by Sharon Green
“I’ll enjoy registerin’ a lot more if we get some questions answered first,” Vallant replied, not in the least unsure. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll try somethin’, and then we won’t feel guilty about not payin’ after we take care of it. If we do have to pay, the gold we have with us may not be enough.”
“Yes, it does look rather expensive, doesn’t it,” Jovvi agree with a sigh. “Just sitting on that lawn would be pure relaxation, especially facing that somewhat circular drive. Its curves are all part of the design arrangement … and now I want that bath more than ever. But I also have the distinct feeling that after we bathe we won’t be as impressive to the people waiting for us as we are right now.”
“You mean we can use lookin’ like desperados for our own purposes,” Vallant said, understanding the point immediately. “I think you’reright, and it’s a good thing—because that’s what I meant to do anyway.”
This time Jovvi only smiled, and then they were approaching the curving, circular drive which led to the three inns in turn. But the drive didn’t link the three buildings, not directly at least, with those sweeping curves. And there, off to the right, behind a stand of screening trees, seemed to be immense stables. They wouldn’t be visible from any of the three inns, and were only just visible from the foot of the drive.
Vallant led the way to the first of the inns, but he wasn’t happy about it. The closer they got to Gan Garee the more … trapped he felt, the more surrounded and outnumbered. He wouldn’t have minded so much for himself, but the others were riding toward the trap right along with him. If these people waiting for them did prove to be helpful in some way, that would only bring the time closer when their five would have to enter Gan Garee again.
And that could very well end their lives, all their lives, whether or not misunderstandings were straightened out and hurts were soothed. Their Blending was stronger than that of the Seated Five, but it would be foolish to assume that facing those five enemies again would be all they had ahead of them. Their enemies knew who was stronger, so they could be counted on to avoid a direct confrontation until no other option was open to them.
So Vallant had a decision to make while they were waiting for their army to catch up, and it would prove to be the hardest decision he’d ever made in his life…
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
When they reached the inn Lorand dismounted, then moved around to the right side of his horse to help Tamrissa dismount. There hadn’t been much conversation between them as they’d ridden, but once they’d reached Colling Green Tamrissa had … come back to herself a bit more, Lorand realized. She’d commented on the town—at least on the amount of it she remembered—and seemed to be making a firm return from the withdrawn and determined stranger she’d been during most of the ride.
Lorand sighed to himself as he helped Tamrissa to the ground, agreeing with Jovvi that they were interfering, but also knowing that he and Jovvi had no choice but to interfere. She had spent her time with Vallant while Lorand stayed with Tamrissa, and later on, once all danger of attack was over, they would change places. They’d hoped to ease the ever-widening rift which was growing between Tamrissa and Vallant, and Lorand hoped that Jovvi had had more success than he had.
“Why is the damn fool stopping?” Tamrissa had muttered when Vallant had halted their group at the brow of the low hill to look down at what they meant to approach. “If anything of a trap is visible from this distance, then those people are idiots and we have nothing to worry about from them.”
“Most people seem to want to look at the place where they’regoing before they go to it,” Lorand had answered lamely, trying to defend Vallant on the one hand and hoping to avoid disturbing Tamrissa on the other. “He’s probably just trying to give everyone a chance to do that. Why have you refused to hear anything he has to say?”
“Why should I listen?” she countered, making no effort to turn her head to look at Lorand. “He never says anything worth hearing, a fact I can testify to from personal experience. On top of that, I’m tired of being asked to listen when he wants to talk, and at all other times being expected to accept his silence without question. And I also don’t care to hear excuses for his behavior from every second or third person. To be truthful, I don’t care to hear about him in any way from anyone at all.”
And at that point she had looked at Lorand, in a way which had ended the discussion right there. Lorand knew that Tamrissa would never hurt him, but the hint of flames in her gaze was now an almost constant thing. If her temper flared then her talent might do the same, before she could consciously halt it. Lorand had overheard two High talents in Fire magic discussing Tamrissa’s strength with awe in their voices, and therefore was doubly anxious to avoid all possibility of an accident.
“We’d better move up with the others,” Lorand now said to a Tamrissa who currently stretched the aches of the ride out of her back. “Since we’rethe ones they want to see, it’s only right if we walk in there first.”
“It’s also the place for the strongest among us,” Tamrissa said in agreement. “Any traps should be set up to neutralize us, and will hopefully overlook completely the second Blending we have with us. If there’s something in there that we can’t handle alone, our second will help us to get out of it.”
“I certainly hope so,” Lorand muttered, but only to himself. Master Lugal hadn’t known why his superiors wanted to talk to them, but the fact that they’d been told about it in his former home town made Lorand feel personally responsible for whatever would happen. Intellectually he knew that the decision to come had been a group effort, but that knowledge did nothing to alter the set of his emotions.
Rion and Naran were already on their way to joining Jovvi and Vallant, so Lorand and Tamrissa brought up the rear. But that was only the rear of their own group. The five link sets and the second Blending formed up in the true rear, pretending that they were only casually grouped. Their mounts formed a solid line all along the front of the very dignified-looking inn, a barrier that would hopefully keep any hidden attackers from approaching very quickly from behind them.
Lorand glanced at the sky as they moved in a body toward the entrance to the inn, seeing the clouds already beginning to roll in. There would be rain by nightfall, which gave them even more incentive to take care of whatever lay ahead of them. They no longer had wagons to take shelter under when they camped for the night, so it would be either stay at one of the inns or sleep in the dripping wet. They’d all had more than enough of roughing it, so it would take quite a lot to keep them out of clean, comfortable beds tonight.
Vallant led the way inside, making no effort to let Jovvi walk in ahead of him the way he normally would have. Lorand felt grateful for that deliberate lapse in gentlemanly behavior, and that despite the fact that Jovvi was more than capable of taking care of herself. Until they found out what the Guild people wanted, their ladies would not be put in a position where they would be the first to face an attack. Rion and Naran entered behind Vallant and Jovvi, and then it was Lorand and Tamrissa walking in to look around.
The inn’s entrance area was carpeted almost up to the double doors, with thickly upholstered furniture and beautifully carved tables carefully arranged across it. Half a dozen people sat in some of that furniture, and now they sat staring at the newcomers. From their expressions of stunned shock Lorand gathered that Jovvi had been working to keep these people from being aware of their approach, which was a really good idea. An older man among the group stood shakily as he looked briefly toward a boy and gestured at him, and as the boy ran off the man offered an awkward bow.
“Unless I am very much mistaken, gentles, you are certainly expected,” the man said in an unsteady voice, his gaze moving back and forth among them. “May I ask who succeeded in sending you here?”
“It was master Lugal, in Widdertown,” Lorand supplied when no one else spoke up. “How many others did you leave your … request with?”
“Why, with everyone,�
�� the man responded, showing his surprise. “We knew you had escaped from Gan Garee, but we had no way of knowing which direction you would take. So we sent messages by pigeon in every direction, knowing that someone would come across you… The others will be here in just a few minutes, but I’m afraid there aren’t chairs enough for your entire escort. If the five of you will seat yourselves, I can see about having more chairs brought out and having refreshments served…”
“Thank you, but until we find out what this is all about, we prefer to stand,” Vallant said in a hard and grating tone that made the poor man flinch. “I’m sure you understand that we’ve had to learn caution.”
“Oh, but there’s no need to be cautious with us,” the man responded, again looking startled. “We know, you see, and we’ve known from the very first. Surely you must have expected someone to know?”
Lorand saw Vallant exchange glances with Jovvi and Rion just before he himself exchanged a glance with Tamrissa. He didn’t need to be told that the man spoke what he considered the truth, but just what that truth was still hadn’t been made clear.
“Why don’t you tell us what it is that you know,” Jovvi suggested gently to the man in her friendliest voice, possibly even using her talent at the same time. The man automatically returned her smile and relaxed a bit, but that didn’t have to be talent, just a normal response to the woman who was Jovvi.
“Why, we know the truth,” the man supplied willingly enough. “You five are the Chosen Blending, the one spoken of in the Prophecies, and the only way the nobles could have won the final competition against you is with cheating. We consider it our duty to stand beside you when you return, so that—”
“Ensor, enough,” a stronger voice interrupted, and Lorand looked up to see a group of men and women following the boy who had run off only a moment earlier. All those people must have been close and together, Lorand realized, or they couldn’t have gotten here this fast. “The Chosen don’t need to be burbled over, not when they’reobviously so tired. Let’s at least see them seated and fed before we pester them.”
“I was merely answering their question, High Master,” the man called Ensor replied, but in a quietly respectful way. “And now that you and the others are here…”
He faded back without finishing his sentence, ceding his place in front of the Blending with what looked to Lorand like a great deal of relief. The newcomers quickly made up for that by crowding forward—in a reserved way—and the man addressed as High Master smiled around at them.
“I’m Lavrit Mohr, and we’redelighted to have you here with us at last, Excellences,” he said with a bow. “Accommodations have been prepared for you, and as soon as you’ve had your meal you can all—”
“Just a moment, Dom Mohr,” Vallant interrupted the flow of the man’s words, his tone as dry as Lorand’s would have been. “There seems to be some sort of misunderstandin’ here, and we need to get it straightened out before we go any further. We do happen to be the ones who would have bested the new Seated Five in the final competition if their people hadn’t cheated, but that doesn’t make us the Chosen ones spoken of in the Prophecies. I’ve never put much stock in the Prophecies, so—”
“But Excellence, of course you’rethe Chosen ones,” Mohr interrupted with a small laugh, looking around now to see that the entire Blending agreed with what Vallant had said. “How can you possibly doubt it, when each of you witnessed the first sign yourselves?”
“What sort of sign were we supposed to have witnessed?” Jovvi asked gently—and rather quickly, probably to keep Tamrissa from telling the man her opinion of him. Tamrissa had opened her mouth with an impatient expression on her face, but Jovvi’s question kept the second woman from speaking.
“Yes, I’d like to know that as well,” Rion put in, supporting what Jovvi had asked. “I recall nothing in the way of signs, and it was merely happenstance which threw us all together. We could just as easily have ended up as members of different challenging Blendings.”
“But Excellence, of course there were signs,” Mohr protested, having lost his air of ecstatic delight. “All of the Guild members who sent you five to Gan Garee reported on them most completely, so there can’t possibly be any doubt.”
“If you’retalkin’ about Guild members supportin’ what you’resayin’, now I know you’remistaken,” Vallant told him with what was almost a snort of scorn. “The—lady who was in charge of sendin’ me to Gan Garee tried her best to see that I made the trip in chains, with guardsmen as travelin’ companions. I don’t know why she felt such … almost hatred for me, but she made it perfectly clear that she did.”
“Yes, I’m aware of the incident, Excellence,” Mohr replied, his nod quiet and his expression just short of amused. “Raina Santray had … a bad experience with a young man from a monied family, and so developed a certain prejudice. She confessed what she’d done in her report, and also confessed that she hadn’t had the heart to apologize afterward, when she realized the truth. If she’d faced you again she would surely have blurted out what she knew, and all Guild members were warned against speaking about the signs when they came. The nobility was also watching for those signs, you know, and we had no wish to let them learn that the first had manifested. It could well have meant your deaths.”
“So you kept quiet and thereby made sure we were all perfectly safe,” Tamrissa put in, the sarcasm in her voice much too clear to miss. “Or could it possibly be that no one noticed these ‘signs’ until we nearly won the last competition? Then everyone looked back and lo and behold, there were the signs they’d missed the first time around. How convenient for everyone involved.”
“You’reskepticism is somewhat puzzling to me, Excellences,” Mohr said, his brows having risen after hearing what Tamrissa had to say. “We were delighted to discover that no one noticed the signs but our own people, but now you’resaying that they were missed by your Five as well. Since I know that that can’t possibly be true, the answer must be that you’ve forgotten. With everything which happened to you afterward, that’s perfectly understandable. Would you permit me to remind you?”
“Yes, why don’t you do that,” Tamrissa said very dryly, speaking as Lorand might have if he hadn’t been taught to be polite and mannerly. These people were obviously entirely mistaken, but it might be worth their while to pretend to believe them—at least until they’d all had a few solid meals, a nice long bath, and a good night’s sleep in a bed…
“It would be my pleasure,” Mohr replied with a bow that was more courteous than sarcastic. “And it’s most fitting that the request should come from the lady of Fire. Inasmuch as the first sign was the appearance—from out of nowhere—of an attacking fireball. Surely you all remember now…”
Lorand felt the clang of shock as he suddenly did remember that fireball, the one which had attacked him on his way to the coach going to Gan Garee. He hadn’t known who could have been responsible for sending it, but he did remember how … intense master Lugal had been after the incident. He’d had to use his talent to put the thing out, but surely that applied only to him…
And then the shock grew more intense as Lorand noticed the same expression of shock on the faces of his groupmates. It couldn’t be, not them too … but that would mean…
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Jovvi had to shield herself completely for a moment, so resoundingly strong were the feelings of shock coming from her groupmates. That wouldn’t have been so bad, though, if her own feelings hadn’t been sending the same message: this is all a mistake, it has to be a mistake. We can’t be the ones spoken about in the Prophecies…
But Jovvi could remember the fireball vividly, and judging from the reactions of her groupmates, they all had memories of the same sort. Realizing that brought an odd weakness to Jovvi’s knees, as though as strange as it seemed, there might be something to what the man had said after all…
“Ah, the silence speaks volumes, as do your expressions,” Lavrit Mohr said, his smile mo
re benevolently pleased than triumphant. “May I assume that you now remember the incidents to which I referred? Each of you was threatened, and each of you met the threat and bested it.”
“But … surely that must be some sort of coincidence,” Rion tried, his voice less than steady. “Or possibly it was the doing of some of your people. You required a group you might call ‘Chosen’ to rally your members behind, and so you put everyone sent to Gan Garee through the same thing. No matter which of us ended up in the final competition, you would still be able to say that they were Chosen because of the ‘sign’.”
“Yes, that sounds reasonable,” Vallant immediately agreed, and so did the others. Now it was relief they showed on their faces, and Jovvi could understand that. The only problem was, the man called High Master now laughed gently at what he knew wasn’t the truth.
“The Prophecies also say that the Chosen will not know themselves at first,” Mohr supplied, still speaking gently. “And I think you’ve all apparently forgotten that none of my members could possibly have caused that fireball, because none of us can do magic the way everyone else can. Our talent is entirely different and, as you should know, revolves about being able to know a magic user’s strength. That particular talent tells me you’recurrently standing with others who can easily be considered High practitioners. Why don’t you ask them if they were attacked by fireballs when they were first sent to Gan Garee by my people?”
Jovvi found it impossible to keep herself from turning to look at the members of the link groups and the second Blending. They all stood there behind the people they considered their leaders, but their expressions and emotions had now changed to a large extent. Awe colored their thoughts, and any number of them shook their heads to answer the question that none of Jovvi’s group had been able to put.