Prophecy (39 page)

“Ah, it’s Alsin arriving,” she said, obviously pulling her senses back to where we stood. “He not only has someone with him, he’s rather excited about something. We’d better go down and find out what that is.”

I felt the least bit of reluctance over that, but there was nothing to do but agree and go with her. Alsin Meerk had been working very hard to make things easier for me, and what bothered me most was that he’d accomplished his aim. Every time he did something nice I found him just a little bit more attractive, and that was much more frightening than death. Complications in life usually are, which, to my regret, I was certainly finding out…

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

“Alsin Meerk has gotten here,” Vallant heard Lorand say, a general announcement to whoever happened to be in the room. “One of the Spirit magic users just told me that.”

“Good,” Rion said from the couch where he sat beside Naran. “Now maybe we’ll find out what’s going on in the city. I can’t ever remember seeing it like this.”

“Surely we don’t
all
need to find out,” Naran said, pausing an instant before getting up. “There are still so many things to do in this house, and we’ve been sitting around not doing any of them. Rion, my love, if you and Vallant would be kind enough to help me, we ought to be able to get to bed at a reasonable hour…”

“I’m sorry, Naran, but hearin’ what Meerk has to say is somethin’
I
have to do,” Vallant said as Rion belatedly began to agree with his woman. “After all, I can’t do much plannin’ if I don’t know what’s goin’ on. I’m sure you can understand that.”

“Yes, I’m afraid I can,” Naran responded with a sigh, a reaction that was odd enough to have taken Vallant’s attention—at another time. Right now there were too many other things screaming around in his mind, including the question of what would happen when the Seated Five knew for certain that they were back in the city. With the help of Naran’s talent they’d been able to avoid the rest of the traps along the road between Colling Green and Gan Garee, but as of right now just about anything could happen…

Vallant went to get himself another cup of tea from the kitchen, and by the time he returned with it to the dimly lit sitting room Meerk had come in. Jovvi and Tamrissa, who had both been upstairs searching for usable clothing, had also come into the room, and the very important jobs that Naran had spoken about earlier hadn’t taken her or Rion away yet. Some of the link group members were also in the large, plushly furnished room, as was a tall, thin, nervous-looking stranger. The man stood close to Meerk, so it was likely that the two had arrived together.

“All right, now your audience is complete, Alsin,” Lorand said to Meerk when he saw Vallant walk in. “Tell us what’s been going on.”

“Apparently a lot more than that Guild man Mohr told us about,” Meerk responded, looking around at the others as Vallant found a place to sit. “Biblow here has been filling me in, and I’m finding it hard to believe him. This house is empty now—along with a lot of others—because the noble it belongs to can’t take care of it without servants. They no longer have servants because all of them have quit, and those who have been paying their income over to the nobles aren’t doing that any more either.”

“The monies are now being used to support the former servants while they build themselves houses and find different means to support their families,” the man Biblow put in all on a single breath, obviously finding it impossible to keep silent any longer. “As I told Alsin, I never expected to live long enough to see any of this. The primary reason the people have been able to do this is because most of the guard force was sent out of the city to search for
your
group, and none of them have returned. Have you really come back to challenge the usurpers?”

“That part of the story circulated along with the truth about the competition,” Meerk said with a nod. “Mohr was right about how far the word would spread, and there has even been talk about storming the palace. But every time someone suggests doing that, there are two or three people in the crowd who point out that none of them would stand a chance against the usurpers. Mohr’s organization is doing everything he said it would.”

“And thereby saving lives,” Lorand said with his own nod of approval. “Considering what those five have already done, killing half the people in this city would bother them not at all. Is there any chance they’ll come out and face us if we send in a public challenge?”

“Well, of course they would,” Tamrissa said with a sound of scorn, her words made of sarcasm. “But only if they can face us the way they did the first time, with a victory guaranteed to them by cheating. If they ever do come out to face us, we’ll know they have
something
up their sleeves.”

“Right now all they seem to have up their sleeves is their arms,” Meerk said with a smile for Tamrissa that Vallant didn’t particularly care for. “Things haven’t been going at all well for them, not since their most influential and effective supporters in the nobility began to die or disappear. Some of our people are still working in the palace as servants, and there’s talk of some sort of … sickness or something which hit most of the Five. It seems to be under control now, but for a while they were in a lot of pain and none of the physicians was able to do anything about it. And even beyond that, the power in the group has shifted and there’s even public disagreement among them.”

“
Power
in the group?” Jovvi echoed, her brows somewhat raised. “That has to mean one or more of them wants to be in total control. A Blending doesn’t do very well under those circumstances, when hidden—or not very hidden—resentments interfere with the necessary bonding. Resentment is a lot stronger emotion than many people realize, and it can even be more destructive to cooperation than actual hatred.”

“I don’t doubt it, but what I’d like to hear about is that sickness you mentioned,” Lorand said, looking thoughtful. “Do you have any details about it?”

“We were told that four of the Five fell victim to it,” Biblow answered in the rush he apparently used as a usual way of talking. “It happened some hours after they had a private feast, and the one who wasn’t affected was the one who had been making a habit of eating gruel instead of food. That night he didn’t eat anything at all, so when the others fell ill he was available to look them over. Luckily for them he’s the Earth magic member, and he was able to pull most of them out of it. He didn’t have the same sort of success with the Spirit magic member, though, not for some time. He gave them all something to drink, and then he sent a message to the Fire magic member about
not
giving him something to drink if he didn’t appear immediately at a meeting.”

“So that’s what the power struggle is all about,” Lorand said with a nod. “My guess would be that the Spirit magic member ran things, and the Earth magic member took the first opportunity to change that. The Fire magic member tried to make a change of his or her own, but the Earth magic member still has the upper hand. That means they didn’t fall to a sickness, but were probably poisoned. And if they’restill being given something to counteract the poison, they’rein more trouble than they may know.”

“Poisoned?” Meerk and his friend Biblow echoed together, both very surprised. Then Meerk continued alone, “It isn’t supposed to be possible to poison a Blending, not without them noticing. And what did you mean when you said they’rein more trouble than they may know?”

“There was a poison specialist living in our district when I was younger,” Lorand replied, his headshake solemn. “The man had retired to a farm after living and working in Gan Garee, but it was a very small farm and he didn’t actually work it himself. He would hire workers every now and then when something had to be done, and I wanted a bit more silver than my father was paying me. So I was one of the workers he hired, but after the first time I wasn’t paid in silver. He started to teach me about his specialty in return for the work I did, and that was worth more than the silver.”

“But I still don’t understand how a poison can get past an Earth magic user,” Meerk protested, sounding really disturbed. “I’m just a Middle, but even I can tell if there’s something in food that shouldn’t be there.”

“There’s a small class of poisons which have the nasty habit of … disguising their presence
behind
food,” Lorand said, his voice now distant with memory. “Even a High talent would have trouble noticing one of them, unless the poison was put in something as uncomplicated as … plain water, say. Even in a dish with nothing more than a cheese sauce, it would be almost impossible to discern.”

“
Almost
impossible,” Jovvi repeated, staring at him. “Could
you
tell it was there?”

“Yes, but only because I learned the structure of the poisons themselves,” Lorand replied after taking her hand. “Once you study them for a while, you also learn to recognize the … very tiny turbulence their presence causes in normal food. For someone who hasn’t studied them, it’s highly unlikely that they’d notice anything until it was too late.”

“So it was probably pure luck which saved the Earth magic member,” Meerk mused, also staring at Lorand. “But you still haven’t said why they would be in so much trouble.”

“It’s because they’recontinuing to take something to counteract the poison,” Lorand explained. “An antidote only has to be taken once, but a temporary neutralizer needs to be taken on a regular basis—until it doesn’t work any longer. The amount of time varies from poison to poison, but they all end the same way by killing the one or ones who ingested it.”

“Then all our problems are solved!” Meerk exclaimed, suddenly in a joyous mood. “Instead of you needing to draw the Five out and being forced to face them, we can just sit back and wait for most of them to die. If only the Earth magic member is left, how much trouble can he be all by himself? Time alone will solve the problem, and none of you has to be risked.”

Vallant noticed that Meerk’s glance went to Tamrissa when he mentioned the risk, which explained the man’s blind spot. His solution just wasn’t practical, and he needed to be told that as quickly as possible.

“Sittin’ around waitin’ for them to die is something we can’t afford to do,” he said, interrupting enthusiastic comments from Meerk’s friend Biblow. “Not at this stage of the game.”

“Why not?” Meerk snapped, turning quickly to face Vallant. “Because
you
don’t like the idea? Or maybe it’s just because you didn’t think of it first.”

“Neither,” Vallant replied, feeling himself stiffen in response to the man’s attitude. “It may have escaped your notice, but they’rethe legitimately Seated authority even if they got to be Seated by cheatin’. If we just sit around and wait for them to die, the power they represent reverts right back to the nobility. Legally it’s still
their
place to arrange for a new Blendin’, and they’ll rally behind the last remainin’ member of the old Blendin’ to give themselves time to take control again. If we then walk in and try to brush them aside, we’ll be the ones breakin’ the law.”

“I’m afraid Vallant is right,” Jovvi said as Meerk began to growl wordlessly. “Right now we’rein the midst of a serious social upheaval, with most of the people in the city on our side. That sort of atmosphere tends to dissipate in the face of inaction, and the needs of everyday life will take precedence again. The nobility will be able to go after everyone a few at a time, forcing them back into their old habits and ways. At that point we’ll have to choose between taking over by force against more than the Seated Five, and running away again. Don’t forget that we’ve not only broken the law by Blending ourselves, but we’ve taught others how to do it.”

“And don’t believe for a moment that the nobility can’t regain the standing it used to have,” Rion put in in agreement, drawing Meerk’s dagger stare. “A private guard force isn’t hard to come by when you have the gold to pay out, and Gan Garee isn’t the only city in the empire. I’m sure many of those who have left mean to return with such a force, and if everything isn’t settled by then we’ll have to take them over or destroy them. Very frankly I don’t care for either option.”

“And if we let them die instead of defeating them, the rumor of their cheating will always stay that, just a rumor,” Tamrissa said, speaking more gently than the others had. “After that it won’t matter
who
we defeat, we won’t have defeated the people the nobility have claimed are the stronger Blending. Even if we manage to be Seated, there will always be people around who believe we stole our place rather than earned it.”

“Which in turn will mean we’ll have to spend a lot of our time fighting off attempts by people to steal the place themselves,” Lorand put in, clearly in agreement. “We won’t be suppressing the knowledge about Blending again, so they’ll decide that if we did it, they can do the same. And people will feel free to argue anything we happen to suggest, because we aren’t the ‘real’ authority in charge. Personally, I don’t care for any part of
that
.”

“You’reall doing nothing but making excuses,” Meerk bit out harshly, glaring around at them. “You think that if one of you says something, all the others have to support that something. But in this instance it’s insane, when you can have everything you want just by sitting back and waiting. If the nobility brings in more guardsmen, why
not
just take them over? If they try to take control of the Seating process again, simply don’t allow it. And if someone challenges you or refuses to do as you say, just have them arrested. When you’rethe leaders of an effort like this, you can do anything you damned well please without anyone saying you can’t. Don’t all those High talent link groups count for
anything
?”

“Those High talent link groups are made up of
people
, who count for everything,” Jovvi said, just a touch more sharply than she’d spoken before. “They aren’t here as tools to be used to Seat absolute despots, they’rehere for the same reason we are: to
end
that sort of thing. It’s pointless for everyone to go through all the trouble they have just to substitute one set of tyrants for another. You’rethinking with your emotions rather than your mind, Alsin, and it’s doing you not the least credit. Tamrissa can’t be protected by refusing to face reality.”