Challenges

by Sharon Green

  And thinking about worries brought Jovvi back to her own. She’d spent a good part of the day trying to regain her balance, as there were things she’d seen at the trial that she knew she needed to think about. What had kept her from doing it was the fact that she had to replay the trial in her mind in order to consider what needed examining, and she wasn’t yet able to do that. The anguish and guilt were still too fresh and painful…

  For the hundredth time Jovvi was forced to shy away from the too-vivid memories, and getting frustrated was simply making things worse. What she needed was another distraction, and the perfect one would also help her to sleep. To her mind that meant a relaxing soak in the bath house, something she’d meant to do earlier but had forgotten. Well, better late than never, everyone said…

  It didn’t take long for Jovvi to change into a wrap, and it took the same amount of time for her to decide that she wanted none of the house’s multitude of spies to follow along and ruin her relaxation. So once she was ready to go, she sent her ability out ahead of her to make sure no one discovered her presence or destination. A maid in the midst of a late-evening chore was out in the hall, but the chore was quickly seen to so that the maid could go to her own room.

  When the hall was empty again, Jovvi slipped out. No one hovered in corners or shadows or behind doors as she quietly descended the stairs, but a surprising number of servants were still up and about in the kitchen. Or perhaps the number wasn’t quite that surprising. People who needed information to sell to their secret patrons had to be available to gather that information when there was a chance it would occur, and most of the members of the soon-to-be Blending were awake. Spies get to go to bed only when the objects of their spying do, which more than served them right.

  One of the male servants lurked in a deep shadow not far from the back door, but he might as well have been holding a stable lantern for all the good the shadow did in hiding him from Jovvi. She paused far enough away so that he had no idea she was there, and then took a moment to consider the situation. The man had apparently been at his post for quite some time, and seemed to have no intention of leaving it yet despite the discomfort which had not yet reached his conscious mind—

  Jovvi smiled, realizing that that was her answer. Rather than standing there for hours waiting for the man to leave or finding a window to climb out of, she just had to encourage the growing discomfort of his body. He’d apparently brought a supply of tea along to keep him company during his vigil, and when tea wants to leave you it becomes rather insistent. Jovvi just had to focus his awareness on that insistence, and then let nature take its course.

  As soon as the man had hurried off to relieve himself, Jovvi slipped outside and did her own hurrying toward the bath house. An intensive scan in all directions showed no one aware of her at all, which was exactly the way she wanted it. The door to the bath house opened easily in the dim colored light of the paper lanterns, and Jovvi stepped inside—only to discover that the place was already occupied. For a heart-stopping moment she thought it was Lorand, but he and Rion only looked alike physically. In their minds, the two men were completely different individuals.

  “Oh, I’m sorry, Rion, I should have realized I’d be intruding on someone’s peace and quiet,” she said at once when he sat up abruptly from one of the bath’s head rests. “That servant waiting in the shadows near the back door… He must have been waiting to see if anyone came out secretly to join you.”

  “And now you have,” he pointed out calmly, beginning to get to his feet. “Obviously the only thing I can do is leave at once, which ought to make him think we aren’t hatching any secret plots.”

  “Even though we are,” Jovvi agreed with a smile as she gestured to him. “But don’t leave unless you really want to. The servant was forced to abandon his post for a moment or two, so he missed seeing me come out here. As far as he knows, you’re still alone.”

  “You won’t mind if I stay?” Rion asked as he settled back to watch Jovvi walk over to the soap cabinet. “My presence won’t keep you from enjoying the water as well?”

  “No, I’m used to bathing in mixed company,” Jovvi said, then turned back to him as she realized something. “Rion, you’re making progress again. You’ve noticed that men and women don’t usually bathe together, and I think you’re trying to understand why.”

  “Yes, I am,” he acknowledged with a smile, one hand pushing back wetness from his dripping hair. “When I first got here, all I knew was that I was supposed to bathe alone. Being in a group changed that pretty quickly, and of course I noticed that you and Tamrissa didn’t bathe with the rest of us. I suppose I thought that was because you didn’t want to be crowded, but when I accidentally walked in on Warla a short while ago, I learned differently. She’d put up the occupied sign, and I simply hadn’t seen it.”

  “Oh, dear,” Jovvi said as she slipped out of her wrap, leaving it on the bench near her slippers. “It’s terrible to laugh at something like that, especially with someone like Warla involved. But the girl could use some shaking up, which just might put some starch into her backbone.”

  “There seemed to be plenty of starch all through her when she began to scream,” Rion told her ruefully. “At first I thought I’d gotten here just in time to save her from some horrible but invisible fate, and it took me a moment to realize that I was the horror. She made me turn my back before she would leave the water, and while she dressed she kept apologizing for having to blame me for intruding. That was one point I didn’t even try to understand.”

  “I don’t blame you a bit,” Jovvi said with a laugh, aware of the way he looked straight at her as she entered the water. “I’d rather avoid it myself, although I’m usually not this much of a coward. It’s supposed to be my place to help people with emotional problems if I can, but right now I have too many of my own.”

  “Which our … friends at the testing authority want you to have, according to Ro,” Rion said, leaning forward again. “Coll and Ro and I found a few moments of privacy during the afternoon, and he told us about the trial—as well as about that secret observer with Spirit magic. The man seemed completely taken in?”

  “As far as I could tell, he was only able to see surface emotions,” Jovvi said, feeling the warm water begin to take the knots out of her muscles. “I had plenty of those at the time, and all of them were the sort those people were apparently trying to produce. I still have them, of course, but don’t intend to let them be as crippling as those people wanted them to be. When you know what people are about, you find it easier to meet their ploys.”

  “Not always,” Rion said, a dark shadow passing over his mind as his gaze began to see something inward. “There are times you can actually watch what people are about, but it becomes impossible to figure out why—and what you can do about it. That’s something else I’ve recently learned, and I wish I hadn’t.”

  “I’d say you need to talk about the situation,” Jovvi observed, heading for the side of the bath where she’d left her soap. “If you’ll hold on until I’ve washed, I’ll be more than happy to listen.”

  “But you said yourself just now that you have enough of your own problems,” he protested in confusion. “How can I add to that without feeling that I’m taking advantage of a friend?”

  “Actually, I’m in the process of learning something new myself,” Jovvi replied, turning to look at him. “I’m beginning to realize that if it weren’t for my friends’ willingness to share their feelings with me, I’d never be able to share mine with them. And then I’d be locked up all alone in my head with the horror I now feel, and nothing would be able to relieve it. It isn’t necessary for someone to be able to do something about your problem; very often it’s just their willingness to listen which helps.”

  “You’re only just now learning that?” Rion asked with amusement obviously offered up for sharing. “I learned that myself days ago, only hadn’t realized I had. Go ahead and do your washing, and then we’ll exchange problems.
”

  Jovvi matched his smile before turning to her bath, which didn’t take very long. Once she’d pushed back her freshly clean hair with both hands to rid herself of dripping water, she moved to the rest area near Rion’s and slid down into it.

  “Okay, I’m all ready to listen now,” she said, feeling the calm patience he’d been showing all along. “What is it that’s bothering you?”

  “It … seems I’ve lost my lady, but not in the usual way,” he began, his former calm definitely rippling. “Tamrissa and Coll helped me to avoid Mother’s watchdogs so that I might go to see Naran in her new place of residence, and we had a marvelous time together. Afterward I left to come back here, but it occurred to me that I didn’t have to be here until morning. So I went back to the house where she’d been, only to find her—and all trace of her—gone. It was almost as though I’d imagined her, but I happen to know I didn’t. She should have been living in that house, but instead she’d disappeared.”

  “Is it possible that your mother’s people found her?” Jovvi asked, hating to bring up the point but knowing it was necessary. “You might have been followed without your knowing it, and those people might have spirited her away.”

  “I discovered I was followed, but not closely enough for them to know which house I went to,” Rion answered with a dismissive headshake. “The next day I was told they meant to find out, but Naran was gone by then. And not only were there no signs of a struggle in the empty house, the rooms we used had been tidied.”

  “That’s very strange,” Jovvi said with a frown. “Are you sure the house was where she was supposed to live? Is it possible she really lives elsewhere, and only used the house as a place to meet you?”

  “I was about to say it isn’t possible, but that’s not true,” Rion replied, his brows high with surprise. “Naran’s note gave me the address, where she said she would be that night. If I recall correctly, it never actually said she would be living there. I wonder why she would bring me to a place other than where she’s living.”

  “Possibly because there’s a danger you might be followed,” Jovvi suggested, swallowing down the other possibility: that Rion’s Naran was married. The idea might have to be suggested to him, but not right now. Some other time, when his spirits hadn’t suddenly soared out of their previous pit.

  “And I never thought of that!” he exclaimed, his handsome face alight with relief and gladness. “The most obvious answer of all, and I needed to have it pointed out. I feel like a fool, but at least a thoroughly delighted one.”

  “That’s the best kind of fool to be,” Jovvi said, smiling at his grin. “When you see Naran next you can speak to her about it, but at least for now your worry is put to rest.”

  “So it is,” he agreed, his expression softening as he turned a bit more toward her. “And now it’s your turn. Share the horror you went through with me, so that you won’t be trapped alone in your head with it.”

  Jovvi hadn’t really intended to talk about her own thoughts, but realizing that Rion waited to listen rather than to judge made her start to tell the story of her own experience with the law. As her mind went back to it again, it almost felt as though she were reliving the time. The helplessness, the uncertainty, the terror of being completely alone… By the time she reached the part about her rescue, she came back to the present to find that she huddled against Rion, held tightly in his arms. She was also trembling, and he made small sounds of comfort and soothing.

  “There, now, you see?” he murmured, gently rocking her a bit. “You weren’t all alone after all, and you certainly aren’t alone now. We’re all here for you, sweet lady, anytime you might need us. Please believe that, as it happens to be true.”

  “Yes, you’re absolutely right,” Jovvi said, raising her face to his without trying to leave his arms. “If anyone should know that we’re all prepared to be there for each other, I’m certainly the one. But until now I knew it only with my mind, not with my heart and inner being. Thank you, Rion, for helping me to see it in the proper way.”

  “The pleasure was mine,” he responded, his beautiful smile warming again. “Another thing I’ve been learning is that it isn’t an imposition to help real friends, it’s a delight. I considered mentioning the point to my mother and telling her she was wrong, but then I realized that she wasn’t wrong. Since none of the people she knows really is her friend, she’ll never find it possible to experience what we do. Eventually I may come to pity her.”

  “If someone else in your place said that, I would doubt their ever actually reaching that point.” Jovvi looked at him with both her eyes and her talent, her hands to his arms, and there was no doubt at all. “You, however, are almost there already, and somehow I’m not surprised. But I think you’d better let me go now, unless you plan to stay here a good deal longer. Every time we speak I find you more and more attractive, and I’m not in the habit of ignoring attractive men who happen to be both naked and holding me.”

  “I was about to ask if you found my holding you upsetting,” he replied slowly, studying her as carefully as she had done with him. “I may be mistaken, but the question seems unnecessary. Am I correct in thinking that you aren’t upset in the least?”

  “Yes, it so happens you are,” Jovvi told him with a bit more of a smile. “What I am is becoming aroused, a perfectly natural reaction when you’re with someone you consider attractive. But in this case the someone I’m with has a lady he’s very much involved with, and it would be inconsiderate to offer him a joining that he might well want to refuse.”

  “But—why would I want to refuse?” Rion asked, and Jovvi could see that he was honestly puzzled. “If Naran were here my complete attention would be hers, as I love her with every fiber of my being. But she doesn’t happen to be here now, so I would scarcely be turning my back on her. To—join, as you called it, with another woman won’t lessen my love for Naran in the least, and especially not if you’re the other woman. What I feel for you and Tamrissa is a good deal more than fondness.”

  “Yes, it is, isn’t it,” Jovvi murmured distractedly as she examined the emotion he’d mentioned. It wasn’t romantic love, which Rion felt for Naran and she herself felt for Lorand, but it was definitely a kind of love. There had been a hint of the same thing when Tamma had spoken about Rion, and surprisingly enough Jovvi could just detect the same thing growing in her own thoughts about Rion. Another oddness to be thought about after she got around to the prior ones, but definitely not at this moment.

  Rather than saying anything else, Jovvi leaned a bit closer and touched her lips to Rion’s. She wondered if he would understand, and his chuckle and response answered her question immediately. Until now he’d been holding her supportively rather than intimately, which is always a matter of attitude rather than the presence or absence of clothing. After the kiss, however…

  After the kiss, Rion needed no further encouragement. His big hands began to stroke her body slowly as he started a much longer kiss, his own body made available for any caresses she might wish to give. With the help of her talent, Jovvi was able to touch him just where and how he most wanted the touches, and his flaring passion drew her irresistibly in his wake. His moans of pleasure and complete abandon were like nothing she had ever experienced before, an assessment which would have shocked her during a more levelheaded time.

  But Jovvi had already been pulled so deeply into his passion that she no longer had the capacity for rational, critical thought. Her own moans joined his all by themselves, and it actually took a long moment to understand what they were suddenly lying on. They hadn’t left the bath, so Rion must have supplied a bed of thickened air to keep them—and especially her—from drowning. By the time she reached that conclusion Rion was entering her, sharing rather than taking without having to be told.

  And then their thoughts merged even more closely than their bodies, which couldn’t possibly get any closer. Jovvi closed her eyes and simply moved with Rion, losing herself to pure sensation.
It was the most marvelous experience she’d ever had … except for one … which she couldn’t let herself think about now. But she would have that other again some day, she would…!

  Even though she was the one who had chased him away. Her eyes closed tight, Jovvi shared pleasure with Rion … and even in mindlessness thought only of Lorand…

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Delin heard the servant say, “Lord Rigos Baril,” and his shock was so deep that he simply couldn’t move. In his mind, Delin had already filed Rigos away as a previously solved problem. Not solved in the best way, of course, which would have put Rigos in Delin’s power rather than simply being under arrest for murder, but still acceptably solved. The man Delin hated would never again be in a position of power … so how could he possibly be here in the same position he’d previously had?

  “Rigos?” Kambil said in startlement, taking a step toward the small, dark man who now strolled into the room. “I’d say that this was a surprise, but the understatement would be ludicrous. How did you manage to be reinstated?”

  “When they cleared me, they had no choice but to reinstate me,” Rigos answered, sounding to Delin just as arrogant and superior as he’d always sounded. “And they did clear me, twice, using two different methods.”

  “And what methods were those?” Delin heard himself asking, just as though nothing at all were wrong. “People said there was real evidence against you, and that’s why you were arrested.”

  “The evidence, such as it was, had to be discarded,” Rigos drawled, stopping to adjust one of his shirt cuffs as he looked lazily back and forth between the two larger men. “The first thing they did was arrange an interview for me with the Earth magic Adept the Advisors themselves consult. The man apparently listened to my protestations of innocence with every bit of his ability, and then told the Advisors that I spoke the truth. You should know something about that, Delin, isn’t that so?”