The Blending 07 - Deceptions, page 18
right all along,” Driff murmured to himself as he headed toward the carriage that had brought him to the house. “I won’t mind in the least, but I can’t get rid of the feeling that something isn’t quite right …”
Driff really was tired, so as soon as the carriage started to move he got as comfortable as possible and let himself drift off into a doze. In a couple of days they’d find out which of them was right … And hopefully he would turn out to be wrong …
Honrita waited until her former visitors left the hall for the stairs, and then she turned and hurried into her bedchamber. It had really tickled her to fool them the way she had, and she laughed softly as she began to pack the things she needed to take with her. As a child she’d watched others pretend to be what they weren’t, but she’d never had the nerve to try it herself. For some reason she now had the nerve, and the aftermath of the pretense felt marvelous. She really should have tried this sooner …
“But I wasn’t able to try it sooner, not until they did whatever it was they did to me,” she murmured to herself as she packed. “Now that I’m not afraid of my own shadow any longer, I can do anything I please. And I also won’t ruin things again by trying to play important. I’ll keep what I’m doing very quiet, and then one day I’ll really be important.”
That thought made Honrita smile with anticipation. Her parents had battered at her constantly when she was a child, forcing her into doing nothing but obey them, but she’d only been overwhelmed, not blind. It wasn’t possible to miss the fact that those who took what they wanted got to enjoy what they took. Those who sat around like good little tykes waiting to be given things never quite got anything worthwhile.
So Honrita’s first move would be to get out of that house, and then she’d be able to start taking. It was fairly clear now that they’d had her under some sort of control, so she had to get out before they tried to reestablish that control. The act she’d put on for her visitors had bought her a small window of opportunity, and if she missed out on using it then shame on her.
It came to Honrita to wonder how she’d managed to fool a High talent in Spirit magic, and her packing was done by the time she came up with something of an answer. The reason Honrita had been so good at pretending was that she’d noticed as a child that the best liars always believed completely whatever they happened to be saying. So while she’d been speaking, she’d considered what she said to be perfectly true. It was that belief that had fooled the High talent and, if she should run across another, it would do the same again.
“And now for the start of my real new life …” Honrita murmured with a happy smile as she picked up her battered old bag and took the first steps toward slipping out of that house.
Tolten Meerk felt foolish knocking at the door of a shack, but simply barging in wouldn’t have been very wise. He’d agreed to meet that stranger here, the hard-looking man who had approached him in the Tiger Tavern. Tolten’s Middle talent in Earth magic had told him that the man was speaking the truth about wanting a serious talk, so there was nothing to be lost in finding out what the man had to say. If Tolten didn’t like what he heard, he could always walk out again …
His knock brought an immediate response. The door opened without the squeal of old hinges that he’d expected, and the man who had approached him in the tavern looked out of the narrow opening. When the man saw who had knocked he quickly stepped aside, and Tolten took that as an invitation to enter.
“Thank you for joining us,” the man said without inflection as Tolten looked around. The shack was slightly less shabby on the inside, since its walls didn’t seem to be peeling as badly as on the outside. In addition to a small cot heaped with dirty linen, there was a table and more than half a dozen chairs scattered around, and someone seemed to have wiped away most of the dust.
“If you’ll take a chair with the others, my employer will be here shortly,” the man said after Tolten had had a chance to look around. “When he arrives, he’ll tell you why you were asked to come.”
Tolten had been about to demand explanations now, but a glance at the hard-faced man made him change his mind. The man was nothing but a flunky, after all, and probably didn’t have any answers. It was annoying, but he’d just have to wait. No sense in walking away before he found out what was going on.
So Tolten walked toward one of the chairs, finally letting himself glance at the two other men who were already there and seated. The hard-faced man hadn’t used Tolten’s name and hadn’t tried to make introductions, so these great conspirators probably didn’t want their three … guests to know each other’s names. And that was a shame, because Tolten already knew who the other two men were.
Relton Henris sat scowling and looking uncomfortable, probably feeling frustrated that he wasn’t able to tell people how many shop owners he represented. Tolten had seen Henris when the man had tried to control the new Seated Blending, but Henris hadn’t had any more luck at it than Tolten had had. They’d both been flung off the path leading to true importance, and Henris had even come down a bit in life. Less than a handful of the new shop owners still considered him their representative, but Henris insisted on carrying on as though nothing had changed.
The second man sat quietly with a faint smile curving his lips, looking as though he might be among close friends in their well-appointed home. He was tall and on the thin side, thinner than the last time Tolten had seen him. The man was Holdis Ayl, former second in command of the Guild, and was currently being hunted by every guardsman and official in the city. Tolten had heard it said that Ayl had used up all his followers and was now on his own, but as the newcomer also took a chair he wondered if that rumor was true. Ayl and his people were fanatics, but that didn’t also mean they had to be stupid …
Nothing in the way of refreshment was offered to Tolten and his fellow conspirators, but at least the wait turned out to be fairly short. Tolten had the time to shift only once in his chair before the door opened, and a man wearing a privacy mask entered. Four more hard-faced men entered behind the masked one, which made Tolten feel very uneasy.
“Good evening, gentlemen, good evening,” the man in the privacy mask sang out as he approached the chairs, sounding as though he hadn’t a care in the world. “I very much appreciate your accepting my invitation.”
“We didn’t come for pleasant conversation, or at least I didn’t,” Henris growled, his tone surly. “I was told I would be given a chance to help turn things back the way they were before those people were Seated. If you really have a way to do that, I want to hear about it. If you don’t, I have better things to do than waste my time.”
“If you’re that eager to return to things as they were, you may begin by showing me the deference due my station,” the newcomer snapped, no longer sounding languid and easygoing. “You will, after all, be due the same deference when you become a member of the nobility, or perhaps I should say the new nobility. Most of those who claimed the title before these … difficulties have forfeited their right to retain those titles.”
“You’re a member of the former nobility, then?” Ayl asked the man in an offhand way, the faint smile never leaving his face. Tolten sat as silent and thunderstruck as Henris, replaying in his mind what they’d just been told. They were to become the new nobility, and those ungrateful upstarts on the throne would be out in the street!
“There’s nothing former about my position in the nobility,” the man in the privacy mask responded to Ayl’s question, the words solid with assurance. “I remain as I have always been, and very soon that will be proven to everyone in the empire. In the interim, you all may address me as ‘lord.’”
“I may very well give you my approval to use that title,” Ayl said with a nod, his faint smile beginning to disturb Tolten. “First I must hear what you have in mind to restore this city to its former condition. Your primary plans, I hope, revolve around destroying those liars on the throne. And I must have some assurances that my people and I will actually receive what we’re being promised.”
“The word of a born noble is all the assurance anyone could ever need,” the man replied smoothly, and again that certainty was in his tone. “What I need to know is how many people each of you is able to bring into this effort. You’ll be responsible for passing on my orders to them and seeing that those orders are carried out, and all efforts must be coordinated. Are you all willing to cooperate fully?”
“I can bring in at least thirty men,” Henris said at once, his eagerness pathetic in Tolten’s opinion. “I may even be able to get more, but they won’t also become nobles, will they? They’ll be working for me , so I should be the only one—”
“I can bring in fifty men,” Tolten interrupted the disgusting display, forced to stretch the truth a bit. “And, yes, I’m prepared to cooperate fully … lord.”
“We still haven’t heard anything about what your plans entail,” Ayl put in, still as quietly unimpressed as he’d been all along. “And in my experience with ‘born nobles,’ more than their ‘word’ is required to bind them. I’m waiting to hear what you mean to do and what assurances you can give that my people and I will get what we’re being promised.”
“My plans entail disrupting the pitiful efforts of those now running this city,” the noble answered, a faint trace of annoyance to be heard behind the words. “When all of you have decided to commit yourselves fully to this enterprise and have convinced me of your dedication, you’ll then be given details. And you haven’t yet said how many men you expect to supply for our use. If that means you don’t have anyone …”
“I have two hundred and seven men and women dedicated to obeying my every wish,” Ayl said when the noble’s words trailed off in doubt, his easygoing manner finally turning the least bit stiff. “Now I will hear what assurances you’re prepared to offer, or I’ll leave rather than ask again.”
“Contracts of agreement that are legally perfect are now being prepared,” the noble responded with a growl, the words clearly being forced out of him. “Does that arrangement meet with your approval, my dear High Lord?”
“For the moment,” Ayl replied, his spare body relaxed back into a languid pose and his faint smile restored. “Now I need to know when and where we’ll meet again.”
“You’ll be told when and where we’ll meet next when I decide on the matter,” the noble answered, his tone having turned cool and distant. “It will definitely be in the next few days, though, so I expect you all to have your people ready to move. You’re all to remain here for the next quarter hour, and then you may leave. If you try to leave here before that, my people will know.”
The masked noble looked at each of them one last time, and then he turned and strode out of the shack. All of his men, including the one who had greeted the three seated guests, left at the same time, and there was a long moment of silence. Tolten was in the midst of picturing his suddenly beautiful future when Henris made a sound of scorn.
“And where do you expect to get fifty men?” Tolten heard, which made him turn his head to find that Henris spoke to him. “You know you’ll be lucky to find five men, so you only said that to make me look bad.”
“Don’t you worry about how many men I’ll get or where I’ll find them,” Tolten retorted at once, ignoring the heat he could feel in his face. “I still have plenty of people willing to listen to me, even if you don’t. And don’t try to count in those four shopkeepers who still think of you as their representative. The last thing they want is a return to the way things were.”
“They won’t mind going back to the old ways if they’re the nobles this time,” Henris returned with heat, his face darkening with anger. “And they’ll all take my orders for the chance, don’t you think they won’t. I just won’t tell them about that contract, is all …”
“What fools you two are,” Ayl said suddenly, his amusement no longer faint as he looked back and forth between Tolten and Henris. “What good do you expect contracts to do you, when that useless lump will control all the courts? If you try to hold the man to what he’s promised, that very important ‘lord’ will simply have his bullies take you somewhere and no one will ever hear from you again. You won’t be made into nobles, you’ll just be used, so don’t think for a moment that you’ll have exactly what you want.”
“You think you know it all?” Tolten demanded, hating the way Ayl was trying to ruin his dreams. “Even after he’s back in power that lord will need people to back him up, and I’m going to be one of those people. Are you trying to talk us out of cooperating because you want what’s to be had all for yourself? If so, then you’re wasting your time. You don’t have two hundred people following you any longer, not after so many have been arrested, so how do you expect to make a better showing than me?”
“All my people are still with me, and I don’t expect to make any sort of showing,” Ayl replied with that same faint smile as he rose to his feet. “I came tonight simply to find out what that leech is up to, and now that I know I’ll have to include him in my plans. No one will ever become a noble in this city again without my express permission, and neither you nor he have that permission. Waste your time with the fool as you like, but don’t expect to get anything out of it but an end to all misery.”
And with that Ayl headed for the door. Tolten felt too … disturbed to say anything, but Henris yelped.
“Hey, you can’t leave yet!” he called after Ayl, his nervousness plain. “We were told to wait fifteen minutes, and the time isn’t up yet!”
“Don’t be more of a fool than you have to be,” Ayl replied, only pausing to glance at Henris. “I can tell easily that all those people are gone, so what would be the purpose in waiting any longer?”
And then Ayl was gone as well, leaving Tolten to sit staring at Henris—who returned the stare. There was another moment of silence between them, and then Tolten shook his head.
“That freak really is completely out of his mind,” Tolten said, hating the way his voice wanted to shake. “He truly believes he’ll be able to name the next nobility, and he believes he still has all those followers. He’s dangerous, and I wish someone would lock him up and then forget where they put him.”
“We’ll have to tell the lord about him at the next meeting,” Henris said with a distracted nod. “I can’t see Ayl doing any real damage, not when he has nothing in the way of talent, but it won’t hurt to keep our eyes open.”
Tolten nodded his agreement, reflecting that he’d rather associate with Henris than with Ayl any day. Henris obviously meant to wait the fifteen minutes just as he did, and if the lord had anyone waiting in hiding to see if they obeyed, then only Ayl would be in trouble.
But Ayl didn’t count, especially since the madman didn’t intend to come back. Tolten knew he would have no trouble proving himself the better man with only Henris to compete against, and then he, Tolten Meerk, would have the rewards he should have had long before this. Life would finally be worth the living, and Tolten couldn’t wait …
Fourteen
Idresia Harmis stood in the shadows with Tildis Lammin, one of the boys Driff had rescued from the streets. Tildis had insisted on helping Idresia with her investigations, and the boy—who was rapidly becoming a man—still had too many street connections for Idresia to refuse his help. Although some of those connections now made Idresia nervous about standing there in the dark …
“Don’t worry, I don’t think that night prowler is anywhere around here,” Tildis whispered to her, obviously knowing how she felt. “And if the one killing people in alleys does show up, just do to him what you did to me and we’ll both be fine.”
Idresia shook her head just a little, remembering how Tildis had frightened her when he’d grabbed her in the alley outside the Tiger Tavern. She hadn’t been able to break his grip on her, so she’d used her Fire magic to put flames under his hands. She’d expected to burn herself as well as him, but for some reason Tildis’s hands were the only things that were singed a bit.
“My heart almost stopped when you grabbed me,” Idresia murmured back, not joking in the least. “The next time you’d better warn me in words about something like that. If you ever do the same again, I’ll send my flames somewhere other than under your hands.”
“You have my word,” Tildis promised, holding up both of the hands in question. “If that ever happens to you again, it won’t be me doing it. Ssh! Someone is coming!”
They both moved back even more deeply into the shadows, watching the five men approach the shack they’d followed Tolten Meerk to. One of the five newcomers wore a privacy mask, and the other four reminded Idresia of what guardsmen used to look like before the change in government. One of the guardsmen opened the door to the shack, and all five walked in.
“Now we’ll get to see if our idea works,” Tildis whispered as the door was closed behind the five men. “They didn’t notice any of us as they approached, so there’s a good chance they’re not touching the power.”
Idresia was about to say that if any of the five was touching the power, that one couldn’t possibly be a Fire magic user. But before she was able to voice the words, other words began to reach them. Tildis and another of Idresia’s people with Air magic had done something to some of the air inside the shack, and now those in the shadows outside could hear every word spoken. And Idresia had ten people with her, scattered and hidden all around the shack.
Tildis was properly silent while they listened, and Idresia was grateful for the boy’s common sense. Discussing what they heard could be done later, once all the talk was finished. Unfortunately there wasn’t a lot to hear, only enough to prove that what Driff had been told was true. There was a member of the old nobility here in the city, trying to put things back to the way they’d been. If the other two men who had met with the noble were as soured as Tolten Meerk, together they might be able to make some real trouble …
