by Sharon Green
Delin nodded when the man’s words trailed off, having the impression that the guardsman was more frightened than concerned. The servants were undoubtedly the same, as it had been their job to make sure the Five were safe and comfortable. If the rest of the Five recovered then only the guilty would be punished, but if they died then the Advisors would probably have them all put to death.
Delin’s curiosity was strong as he opened the small package, although he had a definite suspicion about what might be in it. He tore away the paper covering a small box, and inside the box were five slim glass vials and a note. That made Delin smile as he withdrew the note and opened it.
“Greetings to the Seated Five,” the note began, its tone downright jolly. “If you’rereading this, then you’ve already been given the contents of the enclosed vials and have come back to yourselves. Isn’t it delightful when pain like that ends?”
“Well, of course it is, so we’resure you’d like to make certain that the pain stays ended. You may accomplish this by doing exactly as we wish, a state of affairs you will be more fully informed of in due course. For the moment you must understand that if you fail to receive regular doses of what the vials contain, the agony will return and will eventually kill you. If you use any of the vials to experiment on to discover what they contain, the one who lacks the contents will be returned to the agony and eventually sent to his or her death. Experimentation will eventually tell you what you need to survive, but by then one of your number will be beyond the need for the knowledge.”
“So we fully expect you to choose the course of wisdom and make no effort to discover who we are or what you’ve been poisoned with. The next package of vials—along with more detailed instructions—will be found tomorrow in a place you will be informed about. Until then, we remain, your loyal subjects.”
Delin snorted wry amusement at the way the note had been signed, almost appreciating the jibe. And there was nothing in the way of traces on the paper, showing that the writer had probably been wearing gloves. He closed the note again and replaced it in the box, then looked up at the guardsman.
“Yes, this is something that will indeed be of help,” he told the man with a smile. “And sometime tomorrow another note will be delivered. When it arrives, it’s to be brought to me at once.”
“Yes, Excellence, as you command,” the guardsman acknowledged with a salute. “May I perform any other service?”
“Not at the moment,” Delin said with a headshake, then turned his attention to the servant who had been leading him along. “We’ll go to Lord Kambil’s wing now, rather than Lord Homin’s. As he’s the most important of us, I’ll begin my efforts with him.”
The servant bowed to acknowledge the command, and then began to lead the way to Kambil’s wing. It was something of a walk to reach Kambil’s bedchamber and the room was just as filled with servants and physicians as Selendi’s had been, but Delin took care of that by chasing them all out. They left unwillingly, but refusing the orders of one of the Five was something they weren’t prepared to do. Once he was alone with Kambil, Delin walked closer to the magnificent bed and looked down at his groupmate.
“What … ohhh … help … me,” Kambil mumbled as Delin found the pain centers of his mind and partially numbed them. He had been screaming and writhing just the way Selendi had, but now that the pain was being dulled he was able to return to himself just a bit.
“Why, certainly, Kambil, of course I’ll help you,” Delin said pleasantly with a smile. “We’regroupmates, after all, and groupmates always help one another. Haven’t you gone out of your way to help me?”
“Delin … don’t be … a fool,” Kambil panted out, looking up with very little worry. “You … have to … help me, that’s … an order. You can’t … refuse my orders…”
“Oh, but I can,” Delin told him brightly, his smile widening. “Did I forget to mention that I’m no longer under the control of the Puredan? Well mercy me, how silly to be so forgetful. I’ll bet I also forgot to mention that I’m the one who ended your precious Grammi. It’s your turn next, my friend, but not right away. First you have some suffering to do, and I’m going to enjoy every minute of it. And just as you’redying, I hope you remember that I could have saved your life—if I’d felt like it. But I don’t feel like it, so goodbye old friend, we’ll miss you terribly…”
Kambil screamed then, but not from the poison he’d been fed. It was agony of the mind which took him first, just what Delin wanted to happen. And then Delin felt Kambil’s efforts to touch his mind and take him over, so he released his hold numbing the man’s pain centers. That brought back the agony and the screaming over that, which Delin stood watching for a few moments before turning with a smile to leave. He would tell the servants that Lord Kambil should be fine in a little while, and then he would go and save the others of his group. Their Blending would be almost as effective without Kambil as it was with him, possibly even more so once Delin explained the changed circumstances to the others.
For now Delin would be in complete charge, and if any of the others tried to give him trouble they would scream in agony for it. Whatever the vials contained he would be the one to find out, and that would put him in complete control of them. They would obey him or they would scream for a time, and as for those stupid peasants who were their enemies…
Kambil had been too soft on them, but Delin would not make the same mistake, that was for certain…
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Vallant held his hand up to stop their shortened column when they were within sight of the town of Colling Green. Coming to this place was, in his opinion, a mistake, but Jovvi had insisted and, strangely enough, Naran had agreed with her. Naran, of all people, putting forward an opinion before it was asked for. Vallant thought it was about time Naran began to act like a full—or almost full—member of their group, but he wished she could have found something other than the idea of stopping to support. They didn’t have many allies in the empire, and there was no reason to believe that the Guild was an exception to that. But they were still going to the town where the leaders of the Guild wanted them to.
Their group of thirty-five—thirty-six with Naran—came to a halt behind him, everyone craning their necks to see what they could of the town. They’d brought five link groups and one of the new Blendings, hoping that that would be enough to counter any traps the Guild might have decided to set out for them. The rest of their company, almost five hundred people, were coming more slowly with the provision wagons they’d filled in Widdertown.
They’d had to stop once to refill those provision wagons in a town along the way, and they’d paid gold for the meat and flour and fish and whatnot that they needed. They’d also tried to warn the people of the town, but everyone there simply smiled and nodded and then went on about their business. They were too far from the border to take the idea of invasion seriously, even if refugees from Widdertown and its surrounding area were coming through from time to time. If other people were silly enough to take wild stories seriously, that was none of their concern.
So they’d simply described the situation to as many people as they could and then they’d moved on. At least that way people would know, and if they chose to disbelieve then that was their problem. Vallant had problems of his own, and stopping in a place he thought was a trap was only one of them. A bigger headache was the fact that Tamrissa flatly refused to talk to him at all about anything personal, but hadn’t done the same with Meerk before they left him and the rest of the group behind.
Vallant sighed as he joined everyone else in looking down from the gentle swell of the hill to the town only a few miles away. All he’d wanted to do was tell her not to be so reckless, not to risk herself as though she had nothing of much value to lose. Her sudden unconcern over danger wasn’t a good sign, and he hadn’t needed Jovvi to tell him that. But almost as bad was the way she’d actually spent time with Meerk, as though the man had grown more … attractive to her for some reason…
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“Sitting here won’t help us to find out what the Guild wants,” Jovvi’s voice murmured from his right, where she sat her horse. “And I have to admit that the prospect of being able to take a bath is an even stronger incentive to hurrying. It’s a good thing that last contingent of guardsmen had gold with them so that they could pay for whatever they might need. Our baths and meals and accommodations in real rooms will be through the courtesy of the Seated Five.”
“Why would a small town like Collin’ Green have an inn large enough to accommodate all of us?” Vallant asked, partially distracted by curiosity. “And for that matter, what makes you think the Guild people won’t already be takin’ up all that room? Assumin’ their trap lets us get anywhere near the inn to begin with.”
“If there does happen to be a trap, the idea of being able to get a bath once we’repast it should let us destroy it without the least effort,” she returned, laughing at him with her eyes. “As for why they should have an inn large enough to accommodate all of us, I’m told that they have three inns large enough. Colling Green is a hunting preserve set up by wealthy merchants and very minor nobility about twenty years ago. Since it’s less than two days normal travel from Gan Garee, it’s in the perfect place for those people to come to in order to show what great hunters they are. The place began with no more than an oversized hunting lodge, and proved so popular that now it has three large inns and a good sized town to support the businesses which have also grown up there.”
“And you were told about all this,” Vallant said, trying not to let the words come out sourly. “Do I need to ask who did all this tellin’?”
“Tamrissa’s parents brought her and her sisters here a few years ago,” Jovvi replied with a shrug that said he’d guessed right. “They came at the invitation of a business associate of her father’s, and apparently he even went out hunting a time or two. She also told me that there are dress shops and tailor shops which will produce single outfits in one day. Apparently some people are foolish enough to take all their luggage with them when they go hunting, instead of leaving most of their possessions in an inn room. Then some catastrophe strikes, like a flash flood or some such, and the fools are left with nothing to wear. Guess where she and Naran and I will be going once we’ve had our baths?”
“I think I’ve suddenly changed my mind about goin’ into that town,” Vallant said, finding it impossible not to smile at her. “Rion and Lorand and I need new clothes as badly as you ladies do, and this would be the perfect time to get them. We ought to look our best when we reach Gan Garee.”
“First we really do need to find out what the Guild wants,” Jovvi said, no longer jokingly. “I know it isn’t very likely that they’ll be on our side, but if for some unknown reason they are, we could make good use of the support.”
“How much support can talentless people give us?” Vallant countered, also losing the momentary good humor. “Even if they’rewillin’ to do everythin’ they can for us, how much is that likely to come to?”
“Don’t forget that talentless or not, they have a large, wide-spread organization,” Jovvi reminded him. “If nothing else, they can gather information for us about what’s waiting in Gan Garee. Finding out about traps in advance will prove easier than finding out by walking into them.”
“That’s if they’rewillin’ to support us,” Vallant pointed out, not terribly heartened. “I can’t help rememberin’ the Guild member who was in charge of gettin’ me to Gan Garee. She was one of the most poisonous females I’ve ever met, tryin’ her best to send me off in chains with a guard escort. Judgin’ the rest by the one I know is only natural, and I also can’t help askin’ why her group would support us when they’ve been workin’ for the nobility all along.”
“But we don’t know that,” Jovvi countered reasonably. “We’reassuming they’ve been sending people to their deaths because they know what the testing entails, but what if they didn’t know? What if they’ve been working for the nobility to keep from being ostracized by our society as freaks, and don’t have any idea about what happens to applicants once they reach the testing centers? For all we know, they may hate the nobility even more than we do.”
“For usin’ their desperation against them,” Vallant said with a grudging nod. “All right, I grant you that it’s possible, but I’m not goin’ to count on it. Be ready to initiate the Blendin’ at the first sign of trouble.”
“Always,” Jovvi agreed, and on that note they continued on down the hill and toward the town. As they drew nearer Vallant was able to see the large, pretty houses the town boasted, situated as they were on the main road leading into the town. Those houses told people that gold wasn’t as scarce here as it was in most places, so they’d better be ready to dig deep if they wanted to stop. Well, he and the others had the gold, and no matter what the Guild people wanted they were going to stop for a while, at least until the rest of their little army caught up…
When their group rode directly into the town, they were given a few curious glances by the passersby but no one stopped to stare, or point, or take to their heels. That was only faintly comforting to Vallant, who turned to nod at the Spirit magic member of the second Blending with them. The man returned Vallant’s nod and then took on the distracted air of someone turning his attention inward, which meant he was initiating his Blending the way he was supposed to. He and his five had learned to brace themselves in their saddles, with their entity having their mounts under full control. They would take the first look around, giving anyone who watched the impression that Vallant’s Blending approached with nothing in their hearts but trust.
The town had large, pretty shops with wooden walks in front which were well taken care of. And their main street was cobbled, showing that they were just as prosperous as the rest of the rather small town suggested. The locals seemed to hold themselves with pride and satisfaction, and everyone appeared to be well dressed. At the end of the first street was a fountain, an intricate thing composed of dancing children and animals, and the street beyond it contained more shops and houses. The group was just passing the fountain when the entity of the second Blending touched Vallant’s thoughts.
*Nothing here seems to be out of order,* the entity told him silently in his head. *This being has found a fairly large group of those who do nothing but wait, but much of the group is composed of flesh forms who appear to be less than Low talents. Touching them was somewhat disagreeable, and yet that was not because they harbor hidden thoughts of attack and destruction. They sit with the others in a dwelling not far from here, and some of the group have grown depressed from the boredom.*
“Just where is this place where they’rewaitin’?” Vallant asked aloud, knowing the entity would be able to hear him. “And what do those flesh forms look like? Are they composed mainly of men who remind you of the guardsman part of our group?”
*This being is reminded of none of those who are part of our larger group,* the entity replied in Vallant’s mind. *The flesh forms are mainly too well fed, which includes those who are slender in physical appearance. The place where they wait is located to the left, two of these divisions from the crossing you now approach.*
“Thank you, and you may now return to your own flesh forms,” Vallant said, then turned to Jovvi. “Our reception committee is waitin’ a couple of streets away to the left, so we’ll turn at the next corner. And they sound like merchants or nobles from the description I was given.”
“I prefer that to having them look like guardsmen,” Jovvi said wryly, obviously having heard what he’d said to the entity. “So if this is a trap, it can’t be an ordinary one.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if it was other than ordinary,” Vallant countered, part of him refusing to be anything other than sour. “They could be a bunch of merchants waitin’ to sell us things, and ready to badger us to death if we don’t buy. That would be one way of gettin’ rid of us.”
Rather than answer in words, Jovvi made an odd, strangling sou
nd. When Vallant looked at her he realized that she was struggling not to laugh aloud, knowing how little his current mood would enjoy a reaction like that. He appreciated the attempt, but his being aware of it ruined the reason for it in the first place.
“All right, no need to hurt yourself swallowin’ the laughter,” he grudged after a moment. “I suppose the comment was on the funny side…”
That seemed to tickle her even more, and her delighted laughter rang out even as she touched his hand in thanks for his understanding. She was a beautiful, wonderful woman, and Vallant was only sorry that he and Lorand hadn’t switched their interest right from the beginning. Jovvi would never have given him half the problems Tamrissa did…
That settled the sour mood even more firmly on him, so Vallant led the way to the left at the next cross street without a comment. A glance had shown him that the second Blending had dissolved their entity and were now back with them, their members looking a good deal more relaxed than they had. They were clearly convinced that no danger awaited at their destination, which Vallant found almost disappointing. He would have enjoyed a good rousing fight right about now…
Two blocks farther down was an odd arrangement, the likes of which Vallant had never seen. Most inns were either in a town—and not far from taverns and eating parlors—or standing alone along the road and containing places to eat and drink. What they now approached was an enclave of sorts, with the three very large inns standing in the midst of green lawn and trees. Each building was surrounded by lawn as if it were a ship on the ocean, and only at the very edge of the lawn area, back out of easy sight, were other buildings. The three inns appeared to be alone in their togetherness, if such a thing could make any sense.
“That’s really quite lovely,” Jovvi murmured, her amusement having disappeared some time earlier. “The balance is so perfectly fitting along with the landscape, an artist must have designed the arrangement. But the inn on the right has a large number of people, while the other two can’t have more than staff members present. Do we pay our respects first, or register first?”
