Intrigues (38 page)

"I don't believe this," Lorand muttered as he looked around, a faint trembling in his voice. "How could those fools have treated these people so badly and still expected to get anything out of them? By the time this column reached Gan Garee, half the people in it could well have been dead."

"Nobles weren't raised to worry about the tools they put to their use," Jovvi pointed out with an even greater weariness than she'd felt earlier. "If a tool you want to use happens to break, you simply replace it. It takes a certain amount of intelligence to understand when replacement isn't practical or possible."

"You also need to be in touch with the real world, which the fools leading this army obviously aren't," Lorand said by way of agreement, bitterness now clear in his tone. "A number of our people are breaking into the army's food supplies and making enough of a meal to bring some life back to these people. I'm just not sure how many of them will be able to eat well enough for the meal to do them any good. I'll be right back."

Jovvi nodded silently and then watched him walk away, already knowing what Lorand intended. At least one of their associate Blendings would have to be available to do what it could for those who were worst off, and Lorand was on his way to arrange that. The members of his link groups were already moving among the captives at Naran's direction, trying to keep from losing anyone now that freedom was within their grasp. Many people consider it a benefit to die free, but living free was Jovvi's idea of a much better choice.

When Jovvi noticed that her own link group members and those from most of the other Blendings were walking around among the newly freed and easing them as much as possible, she felt considerably better. She hated being so tired that using her talent was a chore, but there didn't seem to be anything to be done about that. Hopefully it would last only a little while longer…

"This can't really be happening," a male voice muttered not far from Jovvi, drawing her attention. "This has to be nothing more than another dream, and I'll just wake up to find that nothing's changed. I've got to remember that, or I'll never last long enough to get even if I ever can…"

The man doing the muttering sat on the ground about four feet away, his arms wrapped around his drawn-up knees and his face expressionless. What was left of his clothing was filthy and more than worn, his beard as long as his hair and just as dirty and matted. At first Jovvi thought the man might be joking, but checking him with her talent proved that he was all too serious.

"This
isn't
a dream, but I'm not asking you to believe me right now," Jovvi said to the man after stepping a bit closer to him. "You need to protect your inner self, but you also have to be prepared to accept the truth when it's proven beyond doubt. Will you do me the favor of at least suspending judgment for a while?"

"You've never been in my dreams before, so maybe I
will
do you that favor," the man responded after a long moment of silence while he studied Jovvi's face. "But how am I supposed to know when things stop being a dream and start to be real?"

"You'll know by how long everything takes," Jovvi said with a smile of support rather than amusement. The man wasn't joking, and the realization of that gave Jovvi a chill. "As soon as the food is prepared you'll get to eat, and at some time either before or after the meal one of our Earth magic healers will check you over. After that you'll be allowed to sleep undisturbed, and when you wake up you'll be fed again. By then we'll hopefully have found a place nearby to take you to, a place where you can bathe and cut your hair and beard. If we haven't also found clean clothing for you, the rest of us will share what we brought along for ourselves."

"What you brought along for yourselves," the man echoed, his tone saying nothing about how he considered that statement. He had very dark eyes, and he stared at Jovvi almost unblinkingly. "Assuming this
isn't
a dream, where are all of you supposed to have come from? Unless you just happened by…"

"No, we did
not
just happen by," Jovvi told him firmly, understanding that he was about to float away from reality again. "We come from Gan Garee, where the nobles aren't in charge any longer.
We're
in charge, and we've already freed most of the people in the armies sent west to Astinda. Now we're here to do the same for you and these others, and it's already begun. Just be patient, and by tomorrow you ought to know that you're not just dreaming."

"By tomorrow," he echoed again, the words horribly even. "All right, I'll wait until tomorrow. But what if it all
does
prove to be a dream? How will I stand it?"

"That's something I'm delighted to say you won't have to worry about ever again," Jovvi assured him, fighting not to break down and cry. "But there's something you
will
have to do, and that's help these others to understand the same truth. When the time comes, will you help with that?"

"I suppose I can do that," the man allowed, his gaze losing focus even as he spoke. "If I find out that this is real, I'll help you make the rest of them understand."

"Thank you," Jovvi said, putting a very gentle hand to his terribly thin shoulder. "It's sometimes hard for people to accept that the nightmare they've been living through is over, but it's necessary to remember that even the worst of nightmares ends at some time. I only wish that the ending could have come sooner for all of you."

The thin man didn't say anything else, and might not have even heard the last of what she'd told him. Jovvi straightened with a sigh and walked away, knowing she and the other Spirit magic users had their work cut out for them. Too many of these people would be terribly damaged in their minds, and without help they would never be right again…

"Jovvi, may I have a word with you?" she heard then, and turned to see Rion coming up. "Tamrissa has something that needs to be told to everyone, and that as soon as possible."

"'As soon as possible' may take a while, Rion," Jovvi replied with a sigh. "Lorand and Naran are busy helping with taking care of these people, and Vallant is getting all our other efforts coordinated. And someone really should pay attention to those nobles to make sure they don't do something we won't like."

"Tamrissa and I have already seen to the nobles," Rion said with a dismissive gesture, and only then did Jovvi notice his disturbance. "If the others are unavailable, are
you
free to listen? These newest matters should be thought about, and I'm sadly lacking the ability to make any sense of them."

"If it's that important to you, of course I'll listen," Jovvi agreed at once, somewhat curious but even more apprehensive. Whatever had happened sounded serious, and there would be few worse times for the appearance of something new and serious…

"Good," Rion said, both looking and sounding relieved. "I'll locate Tamrissa and bring her here. She stopped to speak to her link groups first, and hopefully learned something."

Learned something? Jovvi watched Rion move off, her brows high as her curiosity grew. The new "matter" had something to do with the power? What in the world could it be? Jovvi would have had difficulty waiting very long to find out, but Rion returned in a moment accompanied by Tamma.

"Rion tells me something has happened," Jovvi said to a Tamma who looked even more disturbed than Rion had. "Is it a bad something or a good something?"

"It's two somethings, and I'd call them more disconcerting than bad," Tamma answered, trying to give Jovvi a smile. "But you look even more tired than I feel, so why don't we sit down before I explain. There seems to be a relatively quiet spot over there."

Tamma pointed to a place farther away from the road among the trees, a place that had neither horses tied nor people standing. Sitting down sounded like a good idea, so Jovvi joined Tamma and Rion in walking over and doing it. Once they were settled, Tamma showed that odd smile again.

"I think I ought to start with the second happening," Tamma said. "While I was keeping an eye on the nobles, one of them tried to strangle me. I had no trouble making him sorry he tried, but only because I … somehow … drew strength from my link groups. I spoke to the people in the link groups before coming over here, and they know as little about it as I do. They suddenly found themselves linked and having strength drawn from them, but how and why we have no idea."

"Oh, dear," Jovvi said, feeling how her brows had risen again. "I see what you meant about it being disconcerting. If it's a new ability it's definitely worth having, but it would be nice to know how it happened. Why is perfectly simple."

"Yes, it happened because I needed it to happen," Tamma agreed with a touch of impatience. "But that's only one part of the why, and says nothing about how far the rest of it goes. Another aspect of why is why did it happen now rather than sooner? Will it only happen when the need is strong enough, or can I learn to control it? Will the rest of you find you can do the same thing? And let's certainly not forget the one about how far away from my link groups I have to be before the trick doesn't work any longer."

"This probably happened to you first because you've been touching the power continuously longer than the rest of us," Jovvi said, automatically reaching out to sooth Tamma's upset. "That doesn't make things easier for
you
, but the rest of us will be grateful for the warning. Now tell me about the other thing that happened."

"The other thing is almost stranger," Tamma said after taking a moderate breath, looking more relieved than Jovvi's efforts at soothing could account for. "When we Blended this last time, Rion tells me that the entity had
his
point of view."

"That
is
strange," Jovvi said at once, startled into speaking as she looked over at Rion. "Are you absolutely certain, Rion? I could swear that the entity had
my
point of view."

"I was afraid you were going to say that," Tamma muttered while Rion closed his eyes and shook his head. "It makes everything much more complicated, so of course it was to be expected… Jovvi, the entity had
my
point of view, and even beyond that it was more than just point of view. For the first time I had more awareness of self during the Blending, and even had more control of what the entity did. Can you tell me how that was possible when you and Rion both saw events through your own eyes?"

"This time I have no interest in saying 'Oh, dear,'" Jovvi stated, looking back and forth between Tamma and Rion. "I'd much rather use a phrase I learned during my time on the streets, one I've trained myself never to say out loud again. Saying it won't help the situation much, but it would certainly make
me
feel better… Tamma, are you absolutely sure about what happened? Is it at all possible that you imagined the whole thing?"

"Of course it's possible," Tamma answered with a mirthless laugh. "As tired as I am, anything is possible. I just have a feeling that it isn't true, and it all really did happen. If you can convince me that I suffered from a touch of limited insanity, I'll probably love you even more than I do right now."

"Groping around blind will probably drive us all insane," Jovvi muttered, putting her hands to her face for a moment and rubbing. "We've been wondering why we're so tired, and this is probably the answer. Changes are now coming in multiples rather than one at a time, but it's that word 'multiples' that bothers me most right now. How many other surprises are in store, and what can we do to prepare for them? Do we have any choice other than stumbling into them by accident?"

"Maybe we can hang back and let Pagin Holter's Blending go through it first," Tamma suggested wryly, and Jovvi had the impression that Tamma was only half joking. "They're almost as strong as we are, and have been Blending just about as long."

"But he and his Blendingmates haven't been touching the power continuously as long as we have," Jovvi pointed out, then looked between Tamma and Rion again. "But even so, we ought to speak to them and find out what point they're up to. Assuming they're going through the same things we did…"

"Let's wait until tomorrow to talk to them," Tamma said, and once again she didn't seem to be joking. "If they tell us they're going through something else entirely - or absolutely nothing - I don't think I could stand it."

Rion's expression said he agreed with that idea completely, so Jovvi nodded her own agreement. There was a parallel of sorts between what
they
were experiencing and what that man was, the one who wasn't allowing himself to believe that the rescue was real. Nightmare came in many different forms, and the ones experienced when awake were obviously the worst of the lot…

Naran accepted her breakfast with a smile, and then carried it over to where the rest of the Blending were sitting and eating. She'd awakened that morning a little later than everyone else, probably due to the fact that she'd done so much with the captives yesterday. She'd pushed herself to the limit to find the captives in the worst condition before they died, and happily everyone had been saved - for the moment. What happened during the coming days was another matter entirely, but she'd have to think about that some other time. She'd been so tired the night before that she remembered nothing beyond falling into her bed roll…

"Good morning, Naran," Jovvi greeted her when she took her place next to Rion. "That tiny bit of extra sleep you got seems to have done you a lot of good. If looks count for anything, you're not as tired as you were."

"No, actually, I'm not," Naran discovered aloud, realizing what she hadn't noticed earlier. "I feel well rested, and the rest of you look the same. Have we finally worked our way through that persistent weariness?"

"I certainly hope so," Tamrissa said in what was almost a growl after sipping at her tea. "If the tiredness goes away, maybe there won't be any other surprises for a while."

"Have we had surprises?" Naran asked, feeling as though she hadn't been paying attention. "I've been so busy I'm afraid I must have missed - "