Intrigues (57 page)

"I used to think I was the only member of the so-called nobility who would have preferred to be born to a peasant family," Kail said, speaking the admission aloud for the first time in his life. "Peasant parents might have been just as bad as my noble family, but at least I would have had the chance that they might
not
be as bad. Then I discovered that there were more of us who were miserable than the official stance would admit."

"If the only way you can stay in power is by being totally ruthless, you have to make sure that your heirs are the same," the woman pointed out. "If you don't, then whatever you've managed to accumulate will be lost by the next generation. I just don't happen to value
things
so much that I'll do anything to keep them."

"Neither do I," Kail agreed, finding it hard to look at anything but this woman in front of him. "But if the only way you can stay in power is by being totally ruthless, then you're incompetent and don't
deserve
that power. By the way, I'm Kail Engreath."

"And I'm Asri Tempeth," the woman returned, smiling again as she held out her hand. "It's nice to meet you, Kail Engreath. I hope we'll see each other again."

As Kail took her hand, he realized that the last of his four units had finished getting their drinks. That meant Asri had to leave for the next group of workers, and for the first time in a while Kail regretted that he couldn't do something to delay her. He used one of the metal cups hanging on the side of the water barrel to get his own drink, and then watched as Asri walked away. After a moment or two she turned to wave, and once Kail had waved back he had to return his attention to his workers.

But that didn't mean he couldn't think about her. It was almost guaranteed that she would be around again in a few hours, and Kail found himself looking forward to the time with an eagerness no prisoner should have had…

Wilant Gorl, Fire magic user and a member of the Blending that temporarily ran the Gandistran empire, stood looking down at the old man who lay unconscious in the bed. He stared silently for quite some time, and only the arrival of Oplis Henden, his Blendingmate with Air magic, distracted his attention.

"How's he doing?" Oplis asked as he joined Wilant at the bed. "And is the rumor true that you now know who he is?"

"I'm told he's getting stronger even though he isn't conscious yet," Wilant answered with a sigh. "And yes, we do know who he is. We found one of the former servants of the nobility who knew every high ranking member by sight, so there's no mistake. He was the High Lord Embisson Ruhl."

"But that's who we were warned about!" Oplis exclaimed in surprise, turning to look at Wilant. "He's supposed to be really dangerous and ready to start trouble, not half dead from a knife wound."

"I'm tempted to think he ran into one of the nastier thieves we missed, but that's not very likely," Wilant said with a shake of his head. "It's just about guaranteed that he didn't come to Gan Garee alone, but he must have had a falling out with at least one of his companions. Once he's conscious we can find out all about it, but until then we stay in the dark. While whoever did this to him runs around putting their plans into action."

"I don't like the sound of that," Oplis stated, just as though he thought Wilant might be responsible for the situation. "We're still in the middle of rearranging things in this city, so we're vulnerable to a blindside attack. Isn't there anything we can do to prepare a defense in advance?"

"How do you prepare a defense when you don't know what there is to defend against?" Wilant countered, but not with enjoyment. "If we go out blind and start to push people around in an effort to learn what we can, we'll just be helping our enemies. There are enough unhappy people in this city now. The last thing we want to do is add to the number."

"The only ones who don't like the changes are the people who are afraid they can't keep up," Oplis said, disturbance in his tone. "And the people who think they were just about to become members of the nobility. And the ones who wanted to start their own nobility, but were kept from doing it. And the ones who have always thought they ought to be important… We have a serious problem here."

"Tell me about it," Wilant grumbled, running a hand through his hair. "I should have had myself locked away in a crazyhouse before I let us agree to stand in for Jovvi, Lorand, and the rest. While they're off enjoying their ride through the countryside, we're stuck here like targets on a board. Anyone who wants to come after us knows just where to find us."

"You know, there was a brief point in time when I considered those six crazy for saying they would stay Seated only for a year," Oplis commented with his own sigh. "I thought that anyone who gave up that kind of power before they had to was out of his or her mind, but now that I've had a taste of 'ruling' I never want another one. With all the boring things rulers have to cope with, I have almost no time to do what I most enjoy - forcing people into happy, productive lives they can't find on their own. So what are we going to do?"

"We'll have to talk to our Blendingmates, but I don't think there's much we
can
do," Wilant said as he finally turned away from the unmoving body in the bed. "We have Ruhl here in the palace, and I mean to keep him under constant guard until we can talk to him. I've already sent word to the former servants of the nobility to keep an eye out for any of their one-time employers, and I've notified the patrols to be on the alert for unexpected troublemakers - even though I haven't yet figured out how you can expect the unexpected. Do
you
have any suggestions?"

"One or two," Oplis said slowly, obviously having thought about it. "Some of the people I've been working with have … contacts to those who live on the shady side of the law. If I tell them what's happening, they'll pass the word and let us know if they come across something more than ordinarily wrong. And aren't we scheduled to start putting together the first Blendings from the people who have completed the training classes?"

"Yes, we'll be working with the first of the new Blendings tomorrow," Wilant answered with a frown. "What have you got in mind?"

"Once those people manage to Blend, why don't we assign them the exercise of sending their entity through different parts of the city?" Oplis's gaze was more inward than studying the man he spoke to, so he missed seeing Wilant's brows rise. "It's hard to hide things from a Blending entity, and that way we won't be the ones who are invading everyone's 'privacy.'"

"I like that," Wilant said with a distracted nod, now leading the way to the door. "I like it quite a lot. And now that we've rounded up most of the people following that renegade Guild man Holdis Ayl, we'll have the other Blendings join in teaching people how to Blend."

"It's too bad we didn't catch up with Ayl himself, but maybe we can put his name on the list," Oplis suggested as he followed along. "As long as the new Blendings are looking, they can look for everyone we want."

"The ones
I
want most are our esteemed colleagues back from their vacation in the country," Wilant said as he stopped in the hall to close the door to Ruhl's sickroom. "The instant I see them I'm out of here, whether or not the rest of you come with me."

"Come with you?" Oplis said with a snort of ridicule. "That will be me racing out ahead of you, accompanied by the rest of our Blendingmates. We don't really blame you for getting us into this, but not one of us wants to stay a minute longer than necessary."

Wilant nodded with a wry smile, knowing that Oplis wasn't exaggerating. He - and most of the others - had been more than eager to "stand in" for the empire's rulers, but that was before they'd had the experience of what it was like. So many itty bitty details that had to be taken care of, so many headaches that had to be solved rather than ignored…

As Wilant led the way up the hall to the meeting room he and Oplis were scheduled to join the others in, one fact stood out very clearly in his mind. In a year's time, when the current Seated Blending oversaw the competitions the people had been promised, he and his Blendingmates would
not
be among those who competed. Let some other fools with more strength than sense get stuck with the job…

Chapter 32

"Antrie, the Gandistrans are here," Frode announced as soon as he walked into the house. "My people are still in the process of getting them all settled into the inn, but they
have
arrived. And they have more attendants than we were expecting."

"Attendants?" Antrie echoed, pausing after getting to her feet. "Is that what
they
call the people with them? Can the others be servants?"

"The Gandistrans don't seem to be calling them anything, and I'm told the people don't act like servants," Frode answered, showing a frown. "My man called them attendants for want of a better word, but from his description I think that some of them are acting like guards."

"Well, they'd be foolish coming here
without
guards, wouldn't you say?" Antrie suggested, immediately feeling better. "How many of them are there altogether? Twenty? As many as thirty?"

"Ah, the actual number seems to be one hundred and thirty-eight," Frode said with a bit of hesitation, watching her closely for a reaction. "You're surprised that they brought so many of their people with them, I can see, but I'm told that the leaders of the group are going out of their way to be pleasant and calm. I'm also told that their major Spirit magic user is stronger than anyone my people have ever come across."

"I think we'd better find out about the rest of their major talents as soon as possible," Antrie responded, her good mood long gone. "And for the moment we'd better keep what we learn about them to ourselves. The rest of the assembly was very disturbed to have it pointed out that their Blending is composed of all High talents. As nervous as my peers have become because of that, we don't want to give them anything else to worry about."

"Especially not when the new arrivals are to be presented to them tomorrow," Frode agreed with a thoughtful nod. "I'll make sure that my people report only to me, and otherwise keep their mouths closed. Is there anything else you need done?"

"I'd just like to make triply sure that these people are well protected," Antrie said, looking around for the bell to summon a runner. "I'll let Cleemor Gardan know that our visitors have arrived, and possibly he'll think of something I've overlooked. I'm much too nervous to be certain I've covered everything."

"Stop worrying, the meeting will go perfectly," Frode interrupted her search to say firmly, his hands taking hers. "I'll make sure that nothing goes wrong, and if something bad does happen you can blame it on me and fire me. If those people were looking for an excuse to start a war, what was done to their army would be excuse enough."

"Yes, you're right of course," Antrie said with a smile as she moved closer to the delightful man. "Our visitors don't want war any more than we do, so we have to be as honest with them as possible. And we have to warn them that some of our people will be playing politics rather than being honest. If we let them know what to expect, they shouldn't get too upset if - when - something happens."

"That's the idea," Frode said with an approving smile of his own, hugging her briefly before stepping back. "We both have things to do, so I'll be on my way now. If I don't make it back tonight, I'll see you for certain tomorrow."

Antrie nodded and exchanged a quick kiss with him, and then he strode to the door and was gone. She stood quietly for a moment trying to hang onto the pleasant mood his presence always produced in her, but it was no use. The demands of the moment intruded to cover all pleasant thoughts, sending her back to looking for the bell to summon a runner.

"I don't know about the rest of you, but
I
certainly enjoyed that breakfast," Lorand said as I finished the last of the tea in my cup. "Now I just hope I can say the same for the rest of our time here."

"After that nice long visit to their bath house last night, I'm a new and patient woman," I said while setting my teacup down. "I'm even willing to admit that their hospitality so far has been perfect. That either means that they want to be friendly, or that whatever attack they have planned is supposed to come as a shock. But I'm willing to wait to find out which it will be."

"That
is
a patient attitude, at least for you," Vallant teased with a grin, his amusement increasing when I stuck my tongue out at him. "But they're waitin' with those carriages to take us into the city, so we really ought to get goin'."

"While our link groups stay here, just relaxing together," Jovvi commented as we began to get to our feet. I wasn't the only one who smiled at her because of the comment, but my smile was probably the nastiest. We'd done some experimenting while on the road, and had discovered that we could even reach the link groups from the two Blendings following us about four hours back. Reaching our own link groups from inside the city shouldn't be quite that difficult - assuming we needed them.

"Good morning, Exalted Ones," that same man said with a bow when we walked out of the inn, the man who had greeted us on the road. "Your carriages are ready, and our assembly is eagerly awaiting your visit."

There were six large carriages waiting, possibly because we'd been told that some of our "attendants" could accompany us. Vallant smiled when he saw the array, but he also shook his head.

"We won't be needin' so many carriages," he told our temporary host in his most pleasant tone of voice. "Our associates will be stayin' here today, restin' up after our long trip. With only the six of us goin', two carriages ought to do. And why are you callin' us 'Exalted Ones'?"

"That's the term of respect used for members of our assembly," the man responded despite his surprise. "Is there a different term you would prefer that I use? And are you certain that you require the presence of none of your … associates?"