Sharon Green - Blending 04, page 23
Most of the men in view sat or fell to the ground, and so did the heat sources I was still able to detect on the far side of the camp. Vallant was putting the lethe directly into them, into their blood, probably, and the idea of that was rather startling. It’s one thing to put a liquid into a small jar, quite another to put it into the tiny channels which carry our blood around our bodies. But he seemed to be doing it, and the guardsmen and drivers were responding by falling over.
But not all of them. When I found myself moving toward the line of wagons Rion and Vallant were right with me, and Vallant still wore that look of concentration. Probably because some of the men were still fighting to stay on their feet, struggling to keep awake despite the sedative being put into them. They were the only ones still between us and our Blendingmates so we didn’t let their stubbornness keep us away, but we did watch them.
And that turned out to be a very wise decision. I suppose there are always people around who don’t react to things the way everyone else does, and three of those guardsmen refused to fall over. They were big men, taller and huskier than those around them, and when they saw us coming toward them they drew long, ugly-looking knives, and one led the other two in attacking us.
If you’ve ever been attacked by screaming, wild-looking men coming toward you at a shambling run, you may be able to understand how I felt. That sort of thing has to be terrifying even if you’re used to it, although I can’t imagine how anyone might get used to it. The part of me not touching the power wanted to scream and run in the other direction, away from the madmen who were clearly ready to end my life.
But the part of me which did touch the power reacted differently to that sort of thing. One of the three came directly toward me, and he was the one given full attention. I stopped to regard him calmly while he came near enough to slash down at me with that long knife, and then—and then his knife moved through a flash of flame so intense that most of the blade vaporized as it passed through. Lack of balance caused him to stumble when the downward arc of his swing found him left with little more than a hilt, and he stood gawking stupidly between me and what was left of his weapon.
Rion stood to my left, and out of the corner of my eyes I’d been able to see that the man who swung his knife at him had also not reached his target. The knife came to a jarring stop in front of and above Rion’s head, probably because of a shield of hardened air. Fear paled the man’s face, just as it did with the man in front of Vallant, who stood to my right. That time it was a thick layer of ice which stopped the knife, and all three men were clearly shaken. Then they were choking and falling to their knees, which obviously meant that Rion had taken away their air. They might have resisted the sedative, but lack of air to breathe can’t be resisted.
As soon as the three stopped moving, Rion, Vallant, and I continued toward the wagons with Alsin and Grath trailing along behind. I’d expected to have to look through all of them, but now that Rion and Vallant stood so close to me, something about the sixth and ninth wagons seemed to draw me. And I wasn’t the only one who felt that, as Vallant gestured toward the ninth wagon.
“Let’s start with that one,” he suggested, staring at it in the same way I did. “I have this feelin’…”
“And so do I,” Rion agreed after glancing at me. “It seems to be drawing me in some way, and I’d say that Tamrissa also feels it. Are either of you getting anything from that wagon three places ahead?”
“You mean the sixth wagon,” I said as Vallant simply nodded. “Yes, it’s just the same. But this one is closer, so let’s start here.”
“Wait just a minute,” Alsin called from behind us as we began to move again. “What about the rest of the guardsmen and drivers? I don’t see more than half of them scattered around on the ground here.”
“The rest are scattered around on the ground beyond the wagons,” I replied, smiling over my shoulder in order to soothe his nervousness. “Aren’t you close enough to them to tell?”
“Only just barely,” he said after a second’s worth of hesitation, his brow wrinkled with effort. “And yes, you’re right, they are all out of it. If you three are starting with the ninth wagon, Grath and I will start with the tenth.”
“Good idea,” Vallant told him, an odd … reserve of sorts in his voice. “Just keep half a talented eye open in case some of these guardsmen start comin’ around too soon. If you find one that does, just give us a shout.”
Alsin nodded, and he and a disturbed-looking Grath headed for the wagon behind the one we had the most interest in ….
Gentleman over walk a that your region of Twenty-Four
Rion helped Tamrissa into the wagon, then followed with Vallant close behind. It was dim inside the wagon with the canvas closed tight all around, but Tamrissa took care of that by creating a ball of brightness which she hung in the air above them. That let them look around, to see the six pallets on which six people lay, the pallets arranged three to each side of the wagon. The people, men and women both, were moving in discomfort, as though they were getting ready to awaken. In the middle of the wagon a guardsman lay slumped in unconsciousness, one of those Rion had put down earlier. And at the front of the wagon, moving even more than the others, was—
“Jovvi!” Tamrissa cried, stepping quickly over the unconscious guardsman to rush to their sister’s side. She knelt and raised Jovvi with an arm around her shoulders, then smoothed the tangle of her once-beautiful hair. “Jovvi, it’s Tamrissa. Can you hear me? Can you wake up all the way?”
“Tam-ma …” The word was slurred and garbled and very soft, but Jovvi was actually trying to speak! “Too … much … floating … Help … wake up …”
“I think she means she needs help to wake up,” Tamrissa said, looking up at them with distress. “We can’t do anything to help, but maybe Alsin can. Rion, please go and call him in here.”
“I don’t think that will do it,” Vallant said, putting a hand to Rion’s arm to keep him from leaving. “Now that I’ve got the feel of that sedative, I can tell it’s in Jovvi’s blood—but it’s too spread out for me to remove it. Meerk’s just a Middle, so it’s probably beyond him to remove it as well. We’ll just have to wait until the lethe is washed out of their systems by their own bodies.”
“Lorand could probably filter it out, but Alsin’s not Lorand,” Rion was forced to agree when Tamrissa looked as though she might argue with what Vallant had said. “Most likely they’ll all have to come out of it on their own, which might actually be for the best. We should prepare for their awakening, and do something permanent about the guardsmen and drivers.”
“And while we’re at it, let’s get Lorand and put him in here with Jovvi,” Vallant said with a nod. “That way Tamrissa can be guardin’ the two of them together while we take care of the ones who kept them like this.”
Tamrissa’s nod showed she’d changed her mind about arguing, and she went back to paying attention to Jovvi while Rion and Vallant gave their own attention to the unconscious guardsman. The two of them carried the man out of the wagon and put him on the ground near his companions, then Rion followed Vallant to the sixth wagon. They climbed inside and peered through the dimness, and sure enough, the middle pallet on the left-hand side held Lorand’s feebly struggling body. Once they found him, Vallant went to one knee beside the pallet.
“It’s Vallant and Rion, Lorand,” Vallant said slowly and clearly, a hand on their brother’s shoulder. “You keep tryin’ to wake up, but don’t worry about what’s happenin’. They had you for a while, but we’ve got you back now.”
“Val-nt,” Lorand croaked, obviously trying to open his eyes. “Where .. ,’m I?”
“Right now you’re in a wagon,” Vallant answered, “but in a few minutes you’ll be in a different wagon. I’m goin’ to carry you to where Jovvi and Tamrissa are, and Tamrissa will keep you both company until you wake up. You won’t be worryin’, will you?”
“No … won’t … worry,” Lorand mumbled, his agitation eased quite a bit. “Need … t’wake … up.”
“That’s right, you concentrate on wakin’ up,” Vallant agreed, then looked up at Rion. “I’ll pick him up, then you ought to take that pallet so we’ll have somethin’ to put him on in the other wagon. But I’ll need help gettin’ him out of here without droppin’ him.”
“Helping is my specialty,” Rion answered with a smile. “I’ll climb out with the pallet, and then I’ll take half his weight. That ought to let you get out easily enough.”
Vallant nodded his agreement, then reached down to pick up Lorand. Rion used his ability to help with that, too, as Lorand was far from being a small man. After that it was simply a matter of taking the pallet out and giving the same kind of help with Lorand a second time, which let Vallant just slide out of the wagon. Then they carried their burdens back to the wagon Jovvi was in, and in another few moments Lorand was settled right beside Jovvi.
“You two and Alsin and Grath had better get on with doing something about those guardsmen,” Tamrissa said once she had settled herself between their groupmates. “Some of them are beginning to stir, especially the ones you put out first, Rion.”
“Then we’ll take care of them first,” Rion said, his agreement more grim and merciless than his feelings had ever been before. He’d had no idea that he had it in him to be so hard and harsh, but these people deserved nothing better. Even if they weren’t privy to what would be done with their captives, they still had to know that they were taking innocent people to what might just be their doom. Claiming they were simply following orders was an excuse Rion was unwilling to accept.
The guardsmen he’d put out first were indeed stirring, so he simply put them out again—along with the others who were trying to fight against the sedative. Alsin and Grath had come out of the tenth wagon by then, and Alsin admitted that there was nothing he might do to hurry along the process of waking. With that in mind they all put their backs into carrying the guardsmen and drivers to the middle of the camp, where they lined them up in easy-to-see rows. Tying them with rope would have been a waste of time, of course, since anyone with even a Low talent in Fire magic could have gotten themselves and the rest of their friends loose with very little effort.
But chains were another matter, and it was Alsin who discovered that each guardsman had a set of fetters in his saddlebags. That meant there weren’t quite enough to chain the guardsmen and drivers both, at least not individually. It did prove possible, though, to chain their prisoners wrist to ankle in the row, one man’s wrist chained to the next man’s ankle, and that man’s ankle chained to the next man’s wrist.
It took quite a while to get all that done, and once they were through Rion quieted everyone who was beginning to stir again. Then they began to look for the convoy’s supplies, as they were now hungry enough to eat some of the surrounding trees. That, at least, was the way Rion felt, but the quick way the others agreed to look for food suggested that they felt the same. They’d decided against buying their lunch at the inn in which they’d spent the night, contrary to what had become their habit with other inns.
The previous night had seen them squeezed into three small rooms—the third grudgingly supplied by the landlord—and breakfast that morning had actually been reheated rather than freshly made. Rion had accepted that with dinner the night before, but a breakfast done the same was inexcusable. So they hadn’t bought any lunch, and now needed something to remove the memory of their terrible breakfast.
The supplies carried by the convoy were surprisingly lavish, and Grath took over preparing the meal while the others looked on. The scout insisted on doing so, and simply glanced at Rion and the others.
“You three don’t have to stand there watching me,” he said with a look of amusement. “I promise not to eat it all myself, and I’ll even call you when it’s ready.”
“What else have we got to do?” Alsin asked as he stretched a large tarpaulin across a section of the wet grass. At least it had stopped raining, for the moment, anyway. “Everything else is taken care of, and now all we can do is wait for the captives to wake up.”
“You might try getting some of them up and walking,” Grath suggested as he added wood to the sheltered fire which had been built by the convoy people. “I’m told that sedatives wear off more quickly like that, and the sooner they’re all awake and alert, the sooner we can be on our way.”
“There must be sixty people in those wagons,” Vallant pointed out as Alsin’s expression said he was in the midst of considering the suggestion. “Since it will take two of us to walk one of them around, we’ll still be here next week if walkin’ is the only way to wake them. I’m for waitin’ and lettin’ them do it by themselves.”
Rion saw a flash of frustration in Grath’s expression, but it wasn’t possible to argue the logic of what Vallant had said. Grath was apparently even more eager than they were to leave that area, and Rion couldn’t really blame him. But instead of arguing in a lost cause the man went back to giving all his attention to fixing them a meal, and it wasn’t long before the food was ready to eat. Rion got up and went to call Tamrissa to join them, and when she left the wagon she did so with a smile.
“They actually each sat up for a few minutes,” she said, relief clear in her lovely eyes. “They’re pulling out of it more and more rapidly, so in a few hours they ought to be back with us. But what about Naran and our driver? They ought to be just as hungry as we are.”
“I’m certain they are, which is why I mean to call them next,” Rion assured her with his own smile. “I’ll be back with them in just a little while.”
“At least the rain has stopped for now,” Tamrissa said, looking up at the sky. “It doesn’t appear ready to be stopped for good, but it’s nice not to need a canopy to stand under. We’ll probably have to put one up when it’s time to feed the captives. I’m sure they’ll wake up ravenous.”
“It will probably prove easier to feed them in their wagons,” Rion said, considering the logistics of the thing. “They’ll surely want to walk around even if the rain starts again, but eating will be more easily accomplished inside the wagons.”
“You’re probably right,” Tamrissa agreed, her attention more on the food than on the conversation. “Let’s discuss it later.”
That was the most sensible suggestion Rion had heard in a long while, so he quickly agreed and then headed for where the coach had been left. Getting back to it was faster than leaving it had been, as he no longer had to worry about making noise. Naran and Lidris, the driver, stood together beside the coach, and answered his smile with ones of their own.
“Your expression says you were successful,” Naran offered as soon as she saw him, her own face lighting up. “I knew you would be, but I can’t seem to get out of the habit of worrying anyway.”
“There’s nothing left to worry about, my love,” Rion told her as he folded her in his arms. “The guardsmen and drivers are all subdued, and the captives are beginning to wake up. We should have just enough time to take a meal of our own before we need to see about theirs, and ours is already prepared. If Lidris will pull the coach off the road and into the trees, we can all go back and eat.”
“If’n th’ horses don’ wanna pull, I’ll do ’er m’self,” Lidris said with enthusiasm, obviously as hungry as Rion. “Gimme a quick minnit.”
The man climbed up onto the box in what must have been record time, then the coach was moving through the wet grass and into the trees. Rion hoped they’d be able to free the coach again from the mud as he and Naran followed, but there was no help for it. Leaving the coach where it could be easily seen would be like posting a sign announcing their whereabouts.
As soon as the coach was taken care of, Rion led the two people back to where the convoy had camped. He used Air magic to keep the dripping trees from soaking the three of them, even though he hadn’t really dried off from the first time. Now that the confrontation was over, he’d have to speak to Vallant or Tamrissa about ridding him of the dampness. It was deuced uncomfortable, one of the few new experiences Rion had had that he had no interest in experiencing again—or even longer this first time.
When they reached the others, he discovered that they’d waited their own meal until everyone might eat. That had been thoughtful of them but completely unnecessary, a fact he mentioned even as he joined Naran in filling metal plates. The others, seated on the tarpaulin which Alsin had spread, had already filled their plates and were now digging in rather than answering his protest. He quickly did the same, reflecting that he’d never known how good fried beefcakes and potatoes and biscuits could taste.
“I’ve had a thought,” Tamrissa leaned over to murmur to Rion once they’d all sat back with what was left of their tea. “It’s possible that if you and I and Vallant link up with Lorand, we can lend him the lucidity and strength to clear his own system of the lethe. We can’t include Jovvi because two cloudy minds might throw the rest of us off, but once Lorand is back he can do the same for her.”
“And you’re not mentioning this aloud because we still don’t know exactly how our friends will react to actually being with a functioning Blending,” Rion returned in the same murmur. “I agree with your caution, and also applaud your idea. Once you return to the wagon, I’ll tell Vallant and then he and I will ‘stroll over’ to see how our groupmates are doing.”
She smiled and nodded to that, then finished her tea and arose from the tarpaulin. After thanking Grath for the wonderful meal, she mentioned her intention to return to Lorand and Jovvi, then did so. Rion had, in the interim, whispered to Naran what they were going to do, so she made no effort to join him when he got to his own feet and approached Vallant.
“Tamrissa has had a rather good idea,” Rion murmured after crouching beside his groupmate. “We’re going to try to link up in order to free Lorand of the lethe, and then Lorand can do the same for Jovvi. But let’s not mention it aloud, as we have no idea how our companions will take to seeing us work as a Blending.”
