Prophecy (44 page)

“But let’s have
all
the secondary Blendin’s watch what happens,” Vallant said with one hand raised, his words stopping the general movement which had begun. “That way if one of them is distracted, the others will be there to take over. And we all have to be ready to Blend even faster than we usually do.”

Once again there was nothing for the rest of them to argue with, so Vallant had Captain Herstan’s men open the gates to let the rest of their people in. Lorand was the first to notice that it had begun to drizzle, which meant they all walked the rather long distance across the front lawns to the palace, went inside, and then had their discussion. Or, rather, their lecture. Vallant told everyone what they were about to do and why, and what they all wanted the rest of them to do. A few members from the other Blendings told them they were crazy, but none of them refused to help and all of them assured the group that they would watch with every ounce of attention their entities were capable of.

“I suppose that does it,” Lorand said once there was nothing left to tell or ask anyone. “Now what we need is a guide to where the wings of the palace separate. That
is
where we saw those five, isn’t it? In their individual wings? The entity moved too fast for me to remember what direction it took.”

“I can direct us that far,” Rion said, his hand wrapped firmly around Naran’s. “I’ve been here often enough to know that much—but there’s no need for Naran to go with us. You can stay here, my love, with the others, and—”

“And keep myself safe while you risk your life?” Naran interrupted, for once not the least softness visible in her expression. “No, Rion, that
isn’t
the way it’s going to be. I’ll be there right beside you, and what happens to you will happen to me. I insist.”

Rion looked at her with raised brows, but Lorand couldn’t help grinning. There was really very little difference between Naran and the other women of their Blending, but Rion was only just now finding that out.

“Very well, my love, if that’s your wish,” Rion surrendered with a sigh. Then he put his arm around her and began to lead off, and Lorand hesitated only a moment before following. Now it started … the beginning of the end…

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Jovvi walked close to Lorand as they all moved up the very wide corridor of the palace, feeling better just from being near him. The last time they’d been in that place there had been dozens and hundreds of other people around, guests like themselves at the party, servants by the score, guardsmen standing their posts. Now the entire palace felt empty to their senses, the marble halls echoing to the sounds of their footsteps but otherwise silent and dead. There
were
other living beings in that vast and neatly laid out maze, but not close enough—or large enough in number—to make much of a difference.

But Rion was there to guide them through the wide halls, and he did so with an offhand ease that delighted Jovvi. He was well on the way to becoming a marvelous human being, one who enjoyed the strength of his skill but who never flaunted it or used its presence as a claim to superiority. Naran
was
the perfect match for him, and for the rest of them as well. Now that Tamma and Vallant seemed to have gotten past most of their personal difficulties, they all did blend as well in their lives as they did with their talents.

Which added another leg to the claim that they were the Chosen Blending, the ones spoken about in the Prophecies. They’d all tried to avoid thinking and talking about that, but that didn’t make the claim go away. Nor did it tell them what they were supposed to do afterward, if they managed to have an afterward. They were in the process of trying to unseat the Seated Five, but not one of them really wanted to take their place. If another group stepped forward to be Seated, that would be perfectly fine with
them
. As long as they could all stay together…

Jovvi sighed as they turned into a cross corridor, fairly certain that if they survived they would not be allowed to live private lives. People were strange when it came to something like a prophecy, most especially when “things” happened to show who the people involved were. Of course there would always be those who doubted, but how much good that would do them remained to be seen. All the rest would insist that they become a traditional Seated Five, doing things in what had become the customary way.

But one of the customary ways entailed there not being any children born to a Five. Jovvi wanted children, and was reasonably certain that Tamma and Naran felt just as she did. If any individuals told them that that couldn’t be, those individuals would change their minds just as fast as Jovvi was able to take control of them. But it wasn’t possible to take control of an entire city, not to mention an empire, and Jovvi wouldn’t have done something like that even if she could have. If people really wanted them to be the new leaders of the empire, those people would have to be prepared to accept change rather than tradition…

Considering the tenor of her thoughts, Jovvi felt the urge to laugh at herself. Although they’d been walking for quite a few minutes, they hadn’t even reached the place where the various wings began yet. After that would come the confrontations, and only if they survived those would the questions of change and acceptance become relevant. To think about those questions now was more than foolish, it was downright dangerous. If she let herself be distracted now, she could very well be doing herself out of a later.

So Jovvi made the effort to put all extraneous thought out of her mind, and concentrated on what lay before them. At the moment there was nothing but more empty corridor, but five minutes later that abruptly changed.

“This is the area where the wings of the Five radiate away from the public areas of the palace,” Rion said, nodding toward a wide, round lobby with five corridors leading off in five different directions. “The last time I was here, there were a dozen or more servants moving on errands or standing around waiting to do things for those with power and position and access to the Five. There were also guards, and somehow I expected at least that to have remained unchanged.”

“They must have done somethin’ really good to chase away the entire guard force,” Vallant commented as he looked around. “And they
are
all gone, or our entity would have noticed them. So which of them is in which wing?”

“
That
I’m afraid I don’t know,” Rion admitted, also looking from one radiating corridor to the next. “That woman usually left me here while she called on whichever of the Five she’d come to see, and the servants were kept busy fetching ice cream and sweets to divert me from the wait. And the wait was never less than two hours, many times twice that. I often wondered why she brought me along if all I was permitted to do was to sit twiddling my thumbs, but now, of course, it’s perfectly obvious.”

“She always needed someone to be impressed with how important she was, even if that someone was only her supposed son,” Jovvi said, impressed herself by how far Rion had come with finally seeing the woman he’d grown up thinking of as his mother. “She really is pathetic, Rion, and you’remore than fortunate to be able to understand that.”

“Oh, I do understand, but I’m not certain that I’m able to forgive her,” Rion said, as openly as always. “That old saying which claims that to understand all is to forgive all is nonsense, as it can’t possibly apply to human emotions. That woman stole something from me which can never be replaced: the possibility of growing up in a normal way with a parent who really loved me. It’s possible that my father
wouldn’t
have loved me, that he might even have abandoned me, but because of her I’ll never know. Even if the man is still alive and I somehow manage to find him, I’ll still never know.”

“If we survive this, maybe the Guild will be able to help us locate him,” Lorand suggested as he put a hand to Rion’s shoulder, and Jovvi could feel the echo of empathy in Lorand’s mind. “It’s something we’ll have to remember, but for right now we need a way to decide who goes to which wing. Of course, we can find out easily enough if we Blend for a minute or two…”

The way Lorand let his words trail off, it was perfectly clear that he already knew the reason why Vallant shook his head.

“If we do that, someone can claim we were cheatin’,” Vallant said with a sigh. “If we’regoin’ to do this we have to do it right, otherwise we might as well just Blend and destroy them from here. Those of the nobility who are left will be lookin’ for an excuse to regain their power by puttin’ us down, and if we ignore them and just forge on ahead we’ll be startin’ a habit of people gettin’ what they want by breakin’ the rules. It doesn’t make much sense to go through all this just to have the empire fall apart because of a bad example.”

“So how are we supposed to know which way to go?” Tamma asked, somewhat less belligerently than usual. “There aren’t any signs over the archways saying which wing belongs to which aspect.”

“Maybe I can help,” Naran said, her tone odd as she looked from one to the other of the archways. “I’ve been standing here watching … almost-ghosts of all of us, each of them taking a different corridor. The odd thing is that the picture is almost clear, showing that there’s very little chance of our doing anything else. We
could
take one direction together or turn around and leave the way we came in, but the probabilities say we’remost likely to each take a different direction. Shall I point out who goes where?”

“You might as well,” Tamma told her with a partial smile, not as confident on the inside as she tried to show on the surface. “If we don’t find some way to make the decision, we could end up standing here until we die of old age.”

“I doubt if that’s one of the likelier possibilities,” Lorand said to Tamma with a grin, then he turned to Naran. “Why don’t you show me my direction, and then I can start us off.”

Naran complied by pointing to the left, so Lorand nodded his thanks then reached over to take Jovvi in his arms.

“I’m rushing things because I want this over with and behind me as quickly as possible,” he told her in a whisper before touching her lips with his. “Be as careful as you possibly can be, my love, and don’t let them get away with anything. I want
both
of us to survive this.”

Jovvi smiled and nodded, and then joined Lorand in a temporary kiss goodbye. She couldn’t have spoken for anything imaginable, not with that terrible burning in her throat, and then, after a final embrace, Lorand was gone. Jovvi watched as he strode into the corridor Naran had pointed to, and after a moment he disappeared into the distance.

“Well, I’m next,” Tamma announced, glancing around to show that she was definitely not prepared to hear argument on the subject. “The sooner we begin, after all, the sooner we’ll be finished.”

“Don’t be in such a hurry that
you
get finished,” Vallant said after Naran indicated the proper corridor, turning Tamma around to face him. “We have some unfinished business waitin’ for us, and if you don’t show up I’ll just have to start thinkin’ of you as a coward.”

“Anything but that,” Tamma came back with a grin, putting up one hand to touch his face gently. “Besides, I think you’regetting to the point of needing another really close shave. Just make sure that I’m the only one who gives it to you.”

Vallant matched her grin for a brief moment, and then they were in the midst of sharing a kiss and an embrace. Unfortunately for Vallant the kiss didn’t last any longer than Jovvi’s had, and then Tamma was hurrying away in the proper direction without looking back.

“All right, it’s now become my turn,” Vallant said gruffly as he forced himself to take his eyes away from where Tamma had gone. “And the rest of you better be just as careful as I told
her
to be. We still have a lot to learn about Blendin’, and we’ll only be able to do that if we all get out of this in one piece.”

“In one
live
piece,” Jovvi felt compelled to add, not about to let Vallant get away without an extra warning of his own. “Live and undamaged and happy and all the rest of the necessities of life. And now it’s
my
turn.”

Naran smiled as she showed Jovvi the proper corridor, and then Jovvi kissed Rion while Vallant did the same with Naran. Jovvi then exchanged a hug with Naran while Vallant and Rion shook hands, and lastly she and Vallant gave each other a quick kiss. All this finicky delay was another manifestation of what had sent Lorand and Tamma away without hesitation, Jovvi knew, all of it being reactions of nervousness and tension. If they’d really had the choice they would never have been doing this, but free, uncomplicated choice had been left a far distance behind them—if they’d ever really had it.

Once Jovvi entered the corridor Naran had indicated, she felt slightly better rather than worse. Why being completely alone should make her feel that way she didn’t know, unless it was because her mind had flashed back to her childhood. She’d been completely alone back then as well most of the time, and the state had caused her to do her absolute, utmost best in order to survive. Learning to depend on no one else but yourself can become a good thing—as long as you don’t try to carry it too far.

But those were distracting and therefore dangerous thoughts, so Jovvi pushed them away and concentrated on the area she walked through. There were a large number of doors to either side of the corridor at first, at least until she reached the first cross corridor. Then the distance between doors grew larger, and much more expensive decorations hung on the walls and stood on podia and small tables. Priceless tapestries and gold figurines, delicate glass flowers in silver vases and tiny, exquisite statuettes, they were all marvelous to look at but none of it seemed newly placed. So these things had been left by the previous resident of the wing, and the current resident hadn’t added a personal touch to them. Odd, for a Spirit magic user, since the balance of the whole was just the least bit off…

It was possible that this member of the newly Seated Five had been too busy to worry about redecoration, but the situation still bothered Jovvi. That slight lack of balance would have driven
her
insane, and she would have had to stop to fix it no matter what else was going on. It wouldn’t have taken long, after all, so there was really no reason for it to be there.