Challenges (35 page)

That last was added so blandly that Delin was amazed all over again.
Bron
, being circumspect? Obviously Delin had underestimated his leadership abilities; he now knew himself to be extraordinary, considering the changes in Bron, Homin, and Selendi. They were all following him and learning, so the least he could do was follow them for once.

“I can see it’s time that I ate as well,” he said, rising and walking to the place behind Homin, who had urged Selendi to the buffet ahead of him. “It will never do if I faltered during our efforts, simply because my mind was on a rare beefsteak and whipped potatoes instead of on business. Is the bacon underdone or overdone?”

Bron assured him that the bacon was just perfect, and so it turned out to be. Delin discovered a rather large appetite, probably stemming from the exertions of the night, and happily took care of it. The meal was punctuated with occasional light and pleasant conversation, and afterward they took additional tea in the large sitting room. Rather than despising the company of his groupmates as he had done in the past, Delin found himself actually enjoying the time. At long last they were a unified group, undoubtedly thanks to the Blending they’d managed.

It was nearly time for Lord Idian to arrive when Kambil appeared. The big man still looked faintly tired, but his smile of greeting was full of warmth.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d think I was dreaming,” he announced as he headed toward the tea service. “Everyone here and ready before me? Definitely a dream.”

Even Delin had to laugh at that, so similar was the comment to what he’d been thinking and saying earlier.

“Delin said almost the same exact thing,” Selendi commented as she watched Kambil pour a cup of tea. “Is that all you’re going to have for breakfast? If you like, I’ll have the cook throw something together for you.”

“I had a plate brought up by the servant who woke me, and I ate while I dressed,” Kambil said, then turned with his teacup in his hands and a wider smile on his face. “But I appreciate the thought, and thank you for the offer.”

“Well, we do have to look after one another now,” she responded, for all the world like a shy, virgin, schoolgirl. “And I like looking after Homin so well, that I thought I might try branching out. Mama Selendi has a certain ring to it…”

That time everyone laughed, Selendi first among them. The closeness and warmth reached to a part of Delin which had never stopped wanting something like this: membership in a group which was his while he was theirs. No wonder the Advisors limited the number of people who knew how to Blend. If something like this ever became available to everyone, who would bother to fight for governmental positions and social standing?

“Lords and Lady, Lord Idian,” a servant announced, and then Idian was nodding a greeting and making his way to the chair he’d used yesterday. Once he’d seated himself, he looked around at them.

“I bid you a good morning, young gentlefolk,” he said in a mildly firm voice. “As you are all here and properly attired, we may begin at once. Take your formation places, please.”

At another time Delin might have felt insult over being treated with such abruptness, but this morning was a special time. They would Blend “for the first time” in front of Idian, and thereafter would be free to do the same again at any time they pleased. Bron stepped forward briskly to establish the mark they would all measure from, and Kambil left his cup of tea to line up next. Delin brought up the rear as Selendi and Homin placed themselves to either side of Kambil, and then they were ready.

“At last you show a proper amount of enthusiasm,” Lord Idian commented with dry satisfaction. “If it continues, you may actually manage to make it work. Spirit magic begins by reaching out to everyone else, and everyone else must attempt to return the touch.”

This time Kambil’s touch came instantly, and Delin returned it in just the same way. Once connected, Delin saw that the others had done the same, and so he reached out in three additional directions…

“I take it from the young lady’s gasp that you’ve been successful,” Lord Idian said, more than simply commenting as he leaned forward a bit. “Are we discussing just the first attachment to Spirit, or have you accomplished Blending?”

“We have become one,” Delin said, and only then discovered that the others spoke at the same time he did. “What would you have us do next?”

“I would have you withdraw from the Blending, and that immediately,” Lord Idian replied, his tone having sharpened. “There are cautions you have not yet been given, and you must have this information before you begin experimentation. Withdraw, I say, and then find yourself seats.”

The WE Delin was a part of wanted nothing to do with separation, but one part of the WE was extremely tired and shaky. Some of that unsteadiness came from him, Delin knew, and possibly even all of it. It was unthinkable that he might damage that glorious WE, so he withdrew instead back to the chill loneliness he’d known for all of his life.

“Excellent,” Lord Idian said as their formation relaxed and they all took deep breaths. “You are to be congratulated, young friends, for achieving what many considered well beyond you. Please take seats now, for there are things you must be told.”

Kambil was the least bit unsteady as he returned for the teacup he’d abandoned before going to a chair, and Delin knew exactly how he felt. The Blending had been in existence for mere seconds, but drained was a mild way of describing his condition. So he, too, poured a cup of tea, and carried it to a chair he didn’t quite fall into.

“To begin with, young friends, you must know that Blending is extremely draining on the systems of those involved,” Lord Idian began once Delin was seated. “If one or more of you have not had a proper amount of rest, the strength of the others will be used to activate and maintain the Blending, leaving little or nothing to be used to other purpose. To come to the formation less than fully rested and adequately fed is to waste everyone’s time and effort.”

No one actually looked at Delin when they heard that, but they didn’t have to. Delin hid his shame behind the pretense of sipping at his tea, his resolve to do better in the future solidifying to the strength of a vow.

“When you first begin to practice, you must keep the sessions short and be extremely vigilant,” Lord Idian continued. “Although you won’t believe it at the time, the judgment of a Blending cannot be relied on. Ideas will come to your joint minds, but to follow through on them will be to put yourselves in extreme danger. I will provide a list of proper exercises, which will more than prepare you for the competitions. And there’s one final thing.”

He paused to look around at them, his gaze resting on each of their faces. Suspicion had flared in Delin’s weary mind, but it had been many years since his true feelings could be read in his expression.

“There will come a time of temptation which you must resist at all cost,” Lord Idian pronounced as he continued to look from one to the other of them. “Once you become used to Blending, you will eventually feel the urge to … go even farther. What this farther point is I couldn’t tell you, nor can anyone else who has reached for it. It somehow …
draws
the members of a Blending in deep, and at some point refuses to release them again. They end up … unmoving and unfeeling, trapped in a vortex outside their bodies. If you ignore this advice, on your heads be it.”

Delin frowned at such callous disregard for their well-being, watching poor Selendi shudder against a worried-looking Homin. Bron and Kambil seemed just as disturbed, and the group reaction made Lord Idian nod in satisfaction.

“It relieves me to see all of you taking my caution so seriously,” he said, obviously gathering himself to stand. “There are stories about a Blending from the last competitions, whose members ignored the warning. I shudder every time I think about them, and fervently hope that nothing of the same occurs
this
time… I’ll have the list of exercises sent over a bit later, and tomorrow I will watch you perform one or two of them. Until tomorrow, then.”

By that time Lord Idian was on his feet, but Kambil spoke up before the man might depart.

“It was surprising to see you without Rigos again, but somehow not entirely unexpected,” Kambil put gently with the hint of pain in his voice. “Do things … continue to go badly for him? I’ve known him for years, and I almost feel as though I’ve … betrayed him in some way.”

“At the moment, young Lord Rigos is in the process of betraying himself,” Lord Idian returned stiffly. “I waited for his arrival this morning, and finally was forced to leave alone. Neither Rigos nor any explanation or excuse has thus far reached me, which puts me very much out of patience with the young fool. If I should fail to hear from him by tonight, tomorrow morning I shall demand that he be replaced.”

With that Lord Idian turned and left, marching out as though going to Rigos’s hanging. Delin felt a wave of enjoyment sweep through him at the thought of Rigos cooperating with his own destruction, and that despite the stab of disappointment which he also felt. Lord Ollon’s body should have already been discovered … unless the madman had found a reason to dismiss all his servants…

“Thank you,” Delin heard Kambil say, and he looked up to see a servant in the doorway who bowed briefly before disappearing. “He was asked to tell me when Lord Idian’s carriage pulled away, which apparently it now has. Would anyone like to comment on what we were told?”

“The idea of that … vortex really frightens me,” Selendi said simply and openly. “It may be because I sensed …
something
beyond our Blended state, and was tempted for a moment to find out what it was.”

“I felt the same something, and also the same temptation,” Bron put in thoughtfully. “I don’t remember noticing it yesterday, but today it was perfectly clear.”

“And I can make it three,” Homin said in agreement, equally sobered. “Not yesterday, but definitely today. What about you and Delin, Kambil?”

Delin nodded to show that it had also been the same for him, though more vaguely than definitely. His weariness had apparently cut into his strength rather severely, he thought, and then Kambil confirmed the surmise.

“I’m still too tired to be at my sharpest, so I only just noticed what the rest of you felt so clearly,” he said. “But believe it or not, the discovery isn’t what interests me most. I do happen to have enough strength left to know that Lord Idian was lying in his teeth.”

Delin exclaimed aloud along with the others, his suspicions flaring again like a beacon. He’d
known
there was something wrong with what they were being told, he’d known it for certain!

“I suppose they were counting on me being too distracted by having Blended for the first time to pay full attention to our mentor,” Kambil went on. “And they also think we haven’t noticed that something yet, so they’re poisoning our minds against it before we do. There’s no danger of a ‘vortex,’ and there are no chilling stories handed down from the last competitions. The only truth he spoke was about how draining Blending is, and that we all need to be well rested.”

“I’ll bet Adriari’s group isn’t being told any fairy tales,” Bron growled, clearly verbalizing what all the rest of them thought. “They’re obviously trying to keep us limited in what we can do, to be certain we don’t become a real threat to their plans.”

“Isn’t it a shame that they haven’t succeeded?” Homin said with an edge to his voice that Delin had never heard before. “I’m absolutely crushed on their behalf, and incidentally can’t wait to see that list of ‘permissible’ exercises.”

“I got the impression of limitation rather than exercise,” Kambil said after sipping at his tea, “which means you’re right to be suspicious, Homin. They need us to perform in the competitions, but they don’t want us to become too strong or effective. It’s a very fine line that they’re walking, and we should be able to slip by while their attention is on where they put their feet.”

“Am I mistaken, or was Lord Idian really surprised when we Blended for him?” Delin asked through a haze of fury. “He said something about people not believing we could do it… Worthless little nothings actually doubting
us…
!”

“I discovered yesterday that the other groups—not counting Adriari’s, of course—Blended on the first try,” Kambil said gently. “I didn’t pass on the information because I didn’t care to put additional pressure on everyone, and also because I felt convinced that we, too, would be successful. I don’t know what they would have done if we hadn’t managed it… Possibly sent us in anyway, under orders to
pretend
.”

“Not managing to Blend wouldn’t have saved us,” Selendi said, as serious as Homin had been. “As long as we had the details about
how
to Blend buried somewhere in our heads, we’d still be a threat to the Advisors. Not to mention still being unwanted by our families. No, winning the competitions is still the only thing we can do.”

Delin was tempted to feel stunned again that
Selendi
had actually said that, but pride pushed forward too strongly. He’d done it, he’d really gotten through to his groupmates, and from now on everything would work out perfectly.

“Which means we need to begin real practicing,” Kambil said after draining his cup and then putting it aside. “I’d love to begin at once, but common sense insists that I get more rest first. I’m going back to bed, and I strongly suggest that any of you who feels the least weariness should follow my example. By this afternoon, I’ll be completely ready to go again.”

“I, for one, intend to follow your example,” Delin said as he put his own cup aside and stood. “Breakfast helped a bit, but my sleep was disturbed last night by all sorts of dreams. By this afternoon I, too, intend to be ready to go.”

“I’m going to make it three,” Bron announced as he stood and stretched. “I had a good night’s sleep and felt fine when I first got up, but now the early hour must be getting to me. A nap sounds like a really good idea.”

Homin and Selendi said they weren’t terribly tired, but if everyone else was going back to bed, they would do the same. Delin marveled at their unity as they all left the sitting room together, that brand new warmth touching him again. Everything would have been perfect … if only Lord Ollon’s body had been found, and Rigos was arrested for the second and final time…