by Sharon Green
“This lady’s here for the testin’,” the coach guard told the gate guards as soon as they were all close enough. “This here’s her trunk, and you’ll need to call somebody to carry it for her.”
“Set it down just inside the gate, to the left,” one of the gate guards directed, gesturing behind him without taking his gaze from Jovvi. “We’ll keep an eye on it while she’s inside, and when she comes back out we’ll find somebody to help her with it.”
The coach guard and driver did as they’d been told, then took an awkward minute saying goodbye and wishing her luck. Jovvi was as gracious to the two as she made a habit of being to all men, since a girl never knew which of them would turn out to be most significant in her life. When they finally went back to their coach Jovvi turned her attention to the gate guards, but before she could speak one of them held up his hand.
“I need to see your coach ticket, ma’am,” he said, the words polite but the tone inflexible. “We heard what the coachmen said but we have to see for ourselves.”
The request surprised Jovvi, but not so far that it completely disrupted her plans. She reached into her bag for the stub which was all there was left of her ticket, and tremulously smiled as she handed it over.
“Everything here is so strange and frightening,” she said to the guard, letting him see the helplessness in her eyes. “Are they going to … hurt me in there? If only I knew what to expect it might not be so bad.”
“I wish I could help you,” the guardsman said quite sincerely, apparently caught in the depth of her eyes. “If I knew what they did in there I’d tell you all about it, but all I know is what I tell every applicant: use the archway directly behind this post to enter the building, and then hand over this stub. They’ll let you know what to do next. I’m really sorry.”
“I understand,” Jovvi said warmly and gently as she took the stub back. The man was really quite attractive, and although it was unlikely he’d ever be able to afford to become one of her regular patrons, there was no sense in hurting him. He would have helped her if he could have, after all. His inability simply meant she’d have to find someone else.
The second gate guard hadn’t said a word, but he stepped aside just as quickly as the first when Jovvi moved toward the gate and through it. She could see the archway she was supposed to use to enter the very large building straight ahead as well as other people heading for that building. Most of the others seemed rather hesitant about approaching, and although Jovvi could understand that, she didn’t share the emotion. She wanted this registering business over and done with, and then she’d be able to get on with what was really important.
The archway took her from afternoon sunshine into lamplit dimness, but it wasn’t so dark that she couldn’t see a table to the right of the archway with a man seated behind it. The table was clearly being used as a desk, and when the man looked up, Jovvi produced her tremulous smile again.
“I was told someone in here is supposed to take what’s left of my ticket,” she ventured, hesitantly holding out the stub. “Is this the right place?”
“It certainly is, my dear,” the older man answered with a gentle smile, taking the stub. “Just a moment, and I’ll locate your file.”
There had been a number on the ticket stub, and the man searched through a box of papers, apparently looking for a match to the number. When he found it he put the stub aside, then reached into a box with cards of some sort. Another moment and he’d written Jovvi’s name on the card, and then he looked up again.
“You’ll need to wear this identification at all times, my dear,” he instructed in a kindly way as he attached a chain to the middle of the card. “Just slip it over your head and take the paperwork, and then I’ll have someone show you where you go next.”
“But … my trunk is still outside near the entrance gate I used,” Jovvi protested weakly and helplessly as she took the card and chain. “It’s been such a long trip and I’m so very tired… It won’t really hurt anything if I find a place to rest and leave my things first, will it? I’d be so very grateful…”
“For your sake, I wish it were possible,” the man answered with a sigh, his sadness as real as any Jovvi had ever seen. “Unfortunately the procedural rules are very clear, but please don’t let that disturb you. I’m sure they’ll help you find a nice place to stay once you’ve finished speaking to them.”
Jovvi voiced her own sigh, but the accompanying smile and nod of surrender were harder to accomplish. These people were really beginning to be tiresome, especially since she did need some rest. After days of traveling, it was difficult to remember what sitting still in one place for more than an hour felt like.
“Reshin here will accompany you the rest of the way,” the man said, gesturing to the woman he’d called over from a small group of people to one side of his table. “Just go along with her, and you’ll be on your way to proper lodgings before you know it.”
Jovvi thanked him with automatic warmth as she slipped the chain carefully over her head, settled the card against her chest, then took the set of papers he’d held out. The card now blocked a proper view of her cleavage, but with another woman as her only companion, it didn’t really matter. The woman crooked a finger and began to head toward an archway all the way over on the other side of the building, and Jovvi had no choice but to follow. The woman walked slowly enough to let her catch up, and once Jovvi did, the woman looked at her with a surprisingly friendly smile.
“I love that suit you’re wearing,” the woman Reshin said, sounding as if she really meant it. “Did you buy it here in Gan Garee?”
“No, actually I had it made for me in Rincammon, where I live,” Jovvi answered, trying to put the same sort of friendliness into her voice. She never got along as well with women as she did with men, but that was usually because of their jealousy and resentment. Very few women were able to be successful courtesans with all the benefits which went with the position, and that naturally turned them resentful. Jovvi understood the feeling very well, and would have shared it if she hadn’t been able to live the life.
“Well, that pale violet really suits you,” Reshin continued in the same friendly way. “I wish it suited me as well since I love the color, but I’ve learned that it doesn’t love me back. But that’s just as well, I suppose. My husband-to-be likes to see me in red and that color I do get along with.”
The woman’s black hair made that a given, and there was nothing really wrong with the red-trimmed gray dress she had on. It was a bit too severe for Jovvi’s taste, but it seemed to go well with the dimness and distance of that building.
Jovvi remained silent until they had almost reached the far archway, but then she simply had to ask about what lay ahead. Making decent plans without knowing what you were about to face just wasn’t possible, and there was too much at stake not to take the chance.
“Reshin … what’s supposed to happen next?” she asked diffidently, deliberately slowing the pace they’d both been walking at. “I’m … not really used to things like this, and I hate to admit it but I’m … frightened. Is there anything you can tell me?”
“I could tell you everything I know, but none of it would help you,” Reshin answered, flashing her a compassionate smile before touching her arm to increase her pace again. “My job is to accompany applicants to the proper testing area, but I don’t even get to go through the door. What goes on in the building, I’m told, is none of my business, and if I’d tried to find out anyway they would have dismissed me. Since I’d rather not give up this position until I marry, you can understand why I’ve curbed my curiosity.”
Jovvi nodded, understanding the woman’s position perfectly. There were few enough positions for women in the business world as it was. Losing a good one for being too nosy would have been horrible, but that left her swinging in the wind. Well, there were bound to be people inside that building Reshin had mentioned, and at least one of them would have to be a man…
Stepping outside ag
ain was something of a relief, at least until Jovvi got a good look at the circle of buildings beyond the wide walk separating them from the very large entrance building. The buildings that were part of the circle were made of resin, a material Jovvi had seen only once before in her life. It had been used by a very wealthy man to form his “playroom” just beyond his back garden, and Jovvi had almost ended up inside it. She’d been very young at the time and hadn’t yet met Allestine, and hadn’t known what that very wealthy man did to young girls in that room of his. If he hadn’t decided to take that other girl in first, and if Jovvi hadn’t been lucky enough to hear the girl’s screams when a servant had opened the door…
“Well, this is it,” Reshin said, drawing Jovvi back from nightmare memories. “Just go straight in, and try not to worry. They really do need people like you, remember, so they can’t possibly do anything too terrible to them.”
The point was a good one, and helped Jovvi pull herself together. Reshin patted her arm in comfort and support, then waited while Jovvi forced herself to walk inside. At least the door was open, and hopefully looked as if it would stay that way.
Inside there were lamps to brighten up the cream-colored resin of the walls, not to mention colorful hangings covering what seemed to be multiple doorways. Seeing hangings rather than actual doors made Jovvi feel even better, enough so that she was able to approach the man at another table with something like her usual confidence.
“Is this what you’re supposed to have?” Jovvi asked the man, shyly proffering the papers. When he took them with a smile Jovvi felt even more encouraged, and so decided not to waste any more time. “I … was told you might be able to help me find a decent place to rest for a while,” she ventured carefully. “I’ve been traveling for days, and I’m absolutely exhausted. It’s—”
“All in good time, child,” the man interrupted gently, his smile still very evident. “We’ll make sure you have what you need, but first you have to speak to some of our people. Just through that doorway all the way to the right, and they’ll take care of you.”
Jovvi was getting very tired of thanking people for being of no help at all, but she did it again anyway and then walked to the proper doorway. Beyond the hanging was a long hall, and in an alcove to the left sat three men. They got to their feet when they saw her, and the one in the lead smiled faintly.
“Come this way and I’ll get you settled into a room,” he said before Jovvi could try to get somewhere with him. “There are things we need to know, and after we get our answers we’ll answer any questions you may have.”
Jovvi sighed as she followed the man, but she wasn’t so impatient that she didn’t know the other two men also followed her. That made her faintly uneasy, but she forced herself to keep in mind what Reshin had said. People with talent like hers were needed, so it wasn’t likely that the government would allow her to be savaged. They didn’t know she meant to fail their very first test, after all, so she ought to be perfectly safe at least until that happened.
The man who walked ahead led her around a curve in the hall, then stopped in front of a door. It was made of the same resin as the rest of the building, but opened easily when the man pushed on it.
“This is the place,” he said, stepping aside in the gentlemanly way to let her walk in first. She began to do just that, but stopped short only one step in. The room was as dark as a moonless night, maybe even darker. It wasn’t even possible to see the floor under her feet where she stood.
“Oh, good grief, some fool turned down all the lamps,” the man holding the door behind her said in annoyance. “If you’ll just step forward one more pace, I’ll be able to reach this lamp right by the door.”
Jovvi didn’t like the idea of moving forward into all that pitch darkness, but the promise of immediate lamplight helped her to do it. “Just stand still now,” she heard the man say, but instead of producing more light she suddenly had less. Rather than light a lamp he had closed the door, and now even the feeble light from the hall was gone!
“Oh, no!” Jovvi tried to scream out, but the terrified protest turned into a whisper. She had been left in the dark with who-knew-what, and couldn’t even bring herself to try to retrace her steps to the door. Darkness like that had always terrified her, and it was so bad that she couldn’t even begin to think of anything to do!
It seemed like forever that she stood trembling mindlessly there in the dark, but then she heard a noise from somewhere above her. It sounded like a scraping of some sort, but she was distracted from it by the sudden brightening of lamps being turned up. She saw the lamps as soon as they began to glow, and it didn’t matter that they sat behind windows of clear resin higher in the walls of that place. They were providing the light she needed so badly, which soothed her terror—until she was able to look around.
“That’s right, you’re perfectly safe as long as you stay on the walkway,” the man who’d led her there said over her horrified gasp. That’s who it was who had opened a small doorway in the wall above the lamps, a place she was now afraid to look up toward. “The drop to either side of the walkway is very deep and very deadly, but you’ll be fine as long as you don’t fall off.”
Jovvi wanted to scream that she was about to fall off that very narrow walkway, but she wouldn’t have been able to get the words out even if they’d been true. Even as terrified as she was, she would not let herself do anything stupid like fainting, which would certainly have plunged her off into the unlit depths to either side of where she stood. Only the four-foot-wide walkway stretched across the abyss, providing footing between the door she’d come in by and another door at the far end.
“In order to leave that room, you have to reach the doorway you can see at the other end of the walkway,” the man above her continued. “The door behind you can’t be opened from your side, but the other one can be. All you have to do to reach it is exercise your talent. If you do it properly you’ll survive to reach the other side, but if you don’t you’ll die. The choice is yours, and I certainly hope you’ll make the right one. Good luck or goodbye.”
Jovvi heard the sound of the small door closing again, but still couldn’t make herself look up. And even beyond that, she was confused by what the man had said. Walking that four-foot-wide stretch would be nerve-wracking for her, but she wouldn’t need her talent to do it. She’d simply get herself moving, and before she knew it she’d be on the other side. She took a slow breath, getting herself ready to start, and that was when it began.
Jovvi had served men of every aspect there was, and suddenly it felt as if the room were filled with every one of them and all of them were either angry or upset. All those people were probably hidden somewhere below, but it did feel as though they were right there in the room. The heavy feelings battered at her where she stood, almost knocking her over, as palpable and real as if someone stood beside her pushing at her. Jovvi knew then she’d been wrong. She would have to use her ability, or she’d never be able to stand up under the assault.
And “standing up” had taken on a very special, very important meaning. Jovvi could feel the sweat begin to bead her forehead as the mass of projected feelings grew even stronger, threatening to knock her around like some invisible wind. When she almost staggered under the load her terror increased; staggering now could mean falling off the walkway, into the depths and certain death.
Jovvi had been frightened many times in her life, and each of those times she had reached out blindly with her skill, learning the best ways to keep herself safe. Now she no longer reached out blindly, but with the experience of practice and a certain maturity. It was her place to soothe all those raging feelings, to calm them to a proper balance that would let her maintain her own balance. She had no more than about twenty-five or thirty feet to walk before she reached safety, but she needed to be steady on her feet to do it.
So she pushed her fear aside and reached out with that very special part of herself, knowing she first had to calm the storm before she m
ight escape. There were women as well as men raging about, she could tell that easily, but reaching and calming them all wasn’t quite the same. Bringing one or two or three to balance took no more effort than it ever had, but when she released them to touch the others they immediately went back to raging. It was like trying to gather up a bunch of frightened chickens without using an enclosure to hold them. As soon as she took her attention from the ones she’d caught to catch the others, the first bunch scattered again.
“But how am I supposed to catch them all at the same time?” she whispered, feeling like whimpering. “They’re all running in a different direction…”
Which wasn’t precisely what was happening, but the analogy was close enough. She had to touch and soothe and balance all those minds at the same time, something she’d never tried before.
And something she wasn’t sure she could do. Her body had begun to tremble from being held so rigidly, but she didn’t dare relax. And the storm felt as if it were growing stronger again, which would make it all that much harder to do. But if she didn’t find a way to succeed she would die, and she didn’t want to die. She wanted to live, but how was she supposed to accomplish that? How…?
CHAPTER EIGHT
Clarion stepped out of the coach in a part of Gan Garee he’d never seen before, but that wasn’t surprising. He’d never been the sort to frequent that kind of neighborhood, and especially not by public transportation. He turned for a final look at the coach, knowing he’d never forget the experience of traveling in it—and would do his best never to repeat it. He couldn’t remember ever being so uncomfortable in his entire life.
But that statistic was in danger of being topped by whatever his next experience would be. He turned to study the guard wall again as the coachmen struggled to remove his trunk from their vehicle, trying not to be incensed a second time over their refusal to take him anywhere near his and Mother’s house there in the city. His ticket demanded that he be brought here, they’d insisted, and even an ordinary coach stop deeper in the city wouldn’t do. He was supposed to “register” in this place, whatever that meant.
