Intrigues (59 page)

"My friends, these are our honored guests from Gandistra," Gardan rather than Lorimon announced as soon as they reached the center of the circle of seats. "They came here in good faith without even the smallest of guard escorts, and someone attacked them on our very doorstep. That affront must be investigated at once, and the guilty caught and punished."

Exclamations of shock and outrage sounded from all over the room, but other emotions hid beneath the vocal outbursts. There were fifteen individual seats in the inner circle, the two belonging to Lorimon and Gardan the only ones empty. Some of the remaining thirteen men and women felt fear at the announcement, and a few were touched by disappointment. Apparently those few would have been happier if the visitors to their empire had to be shipped home in pieces.

"There are only two other women besides Lorimon in this assembly," Tamma murmured as the noise continued. "And it's Gardan who's breaking the news, not his female companion. It looks like the empire of Gracely is just like our own empire when it comes to letting women help run things."

"Yes, I'd say that one of the things bothering many of them is that fully half of us are women," Jovvi murmured back in answer. "They would have been happier if most if not all of us were men."

"I'm crushed," Tamma murmured, showing a hint of that very nasty smile she'd developed. "I may even go home and cry."

Various members of the assembly had stood to denounce the attack and whoever might be responsible for it, and most of the rest seemed compelled to follow their example. They seemed to think that speaking out would establish their innocence, but Jovvi found the procedure tiring. It would have been nice to have a hot cup of tea, but the refreshments mentioned were nowhere in sight.

"I have a question to put to our … honored guests," a voice rumbled out, and Jovvi looked up to see that a large, bulky man with dark hair and light eyes had risen from his place. He also hadn't been one of those doing the denouncing, so Jovvi listened with interest.

"I should think that all questions can be deferred until we get to the bottom of the most major problem before us," Gardan said, apparently trying to put the man off. "We need to find out - "

"Yes, yes, we do need to find out who was behind the attack, but that doesn't mean we can't do anything else," the bulky man interrupted to say. "I want to know why their Earth magic user is still touching the power. Surely he doesn't think he and his friends aren't safe
here
."

"We've noticed that most of your people don't touch the power except from time to time," Lorand answered before Gardan could lodge another protest. "For ourselves, the people in our empire have been denied the use of their various talents so long that we keep a constant touch on the power to show that we're no longer slaves. Worrying about whether or not we're safe has nothing to do with it."

"I can tell that you're speaking the truth as far as you've gone," the bulky man said to Lorand, his stare suggesting deep study. "What I can't tell is if there's anything you're
not
saying. How in the name of chaos did you manage to grow so strong, man?"

Lorand hesitated in answering the bald question, but Jovvi didn't get the chance to help him out of the corner. Just as she was about to speak, a number of ragged, obviously exhausted men stumbled into the room.

"Help, Exalted Ones, help!" the man in the lead called out, fear and pain in his voice. "There are invaders, attackers, and our people are being killed!"

If there was confusion earlier, pure pandemonium broke out now. The five men who had burst in were helped to seats quickly vacated by assembly members, and Lorand joined those people who were obviously Earth magic users in seeing to the newcomers' wounds. And they were
all
wounded, some so severely that it was a miracle they'd been able to stay on their feet. Jovvi wasted no time in joining her own talent to those Spirit magic users who worked to ease the men's pain, and after some minutes of effort it was possible to ask questions.

"Who are you, and where do you come from?" Gardan asked the man who had spoken. The man sat with eyes closed and breath coming unevenly, but he roused enough to respond.

"I'm Dislin Marne, governor of Eastgate," the man said in a strengthless whisper. "I have no idea where those monsters hail from, but their ships suddenly appeared on the horizon across the ocean. It disturbed us that there were so many of them, but we had enough High talents in the city to defend us if it came to that. It did come to that, but our High talents weren't able to do anything. The invaders landed hundreds, thousands of men and attacked the city, and we weren't able to stop them."

"Then what you need are Blendings," Gardan said, a grim set to his jaw. "Four or five should do it, and we'll decide right now on who's to go. We - "

"No, no, you still don't understand," the man Marne interrupted, looking as though he wanted to cry. "If you send any Blendings, they'll be overrun just the way our High talents were. Those monsters … they butchered our people, men, women, and children alike, and we couldn't do a thing to stop them. It … isn't possible to touch them with talent, it just isn't possible."

Jovvi felt the shock flaring around the room, an emotion she shared completely. Gracely was being invaded by people who couldn't be touched with talent? But
that
was what wasn't possible, not the use of talent.
Everything
could be touched, nothing else made sense. The man had to be wrong…

But what if he wasn't wrong? What if Gracely fell to the attackers? The next ones to be made victim would be the people of
her
home, and hundreds if not thousands would die before anyone in Gan Garee became aware of the problem. But even if they did become aware, if the man was right there would be nothing anyone could
do
…

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?"

"We still don't want your people thinkin' that we're here to invade or attack," Vallant pointed out pleasantly while the rest of us just stood there smiling. "Shall we get started now?"

"Yes, of course," the man muttered, obviously disconcerted by all the friendliness we kept showing. Not to mention our lack of nervousness. The six of us were going into their city alone, and that had to be an indication of self-confidence the man would find frightening. Hopefully the people who sent him would get the message even more clearly and would decide on the better part of valor.

We were conducted - with more bowing - to the first two carriages in line, and we split up in the way we'd already decided on. Jovvi, Lorand, and Rion took the first carriage, while Vallant, Naran, and I took the second. Our still-nameless guide and host got into the first carriage, and another man joined us in ours. This second man was also one of those who had met us on the road, which meant that he was also a High in Spirit magic. The smile I sent him had a lot of amusement in it, which made his answering smile a bit on the uncertain side.

The carriages moved off, and it wasn't long before we were rolling through the gates of the city. There were men standing around on the inside of those gates, but rather than being in uniform they were simply wearing some kind of armband. Either the citizens of Gracely were too cheap to supply their guardsmen with uniforms, or they were extreme in their dislike of anything that smacked of the military mindset. That didn't mean they weren't militaristic, of course, only that they didn't want to look like it.

The buildings we passed were ordinary to begin with, but once we got farther away from the gates the neighborhoods began to improve. Those lovely buildings we'd gotten a glimpse of began to be more plentiful, with carved stone facings and decorations of resin. The wood they used also looked to be coated with something that made it gleam, or else they made a habit of polishing the outsides of their buildings. Whichever, it still made for a pretty sight.

After a few minutes of riding on the nicely paved street, our carriages began to slow. We were heading for a large building that was stone, slate, and brick, with shiny wood embellishments around the windows and a wide lawn in front. The first carriage turned into the drive that made an upside down U around the lawn, and our own carriage followed.

"This is where our assembly meets," our previously silent guide said, suddenly deciding to speak up. "All members of the assembly will be here to greet you."