by Sharon Green
“It’s … becoming increasingly obvious that you weren’t happy in your marriage,” Jovvi said, approaching the subject carefully. “Did your husband change after you married him?”
“If at all, only for the worse,” Tamrissa answered, now deliberately looking at the chocolate rather than at Jovvi. “My parents didn’t care what Gimmis was like, they just cared that he was willing to name my father as his heir if they married me to him. But that won’t ever happen again, because I won’t let it. I’d rather be dead than be married off a second time.”
“That’s what you meant when you said you’d be willing to give up your beauty to Beldara,” Jovvi suddenly remembered, studying the girl. Tamrissa had that fragile sort of beauty that aroused most men, either for good or ill depending on their individual natures. Jovvi was quite glad her own beauty was completely different; if she’d looked like Tamrissa, she might not have survived.
“It looks like we have something in common then,” Jovvi said after a brief hesitation, now studying her own piece of chocolate. “My mother sold me when I was very young, but not into anything as nice as this house. The men who bought me expected to pass me on to one of their regular customers, someone who bought young girls rather often. I learned he bought so many because he tended to use them up, so I escaped before they were able to deliver me. Afterward I spent a very long time hoping they went back to my mother to reclaim my sale price.”
“That would have served her right,” Tamrissa said with a faint smile, raising those vulnerable violet eyes to Jovvi’s face. “I’ve always wanted to see something of the same done to my parents, but they’re much too careful to be caught like that. How did you live when you escaped? If you were that young, who did you find to protect you?”
“There was a family I lived with for a while,” Jovvi answered, unsurprised that she told this girl what few others had ever learned. A bond seemed to be growing between them, almost a sisterhood… “The father of the family caught me trying to steal some food, and forced me to sit down and eat it along with more than I’d had the nerve to try for. They weren’t rich people by any means, but they said that if anyone saw me leaving their place looking half starved, they’d never live it down. I stayed with them for almost two years, and when I finally began to earn more than coppers as a courtesan, I sent them silver on a regular basis.”
“You were a courtesan?” Tamrissa asked, raising her brows before wrinkling her nose. “How did you stand it? Oh, of course, you were probably forced into it. Isn’t it wonderful that now you won’t ever have to go back to it?”
“My dear girl, I wasn’t forced into it,” Jovvi said gently with a sigh, knowing she had an almost impossible job on her hands. “You have to understand that not all men are like the one you married, and being with them is pleasure rather than pain. My first man was really a boy, the oldest son in that family I stayed with. He was beautiful and I fell in love with him immediately, but he refused to touch me until I grew old enough to join him rather than be used by him. He taught me what pleasure there was to be had, and then he left home to make his own way in the world.”
“He left you just like that?” she asked, wide-eyed again. “I knew men were no good, and you’re just too nice to understand it.”
“He first asked me to go with him,” Jovvi said with a fond smile of memory, remembering the night they’d said good-bye. “But I knew he didn’t really love me, he was just trying to be gallant about it all. By then I was no longer in love with him, so I refused to go along. He didn’t need two mouths to feed while trying to make something of himself, and I had plans of my own. The agent of a courtesan residence had seen me and given me the card of his principal, so I decided to see if I could make a go of it.”
“Obviously you did,” Tamrissa said, looking Jovvi over from head to foot. “Your clothes are as beautiful as your face and figure, so you must have earned a lot of gold. But if you weren’t forced to be a courtesan and you enjoyed it, then … maybe you aren’t as glad to be here as I thought…”
Jovvi could feel the girl’s inner drawing away, and strangely enough it had nothing to do with her being a courtesan. It had to do with wanting to be there to take the tests, something Tamrissa was more than passionate about. Taking and passing the tests was nearly an obsession with her, and Jovvi couldn’t bear the idea of ruining the closeness they’d begun to feel.
“Actually, I’m delighted to be here,” Jovvi said quickly, to keep Tamrissa from withdrawing to the point of refusing to listen. “Being sent to Gan Garee got me away from my sponsor Allestine, who had made up her mind to keep me in her residence until I grew old and gray. I’d planned to open my own residence here when I failed the first test, but if I’d failed I wouldn’t have opened anything. Now… Tamrissa, what do you really think our chances are to become part of the new Blending? I mean, it’s just a silly dream, isn’t it? We aren’t members of the nobility, but if we ever won a place … no one could try to own us again.”
“That’s exactly what I’ve been thinking,” the pretty child said with a sigh, her emotions relaxing back to where they’d previously been. Pretty child… Jovvi was just about the same age as Tamrissa, but felt decades and centuries older. Her own life hadn’t been easy, but she’d learned it was possible to escape things at a very young age, and then she’d had the love and support of her foster family. Tamrissa’s twisted emotions said she’d had none of the same, which made Jovvi wonder how she’d managed to stay sane.
“I keep telling myself that thinking about becoming part of the new Blending is foolish, but some bit of me doesn’t want to listen,” Tamrissa said, idly licking melted chocolate from her fingers. “I can’t imagine that any of us here have the least chance, but Jovvi—wouldn’t it be wonderful?”
Jovvi was in the midst of tasting her own chocolate again, so she didn’t answer immediately. Once it was all down, though, she said, “Being completely free would be wonderful. Being a member of the new Blending would be—what? What do we know about the life they live, or what they’re required to do? From time to time I asked some of my noble patrons, but even they didn’t really know. They repeated the latest gossip about this or that threat having been overcome, but there were never any details. Do you know anything more about it? Have you ever even seen any of them?”
“Once or twice,” Tamrissa said, frowning now. “Two of them came to the inn my parents and I were staying at when I was a lot younger. We were on our way back to Gan Garee, and so were they. Those who had accommodations on the top floor of the inn were put out of them, to make room for the Blending members and their entourage. Mother and father and I were forced to sleep in the same room rather than in the three we’d had, because places had to be found for those who’d been put out. And after all that, we only got the briefest glimpse of the two in the morning when they left. That was actually the closest I’ve ever gotten.”
“So we don’t really know what’s involved with being members of a Blending,” Jovvi said, just about thinking out loud. “High practitioners, on the other hand, are very visible, and live like and among the highest nobles when they aren’t needed for the most important jobs. But come to think of it, I’ve never seen a High at work, or met anyone who has. Middles are everywhere and doing what has to be done, but you just hear stories about Highs.”
“The same way you hear them about the Blending,” Tamrissa agreed, the beginnings of suspicion clear behind her nod. “I don’t like the sound of that, since High is supposed to be what we’re trying for. If Highs don’t do anything, why do they go to so much trouble gathering us in?”
“Not to simply put us out of the way,” Jovvi decided after thinking about it for a moment. “If that was all they wanted, they could have had us killed as soon as we were located. Accidents happen all the time, and if some of them had happened to us before we knew we were candidates for High, no one would have thought a thing about it.”
“And they do need challengers for their Seated Highs,�
� Tamrissa pointed out. “The law says they have to win against a variety of challengers, otherwise they’re automatically ejected from their positions and never allowed to hold them again. That’s part of the law that can’t be changed, but it’s not likely to be all they’re after. If it were, saving a few potential Highs to do the challenging would be the only thing necessary.”
“So Highs are needed for something, but not necessarily the something we had in mind,” Jovvi said slowly, then looked directly at Tamrissa. “If it would do any good, I’d suggest we rethink our plans to participate. I don’t like dealing with people who have private objectives in mind, but participating has stopped being our choice. We have to go on with it, but we’ll also have to do some serious thinking. Maybe we’ll find a way to protect ourselves.”
“And still get what we’re after,” Tamrissa said, the words grim. “Without the protection of this competition, my parents will come after me again. They’ll arrange another marriage like the first, I’ll refuse, and shortly thereafter, when they realize they can’t change my mind, I’ll be dead. That’s better than going along with them, but dying isn’t my first choice of desired outcomes. I’d rather fight to get a place of my own … even if I’m not always sure I can do it…”
Jovvi’s brows raised at that strange combination of feelings, so unusual was it to find the two together. When Tamrissa spoke of refusing her parents, her emotions were steel-hard and twice as determined. But when she mentioned gaining something for herself using her abilities, the doubt and lack of confidence turned her determination to water. At first Jovvi couldn’t understand how the two fit together, and then the answer became obvious.
“Of course you can do what you want to,” Jovvi said, doing her best to project utter conviction without actually using her talent. “I’d guess that your biggest problem is having no one on your side, no one to occasionally lean on. Standing alone is very tiring, and when the weariness comes it brings memories of the lies you’ve been told. Your enemies want you weak and helpless, so they’ve always insisted that you were nothing else. Most of the time you know better, but when you tire you become afraid that they’re right.”
“At one point they were right,” the girl forced herself to say as she leaned back and closed her eyes. “I let them force me into the first marriage, and if I’d really been strong I wouldn’t have. If something happens once it can always happen again, even if you decide not to let it.”
“I repeat, it only happened because you had no one on your side,” Jovvi said slowly and clearly, fighting off the waves of defeat coming from the girl without trying to change them artificially. “You now have me on your side, which gives you more than a single choice. If we decide we don’t like what those people are up to and there’s a way to get out in one piece, we’ll take it and set up a residence together. With the two of us in it, we’ll soon have so much gold we’ll have to give it away to keep the banks from breaking under the load.”
“That’s a lot of gold,” Tamrissa said with a laugh that broke her painful mood, but then she reddened. “I really like your idea, but me in a residence … pretending to be a courtesan… I wouldn’t have the first idea of what to do. Not to mention never being able to stop blushing. I can’t imagine many men wanting a woman who looks as though she’s fallen into a vat of red dye.”
“You’d be surprised what men want and like,” Jovvi said with her own laugh. “Most of my former patrons would be delighted with your blush, since it makes you even lovelier than you are. And you can be sure no one like your late husband would be allowed through our doors. I never have trouble telling that sort, and no longer even bother making the effort to keep them from hurting me. I simply refuse them, and spend my time with men who have no sickness in their minds. And speaking of that sort, stay away from Eskin Drowd. I knew he was one from the moment we first met.”
“I’m not surprised,” Tamrissa said, no longer quite as flustered. “He really enjoys hurting people with his words, just the way Gimmis did. But I still can’t imagine finding it pleasant to be with a man, so I’m going to try to find a way to make this High practitioner thing work. Maybe no one ever sees them doing things because what they do is secret. What I can’t figure out is what that sort of thing would be.”
“If their work is secret, there are only two possibilities,” Jovvi answered, delighted to feel the balance which had returned to Tamrissa. “Either they’re working against the enemies of our empire, or they’re working against our own people. Nothing else I can think of would require secrecy.”
“In what way could they be working against us?” Tamrissa asked, looking thoughtful rather than disbelieving. “People would notice interference that strong, and there would be rumors and gossip and guesswork flying everywhere. Have you ever heard anything like that?”
“No,” Jovvi admitted with a sigh, forcing down her annoyance over not being able to figure the thing out. “And right now we’re the ones flying everywhere, but without solid facts there’s nothing else we can do. Let’s find another subject to talk about for a while, specifically one you can talk about while I finish my chocolate. It’s just about all melted between my fingers, and I want to eat it before I lose any.”
“Go ahead,” Tamrissa invited with a laugh, watching as Jovvi did just that. “And if you’d like another piece, just help yourself.”
Jovvi was tempted to accept the offer, but couldn’t quite bring herself to do it. Tamrissa had been more than generous sharing the treasure in the first place, and to take more of it just wouldn’t be fair. Maybe another time, after dreaming and remembering for a while…
Tamrissa didn’t have a second piece either, but instead replaced the leather box in its hidden niche. After that they shared the tea, rewarmed to the proper temperature by Tamrissa’s talent. And they stayed away from important or unpleasant topics, to give themselves a chance to think clearly. Their futures depended on what they would learn or figure out, which made it something they’d be idiots to rush.
Jovvi returned to her room to freshen up just before dinner, taking the opportunity to check on the safety of her gold. It was still just where she’d hidden it, but the place under the loose floorboard in the corner of the room no longer looked as safe as it had. That business at the dressmaker’s had disturbed her, leaving each of them exactly two silver dins. If they’d used Earth magic there to deplete the applicants’ resources, they could just as well come to the house to do the same thing. She would have to find a better place to hide her gold, one that couldn’t be found even by someone with Earth magic. And there might be just the place…
By the time Jovvi went down to dinner, she felt a good deal better. The golden statuette on a wooden pedestal out in the hall had been pure gold rather than simply gilded, and the beautifully carved pedestal had been constructed of lacy lengths and sections joined together to make its pattern. That meant there were empty places inside the pedestal, most especially in the almost-solid portion the statuette stood directly on. Putting her savings in that portion and wedging it in with rags brought the gold of her coins close to the gold of the statuette. If that didn’t disguise and protect her cache nothing would, short of depositing it in a bank once they reopened. That was something she’d have to think about, but not right away. She might end up being glad her gold was close to hand…
Dinner consisted of small game birds baked in a variety of sauces, vegetables with complementary sauces, bread, cheese, and wine. Jovvi took the chair next to Tamrissa’s rather than her own, but Beldara Lant sat in her usual place and still pretended to be alone in the world. Her anger and spitefulness hadn’t eased in the least, nor did it seem like it would. Apparently Beldara was someone who never changed her mind once she’d made it up, and telling her about the suspicions Jovvi and Tamrissa had would have been a waste of breath. Ah well, the girl was too single-minded to have been much help anyway.
After the mostly silent dinner, Jovvi proposed that they all use the bath house togeth
er. Beldara got up and left the room even before Jovvi finished speaking, which made her response perfectly clear. For some reason Tamrissa also tried to beg off, but Jovvi wasn’t in the mood to be alone so she insisted. Tamrissa finally gave in and agreed, and the two of them went for lounging wraps and slippers, then walked together to the bath house.
“I still think we should have brought clean clothes rather than wraps,” Tamrissa said as they reached the bath house door.
“We don’t know when the men will be back, and they could find us parading around almost naked. Which reminds me…”
What the girl had been reminded about was the “occupied” sign, which she found pushed to the wall to the left of the door. She readjusted it to hang directly on the door in plain sight, then led the way inside.
“I hope it works better this time than it did the last,” she said over her shoulder as Jovvi shut the door behind them. “That annoying Vallant Ro walked in on me while I was trying to soak the aftereffects of the test out of my poor, abused body, and refused to wait until I was out of the water and decently clothed again. I could feel him staring at my body until I got it covered, and I’ve never been so – embarrassed—in my entire life.”
“That was obviously because you’re not used to being appreciated when being looked at,” Jovvi said comfortably, beginning to get out of her clothes. “That makes all the difference, and eventually takes all the embarrassment out of it. How did he look without clothes?”
“You don’t think I tried to find out?” Tamrissa protested, coloring again the way she had earlier. “I was taught that seeing a man in the altogether is wrong for a girl, unless the man is her husband and wants it that way. Gimmis didn’t, which was just about the only good thing in our marriage.”