Convergence (32 page)

The five men smiled with pleased amusement, enjoying the jest as much as they always did, but their attention had not strayed from their superior. They were about to learn things they needed to know, and those who meant to survive in their world always listened carefully at such times.

"Our disturbance over the Prophecies is really quite simple," their superior began, putting the tips of his fingers together before his face. "Somehow or other the threat of the Four
will
come to pass, but just how that will happen doesn't concern us at the moment. What does concern us is the very unreasonable—but easily reached—conclusion that our chosen Blending will fail against the threat. Past experience has shown us that the opposite is true, as there's no reason to believe that
this
'crisis' will be any different from previous ones.

"And yet a 'special' Blending will appear to do the job for them. Not only will such an appearance be unnecessary, it will threaten the very successful arrangement we and our predecessors have enjoyed for the past century. They won't be found among the nobility, not when they're described as 'springing from all corners of the land,' so they
must
be among the commoners. And they're certain to appear at the worst possible time from our point of view, so we're trying to identify them before then. Do you still feel you've seen nothing to indicate which ones they are?"

All five of his listeners shook their heads slowly, considering the matter with similar frowns. Then Earth stirred in his seat.

"Possibly we would do well to study those applicants who are most likely to actually fit into a Blending," he suggested thoughtfully. "Most Highs can be forced to work in a group of five, but that doesn't make them a Blending. My cousins here and I all tried to qualify for the last appointed Blending, but none of us was able to be truly effective in the framework. Our strength is best exhibited when we practice alone, which has to be the case for many of the applicants. The rest will be a much smaller number, and therefore more easily investigated."

"That point has already occurred to the Advisors," their superior replied with a nod. "Once the common Blendings are thrown together for the contest, there will be many eyes examining them. We'd hoped to save ourselves the trouble, but apparently that's not to be. Ah well, we'll find them eventually, and then they'll be gotten out of our way. Thank you for your reports, gentlemen, and do enjoy yourselves watching the final sessions and practices of this last batch of applicants. The time ought to be most amusing."

The five smiled their agreement and rose to their feet when their superior did, then watched him leave the room. Once again he seemed the ordinary, successful businessman, rather than one of the Advisors' best and most dangerous agents. He came from one of the most powerful noble families in the empire, and hadn't let his handicap of low-talent status keep him from a most successful career.

"I really dislike that man," Fire murmured, the look in his eyes no longer mild and unperturbed. "One day I'll find him in just the right place, and then I'll leave him as nothing more than a pile of ashes."

"You won't touch him, and neither will the rest of us," Water disagreed with a sound of ridicule. "We all detest him and the others like him, but each and every one of those cripples
is
safe from us. If we ever did anything to one of them, we'd be barred from studying the dross
who
came to unseat us. Then we would lose to the peasant, humiliation heaped on top of injury. Of course, then some other nobly born
High
would displace the peasant, but that would be of very little comfort to
us."

"So we accept being treated like commoners by a cripple, and simply ignore the insult," Earth added while Fire continued to fume. "The day may well come when one of them falls out of favor, and then he becomes fair game. Until then we see to our own most pressing business, and hope that the proper Blending is appointed this time."

"One of my sons managed to qualify, as did my brother's youngest daughter," Air commented, sounding rather smug. "If either of them is
Seated
on the Fivefold Throne, our difficulties will be over. They both have an incredibly strong sense of family, and will support us even against the Advisors."

"I'd very much like to see that," Water said with a chuckle, obviously enjoying the idea. "Seated High should be a position revered as well as envied and well compensated, and our own blood would make it so."

All of them agreed to that with laughter, all except Spirit. The man had been very quiet, and Water studied him for a moment.

"What disturbs you, cousin?" he asked at last. "You seem to be—preoccupied."

"I am," Spirit admitted with a sigh,
then
he looked about at the others. "We've been told that this special Blending will be gotten out of the way because they're unnecessary, but a rather disturbing question comes to mind. What if our oh-so-clever superiors are
wrong,
and the chosen Blending
i
s
n't
victorious over the Four? I still can't see them coming back from the dead, but what if they do appear and win? What happens to
us,
when the Four was careful to destroy every High they were able to find?"

"Don't let the hysteria of those fools disturb you, cousin," Water replied soothingly, putting a hand to the other's shoulder. "They've talked themselves into believing that the Prophecies have actually come true, when anyone with the least amount of intelligence knows that that isn't so. They're worried because a common Blending is supposed to defeat their noble choice, so they're peeking under beds to calm their nervousness. Nothing will come of any of it, you mark my words."

The others agreed with Water, and Spirit finally unbent enough to join them in a ridiculing laugh. Then they left to find some excellent wine and even better female companionship, and no longer worried about something that would never happen. The infamous Four, returning to enslave everyone in reach! Really . . . !

Seventeen

I didn't know I'd fallen asleep until I felt a hand shaking my shoulder. I opened my eyes to see Warla bending over the chair I'd just meant to rest in for a few minutes, her expression concerned.

"You look so tired that I hate to bother you, Tamrissa, but dinner is almost ready," she said at once. "And not only that, but you have a visitor. A lady from the testing people, here to make sure everyone's arrived who should have arrived."

"Did you tell her that that part of it should be discussed with you rather than me?" I asked, fighting to wake up the rest of the way. "I'm lucky I know that
I
got back here."

"Oh, I never would have told her anything like
that,"
Warla protested, now looking upset. "It isn't my place, and what if
you
were supposed to do it? Saying something different could have gotten us both in trouble."

I sighed on the inside while conceding her point with a nod, but not because the possibility worried me. As long as all their applicants were accounted for, those people shouldn't care
who
did the head-counting. Warla
always
worried about getting in trouble over something, and right now I had no strength to argue with her. It was easier to simply let the point go, and take myself down to meet my visitor.

I'd gotten dressed once I'd returned to my apartment from the bath house, so all I had to do was smooth my skirts down against possible wrinkles before heading for the door. Warla followed behind me, but at the bottom of the stairs she slipped past to lead me toward the library. Inside was a pleasant-looking woman in her mid-thirties, who got to her feet with a smile when Warla stepped aside to let me walk in.

"Dama Domon, I apologize for intruding so close to dinner time," she said, stepping forward to offer a gloved hand. "I'm Eltrina Razas, and I'll be your liaison to the testing authority. I'm here so late because some of your lodgers were sent rather late, and we wanted to be certain they got here."

I took her hand somewhat gingerly, never having shaken hands before. It had always been something that only men did, but this Eltrina Razas acted as if it were perfectly natural. She wore an emerald green suit and cream blouse, with a matching cream-and-green hat on her carefully styled brown hair. There was a line of tiny embroidery all along the hem of her skirt where it brushed her shoes as well as along the cuffs of her jacket, an indication that her outfit was rather expensive. But her manner was open and friendly, so I tried to return her smile.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Dama Razas," I said, ending the handshake as soon as was decently possible. "If you'd like to find out about the people who were sent, you'll have to ask Warla here. She met them as they arrived, and assigned them to rooms."

"Because you yourself are one of the applicants, which means you had to be too worn out to see to it personally," she added with a pleasant nod. "Yes, I quite understand, and in fact expected something of the sort. I'll just take a moment to speak to Warla, and then you and I will have a brief chat. And it's Lady Eltrina, not Dama Razas."

She said that last as if it meant less than nothing, then bustled Warla to one side in order to speak to her. I stood where I'd been left and watched them, not quite knowing how to behave. The woman was a member of the nobility, and dealing with the nobility was something else I'd never done. On a day with so many firsts, it would have been nice if I hadn't felt half asleep.

I went and sat in a chair to wait, and watched while Warla nervously counted things off on her fingers. When she reached eight she stopped and looked frightened, but Lady Eltrina soothed her with a quick smile and a few words. Then Warla curtsied and left, closing the door behind her, and Lady Eltrina came over to me.

"No, dear, don't get up again," she said quickly with another of those smiles as she took the chair opposite mine.

"We'll certainly be friends long before this is over, so you'll call me Eltrina and I'll call you Tamrissa. I'm delighted to say your Warla is wonderfully efficient. She knew the names of every applicant and in what order they arrived, and even listed you first."

"Yes, Warla is an excellent companion," I agreed, leaning back in the chair because I really needed to. "I've never relied on her quite this much before, but I don't expect to be disappointed. I wonder if I might—ask something."

"Of course, child, that's one of the reasons I'm here," she replied warmly, beginning to take off her gloves. "What do you need to know?"

"Fd like to have one of the applicants—transferred to another residence," I forced myself to say. The woman now sat in the chair my husband had always used, and I was too tired to push away all the unsettling feelings brought back by old memories. "The man was extremely rude to me, and actually admitted that he didn't want to be here for the tests. He's hateful, and I'd like to have him out of my house."

"Oh, dear," Eltrina said, and now she looked disturbed rather than encouraging. "I'm devastated to hear you have one of
that
sort
, but I'm afraid there's nowhere else
to
put him. All the other residences are full, and we aren't
arranging
for any others since all the applicants for this year are accounted for. He hasn't gone beyond rudeness, I hope. I mean, he hasn't tried to
really
insult you?"

She'd begun to look anxious and seriously concerned, asking without words if he'd tried to
...
do what men always seemed to. I couldn't keep from blushing at the thought, especially after the way he'd stared at me, but
happily
the situation wasn't
that
bad.

"No, he made no effort to go beyond simple rudeness," I admitted, more than a little disappointed. "If that changes I'll have to insist he be sent elsewhere, but I suppose I can live with the situation for now. Is there anything else I need to know about?"

"One or two things," she answered, that warm smile flashing again. "And you're so reasonable, I can't tell you what a pleasure it is to deal with you. Some of the others who volunteered their houses . . . Well, I'm sure you know how stubborn some people can get. In one case we actually had to withdraw
all
the applicants, and cancel the agreement making the house a residence. That's one of the reasons we're so short of space, but I know we won't have to do the same thing here."