Challenges (54 page)

“Well, well, aren’t you the adventurous one,” a male voice murmured very near to her, and then a hand smoothed her hair. “You’re actually trying to wake up, even though it isn’t time for you to do that. First we’ll find a place to make you nice and comfortable, then we’ll wait for the first transport group that’s formed, and then you’ll take a nice long trip. You’ll like that, won’t you?”

Jovvi could almost understand the words being spoken to her, but trying harder was out of the question. Even lying wherever she lay was almost too much of an effort, so anything beyond that … except for taking a deeper breath…

“Now, now, just settle down,” the voice said, again almost clearly enough to be understood. “I understand that you’re probably disappointed, but the lord who is Seated High in your aspect decided that he doesn’t want you after all. To look at you, one might easily consider him mad, but then one would have to pause in thought. If a man of his strength doesn’t even care to dally with you for a short while, you must be dangerous indeed. I am a man possessed of sufficient courage for all things, yet my sense of discretion usually surpasses the other. They’ll make good use of your talents—whatever they may now be—in the place where you’re awaited, and I’ll find a less adventurous—and adventuresome—woman to do my own dallying with. Rest now, for when you get where they mean to send you, there will be no rest short of death—or burnout, whichever comes first.”

Jovvi thought she heard the word “burnout,” and agitation began to build inside her. That word … it meant something beyond the ordinary, beyond what most words mean. She had to … do something she hadn’t gotten around to … had to remember something specific … find someone important…

Opening her eyes proved to be impossible, as was any sort of movement. And that hand, smoothing her hair … it made her want to rest for a while, to sleep until the sea rolled out and she wasn’t so heavy any longer … heavy … sleep…

* * *

“Yes, my darling, that’s right,” Rion heard, a woman speaking softly and encouragingly. “Try to wake up just a bit, my darling, so that you’ll understand what I have to say.”

Rion fought to open his eyes, but at first his vision was too blurred to make anything out. Blinking helped to solve the problem to some extent, but it was still necessary to focus. He finally did so, using the face which swam before him as an anchor, and once success was his he immediately wished he’d failed.

“No, no, darling, don’t frown so,” Mother chided, just as she always used to do. “It will put lines into your face and make you look older, and then people will think
I’m
older. We certainly can’t have that, now can we?”

Rion tried to speak, to tell her just exactly what she would and would not have, but his tongue refused to operate properly. And his head ached so abominably that he winced at the concept of trying to form words into a sentence.

“Of course we can’t,” she continued with a smile and a pat on his cheek, just as though he’d agreed with her. “Now that you’re back beside me again, we won’t allow anything into our lives that isn’t perfect. No, don’t try to speak, you won’t be able to do that for some time yet. I’m going to keep you drugged for a bit, you see, to make sure you aren’t able to keep yourself from being permanently damaged.”

Permanently damaged … The words chilled him, even though he had no idea what they meant. Nothing could have happened … he didn’t remember anything happening … but where had that headache come from…?

“Don’t you worry about that now, darling,” Mother went on, chatting happily. “The physician tells me that you’re probably permanently damaged anyway, but there’s a chance the damage can be minimized if you’re able to work against it. But we don’t want it minimized, not when that might let you imagine you can escape me again. You can’t, you know, because you’re mine and always will be. But please don’t think you’ll be given an allowance again, I’d hate for you to be disappointed. From now on Mother will control everything, and you’ll be her loving, devoted, talentless boy.”

Rion fought against it, but the tears rolled down his face anyway. He couldn’t even remember what had happened, but he still felt a vast sense of inconsolable loss. It wasn’t even possible for him to move, and that seemed to please Mother enormously.

“That’s right, my darling, you have a good cry,” she said, the expression on her face making him ill. “Cry all you need to and then you’ll sleep, and when you awake everything will be the way it was before. Except that I’ll never again allow you to leave my side. But then—there won’t be any reason for you to leave, will there, my darling?”

Rion let his eyes close again, which did nothing to stop his tears. It seemed as though the crying came from a very small boy inside him … while a grown man tried to rage and fight. But that grown man had no strength … and the mists of sleep were closing in again … and couldn’t be avoided even though they would trap him forever…

* * *

I think I became aware of my heart beating first, which struck me as being odd. A person is rarely aware of her own heartbeat, unless fright causes it to quicken or to nearly stop dead. My own heartbeat was more than ordinarily rapid, but I didn’t know why…

“I said, lovely child, can you hear me?” a man’s voice came, the words answering my previous question. The thud of my heart grew even louder as I recognized the voice. It belonged to a man whose name I didn’t even know, but the vague, unformed memory of his intentions was very unsettling.

“Your muscles have tightened a bit, so I presume you can hear every word despite your lack of verbal response,” the man went on. “That suits me well enough for the moment, as I shall speak and you need only listen. Later, of course, you’ll also be expected to obey. If you fail to do so, you’ll be made to produce a verbal response other than speaking.”

He chuckled at that, a sound which made my blood run cold, but for no reason easily understood. Who was this man, and what did he want of me?

“To begin with, I should explain that the pain I’m told you probably feel is the result of your having been damaged,” he said. “It’s highly unlikely that you’ll ever be what you once were, but please don’t feel relief just yet. My interest in you remains as high as it was, for you’re still perfectly able to serve my purpose.”

What purpose? I wanted to say, but the lethargy all through me didn’t allow it. I had no idea what he was talking about, but for some reason it still frightened me.

“Now, I mean to keep you quietly sedated for a time,” he said, “but not for too long a time. I find I’m truly eager to begin with you, and as soon as the Puredan is brought to me I’ll have you drink it. After that you’ll no longer need to be sedated, and we’ll be able to begin.”

He chuckled again. “There’s something rather amusing that you should hear. Your father and some crony of his attempted to claim you, actually challenging
my
right to possess you. I put them off until tomorrow, but only to give myself time to prepare something really special for them. It will be the highlight of my dinner party tomorrow night, and I mean to let
you
be present to watch. No, don’t try to thank me, I’ve already decided on how I mean to be thanked.”

His chuckling really bothered me, especially since I could almost remember something about my father and some friend of his. That memory was just as disturbing, even without any details. I didn’t want to hear about any of it, and the best way to escape was in sleep. I felt sleepy anyway … sleepy and frightened … sleepy and miserable … sleepy and very lonely…

* * *

“… know what they could do to me for this?” a thin and trembling male voice demanded. “They could end my career, and then where would I be? Please ask for something else, my dear, I beg of you.”

“But there isn’t anything else that I want,” a female voice responded, one that Vallant seemed to recognize. “You owe me more than one favor, love, and if you don’t pay up I’ll just have to collect in another way. Would you prefer if I did that?”

“No!” the male voice almost shrieked, and then it quieted again. “No, I would not prefer that other way. You leave me no choice but to do exactly as you wish.”

“Stop making it sound like the end of the world,” the woman chided with a laugh. “No one will be doing anything with him until it’s time to send him on his trip, so he might as well do his waiting here. I have this perfectly lovely little box prepared for him, made out of steel so that nothing will be able to harm him. When he learns to beg properly I’ll let him out for a while, but I won’t forget to put him back again. That should satisfy your feelings of anxiety, shouldn’t it?”

“Perhaps,” the male voice allowed grudgingly while Vallant’s insides began to twist and burn. He couldn’t quite remember why he felt like that, but it had something to do with part of what the woman had said. And his head hurt, for some reason he also couldn’t remember. What was going on here—and where in the name of chaos was ‘here’?

“Oh, he’ll be fine,” the woman said with more laughter. “I’m just going to put him to work for a while, and then you can have him back. I’m sure he thought he’d seen the last of me, but a person’s power isn’t always linked only to her career position. When I decide I want something, I never rest until I get it.”

“Well, now you have
him
,” the male voice said, still sounding extremely unhappy. “Just be sure you don’t lose or damage him, or we’ll both regret it. If I’m blamed for anything, I’ll make certain that you’re right there beside me.”

“Worrier, worrier,” the woman laughed, then went on to reassure the man again in different words. Vallant tried to listen, hoping to find out where he was and what was happening, but everything both inside him and out began to lurch. Not sick-making lurch but sleepy lurch … as though he were being rocked in the arms of someone who needed badly for him to be there … even though he couldn’t be there … wherever there was … sleepy lurch, back and forth, back and forth … out but not in … please, please, never
in
…

CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

Delin stood with his groupmates, glancing around casually, but on the inside he was drawn so tight that he feared something might snap. The past two days had been incredibly nerve-wracking, causing him to come as close as he had to losing everything. The peasants his Blending had faced had proven much stronger than they had any right to be, and he and the others had nearly lost to them. Somehow they’d just managed to pull out their victories, but hadn’t even been able to destroy their opponents. The Advisory representative assigned to them had been pleased about that, but Delin wasn’t able to muster the same pleasure…

Now they stood by the as-yet-unopened doors to the arena floor, waiting for the last group of peasants to join them. The Advisory man had insisted that they come to the peasants’ side rather than having the peasants come to them, and there had been no arguing with him. It was all part of Advisor Zolind’s plan, they’d been told, which meant the orders weren’t to be argued with. Delin felt the urge to do more than argue, considering who these last peasants were. But at least they’d been subjected to the disabling bits of information and half threats Delin had himself intended to use…

Thought of that brought a faint smile to Delin as he considered how his idea had been improved upon. Zolind’s people had worked swiftly to learn everything there was to know about the peasants, and the resulting letters had been most interesting. That useless fool Mardimil had been told how common he really was, the Earth magic user had been told that the friend he’d come to Gan Garee with was dead, Fire magic had been told that she would be returned to her father’s authority and possession, Spirit magic had been told that the woman sent to the deep mines because of
her
was slowly dying, and Water magic had been told that his family would be ruined because of him.

Not quite the way Delin would have handled it, but certainly effective nonetheless. The lowborn fools would be fortunate if they even managed to Blend, not to speak of doing anything effective. They would—

“I’ve just been given less than happy news,” Kambil murmured after he turned away from a runner who had drawn him aside. “The commoners are on their way over here, making slow going of it because of everyone who wants to wish them luck. Ophin was therefore able to send word ahead that they haven’t read the letters. The envelopes were all lying untouched just where they’d been left.”

“How could they have done that?” Selendi asked with a frown as Delin’s mind clanged with shock. “Don’t they have anything of natural human curiosity?”

“They’re obviously more suspicious than curious,” Homin said with a shake of his head. “I, personally, wouldn’t have touched something like that, which was why I disliked that method of passing on the information. A pity Zolind dismissed my opinion out of hand.”

“Well, done is done,” Bron said with a sigh. “They haven’t read the letters, so we can’t expect them to be badly out of balance. We’ll simply have to win over them without that.”

“How can all of you take this so calmly?” Delin demanded in a hiss, then let his voice turn into a growl. “It’s all Zolind’s fault for insisting on doing things
his
way, so I say let Zolind go out there and face them! I, for one, have no intention of being defeated by lowborn garbage!”

“If we don’t compete, Zolind will take great pleasure in having us executed,” Kambil said calmly and gently. “He’ll find some way to keep the commoners from being Seated, but we won’t be around to find out what he does. Is that what you want?”

“No, of course not,” Delin was forced to say, a great coldness spreading inside him. “I want us to accomplish our dream, but how are we supposed to do that now?”

“We’ll do it in the way we were meant to, by facing them and bringing them to defeat,” Kambil said, briefly putting a hand to Delin’s shoulder. “Since that’s our only option, it’s the one we’ll take. Are you with us?”

Delin could do nothing other than nod, although he would have most preferred to scream out what fools they all were. They refused to see that they were about to lose everything, refused to try to find a way out of that mess…