by Sharon Green
Which he wasn't quite able to do. Instead of closing his hands around my throat, the man screamed and pulled those hands back to cradle them against his chest. The fires his hands had touched instead of my throat had been really very hot, and then he staggered and flailed backwards into the small group he'd come from as though someone had hit him.
"And stay there, all of you," Rion ordered as he stepped up beside me, a growl in his own voice. "We'll have someone see to those hands eventually, but you'll have to wait until those with real value - and those who have been hurt through no fault of their own - have been tended. Until then just stand there and keep quiet."
The man I'd burned kept silent and just looked ill, but one of the others whimpered and edged himself behind the man who'd done all the talking. That one, the obvious head of this former army, stood tight-lipped with fury with his hands turned to fists at his sides. But he also kept silent, so I joined Rion in turning away from them.
"I've put a wall around them now, and I apologize for not having done it sooner," Rion murmured to me, clear upset in his pretty eyes. "If I weren't so tired… Are you certain you're all right, Tamrissa?"
"I'm fine, Rion, so don't let it bother you," I soothed, reaching across myself to pat his arm. "I didn't have the least trouble defending myself, and you'll never guess why. I drew strength from my link groups."
"But - I didn't realize that they were still linked," Rion protested, stopping to look down at me. "There would have been no reason for them to continue to be linked."
"Yes, I know," I agreed, giving him the sickly smile that was all I could produce right now. "But the strength was there, because I tapped into it. Would you like to venture a guess as to how and why it was there?"
"You must be joking," Rion came back with a sound of ridicule. "Even if I were well rested and in top form I would hesitate to venture an opinion. At the moment… No, I think I'll wait to hear what the others have to say. If they're able to find what to say."
"I'm going to talk to the members of my link groups," I decided aloud, finally understanding that that might be a good idea. "If you see me sitting on the ground hiding my head, you'll know they announced they had no idea what I was talking about."
"Could this be part of whatever new thing we seem to be working on?" Rion asked, confusion struggling with wonder in his expression. "Our continuing weariness seems to indicate that we're learning to do something new, and this might very well be it."
"Along with having more awareness and control when we Blend," I said, seeing at once that he might be right. "The two together would be - Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Your comment has suddenly made me wonder whether I'm far too tired or you are," he answered, his expression still peculiar. "When we Blended the entity used my perceptions again, but I remember nothing of more awareness and control. I take it that you do remember such a thing."
"I think I do," I responded, suddenly uncertain. "But you said that the entity used your perceptions. How could it have used yours and mine both at the same time?"
"I believe I've already said I have no opinions I'd care to venture," Rion returned with a groan as he briefly closed his eyes. "Obviously the Highest Aspect doesn't care for that stance, but unfortunately there's no other I'm able to take. I think we'd best mention this to our sisters and brothers as quickly as possible."
"Before I forget about it again," I agreed with a nod. "I meant to say something about it as soon as Jovvi dissolved the Blending, but it went right out of my head. Is your wall strong enough to protect those nobles as well as keep them from wandering off?"
"Protect them from the wrath of these poor people as soon as they're fully back to themselves, you mean," Rion said with a gesture of one hand. "Yes, the wall is strong enough for both purposes, so let's by all means search out the others."
The decision was easily made, but not as easily seen to. It looked like most of the former army segments had been freed from the control they'd been living under, but not many of them looked ready to dance with pleasure or to turn on their former tormentors. Most of them sat slumped over or lay on the road where they'd formerly been standing, and it was easier to see now what poor condition they'd been kept in. The link groups of our various Blendings had left their horses to move among the newly freed, probably to see which of them needed medical attention the soonest.
"I see the members of my link groups over there," I told Rion, and then pointed in the proper direction. "If you'll try to locate our Blendingmates, I'll try to find out whether or not I was dreaming."
"Or simply imagining things," Rion agreed with a nod and an odd expression. "Now I have to decide whether I want these things to be real or imaginary. Possibly if I lie down for a nap, all these dilemmas will be gone when I awake."
And with that he walked off, but not to leave me wondering what he was talking about. I knew exactly what he meant, and felt more than a little tempted to take my own nap. If I'd had a guarantee that a nap would work I'd probably have tried it, but the sudden excitement my link group members showed when they saw me guaranteed something else entirely.
"Tamrissa, what happened?" Deegro Lapas, one of the members of the groups asked as soon as I got close enough. "We've never experienced anything like that before."
"That's basically what I came to ask you," I told Deegro and the others, letting them see my confusion. "From my end I suddenly had tandem link groups to draw strength from, even though the members of those groups shouldn't have been linked. What was it like for the rest of you?"
"We suddenly found ourselves linked for no apparent reason," Deegro answered, still speaking for the groups, a disturbance clear in his eyes. "Then we felt you drawing on our strength, and a moment later the need for linking seemed to be gone. You have no idea what made it happen?"
"At the moment, no," I conceded with a sigh. "I even thought I might have been imagining things, but obviously I wasn't. I'm going to be talking this over with my Blendingmates, and if we come up with any explanations I'll be sure to let you know what they are."
"You sound as if you don't expect to find those explanations," Deegro observed, eyeing me with what looked like real sympathy. "Aren't you bound to figure something out sooner or later?"
"Tripping over a reason for something as you move through life isn't really figuring things out," I told him with another sigh. "For all we know this was a perfectly logical, natural happening, something that's really no big deal. But that's the whole problem: we don't know what's supposed to be logical and natural, and what should be considered a big deal. I'd love to do something really horrible to the fools who first decided to keep knowledge about Blending a privately held secret."
"If those fools were still alive, we'd all insist on joining you in that venture," Deegro said, causing most of the others to nod their agreement. "Please don't forget to let us know what the bunch of you come up with."
I promised not to forget and then left them to their tending of former captives. Rion stood a short distance off beckoning to me, which must have meant he'd found the others. As I walked toward him, I realized that I was almost afraid to discuss the occurrences with everyone else. What if it turned out that no one could do what I'd done, and that I was really, really different? I didn't want to be all alone again, especially not in this way. But if I were, what could I possibly do about it…?
Chapter 21
Jovvi found herself quickly distracted from the nobles leading the army as soon as the captives were completely freed. The roiling sea of emotions was so strong that she had to shield herself from it, otherwise she could well have ended up badly battered. But she did project all the comfort and soothing she could in as wide an area as possible, trying to steady the poor victims until they could be helped physically by others.
"I don't believe this," Lorand muttered as he looked around, a faint trembling in his voice. "How could those fools have treated these people so badly and still expected to get anything out of them?
By the time this column reached Gan Garee, half the people in it could well have been dead."
"Nobles weren't raised to worry about the tools they put to their use," Jovvi pointed out with an even greater weariness than she'd felt earlier. "If a tool you want to use happens to break, you simply replace it. It takes a certain amount of intelligence to understand when replacement isn't practical or possible."
"You also need to be in touch with the real world, which the fools leading this army obviously aren't," Lorand said by way of agreement, bitterness now clear in his tone. "A number of our people are breaking into the army's food supplies and making enough of a meal to bring some life back to these people. I'm just not sure how many of them will be able to eat well enough for the meal to do them any good. I'll be right back."
Jovvi nodded silently and then watched him walk away, already knowing what Lorand intended. At least one of their associate Blendings would have to be available to do what it could for those who were worst off, and Lorand was on his way to arrange that. The members of his link groups were already moving among the captives at Naran's direction, trying to keep from losing anyone now that freedom was within their grasp. Many people consider it a benefit to die free, but living free was Jovvi's idea of a much better choice.
When Jovvi noticed that her own link group members and those from most of the other Blendings were walking around among the newly freed and easing them as much as possible, she felt considerably better. She hated being so tired that using her talent was a chore, but there didn't seem to be anything to be done about that. Hopefully it would last only a little while longer…
"This can't really be happening," a male voice muttered not far from Jovvi, drawing her attention. "This has to be nothing more than another dream, and I'll just wake up to find that nothing's changed. I've got to remember that, or I'll never last long enough to get even if I ever can…"
The man doing the muttering sat on the ground about four feet away, his arms wrapped around his drawn-up knees and his face expressionless. What was left of his clothing was filthy and more than worn, his beard as long as his hair and just as dirty and matted. At first Jovvi thought the man might be joking, but checking him with her talent proved that he was all too serious.
"This isn't a dream, but I'm not asking you to believe me right now," Jovvi said to the man after stepping a bit closer to him. "You need to protect your inner self, but you also have to be prepared to accept the truth when it's proven beyond doubt. Will you do me the favor of at least suspending judgment for a while?"
"You've never been in my dreams before, so maybe I will do you that favor," the man responded after a long moment of silence while he studied Jovvi's face. "But how am I supposed to know when things stop being a dream and start to be real?"
"You'll know by how long everything takes," Jovvi said with a smile of support rather than amusement. The man wasn't joking, and the realization of that gave Jovvi a chill. "As soon as the food is prepared you'll get to eat, and at some time either before or after the meal one of our Earth magic healers will check you over. After that you'll be allowed to sleep undisturbed, and when you wake up you'll be fed again. By then we'll hopefully have found a place nearby to take you to, a place where you can bathe and cut your hair and beard. If we haven't also found clean clothing for you, the rest of us will share what we brought along for ourselves."
"What you brought along for yourselves," the man echoed, his tone saying nothing about how he considered that statement. He had very dark eyes, and he stared at Jovvi almost unblinkingly. "Assuming this isn't a dream, where are all of you supposed to have come from? Unless you just happened by…"
"No, we did not just happen by," Jovvi told him firmly, understanding that he was about to float away from reality again. "We come from Gan Garee, where the nobles aren't in charge any longer. We're in charge, and we've already freed most of the people in the armies sent west to Astinda. Now we're here to do the same for you and these others, and it's already begun. Just be patient, and by tomorrow you ought to know that you're not just dreaming."
"By tomorrow," he echoed again, the words horribly even. "All right, I'll wait until tomorrow. But what if it all does prove to be a dream? How will I stand it?"
"That's something I'm delighted to say you won't have to worry about ever again," Jovvi assured him, fighting not to break down and cry. "But there's something you will have to do, and that's help these others to understand the same truth. When the time comes, will you help with that?"
"I suppose I can do that," the man allowed, his gaze losing focus even as he spoke. "If I find out that this is real, I'll help you make the rest of them understand."
"Thank you," Jovvi said, putting a very gentle hand to his terribly thin shoulder. "It's sometimes hard for people to accept that the nightmare they've been living through is over, but it's necessary to remember that even the worst of nightmares ends at some time. I only wish that the ending could have come sooner for all of you."
The thin man didn't say anything else, and might not have even heard the last of what she'd told him. Jovvi straightened with a sigh and walked away, knowing she and the other Spirit magic users had their work cut out for them. Too many of these people would be terribly damaged in their minds, and without help they would never be right again…
"Jovvi, may I have a word with you?" she heard then, and turned to see Rion coming up. "Tamrissa has something that needs to be told to everyone, and that as soon as possible."
"'As soon as possible' may take a while, Rion," Jovvi replied with a sigh. "Lorand and Naran are busy helping with taking care of these people, and Vallant is getting all our other efforts coordinated. And someone really should pay attention to those nobles to make sure they don't do something we won't like."
"Tamrissa and I have already seen to the nobles," Rion said with a dismissive gesture, and only then did Jovvi notice his disturbance. "If the others are unavailable, are you free to listen? These newest matters should be thought about, and I'm sadly lacking the ability to make any sense of them."
"If it's that important to you, of course I'll listen," Jovvi agreed at once, somewhat curious but even more apprehensive. Whatever had happened sounded serious, and there would be few worse times for the appearance of something new and serious…
"Good," Rion said, both looking and sounding relieved. "I'll locate Tamrissa and bring her here. She stopped to speak to her link groups first, and hopefully learned something."
Learned something? Jovvi watched Rion move off, her brows high as her curiosity grew. The new "matter" had something to do with the power? What in the world could it be? Jovvi would have had difficulty waiting very long to find out, but Rion returned in a moment accompanied by Tamma.
"Rion tells me something has happened," Jovvi said to a Tamma who looked even more disturbed than Rion had. "Is it a bad something or a good something?"
"It's two somethings, and I'd call them more disconcerting than bad," Tamma answered, trying to give Jovvi a smile. "But you look even more tired than I feel, so why don't we sit down before I explain. There seems to be a relatively quiet spot over there."
Tamma pointed to a place farther away from the road among the trees, a place that had neither horses tied nor people standing. Sitting down sounded like a good idea, so Jovvi joined Tamma and Rion in walking over and doing it. Once they were settled, Tamma showed that odd smile again.
"I think I ought to start with the second happening," Tamma said. "While I was keeping an eye on the nobles, one of them tried to strangle me. I had no trouble making him sorry he tried, but only because I … somehow … drew strength from my link groups. I spoke to the people in the link groups before coming over here, and they know as little about it as I do. They suddenly found themselves linked and having strength drawn from them, but how and why we have no idea."
"Oh, dear," Jovvi said, feeling how her brows had risen again. "I see what you meant about it being disconcerting. If it's a new ability it's de
finitely worth having, but it would be nice to know how it happened. Why is perfectly simple."
"Yes, it happened because I needed it to happen," Tamma agreed with a touch of impatience. "But that's only one part of the why, and says nothing about how far the rest of it goes. Another aspect of why is why did it happen now rather than sooner? Will it only happen when the need is strong enough, or can I learn to control it? Will the rest of you find you can do the same thing? And let's certainly not forget the one about how far away from my link groups I have to be before the trick doesn't work any longer."
"This probably happened to you first because you've been touching the power continuously longer than the rest of us," Jovvi said, automatically reaching out to sooth Tamma's upset. "That doesn't make things easier for you, but the rest of us will be grateful for the warning. Now tell me about the other thing that happened."
"The other thing is almost stranger," Tamma said after taking a moderate breath, looking more relieved than Jovvi's efforts at soothing could account for. "When we Blended this last time, Rion tells me that the entity had his point of view."
"That is strange," Jovvi said at once, startled into speaking as she looked over at Rion. "Are you absolutely certain, Rion? I could swear that the entity had my point of view."
"I was afraid you were going to say that," Tamma muttered while Rion closed his eyes and shook his head. "It makes everything much more complicated, so of course it was to be expected… Jovvi, the entity had my point of view, and even beyond that it was more than just point of view. For the first time I had more awareness of self during the Blending, and even had more control of what the entity did. Can you tell me how that was possible when you and Rion both saw events through your own eyes?"
"This time I have no interest in saying 'Oh, dear,'" Jovvi stated, looking back and forth between Tamma and Rion. "I'd much rather use a phrase I learned during my time on the streets, one I've trained myself never to say out loud again. Saying it won't help the situation much, but it would certainly make me feel better… Tamma, are you absolutely sure about what happened? Is it at all possible that you imagined the whole thing?"