Destiny

by Sharon Green

  And then another, larger, entity suddenly confronted it. The new entity was barely older than the probing entity, yet it seemed much more complete in some way.

  -Your presence and efforts here are contrary to the well-being of the majority,- the new entity informed the probing entity. -The touching of the unsuspecting is not to be allowed, therefore are you to withdraw to your own flesh forms and retire from the scene.-

  The entity had been inspecting the newcomer as it spoke, surprised and pleased to discover that the newcomer seemed less than the probing entity despite the newcomer's air of superiority. The newcomer's Spirit magic segment was so faint that the lack was actually visible, giving the newcomer an unbalanced appearance. The entity had experienced faint trepidation at the sudden appearance of the newcomer, yet now full confidence returned.

  -Were you this entity's superior, it might well be necessary to retire,- the entity informed the newcomer. -You, however, are clearly inferior to this entity, therefore are you the one who must retire. Should you refuse, there will be battle between us that you have no hope of winning.-

  -This entity has no wish to cause harm, yet is this entity willing to do so should it be necessary,- the newcomer replied. -You are small and weak and incomplete, and therefore is it you who has no chance at victory. Retire now, and all may be seen to without pain.-

  -My purpose must be attained,- the entity responded, and then it struck at the foolish newcomer. An entity as weak and unbalanced as the newcomer should have gone down immediately in the face of the unexpected attack, and yet the newcomer did not. Not all of the strength the entity had wished to use had been present in the attack, a matter the entity had no true understanding of. That, however, was the least of its lack of understanding.

  Even with the lessened strength in the attack, the newcomer should have been staggered if not driven back. Instead the newcomer held its place with what seemed like very little effort, and then an answering attack struck the entity. Its defenses should have been adequate, yet just as its attack had been less than was intended, so was the defense now erected. The entity staggered before it was forced back, and then -

  And then it was Honrita, screaming in pain just as almost all of the others were doing. Arbon simply moaned where he lay, but his satisfaction was so thick that Honrita was able to feel it without the least effort.

  "You traitor!" Honrita shrieked, kicking Arbon with all the meager physical strength left to her. "I don't know how you betrayed me, but you won't get away with it! You're going to die now, and next time we'll have a decent Fire magic user! Kadri! Kill this monster!"

  The satisfaction in Arbon faded when Kadri looked at him, the emotion coming to Honrita instead. She would watch Arbon die in great pain, and once they rid themselves of his body they would return to their house. After they'd rested they would find another Fire magic user, and then -

  "Honrita, I can't reach him!" Kadri suddenly blurted, heavy distress in her voice and mind. "I'm trying hard, I really am, but I just can't reach him!"

  -None of you will find it possible to use your ability,- a voice said in Honrita's head, frightening her so badly that her blood turned to ice. -Your mind-sick efforts are now at an end, and will not be resumed again.-

  Honrita screamed aloud at what she'd been told, refusing to believe that the perfect plan had not been allowed to work. She would try again, as soon as she got some rest, but then there were uncounted numbers of guardsmen around the coach and opening the doors, and hands grabbed her and she screamed and screamed and screamed -

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  "I think we all owe Edmin a large vote of thanks," Driff said into the insanity of gladness that he and his Blendingmates shared in the palace meeting room. "If he hadn't been using his 'I'm so weak' trick, that other entity might not have attacked us. If it hadn't, we would have had nothing to charge those people with beyond 'touching' someone. Proving they were touching with ill intent would have been almost impossible."

  "I think that entity knew how unfinished and badly balanced it was, but wasn't being allowed to acknowledge its lacks," Edmin said with a smile when the others really did thank him. "The woman Spirit magic user was so twisted that she actually dominated the Blending to the point that their entity shared her madness-induced blindness. And the guardsmen are bringing them all in here right now…"

  Driff turned toward the door just as the others did, and sure enough it opened to allow the guardsmen to usher in the five people that had been found in the coach. Three of the five were babbling or shouting in utter confusion, which was perfectly understandable. Before they'd dissolved their Blending, Driff and his Blendingmates had freed the people Honrita Grohl had had under her control.

  "Arbon!" Idresia exclaimed as she moved toward a man who looked tired but delighted. "You wonderful, talented man! How did you manage to hold back during that attack and the defense afterward when you were under complete control?"

  "Idresia, it's good to see you again," the man called Arbon responded with a warm smile. "And to answer your question, I'm not completely sure how I managed the trick. I only know that I was so totally opposed to being a part of that woman's insane plan that she wasn't able to control my inner mind. I suppose I used my stubbornness to fight her, that same stubbornness that most people think so little of."

  "The stubbornness we were both yelled at for showing," Idresia agreed with a laugh as she touched the man's arm. "Once you're back to your teaching job, you're going to have to add that trick to what you teach other Fire magic users. We'll all do what we can to keep Spirit magic users from betraying their talent the way this one did, but having Fire magic users able to resist anyone who gets around our safeguards will help enormously."

  "It certainly will," Driff said with his own smile as he joined the small group. "Since attack and defense is in the Fire magic user's province, any future attempted coup should be stopped before it starts. But let's get those other people calmed and out of here. They need to go home to the people worrying about them, and then we'll have time for a visit."

  Idresia and Arbon nodded, so Driff turned away toward the other three victims of madness. The heavy woman and other man now stood quietly, which showed that Edmin had already done his part. Edmin himself stood and talked to the thin woman, and despite an odd expression on her face she nodded her head slowly.

  "Well, now that you're no longer involved in someone else's plots, you're free to leave," Driff said to the two people who stood looking at him. "But first I need to ask you a question. Holdis Ayl wasn't in the coach with you, and we found no trace of him in the area where the coach had stopped. Can you tell me where the man went?"

  "We haven't seen that horrible man in days," the heavy woman responded, a faint disturbance behind her haughty words. "The Grohl woman threw him out, and then made sure he couldn't follow us to the new house. We don't know where Ayl is and I, for one, don't want to know. May I go home now?"

  "Some of the guardsmen will escort you back to where you belong," Driff said, gesturing toward the door. "You're free to leave any time you wish."

  The heavy woman nodded once and then headed for the door, and after a brief hesitation the man followed her. He seemed vaguely disturbed about something, and Driff made a mental note to have someone with Spirit magic visit the victims in a day or two. They might have problems they would find it difficult to get over, and there was also the reason they were chosen by Ayl in the first place. Lack of stability might be one of the things Ayl had looked for in addition to strength of talent…

  "Thank you," Driff heard the thin woman say, and then she was also heading for the door. Her words had been addressed to Edmin, who stood watching her leave with a heavy sense of satisfaction.

  "What was that all about?" Driff asked Edmin once the woman was gone. "What was she thanking you for?"

  "Well, I asked her if she was content to simply go back to the life she left," Edmin replied, showing an odd smile. "I asked in the first place becaus
e I had the impression she wasn't, and that turned out to be true. Her father uses her and the rest of his family as slaves to his whims, but she didn't know how to free herself. I helped her out with that, and now she'll be able to leave home and live on her own. I also promised to see what we could do to free her sisters."

  "I think we're going to have to interview everyone in this city to find all the petty tyrants and bullies and advantage-takers," Driff said with a sigh. "The first step will be for those of us who are obviously stable to check on the members of all Blendings, and then we can use the Blending entities to do the interviews. Even the entities of Low Blendings ought to be able to accomplish the interviews, so hopefully the project won't take forever."

  "But it's a very necessary step," Issini said as she came over to join Driff and Edmin. "People with serious personal problems have no business being in charge of children, even if the children are their own. We don't need any more twisted individuals that have to be coped with, and we'll need to talk to the Seated Blending as soon as they get back - and it's safe for them to be here because we've solved the problem holding the Highs."

  "Speaking of twisted individuals, what are we going to do with the one we have at the moment?" Driff said, turning to study Honrita Grohl where she stood with her hands clasped and a resolute expression on her face. "I don't need Spirit magic to know that she still believes she has a chance to make her plans work."

  "Yes, you're right," Edmin confirmed with his own sigh. "She's completely determined to accomplish what she set out to do, and I have no idea how to change her mind. I think that I really must enroll in one of those classes at the first opportunity. I should be able to do something for the woman, but I don't know where to begin."

  Driff parted his lips to answer, but a sudden flurry of shouts out in the hall distracted him and the others. Whatever was causing the noise sounded serious, and Driff headed for the door with the sinking feeling that even more trouble had found them…

  We discovered that mind-traveling was really rather tiring, so after telling Arinna and Pagin Holter that we'd just visited Liandia we went back to our house to rest. We were chuckling over the reaction we'd gotten from Arinna and Pagin, a kind of open-mouthed shock and awe that quickly changed to the realization that they would soon be able to do the same thing. They'd run off screaming for their Blendingmates, leaving the freeing of the invader slaves to the rest of the Blending members.

  "Holter's Blendingmates aren't the only ones babbling about what's been happening to us," Lorand observed after we were all sitting down with cups of tea. "Apparently the word's been spreading like a fire deliberately started by Tamrissa, and all of our people are jumping up and down like children on Feast days."

  "But I noticed that the Gracelian Blendings aren't as down-in-the-mouth as I would have expected," Jovvi observed with a thoughtful look. "Considering the fact that it will be a while before they can follow after us, I wonder why that is."

  "I would guess that they're not despondent because some of the members of my link groups spoke to them," Naran put in with a smile. "My link group people have apparently Seen the very strong possibility that some of our people with Sight magic will be visiting here in the near future. Making the innocent people in this country wait years before they can be complete Blendings would be in no one's best interest."

  "That's very true, and I'm relieved to hear about it," Jovvi said with one of her beautiful smiles. "If the Gracelians had to wait years, many of them would be nursing more grudges against us than against their own people for 'putting down the useless.' And if they weren't consumed by a reasonless urge to 'get even,' their envy would probably be at least as bad if not worse."

  "Which means we may actually avoid a war with this country," I put in, enjoying the idea. "If it ever comes to war we'll have to help out even if we're not the Seated Blending, and if I never come back to this place I won't miss it for a minute. What I want more than anything right now is to go home."

  "Not without me," Vallant said with a smile, beating the others to similar comments by only an instant. "But we'll be goin' home really soon now, so we can start lookin' forward to bein' there."

  "I think I'll first start looking forward to making dinner," Rion said as he rose to his feet with his teacup still in his hand. "I've been looking forward to going to bed, but since we have to eat first we might as well do it in as tasty a way as possible."

  "If you need any help, just let us know," Lorand said to Rion's retreating back without moving from where he lounged on his sleeping pad. "If not, you'll find us right here when the food is ready."

  I leaned back myself then, finding that I was too tired even to think about what our next experiment ought to be. There was so much it might be possible to do, but before we could do any of it we'd first have to think about it all in detail. If we missed something, there was a good chance we'd never stumble across the missing item by accident…

  No one seemed very interested in conversation, and I nearly dozed off before Rion turned to announce that dinner was ready. Considering the fact that he'd cooked the meal in the room's fireplace, the formal announcement of dinner was almost amusing. I thought about laughing, then decided that I was too tired to make the effort.

  The meal was only a quick stew with some bread, but it filled the hole inside me and increased my sleepiness. Vallant and Lorand volunteered to clean up after the meal, which made Jovvi, Naran, and me love them even more. I saw Jovvi take off her boots and settle down alone just as I was doing, Naran snuggling up to Rion as she closed her eyes, and then… sleep…

  There are times when you know that you've slept longer than just a few hours, and when I woke up I knew it was one of those times. I felt much too well rested for an ordinary night's sleep, but I also felt lazy. I didn't want to sleep anymore, but enjoying the comfort of the bed was something else again. It really was so comfortable -

  "Bed?" I suddenly said out loud, my eyes opening instantly with the word. "How can I be in a bed? And why is it so dim in here when there aren't any curtains on the windows?"

  That was when I took a closer look at my surroundings, and for a moment I was certain I had to be in the midst of a dream. The dim room did have curtains as well as drapes on its windows, and it was very familiar for an excellent reason. Somehow I was back in my own house, in bed in my own bedchamber.

  "But that can't be," I said in a very reasonable voice as I sat up to look around even more. "I'm in Gracely right now, and I only want to be home. Flashing to Liandia is one thing; going all the way back to Gan Garee just isn't possible."

  I agreed completely with that summation, but my surroundings refused to cooperate. They kept insisting that I was back in my house, and even standing up and walking to the door didn't change matters. I opened the door, peeked out into a dim sitting room, then closed the door again to lean on it with one arm and my forehead. I'd stubbed my toe on the way to the door, and the faint throbbing in my foot was as disturbing as the solidity of the door I leaned on.

  "So what do I do now?" I asked the air with a sigh as I straightened again. "I suppose I have to go back to that little house where the others are, and soon enough to keep them from getting frantic. But it would be really nice if I could bathe and change into clean clothes first. That would make me feel better, and might even convince them all that I wasn't simply imagining things."

  I really didn't like the idea that I'd transported myself in my sleep, but that was a worry best left for another time. The first thing to do was get a clean outfit to wear, and then heat the water in the bathing house. I walked to the wardrobe and opened one door, then opened the other even as I remembered: all my clothes had been moved to the palace, and not even an old, worn outfit was left.

  "Rot," I muttered, knowing I had a choice to make. Either I went back just as I was, or I took a quick trip to the palace to do my bathing and changing. I really didn't want to go back as I was, not when there was an opportunity for a real bath so close to
hand. That meant I had no real choice at all, but at least there was no need to waste a lot of time. I sent my new vision into my wing of the palace, found it empty, then moved myself there.

  Moving from place to place so easily was still a bit startling, but it was even more satisfying. I'd put myself in my bedchamber, so it took only a minute or two to get out clean clothes, which I then carried to the bathing room. The water in the bath was both clean and hot, and the hardest part of the bath was keeping it from lasting for hours.

  But I did let myself soak for a short time, and while I did an odd thought came. Wilant Gorl and his Blendingmates were sitting in for us, so they should have been occupying the various wings. We'd all agreed that if they had to do the work, the least they were entitled to was a few of the pleasures. Having servants around to do things for you was more than nice, but I hadn't seen any sign of the servants who should have been in the wing. And my bedchamber had looked as though no one had used it for quite some time…

  "All of which means I really do need to take a quick look around before I go back," I murmured as I finished dressing. "If there's a problem, it might not be able to wait for us to get back here in the ordinary way."

  That decision carried me out of the bathing room and into the corridor that led out of the wing and into the public part of the palace. There was no sign of a servant until I reached that public area, and then I was stared at with the man's mouth hanging open.

  Surprise, surprise, I thought as I walked toward the gaping servant. Now, how am I going to explain where I came from…?

  Deslen Voyt felt as if he were strutting even when standing still. He'd finished his training class and then expected to be put out in the streets as a guardsman, but instead had been assigned to the palace. Since everyone seemed to know his origins as one of the renegade's men, the amount of trust in him showed by his placement in the palace was both incredibly encouraging and horribly daunting. No matter what happened, Deslen knew he had to prove himself worthy of that trust. Even though it did make him want to strut…