Thawed Fortunes (9 page)

Va'del was halfway through the third form
when Fi'lin returned with Fri'd and Eiri'k in tow. A strange sense
of recklessness suddenly filled the teenager and instead of
engaging the other boys one at a time as he'd planned, he instead
saluted both of them with his practice sword, and assumed a ready
stance.

The watching Guadel momentarily looked like
he was going to object, but then shook his head in resignation and
stepped back out of the way.

Apart from all of the bruises, for the first
time since he'd returned to the Capital and been thrown in jail,
Va'del felt like he was at full strength. Better than full strength
even, which gelled with what Jain had indicated based on the
changes they'd made to him.

As soon as both boys had returned his salute,
Va'del struck, wielding his blades with a measured strength that no
doubt left his opponents' palms smarting, but which shouldn't
result in anything more than colorful bruises if they failed to
parry one of these blows.

From the first moment of attack it was
apparent to Va'del that he could end the fight quickly if he so
chose. Neither of the other boys was used to working with a
partner. Fri'd's footwork was especially bad, which allowed Va'del
to keep him in Eiri'k's way.

Instead of going all out, Va'del let the boys
make their best effort and then matched them stroke for stroke.
When Fri'd tried to hammer away at him with greater strength,
Va'del increased the force of his own blows. Eiri'k tried fancy
footwork and complex combinations only to find that Va'del
effortlessly sidestepped most of the blows before moving gracefully
back into position and launching ripostes that came within a hair's
breadth of scoring on his quickly-tiring opponents.

The fight had gone on for two tenths of a
cycle, Va'del ever more clearly in control, and then he launched a
quick spate of cuts and thrusts that left both boys disarmed and
trying to hold onto two or three different parts of their aching
bodies.

Looking at the pair with
mock concern, Va'del made sure he had their attention before making
his apology. "I'm very sorry. I hope I didn't hurt either of you. I
didn't realize that I was so
clumsy
."

The sudden stiffness on both boys' faces made
it very clear they understood exactly why they had been selected as
Va'del's 'training' partners. With any luck they'd now think twice
before 'bumping' into him or 'accidentally' swinging something hard
into his leg.

Va'del saluted the pair again, and then
turned to walk away. Fi'lin, his voice filled with nothing but
casual curiosity, stopped him before he'd made it out of earshot of
the other boys. "Do you think you'll continue to need some amount
of light practice against the trainees?"

Pausing to regard the Guadel, Va'del nodded
respectfully. "I suspect that I'll probably need their assistance
from time to time. I would expect that my clumsiness won't reappear
of course, but I suppose one never can tell, Sir."

"Very good, I'll make the appropriate
arrangements."

As Va'del walked back to the side of the
cavern given over to the needs of the candidates, he realized that
every single individual, from the instructors down to the small
group of Daughters who'd just arrived, had stopped whatever they
were doing to watch him defeat Eiri'k and Fri'd.

That same sense of recklessness was back, and
rather than stopping in the first open spot and continuing his
forms practice as he'd intended, he walked over to Be'ter and
Se'ath.

"Why don't you join me in some light
sparring, Be'ter?"

Va'del could see the wheels turning in the
older boy's mind. If he dodged Va'del's challenge he would lose
prestige, but not as much as he'd lose if Va'del actually beat him.
The real question was whether or not Be'ter could win.

Be'ter shrugged, his classically handsome
features full of mock regret. "I would like to, but my sponsors
forbid me from training against you. You were so clumsy last time,
but they still had quite the time convincing everyone that it
wasn't my fault that you got hurt. As much as I enjoy our little
matches, they're probably right. You'd get hurt again, and I
wouldn't want that on my conscience."

Va'del nodded amiably.
"Fine, but if anyone else gets hurt by your clumsiness, we
will
face off again, and
if that happens, you'd better hope that you win."

The younger boy turned and
walked away, noticing that Jain was among the many girls who had
arrived while he'd been talking to Be'ter. Va'del saluted her with
his practice weapon and then began the third form.
I wonder why the girl on the far end of the
Daughters flinched when I saluted Jain.

Jain slipped out of the dormitories and
headed through the dimly-lit tunnels towards Ah'bi's rooms. She
just needed to continue on in that direction for a little while in
order to make sure nobody was following her before doubling back to
the hot spring.

Normally Jain didn't bother worrying about
anyone following her, but Mali had been acting oddly all night, and
the only thing the teenager had been able to come up with was that
the other girl must suspect that she wasn't really going to visit
Guadel Ah'bi.

After several minutes of walking the empty
corridors, Jain finally felt confident enough to double back.
Impatiently wishing she'd already arrived at the hot spring, she'd
almost decided she was the only one awake in this wing of the
Capital when a sudden flash of movement and a half-glimpsed face as
someone ducked into one of the small service tunnels proved her
wrong.

Jain nearly tripped in surprise, but when
nothing else happened, she started walking again as her thoughts
worried at the strange familiarity of the face.

She really was following me!

Jain nearly turned around and confronted
Mali, but then she saw Be'ter walking casually in her
direction.

As always, the candidate's gaze made her feel
more than a little dirty, but he passed by without saying anything,
and suddenly Jain realized where he was headed. Mali hadn't been
following Jain, she'd been sneaking out to meet Be'ter.

A short time later Jain had navigated the
last corner, and almost before she could sit down on the hard rock
floor, Va'del's strong arms were tightly wrapped around her.

"I was starting to worry. You were late."

Her concerns about Mali momentarily
forgotten, Jain drew back and punched him playfully in the chest.
"You never used to worry if I was a minute or two late."

"You used to have to sneak out of the
dormitories to come here. Some nights you didn't even make it out.
Now you've got a free pass, so I figure if you are late something
bad must have happened."

The comment dispelled the momentary feeling
of tranquility that being with Va'del had conjured. "Not quite a
free pass. I thought someone was following me tonight."

Va'del stiffened. "Were they?"

"No, it was just one of the girls off to meet
up with Be'ter."

Jain had been lost in her thoughts for
several minutes before she realized that Va'del had been patiently
waiting for her the entire time.

"I'm sorry. I guess I was thinking about
stuff."

"Like whether or not to turn them in?"

"I suppose. What they are doing is wrong, and
I'm positive that he doesn't really care for her. On the other
hand, how can I feel good about turning someone in for the same
thing I'm doing?"

Several more seconds passed before Va'del
placed his hand under her chin. "And you're worried that it will
further alienate the other girls."

"How, how did you know that?"

"Since we got back to the Capital you haven't
really talked about any of them. You used to talk about them all of
the time. I figured that means you're probably getting a bit of a
cold shoulder."

Jain felt tears coming, but fought them down.
"I'm not going to cry tonight. It seems like every time I see you I
break down and it isn't fair to you."

Va'del pulled her close again. "It's okay.
You've had a pretty rough time of things; I don't begrudge you a
few tears now and again. I'm just sorry I've made things so hard
for you."

"You saved me when just about anyone else
would have left me there for the bandits to kill. Whatever happens
now would be a small enough price to pay for that, even if I didn't
love you for so many other reasons."

"If it makes you feel any better, turning
them in won't make any difference to Be'ter. He's been slated for
some kind of advanced testing. The rumors all point to the idea
that once he and the others are done they'll be able to get
married. With everything else he's gotten away with in the last
little bit, I have a hard time believing this will bring him
down."

Jain knew that Va'del didn't like the idea of
letting Be'ter get away with yet another violation of the rules any
more than she did, but she finally decided he was probably right
even as a surge of anger washed over her.

"So he breaks four or five of your bones,
intimidates most of the candidates and they reward him by making
him a Guadel. You, on the other hand, save the People by cutting
down a dozen bandits and they throw you in jail where you almost
die. Don't you get tired of the way that doing the right thing
never seems to pay off?"

Va'del laughed as she forced herself to calm
down and close her eyes to begin checking the growth of his
augmented bones, but it was a bitter sound. "Very much so.
Unfortunately, right now there isn't anything I can do about
it."

"It just doesn't seem fair. Doing what is
right should result in rewards, and the people who don't do the
right thing should be punished."

"The religions book I'm reading says that is
exactly what happens, but just not immediately."

"Why doesn't the Goddess speed things up
then?"

"Maybe because if you were punished or
rewarded immediately, there wouldn't be any reason to do anything
wrong. Everyone would just do what is right all the time, and you
wouldn't be able to figure out which people do the right thing
because it is right, and which people just want the reward."

##

Fi'lin limped into the rooms he shared with
Ah'bi and collapsed onto their bed.

"You are positively filthy, but I won't make
you move since it is obvious you've had a bad day. Just don't try
to get under the covers until you've cleaned yourself up."

The Guadel groaned, and then rolled halfway
over so that he could look at his wife. "Powers! I never expected
these stupid tests to be as bad as they are. They don't trust me to
be independent, so they've got no less than five observers in there
watching as the boys are put through their paces."

"That doesn't sound so bad."

"It wouldn't be except for the fact that in
order to really test how good someone is, you have to be better
than they are. Since they obviously picked the best of the lot to
test, it was I or my two assistants who were forced to fight
candidate after candidate."

Ah'bi looked up, startled, as she finally
realized what Fi'lin must have been through. "Surely there are
others who could have helped with the testing?"

"Of course, but politics being what they are,
none of them were trusted to be unbiased enough. I did finally
manage to convince them to let one of the more senior guardsmen
help, but even then, there were ten of them and only five of us, so
we got worn down at twice the rate they did."

"Five? You said you only had one guardsmen
helping. A guardsman, you and your two little henchmen only makes
four."

Fi'lin shifted slightly, like a little boy
caught doing something he wasn't supposed to. "Well, it became
obvious pretty quickly that the four of us wouldn't be able to keep
up. Since there wasn't another instructor from the Guard who could
be spared to help, and none of the observers were willing to help,
I convinced them to bring Va'del onto the testing staff."

Ah'bi graced her husband
with a look that he'd come to dread over the years. At least it was
one he didn't get hit with
too
often.

"What if they'd realized that he's been
augmented?"

Fi'lin shook his head. "This was a test of
the other kids, not of Va'del. Nobody really ever saw his full
speed or strength. Besides, they watched Be'ter run everyone but
Va'del around the ring at some point or another and never seemed to
think that was out of the ordinary."

"Is he really that good?"

"I'm afraid so. To think that I actually used
to wish he'd apply himself to his weapons training. Since Va'del
beat him, I wonder sometimes if he's not skipping his other classes
just so he can practice."

Ah'bi nodded. "I can tell you that he does
skip classes now and again. It seems he's decided that they don't
offer him the concrete power being capable of killing someone
does."

"That or he's just scared of Va'del. That kid
worked as hard as any of us, and never complained once. He pulled
out tricks and combinations I know he hasn't learned from me. I
keep thinking maybe I'rone taught them to him, but that doesn't
make sense, they're just too advanced. All I can figure is he's a
natural. He's either coming up with this stuff while practicing on
his own, or improvising on the spot and doing it
spectacularly."

Ah'bi set down the law book she had been
reading and came over to hug her husband despite the fact that he
was most definitely hot and sweaty. "You sound a little scared
sweetheart. Worried that he'll take over your job soon?"

Fi'lin snorted. "Hardly, I can still take
him. No, I'm more worried that his real potential won't ever be
realized. I don't know what to make of Per'ce's reports that both
Cindi and On'li have now implied that the kid has some kind of
unusual ability when it comes to linking. That's all out of my area
of expertise, but when it comes to weapons skills, the boy's as
gifted as anyone I've ever seen. He seems to be a fairly good
teacher too. Tim'i, that little runt of Bay'rol's, has been
struggling since he got here. Mich'a had all but given up on him
when Va'del strolled past and told the boy to bend his left knee
more, and to stay on the balls of his feet."