by Sharon Green
"We had people watching the amphitheater, of course," he answered, only partially distracted from his irate regrets. "You and one of those men were taken away from it in private carriages, and the House insignia were perfectly clear. The other man was put into a wagon with nothing to show who it belonged to, but a female noble questioned the wagon driver rather closely, and my watcher recognized her. Which was a lucky thing, because no one was able to follow the wagon. Or wagons, since Dom Coll and the other lady were taken away in wagons of their own."
"Why wasn't anyone able to follow them?" I asked, aware of the frown I wore. "Most wagons don't move fast enough to suit anyone, since most people end up getting stuck behind them. It should even be possible to follow one on foot."
"Normally you would be right," he agreed with a nod filled with annoyance. "Following a wagon is effortless even if you don't want to follow it—except when a large number of guardsmen stop all traffic to let the carriages of nobles go first. The wagons had already gone past the line of guardsmen, and by the time my people were able to follow, there was no sign of them."
"I'm suddenly furious with myself," I said as an abrupt realization hit me. "If Eltrina Razas was able to have Valiant brought to her, she knows where he was taken. That means she might also know where the others were sent, and I made no effort to question her. Of all the stupid oversights ..."
"No, you're wrong," he said, looking as though the same sort of revelation had struck him as well. "I'm the stupid one, because I was told when Dom Ro was brought to the Razas woman, and I made no effort to find out if the watchers followed the wagon back to where it had come from! Damn! It's too late to send for the men now, but first thing in the morning—!"
He turned and took the stairs two at a time, able to go all the way to the top and beyond because the men with their burdens had already disappeared. A glance back showed that our coach had also left, and the wide door was once again closed tight. That left nothing for me to do but raise my skirts and follow everyone upstairs, although I wouldn't have minded being carried myself. It been a long, tiring day, and was destined to be even longer.
By the time I reached the top of the wide staircase, the only one in sight was Alsin Meerk, striding back in my direction. All around were the shadowed outlines of the bales and crates he'd mentioned, looking faintly ominous in the dimness. At another time I might have felt nervous, at least until I saw Alsin Meerk's expression.
"Dama Domon, I'm so sorry!" he apologized even before he reached me, embarrassed mortification riding him heavily. "I didn't mean to abandon you like that, but finding out that we might not be at a dead end after all—! I usually have better manners than that, and I hope you'll forgive my thoughtlessness."
"If you happen to have a hot cup of tea hidden up here somewhere, I'll probably be willing to forgive quite a lot of things," I returned, adding a smile in an effort to ease his very obvious discomfort. "In fact, if you want the real truth, I'll settle for cold tea and then simply warm it myself."
"No decent host would put an honored guest to the trouble of warming her own tea," he replied with a grin that softened his craggy features almost to the point of attractiveness. "If you'll be so kind as to follow me, I'll show you to where you can sit and enjoy that cup of tea."
His bow and gesture weren't entirely serious, but the courtliness wasn't a complete mockery either. I acknowledged his gesture with a matching nod before going along, wondering where all the comforts he'd mentioned were hidden. The vast floor looked completely filled with all the things warehouses are reputed to be filled with, leaving nothing but narrow aisles here and there among the looming shadows.
"Here we are," he said after leading me all the way to the right and in front of a larger than usual crate. "The 'merchandise' stored up here was carefully made by some of our members, and are works of art that can even stand up to close inspection. This entryway, however, isn't the same, so we keep it locked when it isn't in use."
As he spoke he pushed on the front face of the crate, and it swung silently inward. That made a doorway almost as wide as the one we'd come into the warehouse through, one which showed a good deal more light and warmth beyond it. Alsin gestured me forward with a smile, so I stepped in and looked around while he closed and locked the unusual door behind us.
From where I stood it was possible to see nothing but two long corridors, one stretching straight ahead on my right, and the second doing the same to the left. We stood in a fairly wide entrance area that was lit with lamps, more lamps spaced along the walls of both corridors. There was nothing in the way of decoration to be seen, and in fact the place looked as though it were made of crate facings.
"Your friends were taken that way," Alsin said, pointing up the corridor to the right. "I'll show you where they are on the way to that hot cup of tea, so you won't spend your time wondering."
I appreciated the thoughtfulness of that, once again finding myself surprised that this was the same man who had brought Hat to the residence and then had threatened Lorand. Remembering that, I had a sudden idea.
"You didn't just happen to get involved with Hat, did you?" I said, trying not to sound accusing. "You deliberately did something to make him beholden to you, just to gain access to us."
"The opportunity was much too good to pass up," he admitted, looking a bit shamefaced. "We don't often get access to those who test for High, and the reason for that is another story. When I came across that boy trying to drown his sorrows in drink while gambling away every copper he had, I believed his claim about having a friend who had certainly passed the test. No one else believed him, though, so I had no trouble becoming the one he lost his money to.
It was a good thing I did, too, because he was making every effort to cheat."
"I can't say I'm surprised," I commented, glancing through the occasional doorways we passed on our left. Most of them were empty, but one held Paisin and a group of men seated around a table. We seemed to be in an area of conference rooms, and I wondered if Paisin was in the process of passing on whatever orders Alsin had given him.
"The boy wasn't a particularly nice person," Alsin agreed with a sigh. "He kept muttering things about how Dom Coll had stolen his rightful place, so when his debt to me mounted really high, I was able to order him to a place where he would see all the hopefuls pass by in their coaches on the way to their practicing. That was how he spotted Dom Coll, whom he immediately pointed out to me. I told him I knew the coach driver, which wasn't a lie, and was able to put him in contact with Dom Coll that way. I went along the second time to make a contact of my own, which worked out better than I could have hoped."
"Were you ever able to locate Hat after that farce of a challenge?" I asked, suddenly curious all over again. "Lorand said you weren't able to, but was that the truth?"
"I wish it weren't," he said, frustration clear in the words. "The boy disappeared completely, and I can't help feeling that if I'd located him I'd have some idea about where your missing friends are. I also can't shake the conviction that something is going on that none of us knows about, something the nobility is involved in that they don't want us to know about."
"Lanir said he had no idea where my friends were, but now I'm wondering if that was the truth," I admitted with a sigh. "It might have been possible to force him into telling me what he knew if I'd tried, but now it's much too late even if I wanted to go back to that house."
"He's dead, then?" Alsin asked after a very brief hesitation, obviously trying to be circumspect. "He was the Seated High in Fire magic, but you had no trouble besting him? That alone should be part of the proof we need
"It won't really do you any good," I told him, my head-shake having caused his words to trail off. "Lanir wasn't dead when I left, just burned out. He was no more than a fairly strong Middle, but he knew I was a High. He tried to force himself past a Middle's natural stopping point in an effort to match and defeat me, but ended up burning himself out instead. We
can't really say I bested him, because I never had the chance to."
"But you could have, couldn't you?" he persisted, looking as though he thought furiously. "That should be enough, especially when they promote his first alternate and try to protect the man the way they protected Porvin. A challenge has to be held no later than one week after the man is Seated, and if we spread the word it will be very well attended. We also have enough of our people in positions that will let us enter our own candidate for the challenge, and once their pet loses there won't be anything they can do about it"
"Personally, I'd hate to be that winning candidate," I said, trying to be gentle about bringing him down to earth. "Do I have to tell you what's most likely to happen to the person? They'll be able to insist on seeing to the winner themselves, away from all those witnesses in the audience. At that point they'd be able to do anything to him, possibly even causing a fatal 'accident' after neutralizing him with hilsom powder. Do you really want to throw someone's life away like that?"
"No, you're right of course," he admitted with a deep sigh, his previous enthusiasm dying. "As long as they're still completely in charge of things, someone put into their hands would have no chance at all. It's just that it's now become worse than ever, to accept having them running things when I know for a fact that they don't deserve to. And your friends should be in there."
We'd turned a corner to the left, which, after a few steps, led to a widening of the corridor. Rooms stood closer together in this area, but the doors also stood closed—except for the one at the end, which didn't seem to have a door. The room Alsin had pointed to was on the right, and I opened the door quietly to peek inside.
A number of cots were arranged in a row, six to be precise, and Rion and Valiant Ro lay stretched out on two of them. Naran lay on a third, but the cot had been pushed as close to Rion's as possible, and she held his hand tightly between both of her own. She looked at me and smiled when I put my head in, so I returned the smile and withdrew again.
"I'm sorry I didn't mention this sooner, but I'm afraid you're going to have to find someplace else to put Valiant Ro," I said once I'd closed the door again. "He can't abide small, closed-in spaces with no windows, and if he wakes up in there he'll suffer quite a lot. Is there anything you can do?"
"As a matter of fact, there is," Alsin agreed, nodding as though I'd said nothing unusual. "Dom Ro isn't the only man with a problem like that, and it made no sense to exclude a man from our ranks just because he has an unusual need. One of these rooms is built against a wide access-window, one that hasn't been used since another warehouse was put up really close to this one. The window faces a blank wall, but if necessary someone could climb out of it and shinny down the pulley rope, which was left for precisely that reason. I'll have him moved right away."
We'd been walking toward the room without a door as we talked, and now Alsin moved ahead to enter it first. When I followed I saw a large room containing a number of tables and chairs, with another doorless entry directly opposite the one I stood in. Although there was seating for more, the room only had three small groups of men, seated separately. Some of the men ate and some simply drank whatever was in their cups, and Alsin had walked over to one of the groups. After he spoke to the three men, they nodded and rose and left the room the way we'd just come in.
"They'll take him to the window dormitory right away," Alsin said as he returned to me. "And I always seem to be abandoning you, so I'd better make immediate amends. The tea you wanted is right over here, and it can be joined by a meal if you happen to be hungry."
"Thank you, but I'm not," I answered, letting him guide me to the left to a long counter against the wall. The counter held the largest tea service I'd ever seen, with what looked like fifty cups without saucers. "Are you really expecting that many people to be thirsty during the night, or is that arrangement simply preparation for the morning?"
"A bit of both," he replied with a smile as he reached for one of the cups. "We occasionally have people coming and going at all hours here, so it's easier to keep things ready than to make them ready. Your tea, lady, and the sugar is right over there."
I accepted the cup he'd filled while giving him a nod of thanks, then put sugar into the tea while he poured a cup for himself. My fingertips told me that the tea could stand to be a bit hotter, so when he put his cup down near the sugar I warmed his tea as well as my own. One of the men sitting in the room gasped, and Alsin glanced at him questioningly until he picked up his cup again.
"Ah, now I understand why Gorliss was so surprised and impressed," Alsin said with a chuckle. "You warmed our tea, and since Gorliss is technically on watch, he's touching the power. I hadn't remembered that his aspect is Fire magic, but now there can't be any doubt. I think I'd better introduce you."
Just then the three men who had left abruptly returned, two of them carrying Valiant Ro's still-limp body. The third seemed to be in charge of leading the way, probably to open and close doors. We waited until they passed through the room, then Alsin led the way toward the table where the man Gorliss sat.
"There are no others in the dormitory room he's being taken to, so Dom Ro won't find himself crowded if he awakens early," Alsin murmured as we walked. "There are also special arrangements for food to be brought there, and if you like there's a place for you in the room as well."
"Thank you, but I prefer to stay with my other friends," I replied, not quite able to produce a smile. Then I raised my voice a bit to add, "It should amuse you that your friend Gorliss here seems to be a stronger Middle than the former Seated High in Fire magic: And you can tell him that he needn't hold to the power quite so tightly. I'm saving my strength for any nobles I happen to come across."
That produced chuckling in all the men, especially the one who had been staring at me so intensely. Alsin introduced me to everyone, and the man Gorliss shook his head ruefully.
"I apologize for reactin' like that, ma'am, but you're surely the strongest talent I ever did feel," he said. "There's some who tell me I'm a monster, but my strength compared to yours ..."
He shook his head, and Alsin smiled in the same rueful way.
"I know just what you mean, Gorliss," he admitted. "I used to think I had all the strength there was, and then I watched her friend Dom Coll at work. He made me feel like a Low talent, and he wasn't even straining. When Dama Domon and the others finally get to take their proper place as the Seated Five, no one will have to wonder if they deserve to be there."
The men all agreed with that rather more strongly than I expected them to, and then Alsin excused us and led the way to a table a short distance away. He seated me before settling into his own chair, and then he smiled rather wearily.
"It's been a very long day, so I imagine you're glad to finally have the tea and chair you were promised," he said. "Personally, I'm not tired at all, and if necessary I could just keep on going for another—oh, two or three minutes at least. As long as I spend the time sitting down."
"I don't know if I'm quite that strong," I said with a smile I didn't have to force. "If I didn't need this tea to help me unwind, I'd probably already be asleep. Would you prefer to wait until tomorrow before telling me what your organization is all about?"
"I don't have to be awake to talk about the organization," he said after sipping at his tea. "I know our aims so well, I probably recite them in my sleep as it is. Do you have any idea how hard it is for people to make something of themselves in our society? I'm not talking about people with no ethics or conscience, because people like that always manage to prosper—at the expense of those around them. I'm talking about your average man or woman, ordinary, decent people."
"No, actually, I don't," I admitted, sipping at my own tea. "My parents are the sort you mentioned first, without ethics or conscience, and so are all their friends and acquaintances. Why is it so hard for decent people to get ahead?"
"The nobility is why," he responded, bitterness creeping into his
voice. "Everyone gets a basic education because the schools teach obedience as well as restraint in using one's talent, but in order to go beyond the basics, you have to have a 'sponsor.' The sponsor must be a member of the nobility, but you don't even get to see him. You simply make your payment to his agent, the higher the payment, the higher up on the list your name goes. After that you're allowed to pay through the nose for the education itself— and then just try to find a job where you can use what you learned."
"What about those who don't want a higher education?" I asked, only just beginning to understand how really sheltered I'd been. "There's nothing wrong with opening a shop or providing a service, and a lot of people seem to have done just that."
"No, a lot of people do it for various members of the nobility," Alsin corrected gently, leaning forward to put his forearms on the table. "Not one man or woman in ten owns his or her own business. What they do is buy a license from the noble in charge of their section of the city, then they pay three-quarters of what their business earns to its real owner. All expenses are paid out of their end, and they're allowed to live on whatever's left."
"That's outrageous," I stated, beginning to get angry. "No wonder they're all so rich without having to lift a finger. But why do people stand for it? Why don't they leave the city and move elsewhere so they can live better?"
"Where would you suggest they go?" he asked, smiling without amusement. "There isn't a single part of this empire that the nobles don't own, even if most of the time they live here. They have agents Jo represent them everywhere, so they don't have to be on the spot to collect their gold. We might as well have brands on our shoulders and steel collars welded closed around our necks. We're slaves to them in everything but name."
"It's not supposed to be like that," I said with a shake of my head, the agitation growing. "I know there was a time when the nobles didn't own everything, and we need to bring that time back again. What are you doing to make it happen?"