patterns to use,” Vallant said to the man as if they were still in the middle of a conversation. “But you’ve had no way of learnin’ the patterns, and that’s part of the whole problem. Too much has been lost because the people in power wanted to keep themselves safe by keepin' everyone else in ignorance.”

  “Their biggest mistake wasn’t in keeping things secret,” a thin man behind Henris commented, his expression calm but his eyes showing a sly greasiness. “Their foolishness was in not keeping and practicing all that knowledge themselves, which would have saved it from being lost. I think there are enough of us here to make sure it isn’t lost a second time.”

  “It isn’t going to happen that way,” Jovvi said just as calmly, taking her turn at speaking before me. “You’ve just maneuvered almost everyone here into wanting to be part of the select group that knows and does things everyone else doesn’t, but it isn’t ever going to be like that. We’ll teach what we know to everyone, not to a small group of those who consider themselves superior.”

  “Which you and your puppets don’t happen to be,” Naran added, her gaze unfocused again. “You’re trying to push those you have control of into making themselves the leaders of the empire, but even if you do manage to accomplish it you and they won’t last longer than weeks in power. You’ll all go down in the riots you cause when you fail to handle the first serious challenge to your claims of leadership.”

  I noticed half a dozen faces in the crowd go pale, and Henris raised his head again with a frown. Naran had called the thin man’s associates puppets, which probably meant he had Spirit magic. From Henris’s expression, he had just realized that he was being used rather than leading on his own.

  “No, don’t bother trying to take control of them again,” Jovvi said to the thin man with faint amusement. “Right now I’m shielding them, and in another minute or two you won’t be able to use your talent to influence anyone ever again. But someone is really going to have to be on the alert for people like you, who force others into doing their dirty work. You cause far too much bother.”

  The thin man started to look furiously angry with intense fear shading the emotion, but then his expression smoothed out again. All slyness disappeared from his eyes, and he was left with a placidness that seemed to go down to the very center of him.

  “Yes, that’s much better,” I commented with my own amusement. “And there really has been too much bother this morning, so let’s put an end to it. Our horses should be saddled and waiting by now.”

  “No, you can’t do that,” Henris protested with one hand held up toward us. The man appeared to be a bit disjointed, but even if his heavy confidence was gone his brashness still seemed intact. “You can’t just walk away and leave us helpless, we refuse to allow it. You have to do your job first, and then maybe – “

  “You refuse to allow it?” I echoed, suddenly drowning in indignation. “Just who do you think you are, and who do you imagine you’re talking to? If we were nobles you’d be on your knees begging, even if we were no stronger than you are yourself! But in your mind we’re commoners and therefore unimportant, so you think you can say anything you please to us. Not once have we gotten even so much as a bow of courtesy from any of you, but you still expect us to go out and risk our lives for you again because you’ve decided it’s our job. Well, it’s not our job, because we’ve already handed in our resignation and because what you’re asking for isn’t part of a job but a position. Either we’re in charge or we’re not, and you’ve made it perfectly clear that in your opinion we’re not. With that in mind, get out of my way before I move you out of my way.”

  “No, she’s right,” Rilna Zokill said in a loud voice as Henris and a
number of others began to babble out their protests, turning to look at the crowd. “Would we have had the nerve to talk to a noble Blending the way we’ve been talking to them? I think we all know the answer to that, and the reason we’ve imposed on them so freely is that we all know them to be decent people. Instead of destroying us or taking us over as they could so easily have done, they argued with us. Now they’re tired of arguing, so we’re about to lose the best thing that’s happened to this empire in more than a hundred years. I was a fool to go along with the rest of you, but I won’t be a fool any longer.”

  With that she turned away from the crowd, glanced at the six of us, then very deliberately performed a deep and more than respectful curtsey.

  “Excellences, on behalf of the people I represent, I humbly ask you to stay and be our leaders,” she said, her head down and her body still in the curtsey. “I apologize sincerely for the foolishness I’ve shown, and I promise not to ever do the same again.”

  Many of the men in the crowd – and the sprinkling of women – looked shocked at that, but a moment later there were people pushing forward to add their own bows and curtsies. It took a short while, but with a handful of exceptions everyone in the crowd did the same. Even Relton Henris finally added a grudging bow, and no one said a word about there being terms and conditions. The handful of exceptions stalked off without looking back, and Jovvi stepped closer to me with a smile.

  “Some of them aren’t happy about the decision, but they’re all in agreement,” she murmured as she patted my arm. “We now have a position rather than a job, and it’s all thanks to you. I think we can go back to our wings now.”

  “After I tell them one more thing,” I murmured back, then raised my voice. “All right, we’ll stay, but on one condition. You have to arrange for our immediate Seating as a sixfold Blending, but you can let people know that the Seating is only temporary. A year from now we’ll be holding the challenges again, which ought to give everyone who’s interested the chance to join a Blending and get in some practice. The winners of the challenges will be Seated on a permanent basis, but for five years instead of twenty-five. There will also be other changes, but we’ll tell you about them some other time.”

  A few of the people who had straightened looked like they wanted to argue or ask questions, but for the most part they were too surprised over what they’d already heard. Aside from muttering to some of the people around him, Relton Henris actually kept his mouth closed, and the only one who looked completely delighted was Lavrit Mohr.

  “Thank you, Excellences,” he said with his own bow and a wide smile. “Everything you do strengthens my belief that you are indeed the Chosen Blending. Before long, everyone will share in that truth.”

  “I’d rather share some details about what that army comin’ from the east is doin’,” Vallant put in dryly. “If we’ll be goin’ after them, we need to know as much as your people can tell us.”

  “I’ll put a report together as quickly as possible, Excellence,” Mohr agreed, giving Vallant a bow of his own. “I’ll try to have it done by some time this afternoon.”

  “When you come back, tell the guards to interrupt us even if we’re in the middle of something,” Lorand instructed Mohr, the first words he’d spoken in quite some time. “We’ll tell them the same, so there won’t be a delay in your reaching us.”

  “As you say, Excellence,” Mohr agreed, also bowing to Lorand before he turned and hurried away. All that bowing was faintly annoying, but it had finally come through to me that if you didn’t insist on being shown some deference, people tended to think they could walk all over you. That made the bowing necessary, but we’d have to see if there was something we could do to limit the practice.

  “Since we’re staying, we now have the time to go over all those transcripts and records I found in my wing,” Lorand said to the rest of us, strong relief in his dark and pretty eyes. “Unless someone has something to do that’s more important?”

  “Now that our visitors are leavin’, we ought to take the time,” Vallant said after glancing at the slowly retreating backs of the people who had so recently made up the crowd. Most of them were talking or arguing softly with the people around them, but they were going. “Since we’ll be leavin’ soon, there’s no knowin’ when we’ll have another chance.”

  Leaving to face that army from the east, he meant. We all knew we ought to have very little trouble stopping that army, but as we turned to follow Lorand back to his wing I wondered how much difference there would be between “ought to” and what we did have.

  Chapter 10

  Lorand watched as the others, one by one, finished reading the transcripts he’d found. Under other circumstances he would probably have been wondering how his Blendingmates were taking what they’d read, but this time their expressions were eloquent.

  “Those people were really horrible,” Tamrissa said as she turned over the final page of the transcript she’d been reading, her pretty face troubled. “But I think I can almost understand how that Earth magic user felt about his parents, and that bothers me.”

  “Don’t let it disturb you too badly,” Jovvi told her at once, full understanding in her beautiful eyes. “That man was so badly twisted by what he’d gone through that he couldn’t really act as a fully responsible human being. You may get pleasure out of thwarting your parents’ plans, but that’s not the same as what he did.”

  “And you are a fully responsible human being, otherwise the rest of us would know it,” Naran pointed out in a gentle way. “Do I have to remind you how much Blending does to really let you get to know your Blendingmates?”

  Tamrissa shook her head with a weak smile as she leaned into the comforting arm Vallant had put around her. Their Fire magic user was as strong as possible in her talent, but Lorand knew that she was far from also being what most people considered tough.

  “Their Spirit magic user also seemed odd in some way,” Rion put in, obviously trying to change the subject. “At first he struck me as being the only rational one in the group, but he did have that habit of talking to himself out loud when he was alone.”

  “I noticed that as well, and I have a theory,” Jovvi said with a sigh, shifting in the chair she’d taken. “He used his grandmother’s help in putting the three members of his Blending under control, but I think that he was under control as well. When his grandmother died the control began to unravel, making him unstable and unsure of what was happening. I have a feeling he wasn’t talking to himself, Rion. I think he was reporting to his grandmother.”

  “What bothers me most about all this is a feelin’ I’ve gotten,” Vallant said as he shook his head. “Jovvi, am I wrong to believe that most if not all of those people would have been more like what’s considered normal if they hadn’t gone through all those horrors while growin’ up?”

  “There’s no way to tell for certain, but I tend to have the same belief,” Jovvi said, confirming Lorand’s own feelings in the matter. “That’s why I’m more anxious than ever to find a way to protect all children, especially those of our closest followers. A lot of our people will end up being wealthy, and the offspring of the wealthy tend to go to extremes to avoid the boredom of a life without struggle.”

  “And extremes too often include hurting even more children,” Rion said with a nod as he rose to go to the tea service. “I still haven’t thought of anything myself, but I refuse to believe that the effort is hopeless.”

  Lorand found the fact that no one answered or commented aloud depressing, since he hadn’t thought of any answers either. They’d all returned to the sitting room in his wing after having lunch in his dining room, the same sitting room they’d been in all morning as well. His own teacup didn’t need refilling, but he decided to follow Rion’s example in another way.

  “I’ve been reading one of the journals I found,” Lorand said into the silence, attempting his own change of subject. “The man lived about a hundred and fifty years ago, and his bitterest com
plaint was that his Blending didn’t get to practice enough together. He was sure their entity couldn’t do half of what was possible a hundred years earlier, but the Blending’s ‘advisors’ constantly told them not to Blend unless it was absolutely necessary. The advisors claimed that their Blending made people uneasy, and doing something like that wasn’t wise.”

  “Right, and we know who they were makin’ most uneasy,” Vallant commented dryly. “Those noble advisors couldn’t have all the control they wanted if the Seated Five Blended, so they spent a lot of time discouragin’ the practice. That’s a point everyone in this job ought to know about.”

  “For now we’re the ones who need to know about it, and we do,” Tamrissa told him with a smile. “So far we haven’t done too badly keeping ourselves from being limited, but we can’t let people make us think we’re being unreasonable. We have to – “

  A knock on the study door interrupted Tamrissa’s words. When Lorand called out permission to enter, they all saw a guardsman behind the servant who opened the door.

  “Your pardon, Excellences, but the man Lavrit Mohr has arrived,” the guardsman reported without stepping into the room. “Will you see him now, or do you prefer that he wait?”

  “No, we’ll see him now,” Lorand told the guardsman, the others suddenly as attentive as he, himself, felt. “We’ve been waiting for his report.”

  The guardsman nodded and turned to his right to gesture, and Lavrit Mohr hurried to the doorway. He stopped to bow as usual before he walked in, but the door wasn’t closed immediately behind him. A higher-ranking guardsman suddenly appeared behind the servant, and when Vallant saw the man he got up and went to speak to him.

  “Why don’t you help yourself to a cup of tea, Dom Mohr,” Lorand invited while Vallant listened to what the new guardsman had to say. “We should be able to take your report in a minute or two.”