Challenges (2 page)

“I’m afraid so,” Rion agreed, still disturbed by the idea. “We knew that the testing authority was doing its best to sabotage us, and now we seem to have discovered one of its methods. I wonder just how important this will turn out to be.”

“If that noble was questionin’ you about it, the answer’s probably, very important,” Ro replied, his frown beginning to look permanent. “The next answer we need is what to do about it, but that one’s not as easy to find.”

Rion felt the urge to say that it wasn’t as difficult as Ro seemed to think, but he held the words back as a struggling understanding of Ro’s position forced its way to his notice. Rion liked Tamrissa and had no trouble getting along with her, but Ro couldn’t say the same—at least not about the getting along part. The matter might turn out to be even more of a problem than Rion had first imagined.

The conversation with Ro might have gone on a bit longer, but a definite stir in the crowd took their attention. Rion joined everyone else in looking toward the entrance doors, and saw that someone of apparently great importance had just arrived. It was also possible to see that another common challenging Blending had arrived earlier, the members of which, in silver and orange, now stood closer to the entrance than their own group did.

People swirled around the new arrivals, but when they approached the group in silver and orange it was possible to see the ones who had been surrounded. There were five of them, all dressed in white, which told Rion that the Seated Blending had arrived. The Blending always wore white for formal public appearances, and Eltrina Razas, their residence’s testing authority representative, wasn’t far from the Five. She seemed to be introducing the participants in silver and orange, most of whom looked nervous and awed despite their masks.

“It looks like we’ll be next,” Ro commented from Rion’s right. “I know this is supposed to be a great privilege, but if they passed us by I would not sit down and start cryin’.”

“Nor I,” Rion agreed, oddly pleased to find that his groupmate seemed less impressionable than the fools in the orange group. He’d never been as close to the Five as Mother was and therefore hadn’t had much to do with them, but he’d seen them from a distance on more than one occasion. They’d seemed as petty and vicious as any other noble, and he’d never really wanted a closer acquaintanceship.

But that didn’t stop the entire entourage from heading for them. Tamrissa moved to Jovvi’s side as the crowd approached, Coll came to stand on Rion’s left, and then all three men drifted a bit closer to the ladies. Personal difficulties or not, they were a group who had begun to support each other automatically. Eltrina Razas hurried ahead of the very important newcomers, and when she reached the group she wore a frown.

“Will you people stop looking as though you’re about to be attacked?” she hissed, annoyance and a touch of being harried clear in her manner. “You’re going to be
introduced
to the Five, not set in opposition against them. Smile!”

Obeying her own order about smiling, Eltrina turned just in time to greet the arrival of the entourage. Most of the Five looked bored and sullen, leaving all of the interacting to Damilla Sytoss, their Water magic member.

“And this, Excellencies, is the second group,” Eltrina purred in a sleekly burbling way that Rion had seen others use many times before. “In order, they are Tamrissa Domon, Fire magic, Jovvi Hafford, Spirit magic, Lorand Coll, Earth magic, Clarion Mardimil, Air magic, and Vallant Ro, Water magic. They’re—”

“That’s Rion Mardimil, not Clarion,” Rion interrupted to correct, ignoring Eltrina’s immediate outrage and the expressions of startlement on most of the Five. “If you insist on doing this, you can at least make an effort to get it right.”

“How dare you speak to us like that?” Eltrina gasped, now reddening with embarrassment. “Haven’t you learned
yet
that you’re of no consequence whatsoever? You—”

“Nonsense,” Jovvi took her turn at interrupting, adding to Eltrina’s fury. “If he—and the rest of us—are of no consequence at all, why are we here and going through this farce? You really can’t have it both ways, you know.”

“The girl is quite right, Eltrina,” Damilla Sytoss said with a grin, also interrupting the testing authority representative. “These people aren’t of no consequence, not when they’ll be formed into a challenging Blending at the start of the new week. I was supposed to have the pleasure of telling you that, my dears, but obviously you already knew. That leaves me nothing to do but congratulate you and wish you luck, and yet that’s actually quite enough. Perhaps we’ll meet again when the last of the competitions is over.”

Her smile showed too much amusement for that final word of encouragement to have much meaning, and then they were all drifting on toward the next group in silver and yellow. All but Eltrina, that is, who gestured to a young man to hurry ahead and be ready to make the introductions, while she lingered for a moment with another purpose in mind.

“I meant to pass on this news earlier, but with the group in orange arriving late I simply couldn’t manage it.” The one Eltrina addressed was Jovvi, and the older woman’s expression had turned to one of sly satisfaction. “That person from your home town and her two cohorts—they were arrested today, and a special session of court will be held tomorrow at which they will be tried and sentenced. Attempting to kidnap a participant in these competitions brings fearful penalties if convicted, which I have no doubt they will be. We won’t need your testimony, but you may attend if you like. The particulars are here.”

She thrust a folded sheet of paper at Jovvi, then hurried off after the entourage with an almost gleeful step. Rion didn’t understand why that was until he saw Jovvi’s pallor and the way she held the paper crumpled in her fist. Clearly she was disturbed by what she’d been told, and Tamrissa put an arm about her shoulders.

“That was a disgusting thing for her to do,” Tamrissa commiserated while patting Jovvi’s hands. “She wanted to get you upset, and used the one way she could be sure of. I wonder how they found out about the kidnapping attempt.”

When Jovvi simply shook her head, Ro stirred where he stood to Rion’s right.

“There were servants bringin’ you food and drink when you told me about it in the dinin’ room,” Ro said in a musing way. “If that was the only time you mentioned it in the house, that must be when it was overheard. And I’ll bet the bitch expected you to blame one of
us
for informin’. Anythin’ to drive us as far apart as possible.”

“Yes, you’re probably right,” Jovvi agreed after taking a deep breath, obviously working to pull herself together. “I hate the idea of getting anyone involved with the authorities and the courts, and my feelings must have been perfectly clear.”

“For all we know, the servant listening could have had Spirit magic,” Tamrissa pointed out, exasperated annoyance clear. “Talk about taking unfair advantage! We’ll have to be a bit more careful from now on, but in the meantime, what are you going to do? You don’t
have
to attend the trial, you know…”

“Actually, I do,” Jovvi said, her sigh filled with resignation. “I know I’m not responsible for Allestine’s stupidities, but I still need to be there to find out what happens to her. I just wonder why they don’t need me to testify. How else can they get the details of what happened?”

“Personally,
I’d
like some details about what happened,” Coll put in, his brow creased with disturbance. “And am I the only one who didn’t know about this?”

“I hadn’t heard about it either,” Rion said, which calmed Coll’s intense stare to a small degree. “Would someone like to inform us now?”

“That woman Allestine, who ran the residence where Jovvi was a courtesan, tried to kidnap her after one of the practice sessions,” Tamrissa said when Jovvi herself hesitated. “She and those two bullies forced Jovvi into a coach, and were going to drag her back to the town she came from. Jovvi used her talent to stop them, and that’s why she was so exhausted the night you and I helped Rion, Lorand. That’s probably also why you didn’t know. There were too many other things going on to remember about an attempt that didn’t work.”

“Yes, you’re right about us being involved in other things,” Coll agreed, most of the intensity now gone from him. “And if Jovvi didn’t want the authorities to find out about it, I can understand why no one discussed it. But I’d also like to know why they don’t need her to testify.”

“Probably because it’s a criminal trial,” Ro put in when everyone else either shrugged or shook their head. “I saw part of one once, when a member of my crew was involved, and they don’t have anyone testifyin’ but the people who are accused. They get the truth out of them somehow, because my crewman was cleared.”

“I expect I’ll find out all about it tomorrow,” Jovvi said, her smile still on the weak side. “Right now I’d like to tell you all how wonderful you are, working so hard to make me feel better. And we still haven’t even discussed that official announcement. It’s now no longer a secret that we’ll be a challenging Blending.”

“No, and I wonder how many of the groups had the nerve to tell
them
, rather than wait to
be
told,” Rion said, glad to help change the subject. “Damilla considered the matter amusing, but her sense of humor has become notorious over the years. Her Blendingmates seemed more annoyed.”

“They’re annoyed about this entire affair,” Jovvi supplied, her smile slightly better now. “They hate being put on parade like a team of dressed up horses, but they had no more choice about coming tonight than we did. And I couldn’t help noticing that their Spirit magic user hadn’t even the most tenuous hold on the power. What about the others?”

Rion had to think only for a moment before he realized that the same was true of the Air magic user. Keeping a touch on the power had become automatic with
him
, but apparently the Air magic member of the Seated Five didn’t do the same.

“The woman doin’ all the talkin’ for them flexed her talent for a moment,” Ro offered with a shrug. “It was when Mardimil said his piece, and she seemed to be reactin’ to that. But it wasn’t a very strong response, and then it died away again completely.”

“And she was the only one?” Jovvi asked, looking around to get everyone’s nod of agreement. “Now isn’t that strange. I’d have to really work at it to sever myself completely from the power, and I’m certain the rest of you are in the same position. So why does the reigning Five do it differently? Because there’s a danger in maintaining contact that we don’t know about, or…”

Or because the members of the Five are so ordinary, they never should have been seated. Rion finished Jovvi’s uncompleted sentence silently, and judging by their expressions the others were doing the same. Both parts of that speculation gave them something to think about … as though they needed any more…

CHAPTER THREE

Delin Moord stood watching the Five making the round of introductions to the commoners, his expression carefully free of what his mind felt. Those five people represented the most power it was possible to have, the highest social and political positions, the ultimate in safety and independence. He needed all that to be his, his and his group’s, and there was nothing he would refuse to do in order to satisfy that need. Nothing whatsoever…

“Now isn’t that interesting,” Kambil Arstin murmured from Delin’s left, also watching the Five. The Blending had paused in front of the peasants in silver and blue, the group meant to be first to face—and lose to—the Advisors’ chosen noble Blending.

“What is there to find interesting?” Delin asked languidly, automatically covering his annoyance with Kambil. The man was the only other member of the group Delin could depend on to be really effective where subtlety was concerned, but that didn’t mean he liked him. Anyone who made cryptic comments without immediately explaining them
had
to consider himself superior on one level or another.

“What was interesting was the combined reaction of the entire Blending,” Kambil answered without looking away from the Five, who were now moving on toward the third peasant group. “Something that was said surprised them, and it wasn’t a pleasant surprise. Damilla is the one doing all the talking, and she shifted rather quickly to being amused. I think we both know what
that
means.”

“It means she was picturing someone being hurt, most probably badly hurt,” Delin replied at once. “I wonder if she intends to continue indulging her private pleasures once her Blending has been retired. If so, we may be asked to take action against her.”

“With her strong habit of being discreet, I doubt we’ll have the problem,” Kambil returned with amusement. “Everyone knows what she’s like, but I’ve never heard anyone claim to have seen her doing it. Now that we’re discussing it, I wonder if it’s true after all.”

“You think she encouraged the rumors for her own reasons?” Delin asked in startlement, suddenly realizing that what Kambil had said was true. “That could very well be the truth. If you want to keep people from trying to take advantage of you, the first step is to make them afraid of you. I wouldn’t have expected such clear and intelligent thinking from a woman.”

“You’d be wise not to judge all women by Selendi and—the other women you know,” Kambil advised, his words and tone gentle. “Underestimating people can and does lead to disaster, and with our current undertaking we’ll do well to avoid as much obvious disaster as possible.”

Delin murmured neutral agreement, but on the inside his mind seethed. Was Kambil really lecturing
him
, the true leader of their group? The fool had some nerve trying to tell
him
how to behave, not to mention diplomatically holding back on what he’d originally meant to say. He’d intended to mention Selendi and Delin’s mother as examples, and at the last instant had changed his mind. Delin had caught the hesitation, and fiercely resented having the point brought up even obliquely.

Because Delin’s mother was even worse than Selendi. Lady Talvine Moord had never had an original thought in her life, and paid attention only to what her husband told her. She doted on the man as the force which powered her own life, and put him and his wishes above everything else in the world—including her children. Delin could still remember that first time with his father, a small boy terrified of what would be done to him. He’d run to his mother, expecting to be protected, but his mother had smiled vaguely and turned her back, pretending she saw nothing of the way her husband dragged her sobbing son back with him…