by Sharon Green
*This being feels foolish repeating words already rejected by you, and yet the words must be repeated,* the Jovvi entity sent slowly and clearly. *We come in friendship to aid you as best we may, yet not at the expense of those who are blameless. You may take your vengeance upon those who earned such treatment if you wish, but not upon those who have been victimized far longer and more harshly than you and yours. Should you find this offer impossible to accept, this being will have no choice but to destroy you. Give this being your thoughts, and let all consequences be on your head.*
*It…cannot be true,* the opposing entity all but gasped, shock and confusion clear in its being. *Those in this land are enemies to us, yearning for nothing but our destruction. It cannot be true that our well-being is desired…*
The next happening came horribly fast, and yet the Jovvi entity saw it all with a clarity which made the horror even worse. First an awareness touched in, an awareness of suddenly much clearer vision. Before the Jovvi entity might wonder about the change, she became conscious of the presence of those lesser entities which had spread the hilsom powder among the invaders. Those lesser entities had left their places of hiding and had neared the makeshift camp, and now they had gained the wrong impression. Seeing that the Jovvi entity had not destroyed her opponent, they apparently believed that the Jovvi entity was unable to destroy it. With that in view, they realized their duty at once. If the Jovvi entity lacked the strength to complete her task, it was up to them to assist her.
For that reason the two lesser entities attacked simultaneously, unable to link and yet more than able to attack together. Their combined strength was certainly enough to destroy the now weakened opposing entity, but that could not, under any circumstances, be allowed. There was only one action open to the Jovvi entity, therefore she immediately attempted it. With a wordless cry of *No!* she threw herself before the opposing entity and its flesh forms, shielding them from the attack of her own allies. They were the newest and weakest of the allied entities, after all, and she the strongest…
The Jovvi entity screamed with pain, suddenly realizing that she had been the strongest, before facing the opposing entity. Holding off that being’s attacks had taken its toll, and now the Jovvi entity’s vast store of strength was nearly depleted. There remained just enough to deflect the double attack until the lesser entities realized their mistake, and then—
And then Jovvi came out of the Blending with a scream of her own, turning immediately to Tamma. Before the bond had broken she’d felt Tamma collapse, the effort to deflect those last attacks just too much for the girl to bear. It was Tamma’s strength which defended the Blending, and that strength had been taxed far beyond even her incredible limits.
“No!” Vallant cried, pulling Tamma’s limp body to him and rocking her as he held her close. “No, my love, don’t leave me! You promised, you promised!”
“Lorand, do something!” Jovvi sobbed, despite the fact that Lorand already bent over Tamma. “Please don’t let her die, please! The rest of us—and the Astindans—are alive because of her! We can’t let her die!”
“But the thread of her life is so thin and far away!” Lorand whispered, tragedy twisting his features. “I’m putting everything I have left into it, but I can’t get a good enough grip to pull her back! She needs support to fight her way back, but I don’t have enough left to give it to her! She’s slipping away … I’m losing her…!”
Even as the tears of agony flowed down Jovvi’s face, she suddenly became aware of something … different and powerful. She had no idea what it could be—and then Lorand cried out in sudden delight.
“It’s working!” he told them, his face, too, covered in tears. “There’s something there, helping me pull her back with the strength and support she needs. If it only keeps on for another few minutes, she’ll be out of danger!”
*The effort will continue,* Jovvi heard inside her mind, immediately recognizing the mental tones of the opposing entity. *The flesh form knowingly emptied itself to protect this being’s own flesh forms and existence, enemies though we supposedly were. How might this being allow it to die, and continue to consider itself honorable?*
“You’revery honorable,” Jovvi answered aloud with a laugh of delirious relief. “And we mean to prove that we’rethe same, just as soon as we can all sit down together. We will do all we can to help you bring life back to your land, as we feel responsible even though we weren’t the ones who caused the destruction.”
*The devastation will take years of back-breaking effort to repair,* the opposing entity replied. *With the large number of flesh forms destroyed along with the land, there is but one way it may be done. Let those who are responsible for the thing now be set to repairing it.*
Jovvi exchanged a glance with the others, their expressions telling her that they understood exactly what the entity meant. It was harsh and cruel, but a perfectly fitting punishment to suit the crime.
“We’ll have to discuss how it’s to be done, but we have no objection to your idea,” she said with a sigh.
The entity sent an indication of its satisfaction, and then continued to help Lorand strengthen Tamma. Jovvi simply closed her eyes, wondering if guilt would set in once she’d had enough sleep to turn her human again. The threat of war seemed to be over, but the price of peace would be the enslavement of every member of the former nobility.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
I thought I wanted nothing more to do with this journal, but now that I’ve finally had enough sleep and a few decent meals, I’ve agreed to finish what I began. But I couldn’t have done the parts where I came so close to dying, so it was a good thing Rion rode—or wrote—to my rescue. It was proper that he be the one, as he and I were the two who were most changed after joining the group. In that way he and I have something of a closer bond than the others do, a positive accomplishment we share in that both of us are better people for the change. Or at least I hope I’m a better person than I was…
When I finally woke up, it was to find the entire group clustered around my bed. Every face wore the silliest smile I’d ever seen, but at least no one asked me how I felt.
“Well, now we know why I saw what I did about you,” Naran said instead, her own expression wry. “How much power you were able to handle had only a little to do with it.”
“That last effort drained you too far,” Jovvi amplified when I looked at Naran with confusion. “You were able to shield our former enemy as well as the rest of us from that mistaken attack, but in doing so you were taken right up to the brink of life and death. If the Astindans hadn’t made the effort to help… Well, I’d prefer not to even think about it.”
“None of us wants to think about it,” Lorand said, his arm around Jovvi. “If I’d had to stand there and let you die… I never would have gotten over it, and neither would any of the rest of us. The Astindans saved more lives than just yours.”
“Which is odd, when you consider what they came here to do,” Rion put in, his own arm around Naran. “But you look as though you could use more sleep, just as soon as you eat the food we’ve brought. We can talk about this again once you’remore like your usual self.”
Through the confusion and vagueness surrounding me, the word “food” had no trouble getting my attention. I did feel absolutely hollow, so I ate the meal they’d brought —with Vallant’s arm firmly around me.
The next time I awoke it was the following day, and I finally found it possible to remember everything I should have. I knew Vallant had spent most of the time in the bed next to me, holding my hand, but right now the room held me alone. So I got up and washed and dressed, then wandered downstairs to find something to fill the new hollow nesting in my insides. When some of our people noticed me, I was whisked to the dining room, seated at the table, then stuffed to bursting with what seemed like everything the kitchen must have held. Only when I could barely move did they relent and let me go, telling me that the others were outside overseeing what was going on.
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Since I had no idea about what was going on, I went outside to see what could be taking everyone’s attention so thoroughly. I remember walking out the front door, expecting nothing but the sight of the large and pretty grounds around the house—but found utter chaos instead of peace and quiet. There seemed to be hundreds of people standing around in small groups with guardsmen ranged everywhere to watch them, and most of the people in the groups were hysterical in one way or another.
“I’m almost tempted to feel sorry for them,” Vallant’s voice came, and I turned to see him approaching me from the direction of the stables with a tender smile on his face. “You’relookin’ a lot better, love. Are you sure you’restrong enough to be out here?”
“I was just wondering that myself,” I replied, immediately stepping closer to the arm he was in the midst of putting around me. “I don’t understand what’s happening.”
“We’ve begun to make good on the agreement we have with the Astindans,” he answered, just the flicker of unease in his light and beautiful eyes. “Their country is in ruins because of what our armies did, and too many of their people were killed along with the land. If they have to work to bring the land back alive by themselves, a lot more of their people will end up dyin’ before they’ll be able to do it. That’s why we’ve agreed to let them have the people responsible for their trouble as workers, to use them in the rebuildin’ and get it done that much faster. And in a manner of speakin’, the Astindans are doin’ us a favor by takin’ them.”
“Of course,” I breathed, finally making sense of what I saw. “Those people are our former nobles, and that’s why so many of them are having hysterics and trying to demand their ‘rights.’ But why are they here? Is this the only place anyone can think of to put them?”
“We brought some of the Astindans here as our guests, so it’s as good a place as any,” Jovvi said as she and the others came up in time to hear my question. “We offered to let them use the house to … interview their newest workers, but they decided that the stables would be more fitting. They feel that these people need to get used to the conditions they’ll be working under as quickly as possible, since they aren’t being put under total control. The Astindans are simply making them obey any orders given them by proper authority—meaning someone other than each other—and also making it impossible for them to run away. Aside from that, they’ll be fully aware of what they’ll be made to do.”
“It’s really too bad that Meerk isn’t here to see this,” Lorand said, his gaze moving around the milling crowds. “He would have appreciated the justice of—”
“See here, you people, this is absolutely intolerable!” a high-pitched voice interrupted as the closest group of nobles—about six or seven in number—began to stride toward us. “As you seem to be in charge, you may now tell these—these—ruffianly bullies to step back from their betters and allow us to leave!”
The man wasn’t very old, but from the extra weight he carried and his imperious manner, he must have been somewhat important. Or at least he must have been important at one time…
“You’reright, we are in charge,” Lorand told him, faint annoyance in his voice over having been interrupted. “We’rethe ones who defeated that marvelous noble Blending you fools had Seated—through the usual trickery. But you mentioned something about people who are better… Surely you can’t be referring to yourselves?”
“Of course he means us, you peasant fool!” the woman beside the man snapped, her nose so high in the air it was a good thing for her that it wasn’t raining. “We are important people of quality, and once the proper authorities hear about this, all you criminals will be sent to the mines where you belong! You will release us at once, and then we may say a few words in your defense at your trial. We’ll require carriages or coaches, of course, and—Oh!”
Some of the scattered guardsmen had come over, and the group was abruptly shoved to a stop about six feet away from us. They were all outraged at being treated like that, of course, but Lorand let them know how the rest of us felt about it.
“Since you’ve obviously missed the point, let me spell it out for you,” he said, addressing the two people who had spoken. “Your sort has never been anything but poor quality, and as far as importance goes you’ll never be thought of—or treated that way—again. We and our followers are the new proper authorities in the empire, so you may take it as official that you and your precious group are now about to pay for every criminal act and outrage you’ve ever committed. Your worst failure, of course, is being stupid, but where you’re going that won’t matter. You won’t have to give any orders, just take them, which is really all you’regood for. A lot fewer lives would have been wasted if you and your ilk had been stopped sooner.”
“Wait!” one of the other men in the group protested as the guardsmen began to prod them back toward the place they’d come from. “I don’t know what you mean to do with us, but it can’t possibly be fair! I didn’t do anything to hurt you or the rest of the commoners, so why do I have to suffer along with everyone else? You have to believe that I didn’t do anything!”
“Oh, we do believe it,” Jovvi said, her tone rather dry. “You and quite a lot of your equals never did do anything, which is another point you’ve obviously missed. If you had done something you might have made the situation better, but you chose not to get involved. That’s almost as bad as what your friends did by actively participating, so you can’t complain about having to pay right along with the rest of them. From now on you will do something, but you’ve lost the right to have it be by your own decision.”
That brought out more sputtering and protests, but none of us was interested in listening any longer. We all turned away and walked into the house, then headed for the sitting room where we might have some tea while we talked.
“The Astindans have already started the first group of converted nobles on their way back to Astinda,” Lorand said as we approached the sitting room. “One of their Blendings along with their link groups is in charge, and we arranged a few provision wagons to go along with them. They’remaking the nobles walk, of course, so they’ll be in decent shape for hard work by the time they get to where they’regoing.”
“And we’ve sent our own Blendings along with theirs to search the rest of the empire,” Jovvi added. “Too many of the most prominent nobles—meaning the ones really responsible for what was done—left Gan Garee before all this started, and it would hardly be fair if they weren’t found and sent after their class equals. It would also be foolish on our part to leave them wherever they happen to be, giving them the chance to make trouble once most of the confusion is over and the last of the Astindans has gone home.”
“And now we have to decide what we’re going to do,” Rion said as we began to enter the sitting room. “Master Mohr keeps asking when we expect to move into the palace, as do all the other people he’s brought along with him. They really think we’re—”
Rion’s words broke off abruptly, and with good reason. Five people stood waiting in the sitting room, four of them grouped behind a jolly-looking man of middle years, and of those we were able to see, not one of them was someone we’d met before.
“Who are you people, and what are you doin’ in here?” Vallant demanded as we all came to an abrupt halt, his tone a growl. “And while I’m askin’ questions, how did you get in here?”
“Getting in here wasn’t very difficult, Dom Ro,” the man replied, his smile making him look even friendlier and more … lacking in danger, might be the best way to put it. A frolicking puppy gives you no sense of personal danger even if you don’t like dogs, and that’s very close to the impression the man gave off.
“Unless you’ve been brought by someone we know, you shouldn’t be anywhere near this house,” Lorand said, standing shoulder to shoulder with Vallant and Rion. “We aren’t quite up to accepting strangers as friends yet, so you’d better tell us who got you through all the guards and the rest of our people.”
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“The answer to that is what’s known as a long story,” the man said, his tone and manner now apologetic. “We really do understand the reasons for your disquiet, but we aren’t here to cause harm. It just happens to be time to answer some of the other questions you’ve undoubtedly been asking, so we’ve come to do it. The process will be quite painless, I assure you.”
He beamed around at us as though he were our teacher and we his prized honor students. I joined the others in exchanging perplexed glances, but still didn’t relax my guard. Naran’s expression said she had no idea what was going on, which made things even stranger. Jovvi wore a frown, and after a moment she stirred.
“He believes he’s telling the complete truth,” she said with a small headshake. “The feelings of the others support that, but I can’t imagine what he’s telling the truth about.”
“Oh, certainly you can, Dama Hafford,” he chided gently, but in a humorous way. “For instance, I’m sure you’d like to know how it came to be that your Blending knew about that mistaken attack just before it was launched against the Astindans. By then, Dama Whist should have been too exhausted to function properly.”
That time all of our mouths must have fallen open, judging by what happened to mine. It wasn’t possible for the man to have known about that, not unless … what?
“Please do sit down with us now,” the man coaxed, his amusement gone, with gentle patience and understanding replacing it. “I’m Ristor Ardanis, and to prove you really can trust us, we’ve brought along someone you all ought to know.”
The one person we hadn’t been able to see clearly until then, caused by her standing behind others of the group, stepped forward, and I couldn’t hold back a gasp.
“Warla!” I exclaimed, staring at the girl who had been my companion for so long. “I had no idea where you’d gone … or if you were all right…”
