Intrigues (16 page)

“All right, I surrender,” Lorand admitted with both hands held up palms out. “I can see that even Rion agrees with you, so in this instance my feelings must be wrong. And I have to agree that our staying won’t help if we aren’t allowed to continue on as
we
see fit.”

“Not to mention the fact that they think they can keep Naran from being a part of our Blending,” I finished up as I stood. “I’ll
never
allow something like that, and besides, I’ve always wanted to be an outlaw.”

“An outlaw?” Rion echoed with brows high as he and the others followed my example and got to their feet. “Why in the world would you think we would end up being outlaws?”

“It stands to reason,” I explained patiently, pausing on the way to where I’d left my one piece of luggage. “If someone Henris and his cronies approve of gets to run things, having Naran with us won’t be the only thing they’ll declare illegal. Training people in the proper use of magic will also be disallowed, because whoever takes over won’t be able to control things if it isn’t. But spreading the word about how to use magic properly is necessary, so I’ll continue to do it no matter what. The rest of you will probably do the same, and that will make us outlaws.”

“Now I see the point,” Lorand said ruefully as Rion sighed and simply nodded. “I’ve never had the urge to be an outlaw, but it looks like it will end up being my ultimate career choice. Will they just lock us up, or decide in the end to execute us?”

“They’ll be too busy with the riots to spend much attention on
us
,” Naran commented, and the way she stared into empty air said she wasn’t simply guessing. “If they try to take over in our place and do things according to their own beliefs and desires, they’ll tear the whole empire apart starting with Gan Garee. But that’s just one possibility among many, so don’t think it
has
to come to be.”

“And no, we can’t do anything to change their minds if we stay here,” I said as Lorand opened his mouth again. “As long as they think we’ll handle things until they can wear us down into agreeing with their demands, they won’t make a single effort to change their stance. That army heading in this direction is probably the best thing that could have happened right now.”

“It will put things in perspective for them,” Vallant said as he picked up my bag as well as his own. “Right now they’re seein’ runnin’ things as nothin’ but handin’ out orders. When they find out how much more there is, they just might start seein’ reason.”

“I hope they see it soon enough to keep that army from walking in and taking over for the nobles again,” Lorand muttered as he picked up Jovvi’s bag in addition to his own. “If they don’t, it will just make things harder for
us
.”

“If necessary, we’ll step in before that happens,” Jovvi assured him with a smile. “Our associate Blendings know we won’t go to unreasonable extremes while this disagreement is going on, so they won’t offer Henris a way out of the dilemma by agreeing to help.”

“Look, I really do know all this, so I apologize for making you all say it,” Lorand blurted, looking around at us with unhappiness clear in his eyes. “It’s just that… ”

“It’s just that you’re too decent a person not to protest a little,” I finished when he let his words trail off, moving close to lean up and kiss his cheek. “We know that, love, so don’t let it bother you. And now it’s time we got going.”

Rion had claimed his and Naran’s luggage, so I led the way out of my wing toward the part of the palace that would bring us to the palace entrance. Or the palace exit, as it happened to be. The servants in my wing had stared at us with confusion in their eyes, but they hadn’t said anything and made no attempt to stop us. The same, however, didn’t hold true for the crowd we found waiting in the public part of the palace. Everyone from the city who had been at the party the night before seemed to be there, along with a few people extra.

“There, you see?” Lavrit Mohr exclaimed even as he sketched a bow in our direction, the Guild High Master standing at the front of the crowd. “I told you they meant what they said last night and really would leave. Obviously you’re wrong again, Henris.”

“Just because they’re carrying luggage doesn’t mean they intend to leave,” Henris came back, stubbornness in the set of his broad shoulders. “As a matter of fact, I’ll bet those bags are all empty.”

“Guess again,” Vallant said as I bristled up, stepping forward before I could. “Daylight hasn’t made you any less of a fool, Henris, and fools always need to be shown the error of their ways.”

And with that he dropped my bag on Henris’s feet, making the shop owners’ Guild head howl and stumble back. Everyone else in the crowd laughed with true amusement, and that made Henris furious.

“Obviously you knew I was going to say that about the bags, so you all made sure to pack them,” he snarled, sending a quick glare to Naran before returning his attention to Vallant. “I still say you’re just bluffing, trying to force us into giving you permission to invade our private lives. That’s not going to happen, so you might as well take that stuff back where it belongs and get on with doing what you’re supposed to. That army is getting closer to us by the minute, and it’s your job to stop it.”

“It
would
be our job if we were the head of this empire,” Vallant countered, holding the fool’s gaze while others in the crowd muttered uneasily. “You’ve been makin’ it clear that you consider
yourself
the head of the empire, so
you
take care of that army. We have private lives to get on with.”

“But you can’t just walk out on us,” Rilna Zokill, the woman representing the disenfranchised, protested, her expression troubled even as others echoed her words. “You know well enough that
we
can’t do anything against that army, so it has to be you or one of the other Blendings. Some of us have already spoken to members of the other Blendings, but they refuse to do so much as listen. They said we have to straighten this out with
you
.”

“That’s because they all know we’re strongest,” I told the woman, doing nothing to hide my sense of satisfaction. “In this empire the strongest Blending has always ruled, and there’s more to the circumstance than mere law. If you ever manage to become a member of a Blending yourself, you’ll find out what I mean. But don’t count on ever being part of a Blending if that fool Henris is allowed to take charge. The first thing he’ll do is limit the practice and use of magic just the way the nobles did.”

“But that’s nonsense,” Zokill said as the muttering came again from those in the crowd. “We’ve already been denied our abilities far too long, and Dom Henris would never – “

Her words broke off when she saw the expression on Henris’s face, a mixture of anger and embarrassment. It was clear that Henris
did
intend that the practice and use of magic be limited, and once he realized that the matter was no longer his own little secret, he puffed himself up and tried to defend his position.

“It won’t be anything
like
what the nobles did,” he said, looking around at the crowd at the same time. “Just for now there will be too many other problems to take care of, so using magic more will just have to wait a while. It won’t be forever, just until things settle down, and then we’ll have classes and everything.”

“That’s undoubtedly what the original members of the nobility said to people,” Rion put in, letting his disgust show clearly in the words. “As soon as things settle down we’ll provide everything everyone wants. What they really meant was they wanted time to form a strong enough guard force to make people toe
their
line, and that’s probably what
you
mean as well. And even if it isn’t, who are you going to get to run all those classes?”

“It won’t be hard at all to get people to run classes,” Henris blustered, carefully ignoring the first part of what Rion had said. “There are lots of people who are strong enough, and I may even run one of the classes myself.”

“You?” Vallant challenged with a sound of scorn. “What could
you
teach people, aside from the nonsense you’ve been spoutin’ last night and today? How much trainin’ were
you
put through by the nobles callin’ themselves Adepts?”

“I don’t
need
any other training, because I’ve been training myself over the years,” Henris growled in answer, glaring angrily at Vallant. “There isn’t anyone I know who’s stronger in Water magic than I am, and that certainly includes
you
! Why don’t we step outside so I can prove what I say.”

“You just proved the exact opposite,” Vallant told him with a snort. “You want to go outside because there’s too little moisture in the air in here for you, but I don’t have that problem. If you’re all that good, let’s see how easy you find stoppin’
me
.”

For an instant no one understood what Vallant meant, but then Henris cried out and we saw that all his clothing was suddenly dripping wet. Henris was furious, of course, especially when the people behind him started to laugh, and I could almost see him reaching for the power. If he really hadn’t been opened to the power before, just the way most of the untrained tended to be, it was no wonder he thought he was all that strong. He hadn’t been able to compare himself to someone with real strength…

“No, this isn’t possible!” Henris shouted, still dripping wet. “For some reason I can’t remove the water! It has to be a trick, that’s what, it has to – “

His words broke off as he suddenly looked up to stare at Vallant, his mouth open and a look of shock on his face. It seemed hard to believe, but apparently Henris hadn’t paid full attention to Vallant as my Blendingmate used the power. Right now, though, Vallant had every bit of the attention Henris was able to give, and the annoying man’s mouth moved without any words coming out.

“I think you now have a better understandin’ of what the difference between a High talent and a Middle talent is,” Vallant told the shocked man dryly. “Why don’t you try holdin’ on to that water instead, while I work to get rid of it.”

Henris nodded woodenly, but a moment later his clothing was as dry as it had been when he’d first arrived. Henris moaned as though in extreme pain, and Lavrit Mohr patted his shoulder.

“Don’t be upset, Dom Henris,” Mohr consoled him, his tone of voice full of what seemed like real sympathy. “You’re certainly a very strong Middle, but the Excellence Vallant is a very strong High. In point of fact, as I’ve said more than once, the strongest High in Water magic we’ve ever come across. There’s nothing to be ashamed about in losing to him.”

Henris stood with his head down and his eyes closed, the pallor of his skin telling the whole story. His entire world had been turned around and his beliefs shattered, and for the moment at least he no longer had what to say.

“You could have done a bit better against me if you knew which of the patterns to use,” Vallant said to the man as if they were still in the middle of a conversation. “But you’ve had no way of learnin’ the patterns, and that’s part of the whole problem. Too much has been lost because the people in power wanted to keep themselves safe by keepin' everyone else in ignorance.”

“Their biggest mistake wasn’t in keeping things secret,” a thin man behind Henris commented, his expression calm but his eyes showing a sly greasiness. “Their foolishness was in not keeping and practicing all that knowledge themselves, which would have saved it from being lost. I think there are enough of us here to make sure it isn’t lost a second time.”

“It isn’t going to happen that way,” Jovvi said just as calmly, taking her turn at speaking before me. “You’ve just maneuvered almost everyone here into wanting to be part of the select group that knows and does things everyone else doesn’t, but it isn’t ever going to be like that. We’ll teach what we know to everyone, not to a small group of those who consider themselves superior.”

“Which you and your puppets don’t happen to be,” Naran added, her gaze unfocused again. “You’re trying to push those you have control of into making themselves the leaders of the empire, but even if you do manage to accomplish it you and they won’t last longer than weeks in power. You’ll all go down in the riots you cause when you fail to handle the first serious challenge to your claims of leadership.”

I noticed half a dozen faces in the crowd go pale, and Henris raised his head again with a frown. Naran had called the thin man’s associates puppets, which probably meant he had Spirit magic. From Henris’s expression, he had just realized that he was being used rather than leading on his own.

“No, don’t bother trying to take control of them again,” Jovvi said to the thin man with faint amusement. “Right now I’m shielding them, and in another minute or two you won’t be able to use your talent to influence anyone ever again. But someone is really going to have to be on the alert for people like you, who force others into doing their dirty work. You cause far too much bother.”

The thin man started to look furiously angry with intense fear shading the emotion, but then his expression smoothed out again. All slyness disappeared from his eyes, and he was left with a placidness that seemed to go down to the very center of him.

“Yes, that’s much better,” I commented with my own amusement. “And there really
has
been too much bother this morning, so let’s put an end to it. Our horses should be saddled and waiting by now.”

“No, you can’t do that,” Henris protested with one hand held up toward us. The man appeared to be a bit disjointed, but even if his heavy confidence was gone his brashness still seemed intact. “You can’t just walk away and leave us helpless, we refuse to allow it. You have to do your job first, and then maybe – “

“
You
refuse to allow it?” I echoed, suddenly drowning in indignation. “Just who do you think you are, and who do you imagine you’re talking to? If we were nobles you’d be on your knees begging, even if we were no stronger than you are yourself! But in your mind we’re
commoners
and therefore unimportant, so you think you can say anything you please to us. Not once have we gotten even so much as a bow of courtesy from any of you, but you still expect us to go out and risk our lives for you again because you’ve decided it’s our
job
. Well, it’s
not
our job, because we’ve already handed in our resignation and because what you’re asking for isn’t part of a job but a position. Either we’re in charge or we’re not, and you’ve made it perfectly clear that in your opinion we’re not. With that in mind, get out of my way before I
move
you out of my way.”