by Sharon Green
“Yes, that sort of thing always impresses the peasants,” Embisson said with a judicious nod. “Fear is the key to controlling them, fear in regard to their personal safety, fear for their families, fear of being dismissed from whatever position earns them their daily bread. The guard won’t find it necessary to put down more than a very few of them, and after that there won’t be any more violators of the curfews.”
“Yes, everyone was very aware of that,” Edmin agreed. “The second rule will be that anyone who is arrested for unsocial behavior will be joined in his detention by the rest of his family. There are always fools who will risk their own lives and freedom to show their displeasure, but not many are also willing to risk the lives and freedom of their families. We’ve also set a bounty—in gold—on the heads of any agitators, and those who collect the gold will be given ‘positions of trust’ as well. That should make them think we’ll be appointing them as agents for some of us, but of course we won’t do anything that foolish. Traitors are traitors and can never be trusted.”
“Some of our peers also intend to begin demanding a larger percentage from those who run their businesses,” Eltrina put in, her expression unsure. “They feel that that will force the peasants to spend more time working in order to feed themselves and their families, but I’m undecided about how good an idea that is. If you reduce a peasant’s means of livelihood without actually taking away his responsibilities as well, you trap him in a place he might decide to escape from. It doesn’t force him to go back to doing what he always has, it changes his refuge of normality. Do you understand what I mean?”
“No, to be truthful, I don’t,” Embisson said without hesitation, but for Edmin’s sake he spoke gently. “Peasants are peasants, and will accept the new circumstances as normal whether they like them or not. They may want to protest, but when protest brings horror they’ll swallow the words and feelings and return to what’s expected of them. But is that all everyone’s decided to do?”
“Oh, there will be the usual public executions of agitators once they’rebetrayed to us,” Edmin said, his head moving in a gesture of dismissal. “That will add to it only a little, as most of those witnessing the executions won’t be the sort to become agitators. But it will rid of us of those who might lead the sheep to revolt, and so will be a worthy end in itself.”
“There’s one thing we haven’t discussed,” Eltrina said, and now she appeared to be more than slightly concerned. “The poison will take care of four of those five disgusting pretenders, but what about the fifth? The fact that he’ll be left alone without the others isn’t particularly comforting when one remembers he’s a High talent. He’ll still be able to make difficulty for the rest of our peers, and us in particular if he discovers we’rebehind the deaths of his groupmates. We really need to do something definite to send him quickly after the rest.”
“I agree,” Edmin said before Embisson could pooh-pooh the woman’s unfounded fears. “We once spoke about people who are foolish enough to turn their backs on their enemies, and because the Five did that, most of them will die. If we do the same in our turn, we won’t be able to complain if we meet the same fate.”
“All right, you may have a point,” Embisson agreed, not as reluctantly as he would have at first. “We need to find something which will be effective against Moord, but we’ll also have to be extremely careful. Shortly after the Five were Seated, Moord’s own parents disappeared under rather mysterious circumstances. If he was ungrateful enough to do away with his own parents, we can’t afford to take any chances with him.”
This time Edmin and Eltrina were the ones to agree, so they all began to discuss ideas. Embisson meant to settle for nothing less than a failproof plan, which he was confident they could come up with. But he would also bring up the matter of another note to the Five, which he had now decided would be completely unwise. Every additional contact with that group increased the danger that they would be found and unmasked, so simply dropping the whole thing right here and now would be best. And then, in a matter of a month or less, four of their five problems would be gone.
But that fifth one would have to be taken care of, not to mention the problem of Lady Eltrina. Edmin was eminently practical, but practical men had been taken in before. Ah well, these things did happen, Embisson admitted to himself. If necessary Eltrina could be seen to a good deal more easily than the man Moord, and if Edmin were in danger of becoming too deeply involved with her, Embisson knew he would not hesitate a single heartbeat…
* * *
As they left the High Lord’s house, Eltrina Razas let Edmin Ruhl fuss over helping her into the carriage as much as he wanted to. In point of fact it felt good to have a powerful man fuss over her, something Grall had never done at any time. And Edmin was considerably more interesting in bed than Grall had been, not to mention younger and just as wealthy. Under certain circumstances Eltrina would consider marriage again, but first there were other, more important concerns to pay attention to.
Like the fact that those five peasants could well be on their way back to Gan Garee. That was the preliminary word she’d been given by Grall’s searchers, with a more detailed report due tonight. Somehow, some way, she had to get them under her hand, at least for a short while. She had a score to settle with that Domon bit, and a lesser one with the man Ro. Both of them would be sorry they’d ever involved themselves with crossing her, that was a vow Eltrina had taken. They would be sorry…
And it might become necessary to make High Lord Embisson just as sorry. Eltrina hadn’t missed the way he’d looked at her, as though she weren’t at all good enough for his precious son. It was fairly certain he meant to make a fuss, so it was time to prepare Edmin in the proper way. Then, no matter what his father said, Edmin would refuse to listen. Yes, it was certainly time…
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Once Jovvi dissolved the Blending, I just sat there with my thoughts whirling around. Not that they hadn’t been whirling before we Blended; now they were doing the same, just a bit more intensely.
“Well, that takes care of that problem,” Lorand said with the same relief we must all have been feeling. “It’s a good thing you tried to check on Vallant, Jovvi. If you hadn’t, we would have known nothing about all those men waiting to attack this place.”
“And it’s an equally good thing we arranged that alert-signal with the link groups,” Rion said in agreement. “If they hadn’t been there to add their strength, we would have had a serious problem.”
“Yes, my guiding Tamma’s ability to where the link groups were and having her show a thick flame worked really well in telling them we needed them to link up,” Jovvi said, one hand to her forehead. “But what bothers me about the whole thing is that tandem arrangement their link sets were in. We would have had a great deal of trouble standing against them alone, not to mention trying to fight back. If we hadn’t … ‘remembered’ the best way to defeat something like that…”
“Excuse me, but would you mind telling us what just happened?” Mohr put in, trying to be polite despite the agitation obviously filling him. “We could see that you took care of the trouble—whatever it was—but how did you do it? Your fifth wasn’t even in the building.”
“He didn’t have to be,” Jovvi explained, calmly smiling a bit at the four men. “We’ve discovered that once a Blending has had practice working together, the members of it don’t have to be in the same place in order for them to Blend. But before you decide that that’s another bit of proof for your argument about us being the Chosen, you have to understand that all our Blendings can do the same, as can our link groups. Thanks to the nobility we’ve lost most of the knowledge we ought to have about these things, but we’rebeginning to regain some of it.”
“And you fought from here?” Ambor asked shakily, while his colleague Koln just sat there looking stunned. “We had no idea you’d be able to… I mean, the power something like that gives you…!”
“It’s something the u
surpers can do as well, and probably already have,” Rion pointed out, speaking just as calmly as Jovvi had. “We’renot certain as yet, but even less powerful Blendings should be able to do the same. You do realize that once the nobles are overthrown, it will no longer be illegal for people to form their own Blendings? It’s something that normal life should contain for all of us, but we’ve been deprived of it so that a certain select few might own and rule us. You would hardly be as upset as you apparently are if you were a member of a Blending yourself.”
“Us?” Koln said in a high, wavering voice while Ambor took his turn at sitting and staring openmouthed. “Us as members of a Blending? But that’s only for—”
“Yes, that’s right, it was only for the one Blending allowed to be formed,” Jovvi agreed with a better smile when the man’s words broke off. “Once we’rerid of them, the way to Blend will become common knowledge. Don’t you think it’s about time?”
“So that’s what you intend to do when you win,” Ambor said, and suddenly the sober, practical, successful merchant was gone behind the shining eyes of the converted. “You mean to give everyone the gift of Blending. I think I can honestly say that no one else I know would do something like that, would … hand over for nothing the precious knowledge that they might easily keep for themselves. And you still claim you aren’t the Chosen? I’ll admit I wasn’t quite sure if the High Master was right, but now my doubts have disappeared.”
“You feel that way only because we’ve decided to do something you consider noble,” I put in, trying not to let the disturbance inside me color the words. “If you were to stop to think about the matter unemotionally, you’d realize that our intentions are really rather selfish. If we keep the details about Blending to ourselves, the entire burden of doing what it takes a Blending to do falls completely on us. By sharing the knowledge we also share the burden, and the real Chosen Blending apparently sees the matter in the same way, because they haven’t made any attempt to change our minds.”
“Maybe that’s because there isn’t any other Blending of that sort,” Koln said, apparently in complete agreement with his brother merchant. “It seems to me that if you aren’t the Chosen, maybe you ought to be.”
“Just that easily?” I asked with the sound of scorn I couldn’t hold back on. “You like our point of view, so we ought to be put forward as the Chosen? Is there anything in the Prophecies that says the Chosen are Chosen by popular opinion? If so, then I withdraw my name from the nominations.”
“You still seem disturbed by that … scene so recently enacted with your absent member,” Mohr commented, an odd expression in his eyes. “He defended you rather vigorously, I recall, just before he left so hurriedly, but his effort apparently failed to please you. Is that the reason why you would … withdraw your name?”
“That part of my reason happens to be private, and won’t be discussed with strangers,” I told him coldly, refusing to allow the intrusion. “But the concept itself does well as an illustration of the rest of my objection. If you hadn’t decided that we were your precious Chosen, would you have had the incredibly bad manners to discuss a subject that was obviously private between two people you don’t really know? You tell me, Dom Mohr. Would you have?”
He flushed at the accusation and didn’t reply, but his attitude was answer enough.
“I take your silence to mean you would never have done so boorish a thing,” I said, aware of the way his companions shared his embarrassment. “But you do consider us the Chosen, so you feel free to intrude as you like. Most people seem to view the matter as you do, that people in what you consider our position belong to them completely. For your information I belong to no one but myself, and after that to my Blending. Beyond that no one has a call on me, and I mean to keep matters unchanged from that position. Anyone interested in arguing had better be a good deal stronger in Fire magic than I am.”
Even as I stood up I could see all of them pale, especially the two Guild men. They claimed they knew exactly how strong each of us in the Blending was, so they understood my threat as clearly as I wanted them to. It would have helped if I could have stalked back to my bedchamber to underscore what I’d said, but I was far too hungry to do that. Those intruders had drained quite a lot of our strength, and I needed to replenish some of it with food.
People were already beginning to take their places at tables in the dining room, and it wasn’t long before Jovvi, Lorand, Rion, and Naran joined me at ours. No one commented about what I’d said—or about what had happened earlier—and the food began to come rather quickly, but there were fewer people to serve it than there had been that afternoon. It seemed that part of the staff had been appropriated to help clean up the mess we’d made near the stables, and those servants who remained fell into two categories: some were happy and relieved, but most were very nervous and jumpy. They hadn’t known who they were supposed to give their best service to, but there was no doubt that they knew now.
After a short while Vallant Ro joined us as well, but no one said anything to him beyond a quiet question asking if he was all right, and his only response was an assurance that he was fine. We all paid attention to eating rather than talking, and in that way the meal was quickly over. I drained my last cup of tea and was getting ready to rise and leave, when Jovvi changed that intention.
“Tamma, wait just a minute,” she said quietly, looking directly at me. “We have to talk about one part of that attack, and we’d better do it now. We’ll go back to that private sitting area.”
Since I knew what she was referring to, I couldn’t very well argue the need. So I settled back in my chair until everyone was through eating—only a matter of another couple of minutes—and then we all went back to the private sitting room. Once again we all chose chairs, and when Jovvi had settled herself she looked around at us.
“Those link groups were in a tandem arrangement we haven’t seen before,” she said without preamble, knowing we would all understand what she meant. “Were any of you able to catch how they linked?”
“I didn’t,” Lorand replied, sounding just as worried as Jovvi had. “I was almost able to see it, but the details were just a bit beyond me.”
“What about you, Tamma?” Jovvi asked after Rion and Vallant Ro simply shook their heads. “I’m in the same position as Lorand, where I almost saw the arrangement. Did you get even a single hint we can use?”
“I saw the braided pattern clearly among the Fire magic users, and only slightly less clearly among the others,” I answered with more than a hint of surprise. “Since we were all Blended, why didn’t the rest of you see the same?”
“Probably because we haven’t been constantly touching the power as long as you have,” Jovvi replied seriously, obviously considering the matter. “And possibly also because your strength is greater than ours. Does anyone else remember ‘hearing’ our entity think that we were almost to our optimum condition? That could be at least part of what it meant.”
This time I joined the others in nodding, also remembering the thought Jovvi meant. With all the power our Blending had shown, there was still more our entity expected to be able to do…
“Tamma, can you describe the patterns you saw?” Jovvi asked next, and now everyone was paying very close attention to me. “A description may not help all that much, but it’s better than nothing.”
“I think I can show you the patterns,” I answered with a frown, trying to get them clear and separated in my mind. “Lorand, see if this makes any sense to you.”
I then drew in the air with fire the pattern I’d seen the Earth magic people use, which had been possible only because I’d been part of the Blending—I thought. There was, after all, no other way for me to see the doings of people of another aspect, but that still left the question of why I’d been able to see it but Lorand hadn’t.
“Yes, of course!” Lorand said with eagerness as soon as he saw what I’d drawn. “It makes perfect sense. But if you were able to perceive it, why
couldn’t I?”
“The situation suggests that it’s individual strength which controls perceptions in the Blending,” Jovvi said slowly after I’d shrugged to indicate my ignorance. “Tamma used your senses to see the patterns, but her own strength to detail them. But now that we know she saw them accurately, we’d better get the rest of them from her.”
I nodded and produced the pattern for Spirit magic, then Air magic, and lastly for Water magic, all of it carefully drawn in the air with thin lines of fire. No one did more than nod with an “Ah!” of satisfaction, and when it was over Jovvi leaned forward again.
“Now I can’t wait until the others join us so we can show it to all the link groups,” she said, smiling at me. “That pattern is so obvious I should have seen it myself, but I’ve felt that about a lot of things which are currently beyond my reach. But this is only part of why I asked for this meeting, and the rest of it concerns someone who is one of us but not completely one of us. Naran? Do you agree that it’s time?”
“I wish I could say no, but I can’t,” Naran answered with a sigh while the rest of us—including Rion—exchanged glances of blankness. What could there possibly be about Naran…? She looked pale and nervous and very unhappy, but her decision was more … fatalistic than reluctant.
“Then you know that it definitely is time,” Jovvi said to her with a gentle, supportive smile. “Don’t worry. They’ll be surprised at first, but they won’t react the way you’reafraid they will. I’ll start it off by saying that I didn’t just happen to check on Vallant and thereby learned about the presence of the attackers. I was warned that something was wrong, warned by Naran when she came over and whispered to me. Why don’t you take it from there, Naran?”