The Blending 07 - Deceptions, page 11
“The only help I can use right now is you volunteering to take my place,” I told her bluntly, but still forced myself to let go of some of the fury inside me. “And why aren’t you able to block me out? Are you losing strength for some reason?”
“Thank you,” Jovvi said sincerely after taking a deep breath, and then she shook her head. “As far as I can see I’m just as strong as ever, so I don’t understand this newest development either. Not to mention the fact that I certainly don’t like it. And at the risk of starting you up again, I’d be glad to volunteer to take your place, but that just isn’t possible.”
“Why not?” I asked, very aware of the growl in my voice. “Since this was all your idea, the least you can do is exercise your old profession.”
“As a courtesan?” Jovvi said, moving her shoulders in a way that suggested they needed loosening. “That’s one of the reasons why I can’t take your place. Rion knows I was a courtesan, so my lying with him would mean nothing. And even if I thought I could take your place, don’t you think my suddenly being there instead of you would give him the certain belief that he isn’t attractive after all? The rift between him and Naran would grow wider than ever, and might even grow beyond the point of ever being correctable.”
“And my lying with Rion will please Naran?” I countered with a sound of ridicule. “Somehow I doubt that, but she isn’t my greatest concern. Vallant is, especially after the way he was with Alsin Meerk. Do you really want Vallant challenging Rion to a physical fight?”
“Oh, I seriously doubt he would do that,” Jovvi all but scoffed, the assurance ruined by the continuing expression of worry on her face. “Vallant knows that Rion is one of us, so he would never react the way he did with Alsin Meerk. He might, however, be upset with you, so we’ll have to explain the circumstances to him—and to Naran as well, of course.”
“Oh, of course,” I agreed dryly with a short nod. “But where does this ‘we’ come in? If I’m the one who will be visiting Rion tonight and it’s just too impossible for you to take my place, then you can be the one doing all the explaining. After all, if one of the two decide to get violent, you’re the one who can calm them.”
“We hope I’m the one who can calm them,” Jovvi said with what was obviously a deeply heartfelt sigh. “I couldn’t do any calming a moment ago with you, but maybe the new development hasn’t affected them yet. And yes, fair is fair, so I’ll speak to them alone when we stop for lunch. If everything goes right, you won’t know how they feel about all this until I come over and tell you.”
Meaning that if one or both of them exploded, I’d know about how they felt without being told by Jovvi. I nodded to show I agreed with the hope, and we continued our ride in silence.
It wasn’t quite noon when we reached a stand of woods to the right of the road. The woods were thin enough to show that nothing and no one was hidden there, and thick enough to give us some cool shade to take our meal in. Most of the column had already entered the woods by the time we got there, the rest of our Blending having mostly ridden with their link groups. That was the only thing that had kept our previous conversation private, but the members of Jovvi’s link groups were eyeing Jovvi and me in a wary way. They obviously knew something was up, but were being discreet by not asking about it.
The wagons that were part of our entourage were left on the road, but the horses pulling them were put around the edge of the woods with our mounts, where they could all graze while we ate. The Gracelians were scattered through the woods, either walking out their stiffness or sitting on the ground. They all seemed to be suffering from the unaccustomed exercise of being in a saddle for so many hours, and some of them went so far as to glare at those of us who showed nothing of discomfort. It was apparently beyond them to understand how long my Blendingmates and I and our link groups must have been on the road for us to be that unbothered.
As soon as Jovvi and I tied our horses where they could graze, she squared her shoulders and went off to take care of her chore. I didn’t know if she meant to speak to Naran or Vallant first, but it didn’t really matter. If either one or both of them had violent objections to my being with Rion, we’d have a very nasty mess on our hands. Even though both of them should understand that what helped Rion also helped the rest of us. After what Rion had gone through growing up with that miserable noblewoman pretending to be his mother, it was a wonder the poor man had any self-esteem at all.
Thought of the Mardimil woman got me just as angry as it always did, so I wandered through the woods thinking pleasantly dark thoughts while the Gracelian cooks prepared our meal. Halina Mardimil had been sent with the other deposed nobles to work in Astinda, which was a really fitting punishment for her years of doing exactly as she pleased to anyone who crossed her path. But if I could have managed a few private minutes with her first, I would have taken a great deal of pleasure in showing her how unhappy I was with the way she’d tortured Rion …
It suddenly occurred to me that my angry thoughts might be disturbing Jovvi during her rather important mission. I knew I had to rein in the anger, but I did so enjoy being furious with a woman like Halina Mardimil, who deserved every rotten thing that could be done to her. I let the anger flare just one more time in a sort of fond farewell, distantly wondering why I wasn’t trying to suppress the surging emotion at once, and then—
And then I was under attack! Although I couldn’t see it, I somehow knew there was an entity near me, a Blending entity that loathed me. That entity was strongly Fire talented, and clearly meant to burn me to cinders.
But my raging anger had been enough to hold off the entity’s first attack, and then I was firmly meshed in with my link groups. If someone had told me that one person’s talent, even augmented by tandem link groups, would be stronger than a Blending entity bent on mayhem, I would have laughed in that person’s face. But I could feel that I was stronger, and my immediate response was completely automatic.
A new pattern suddenly appeared for me to work through, and I used it without a second thought. My fires turned so hot that anything exposed to them would be all but vaporized, and then those fires were sent into the Blending entity through the new pattern. I heard—and felt—a soundless scream, and then there were vocal screams added to the silent one. Not far away five people were suddenly writhing on the ground, and only when I saw them did I remember Naran’s warning about an attack that would probably be launched by Zirdon Tal’s group.
“Tamrissa, are you all right?” Lorand demanded as he ran up, uncharacteristic fury blazing in his eyes. “Am I wrong in believing that that Tal slime attacked you alone rather than all of us?”
“Yes, I’d say that Tal did make that mistake,” I answered, pushing away for later consideration the slight shakiness that my new achievement had caused. “And the attack wasn’t just him. He used his Blending entity against me.”
“What sort of utter nonsense are you spouting, woman?” one of the Gracelians demanded from the agitated group that had also hurried over. “You couldn’t possibly have survived against a Blending entity all by yourself!”
“If you weren’t a complete fool, Dom Reesh, the fact that I’m still standing here would give you a clue about how wrong you are—as usual,” Satlan Reesh was a member of the assembly who seemed to have a uniformly low opinion of all women, and I had no intention of telling him that I hadn’t been alone. I was in no mood to be at all diplomatic, the way I’d been on the trip until now.
“Those people thought they were attacking me from behind by using their Blending entity, but they were just as wrong,” I added. “In case you still doubt my word, you might want to try the same thing yourself and see what happens.”
“Stop sputtering, Reesh, the girl is right and you are wrong,” the man named Olskin Dinno growled to his fellow assembly member, distaste for the fool’s speech clear in the words. “We all have our private likes and dislikes, but letting them control us to the point of idiocy is … idiotic. Now, I think, we ought to see why those five are still screaming. As far as I can tell, they aren’t physically harmed.”
“The reaction looks more like terror than pain,” Lorand put in to Dinno as he frowned at the five people whose writhing around was beginning to quiet. “Let’s see if we can find out what happened and what was done to them from their own point of view. Jovvi?”
My attackers were quieting because Jovvi had joined the group, and the easing had to be her talent at work. It still bothered me that the Gracelians never seemed to reach for the power and their talent unless they absolutely had to, not when using talent wasn’t against their laws. It seemed that people got sloppy about exercising a right that could be exercised at any time, but it would probably be quite a while before the people in Gandistra became that blasé.
“Yes, we do need to find out what happened,” Jovvi agreed, and then she gave her full attention to one of those on the ground. “Dom Tal, please tell us what brought you and those others to this state.”
“It was all her doing,” Tal answered sullenly, a flicking gesture of his hand and finger indicating me. “She sided with my enemies against me as though she were of true importance instead of being just a backward intruder, so I decided to teach her a lesson. My people and I Blended and then our entity tried to singe her, but there was a … a … shield of some sort in the way. The shield protected her, and then her strength increased so greatly that our entity was stunned. After that she did something to our entity that was so painful even we felt it for a moment. Then our entity was gone and we were left with the memory of agony.”
“So your cowardly attack against her was her fault, was it?” Cleemor Gardan growled while most of the others in the group muttered darkly. “I think that that action justifies our asking you other questions as well. Did you have anything to do with the attacks against the assembly?”
“It wasn’t me, it was that slug Syant,” Tal protested, actually looking annoyed. “When I decided to use Syant against you and Lorimon, I apparently neglected to give the mad fool detailed enough instructions. He arranged all sorts of things he didn’t tell me about, and then he got himself killed before I could question him closely. I have no idea what he arranged or with whom, but it really doesn’t matter. I’m no longer in the city where the real danger lies, and when I return from this foolish little outing a hero I’ll be the sole leader of our empire.”
“And he called Syant mad,” Dinno commented in his own growl with an accompanying headshake. “Does anyone here doubt the truth of what we just heard?”
“Not only don’t I doubt it, I can also see that this imbecile had the cooperation of his Blendingmates,” Reesh said, surprising more people than just me. “I say we remove the whole lot of ’em, and put them on trial for murder and attempted murder. I had a good friend who died from that poison …”
“I agree that something definite has to be done, but we must go carefully here,” Gardan cautioned with one hand held up as he looked around at the others. “We have nothing but Tal’s—ah—assisted word concerning the details, and that’s not enough for the law to condemn him. He is, after all, still a member of the assembly—”
“Excuse me, but that last isn’t true,” Lorand said, interrupting whatever else Gardan had been about to add. “If those of you with Earth magic will look closely, you’ll see that Tal no longer has the talent to be a member of the assembly. The same is true for his former Blendingmates, none of whom will ever Blend again. Any fool who attacks a third-level High in Fire magic deserves whatever he or she gets.”
Wails of misery came from Tal’s Blendingmates while Tal himself frowned with what looked like lack of understanding. Nervous mutters came from many of the other Gracelians, and the way they glanced at me made me feel the least bit uncomfortable. I hadn’t known I’d burned out the talent from those who had attacked me, especially since I’d gone through their entity to do it. Under other circumstances the revelation might have made me feel guilty, but with Tal involved there wasn’t even the smallest trace of guilt.
“What foolish talk is that?” Tal demanded, his frown still firmly in place. “The only way my talent can be taken is for the entire assembly to find me guilty of something. Since there isn’t any proof for me to be found guilty of anything, I will retain my seat in the assembly and I will have my talent returned. The lot of you lowborn fools have no choice.”
The man’s smirk worked what can only be called a miracle. The moment he finished speaking everyone standing around just stared at him, all nervousness and tangential accusation toward me gone at once. Everyone was too busy glaring at Tal for his colossal nerve to do or think anything else, and that was when Antrie Lorimon stepped forward.
“I think we all know now what our former associate’s opinion of us is,” Antrie said with a faint, humorless smile. “It’s apparently beyond the silly little brat to understand what his true position is, so I propose that we teach him the truth in the most direct way possible. We’ve brought no servants with us, and more than one of us has noticed the lack when something needs to be fetched or carried. Instead of sending these five turncoats back to the city to sit quietly while awaiting our return, let’s keep them here and make full use of their presence.”
“And I second that,” Reesh said at once, surprising everyone again. “Don’t anyone ever say I don’t know a good idea when I hear it.”
After that everyone added their own agreement, and Tal’s four co-conspirators were either in shock or crying. Tal himself blustered and tried to throw his weight around, but people came forward to pull him to his feet while ignoring everything he had to say.
“While they’re not doing their job as servants, we’ll keep them tied,” Cleemor Gardan said as he looked around at his fellow assembly members. “No sense in leaving them free to make mischief while we sleep.”
Again everyone agreed with the idea, and all five of the new servants were pulled to their feet and hurried away. I’d expected Jovvi to say that it wasn’t necessary to tie the five to keep them from doing something nasty, but she never said a word. Instead she pulled Lorand off to the side and began to speak to him, and after a few minutes the two of them walked away.
I thought about following Jovvi and Lorand, then gave up on the idea and found a cool place to sit down instead. We still had a problem of our own to take care of, and once Jovvi solved it—assuming she did—I’d then be able to hear all about it …
Nine
With all the excitement over for the moment, Jovvi put a hand on Lorand’s arm.
“Lorand, I need to speak to you,” she said in a very soft voice. “I need your help and your support, and most of all your understanding.”
“I like to think you have all that without asking,” Lorand replied with raised brows. “Is something wrong?”
“Yes,” Jovvi answered without beating around the bush. “And it’s all my fault, for talking Tamma into doing what I thought was best—and safe. Let’s step over there and I’ll explain as quickly as I can.”
Lorand still looked bewildered, but that didn’t stop him from following her away from the crowd. As soon as they stood alone, Jovvi turned to him again.
“I thought it was a good idea to ask Tamma to flatter Rion a bit, to build his self-confidence,” Jovvi said in a rush, wishing there was time to hem and haw. “If things had worked out he would have been more sincere when he spoke to Naran again, but somehow he misinterpreted what Tamma was saying. She told me he was incredibly grateful that she wanted to lie with him again, and thanked her with a tear in his eye before riding away. He now expects her to come to his tent tonight, and if she fails to show up he’ll be crushed.”
“To borrow a phrase from you, ‘oh, dear,’” Lorand said, his face now showing the flinching distress she herself felt. “What is Tamrissa going to do about it? If Vallant finds out … I’m not sure how he’ll react, but it won’t be pleasant. And what about Naran? How will she feel?”
“Those are the things I have to take care of,” Jovvi told him with a sigh. “Since Tamma’s speaking to Rion was my idea, she insisted that I see to the problems before they become problems. Will you come with me and support whatever I say? I’m still not sure what will be involved, but I have this strange feeling that you’re part of the solution.”
“If I can be of help in some way, of course I’ll do it,” Lorand, the love, volunteered at once. “Do you have any idea what makes you think you’ll need me?”
“Not really,” Jovvi answered with a small headshake. “And it’s so annoying, as if I’ve seen a clue somewhere but can’t remember it completely or understand it. Well, maybe I’ll understand later, so let’s go find Naran first.”
“Why are you taking Naran first?” Lorand asked as he followed her back toward the area of woods where their own people were resting and waiting for lunch. “Isn’t it Vallant who’s likely to make more of a fuss if he isn’t calmed down quickly?”
“Vallant won’t make a fuss until he finds out about the proposed change in sleeping arrangements,” Jovvi pointed out over her shoulder. “Since he shouldn’t find out until tonight, we have some time with him. Naran, on the other hand, might learn about the situation at any time if that flux clears up enough for her to See something. I know she’s been acting detached and uncaring, but that isn’t what she’s really feeling.”
“What gets me the most about this mess between Rion and Naran is that it isn’t their fault,” Lorand said, sounding unusually savage. “If Rion’s self confidence hadn’t been deliberately destroyed by that woman who raised him, he would not be filled with so many doubts now. I only wish we’d done something more to her than simply send her to Astinda with the others.”
