Betrayals (55 page)

At that point there wasn’t a sound to be heard anywhere, not in the midst of all the shock that Jovvi could feel in everyone’s mind. Having the empire invaded in retaliation for the invading the empire’s forces had done could be considered only fair, but it wouldn’t be the nobles who paid for their evil. It would be all the innocent people between here and Gan Garee….

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

“That can’t possibly be true!” Kambil snapped at the fool standing like a block of stone in front of him. “Everyone dead in the stockade in Quellin, and word from the second command of guardsmen too long overdue? Someone must have made a mistake, and I demand that you go back and find out who that is! We’re being given a false picture here, and how are we supposed to make proper decisions with false information?”

“Excellency, there’s no mistake,” the fool repeated doggedly, just as he’d been doing for the last ten or fifteen minutes. “Do you imagine that I would have brought word like this to you without making very sure it was accurate? Three men serving in the Quellin stockade survived because they were on leave and not close enough to be called back, and one of them had experience with the birds. He reported that everyone but the commandant and one private—the private having been in a cell after being … questioned about something—were dead, and the commandant’s mind was gone. The private insisted that he was unconscious during whatever happened, and so knows nothing about it. We’re told that that’s very probable.”

“Have him brought here anyway,” Kambil ordered in what was almost a snarl. “When I get finished with him, we’ll know for certain whether or not he’s telling the truth. What about the second guard command?”

“Six of the dozen birds they had left have returned here, but they carried no message,” the man, Lord Falas Grohl, said with a sigh. “We’re forced to believe that they were released accidentally, so for a while it was possible that no message was sent because the command intended to save what birds it had left. Now that’s no longer a possibility, not when three reporting times have passed with no word. If we haven’t heard from them, it’s because they aren’t able to report.”

“Could it be something else in that part of the country which might have…sidetracked or delayed them?” Kambil asked, almost desperate for any sort of reassurance. “We were told that the army is operating not far from there in Astinda, so maybe they became involved …”

“Excellency, I truly wish it were possible,” Lord Falas said stolidly, refusing to offer even the least crumb of hope. “The reports from our army are at least as alarming, screaming for more segments rather than supplying details of their operations. That’s when they communicate at all, which they aren’t doing nearly as often as they’re supposed to. Something is very wrong over there, and I’ve been asked to … request the aid of the Five.”

“Request our aid?” Kambil echoed, finding it hard to believe his ears. “Are you asking us to volunteer as segments, or just to take a pleasure trip over there to rescue an ARMY! Are you people out of your minds, or just a bit retarded?”

“Excellency, this could very well be the crisis your Five is meant to overcome,” Lord Falas said, obviously as thick in the head as in the body, for pressing the point. “Historically, each new Five is called on to face the challenge of crisis, and more than a few people are already saying that yours has come. Even the common folk know there’s some kind of trouble in the west, and they’re also expecting the Five to respond.”

“Are you suggesting that we’re answerable to the city’s rabble?” Kambil asked, stopping the pacing he’d been doing to stare directly at the man. “Or even to you and your friends? We are the Seated Five , and what we do and when we do it is our decision! Is that clear enough so that even you can understand it?”

“Excellency, I’m a very unimportant man,” Lord Falas said, something odd stirring in his stolid gaze. “I’ve often had to pretend otherwise, but in my heart I know the truth. You and the rest of the Five, however, are not unimportant. You are vital to the safety and prosperity of the empire. When the crisis comes the Seated Five must respond, otherwise all of us are lost. We all rely on your courage and ability and judgment, and we know you won’t fail us. There’s nothing else I can say.”

Kambil parted his lips to retort with something sarcastic, but at the last instant realized that the man was speaking the absolute truth as he saw it. Here was someone who believed everything he’d ever been told about the Five and what they were and weren’t supposed to do, and he’d actually made no demands. He’d all but begged for the help of the Five with what he seriously considered a crisis, and because so many people thought the way he did, the man had to be handled carefully.

“What you’ve already said has made a very great impression on us, Lord Falas,” Kambil replied, his tone now as solemn and calm as it should have been all along. “My Blendingmates and I will do some investigating of our own, and then we’ll discuss the matter among ourselves. If this is our crisis, we’ll certainly handle it as promptly and thoroughly as we’re expected to. You’re excused now, but don’t forget to have that private brought here to the palace.”

Falas bowed low to acknowledge the command, then backed out of the room still somewhat bowed over. Everyone waited until the door had closed behind the man, then Bron made a sound of scorn that his expression echoed.

“What a fool!” Bron said with ridicule thick in his voice.

“Talking to us about crises and fairy tales like that! Doesn’t he know that the last three or four Seated Blendings couldn’t possibly have handled any sort of crisis, not when they weren’t even Highs? The whole thing was a mockery to fool the commoners, but it seems to have caught a few members of the nobility as well.”

“Mockery or not, you’re forgetting something,” Kambil said, turning to look at him and Selendi and Homin. “Our predecessors may not have had our strength, but what they did have was the help of a group of Advisors who knew what was going on in the empire, people who were in control of most of it. We don’t have that sort of help, and it may turn out to be more crippling than a lack of aspect strength.”

“Can they possibly be serious about this being a crisis?” Selendi asked with no sign of Bron’s skepticism. “I remember that my tutor talked about the crises faced by the various Fives, and there are actual records of the times. Lots of other people witnessed them, so they couldn’t have been nothing but complete trickery.”

“And if they aren’t, then we have a serious problem,” Homin put in, his expression faintly worried. “That blasted five seems to have headed straight for whatever trouble is brewing in the west, and I would not put it past them to add to it in some way. Or to be responsible for a good deal of it. But I still can’t understand how they could possibly have accounted for two hundred guardsmen.”

“Or an entire garrison in the Quellin stockade,” Bron added, less mocking but still unconvinced. “Weren’t there more than three hundred men there? It’s simply and patently impossible.”

“It’s not impossible if you remember that the segments being held there were dead as well,” Kambil countered. “Chances are good that they’re the ones who accounted for the garrison, working in link-groups. There weren’t enough of them to get away unscathed themselves, but they were all Highs or strong Middles. I’d say they took down most of the garrison before they were taken down themselves, and probably finished it with their dying breaths.”

“But it had to be our fugitives who freed them to do it,” Selendi said with something of a headshake. “They probably wanted to recruit those segments, but had to leave without them when they died. And yet they were able to account for those two hundred guardsmen, and probably with only a handful of Highs from the convoy to help. How did they do it?”

“I’m more concerned with what they intend to do now,” Kambil retorted, a hand in his hair as he tried to think coolly and logically. “Wherever they are they’ll want to make trouble for us, of course, and using the idea of a crisis will come to them eventually if it hasn’t already. That means we can’t give in to any pressure to travel west, no matter who insists on it.”

“I think we’ll have to start some counterstories to the effect that the fugitives are trying to trap us,” Homin said thoughtfully. “If we claim that they want to lure us away to the west in order to overwhelm us with help that they couldn’t bring to the competitions, the pressure should ease off quite a lot. We’ll tell everyone that we refuse to let them steal what they couldn’t win honestly when they faced us.”

“That’s really good,” Bron said with a grin and a nod of approval for Homin. “People call you sullen and uncooperative when you simply refuse to do what they want you to, but if you calmly give them a reason for the refusal that they can’t argue, they call you logically cautious.”

“But we still have to do something about those five people,” Selendi said, no more satisfied than Kambil himself. “They seem to have found a way to get around the orders given under Puredan, and they’ve learned how to defeat large numbers of opponents. If we don’t go to them , they’ll probably end up coming back to us.”

“Now that’s something we’ve discussed before,” Kambil said in glum agreement. “If they think they’re supported well enough, they’ll come back here sooner rather than later. We have to—”

His comments were interrupted by a knock on the door of the small audience room they were using, then one of the servants came in.

“Excellencies, Lord Rimen Howser begs an audience,” the man told them very formally. “He has no appointment, but says the matter is extremely urgent.”

“Oh, send him in,” Kambil agreed crossly. He certainly was in no mood to hear about things that others considered urgent, but Howser had volunteered to help with the matter of the fugitives. There wasn’t much he could have done here in Gan Garee, but considering the information he’d brought the first time …

The servant bowed and stepped aside, and Howser came through the doorway without delay. But he was trailed by a raggedy, scruffy-looking specimen, and as soon as the servant closed the door again the man bowed and explained what he was about.

“Excellencies, my investigations may have borne some potentially interesting fruit,” he began at once. “I had the idea to look into the doings of the fugitives while they were here in Gan Garee, hoping to find a clue as to where they went. Instead I found that one of them, the Earth magic user, attended the last challenge for Seated High in Earth magic. At first I considered that a matter of simple curiosity on the part of the animal, but my people questioned everyone who was there at the time, and learned that the fugitive spoke to one of the challengers. The way they spoke, the informant concluded that the two were friends.”

“Lord Rimen, what point are you trying to make?” Kambil asked, fighting to control impatience. “Losing challengers in the various ceremonies are sent to augment the segments in our army, something you should know well enough yourself. At this point the man could be anywhere.”

“Excuse me, Excellency, but that particular animal happens to be right here,” Howser replied with cool amusement and a gesture toward the scruffy specimen. “One of our peers was at the challenge for simple amusement, but decided on the spur of the moment to claim this animal. Lord Nombin needed someone with strength to maintain his gardens and lawns, and so he had the animal tamed and put to work. I’m told that it’s rather lazy, but Lord Nombin’s overseers take care of that swiftly and sternly.”

“Yes, I expect they do,” Kambil murmured, now staring at the peasant who stood so uncomfortably and unhappily behind Howser. “And do you require a lot of correction, peasant?”

“They beat me because they’re afraid to face me with talent,” the peasant replied sullenly, trying not to show how impressed he was with his surroundings. “I’m better than all the rest and they know it.”

“But you can’t be better than that friend of yours,” Kambil said, digging for the reason behind an odd, disconnected resentment that the man nursed in his private thoughts. “If you were, you would have been made a part of a Blending of your own, just as he was. So between you, he’s the better man.”

“He’s not better in any way at all!” the peasant actually had the nerve to shout, showing that that was the basis of the resentment. “If I’d been in his place I would never have left him to be made into a slave! But all he did for me was do me favors , pretending he cared about our friendship! All he really cared about was playing big man, letting people think of him as a High, but me as nothing but a stinking Middle! He could have made things right for me but he couldn’t be bothered, and I’ll get even for that if it takes me forever!”

“You may have your opportunity sooner than you expect,” Kambil said, not in the least disturbed by the peasant’s outburst. In point of fact Kambil had been able to tell that the man saw things with the bias of disappointment and disillusion, and the Earth magic user most probably had been trying to be a good friend to this sorry example of peasanthood. That could come in handy if the five fugitives did return to the city….

“Lord Rimen, you will certainly be rewarded handsomely for this piece of work,” Kambil continued. “You may return the man to Lord Nombin for now, but make certain that Lord Nombin knows how much we value the peasant. He can work the man as he sees fit, but nothing of a permanently damaging nature is to be done to him. Also tell him to be prepared to turn the peasant over to us on very short notice, but not to worry about compensation. We’ll see to it that he’s repaid for the loss. And while you’re at it, see if you can’t find something of the same sort to link to the others.”

“Excellency, I shall certainly do my best,” Howser replied with a courtly bow and a smile of very deep satisfaction curving his lips. “If I learn more, I’ll be in touch at once.”

Howser bowed his way out, but not before ordering the peasant down on his hands and knees to crawl out of the august presences. The man’s hatred of commoners was amusing in some ways, and merely useful in others.

“So we now have a hostage to use against one of the fugitives,” Homin commented. “Considering the way they shared the information we gave them with their fellow commoners, the hostage should actually be useful against them. How many more do you think he’ll come up with?”