by Sharon Green
"But all we've been doin' is work with the other Blendin'," Vallant protested, turning his head to look at Lorand. "Why would such a simple thing be such a drain on our strength?"
"Working with the other Blending may not be what's draining us," Lorand said after thinking about the matter for a moment. "I can see now that I have no real idea what is doing it, but the work may be only a part of a larger whole we're not seeing. Every time I think about the knowledge that's been lost because of those fool nobles, I get the urge to commit murder."
"As do I," Rion put in, glancing away from watching where he stepped. "I constantly find myself thinking that there ought to be a better, easier way to do something, if only I knew what that way was. But I don't know, because the knowledge was allowed to be lost."
"I've been wonderin' if that's really the case," Vallant said, looking first at Rion and then at Lorand. "I mean, it's one thing to keep 'commoners' from findin' out certain facts, but quite another to keep the information from yourself as well. If I'd been in charge, I would have kept a careful record of what can be done and how to do it, and I would have hidden that record in a safe place."
"How can we possibly find a place that people who are so many years dead considered safe?" Rion put, asking rather than challenging. "The information could be in the safe of a private residence that collapsed generations ago, or buried under the floor of a stables that has now become the middle of someone's wheat field. How are we to know?"
"We can't, for certain, but there are facts we need to be aware of," Vallant said, his expression thoughtful. "For instance, havin' information no one else does means takin' a number of precautions to preserve that information for your family or loved ones. If somethin' sudden happens to you, you don't want the precious information lost along with you."
"So you just might store it in a bank vault along with your gold," Lorand suggested, the idea coming faster than he'd expected it to. "Keeping the information at home could well mean losing it, to theft, or fire, or water damage, or a dozen other misadventures. A bank vault is a nice, safe, dry place."
"Especially if you have a lot of gold in the bank," Rion agreed just as quickly. "The bankers would know better than to tamper with anything owned by people with the power to have almost anyone killed. And the records could be hidden among ordinary papers, so that even if someone looks at them who shouldn't, they won't know there's more than gold beneath the dross."
"I wish we'd thought of this while we were still in the city," Vallant muttered, the complaint valid as far as Lorand could see. "Now we'll have to wait until we get back to examine what's bein' held beside silver, gold, and copper."
"Anything we learned would probably have come in handy when we faced that army, so of course we didn't find it," Lorand said, too tired to keep from feeling depressed. "I think there's some natural law that insists we do everything the hard way, otherwise it won't count. I just wish I knew what it's supposed to count for."
"There's an old sayin' that claims we gain understandin' through sufferin'," Vallant offered in a sour tone. "What I understand is that I don't want to suffer any more, which is what the lesson should be about. Maybe we can find a way to avoid for now that 'larger picture' you were talkin' about."
"How?" Lorand challenged, feeling as though he were being accused of hiding things. "If we can't yet see the picture, how are we supposed to do anything about it in any way at all?"
"How am I supposed to know?" Vallant countered, his tone a near match to Lorand's. "The rest of you are the brainy ones. I'm just the sailorman hangin' on for dear life, followin' rather than leadin' and glad of it. If the rest of you think of somethin', just let me know."
And with that Vallant turned away, to lead his horses to a separate place where he might unsaddle and unbridle them.
"Ending this conversation now might indeed be the best of ideas," Rion muttered when Lorand glanced at him, avoiding Lorand's gaze. "We'll speak again, once we've all had the rest we need."
And then Rion moved off with his own mounts, leaving Lorand alone to choose a place to leave the horses. As if the previous disagreement had been all his fault. Lorand growled low in his throat, swallowed various words and phrases that weren't considered very nice, and then he did find a place. A place that was apart from those fools he was forced to associate with…
By the time the horses were freed of tack and turned out to graze, Lorand's anger was once again replaced with depression. He had no clear idea why he'd gotten angry at Vallant and Rion, but the fact that he had made him feel ashamed. Those men were closer to him than the brothers who shared his blood, and getting angry at them for no clear reason proved that he was the fool.
Apologizing wasn't something he was up to yet, so Lorand finished his chore and simply hurried away from the area. Happily, Vallant and Rion still weren't as experienced with horses as he was, so they were both still working as he left the area. If possible he would avoid them until tomorrow, and then -
"Excuse me," a soft voice interrupted Lorand's thoughts, also bringing him to an uneven halt. "I'm Berana Foldis, a member of one of Vallant's Water magic link groups. I can see that you're tired, so I'll be really brief. I think you're one of the fairest people I've ever come across, even when being that fair is painful for you. Because of that I couldn't possibly admire you more, and I - just wanted you to know that."
The smile the girl gave him was on the embarrassed side, and then she was hurrying away. She was dark-haired and dark-eyed and very attractive, and as Lorand watched her go he knew that she hadn't told him the complete truth. Oh, she did seem to admire him, but there had been something more behind the words…
It took Lorand a long minute before he realized what that something more might be, and then he was the one who felt embarrassed. You don't stop someone out of the clear blue sky - and when they're alone - to tell them you admire them. The girl seemed to be attracted to him, which was very flattering. For the last few minutes before the girl appeared Lorand hadn't been feeling very attractive, but now, knowing he had an admirer…
Lorand silently laughed at himself as he resumed walking, glad there was still a good deal of daylight left. If it had been dark when the girl approached him, his mood would have convinced him that she was some unattractive hag who had no one else to fix her sights on. But there had been nothing of the hag about her, and feeling flattered raised his spirits to a large degree. He was still really tired, but now he felt better about it. She hadn't been bothered by his tiredness, and had even been considerate of the condition.
This time Lorand almost laughed aloud at the antics of his thoughts. He sounded to himself like a youngster who had just gotten his first smile from a girl, something that hadn't happened very often when he was a youngster. What the girl had said didn't really mean anything, of course, not with all the truly important things he had to think about, but it would hurt nothing if he enjoyed the pleasure of her words for a while. The words she'd spoken, and the ones she hadn't…
It would have taken too much effort to whistle as he walked along, so Lorand kept silent. But the song was there in his mind and heart, a song that made him feel only a small bit of guilt. After all, there was nothing wrong with thinking, was there…?
Vallant stretched wide as he yawned, wishing breakfast was already set out to be eaten. He'd slept most of his tiredness away the night before, which was hardly surprising. He and his Blendingmates had eaten early yesterday afternoon and then had taken to their bed rolls, and even the arrival of the other Blendings and their people hadn't awakened him. The others seemed to have slept just as soundly, and that was good. They would be facing that army today, and needed to be in top form…
"Vallant, I'd like a word with you," Lorand said, coming up to stand next to him. "About the way I acted yesterday, when we were seeing to the horses. I'd like to apologize for anything I may have said or done that was offensive. I felt so beaten down that good sense wasn't even a memory."
"You're jus
t sayin' what I decided it was up to me to say," Vallant answered ruefully with a shake of his head. "I was so tired I felt helpless over everythin' we don't yet know, and I've never been good at handlin' helplessness. Where's Rion? He could also use some apologizin' to."
"Right here," Rion answered for himself as he joined them from Vallant's left. "But where apologies are concerned, it would be more appropriate for me to give rather than get. Instead of disassociating myself from the … discussion you two were having, I should have done something to help smooth things over. We were all too tired to be rational, and if I'd pointed that out - "
"The both of us would probably have turned on you," Lorand interrupted, finishing Rion's sentence the way Vallant would have. "Bickering seems to hate a peacemaker, but at least we were spared that."
"Which means we're now free to go and get somethin' to eat," Vallant put in, seeing the way the venison from the night before was being taken off the warming fire. "I'd be happier if there were eggs and pancakes and such, but you won't find me turnin' down rewarmed venison."
"Yes, a normal breakfast would be nice, but I don't require it either," Rion agreed as all three of them immediately headed for the food line. "I ate quite a lot last night - or late yesterday afternoon - but I feel as though I haven't eaten for days."
"So do I, and I wish I knew why that was," Lorand said, clear disturbance in his voice. "We've been really tired and hungry just the way we were when we began to use and strengthen our abilities, but we haven't been doing anything new. Or at least I haven't noticed anything new."
"Neither have I," Vallant answered the question in Lorand's tone, at the same time seeing Rion's headshake. "Could we be doin' somethin' new without bein' aware of it?"
"That doesn't seem very likely, but how can we know?" Lorand put, the same frustration Vallant felt clear in his brother's tone. "We'll just have to take care of this army quickly, and then get back to Gan Garee. Searching bank vaults will at least give us something to take our minds off what's happening until we find an explanation for it."
"An explanation for what?" Tamrissa's voice came, and then she and Jovvi and Naran were with them. The ladies were also clearly heading for the food line, which hadn't really formed yet. The rest of the people in their camp were still in the process of first waking up.
"We need an explanation for why we're getting so tired and hungry all of a sudden," Lorand told her with a smile. "It feels a lot like what we went through in the beginning, but we haven't been doing anything new. Unless you girls have noticed something we missed?"
"Nothing I can think of," Jovvi said while Tamrissa and Naran were considering the question. "And if we were able to do something new, wouldn't it be rather obvious?"
"Not necessarily," Naran said before any of the rest of them could answer, her gaze unfocused the way it usually was when she tried to See. "There's something vague and rather far away ahead of us, and I have no idea what it can be. There are too many other happenings in the way, most of them with multiple possibilities. And some of them seem to be … blocked."
"You mean Ristor Ardanis and his people are at it again?" Tamrissa asked, the annoyance in her voice not as heavy as Vallant would have expected. "I'd love to know why they keep doing that to us, keeping us from knowing about certain things. It can't be to make sure the wrong thing doesn't happen because someone knows about it in advance. They know about, so why can't we?"
"Knowing about something is meaningless if you don't do something with the knowledge," Naran pointed out with a sigh, her gaze no longer on distant, invisible horizons. "I hate to admit it, but Master Ardanis and his people won't do anything with certain knowledge, while we almost certainly would. And knowing about some things in advance can mean absolute disaster rather than being a blessing."
"Will we ever reach the point of knowing when not to act, my love?" Rion asked her, his expression filled with a disturbance Vallant also felt. "Or is it necessary to live with your ability available for decades or centuries before the lesson is properly learned?"
"I don't know," Naran told him simply, her smile showing sadness rather than warmth. "That's one of the things I still have to learn, when to speak and when to keep quiet when more than just hurt feelings are involved. I'd also have to stop thinking of silence as betrayal…"
"I think we all know you'd never betray us, Naran," Jovvi said at once, putting a hand to the girl's arm. "We also trust your solid common sense, so if you ever have to hold back on telling us something, we'll know you're doing it for our benefit rather than to hurt us. Isn't that right, everyone?"
"Of course it is," Vallant said without hesitation, the others saying the same in different words. "But right now I can see a bit of the future myself, specifically the part where I fall over dead if I don't have somethin' to eat in the next few minutes. If you'd rather avoid the chore of gettin' rid of my body, you'll get started with takin' some of that lovely food so it can come around to bein' my turn."
"Instead of being a gentleman and waiting, why don't you go first?" Tamrissa suggested with a laugh while everyone else chuckled. "I'm too happy to have my strength back to want to waste it on getting rid of a body."
"I knew there was a reason I found you so attractive," Vallant said to Tamrissa with a grin and a touch to her face as he stepped forward to start the line-forming process. "I'll go back to bein' a gentleman later or tomorrow, whenever this hunger lets up. For right now, though, I may make it necessary for our hunters to go out again sooner than they expected to."
The rest all lined up behind Vallant, and despite their teasing he wasn't the only one who took what might be considered more than an ordinary amount of food. Every rider in their party had carried an extra set of saddle bags with a certain amount of staple food like potatoes and rice and dried vegetables, so the meal consisted of more than just the venison. But their supplies were almost gone, Vallant realized as he eased the gnawing hunger in his middle. They'd have to restock in the nearest town before they headed back to Gan Garee.
But first they had an army to face. Vallant felt better with every passing minute, but that only referred to the hunger he'd been suffering from. With that consideration out of the way, he was able to tell that he wasn't feeling quite as rested as he'd thought at first. Deep inside he still felt tired, but hopefully the others weren't suffering in the same way. He knew he would hold up his part of the Blending no matter what it cost him, but his not being in top condition made the time uncomfortable and the coming confrontation a bit less than a sure thing.
He was just finishing the last of his meal when the guardsmen they'd sent out to scout returned to camp. They looked around as they rode, and when they spotted Vallant they headed directly for him.
"We found them, Excellence," the guardsman in charge of the scouting party reported even before he dismounted. "They're camped just under two hours away, and once they're on the road again they'll be heading right for us."
"But we can't afford to simply wait for them," Vallant decided aloud as he put his plate aside and got to his feet. "Doin' anythin' less than makin' absolutely sure would be foolish, so that's the way we'll arrange it. Where's Holter and his Blendin'?"
Vallant looked around with the question, and a moment later spotted Pagin Holter and his people. They were sitting not far away with plates of their own, and seemed to be almost finished with eating. Vallant walked over to them and Holter smiled a greeting, but it was Arinna, their Fire magic user, who spoke.
"Is it time for us to leave, Vallant?" Arinna asked with her own smile. "I'm assuming that those guardsmen are the scouts you sent out, and they've come to report back."
"You're right on all counts, Arinna," Vallant answered with a smile that wasn't quite as good as theirs had been. "The army is camped less than two hours away, and you'll have to circle around to get behind them without bein' detected. You're sure that none of you minds bein' the ones who do the extra travelin'? We're all feelin' better than we did yesterday…"
"An' we wanna keep ya like thet," Holter put in before Vallant could finish his half-hearted offer, the man's tone showing nothing of resentment or hesitation. "Our Blendin' entity'll let ya know whin we're in place, an' then ya c'n start th' show."
"As long as you're all sure," Vallant said with an inner sigh of relief, seeing that they were all in agreement. "You'll have to get started as soon as you're all through eatin'."
"Which will be in about one minute," Arinna assured him before finishing up the last of the food on her plate before putting it aside. "Our horses are already saddled and ready for us and our link groups are also just about through eating, so we'll be in touch shortly."
"We'll be waitin,'" Vallant answered, seeing that most of the group and their link people were already getting to their feet. "Be really careful, even if it means takin' a little extra time."
"Yes, Momma," Arinna said with a laugh, coming over to pat his arm to remove the sting from the comment. "Don't worry, everything will work out just fine."
And then she and the others were moving away, heading for the horses that had been saddled for them while they ate. It didn't take more than five minutes before they were riding out of camp, proving that they were even more well organized than Vallant had thought. Well, it was about time that something worked right for them…
Vallant took a deep breath to steady himself, then he turned back to see where the rest of his Blending was. The place where they'd been sitting and eating was now occupied by the newly awakened, and his people had relocated back toward where their bed rolls had been left. He headed toward his Blendingmates, deciding to wait a few minutes more before he began to hurry the latecomers into finishing their meals.
Holter and his Blending should be in position in significantly less time than that two hours they'd talked about, so their own force would have to break camp and move in closer to the army that would already be advancing toward them. The closer they were the less their Blending entity would have to strain, but they couldn't get too close or they would be detected by the army's scouts. It wasn't likely there would be no scouts, not when the army was moving through what had to be considered captured territory -
