by Sharon Green
Dinno always looked so placid and bovine that Zirdon constantly found himself surprised when the man said something that showed his keen powers of observation. This time, however, Zirdon felt more annoyed than surprised.
"It's nothing for you to be concerned about, Dinno," Zirdon replied after the briefest of hesitations. "I'm just out of sorts because that young lady I chose, Sheedra Kam, was officially engaged to be married last night. She was so pleasant a companion that I'll be hard put to find someone to replace her."
"I'm fairly certain you haven't yet told some of our colleagues about your loss," Dinno commented, an odd expression in his light eyes. "A number of them seemed almost as pleased by your claim on the girl as you were. And I'm sure it won't be easy to find a replacement for her that the others will feel the same about."
Zirdon stared at the man for a moment without answering, then decided to be prudent and look away again. Dinno shouldn't have known how Sheedra Kam was being used to strengthen Zirdon's major coalition, but Dinno had a minor coalition of his own. So far Dinno and his friends had supported Zirdon's stance in the assembly, but Zirdon wasn't fool enough to think that pushing the man would go unnoticed by him. Dinno was too intelligent by half, and so far Zirdon hadn't found a way to bind the man tightly. A pity he wasn't as vulnerable to a pretty face and body as some of the others were…
"Ah, I think we're ready to begin," Dinno's rumble came, bringing Zirdon back to where he stood. "Everyone seems to be here now, and most have even taken their seats. I think I'll do the same."
Dinno performed a small bow and walked away, leaving Zirdon to glance around to see that everyone was in place. They were all waiting for him to begin the meeting he'd called the day before, which lightened Zirdon's mood to a large extent. He did so enjoy having everyone hanging on his every word…
"Good morning, all," Zirdon announced cheerfully after stepping away from his seat, putting out of his mind for the moment what he would say to the men waiting to be told when they might have Sheedra to themselves. "Just to remind you, we're here today to decide whether to demand reparations from the new Gandistran government for the 'destruction' caused by their army, or to meekly – and quickly – offer them an alliance. Who would like to speak first, and on behalf of which option?"
"I'd like to speak first," Antrie Lorimon said at once, surprising Zirdon and silencing the handful of others who had been about to respond. "If, that is, you don't mind, Zirdon. I won't take long."
The woman had risen to her feet and had ended her request with a smile, leaving Zirdon no choice whatsoever. She had graciously – and clearly – left the granting of permission up to him, and refusal would have made him look like a complete boor. Zirdon would have been happier sending her back to her sewing where she belonged, but instead he showed his own charming smile and bowed to the female.
"By all means, Antrie, we would all be delighted to have you speak first," Zirdon responded smoothly. "But please do be brief, as we have important matters to resolve here today."
Zirdon smiled to himself as he returned to his place and sat, pleased with the way he'd trivialized whatever the woman chose to say. She'd been given permission to speak first, but then the men of the assembly would get on with 'important matters' – a category her thoughts would not fall into.
"You're quite right, Zirdon," Antrie said in her sweet and gentle voice as she stepped out to the middle of the floor. "We do have important matters to discuss today, and the questions you've raised don't enter into it at all. The first thing the members of this assembly need to be told is that the new Gandistran ruling Blending is composed of all High talents. We no longer have weak Middle figureheads to contend with."
Exclamations of shock sounded all over the room, coming even from the seats of the citizens observing the meeting as well as from the members of Zirdon's coalition. That point should have been obvious, but somehow Zirdon and his people had missed it. But Antrie's people weren't looking shocked or surprised, which meant they already knew what she was going to say.
"No, Zirdon, don't interrupt right now," Antrie said as Zirdon was about to stand and take over the meeting again. "There's a good deal more that needs mentioning before everyone knows exactly what problems we have before us. A second point of importance is that the new Gandistran Blending didn't destroy the other armies sent against it. They freed the members of those armies, and then recruited the High talents to their own cause. That means there's an excellent chance that they'll do the same with the army which was here."
This time the exclamations were quite a bit louder and more disturbed, and Zirdon knew how the others felt. He'd been about to order Antrie to resume her seat, but sudden shock had kept him from moving or speaking. Making the nobles leading that army believe a fantasy had been his idea, one he'd made sure everyone gave him full credit for. Now the idea had turned into catastrophe, and it was far too late to put the blame for it onto someone else.
"How much of a chance do you think there is that all those Highs will come here to Liandia?" Olskin Dinno asked Antrie in his deep rumble, his tone filled with a concern that was clearly shared by everyone else. "And if they do come, how do you propose we face them?"
"If you mean confront them, the simple answer is we can't," Antrie returned calmly and reasonably. "The Highest Aspect may send a miracle and keep those people out of Gracely, but if we count on that happening we're absolute fools who deserve whatever happens to us. We have to assume that the new Seated Blending will take over the Highs in the army that was here just the way they did with other armies. If they find out that the nobles leading the army were tampered with they will come here, so we have to be ready for them. If they don't find out, we won't be any the worse off for having devised a contingency plan."
"But that's ridiculous!" Zirdon blurted in protest, too upset to keep the words back. "I know we were told that they took over and freed the Highs in other armies, but that has to be nothing more than a – a – misunderstanding or a deliberate lie. It isn't possible for five Highs to take over dozens and hundreds of other Highs, and even if it were these Highs that were here don't know anything."
"But their noble officers do," Antrie pointed out at once with continuing calm that underscored Zirdon's distress. "If the Highs and strong Middles of the army are taken over, their officers can be captured rather than killed. That means captured and questioned, something any of us would do with them. Gandistra has just narrowly escaped a war with Astinda, so they'll make very sure they're not about to have one with us. They won't simply shrug and take themselves back to Gan Garee."
Quite a few people began to talk at once then, most doing nothing more than voicing their own distress. Zirdon's frantic thoughts darted in all directions as he sought a way out of the predicaments, both Gracely's and his own. Saving the empire was all well and good, but what about his position in it? Antrie Lorimon had taken over his meeting, and no one was figuratively patting her on the head and telling her to sit down again.
Zirdon's racing mind came to an idea, and he seized it immediately. It would regain his control of the meeting even if it did show the strength of his position prematurely. He'd meant to show that strength in a different way, but there was no sense in having power if you didn't use it when you needed it.
"People, please!" Zirdon called out after standing and taking a step forward. "Give me your attention for a moment." The frenzied babble died down most of the way, and Zirdon smiled his most charming smile. "These issues that were just raised are much too important to consider without serious prior discussion, which they haven't had. I propose that we adjourn this meeting for a short time to hold that discussion, and reconvene in two hours. A show of hands in agreement with my proposal should suffice in place of a formal vote."
Zirdon smiled pleasantly at Antrie Lorimon, wanting to see her expression when three of the members of her coalition abandoned her. Those three members would give him the ten votes he needed to have the final say over anything
the assembly considered, making him the most powerful man in the empire. The Lorimon chit gazed back at him with her own faint smile, not yet aware of how thoroughly she'd been bested, so Zirdon turned his gaze to a count of the votes. That would show her…
The smile died on Zirdon's face as he saw something he didn't believe, and frantically he looked around again. There were only two hands raised around the circle of assembly seats, and one of them, belonging to the man Ebro something or other, seemed more tentative than certain. Not only didn't Zirdon have the support of three of Lorimon's people, four members of his own coalition had abandoned him! How was that possible?
The flat-eyed stare coming from Olskin Dinno told Zirdon part of the story. Dinno had apparently increased the number of his minor coalition to four, and now he'd taken all of them out of Zirdon's camp. But what about the others, the three supporters of Lorimon who were supposed to support him instead?
Glancing from one to the other of the three men brought Zirdon to instant fury. The three were staring at him with dark vindictiveness, and there could only be one reason for the attitude. Zirdon had promised them Sheedra Kam's use in return for their support, and somehow they already knew he was no longer able to make good on the promise. It was the same hold he'd had on the members of Dinno's minor coalition, and they all knew…
Antrie Lorimon's smile hadn't widened even by so much as a breath, but Zirdon knew without a doubt that she stood there laughing at him. She had to be responsible for this disaster, for stealing from him the position that should have been his and relegating him to the place of a very minor coalition leader. Only three votes! What was he supposed to do with only three votes?
There was nothing he could do with only three votes, but that would change. As Zirdon quietly sat down again he vowed to himself that the situation would change back again even if he had to burn Antrie Lorimon to cinders…!
* * *
Cleemor Gardan kept his expression neutral, but on the inside he laughed gleefully. Zirdon Tal had been completely humiliated, and it would be quite a while before he regained any of his power. The man now sat in his seat and glowered around, having no idea that he was too stupid to use power properly. If he'd gained control of the assembly their empire would probably have been doomed, but Cleemor had made sure that that became impossible. Telling everyone of Tal's loss of Sheedra Kam had more than done the job. If Tal hadn't been an incompetent fool, he would have found a stronger tie than the use of a pretty girl to bind his people to him.
"Please, my friends, let's discuss this problem in a way we can all follow," Antrie said, raising her sweet voice only a small bit. "I'll start us off by saying that we can't expect to fight the Gandistrans, and not just because the idea of open fighting is distasteful to most of us. Our empire has fifteen Blendings represented by this assembly, but the fact that our Blendings outnumber theirs doesn't matter. They have far too many High talents acting together, and a miscalculation through overconfidence on our part could mean disaster."
"Then what do you propose we do?" Olskin Dinno, formerly a fairly staunch supporter of the fool Zirdon, asked in a more than reasonable way. "Do we send a contingent of our own Highs to refuse them entry to Liandia? If they're more interested in peace than war with their neighbors, they just might not press the point."
"Yes, you're right," Antrie granted him in that cool and gracious way of hers. "There's every chance they would not enter the city if we forbade it, but I'm afraid that that would scarcely solve our problem. Our refusal would let them know that we have something to hide, and if they had any intelligence at all they would then quietly send in people to find out what that something was. You tell me, Olskin. Would they have much trouble discovering what our intentions toward them were?"
"Unfortunately not," Dinno agreed with a sigh. "By making sure that our intentions had the approval of everyone in the city, we told everyone in the city what we meant to do. At the time I wasn't certain that that was the wisest course of action, but I never expected to learn we were wrong in this particular way."
Dinno only glanced in Zirdon Tal's direction, but other members of the assembly glared at the Fire magic user. Tal had been the one to talk everyone into "sharing" their plans to invade and conquer Gandistra with the populace, supposedly to gain their understanding agreement. Cleemor privately believed that the gesture had been a ploy on Tal's part to let the man reap all the credit when their plans worked, but now the effort had backfired on him. The mistake was typical of the fool's lack of imagination…
"Well, it's too late to take back the information, and it's certainly too late to reconsider," Antrie said, her tone now soothing and sympathetic. And, of course, she made no mention of the fact that she had been against letting everyone know what they meant to do. "So we can't insist that the Gandistrans stay out of our city and we can't give them free access to it, but there's one thing we can do. If we invite them in and treat them as very important people, we ought to be able to keep them from coming in close contact with the populace."
"And in the meantime we spread the word," Cleemor added into the low and thoughtful buzz of comments, speaking the suggestion that really was his. "This time we do have to tell everyone about what's going on, and make sure that the people understand what's at stake here. If we go down because someone speaks out of turn, there's a very good chance that everyone in the city will go with us. We can't be everywhere to make sure that people keep their mouths closed, but our citizenry is everywhere. It will be everyone's job to watch his or her neighbor."
"I hate the need to make everyone watch everyone else, but I honestly see no other way to handle the matter." Antrie spoke quietly, responding to the frowns clear on a number of faces. "And it shouldn't be for very long anyway. Once we've been able to sound out this new Seated Blending, we can make up some story about how a previous faction in the assembly tried to force our empire into war. We, of course, wanted nothing to do with something like that, and we struggled hard to displace that terrible faction. Now that we've accomplished our aim, we'll be able to offer peace and friendship instead."
Some members of the assembly chuckled a bit at that, and others lost much of their expressions of distaste. If Tal's smooth charm had swayed people to support his point of view, Antrie was at least as adept at doing the same – but with more imagination. People began to relax all over the room, and a smattering of applause came from the ordinary people watching the proceedings.
"Does anyone have any other suggestions about what we might do?" Antrie put after a moment or two as she looked around. "Our planning is by no means finalized, so any and all suggestions will be welcome. If you can't think of anything at the moment, don't hesitate to get in touch with us when you do get an idea. We certainly want to hear from you, and we won't do anything at all without the full knowledge and consent of this assembly. Let's think about it for a day or two, and then we'll meet again."
The immediate murmur of agreement came through clearly, and Cleemor chuckled to himself as he stood and stretched. Antrie had kept saying "we" to sooth the indignation of some of their more stiff-necked male colleagues. If she'd even hinted that she was in charge of their coalition the fools would have balked, immediately refusing to ally themselves with people led by a woman. By using the word "we" Antrie had suggested that there were really men in charge, and she simply spoke for them. As well as the woman knew and handled people, she should have been a Spirit magic user rather than Air magic…
"So how do you think it went?" Antrie murmured very low once she had walked over to him. "We have most of them following our lead now, but will we keep them long enough to save ourselves?"
"We should, if we don't run into something unexpected," Cleemor murmured in return as he glanced around. "Zirdon looks positively murderous, but I'm willing to bet that he has no clear plan to dig himself out of the pit we've thrown him into. If he can't think of anything to help himself, and he probably won't, I would not put it past him to attack you physicall
y in some sneaking, behind-the-back way."
"I've already considered that," Antrie said with a smile, then gestured with one graceful hand. "Let's walk out to the carriages before we continue this conversation."
Considering the fact that people seemed to be moving around in all directions, Cleemor agreed at once. Keeping their voices down would hardly make their conversation private if others happened to be standing near enough to catch a few words. Cleemor offered his arm, and Antrie took it with another smile. Once they were outside and strolling along one of the walks that broke up the expanse of lawn in front of the assembly building, however, Antrie's smile faded to nothing.
"I decided it might be best if I worked with the other members of my Blending on personal protection," Antrie said with a sigh when it was clear that no one else walked near them. "There is now a … thin layer of hardened air all around me, and nothing but fresh air should be able to get through it. We molded it tightly to my entire body and head, so it shouldn't be noticeable. Are you able to discern it?"
Cleemor reached for the power with a frown, and once he'd opened to it and used his ability he was able to see just the hint of what she'd done.
"If you hadn't told me the layer was there, I would have dismissed the very faint indications of displacement," Cleemor admitted after a moment. "I'm pleased that you're finally doing something positive to protect yourself, rather than relying on being ignored."
"After this morning, I'm not likely to be ignored as much as I would like," Antrie told him ruefully with a sigh as they continued to stroll. "Zirdon certainly knows who ruined his plans to make himself supreme leader of the assembly, and he's really nothing but a large, overindulged child. He'll sulk for a little while, and then he might well decide to 'get even.' That's why I'd like to ask you to protect yourself in the same way I have."
"Me?" Cleemor said in surprise, about to protest the need, but then he thought better of the reaction. "All right, yes, you're probably right. Zirdon knows how close we are, just as everyone in the assembly does. If something happens to me you'll be left as 'nothing but a woman,' and Zirdon might then be able to take back control."