Thawed Fortunes (13 page)

She's right, he isn't moving quickly enough
to be augmented, but I can't imagine what he's thinking barging
into a Council meeting looking like he's about to cut someone's
throat.

Before anyone could speak, Fi'lin reached
into the antechamber and pulled a bloody, bound form into sight. It
took only a heartbeat for On'li to realize she was looking at
Be'ter.

"This piece of trash just assaulted another
candidate, and then linked with one of the Daughters in an attempt
to kill the trainee who tried to stop him from further hurting
Tim'i. You've all proven yourselves unwilling to interfere with his
sponsors' choice, but last I checked the Council still had final
say on whether or not someone was raised to the status of full
Guadel. You still have a chance to stop him from further tainting
all our honor."

Fi'lin met the eyes of every single member of
the Council before continuing. "You've consistently failed to do
right by someone I personally would be proud to call my brother, so
you may be likewise unwilling to see justice done here, but if
that's the case then I will resign my teaching position. I won't
stay to see what I've taught used against the innocent."

There was silence in the room for several
seconds after Fi'lin turned and walked away, leaving Be'ter bloody
and unconscious on the floor of the chamber. Ja'dir opened his
mouth to speak only to be shouted down by nearly everyone else
around the table.

While the various
Councilors yelled at each other, On'li felt her thoughts
crystallize. He was talking about Va'del. Be'ter had nearly killed
him because they…no,
she
had pitted the two boys against each other
instead of just forcing Be'ter's sponsors to remove him from the
candidacy pool.

A'vril was calling for order, but obviously
not making any progress. The complete look of surprise on A'vril's
face as she met On'li's eyes seemed absurdly out of place until
On'li suddenly realized that she hadn't joined in any of the chaos
around her. Instead, she'd calmly risen to her feet, taken the
stance of a Councilor requesting permission to speak, and waited
while the Goddess' Heart tried to regain control of the
Council.

A'vril finally slammed her delicate hand down
on the table, using a trace of power to amplify the sound,
startling everyone into silence. Once every eye was looking at her,
the leader of the Council shook her head at her peers. "You should
be ashamed of yourselves. I recognize On'li, who was the only one
not to behave like a child."

For the first time in years, On'li hadn't
prepared what she was about to say before standing to speak, but
words seemed to flow from her without conscious effort. "She's
right, we should all be ashamed of ourselves, if not for the reason
she meant. It is the job of the Guadel to do what needs done
regardless of the personal cost to us. Well guess what, we've been
pushing off all our dirty work onto Va'del for months now. We
couldn't find the bandits. He did that for us, and then we wrung
our hands in fear that someone could be so ruthless as to cut down
all those poor hardened killers."

A murmur of disagreement
rippled around the Council chamber but On'li stopped any of them
from standing with pure force of will, and then pointed at Be'ter.
"You don't believe that, what about this monster? Every single
instructor who had any contact with the boy, and a number who
didn't, all complained about him and we did nothing because we
didn't want to violate the rights of the fools who sponsored him,
to
be
fools."

On'li found her voice dropping as she too
finally realized just how far they had all gone astray. "It would
have been bad enough if that was where it stopped, but we let him
intimidate the rest of the candidates and make them over in his
twisted image. So we shifted responsibility for limiting Be'ter's
predations to that same boy we thought wasn't good enough to enter
our ranks."

Per'ce and his wife's looks of fury were
gradually being replaced with something much more thoughtful.

"We gave him our dirty work and never even
bothered to thank him. And now that the situation we've put him in
led him to defending Tim'i, half of you will no doubt want to exile
him for not showing more restraint while fighting for his
life."

On'li swept the room again, and there was
more than one Councilor who wouldn't meet her gaze. "I never
thought I'd say it, but I'm ashamed of being a Guadel. If this is
how we treat someone better than any of us, then I'm ashamed. You
say he is too violent? Fine, then you don't need the Stephens
bloodline anymore. Just like Va'del, we're tired of doing your
dirty work. We've done it for hundreds of years, and we're tired of
bleeding and dying for you all."

Va'del's universe seemed to be comprised
solely of pain. Even worse, the closer he came to true awareness,
the greater the pain became. Some thought process operating on a
near-instinctual level seemed to know he was better off remaining
unconscious, but eventually he ran out of hiding places. He opened
his eyes and found he could move just enough to look around the
unfamiliar, plain room.

On'li and Jain were both curled up asleep in
a pair of low chairs, and Va'del found tension he hadn't even
realized he was carrying begin to dissipate as he saw that Jain was
okay, that Be'ter hadn't somehow managed to hurt her despite a blow
to the head that should have left the older boy unconscious for at
least a day.

On the table to Va'del's
right was an open copy of the
Teachings
. His slowly-improving
vision was just up to making out the underlined verse.

Prized is he who saves his brother though he
must strike down evil to do so.

Secure in the knowledge that Tim'i must be
okay as well, Va'del settled back into the bed, only to find a
nearby shadow had resolved itself into Ah'bi's weary face.

"I'm glad to see you're awake, how do you
feel?"

His throat was dry, but Va'del found that he
was just able to speak. "Okay I think, but I hurt almost
everywhere."

Ah'bi nodded. "That's to be expected. We did
everything we could for you, but we didn't have enough energy to
take care of all the pulled muscles and bruises too. On the plus
side, you should be up and about in a day or so rather than the
weeks it would have taken normally. On'li and Jain both used
themselves up. We had to force them to stop and sleep, but they'll
be fine in a day or so."

Va'del cleared his throat again. "What
happened?"

Ah'bi shrugged. "Only the biggest ruckus
since the last time you put the collective Council on its ear by
doing what they couldn't."

Va'del's hazy mind tried to make sense of
what the Guadel was saying. He knew the words, but they wouldn't
string themselves together to convey any kind of real meaning.

"You knocked Be'ter out as he bowled you
over. Jain knocked Mali out before she could cause any more
problems, and then sent Tim'i for help while she tried to keep you
from dying. Tim'i found Fi'lin, who was on his way back up from the
blacksmith because he figured you were probably lost."

Ah'bi was making sense to Va'del now, and he
weakly gestured for her to continue.

"Fi'lin got you to a healer in the nick of
time, sent Tim'i to go get me, and then went back for Be'ter.
Believe it or not, he actually dragged that piece of filth all the
way to the Council chamber and gave the whole group a good
tongue-lashing for letting Be'ter get so bad."

Va'del felt his eyes go wide as he imagined
Fi'lin storming into the meeting and telling them exactly what he
thought of them all.

Ah'bi smiled, apparently understanding
exactly what he was thinking about. "I haven't heard exactly what
he said, but I imagine it was fairly spectacular. By all accounts,
once he was gone On'li proceeded to do much the same, but her focus
wasn't on the fact that they'd let Be'ter pick on all the younger
kids. She let them know exactly how unjust they were being to you,
and then essentially threatened to pull what was left of the
Stephens bloodline out of the Council if they didn't shape up."

Va'del had been astonished before, but what
he felt now was something so powerful he didn't even have a name
for it. "Can she even do that?"

"I don't know. It seems to have caused quite
the stir though. The Council has been in session continuously for
the last eight cycles."

While her patient tried to process everything
he'd just been told, Ah'bi reached over and picked up a plate of
sweet bread. "This is from Mar'li. She brought it by herself.
Tim'i, Javin and Fi'lin were all here until a cycle or so ago. I
sent them all home because they were taking up so much room it was
starting to get hard to breathe and I didn't figure you'd wake up
for quite a while still."

Va'del found that his throat was tight and
his vision was starting to swim a little. "Thank you."

A hand reached out and squeezed the
teenager's arm. "No, thank you for everything you've done. You
deserve so much better than you've been given, and I owe you an
apology. Fi'lin wanted to sponsor you weeks ago, but I just can't
bring myself to do it."

Va'del felt a sense of wonderment as he
realized just how fond Fi'lin must be of him. Unfortunately,
Ah'bi's statement could only be construed as to indicate that her
feelings towards him must be as negative as her husbands were
positive. Mindful of the fact that he'd been silent for too long,
and that it wouldn't be wise to further alienate the older woman,
Va'del nodded. "It's okay, I understand."

"I don't think you really do, but thanks for
your forgiveness anyways."

A stirring at the foot of the bed distracted
both of them from what could have turned into an awkward moment,
and then Jain was clinging to his arm crying. "I was so worried
about you. There was so much blood and I wasn't strong enough to
stop it. I'm so sorry I didn't link with you sooner."

Va'del shook his head as he reached up to
wipe Jain's tears away. "You don't have anything to be sorry about.
If you hadn't healed me, I'd be dead. As for the linking, I'm glad
you did it when you did, but any sooner and it would have been us
that broke the rules instead of Be'ter."

On'li was standing now, and Va'del met her
eyes. "Thank you for helping patch me up."

The old woman shook her head. "I should have
done so much more before now. Maybe if I had, you wouldn't have
been on death's doorstep for the second time in as many
months."

Va'del's response was cut off by a quiet clap
from outside. Ah'bi called out for whoever it was to enter, and
Per'ce walked into the room followed by Javin, Fi'lin and
Mar'li.

Someone had once pointed Per'ce out to Va'del
in passing, and at the time the Guadel had worn one of the sternest
expressions the young man had ever seen. In fact, that seriousness
had engraved itself so deeply in Va'del's mind that for a second he
didn't recognize the older man.

He still looks serious, and very tired, but
he's somehow happy too.

Per'ce held up a hand to forestall any
questions. "I wanted to be the first to let you know, and I thought
it only right that the rest of Va'del's family be here. The
discussion that took place over the last eight cycles is one I hope
to never have to repeat. Opinions are some of the most heated I've
yet seen, but we just voted on a motion to grant Va'del candidacy.
Assuming that both On'li and Javin retain their seats and vote in
the affirmative, it passed by one vote."

Fi'lin stood along the wall in the Council
chamber. He'd wished for a way to remove Be'ter from the candidate
pool hundreds of times, but he'd never suspected it might be at the
price of almost losing Va'del. Just as bad was the way a promising
young Daughter had been all but ruined, and the way so many of
Be'ter's peers were refusing to see the truth that he'd gone too
far.

Tim'i, Va'del, and Jain had all been deposed
prior to the actual trial, and none of the other Daughters or
candidates had any legitimate reason to attend, but the last few
people to enter the room had indicated there was a fairly sizable
contingent of candidates and Daughters both, who'd gathered as
close to the Council chamber as they could, quietly making their
support of Be'ter known.

Someone probably should have cleared them
out, but every single Guadel currently in the Capital was attending
and nobody wanted to miss out on the trial to discipline a bunch of
children who'd eventually have to see reason regardless.

Even Se'ath will eventually have to admit
that Be'ter was a liar. At least I hope he does, if not the boy
will never amount to any good at all.

Be'ter's sponsors had tried to intervene on
his behalf a number of times both before and during the trial, but
A'vril had finally barred them from the proceedings and ordered
them out on patrol. Fi'lin had always known that Be'ter had some
kind of hold over his sponsors, but nobody had expected them to
continue to defend him like that after all of the evidence had come
to light.

Be'ter strode into the room flanked by
Fi'lin's assistants, both of whom had volunteered to serve as
bailiffs during the proceedings. More than anyone else, those two
had seen just how much influence Be'ter had on his peers, but their
eagerness to help had been more than just payback for how hard he'd
made their lives. They'd taken an incredible shine to Va'del, to
the point where Fi'lin wouldn't have been surprised if they'd
offered honor duels to anyone who'd tried to deny them this
right.

Both of the men moved with the sure grace and
controlled menace of Guadel who were actively linked to their
wives. Ja'dir, as the head of the boy's bloodline, had objected on
his behalf to the measure, under the grounds that it was excessive,
but Ah'bi, serving as the prosecution, had pointed out that Be'ter
was guilty of attempted murder and that he had received the
standard set of permanent augmentations that were typically
reserved for full Guadel. A'vril's eyes had widened slightly, but
she'd overruled the objection, and things had then progressed more
or less as Ah'bi had told him they would.