by Sharon Green
The fire that was beginning to get a good hold on the building to my left lit the darkness more than the lamps on poles which lined the street at intervals of twenty-five feet or so. I can’t say I minded having the extra light, but it was time to make the point I’d come out here to make: this town wasn’t wide open to anyone who cared to march on in. If for no other reason, Lorand wouldn’t have liked it, so I reached to the flames with my talent and … slid around them, so to speak, protecting the wood of the building from their ravening. The flames flickered a bit in an effort to continue burning, found nothing to consume, and a moment later died out completely. That left me in a pool of shadow from which I could see those approaching, but probably couldn’t be easily seen myself.
“Hey, did you see that?” one of the five coming toward me said to his friends, his voice sounding disturbed. “Our fire went out, just like that. Did one of you put it out, for some reason you haven’t yet mentioned?”
The other four voiced their denials pretty much all together, and then one of them laughed.
“I bet one of those piddling Middle groups got together and smothered it,” the laughing one said. “We weren’t encouraging it, after all, so they’d have had no trouble doing it. Let’s start it again, and this time make sure their pitiful efforts won’t do any good.”
The others in his group agreed with laughter, and then they linked up and sent their considerable talent toward the building. I felt every movement and nuance of their effort, and in fact had to open to a bit more of the power to counter them. But counter them I did, keeping them from doing even so much as singeing a square inch of the building. Their efforts increased just a little, most of them straining to do it, and then the attempt died out completely.
“Something’s going on,” that first one said once their effort ended, his tone now faintly worried. “I don’t know what it is, but I don’t like it.”
“The Astindans couldn’t have gotten ahead of us, so it can’t be anything to really worry us,” the second replied, no longer laughing but not sounding as concerned as the first. “The others aren’t that far behind us, and we can always go back or wait for them here. If we really have to.”
“Oh, sure we can,” a third put in, his voice filled with sarcasm. “And when they ask us why we didn’t keep on going, we’ll just say we’retoo shy to go into a strange town alone. They’ll understand.”
“Okay, let’s not start to bicker,” a fourth man said when the second and third began to argue. “I agree that something odd is going on, but we can’t afford to stand here wasting time. The Asties aren’t that far behind us, and the last thing we want is to find them catching up. Do any of you want to get rolled over the way the rest of our section was? No? Then let’s get on with scaring the piss out of these townies so they’ll give us what we need without argument, and then we can move on.”
The other four men of the group agreed with nods or single words, ready to follow the very sensible suggestion of the one who was obviously the group’s leader. But now that I knew who they were, I also knew what my next move had to be. For that reason I stepped forward just a bit, to a place not far from one of the street lamps. That let them see me, and when they did they relaxed rather than tense up even more.
“Well, will you look at that,” the first, loudmouthed one said with a small laugh of delight. “The townies have decided to try distracting us. I don’t know about the rest of you, but it’s starting to work with me.”
“Be quiet, Gall,” the one who was their leader said as the others laughed out their agreement. “Can’t any of you fools tell that she’s a lady of Fire? If the rest of you have forgotten what happened just a couple of minutes ago, I haven’t.”
“Come on, Listle, you can’t be seriously suggesting that she’s the one who kept us from burning that building,” the man Gall returned with a snort of ridicule. “There are five of us and only one of her, so you have to be wrong.”
“He isn’t wrong,” I said, and my voice was satisfactorily even. “And even beyond that, I’m in command. That means you now have to take my orders without question.”
All five of them stiffened when I used the keying phrase for segments of the army, the same phrase we’d used to free our own groups of former army segments. They should have responded with immediate promises of obedience, but instead the man Listle just shook his head hard.
“No, I know that isn’t true, so it isn’t going to work,” he said, now looking at me with hatred in his eyes. “I don’t know who you are, girl, but my commander you are not. That particular fool is dead, so I never have to be a slave again. All right, you idiots, together with me now!”
And just that quickly I was under attack, defending myself from their efforts to burn me alive. There was hatred and loathing on all of their faces, obviously from whatever memories tortured them, and then their expressions were blotted out by the sheets of fire meant to consume me. Frantically I reached for more of the power, currently having only enough to keep myself untouched. The plan I’d counted on to work hadn’t, and now I had to try to defeat a link group of five High talents all by myself.
The sweat that began to cover me was more the result of my efforts than of the walls of fire, and the outpouring increased as I realized that although I could hold off the five, I couldn’t seem to attack in return. I had the distant impression that I should have been able to attack, but the knowledge I needed to do it just wasn’t there. Where that left me I didn’t know, but before I had the time to become more than just a little frightened—
—it was no longer just me alone. Suddenly I was part of the entity again, but this time the part that was me wasn’t lost amid the rest. The entity’s thoughts now merged with mine, bringing me the realization of how much more strength I now had to draw on. With that in view I reached out to the five who worked frantically to destroy my flesh form, and repeated what I had said just a little while ago.
“You were mistaken in what you said, for I am in command,” I told them all in their minds, forcing the keying phrase in deep. “As you can see, you are no match for me even together. Stop your attack before you force me to retaliate—which will surely destroy you.”
“I obey, I obey,” the man Gall babbled, just as the others said the same. Their attack also ceased immediately, which pleased me quite a lot. To waste these flesh forms would have been a pity, as they were needed to fight on our side.
“Very well,” I told them. “You will wait here until the others of your section join you, and in the interim you will see to putting out the fires you started. Once you are all together again you will proceed to the stables in the middle of town, and there you will report to me and my associates. Is that clear?”
“We hear and we will obey,” the five said together, now firmly under my command. Then they turned and began to see to the fires they’d started, leaving me free to … float in the direction from which the rest of their section was to come. My flesh form remained where it was, but I floated away.
And in a moment found the location of the rest of the section. They were only a short distance behind the group of Fire, and there were approximately seventy-five of them. All of them looked as bedraggled and shabby as the first five, and most of them were more worried and disturbed than lighthearted and carefree. It was the work of moments to visit each of their link groups and establish control over them, then order them to rejoin their Fire link and report to the stables. And then—
—and then it was me alone back again, actually more shaken than I’d been when under attack. I had no idea why the Blending had suddenly become something different, and that was bad enough. Worse was the knowledge that my groupmates were all waiting to talk to me, but possibly talk was the wrong word. They were furious that I’d put myself in a position where I really could have been hurt or killed, and once I was within screaming distance of them again…
Knowing what was coming made me flinch, but short of taking off alone into the night, there was
no way of getting out of it. Maybe taking off alone wasn’t such a bad idea … at least it would probably prove safer…
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Everyone around Jovvi was shouting and nearly frothing at the mouth, but for once she made no effort to stop it or change the mood. In point of fact she shared that mood, and possibly even led the others in being rabidly incensed.
“… told you that that could happen, but did you listen to me?” Lorand was in the process of shouting at a flinching Tamma. “No, you did not listen, and you were nearly killed!”
“And for no reason!” Rion added his own high anger, Naran standing beside him and looking only slightly sorry for Tamma. “At the time you left here, I was already on the way back with Jovvi and Vallant. There was absolutely no reason for you to do as you did, and should it ever happen again, I’ll—I’ll—”
“No, I will,” Vallant interrupted to growl, his own emotions so incredibly wild that it was a wonder he hadn’t burst into flame himself. And the way he stared down at Tamma with a gaze as hard as steel… “I don’t care if you’rethe strongest Fire talent in the entire world. If I ever catch you doin’ somethin’ like this again, I’ll put you over my knee and show you just how I feel about it!”
“And I’ll help him!” Jovvi couldn’t help adding in much too high a voice, her nerves still jangling over how close Tamma had come to being hurt or killed. “You’rejust lucky there isn’t any privacy around here, or I would be helping him do it right now!”
“All right, you’ve all yelled at me and have hopefully gotten it out of your systems,” Tamma said, finally bristling up at Vallant’s threat—and Jovvi’s support of it. “I know you were all worried about me, so I haven’t pointed out that I wasn’t in danger of being hurt—just of not being able to retaliate. And I should have been able to fight back, I know I should have, but there’s no one around to teach us how to handle our talents properly. Why don’t you direct your anger at the nobles, who are the ones who created that situation? Not to mention all the rest of this insanity…”
“It wasn’t the nobility who sent you out there to face those five men alone,” Naran pointed out without her usual hesitation when the men didn’t immediately argue Tamma’s statement. “And you may not have been in danger at first, but once your strength began to drain out you certainly would have been. It was a very unwise thing for you to do, Tamrissa, and I think you know it.”
“Of course she does,” Jovvi confirmed, still trying to calm down. “She’s just too stubborn to admit it. But she’s right about one thing: now that we’ve all had our say, we’d better get to the rest of what needs to be done. If we don’t, we’ll never get any sleep tonight.”
“Do we have to examine all those segments tonight?” Rion asked, sounding more tired than annoyed. “Since we have them firmly under our control, why don’t we leave the rest for tomorrow?”
“I agree with that,” Lorand said, sounding just as tired. “Some of those people went along with what the others were doing simply because they had nowhere else to go and no one to go with. We can probably end up trusting that sort, but as for the others… Can we take the chance of having them around even fully under control? If our enemies regain control of them, they’ll fight against us as quickly as they’ll fight against the Astindans or anyone else.”
“If we don’t keep them with us, there’s only one other thing we can do with them,” Jovvi pointed out when everyone else made sounds of agreement with Lorand. “We certainly can’t leave them behind, to take advantage of the people of this town and any others they may come across. If you haven’t thought about that part of it, I suggest you consider it now. But since you’ll need time to consider it, I suppose I ought to agree about putting off working with them until tomorrow.”
That idea seemed to meet with everyone’s approval, and Jovvi was just as glad. Once her anger at Tamma began to fade, the rest of her strength started to flow out along with it. Leaving one of the new Blendings on guard along with the guardsmen they’d acquired would let the rest of them sleep, so that tomorrow morning they’d be able to do whatever needed doing.
“What about what happened in addition to my risking my poor little neck?” Tamma said just as everyone began to turn away. “Isn’t anyone going to mention that? Or don’t the rest of you know about it?”
“Know about what?” Jovvi asked, more than aware of the fact that Tamma wasn’t making something up just to get back at them for yelling at her. “I didn’t notice anything else happening.”
“I really don’t think it was my imagination,” Tamma said when the others made sounds indicating they also had no idea what Tamma meant. “It was when we Blended… I was drawn into the entity as usual, but this time it was through my point of view instead of the entity’s. And none of you noticed that?”
“I certainly didn’t,” Lorand said, his tone showing his disturbance. “I also know you believe you’retelling the truth, so I wonder what it means. Is it a step forward, or a step back?”
“Since the entity was still there, it can’t be a step backward,” Rion pointed out reasonably, a comment Jovvi happened to agree with. “I just don’t see the benefit in it as a step forward.”
“I can think of two possibilities,” Vallant said, sounding thoughtful. “The first would be the obvious, that the entity is too … nonhuman for our taste at times. That may allow for distancin’ it and us from what’s bein’ done, but that isn’t necessarily a good thing. The second possibility is that at times we need one aspect more than the others, so this may be a way of gettin’ it. If it isn’t one of those two, it can be just about anythin’.”
Jovvi was about to say that that made sense, but was kept from uttering the words by a sudden flurry of activity from a newly arrived group of people. In the front of the group were Idroy Welt and Mollit Feldin, the two men who had disagreed about the news they’d been brought. They led half a dozen others who looked more than slightly upset, and when they saw the members of the Blending they made straight for them.
“You said them furriners wusn’t gonna be here this soon!” Mollit Feldin shouted at them as soon as he was close enough. “Half th’ town’s burned, an’ it’s all yer fault!”
“You can stop that right there,” Lorand countered in just as loud a voice, looking at Feldin with disgust. “Since you’rethe one who insisted there wasn’t danger of any kind coming, you have nothing to complain about. You’rejust as much of a fool as you’ve always been, Mollit, and if you’rethe one leading these people, you can lead them right back out of here.”
“No, Lor, he ain’t leadin’ nobody,” Idroy Welt said quickly, giving Feldin the same sort of look. “We din’t even want ’im comin’ in with us, but he shoved in anyways. Just don’t pay ’im no mind, but I’d be obliged if’n ya told me: what in the name a th’ Highest Aspect wus all that?”
“Those people are from our army, and they’rerunning away ahead of the Astindan army,” Lorand explained, doing as Welt said and ignoring the now-sputtering Feldin. “Some of them aren’t very nice, but we have them under control now. Nothing else will be burned because of them, but that doesn’t mean the town will stay untouched. There have to be other groups like them, and after the groups will be the Astindan army.”
“So we don’t have nowhere’s as much time’s we thought,” Welt said with a nod while his neighbors paled and muttered to each other. “Don’t know ’bout nobody else, but I’m gettin’ packed up t’night an’ leavin’ with first light. My woman’s got kin somewheres in th’ east, so us an’ th’ kids’s headin’ out. Your bunch gonna stick around a while longer?”
“We’realso leaving in the morning,” Lorand replied with a headshake, which comment silenced the people behind Welt. “We’ll appreciate being able to take as much food with us as possible, as we’ll be quite a few in number. We’rewilling to pay for the food, and selling it to us will be better than leaving it behind to rot.”
“Ain’t nobody in this here dis
trict gonna charge you nothin’ fer th’ food,” Welt said belligerently, turning to scowl at his neighbors. “This town’d be ashes if your bunch gave back what you been gettin’ frum us, so I don’t wanna hear nothin’ different. Ever’body’s gonna bring what they can’t carry ’n use themselves. Ain’t that right, men?”
“We’ll see t’ it,” one of the group said quietly, the others nodding in the same way. “We feel shamed fer th’ way we follered th’ babble Mollit kept spoutin’, like none a us got minds t’think with. Men git stupid when they git scared, folks say, an’ now I c’n say I know it’s true. But it ain’t gonna be true no more.”
“Is there anyone who’s willing to stop at the surrounding towns and spread the warning?” Lorand asked after nodding soberly at what the man had said. “Whoever goes may well get the same reception we did, but with pieces of the army running around ahead of the Astindans, the danger is a lot closer and more immediate than it was.”
“When they sees us passin’ through in smaller r’ bigger groups an’ not stoppin’ t’argue, they oughta know it ain’t no joke,” Welt said after taking a deep breath. “If’n they don’t, they c’n stay ’n find out like we done, th’ hard way. Well … gotta leave now ’cause I got things t’do, so I’ll jest wish ya luck wherever yer goin’. Got a feelin’ ya’ll need ’er…”
Welt let his words trail off as he held out his hand to Lorand, and Jovvi was able to feel Lorand’s disturbance as he took the hand and shook it. The other men—except for Mollit Feldin, who had stalked out of the stables a pair of moments earlier—also came forward for handshaking, and for a wonder Jovvi and Tamrissa weren’t excluded. Jovvi’s hand was pumped more gently, though, and then the group of men left.
“Alsin is working with the guardsmen and our own people,” Lorand said after the men had gone. “He’s organizing rest for those who haven’t had any, and food for the new segments we just brought in. I think he also ought to be put in charge of the food that will be coming, and that’s something we can use the Low level talents for: keeping the food fresh as long as possible. It won’t be easy feeding almost five hundred people on the way to Gan Garee.”