Thawed Fortunes (10 page)

In response to his wife's skeptical look, the
arms master continued defensively. "No, it didn't fix all of the
kid's problems, but it was the root of them. Once that was taken
care of Mich'a was able to start making some progress with
him."

Ah'bi let go of her husband and leaned back
away from him. "We've been married long enough for me to be able to
tell when you're working your way up to something. Powers, it is
like you're presenting a case, putting all of the evidence out into
nice separate packets."

Caught partway through stripping off his
tunic, Fi'lin realized she was right, both that he was working up
to making a proposition, and that he was presenting it like he was
in court. "I think it is because that's the way your mind works,
love. I learned long ago that if I'm to convince you of anything,
my evidence has to be presented in an orderly manner or you make me
look like a fool."

"Well, having presented your case, out with
it."

"Would you consider sponsoring Va'del? I
mean, test him and see if he's someone you could sponsor. I
wouldn't want to interfere with the sponsoring process, not that
you'd let me if I did, but I want to give the boy a chance to reach
his potential."

Ah'bi shook her head. "It won't work."

"I know what you're thinking. Tradition
frowns on full-time instructors taking a candidate, but it doesn't
have the force of the rules that prohibit On'li and Javin from
sponsoring the boy. We could probably make the sponsorship
stick."

Ah'bi responded without meeting her husband's
eyes. "No, that isn't the reason. It won't work because I won't do
it."

Fi'lin looked at his wife in amazement. "You
won't even scan the boy? Why not?"

"That isn't important. I just won't do
it."

The wiry Guadel jumped to his feet, truly
angry with his normally-reasonable wife for the first time in
years. "Just like that? You're not even going to give me a reason?
Every time I try something like that you tear into me like a snow
leopard looking for its next meal. You at least owe me an
explanation for why we, just like almost everyone else from the
Council on down, aren't going to give the boy the chance he's
earned more times over in the last year than I care to count!"

Ah'bi turned away from Fi'lin, which only
made him madder. "You're so big on justice, how do you rationalize
your way into something like that?"

Fi'lin grabbed a robe and started to storm
off in the direction of the wash room when his wife called out to
him.

"I'm sorry, you're right, you at least
deserve an explanation. I've known this was coming ever since you
asked me to modify his body. I've been over the arguments for and
against so many times in my head, I forget you haven't been privy
to any of them."

Fi'lin stopped, but he still felt the anger
bubbling below his surface, an emotion he'd almost stopped
believing he could feel with so much intensity.

"I knew I'rone better than anyone else
outside his bloodline. You and his wives all slept through enough
of our discussions on the theory of law to know he knew me better
than anyone else except you."

Ah'bi forestalled his question with a shake
of her head and continued.

"I knew him just as well, I knew how good of
a man he was, but he scared me despite that. I study law, I
understand the necessity of punishment for criminals, but it isn't
the same thing as what he felt. That man was ready and willing to
kill. He even sought out killing where he felt that doing so would
uphold society and the rule of law. I have enough dark places in my
own soul, but I'rone was a thousand times worse, and the boy will
be just as bad in his own way. I don't know that I could handle
exploring his mind, let alone linking with him as often as a
sponsor would have to. I'm sorry, Fi'lin. I wish I could do this
for you, but I can't. I can't be responsible for giving that kind
of power to someone I can't be sure won't misuse it, and I won't
scan him and invade his privacy like that when I already know I
can't sponsor him."

"What are you talking about? It isn't like
we're making him one of the super Guadel that Pat'rec said Ja'dir
wanted to create."

"Do you really believe that? If he is
sponsored, he and Jain will marry, and then it will only be a
matter of a few years, and he'll have a second wife, maybe even a
third one."

"That is absurd."

"No it isn't. Haven't you noticed how the
girls look at him? He's every bit as attractive as Be'ter, and his
darker skin makes him exotic. Not only that, he's so considerate
it's almost painful to watch. No, once the stigma of not being a
candidate is washed away, the girls will flock to him and the next
thing you know we'll see Ja'dir's super Guadel, and all with
nothing more than a group of foolish youngsters to ride herd on
him."

Va'del wondered what the summons from On'li
was about. Luckily they'd finished testing for the day and the
notice had come early enough for him to have plenty of time to get
there. Of course plenty of time didn't mean quite the same thing as
it would have before all of the insanity started.

Va'del had never been quite so sore and tired
at any other point in his life. For once he'd actually been
relieved when Jain hadn't been able to slip away and meet him. He'd
missed her, but her absence meant he'd been able to strip off his
clothes and soak his whole body in the pool. Even after a full
night's sleep he was still moving like an eighty-year-old, which
didn't worry him as much as the way his muscles had started
twitching. That probably meant they were nearly depleted enough to
go into seizure. If Jain didn't manage to sneak away tonight, he'd
have to find a pretext to visit Ah'bi tomorrow.

Once Va'del finally made it to the suite of
rooms that On'li, Javin and Mar'li shared, he clapped twice and
waited for an invitation before venturing around the privacy
corner.

"Va'del, you look like you're three days
dead."

The teenager laughed, and then grabbed his
side as forgotten bruises reminded him of their presence. "I'll be
okay; it's just been a long couple of days. I didn't realize that
the testing Fi'lin recruited me for would be quite so brutal on the
testers."

"I don't suppose I look any better, the
Council sessions have been especially heated lately."

Mar'li appeared from the other room with a
cup of something steaming, which Va'del accepted with a nod of
thanks.

The liquid turned out to be remarkably sweet
and smooth, and Va'del found himself smiling.

"It's very good, isn't it? Mar'li makes it
from a lowlander food called honey. Javin claims it helps restore
his energy levels after training, and Piter always agreed
emphatically, but I think they both just have a weakness for
sweets."

On'li's face fell a little
when she mentioned Piter, but she took a seat as she motioned for
Va'del to sit, skillfully dodging the awkwardness that could have
otherwise resulted from the painful memory.
It must have hurt her as much to lose Piter as it did for me
to lose Jasmin, I'rone and Betreec.

"I'm sorry I didn't arrange to talk to you
sooner than this. I owe you an update on where things stand. Cindi
made a valiant effort to try and get you sponsored, but it
backfired on us."

Va'del's response was preempted by Mar'li's
return, this time bearing a small plate of sweet bread.

"I've missed seeing you, Va'del. Please don't
think that you have to wait for an invitation from On'li to stop by
for an occasional visit."

The teenager thanked Mar'li, and then turned
back to On'li only to see that the older woman had her eyes closed.
Before Va'del could call out to Mar'li that the bread was
delicious, On'li opened her eyes and shot to her feet.

"Who the hell did that to you?"

Va'del felt a sudden surge of fear as he
realized just how angry the Guadel was, but he also felt the first
flickerings of anger that she would just invade his body without
asking.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes, you do, I can see it in your eyes.
Someone has started augmenting you. It was bad enough that Jasmin
augmented your ability to put on muscle, but this is enough to get
Javin and me kicked off of the Council. Nobody will believe it
wasn't us who did it."

The anger was a roaring furnace now. Va'del
was fed up with everyone forgetting that this particular pawn was
regularly taking a beating. On'li was obviously only mad because of
the possible implications to her personally. Va'del hadn't realized
just how short-sighted the old woman could be. She'd just jumped
right over the question of what might happen to him as a result or
why someone might have chosen to augment him other than to
discredit her.

On'li took his silence as a refusal to
cooperate and hissed the one threat guaranteed to get his
attention. "Tell me who did it immediately or I'll see to it you're
never sponsored. Not only that, I'll make sure that you're exiled
from the Capital and sent somewhere you'll never see Jain
again."

Va'del knew that he should
try and make some kind of reconciliation, that he should smooth
things over rather than offend the one person who
might
be able get him
sponsored, but he suddenly didn't care.

"Now that's a hollow threat if I've ever
heard one. We both already know that I'll never be a candidate, and
I'll never be allowed to marry Jain. Well guess what, I'm tired of
doing all of your dirty work. I'm tired of being the one to do all
the things that the mighty Guadel can't or won't do, so you can
keep your stupid candidacy. I'm not interested anymore."

The teenager turned and walked towards the
door, amazed that On'li hadn't cut him off and slapped him down.
"Oh, and you can leave Jain out of all of this, or I'll go straight
to the Council and invite them to look me over. I'm sure they'll be
quite interested when I tell them it was you that did this to
me."

##

After Va'del left, On'li found herself pacing
across the sitting room, becoming angrier with each pass across the
room. The Guadel knew she'd regret it later, but she even glared
fiercely enough to stop Mar'li from speaking on both the occasions
when the younger woman looked like she was about to speak.

How dare he threaten her of all people. Her
bet was that Jain was involved somehow, although it was possible
that he'd just protected her out of reflex. No, On'li suddenly
realized she was pursuing the wrong train of logic. The real
question was who had done the original work on him. Jain wouldn't
have been able to do that, so all that was needed was a list of the
people who'd had enough time alone with him to do the initial
augmentation.

From that list she'd then need to think
through who might have then proceeded to neglect him so badly that
he'd arrived at her rooms only days or cycles away from a seizure.
Given the way he was twitching, it was actually a surprise that
every Guadel he passed didn't immediately realize that there was
something wrong with his system.

Suddenly On'li knew who it must have been and
she stormed out of the room without a word to Mar'li.

The trip to Ah'bi's rooms was a short one,
but there were still people out and about, and more than one of
them flinched away from the sight of a Council member who looked
like she was ready to kill someone with her bare hands.

On'li clapped as she reached the entrance to
the other Guadel's rooms, but she didn't wait for permission to
enter.

"How dare you do something like that! You
modified the boy knowing full well that if anyone found out about
it, they'd come after me!"

Ah'bi looked up from the book she was
reading, and for a second it appeared as though she was going to
throw it at the older woman, but she regained control of herself
with an obvious exertion of effort.

"Please, do come in and sit down."

"Darkness take you!" On'li fought down the
urge to swear again and managed a nearly reasonable tone of voice.
"Why did you do it?"

"Jain told you?"

Suddenly the absurdity of someone her age
trying to pick fights with a woman young and powerful enough to tie
her in knots without even breathing heavily sank in, and On'li felt
herself deflate. "No, I scanned the boy and saw the changes for
myself. After that it was easy to figure out who had to have done
it. But none of it makes sense unless you are trying to discredit
me, or are hoping that the side effects will kill him and remove
the cause of most of the recent problems around here."

Ah'bi laughed bitterly. "No, we aren't trying
to get rid of him. Quite the opposite. In fact, Fi'lin may not ever
completely forgive me for refusing to sponsor the boy. As for not
telling you, we figured the fewer people who knew the better off
everyone would be. This way you'd be able to honestly deny having
any knowledge of what had happened."

"Fine, that tells me why you handled it the
way you did, but not why you did it in the first place."

"You were an instructor yourself once upon a
time, you surely must have realized what Be'ter's been doing to the
candidates. We were trying to give the other boys someone to look
up to besides that bully."

"That is the most ridiculous thing I've
heard. There was no need to stack the deck that badly in Va'del's
favor. The boy beat Be'ter before, the only reason he lost this
last time was because he hadn't fully recovered from being thrown
down in that hole."

"Powers, are you really that stupid? His
sponsor family had already augmented Be'ter. They must have done it
while they were out on circuit. That's why we did the same to
Va'del, he was the one playing against a stacked deck, and this was
the only way to even things out."