Competitions

by Sharon Green

  “The competitions may not be that close, but the forming of Blendings is set to begin only a few days past next week’s end. The longer it takes for your group to be ready to be formed into a Blending, the less practice time you’ll have as a Blending. We’d prefer not to have any of our groups look overly foolish when they come forward to compete, but all we can do is warn you. If you fail to heed that warning, you’ll be the ones who must live with the ridicule of your peers afterward.”

  Deever was now pretending not to study him, but in truth was watching very closely. That threat of ridicule was meant to reach him and galvanize him into action, so he would have to pretend that it had. What had really reached Bron, however, was the knowledge of how close they were to being formed into a Blending. They would need all the practice they could get if they were to win, so there was nothing else for it.

  “You’re quite right, Deever,” Bron said as he squared his shoulders. “Time is running short, so let’s have the servants out here to arrange the next mechanism. I intend to finish today with two masteries.”

  “I bow to your wisdom, Lord Bron, and will fetch the servants myself,” Deever said with a nod of his head rather than a bow. “I’ll return in a moment.”

  Bron watched the powerless fool walk away back toward the house, knowing the man wore a smirk now that Bron couldn’t see it. Deever thought he was so good despite his family’s lacks, but even his talent couldn’t be all that much if he was training rather than doing. No, Bron was his superior in all ways, and when his Blending won the competition Deever’s smirk would be wiped from his face for good and all.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  “Forgive me for being tardy, Lady Selendi, but I’m afraid everyone is tardy this morning,” Pracer said as he strode into the conservatory where Selendi sat taking tea. “You’ve surely heard the news?”

  “About Lady Elfini?” Selendi said, putting her cup aside and leaning forward. “Every servant in the house is chattering about it, and my mother has gone to visit one of her friends, who lives only a short distance away from the Weil estate. If she doesn’t get all the details no one will, but what have you heard?”

  “That poor Lady Elfini was hacked to death by a deranged Guild member,” Pracer said as he took a chair and began to pour his own cup of tea. “People are remembering that no one liked the idea of having a Guild for the talentless, but the Advisors have always insisted on protecting them. No matter how this turns out, the Advisors will have some answering to do.”

  “We heard that the deranged lunatic tied Lord Aston to a wall and whipped him almost to death,” Selendi said, more interested in discussing the good parts. People who went on about the Guild were so boring… “Lord Aston may or may not be able to identify the murderer, depending on whether or not the monster wore a mask.”

  “The deed itself was so arrogant, that the deviant most likely spurned the idea of a mask,” Pracer said after sipping at his tea. “Can you imagine, chopping someone up into little pieces right in front of her husband, and then taking the time to almost kill him as well? Deranged simply doesn’t cover it, not without adding arrogant as well, and that describes most of the Guild’s members.”

  “How many Guild members do you know?” Selendi asked, partially distracted. “Only a few of them come from noble families, and I’ve never met even one.”

  “Well, I’ve never met any of them either, but everyone knows the truth,” Pracer admitted reluctantly. “The Guild is full of abnormal deviants, and shouldn’t be allowed to continue in existence.”

  “Oh, Pracer, that’s just your father talking,” Selendi said with an impatient shake of her head. “Why you have to parrot his ridiculous ideas I don’t know, but it’s terribly tiring. Do you hear me parroting my father’s opinions? My father is much more important than yours, so if I don’t do it you have absolutely no excuse.”

  “I don’t need an excuse,” Pracer said, sitting back as he showed a small, vindictive smile. “I’m a man and will be taking over from my father one day, and must therefore carry on the proper tradition. You’re just a girl and no one will ever listen to you in any event, so it doesn’t matter in the least what you say. Shall we get to the practicing now?”

  “Certainly,” Selendi agreed coldly, thoroughly insulted. She began to rise from her chair, but then a thought came to her. “Just a minute. If Lady Elfini and Lord Aston were attacked by someone without any talent, why didn’t they use their own talent to protect themselves? Even ordinary ability can overcome someone without any at all, so how did that … talentless deviant get away with it?”

  Pracer suddenly looked stricken rather than handsome and cool, bringing Selendi a good deal of satisfaction. She’d wanted to get even for that comment he’d made about how unimportant she was, and now it looked like she had.

  “Why … they were probably … taken unawares, that’s it, they were taken unawares,” Pracer suddenly suggested, his expression clearing. “Yes, the monster crept up on them while they weren’t looking, and then it was too late to stop him.”

  “But you said Lady Elfini was hacked to death while Lord Aston watched,” Selendi pointed out at once. “That means he should have been able to do something, and yet he didn’t.”

  “Maybe he was beaten first,” Pracer returned, then nodded his approval of the idea. “Yes, he was beaten first after being crept up on, and then, when Lady Elfini heard his screams and came running, she was taken from behind as well. It’s all quite simple once one thinks about it.”

  “Simple is the word,” Selendi retorted with a sniff. “If Lord Aston was awake enough to scream, he was certainly awake enough to also use his talent. If he couldn’t use his talent he also couldn’t scream, so Lady Elfini would have had no reason to come running in. That means it probably wasn’t someone without talent after all, but someone with more talent than the two of them. That means you’d better watch out, in case it turns out that I’m the murderer.”

  “If you ever murdered someone, it would be someone male and it would be in bed,” Pracer said with a sudden grin, finally abandoning his ridiculous stance and air of superiority. “I apologize profoundly for upsetting you, my sweet, and hope my foolishness won’t keep us from ending your practice time in the usual way.”

  “That all depends on how good a weekly report I can look forward to,” Selendi said, keeping him from taking her hand by standing up. “I didn’t like the last one at all, especially when it was read out loud by Lord Rigos in front of everyone. Next week’s report will be much better—won’t it?”

  “I promise it will be as good as I can make it without actually lying,” Pracer said, his tone begging for understanding as he also stood. “Lying about your progress is the one thing I can’t do, sweetling, at least not very much. They will eventually find out when you reach the competitions, and then they’ll have my privates as well as my head. Please be reasonable, because I’m also doing it for your good.”

  “Raela’s father said that same exact thing all those years ago just before he spanked her so hard she couldn’t sit down for the rest of the day,” Selendi pointed out, again keeping him from taking her hand by moving it back out of reach. “He also forbid her to associate with the rest of the girls in our group, so we were never able to visit that marvelous house again. I don’t like things done for my own good, not unless I decide they need doing.”

  “But you did decide,” Pracer said, now sounding like a merchant trying to sell her cotton at the price of silk. “You said you’d die if you made a fool of yourself in front of everyone, but that’s exactly what will happen if I lie about your progress. You won’t be able to match the others in your group when you’re formed into a Blending, and everyone will be able to tell that the fault is yours.”

  Selendi still didn’t know how that would be possible, but even the chance of it gave her pause. She would die if she ended up looking foolish in front of everyone, but even more importantly she hated the thought of being outdone by those oa
fish men in her group. And she suddenly remembered that they were all supposed to start showing some progress, and now she had the excuse to do just that.

  “Oh, all right, I’ll work at your silly exercises,” she grudged, taking the opportunity to make him believe she did him the favor. “But you’d better be really good afterward, or I’ll start inviting other men over for post-practice relaxation.”

  “I promise to be absolutely marvelous for you,” he answered with a grin, then stood aside with a small bow. “After you, sweetling, who nevertheless remains a lady who cannot be matched.”

  Selendi knew he wasn’t referring to her talent with Air magic, so she let a pleased little smile curve her lips as she led the way out to the side garden. A small resin building had been established there, one that was capable of being sealed completely. The three servants assigned to be her subjects were already there, of course, waiting outside and whispering among themselves. Selendi knew what they had to be whispering about, but refused to return to the subject of the grisly murder. She really did want to have Pracer after the practice, and hearing him sound off again would just ruin the mood.

  When the servants saw them coming they entered the small building, and a moment later Selendi led Pracer inside after them. The lamps behind their clear resin windows had already been lit, and the servants had lined up in a straight row. Selendi found a place on the comfortable couch she’d had installed while Pracer sealed the building, and by the time he sat down beside her she was ready to start.

  “I’m about to pull the rope that will release the smoke,” Pracer warned, reaching to the rope hanging above the couch. “All right, here we go.”

  Selendi had no idea how they managed to fill tanks with smoke, but understanding the method wasn’t necessary to countering the presence of the smoke. She’d already wrapped herself and the three nervous servants in bubbles of air, this time making sure the bubbles didn’t leak. The servants had suffered while she was in the midst of pretending to be less able than she really was, but the time for that was over.

  “All right, now the subject at the end will move apart from the others,” Pracer said, gesturing to the servant on the right side of the line. “Make sure you keep your sphere intact while you divide it in two.”

  Selendi felt annoyed at the way he spoke to her, sounding as though he spoke to a backward child instead. But he always did that during practice, acting the full ten years and more older than her that he was, so she forced herself to ignore it and complete the separation. No more than the faintest trace of smoke popped in before she sealed both sides of the separation, but Pracer didn’t seem to notice.

  “That was marvelous, Lady Selendi, just marvelous!” he enthused, turning his head to give her a beautiful smile. “One more successful separation, and you’ll have earned two masteries.”

  Selendi hadn’t realized she would get anything directly from doing that exercise, so it came as a very pleasant surprise to hear that she already had one mastery. But one wasn’t enough; she wanted both, and wasn’t above exerting herself a bit in order to get it.

  This time it was the servant on the left side of the line who moved, and Selendi concentrated on separating the air bubble a second time. She could see how it would be possible to keep every bit of smoke out of the pockets of air, but it was also a great deal more trouble. So she let that faint trace of smoke in again instead, and again Pracer missed it.

  “Lady Selendi, you’ve done it!” Pracer exulted, turning to her to give her a radiant smile through the smoke that filled the room but not their individual bubbles. “Two masteries one after the other! Next week my report will glow, and you have my word on that.”

  He got up then and went to unseal the door, and Selendi was so delighted that she forgot what she was in the midst of and released the protection around the servants before the door was open. The heavy smoke immediately began to make them cough, and as soon as the door was open they rushed outside. Selendi joined Pracer at the door, both of them waiting for the smoke to clear out completely, and once it had Pracer closed the door again, then turned to her with a grin.

  “What a wonderful idea that was to bring a couch into the practice building,” he murmured, slowly pulling her close to his chest. “Now we not only have privacy but comfort, two things we ought to begin using at once.”

  His mouth lowered quickly to hers while his hand went behind her, and a moment later he was quickly raising her skirts in back in order to reach her body. She held to him tightly as she moaned out her need for him to hurry, but with his mouth over hers it just came out as a noise. And then he had reached all the way under her skirts to touch her, and the feel of his hands on her flesh drove her wild.

  But rather than taking her immediately to the couch, he made her stand there with him while he used his fingers to stroke her desire to absolute frenzy. She didn’t need that encouragement and he knew it, but he seemed to enjoy forcing her to wait. She didn’t enjoy it, but she always forgot what he was like until it was too late. Next time she would remember, though, and next time she would find someone else to be with.

  Someone she hadn’t already had. That thought made her even hotter, and she moaned again as she struggled against being kept from the couch. She wanted every man she hadn’t already had, had to have them or she would die. No man who attracted her could be allowed to refuse, or then she wouldn’t have him. They were all hers, every man she’d ever lain with, but they weren’t enough.

  But she’d come closer to having enough once she and the others were Seated on the Fivefold Throne. Then no one would ever be able to refuse her anything, which was only the way things were meant to be…

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Kambil was sitting quietly and drinking a cup of tea when Oshin arrived, more than an hour late. But the instructor still maintained the same sedate pace as always, possibly because of his size. Oshin’s greatest pleasure was a long, leisurely meal, and he indulged his pleasure as often as possible.

  “I was wondering whether you’d heard the news, and now that I see you I’m certain you have,” Oshin said by way of greeting, lowering himself into a chair opposite Kambil’s. “You would never believe the rumors that are afloat out there.”

  “Yes I would, because I’ve probably heard every one of them this morning,” Kambil countered with a sigh as he watched Oshin pour himself a cup of tea. “One version had everyone in the Weil household murdered in their beds, and another version had each body mutilated by perversions of all five of the aspects. The only point each of the stories agreed on was that Lady Elfini was definitely one of the dead. You don’t happen to know the actual details, do you?”

  “It so happens I do, and that’s the reason I’m this late,” Oshin replied after taking a long swallow of his tea. “After hearing the wild tales being repeated by my household staff, I knew I’d never regain any semblance of balance until I learned the truth. And I do happen to know quite a large number of people, so I stopped at the Weil estate to see if any of them were there as investigators. It turned out I knew two of them, and they asked me to stay for a while to help calm the house’s staff.”

  “So that they might be more easily questioned,” Kambil said with a nod as he leaned forward. “So what did happen? Or have you promised not to discuss that?”

  “No, my friends are very practical people,” Oshin said with a mirthless smile. “They know there’s no hope of keeping any of the story quiet now, so they don’t even mean to try. As briefly as possible, the facts seem to be this: Homin returned yesterday afternoon accompanied by Delin, packed a bag, then left again with Delin to stay at his place. Elfini was annoyed even before that, but when the two young men left she was absolutely livid. Her mood worsened the later in the day it got, and by the time Aston arrived home—later than expected—it wasn’t even safe to breathe in her vicinity. She stormed out of her ‘sanctum,’ ordered Aston to follow her, then stormed back in.”

  “And of course Lord Aston obeyed,” Kamb
il said wearily. “I was once introduced to the man, and couldn’t believe the difference between his public face and his private feelings. Very frankly I couldn’t bear to stay near him for long.”

  “Yes, that sort of … mismatched emotions is very difficult for one of us to stand,” Oshin said, sending a brief flow of compassion. “Love is pain and self-hatred is acceptance, and both are pleasure. I’m very glad to say I don’t understand it, and hope I never do. At any rate Aston was a fool and went with Elfini willingly, and she apparently took out all her anger on him. The servants heard him screaming for a very long time, and then there was nothing but silence.”

  “Did she kill him?” Kambil asked with brows high, then slowly shook his head. “No, I would guess that she didn’t, not after she’d worked off most of her outrage. She was a woman who always needed to be in complete control, and whipping Lord Aston within an inch of his life would have returned that control to her.”

  “That’s a very astute summation,” Oshin said with a nod of approval. “Aston was stretched out face down on a whipping rack to one side of the room, and apparently Elfini left him there unconscious. She went to the dining room and ate alone, then returned to her sanctum. That was the last time anyone saw her alive.”

  “Except for whoever killed her,” Kambil pointed out. “One of the stories said a masked intruder broke in, and Lord Aston might have seen him. Is there any truth in that?”

  “Unfortunately, no,” Oshin said, his sigh rather deep. “Aston apparently remained unconscious all night, and wasn’t even lucid when a physician called by the guard finally managed to rouse him. Elfini had gone much too far, and he was badly hurt. He might have died as well if one of the staff hadn’t gotten up his nerve to knock on the door of the sanctum this morning. Elfini always took an early breakfast at precisely the same time every day, and when she didn’t appear the staff was worried.”