by Sharon Green
Driff nodded and then watched Edmin walk away, wishing all the while that there was some way he could help his Blendingmate. But facing his father was something Edmin had to do alone, and Driff didn't envy him. It would probably be easier to face his own father, an effort Driff had no intention of ever making.
But Edmin had no choice, and as Driff turned toward the large meeting room he wasn't sure he even wanted to know how things went…
Edmin Ruhl, once a lord and the son of a High lord, paused for a moment outside the room he'd been told his father was in. The old man had healed to the point where he was able to leave his bed for a short time every day, and had also begun to make himself unpopular with the serving staff. If the staff had had to obey the old man's demands, half of them probably would have quit by now…
But all those extraneous thoughts were just a way to put off what was necessary, so Edmin squared his shoulders, opened the door, and walked inside. Embisson Ruhl sat in a chair reading a book, and spoke without bothering to look up.
"I thought I made it clear that I wasn't to be disturbed," Edmin's father stated in the inflexible tone Edmin knew so well. "Get your carcass out of my sight, and do it this instant."
"But my carcass isn't in your sight," Edmin couldn't help answering. "You used to be a good deal more precise than that, Father."
Embisson's head came up fast to show a look of shock on his face, but the shock faded almost immediately.
"For the love of - ! Edmin, get that door closed at once! If they find you here, the cell they put you in will be a good deal worse than this miserable room. I don't know how you found me, but you couldn't have arrived at a better time."
"Oh?" Edmin said as he closed the door behind him. "And why is my arrival at this time such a good thing?"
"It's a good thing because I was about to try escaping on my own," Embisson replied in a soft voice, gesturing Edmin closer. "We'll keep our voices down to make sure no one overhears us, but there are things I must know. How do you mean to get me out of here, and what point are the Nolls at? Are they likely to make their coup good before you and I can put our own plans in motion?"
"The Nolls are no longer a threat to anyone but themselves," Edmin answered, stopping in front of his father's chair. "They were allowed to do their best, and then they were all arrested."
"So they failed!" Embisson said with great amusement and deep satisfaction. "It serves them right, and now they'll be sent to join those other failures who dared to call themselves noble. But what did you mean when you said they were 'allowed' to do their best? Who allowed that, and how did you find out about it?"
"The various Blendings running this city knew all about the 'renegades'," Edmin said, more than aware that he avoided the main issues but finding it impossible to do otherwise. "They could have arrested the Nolls at any time, but chose instead to let them make fools of themselves first as an object lesson to anyone else with the same idea. The days of a nobility running things in this empire are over."
"How can you speak such nonsense with a straight face, Edmin?" Embisson demanded, his tone trying to hide the dismay Edmin knew he felt on the inside. "The Nolls were nothing before the troubles, so their proving themselves failures means the same nothing. You and I are a different story, and I'll take a great deal of pleasure in proving that. Now tell me: how did you get in here, and how do you plan to get me out?"
"Obviously it's time we got down to it," Edmin muttered, feeling as well as seeing his father's intense stare. "I got in here without any trouble, because I'm now a member of a rather important Middle Blending."
"Edmin, that's absolute genius!" Embisson breathed, a wide grin quickly appearing on his face. "You've brought me a Blending to work with, and now our success is guaranteed. But how did you find enough of our people to make up a Blending? Were they all actually hiding here in the city?"
"Father, stop and think for a minute," Edmin said earnestly, hating the way things were going. "There aren't any of our people left in the city, and even if there were they would have no idea how to survive without servants to do things for them. Two members of my Blending do happen to have been born into our class, but they earned places for themselves in Astinda before they came back here. They're no more interested in seeing the nobility rise again than I am."
"You can't mean that," Embisson said, shocked horror echoing so strongly that Edmin probably could have felt it even without his talent. "Edmin, we're nobles, and it's the place of nobles to be in charge of the important things in life. If those important things are left for the peasants to see to, this country will fall to absolute ruin."
"This country was about to fall into absolute ruin when control was taken away from you and your friends, Father," Edmin stated, seeing no way out of the need to speak the truth. "Even if things had gone the way they usually did and your pet Blending was Seated, what do you imagine they would have been able to do against the ten Blendings from Astinda looking for vengeance? Ten High Blendings, not the useless Middles you and the others had control of. Do you really think you and the others would have been able to buy the Astindans off?"
"We would have handled the matter, just as we always handled things," Embisson muttered, now staring at the floor rather than at Edmin. "Gold speaks more loudly than talent, Edmin, and those Astindans would have taken our gold just as peasants always have."
"I won't let you conveniently overlook the fact that the Astindans could have taken your gold after you and everyone else was dead," Edmin said, feeling as though he batted his head against a brick wall. "Neither Gan Garee nor anyone in it would have survived the arrival of the Astindans, and all the excuses and blind stubbornness in the world won't change that fact. You have no business being in charge of anything, Father, not when you can't even admit the most obvious of truths. But you'd better accept this truth: you'll never be in charge of anything again."
"Are you really that afraid of me that you've come to warn me away from trying?" Embisson said, raising his gaze to Edmin's face as his arrogance reasserted itself. "You haven't the stomach for fighting the peasants yourself, so you're trying to make sure I don't do anything to embarrass you. Well, your efforts have been as successful as my own efforts to make you a real man. I will escape from this prison room, and I will find a way to take control again. And when I do - "
"Oh, spare me," Edmin interrupted, now more impatient than bothered. "When you make yourself a High Lord again, you'll do this and that and the other thing to make me sorry I 'betrayed' you. All right, Father, I can see it's time I called your bluff. Go ahead and show me all these wonderful things that a real man can do."
"You should know that I never bluff, Edmin," Embisson said with an oily smile. "I only promise, so when I find a way out of here - "
"But that part's already taken care of," Edmin interrupted again. "I'll tell the guards and servants to let you leave any time you care to, so getting out of here is already accomplished. Now tell me what you'll do after that."
"Why, I'll return to my house and gather my forces," Embisson said after a very brief hesitation, his emotions suddenly wavering. "I'm not fool enough to share the plans I've made with a newly adopted peasant, so you'll just have to wait to find out what they are."
"Point one," Edmin said, making sure his expression remained stony. "You no longer have a house to return to, as all property belonging to the former nobility has been confiscated. And even if you did have a house, how would you get to it? A public carriage driver has to be paid, and you don't even have copper, not to mention gold. The lack of gold should also take care of those 'forces' you mentioned, although how you would find anyone to follow you is another good question as well as being point two. The Nolls brought in more than three hundred men, but lost almost half of them as soon as the men had a chance to look around at what the new government is doing. Noll also tried to recruit the discontented, and ended up with less than a handful of incompetents. You expect to do better?"
Embisson sat
frowning at the floor, but nothing in the way of cogent argument was forthcoming.
"Point three is the fact that you aren't able to take care of yourself," Edmin continued inexorably. "Even if you had a house and gold, I doubt if there's a servant in the city who would work for you. You have no gold, you have no place to live, and you have no skill to earn a decent income. No one in this city wants to bring the nobility back, so there isn't even anyone who will follow you. Do all those plans you've made take any of that into consideration?"
Embisson still had no answer, which didn't surprise Edmin in the least. He had no trouble telling that his father's mind now whirled with confusion and dismay, and words were completely beyond the old man.
"If you really are as superior as you claim, you'll eventually find it possible to come to terms with the truth," Edmin said after taking a deep breath. "If and when that time comes, have one of the servants send me word. But don't send for me because you've come up with yet another marvelous plan to take over control of the empire. I've learned that there are more important things in this life than being in charge, and if you're able to accept reality I'll tell you about them. Otherwise I won't waste my breath. I'm glad you weren't killed, Father, I really am."
With that, Edmin turned away from a still-unmoving Embisson and left the room. The time had been just as painful as he'd expected it to be, and although he wanted to believe otherwise he knew he'd be getting no messages from his father. Embisson Ruhl was still trying to find a way to deny the truth, and he probably always would. And chances were he'd never leave that room again…
Edmin was in a dark, depressed mood when he reached the large meeting room where the rest of his Blending were. One of the prisoners stood in front of the five people who were doing the interviewing, and Driff glanced up from where he sat when Edmin walked in.
"All right, we've heard enough," Driff said to the man in front of them. "You can now go to the room designated as room A."
The prisoner turned and headed for the door without a word or gesture to show he meant to acknowledge the order, but Edmin knew that the man would do nothing else. He was being allowed to do nothing else, conditioned almost in the same way that Edmin's father's upbringing had conditioned him…
"Edmin, come and join us," Idresia called from her place beside Driff. "We've only gotten through two interviews so far, and we're trying to decide if we ought to do the interviews individually instead of as a group. If we don't separate, we'll still be here doing the same thing next year."
"But is it right for just one person to decide the fate of these men?" Kail objected as Edmin moved to an empty chair beside Asri and sat. "What if the one interviewing takes a dislike to the man at first sight? Won't that dislike color whatever decision is made?"
"Why can't we compromise?" Edmin asked, overriding the comments made by the others that supported one or another of the points of view. "We can split up into three groups of two, and that way we'll work three times faster but there will be two people making the decisions instead of one."
"Do you all understand now why I said I would wait until I heard Edmin's opinion before I voiced one of my own?" Driff asked the group at large, his face creased into a smile. "Now I can say I support Edmin's suggestion, and I'd like to know if anyone can think of a really good objection to doing things his way."
"Really, Driff, even I support his idea, and I'm for turning thumbs down on all the prisoners," Issini said with a laugh. "But we ought to add that any prisoner our small group can't agree on will be interviewed by everyone together once the rest are taken care of."
"I agree with Issini," Kail said, echoing Asri's similar agreement. "Having us break up into groups of two will be much better than working individually."
"And having three groups working will get the job done faster," Idresia also concurred, apparently paying no attention to Driff as he rose and walked to the door. "I think we ought to get into the groups as soon as we can, possibly even right now."
"There's one more interview that needs to be done first," Driff disagreed as he came back from speaking to the guards in the hall. "And this is one we all need to be in on."
"I know who Driff means, and he's right," Asri said in support before Edmin could ask any questions. "This will be someone we all need to decide about."
Idresia, Issini, and Kail all started to ask who Driff and Asri were talking about, but Edmin thought he already knew. The answer had come almost as soon as the question had formed in his mind, and when the door opened to admit the next prisoner Edmin smiled to himself.
"Jost Feriun," Idresia said flatly as the former guard commander came to stand in front of them. "Yes, we do need to interview this one together."
"And I have the first question all ready," Issini said in a voice flatter and harsher than the one Idresia had used. "Tell us, Feriun, was gold the only reason you allied yourself with the renegade Noll?"
"Certainly not, although the gold played a large part in my decision," Feriun answered at once. The man hadn't been put under control at first, Edmin knew, but that had been taken care of after all the Nolls were in custody. "I decided to support the nobles so that I could finally have the place in life I deserved."
"And what place is that?" Kail asked, leaning forward just a bit where he sat.
"Why, as the man in charge of the empire, of course," Feriun answered without changing expression. "The noble was under the thumb of his wife, and she was too worried about how many servants she had to pay attention to the important things. Once they paid the men to put them into power, then I would have been able to make my own move. Hired men obey their commander without question, and my first order would have been to get rid of all six of the Nolls. Then I would have taught the peasants that they now had a real ruler to contend with."
"A real ruler," Edmin echoed, finding the phrase too close to one his father had used for casual acceptance. "And what do you consider a real ruler?"
"Someone who doesn't coddle the lower orders," Feriun answered with a distant undertone of derision. "That's the mistake the old nobles made, coddling the peasants who outnumbered them. My first command would have been to execute every hundredth man in the city, no matter who that was. Then the peasants would have been told that if they made any trouble, the next time it would be every fiftieth man who was executed. A third incident of trouble would have changed that to every tenth man, and after that the women and children would have been included. I really don't think it would have gotten that far."
"And if it had gotten that far?" Idresia asked while Issini hissed an unintelligible comment. "Would you really have murdered innocent women and children in cold blood?"
"Don't be ridiculous, of course I would have," Feriun said with a harsh laugh. "Why would I care what happened to peasants, especially when I would have already chosen the women I personally wanted? By then I would have brought in a lot of other men to be part of my guard force, so who could have stopped me?"
"Every man and woman in the city would have tried, you utter fool," Issini growled at the man, looking downright murderous herself. "You're obviously too stupid to realize that when people know they have nothing to lose, they often decide to go out with purpose rather than just standing around waiting for the end. At that point you would have had an empty city in the aftermath of a total bloodbath, and giving orders to the dead about running an empire doesn't accomplish much. Is there anyone who still thinks that this … animal deserves to continue living?"
"We still have a final question to ask before we make any decisions," Driff said, echoing Edmin's thoughts. "Tell us, Feriun: is there anything that could make you give up these plans of yours? Is there anything that can make you understand how wrong you are?"
"But I'm not wrong," Feriun answered with a short laugh. "I was born to rule, and giving up my plans would be to turn my back on my destiny. What sense would there be in that?"
"He believes what he just said down to the very center of his being," Edmin t
old Driff with a grimace. "He needs to believe in his destiny the way other men and women need to breathe, and giving up the belief would be to give up all meaning and purpose to his life. He's completely insane, Driff, and as long as he lives he'll never stop trying to get what he thinks is his proper place."
"And I can't find anything physical causing the insanity," Driff said with a sigh. "Some people have an odd imbalance in their body's makeup, and once the imbalance is corrected they're sane again. But this man doesn't have the same thing, so I doubt if he'll ever be sane."
"And if he ever gets free to try again, a lot of innocent people will die," Asri put in. "He'll be stopped again, of course, but those innocent people will still be dead."
"In that case, I don't see that we have any choice," Kail said after taking a deep breath. "I won't be responsible for the death of innocents, so I stand with Issini in this matter."
"And I," Asri and Idresia said at the same time. Under other circumstances the two women might have smiled or laughed over having spoken together, but right now Edmin knew there was no laughter in any of them.
"Putting him down would actually be more of a kindness than a punishment," Edmin said when it was clear that Driff wasn't yet ready to speak. "As long as he remains alive, the man will suffer over not having 'attained his destiny.' The lack will eventually turn him even more insane, especially if he's somewhere he knows he'll never escape from."
"Thank you," Driff said quietly to Edmin, a faint smile of gratitude showing on the man's face. "You knew that I'm the one who has to put him down, so you tried to make the execution easier for me. I appreciate the attempt, and it does make a difference."
"But you don't have to be the one to put him down, Driff," Issini protested. "If the idea bothers you all that much, I can always do it. I really don't mind."