Challenges (6 page)

Adding details was unnecessary, especially since the details were no one’s business but his and Tamrissa’s. He’d need to find a time to speak privately to Jovvi, though. Possibly tomorrow, if no one else decided to go with her to that trial. But she’d need someone with her anyway, so he’d definitely plan on going… After she got through the unpleasantness, there would be time enough to talk…

And tonight he could dream about Tamrissa without calling himself names. Vallant grinned despite the impatience choking him, feeling as though a great burden had been lifted from his shoulders. Hopefully he’d be there to see Tamrissa’s expression when she found out the truth. It would be wonderful, absolutely wonderful…

CHAPTER SIX

Jovvi came down early to breakfast, expecting to find that everyone else had slept late. She and Tamrissa had gone directly to their respective beds last night when they got home, and the men had done the same. But Jovvi hadn’t been able to sleep, and the fact that the others seemed to have the same trouble had added to her wakefulness. She’d finally had to be firm with herself and use an exercise that forced sleep, partly by cutting her off from an awareness of the people around her.

So when she walked into the dining room to find Vallant and Rion already there, her brows rose in surprise. They both looked up and nodded to her, but then Vallant gestured to his eyes and produced a broad wink. Even more surprisingly Rion did the same, and then Rion held up a finger.

“Ro here is being rather foolish,” he said, sounding petulantly annoyed but not looking or feeling the same. “He’s decided to accompany you to court this morning, and that despite my disapproval. His being there will make it seem as though you’re unable to act for yourself and by yourself.”

“Mardimil still doesn’t understand what it means to be a gentleman,” Vallant put in, the annoyance in his voice also unmatched by his emotions. “My goin’ with you will be seen as nothin’ more than common courtesy, somethin’ his sort has given up on. But then it
is
called common, so what else can you expect?”

“From you?” Rion countered stiffly, greatly amused on the inside. “No more than what I usually get. What a pity that your jealousy over my already knowing the palace and some of its people has gotten completely out of hand.”

Vallant made a loud sound of ridicule, but went back to his food rather than adding to the argument. But it wasn’t a real argument, Jovvi realized as she continued on to the buffet. They’d warned her with gestures that they were about to do something and then they’d started their unreal argument. Obviously they were doing it for the benefit of the servants who were surely listening, but the reason behind it would have to be found out only after she and Vallant were out of the house.

Jovvi filled a plate and took it to the table, discovering that she was hungrier than she’d expected to be. There was no question about her going to court to see what happened to Allestine, but the prospect of going alone had tied her stomach in knots. She never minded doing things by herself, but this time… Thank the Highest Aspect that Vallant had decided to go with her.

The rest of the meal was coldly silent, with Vallant and Rion deliberately ignoring each other. Right at the beginning Jovvi wondered if they were unobserved and actually wasting their time, but spreading her senses just a bit showed immediately that they weren’t. One of the male servants stood just out of sight near the kitchen, probably pretending to be on hand just in case one of them wanted something not on the buffet. But the eagerness with which he listened said he was there for another reason entirely, certainly so that he’d have what to report later. Luckily, though, there was no trace of his using Spirit magic.

Rion was the first to leave, which he did with a courtly bow to Jovvi while ignoring Vallant as though the second man were a piece of furniture. Vallant snorted again to show his opinion of that, but Rion ignored the reaction as well. As soon as he was gone, Vallant looked at Jovvi.

“We both know Mardimil was just bein’ foolish,” he said, actually sounding somewhat stuffy. “Women
need
a man to lean on, so I’ll be right there to supply the shoulder. When are we leavin’?”

“Right after breakfast,” Jovvi told him, doing her part by adding stiffness to her voice. If Vallant hadn’t winked again to show he wasn’t serious, she
would
have been good and insulted. As it was… “You really don’t need to bother going, you know. I can—”

“Now, now, not another word,” he interrupted, definitely sounding stuffy. “A true gentleman never finds somethin’ like this a bother, so we’ll say no more about it.”

Jovvi nearly giggled at the way Vallant rolled his eyes after saying that, knowing exactly how narrow-minded he sounded. Instead of laughing she simply sighed in exasperation, thereby making sure his playacting wasn’t wasted. She could always giggle later—
before
they got to court.

Vallant waited until she was finished eating, and then he escorted her out of the house. The coach she’d arranged for last night was just pulling up, so they waited for it to stop and then climbed in. Once they were settled and the coach was moving again, Jovvi eyed Vallant.

“I think you can tell me now what you and Rion were doing,” she said. “And in case you’re interested, there was a servant standing just out of sight, taking it all in.”

“Actually, I already knew that,” he replied with a grin. “It came to me that I can judge if any people are nearby by the amount of body water humans have. And Mardimil and I were doin’ what he and I and Coll agreed to do last night: make sure the testin’ authority has no reason to break us up. If they think we’re gettin’ too friendly, they just might do that.”

“You’re absolutely right!” Jovvi exclaimed. “I missed that, but happily you three didn’t. You and Rion will be arguing with Lorand next, I suppose?”

“Mardimil first and then me,” Vallant agreed with a nod. “At first we were goin’ to do it after the next group meetin’, but then we decided we might not have the time to wait. It’s gettin’ too close to the time they’ll be formin’ us into a Blendin’, and we’re hopin’ they won’t do any separatin’ afterward. If they think we can’t stand each other, they ought to leave us alone.”

“I certainly hope so,” Jovvi agreed fervently. “I’ll have to speak to Tamma as soon as we get back, to let her know what’s going on. After that I can blame her for the fact that Allestine was arrested, and she’ll know I’m not serious.”

“Coll and Mardimil are supposed to tell her while we’re gone,” Vallant said. “They’ll both try to get her alone, and at least one of them ought to succeed.”

His words stopped there, but Jovvi could see that there was something he ached to add. His emotions had rippled wildly when he’d mentioned Tamma, and Jovvi couldn’t stand it.

“You might as well tell me whatever you’re holding back on,” she said, smiling faintly at his startlement. “If you don’t, we’ll probably both explode.”

“But imposin’ now would be wrong,” he protested, actually meaning it. “This court business has got to be botherin’ you, and I meant to say right away that I don’t have to go in with you if you really don’t want company. I can walk around outside the buildin’ until the whole thing is over—”

“Vallant, please,” she interrupted, leaning forward to touch his hand where it rested on his knee. “I’m very glad to have you going with me, and talking about what’s bothering you won’t be imposing. I’m badly in need of something to distract me, so you’d actually be doing me a favor.”

“To tell the truth, I feel like a damned fool just thinkin’ about it,” he admitted heavily, his very handsome face strained. “Talkin’ about it is worse, but neither is as bad as not doin’ somethin’ to change it. Last night Tamrissa said some things to Coll, and he got mad and repeated them to
me
. It seems I was wrong to believe she has no feelin’s for me.”

“I think I tried to tell you that at one point, but you were in too much pain to hear me,” Jovvi commented with a smile and a nod. “I expect Lorand put it a bit less delicately than I did… And now you’ve decided to do what? Change your mind again?”

“The only reason I changed it the first time was to keep from botherin’ a woman who wanted nothin’ to do with me.” Now his expression was just serious, and it was clear that he was telling the truth. “I also felt pretty worthless, to have a woman like Tamrissa hate me so much.”

“It wasn’t hate, it was fear,” Jovvi felt compelled to tell him. “She’s very much afraid of getting involved again, and the fact that she only treated
you
that way said clearly how attracted she was to you. It was rather easy for me to see that, but discussing it without her permission was another matter entirely.”

“And now we have an even bigger problem,” he said, leaning forward to rest his arms on his knees and clasp his hands. “I was all for talkin’ to her right away and gettin’ the misunderstandin’ straightened out, but Coll and Mardimil talked me out of it. They pointed out that I was probably kept in the residence while Holter was moved elsewhere because he was startin’ to fit in too well. And he also got along with Tamrissa, which seems to be the major point. If
I
start gettin’ along with her, I could end up bein’ transferred elsewhere.”

“Yes, you certainly could.” Jovvi was forced to agree even while she hated the idea. “So that means you can’t change the way you’ve been acting with Tamma, but she has to be told
something
. The way things are now, she’s completely miserable.”

“And I refuse to let her go on feelin’ like that,” Vallant said flatly. “This happened because I acted like a fool, and I won’t have her sufferin’ over my mistake. I’d like you to tell her the truth—and that I’ll be lookin’ for a chance to get her alone. What the testin’ authority doesn’t know can’t hurt us.”

“Well, I’ll tell her, of course, but I’m not sure how she’ll take it,” Jovvi said, needing to tell the man the truth. “She took a very big step forward when she decided to try a relationship with you, but that was just before
you
apparently changed your mind. Now that you’ve changed it back, there’s no guarantee she’ll do the same.”

“I feel like I’m ridin’ a runaway horse,” Vallant said after letting out a long, deep breath. “And not only runaway, we’re both blindfolded. But you can tell Tamrissa that I offer my apologies in advance, because this time I won’t be changin’ my mind back again. She’d better do the same, or she’ll end up very unhappy with me.”

“Vallant, you have to promise me that you won’t push her
too
much,” Jovvi asked, suddenly nervous. “She’s gotten into the habit of reaching to the power in order to protect herself, and she could accidentally cause you a great deal of harm. You have to remember what she’s been through—”

“I do remember, but it’s time
she
forgot,” Vallant said as he sat back, his mind solidly made up. “I won’t ever do anythin’ to harm her, but it may be time to stop thinkin’ of her as breakable. Real women aren’t that fragile, and she’s as real as they come.”

His thoughts slipped into a private area then, and Jovvi didn’t have to work very hard to guess which one. She felt the definite urge to press her warning, but usually tried to avoid wasting her time and breath. Vallant’s earlier determination about Tamma was like a single flame to the current conflagration raging inside him, and Jovvi could only hope that the comparison would not turn out to be literal.

Having no more conversation to distract her, Jovvi looked out of the coach window to see that they were entering an area of the city that seemed to have a large number of official-looking buildings. The sight caused her to shiver just a little, so similar was it to that time she’d had her own brush with the law. The official-looking buildings appeared just the same, only slightly less imposing than they’d been to a very frightened young girl.

The time had been just after she’d met the family which had offered to take her in, but before she’d decided to accept the offer. The people had seemed unbelievably decent, but young Jovvi had seen too much of the other sort to give her trust that easily—even if her gift tried to tell her they were sincere. She’d eaten the food they’d given her and then had returned to the streets, going back to the house twice in five days when finding food elsewhere proved impossible. Each time they’d told her she could stay and live with them, but they hadn’t tried to keep her from leaving again.

And then the day came when the guardsmen suddenly appeared everywhere, their aim being to arrest every street child they could catch. There had finally been too many complaints about burglary and trespassing in locked warehouses for the officials to ignore, so they sent out a large number of guardsmen to sweep up the dregs who were causing so much trouble. Very few of the children and older street people avoided the net, and Jovvi wasn’t one of them. She’d been caught easily and thrown into one of the cages-on-wheels the guardsmen had brought along to hold their prizes, and had been too frightened to use her ability in an effort to escape.

There had been so many others in the cage that Jovvi had found it difficult to breathe despite all the open spaces between the cage’s bars. It had also been almost impossible to stand, especially when the wagon the cage was sitting in began to move. Everyone had reeked of fear even before that; once they were definitely on the way out of the neighborhood some of them never left, the fear turned to choking terror.

They’d passed the official-looking buildings before the wagon was driven into the back of one, and then they’d been pulled out of the cage and dragged to a series of large cells. The cells afforded more room, but the stink of urine and vomit added to terror and hopelessness had made Jovvi throw up. The filthy straw underfoot hadn’t really absorbed what she’d produced, even though it wasn’t much. She hadn’t had a decent meal in a few days, so there’d been little more than liquid to give up.

They’d been kept in that cell for three days, and once each day they’d been given a bowl of thick gruel and a cup of water. Jovvi had had to force herself to eat the terrible stuff, which had tasted worse than day-old garbage, but she hadn’t been able to force herself to sleep. At most she’d catnapped, and then only for a few minutes at a time. Constant fear is exhausting, but it also refuses to let its victim rest. When Jovvi was finally taken out of the cell with five of the other children she knew, she was close to complete collapse.