by Sharon Green
"What she was really trying to say was probably something against Ebro," Lodria agreed with a shudder, her eyes closed against a sight that wasn't actually before her. "He arranged things so that the girl would choke to death if she tried to speak out, but she tried anyway. Why would she do something that was nothing less than committing suicide?"
"I can only guess, and would really rather not know the complete answer," Antrie said with a sigh as she sat at her desk again. "It's fairly obvious that whatever Ebro Syant did to her, death was more acceptable than going through it again. And there's a good chance that he forced the rest of his Blending to help him. If he hadn't, there would have been no real reason for him to silence them as well."
"Exalted One, you have to do something about this," Lodria suddenly found herself begging, fear making her voice tremble as she reverted to the formality Antrie never required in private. "When I brought that man a drink this afternoon, he … looked at me. If he decides to claim another girl…"
Lodria couldn't complete the thought, but Antrie's grim expression said she didn't have to.
"Yes, something definitely has to be done, but we need proof rather than speculation," Antrie agreed with a brusque nod. "We have to be able to give the assembly details of what was done, and the only ones who can do that are the members of Syant's former Blending."
"But how can they do that?" Lodria objected as Antrie rose again to walk to a bell cord and pull it. "If they try to speak, they'll die the way that girl did."
"Not if they're freed first," Antrie countered, now walking toward the study's door. "You stay here for now, Lodria, and once my Blending and I have gone you can leave without notice as usual. I'll let you know what happens as soon as possible. And thank you for being bright enough to see through Syant's disguise."
Lodria watched the woman smile before leaving the room and closing the door behind herself. Lodria had twisted around to watch Antrie leave, and now she straightened again to slump in the chair. Antrie had promised to tell her what happened and the woman would keep her promise, but Lodria wasn't certain she wanted to know…
* * *
It didn't take long for Antrie Lorimon to gather her Blending, but locating the former members of Ebro Syant's Blending was another matter entirely. It was late afternoon when Antrie and the others began the search, but it had long since become full dark before the search was over. And, toward the end, it was their Blending entity that had done the work. The four people Antrie wanted to talk to had dropped out of sight, not surprising in view of their very real danger, but Antrie's Blending entity had managed to track them down.
"Yes, this is the place," Cristi Imgard, the Earth magic member of their group confirmed as they all studied the rundown, darkened shack in front of them. "It looks deserted, but there are four people inside."
"Four very frightened people," Regin Seldid, their Spirit magic member, qualified at once. "If we don't calm and reassure them before bursting inside, they could well take off in four different directions."
"And then we'll be all night locating them again," Silta Marne, Water magic, summed up with a groan. "By all means, let's calm them down first."
Hilsho Adran, their Fire magic member, chuckled along with his brothers Cristi and Regin, but as usual said nothing of his own. Hilsho didn't believe in speaking unless he had something of real importance to say, but that didn't affect his ability with Fire magic. Silta, on the other hand, usually made up for his silence with her comments that weren't always clearly thought out, but this time Antrie agreed with her.
"Yes, chasing them all night is not something I want to do either," Antrie told them softly with a sigh. "Regin, will you please initiate the Blending again?"
Regin nodded his agreement with a smile, and a moment later it was the Antrie entity that floated toward the shack. Entering through a wall wasn't difficult at all, and the deep darkness inside didn't keep the Antrie entity from perceiving the four flesh forms arranged on blankets. They seemed to be prepared for sleep, but none of them had yet found that state of lessened awareness.
- This entity is a friend, and its flesh forms have come to aid you, - the Antrie entity said into all four minds at once. – You have been cruelly treated, but reversing your difficulty is far from impossible. -
"Oh, yes, please help us!" one of the female flesh forms begged as the others, one female and two male, all exclaimed aloud. "But how did you know we needed help?"
- That will be explained by this entity's flesh forms when they enter, - the Antrie entity responded. – For the moment, freeing you is of primary concern. -
The four flesh forms agreed eagerly, therefore the Antrie entity examined them with its Earth magic segment. The shift in perception was faintly awkward, but that particular shift was usual and did nothing to hinder the Antrie entity's efficiency. The insubstantial mechanism linking certain speech to the ability to breathe was perfectly clear, and removing the mechanism was only slightly difficult. Once it was gone, Antrie was an individual again. Regin had dissolved the Blending so that they might all go inside the shack, which they did as soon as they'd all taken a deep breath.
Opening the door into the shack was a bit disturbing. The entity hadn't appreciated the fact that the hovel had a dirt floor and no furniture whatsoever, but in the light of the lamp that had just been lit the hovel's lacks were perfectly clear. And the terrible smell hovering just at the edge of awareness…
"Can you tell us now how you knew we needed help?" the girl who had just lit the lamp asked as she turned away from it to face the newcomers. "You're Antrie Lorimon, I know, but we've come across you before and you never noticed our predicament any more than anyone else."
"Your brave and clever gamble brought your plight to our attention," Antrie told the girl with a smile, also looking at the others with the same approval. "I really do apologize for not noticing earlier, but there are times when all of us are blind to what's right in front of our faces. Will you tell us now why you were silenced like that?"
"We were silenced so that we'd be helpless to speak out against that monster," the girl said bitterly, putting one hand to her head. "If we didn't do what he told us to we would have died in terrible pain, and we couldn't even overcome him when we Blended. He was too strong for us to get around his precautions."
"What he forced us to do was put those poor girls under our control," one of the men said heavily. "The first one deliberately caused herself to die rather than let him savage her again, and that kept the monster from claiming another girl openly. But that didn't keep him from using us to force girls from the lowest class to come to the house secretly, so that he could do as he pleased with them and no one the wiser. One of the girls even died from his … 'attentions,' and when the body was found there wasn't the smallest clue that he'd been involved."
"But most of those poor victims are still alive," the girl said with a sob, taking up the narrative again. "They have to live with the knowledge that he can force them to come to him at any time, and I don't understand why they haven't gone insane. I nearly went insane just thinking about it!"
Antrie knew that Regin was surely soothing the girl's torment, but that didn't keep her from going to the girl and taking her in her arms. The poor thing clung to Antrie as she cried and shuddered, and that made Antrie almost rabid with fury. Ebro Syant, that pitiful excuse for a human being, had damaged enough lives. It was more than time the favor was returned to him, tripled and squared!
Chapter 16
Ebro Syant would have been totally annoyed as he walked into the assembly hall if he weren't also rather curious. He hadn't found the opportunity to take control of any of the members of his new Blending yesterday afternoon when they'd followed him back to his residence. They were so pleased with having won to their positions that they held a party for friends and relatives, and the party had gone on quite late. So he'd decided to work on the four first thing this morning, but now he'd been summoned to an emergency meeting of the ass
embly.
As Ebro made his colorless way to his seat in the circle, he wondered if the emergency had to do with those Gandistrans. That was the most likely explanation, but people weren't standing in frantic clutches, worrying out loud. Most of the assembly members looked calm to the point of indifference, with only two or three murmuring to the person in a neighboring seat. None of them looked his way, of course, but that was usual and exactly what he wanted.
Oddly enough, Ebro found that he was the last one to arrive. As he took his seat he scolded himself on the matter of sloppiness, as those who arrived last were always noted and remembered. This time he seemed to have gotten away with it, but next time would surely be different. If his plans were to have any chance of succeeding, the smallest details had to be –
"We're here this morning for a very important reason," a voice suddenly broke into Ebro's thoughts. It was Cleemor Gardan who spoke, and he both sounded and looked rather grim. "It's been discovered that one of our members has been taking advantage of his position by using his abilities and those of his Blendingmates to victimize ordinary people, which is completely intolerable. Such a practice is an abomination, and the one indulging himself so must be punished."
The people watching the proceedings began to mutter among themselves, shock and outrage coloring the sound. Ebro glanced over at Zirdon Tal, seeing that the man was the least bit pale. Tal had been using his Blending to influence that Sheedra Kam bit, the girl he'd bartered to further his political ambitions, and now he seemed to have been found out. It would be interesting to see what the assembly did to punish him, but other than that Ebro was more than annoyed. With Tal out of the picture, Ebro's plans would have to be completely revamped…
"The guilty party is being accused by a number of his victims," Gardan went on in that same grim way. "The ordinary people so misused have been found and assured that they're now safe, but most of them are incapable of pointing the finger of accusation. Two, however, have the courage to appear before us, along with those who have the greatest knowledge of what the abomination consisted of. I now call them forth to give us their testimony."
Ebro was in the midst of wondering who else Tal had victimized when the witnesses began to be escorted in by guardsmen. The blood in Ebro's veins turned cold when he saw the former members of his own Blending, followed by two of the meaningless fluffs he'd taken for his enjoyment. But that couldn't be, it had to be Zirdon Tal they were about to accuse -!
"This matter was brought to our attention when all four of Ebro Syant's Blendingmates 'lost' their challenges," Gardan was continuing while Ebro's mind clanged with shock and fear. "Such a thing had never happened before, and when we sought out the former members of his Blending to learn why it had happened this time, we learned something else as well. Ebro Syant had used his Earth magic on his own Blendingmates, linking their lives to their continuing silence about what they were being forced to do. Once we freed them from constraint, we were told of the whole, sickening matter in detail."
Terror made Ebro try to reach the four turncoats who had betrayed him so vilely, but for some reason it wasn't possible to touch them in any way at all. The same went for the bits of fluff he'd given the honor of pleasing him, so Ebro immediately decided to try something else. If Gardan suddenly collapsed before actual charges were leveled, there would be enough confusion that Ebro would find it possible to slip away before anyone noticed.
But when Ebro reached to Gardan instead, the man's vitals seemed to be hidden behind an impenetrable barrier! Ebro pounded on that barrier in frenzy for a moment, and then he was suddenly back inside himself completely, as though something had blocked his connection to the power! Ebro jerked erect and stretched his hand out, mindlessly trying to touch the power physically, but his hand came in contact with something invisible instead that didn't let him move more than a single step in any direction.
"Ebro Syant, know that you're being restrained from using your ability by your former High practitioner brothers in Earth magic," Gardan intoned so menacingly that Ebro shivered from the words alone. "You've also been surrounded by an invisible wall of hardened air, so escape from the just desserts due you isn't possible. Do you have any words to say on your own behalf, in answer to the accusations made by those who now stand before us?"
"It isn't true!" Ebro screamed, wild and nearly mindless with fear. "I didn't do anything, not anything at all! They're all lying because they know you'll believe them! I'm short and fat, and people will believe anything about someone like me!"
"Do you take us for fools?" Gardan asked with faint indignation after glancing to one side of the room. "Our Spirit magic users have verified the truth of what the witnesses had to say, and now they've verified the fact that you are lying. Is that all you have to say for yourself?"
"It wasn't my fault!" Ebro blurted, his hatred of all of them exploding to the surface. "You're all the same, you tall and beautiful people, all the same! Every one of you laughed at me behind my back and ignored me to my face because I wasn't attractive enough to be accepted as one of you! I'm short and fat, and that's a crime you people never offer a pardon for. Why shouldn't I have done as I pleased to get even for that? I had the right!"
"You had no right to harm innocent people because of your own mind sickness," Gardan ground out, now speaking in a growl. "If you'd ever bothered to look around yourself, you would have seen that you're not the only one in this assembly who isn't tall and slender. But your peers in body shape know how unimportant surface appearance is, so it has never become a problem for them. What problem you have is of your own making, something else only you are responsible for."
That was a bald-faced lie, and Gardan must have known it as well as Ebro did. But Gardan was posturing for an audience, pretending to be innocent in order to make Ebro look as guilty as possible. Well, if that was the way they wanted it, saying anything else would be a waste of breath. For that reason Ebro simply sat down again, waiting for them to banish him or do whatever else they considered a fitting punishment. Ebro would survive just as he had once before, and as soon as they no longer watched him it would be his turn to hand out some punishments.
"Apparently you have nothing else to say," Gardan observed aloud to Ebro after a moment. "Your silence indicates that there are no extenuating circumstances to account for your actions, no acceptable reasons to excuse them. In view of this, I now ask for a vote on the matter of your guilt. Those who consider this man guilty as charged will now please raise their hands."
It came as no surprise to Ebro when, one after another, every member of the assembly raised a hand. They'd always been against him, all those marvelously popular people, and now they'd been given the chance to rid themselves of him. They quickly jumped at the chance, and once Gardan had seen that total agreement he turned his attention to their victim again.
"Ebro Syant, you've been found guilty by your peers of engaging in abominable activities," Gardan intoned, again bringing Ebro the urge to shiver. "There is only one fitting punishment for such an act, and that punishment will be applied immediately. And, as a body, the assembly asks the citizens of this empire to forgive us for having allowed this to happen in the first place."
Gardan nodded then, and Ebro had only an instant to wonder what the man might be talking about. The next heartbeat Ebro felt a stabbing flash of pain, so intense that he nearly cried out. But the duration of the pain was so short that it was gone before Ebro could react, and then there was nothing.
"It's done," Gardan said after glancing to one side again. "Ebro Syant, High practitioner in Earth magic, misused his gift to the detriment of others. For that reason Ebro Syant's gift has been taken away, so that it will never be misused again. Justice has been done."
A mutter rose from the seats filled by spectators, a sound that was only faintly tinged with the puzzled confusion Ebro felt himself. It was all over, and they hadn't even exiled him? If that was Gardan's idea of justice having been done, Ebro wasn't about to argue. And
they hadn't even ejected him from the assembly…!
Ebro felt the urge to smile as the members of the assembly rose from their seats and turned to talk to the people nearest them. The whole accusation thing was obviously over, and now people were getting ready to leave. No one at all was watching him, so Ebro considered it the perfect time to get a little of his own back from at least one of those four turncoats who had betrayed him. A small heart attack, or possibly even a stroke would do nicely…
Ebro reached for the power, certain that he was no longer being blocked from it, but for some reason he couldn't quite get a proper grip. He knew the power was there and unblocked, right beyond his fingertips, but he couldn't … quite…
Terror touched Ebro again, this time freezing him where he sat. What had Gardan said about the gift being taken away? Tears filled Ebro's eyes as he tried again and again to reach the power, but he just couldn't do it. The beautiful people hadn't exiled him, no, they'd done far worse. They'd somehow taken away his ability to do Earth magic, and now he was nothing more than a complete cripple.
Now all he had left in his life was the brilliance of his mind…
* * *
Zirdon Tal sat in his study with only one servant to see to his needs, his nerves too ragged to allow any others around him. His hands were wrapped about his teacup so that he might share its warmth, but the icy center of his being remained untouched. It had been all he'd been able to do to keep control of himself in the assembly hall…
That fat little fool, Zirdon thought as he sipped at the tea he held. Who would have imagined that Ebro Syant would be the one to be found out and maimed? If they hadn't told me beforehand what was going on, I probably would have broken down in the middle of that … horror.