by Sharon Green
His words broke off abruptly, as though he couldn’t bring himself to speak about such private thoughts, but then he shook his head almost savagely.
“Every time I close my eyes I can see myself walkin’ up to that woman,” he continued tonelessly. “First I give her a good shakin’ for the way she’s been behavin’, and then I take the kiss her dagger stare swears I’ll never have again. I want to do those things, I really do, but something deep inside won’t let me. So much of me has already died all the times she ended things between us, that one more time could finish me completely. I suppose once all the trouble is over it won’t matter, but for right now…”
Lorand tried to think of something helpful to say when Vallant’s words trailed off in another sigh, but the problem was one he could understand all too clearly. When he’d thought he’d lost Jovvi the world and its doings had turned dull and pointless, and so had his entire life. Going on alone had been something he simply hadn’t been able to picture, but he’d been lucky in that Jovvi had felt exactly the same. If she ever changed her mind about that… No, Lorand could understand just how Vallant felt.
They stood in the silence of a peaceful night for a few minutes, and then they began to walk toward the house. Not a single glimmer of light showed in any of the windows, which was exactly the way it was supposed to be. Their refuge ought to do them for the short time they would be using it, the time between now and when they faced the Seated Five. Which would not be all that long, as they’d decided unanimously on what their stance had to be:
If the Five didn’t come looking for them, they would have to go looking for the Five…
* * *
The meal our people managed to put together wasn’t at all bad, not after what we’d learned to eat while on the road. I swallowed down my portion of it with satisfaction, then took one of my link groups on a tour of the house’s bedchambers. We were on a hunt for clothes we might wear, while my second link group saw to making the water in the bath house usable.
“If you don’t mind the company, I’ll come on the ‘tour’ with you,” Jovvi said when I told her what we were off to do. “If I just sit around, I’ll start worrying about what’s ahead of us and won’t get any sleep tonight.”
“You know you’rewelcome,” I told her with a smile, then stopped her from reaching for a lamp. “No, don’t take that, not when we won’t need it. Not all of the bedchambers have had their windows covered yet, so we’ll be using very small, shielded glows to light our way. That’s why we Fire magic users are doing this, remember?”
“Since I lied and have already started to worry, I’m lucky I can remember my name,” she answered ruefully. “But I did ask Naran if she wanted to come with us, and she just smiled and shook her head. I have the feeling she already knows what we’ll find, and hasn’t said anything because she doesn’t want to spoil the surprise for us. As useful as it is, I don’t believe I’d enjoy having a talent like hers.”
“If I had it, I’d probably end up with everyone hating me,” I said in agreement as we began to walk toward the front hall and its grand staircase. “Naran never says anything about what she sees unless there’s danger for someone, but I’d probably sound off at every opportunity. Like, ‘Don’t sit there, someone’s going to spill something on your skirt,’ or ‘Don’t bother taking that rain shield, you’re still going to get wet in the rain.’”
“I know what you mean, and I’m sure I’d be the same,” she said with a chuckle. “The only reason Naran isn’t, I’m sure, is because of the circumstances of her childhood. You and I learned to use ordinary talents from childhood, and if someone ‘caught’ us using them they would probably have been no more than annoyed. With her talent, though… She learned not to let anyone know what was going on with her.”
“But in a way that does match us,” I said, glancing at Jovvi thoughtfully. “I had to hide most of what I was able to do, and from what you’ve said you had to do the same. All of us, in fact, pretended to be less than what we were, even the men. Lorand and Vallant had the best of it, I think, but even they played down their abilities.”
“Yes, that’s true,” she said, and I glanced at her to see that she regarded me with an odd expression. “Forgive me for changing the subject, but I couldn’t help noticing that you called Vallant Vallant instead of Vallant Ro. The only other time you did that was when you and he were … more friendly than not, shall we say? I wasn’t aware that things had changed between you two.”
“That’s because they haven’t,” I said comfortably as I raised my skirts in order to climb the staircase. “If anything has changed, it’s the way I’m now looking at things. I wondered why that was, and I finally figured out one cause at least: all that horseback riding we’ve been doing.”
“Ah,” she said as she climbed beside me, her smile clear in the light of the glow floating in the air ahead of us. “I think I understand what you mean. The strength of your talent and its unfettered use started the process, but didn’t do anything to free you from dependence on other people. Now that you’ve learned to ride a horse, you no longer need someone else to take you from place to place. Even if your back still aches, the freedom you’ve achieved is worth the ache.”
“It certainly would be, but I don’t even ache any longer,” I said with something of a grin. “I’ve even learned how to saddle my horse, and although I prefer having someone else do it for me, I can do it if necessary. Now if I can just learn to cook, the process ought to be complete.”
“And Vallant doesn’t enter into that anywhere?” she asked, no longer as hesitant as she’d been. “I’m relieved that I no longer have to shield myself from your agitation, but does that mean you’ve given up on him entirely?”
“Actually, it means I’ve stopped worrying about it,” I said, directing her to the right at the top of the staircase. “All that agitation you mentioned came from the fact that I didn’t know what to do about Vallant, and that I felt I had to do something. It finally came to me that he’s the one who has to do the something, and he’s the only one who can. If I’m the one who does it instead, I’ll never be absolutely sure of him. And I have to be sure, at least that much hasn’t changed. When you get down to it, I’d rather be alone than uncertain.”
“Not everyone would agree with that, but I certainly do,” she said, pausing in front of the first door on the left. “I used to think that sharing a man’s attention was nothing to get excited about, but that was before I met Lorand. Sharing him with you and Naran isn’t really sharing him, not when all of us are so close in that very special way. But if he ever went to another woman… Well, I could never hate him, but the hurt would be so great that our love would never be the same again.”
“That’s exactly the way he feels about you and other men,” I said with amusement as I led the way into the first bedchamber. “It was the point you weren’t able to understand, but maybe that was because he didn’t voice his thoughts as clearly.”
“And now he doesn’t have to, because I’m ruined as a courtesan,” she said with a small laugh. “Every client I had would have to measure up to our three brothers, and I know none of them would be able to. It seems to be a good thing that we have an alternate career choice—if we live.”
“If we don’t live, we won’t need any other careers,” I pointed out. “I’m not as frightened about that as most people are because I learned an important truth a long time ago. The idea of death is frightening, but there certainly are things which are a good deal worse. With some of those things as alternatives, death becomes a friendly, easy means of escape.”
She nodded in agreement, then turned to the wardrobe we’d found in the corner of the bedchamber. The glow I used let us see the men’s clothing hung inside, clothing that was a bit too large in the waist and narrow in the shoulders for most of our people. But someone would surely be able to make do with it, so we took two shirts and two pairs of trousers for trying on purposes, then left to look into the next bedchamber. We
got as far as the next door, when Jovvi stopped short and seemed to be listening.
“Ah, it’s Alsin arriving,” she said, obviously pulling her senses back to where we stood. “He not only has someone with him, he’s rather excited about something. We’d better go down and find out what that is.”
I felt the least bit of reluctance over that, but there was nothing to do but agree and go with her. Alsin Meerk had been working very hard to make things easier for me, and what bothered me most was that he’d accomplished his aim. Every time he did something nice I found him just a little bit more attractive, and that was much more frightening than death. Complications in life usually are, which, to my regret, I was certainly finding out…
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
“Alsin Meerk has gotten here,” Vallant heard Lorand say, a general announcement to whoever happened to be in the room. “One of the Spirit magic users just told me that.”
“Good,” Rion said from the couch where he sat beside Naran. “Now maybe we’ll find out what’s going on in the city. I can’t ever remember seeing it like this.”
“Surely we don’t all need to find out,” Naran said, pausing an instant before getting up. “There are still so many things to do in this house, and we’ve been sitting around not doing any of them. Rion, my love, if you and Vallant would be kind enough to help me, we ought to be able to get to bed at a reasonable hour…”
“I’m sorry, Naran, but hearin’ what Meerk has to say is somethin’ I have to do,” Vallant said as Rion belatedly began to agree with his woman. “After all, I can’t do much plannin’ if I don’t know what’s goin’ on. I’m sure you can understand that.”
“Yes, I’m afraid I can,” Naran responded with a sigh, a reaction that was odd enough to have taken Vallant’s attention—at another time. Right now there were too many other things screaming around in his mind, including the question of what would happen when the Seated Five knew for certain that they were back in the city. With the help of Naran’s talent they’d been able to avoid the rest of the traps along the road between Colling Green and Gan Garee, but as of right now just about anything could happen…
Vallant went to get himself another cup of tea from the kitchen, and by the time he returned with it to the dimly lit sitting room Meerk had come in. Jovvi and Tamrissa, who had both been upstairs searching for usable clothing, had also come into the room, and the very important jobs that Naran had spoken about earlier hadn’t taken her or Rion away yet. Some of the link group members were also in the large, plushly furnished room, as was a tall, thin, nervous-looking stranger. The man stood close to Meerk, so it was likely that the two had arrived together.
“All right, now your audience is complete, Alsin,” Lorand said to Meerk when he saw Vallant walk in. “Tell us what’s been going on.”
“Apparently a lot more than that Guild man Mohr told us about,” Meerk responded, looking around at the others as Vallant found a place to sit. “Biblow here has been filling me in, and I’m finding it hard to believe him. This house is empty now—along with a lot of others—because the noble it belongs to can’t take care of it without servants. They no longer have servants because all of them have quit, and those who have been paying their income over to the nobles aren’t doing that any more either.”
“The monies are now being used to support the former servants while they build themselves houses and find different means to support their families,” the man Biblow put in all on a single breath, obviously finding it impossible to keep silent any longer. “As I told Alsin, I never expected to live long enough to see any of this. The primary reason the people have been able to do this is because most of the guard force was sent out of the city to search for your group, and none of them have returned. Have you really come back to challenge the usurpers?”
“That part of the story circulated along with the truth about the competition,” Meerk said with a nod. “Mohr was right about how far the word would spread, and there has even been talk about storming the palace. But every time someone suggests doing that, there are two or three people in the crowd who point out that none of them would stand a chance against the usurpers. Mohr’s organization is doing everything he said it would.”
“And thereby saving lives,” Lorand said with his own nod of approval. “Considering what those five have already done, killing half the people in this city would bother them not at all. Is there any chance they’ll come out and face us if we send in a public challenge?”
“Well, of course they would,” Tamrissa said with a sound of scorn, her words made of sarcasm. “But only if they can face us the way they did the first time, with a victory guaranteed to them by cheating. If they ever do come out to face us, we’ll know they have something up their sleeves.”
“Right now all they seem to have up their sleeves is their arms,” Meerk said with a smile for Tamrissa that Vallant didn’t particularly care for. “Things haven’t been going at all well for them, not since their most influential and effective supporters in the nobility began to die or disappear. Some of our people are still working in the palace as servants, and there’s talk of some sort of … sickness or something which hit most of the Five. It seems to be under control now, but for a while they were in a lot of pain and none of the physicians was able to do anything about it. And even beyond that, the power in the group has shifted and there’s even public disagreement among them.”
“Power in the group?” Jovvi echoed, her brows somewhat raised. “That has to mean one or more of them wants to be in total control. A Blending doesn’t do very well under those circumstances, when hidden—or not very hidden—resentments interfere with the necessary bonding. Resentment is a lot stronger emotion than many people realize, and it can even be more destructive to cooperation than actual hatred.”
“I don’t doubt it, but what I’d like to hear about is that sickness you mentioned,” Lorand said, looking thoughtful. “Do you have any details about it?”
“We were told that four of the Five fell victim to it,” Biblow answered in the rush he apparently used as a usual way of talking. “It happened some hours after they had a private feast, and the one who wasn’t affected was the one who had been making a habit of eating gruel instead of food. That night he didn’t eat anything at all, so when the others fell ill he was available to look them over. Luckily for them he’s the Earth magic member, and he was able to pull most of them out of it. He didn’t have the same sort of success with the Spirit magic member, though, not for some time. He gave them all something to drink, and then he sent a message to the Fire magic member about not giving him something to drink if he didn’t appear immediately at a meeting.”
“So that’s what the power struggle is all about,” Lorand said with a nod. “My guess would be that the Spirit magic member ran things, and the Earth magic member took the first opportunity to change that. The Fire magic member tried to make a change of his or her own, but the Earth magic member still has the upper hand. That means they didn’t fall to a sickness, but were probably poisoned. And if they’restill being given something to counteract the poison, they’rein more trouble than they may know.”
“Poisoned?” Meerk and his friend Biblow echoed together, both very surprised. Then Meerk continued alone, “It isn’t supposed to be possible to poison a Blending, not without them noticing. And what did you mean when you said they’rein more trouble than they may know?”
“There was a poison specialist living in our district when I was younger,” Lorand replied, his headshake solemn. “The man had retired to a farm after living and working in Gan Garee, but it was a very small farm and he didn’t actually work it himself. He would hire workers every now and then when something had to be done, and I wanted a bit more silver than my father was paying me. So I was one of the workers he hired, but after the first time I wasn’t paid in silver. He started to teach me about his specialty in return for the work I did, and that was worth more than the silver.”
“But I s
till don’t understand how a poison can get past an Earth magic user,” Meerk protested, sounding really disturbed. “I’m just a Middle, but even I can tell if there’s something in food that shouldn’t be there.”
“There’s a small class of poisons which have the nasty habit of … disguising their presence behind food,” Lorand said, his voice now distant with memory. “Even a High talent would have trouble noticing one of them, unless the poison was put in something as uncomplicated as … plain water, say. Even in a dish with nothing more than a cheese sauce, it would be almost impossible to discern.”
“Almost impossible,” Jovvi repeated, staring at him. “Could you tell it was there?”
“Yes, but only because I learned the structure of the poisons themselves,” Lorand replied after taking her hand. “Once you study them for a while, you also learn to recognize the … very tiny turbulence their presence causes in normal food. For someone who hasn’t studied them, it’s highly unlikely that they’d notice anything until it was too late.”
“So it was probably pure luck which saved the Earth magic member,” Meerk mused, also staring at Lorand. “But you still haven’t said why they would be in so much trouble.”
“It’s because they’recontinuing to take something to counteract the poison,” Lorand explained. “An antidote only has to be taken once, but a temporary neutralizer needs to be taken on a regular basis—until it doesn’t work any longer. The amount of time varies from poison to poison, but they all end the same way by killing the one or ones who ingested it.”
“Then all our problems are solved!” Meerk exclaimed, suddenly in a joyous mood. “Instead of you needing to draw the Five out and being forced to face them, we can just sit back and wait for most of them to die. If only the Earth magic member is left, how much trouble can he be all by himself? Time alone will solve the problem, and none of you has to be risked.”
