Prophecy

by Sharon Green

  “So your idea of fun and games has lost us another loyal, competent supporter,” Bron said disgustedly, no longer completely sanguine about what Delin said and did. “The man hated peasants so much that he would have done anything to see them put back in their proper places, so you send him into a situation where they probably lynched him. If you’rethat determined to get yourself pulled down, Delin, why do you insist on taking the rest of us with you?”

  “I don’t remember asking for your opinion!” Delin snarled, his faintly better mood now completely gone. And that was Delin’s major problem in a nutshell, Kambil knew: the man acted without ever considering the consequences of his actions. Even after the thing was done, his amusement over it continued until someone pointed out what a stupid move he’d made. Instead of seeing the point and learning from it, Delin took the instruction as a personal attack and completely discounted it. He hadn’t made a stupid move as far as he was concerned, he was simply surrounded by people who were inexplicably grouped against him.

  “Since what you do continues to affect the rest of us, you don’t have to ask for our opinions,” Homin said sharply, startling Delin just a bit. “Howser worked for our benefit as well as yours, so you had no right to do what you did to him all alone. I don’t care whether you consider yourself our leader or not, Delin, that’s not at issue here. If you don’t stop doing these imbecilic things, there won’t be a group left for you to be leader of. Can’t you make yourself understand that?”

  “Another way we can cheat in the confrontations is by using our special tandem link groups,” Delin said after a very brief hesitation, deliberately changing the subject completely. Kambil had seen that his mind had felt a flash of panic at Homin’s question, since he was unable to make himself understand what had been said to him. As a child, doubt had been raised about everything Delin had said and done. In order to protect himself Delin had stopped listening to what others said, and now he found it impossible to change the habit.

  “We’ll know those link groups are there, but our opponents won’t,” Delin continued, looking at none of them as he fought to regain some inner balance. “They’ll think we’realone so they’ll come in the same way, and the surprise will be their undoing and ending. Yes, that’s what we’ll do, without any doubt. We’ll stand our hostages in front of us, and while the peasants are whimpering and moaning about putting innocent people in the middle of our argument, we’ll reach to our link groups and then destroy them. The plan will work, so I don’t want to hear any more about it.”

  Kambil probably wouldn’t have said anything even if he’d been able to, and the other three apparently agreed with him. They all exchanged glances which Delin failed to see, glances which made the decision unanimous: no one would access Delin’s rage by disagreeing with him, but that didn’t mean they meant to obey. There were too many flaws in that so-called plan for it to work as it stood, but that was perfectly all right. The rest of them would come up with their own plan, and Delin would be the only one lost to mindlessness.

  “And here’s another decision I’ve made,” Delin said, now looking around at them. “The other day I heard a servant wondering aloud to another about when we would go out after those interlopers and finish them off. I decided then and there that we would not go out, but would instead make them come in here after us. Having to fight their way through our guards will weaken them, and then they’ll be at a disadvantage because we know the palace and they don’t. If they bring their supporters with them, the confusion will be even worse—for them. And once we destroy them, their supporters will be conveniently at hand to be destroyed in turn. Do you all understand?”

  Kambil joined the others in nodding, which was really their only option. If he’d still been running things, he would have had everyone available searching the city to find out where those five people had gone to ground. As soon as they were located, he would have waited until they were asleep and then would have taken every Earth magic user available to make sure they stayed asleep. Then he would have burned their haven down around their ears, ending them in the most practical way possible. For Delin, though, the word “practical” didn’t exist any more than the words, “sound planning.”

  And then a loud, brusque knock sounded at the door, interrupting whatever else Delin had been about to say. None of the servants had ever knocked in just that way before, so Kambil reached out curiously to find out which of them had changed. When he found no one at the door he spread his talent a bit wider, and discovered the guardsman running away up the hall. No one else was anywhere nearby, so when Delin called out permission for the knocker to enter, there was no answer. Immediate annoyance flared in Delin, sending him toward the door with the intention to hurt whomever had caused the annoyance. Kambil wondered why the man had made no effort to reach the person with his talent, but in a moment the question became completely unimportant.

  “Now what are those fools up to?” Delin demanded when opening the door produced nothing but a folded sheet of paper fluttering to the floor. Obviously the paper had been stuck into the crack of the door, one way to deliver the thing without having to be there in person. Delin bent to retrieve it, unfolded it and read it, and then a ripple of fear danced across his mind.

  “What is it?” Bron asked, probably having seen the way Delin’s teeth had clenched. “And who is it from?”

  “It’s from our former guard commander,” Delin ground out, hatred flaring in his mind. “This is his resignation, along with the information that he’s taking with him any of his guards who want to go. But there’s also one other thing as well. The interlopers have had the nerve to send us a message.”

  No one mentioned that they’d told Delin what would happen with the guard commander, and no one asked the most obvious question. Kambil himself had to hold tight to his balance, and then Delin looked up from the piece of paper.

  “Our enemies have given us until tomorrow at this time to surrender to the ‘proper authorities’ as the usurpers we are,” he said in a toneless voice. “If we refuse, they’recoming into the palace after us.”

  Without first having to fight their way through a cordon of guardsmen, Kambil thought but didn’t say. Delin had done it to them again, and they might not live long enough to have to worry about another repeat performance…

  * * *

  “But Daddy, I’m bored!” the whiny little bitch complained again, just as she’d been doing for the last two hours. Eltrina Razas, now dressed as one of the palace servants, longed to slap the girl across the face, but couldn’t allow herself that luxury. At least not yet, not until all her plans had come to fruition.

  “If you say that one more time, Mirra, I’ll put you across my knee right here,” her father growled, obviously as sick of hearing her whine as Eltrina was. “And you’renot to say another word to any of the servants, especially not to give them orders. At the rate you’rechasin’ them off, we’ll soon be takin’ care of ourselves.”

  The girl tried to protest that, but luckily for Eltrina the man stood firm in his decision. Eltrina was now the only servant willing to come into the area where the hostages were, and not just because of the girl. Lady Hallina Mardimil was just as bad, as were the merchant couple who had delusions of nobility. And that ridiculous bumpkin, who had also taken to throwing his weight around. Not to mention that filthy-skinned woman…

  But Eltrina wasn’t about to be chased off, not when she needed to be there to see how her plans worked out. She’d already made her move against the last of the Five, forcing Edmin’s agent to help her. The woman was one of those who had stayed to work in the palace, hoping to earn more of the gold Edmin had paid her. She had accepted Eltrina’s gold with very little reluctance, only hesitating when she found out what had to be done for it. But the hesitation had quickly ended, and now that part of it was over. In just a short while, none of the five people who had caused her agony and humiliation would be left alive.

  And then it would be the turn of those pea
sants, who certainly would not fail to appear at the palace. Vallant Ro, a man she’d actually been willing to honor with her use, and that stupid little trollop who had stolen him right out of her hands. The two of them would appear, and then they would pay in the same way the Five had paid, only in a much shorter span of time. Eltrina would stand and watch them die, and then she would smile and turn and walk away.

  “You, girl, come over here and fix this pillow!” Hallina Mardimil ordered, once again acting as though she were queen of the world. “I’m not as comfortable as I should be, so get over here and take care of it.”

  “Take care of it yourself,” Eltrina replied smoothly after turning away and heading toward the door out of the area. “I have other things to do, so if you’retoo incompetent to fix a stupid pillow, stay uncomfortable. And if you complain about me, the whole bunch of you will be looking after yourselves since I’m the only one left willing to come in here. Think about it.”

  The Mardimil’s sputtering outrage was drowned out by the alarmed comments of the others, so Eltrina left them alone to argue it out among themselves. They’d certainly decide not to complain about the only servant willing to bring them food and drink and to straighten up a bit after them, so Eltrina had nothing to worry about. She would be safe until things began to happen, and then there would no longer be danger from any quarter.

  Chuckling softly, Eltrina went off to find herself something to eat.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  Considering that our deadline given to the Five was the early afternoon, we didn’t have to get up particularly early in the morning. We would have been able to sleep as late as we liked—if we’d been able to sleep in the first place. I’d managed to get in a solid few hours myself, but only by using Jovvi’s sleep technique. Even so I hadn’t been able to stay asleep past a certain point, and since the new day had already started without me I decided not to try to fight waking up. Breakfast would be waiting downstairs, and there was no sense in making it wait too long.

  Dressing was no longer very involved, not when I had the choice of wearing my only clean outfit or putting on the dirty one again. Since I’d used the bath house the night before, I settled on the clean clothes and then made my way downstairs. This house was more than twice as large as my own, maybe even three times as large, and that was what made it perfect for us. We hadn’t had to put more than two people in a bedchamber, and I’d even been able to get a room to myself.

  “Good morning,” Lorand said when I walked into the dining room, and I was surprised to see him sitting alone. “Don’t bother looking around for anyone else, since the members of the link groups have already finished eating, and you and I are the first of our Blending to be up. Is our timing off, or is everyone else’s?”

  “Since we won’t be leaving here for some hours yet, probably ours,” I answered, walking over to the buffet to see if there was any food left. “Ah, good. The rest of you haven’t finished up all our provisions. So, are you looking forward to later, or dreading it?”

  “I don’t seem to have made up my mind yet,” he responded around a mouthful of food, and I had the impression that he wasn’t lying. “How about you?”

  “Since one way or another this ought to be the end of it, I can’t wait to get to it,” I responded as I began to take some food, also speaking honestly. “And in this our timing is just right. In a little while the cold weather will start to set in, and that’s no time for camping outdoors or extensive travel.”

  “Not to mention that I’m tired of constantly moving around,” he agreed. “My idea of a proper life is to find a place and settle into it, and even Jovvi is weary of all the traveling we’ve been forced to do. But I’m a little afraid to wonder what things will be like if we win. Will we become the new Seated Five automatically, or will we have to go through the competitions again?”

  “You have to start things right if you want them to continue on that way,” I said, turning away from the buffet to carry my plate to the table. “No one should be able to just walk in and take over, so the competitions—not handled by the nobility—ought to be held again. But we’renot a Five now, we’rea Six. How will any other Blending compete with that?”

  “I’m happy to say that isn’t a problem I have to worry about,” he replied, glancing up at me as I settled at the table and began to pour myself a cup of tea. “Naran’s mother probably isn’t the only one who hid a child with that sort of talent, so there are bound to be others who can do what she does. A year ought to be enough for the other Blendings to search out some of those people, and then they’ll be ready to compete against us. But speaking of searching people out, I think there’s something you ought to be warned about.”

  “Warned?” I echoed, looking at him with the fork half way to my mouth. “You make whatever it is sound almost dangerous.”

  “It is dangerous, so forget about the almost,” he came back, now also looking directly at me. “Or, rather, I should say he. He’s very dangerous, and if you speak to him again the way you did last night, there will probably be another fight to break up. With two High talents involved it won’t be as easy to break up as the last one was, and in fact it might not be possible to break it up at all. With that in mind, my advice would be to carefully watch whatever you happen to say.”

  “You can’t possibly be talking about our dear Water magic user,” I said, heavy annoyance beginning to roll in again. “By his own admission the man is a coward, so what could I possibly have to worry about? Besides, if he stays away from me and anything I happen to be involved in, there should be no problem at all.”

  “Tamrissa, you may remember that I was taking care of the cut on Vallant’s cheek when you spoke to him after the fight,” Lorand responded, apparently catching some of my annoyance. “When I do something like that I also automatically monitor bodily reactions like blood pressure and rate of breathing. Vallant’s vital signs were almost normal when the fight ended, but after you spoke to him every reaction shot way up the scale. He’d just fought for you and won, after all—”

  “He did not fight for me,” I interrupted at once, refusing to let even Lorand say something like that. “He fought for his own reasons, and I simply happened to be a part of it. If you’ll cast your mind back, you’ll remember that he no longer wants to have anything to do with me because he’s afraid that things won’t go perfectly between us. He’s right to think that they won’t, but that’s the only thing he’s right about.”

  “Look, he has every reason to be afraid,” Lorand ground out, now glaring at me. “When something means more to you than your own life, you get a bit crazy at the thought of losing it. It’s worse when you keep losing the thing and getting it back, losing it and getting it back, over and over, but now something seems to have changed. It’s possible that Vallant has reached the point of refusing to worry about it any longer. He wants what he wants, and if someone tries to keep him from having it he’ll simply shove them out of his way. Do you really want him to treat you like that?”

  “Let him try—if he wants another really close shave,” I said, now having to force myself to sound absolutely confident. “I’m tired of playing these games with him, and he’ll find that out if he tries to bother me. Aside from that, let’s drop the subject. I really don’t care to have my appetite ruined.”

  And with that I went back to my food, ignoring the glare Lorand continued to send in my direction. For some reason I was more disturbed than I’d been in quite a while, even though I had no time for disturbance. In just a few hours we’d be facing our sworn enemies for the second time, and thoughts about that had to take precedence over everything else.

  The rest of the meal went by in welcome silence, but it was clear that Lorand still wasn’t pleased with me when I got up and left the room. Well, he wasn’t the only one who wasn’t pleased, I thought as I made my slow way back to the room I’d slept in. I hadn’t been lying the various times I’d said how much I loved Vallant, but that love seemed to be f
irm and sure only when he was backing away from it. Hearing that he might become actively interested again had frightened me on some level, throwing me right back to the way I’d been before all the changes. And I didn’t want to be back there, not for any reason…

  I walked into the room and swung the door closed behind me, hating the confusion I suddenly found myself floundering around in. It was absurd to think that I still hadn’t gotten over being afraid of having a man find me attractive, just as though nothing had—

  “Tamrissa.”

  I whirled around at the sound of my name, actually having to stop myself from using my talent without thinking. He sat in one of the chairs the room held, and when I’d come in I’d walked right past him without seeing him. A small tingle of … nervousness rather than fear tiptoed across my nerve endings when he stood up, even though he took not a single step toward me. It was Vallant, of course, and I would have been happier if it had been the entire Seated Five instead.

  “I hope you’ll excuse my bargin’ in, but it’s time for us to do some talkin’ again,” he said, those very blue eyes staring straight at me. “I came here rather than tryin’ to speak to you somewhere else so that the conversation can be private. We don’t need everyone knowin’ what’s goin’ on between us.”

  “Nothing is going on between us,” I said, having taken a very firm grip on myself. “You decided that you’renot in the least interested in me and I agreed that that was best, so there’s nothing left for either of us to say. With that in view, I’d like you to leave this room.”

  “I never said I wasn’t interested in you,” he disagreed, ignoring the rest of what I’d told him. “I said I couldn’t face the idea of havin’ you turn your back on me again, not when every time you do a part of me dies. That side of it hasn’t changed, but I’ve recently discovered somethin’ I hadn’t fully understood: when I’m not near you, I might as well be dead anyway. You bring color and taste to my world with delight and fury, happiness and despair, patience and annoyance, laughter and tears. I wish I’d never met you and I wish I’d known you all my life, and when you feel that way about someone you have no chance of ever walkin’ away from them.”