The Blending 07 - Deceptions, page 24
“We needed some help to do that, but now that we’ve had the help we can continue on our own,” Kail pointed out firmly to restore his friend’s good mood. “I wonder what the house we’ll be living in is like—and what the training of our abilities will consist of.”
Ren threw off the sadness that had held him for a time, and joined Kail in speculating about what lay ahead. The two were only a short way into the discussion when the door opened again, and Tansomia Elgrin reappeared with Deslin Fodro coming out behind her. The woman was positively glowing, and Fodro wore his faint smile again.
“Well, it seems you now have a total of three members in your group,” Fodro said to Kail in a warm voice. “I’ll take you three to the place where you’ll meet the rest of your housemates, and then you’ll be escorted to the house itself. Lunch should be ready by the time you all get there, so you’ll be able to settle in at once. Please follow me.”
Kail and Ren stood at once and followed as they’d been told to do, but Ren took a moment to squeeze Tansomia’s hand in silent congratulations. Kail felt a brief stab of envy at seeing that, but flatly refused to begrudge Ren the pleasure. Neither one of them had ever expected to find a woman they cared about, but now … Kail just wished that Asri could somehow appear and join them …
That was a wish Kail felt certain would never come about, and he sighed with resignation as he and the others followed Fodro through the large building. There were others moving through the building as well, some of them dressed in the same gray Kail and his companions wore. The vast majority, however, wore anything but gray, and one or two glances were anything but friendly. That was only to be expected, Kail knew, and the marvel was that there seemed to be so little animosity toward obvious former enemies. And soon, as Fodro had said, those who were no longer enemies would no longer be marked with that gray …
The man Fodro led the way into what seemed to be a very large meeting room, one where a number of other people already stood waiting. Kail glanced at the others in gray, then felt his heart leap with disbelief. One of those others was a woman holding an infant, and when she saw Kail her smile turned warm and welcoming. Obviously this was a day for making dreams come true, Kail thought as he and the others walked toward Asri Tempeth. Rather than be together as slaves, it looked like he and Asri would be together as future free citizens. He would soon have a life he could offer to share with a woman, and as soon as he did …
Deslin Fodro left his charges in the care of those who would take them to their new home, and took himself to a previously scheduled meeting elsewhere. When he entered the room everyone looked up, and Kestri Somore smiled at him.
“You’re the last one to arrive, Deslin, so if you’ll give me your report I’ll have them all,” Kestri said, her smile as warm as it usually was. “After that I have a report of my own to make.”
“That sounds fair,” Deslin allowed as he took the chair that had been left vacant for him near Kestri. “The Gandistrans I interviewed were as damaged as we expected them to be, but they’re definitely salvageable. After interviewing some of the older Gandistrans I was afraid that they’d all been ruined, but happily I was wrong. None of the three fit at all well into their previous society, but they should do beautifully well in ours.”
“And as far as you could tell they were all normal human beings?” Kestri asked after finishing a note on the papers she held. “No hidden reservations or resistances?”
“The one named Renton Frosh is a fairly strong Middle talent in Spirit magic,” Deslin answered, suddenly curious. “He seemed to be holding off some of the conditioning given him in Gandistra, which means that everything he did was done freely rather than under duress. Is that the sort of resistance you meant?”
“No, and I’m glad to see that you found nothing else,” Kestri answered, and then she began to address the entire group. “Most of the rest of you found the same lack of anything unusual, but there were two instances where the results didn’t match. Luckily we had a High Blending standing by to help if they were needed, and their entity found the two instances of discord. One of them was a man with strong Spirit magic, and he didn’t simply hold off some of the conditioning. He used his talent to judge the best moves to make, and that’s how he ended up among the other people here.”
“I take it that means he was less than truthful about wanting to become one of us,” Gelden Rosh called out from the other side of the room. “What did he want instead?”
“His intention was to infiltrate our ranks and get free of observation and conditioning,” Kestri replied with a sigh and a headshake. “After that he planned to find the best place or places to create havoc, using dupes that he would put under his control. Once the confusion was at its height he planned to free his peers, but what he would do after that wasn’t certain. He couldn’t decide between taking over here or returning to Gan Garee to take over there.”
“The fool would probably have decided eventually to do both,” Gelden said with a matching sigh. “None of these people seem to know anything at all about how talent works, so they dismiss the matter completely from their calculations. As far as they’re concerned, nothing in the world has changed from the way it was when they were in power.”
“Which hopefully means that even if we hadn’t discovered the man’s intentions now, he still wouldn’t have been successful,” Kestri said with a nod of agreement. “The man was sent back to work the land with his friends, and his conditioning has been strengthened to the point of severity. If he tries to use his talent for his own benefit even one more time, he’ll lose the use of it permanently. The choice of what he does, though, was left up to him.”
“Since I’m sure he was also warned, what happens to him next will be entirely up to him,” Deslin said with a shrug that many of the others in the group echoed. “If he hasn’t the sense to refrain from doing harm, his eventual loss will be no one’s fault but his own. Was the second odd instance similar to this first one?”
“Not really,” Kestri answered, her expression having turned disturbed. “The second instance is one no one understands yet, not even the Blending entity that found it. One of the women interviewed … Everything about her says she’s entirely sincere, but there’s also something … odd about her. The only thing we can’t discover is what that oddness consists of.”
“How is that possible?” Deslin asked, feeling the frown he wore. “If there’s something odd about the woman, the oddness itself ought to be perfectly plain. If it isn’t, how was the oddness noticed to begin with?”
“It was the Blending entity that noticed the oddness to begin with,” Kestri pointed out with continuing disturbance. “The Blendingmates involved know there’s something odd about the woman, but even they can’t say what the oddness is. The entity simply noticed the oddness, then seemed to dismiss the entire matter. Since the Blendingmates can’t question their own entity, they can’t think of a way to get more details.”
‘Then what are we going to do about the woman?” someone else called out, sounding as confused as Deslin felt. “We can’t very well exclude her from this program without a more compelling reason, but to turn her loose would be foolish.”
“We’ve decided to keep her in the program, but also to keep a close eye on her,” Kestri said with a gesture of apology. “There’s nothing else we can do, at least until we find out what’s going on. But we do want all of you to be aware of the situation, so if you begin to get odd reports of some kind you won’t simply dismiss them. If anything at all odd starts to happen, you’re to report the matter immediately. And that, I think, is all we need to discuss at this time.”
A babble broke our as soon as Kestri ended the meeting, but Deslin didn’t contribute to it. The matter of that oddness really bothered him, but he didn’t understand why it should. It was certainly a mystery, but mysteries were supposed to entice a man, not repel him. But there was something about the matter that touched him deep down, even though he had no idea why it should …
Deslin took a deep breath to banish foolish thoughts, then turned to Kestri again to get some of the data that had been reported. He wanted to put others into Kail Engreath’s group, and his associates would have found out which of the others qualified. And doing the routine should let him forget about mysteries for a time …
Eighteen
When Jovvi awoke, it was a small surprise to find Rion sleeping next to her rather than Lorand. All six of them had gotten together the night before, and none of them had missed the fact that their Blending entity had felt out of balance. They also all knew why the entity was out of balance, and Tamma had put the matter most simply.
“It seems we’ve been spending too much time paired off with permanent partners,” she’d said with a sigh. “I hadn’t realized that the bond needed to be restrengthened on a regular basis, but I don’t think we can argue the fact. I expected to be back with Vallant tonight, but it looks like going back to old habits will have to wait until tomorrow night.”
“Yes, I’m afraid it does mean that,” Jovvi had put in with her own sigh. “If we don’t want a lopsided entity, Rion will have to lie with me, Lorand with Tamma, and Vallant with Naran. That ought to make the Gracelians even more thrilled with us than they already are.”
“To chaos with the Gracelians,” Vallant had said very flatly, his tone completely uncompromising. “They’re a bunch of fools who would rather die along with all the rest of their people than change their way of thinkin’. If they don’t tell us in the mornin’ that they’ve come to their senses, we’ll have to turn and walk away from them. If we don’t, they’ll just continue doin’ things in the old way because we’ll be there to save their necks.”
“I hate the idea of abandoning the helpless, but I agree that we’ll have to leave,” Lorand said, his tone filled with pain but just as unwavering as Vallant’s had been. “Helping those who refuse to help themselves is something I’m not prepared to do.”
“And staying after saying we would go will make things incredibly worse,” Naran said, her gaze unfocussed again. “I can’t see very much or very far, but one of those patterns Lorand showed me is helping to break through some of the flux. If we stay with the Gracelians even after they refuse to change their ways, the chances are excellent that it will destroy all of them.”
“Which means that we’ll have to think of something else to do,” Rion had said with his own disturbance. “Just because the people in this country have fools for leaders, that doesn’t mean they ought to be abandoned. Not long ago we had fools for leaders, and abandoning these innocents will feel like abandoning ourselves and our followers.”
No one had been able to argue that statement, but the rain had started then so they’d all gone to the tents they meant to spend the night in. Jovvi had enjoyed the time with Rion fully as much as she’d enjoyed the night with Vallant, and now it was almost time to get up and face what the new day would bring …
“Good morning, lovely sister,” Rion’s voice came from the other side of the mat. “Allow me to say how devastated I am that our time together is now over.”
“Oh, Rion, you do know how to make a woman feel marvelous,” Jovvi answered with a laugh as she turned her head toward him. “You are looking awfully satisfied for a man who feels devastated, but I’m willing to overlook that fact. And please explain to your devastation that from now on we’ll have to do this … exchanging more often. We have to keep our Blending entity well balanced, so the six of us will just have to force ourselves into doing the necessary.”
“I can see that you consider that as terrible a fate as I do,” Rion said with true amusement, raising one hand to touch her face. “I have faith that we’ll find some way to cope with the horror being forced on us, but right now I have truly good news. My night’s sleep seems to have brought me an answer about what we might do once we leave these Gracelians.”
“You seem very certain that we will have to leave them,” Jovvi pointed out as she sat up. “But as far as that goes, I feel just as certain. So what have you thought of that we can do?”
“We can start the same kind of revolution that we started in our own country,” Rion answered easily as he also sat up. “At home we taught all the High talents we found how to do things the proper way, so we’ll just have to do the same here. By the time the assembly fools look about themselves, there will hopefully be a large number of High Blendings to push the fools out of the way while the new Blendings handle matters properly. Or am I taking too much for granted? It could well be true that the people are as wedded to their old way of doing things as the assembly members.”
“I think we’ll just have to try your idea and see for ourselves,” Jovvi told him, brows high after briefly considering what Rion had said. “They may well refuse to go along with us, but we do owe it to them to make the offer. If we’re turned down, we can return home with clear consciences.”
Rion was quick to show his agreement, so they both rose and dressed. The rain of the night before had ended to produce a fairly pretty day, so Jovvi and Rion strolled toward where breakfast was being prepared. Not long after they began their stroll, Lorand and Tamma joined them from Tamma’s tent. They were just exchanging good morning wishes when Vallant and Naran appeared to be included in the exchange.
“Now that we’ve all spoken about what a good mornin’ it is, I have two bits of news,” Vallant said in a soft voice. “The first is that our night guards tell me we aren’t the only ones strengthenin’ ties any longer.”
“I don’t believe it!” Tamma exclaimed with amusement, showing she certainly did believe. “The Gracelians have actually decided to do things the right way?”
“Not all the Gracelians,” Vallant corrected, answering everyone else’s questions and comments at the same time. “It was just that Korge and his Blendin’mates, sneakin’ around in the dark after the others were asleep. I really do wonder what he can be up to.”
“I doubt if any of us has the least idea,” Jovvi said just as dryly as Vallant had spoken. “First he makes the others ashamed to even consider something as ‘disgusting’ as bonding, and then he runs to do it himself. The fool is still playing politics without the first idea of how much serious trouble he’s making.”
“He wants to rule the country with his Blending of Middle talents,” Naran commented with an impatient shake of her head. “He really believes that no one can stop him, but if Vallant’s plan works he’ll be stopped rather easily.”
“Lorand’s plan will do the same kind of stopping,” Tamma said just as Jovvi said, “Rion’s idea should take care of Korge and his ambitions.” They all paused to look at each other with brows high while the men exchanged puzzled glances.
“All right, it looks like mine isn’t the only plan,” Vallant said after a moment. “Let’s start with all of us mentionin’ what we have in mind, and then we’ll go with the best idea. Lorand, would you like to be first?”
“Certainly,” Lorand agreed in his usual easygoing way. “I’ve become convinced that the Gracelian assembly members will refuse to change their stance, so our only option will be to find what Gracelian Highs we can and train them in the proper methods of becoming a real Blending. That way these people won’t be left with no useful protection of … any sort … Why are all of you looking at me like that?”
“Personally, I was wondering how you and Rion can have come up with precisely the same idea,” Jovvi told Lorand, and then she became aware of what Naran’s and Vallant’s reactions had to mean. “Or should I say, how you and Rion and Vallant all came up with the same idea?”
“Yes, that’s what you ought to be sayin’,” Vallant confirmed with a nod, his expression just as peculiar as everyone else’s. “And I, for one, would love to know how it happened.”
“Don’t look to me for an explanation,” Tamma said at once with a shake of her head. “I’m still trying to figure out what the weird dreams I’ve been having can mean—if I can even once remember what they were.”
“You’ve also been having strange dreams?” Naran said to Tamma, obviously surprised again. “I thought I was the only one, and I’d dearly love to remember what the dreams were about. They feel important in an odd, tangential way.”
The next moment everyone else was speaking at the same time again, but Jovvi had no trouble sorting out the comments.
“I’m going to make a wild guess and say that we’ve all had odd dreams that we can’t remember,” Jovvi stated as soon as the hubbub died down. “You’re all agreeing with me, so we’re going to have to remember to discuss this at another time. Right now breakfast seems to be ready, and even if I weren’t so hungry we don’t have much privacy for conversation here.”
The others glanced around to see that their hosts were up and moving around the camp, so there was nothing to do but end their discussion and collect the breakfast that was now ready. Lorand was put on line first again, of course, but none of their “hosts” had decided to tamper with the food. Which was a good thing, since Jovvi really was very hungry.
The six of them shared a quiet but companionable meal, but the quiet didn’t last much past the end of the food. Their hosts appeared in a body, showing a bland and political lack of expression, obviously having forgotten that Jovvi didn’t need facial expressions to know what they were really feeling.
“Good morning, friends,” Antrie Lorimon said with a warm smile, clearly speaking for the others. “We hope you slept well last night?”
“We slept very well, thank you,” Vallant answered for their group, the words even and calm. “I’m assumin’ you’re here to give us your decision about whether or not you’re willin’ to change your ways, and we’d appreciate your gettin’ right to it.”
