Competitions (13 page)

“No, she isn’t,” Lorand agreed, considering the idea critically. “But you’ll first have to get her to believe that the attitudes
will
affect us as a group. It’s too bad we don’t know more about how this Blending thing works. Both for your problem and for our general one.”

“Since anybody tryin’ to form a Blendin’ on their own faces arrest and summary execution, it’s no wonder the details about it are hard to come by.” Ro now looked thoughtful, his gaze on Lorand. “What the bunch of us did in that tavern to break up the fight might be illegal, but it can’t be anythin’ like what a real Blendin’ does. Bottom line is we didn’t blend, we only worked together.”

“And there’s no reason to call it a Blending if the members of it don’t blend,” Lorand agreed, now sharing the thoughtfulness. “But now that you mention it, I wonder why it
is
illegal for people to form their own Blendings. People with ordinary talent can’t possibly even come close in strength to the Seated Five, so what’s the point?”

“Truthfully, I wish I knew,” Ro admitted, his brow furrowed. “Every time we think about or discuss this mess we’re in the middle of, we come to a conclusion that answers one question but breeds a dozen more. I can’t help thinkin’ we’re in way over our heads, and no matter how long we tread water we’ll come to the point where we’re too tired to go on doin’ it. If we don’t have a good, solid ship to climb up into by then, our only other option will be to drown.”

“I refuse to drown, and even beyond that I’ll never let Jovvi drown,” Lorand stated, not at all surprised at the hardness in his voice. “I’ll never stand by and watch something hurt her, and I’ll protect myself in order to be there to protect
her
. If that means we’ll have to
build
a ship to climb up into when the time comes, I’m ready to start.”

Ro nodded his agreement with the same hardened expression Lorand knew
he
wore, which undoubtedly meant that Ro had made the same vow relating to Tamrissa. It felt good to know that the other man would stand firm with him, but not much other good was particularly apparent. They would almost certainly have a fight on their hands, but what sort of fight?

And what, if anything, would winning gain them? The answer to that should have been obvious, but was it…?

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Rion handed over his worn clothes to a servant with orders to have them washed and ironed at once, then continued on up to his bedchamber. Wearing nothing but a towel about his middle would have made him feel ridiculous at one time, but right now it felt like a statement of freedom and independence. Mother would have thrown a fit if she’d found him walking around one step short of absolute nakedness, and he would have been lectured for an hour on top of it. But now Mother’s likes and dislikes no longer concerned him—although the same couldn’t be said for her wants and demands.

After removing the towel and donning a thick cotton wrap instead, Rion walked to a chair and sat heavily. After he’d achieved his masteries and had had tea and a sandwich served to him by Padril, he’d forced the Adept to sit down and answer some very direct questions. Padril had squirmed and sweated and hadn’t been entirely forthcoming, but Rion had learned enough to feel deeply disturbed.

To begin with, Padril’s superiors would
not
be standing between Rion and his mother. The truth was that Hallina Mardimil had too much gold and power for anyone not of the high nobility to be willing to cross her, and Padril had lied when he’d said they would. He hadn’t even known who Rion’s mother was, only that there was some sort of to-do over the name on Rion’s identification card. When the Adept had learned that it was
the
Hallina Mardimil who was Rion’s mother, he’d turned as white as the shirts the applicants wore.

And that had given Rion an odd idea, so he’d pressed until Padril admitted it: the name of Rion’s mother had frightened Padril because the man was a member of the lower nobility, just as most of the Adepts were. Each aspect had one or two representatives of the lower orders who were allowed to call themselves Adepts, but all the rest were from the nobility.

And yet there weren’t any other members of the nobility around. Rion had pointed that out, and then had demanded to know where they
were
to be found. That was when Padril had hemmed and hawed, and had finally insisted that he knew nothing about the testing facilities for nobles. He himself had gone through the same thing Rion had, and Rion must have simply missed seeing his lesser peers. Or maybe they’d already gone through the testing procedure, and the only ones left
had
been commoners.

That last suggestion was too much of a real possibility for Rion to argue it, but it still left his final question unanswered. When Rion had put it to Padril, the man had paled again, and then he’d shaken his head.

“Really, sir, how could
I
be expected to know why you alone of your peers have been sent through these facilities?” the man had asked, sweat beginning to bead on his forehead. “I’ve never been involved in high politics myself, of course, but just like everyone else I’ve seen it being played at. Someone in your mother’s position is bound to have at least one powerful enemy, someone with enough influence to have her son sent to the wrong place in order to embarrass
her
. That’s the only possibility I can think of, but it makes a good deal of sense.”

It did indeed, which Rion had to admit as he leaned his head back in the chair. It also had implications which came close to making Rion ill. If it had made him angry instead he wouldn’t have minded, but he seemed to have lost his anger somewhere. Then a knock came at the door, interrupting the mood, so he rose and went to the door. He was prepared to enjoy the relief of any distraction, but couldn’t help raising his brows when he saw Tamrissa standing there.

“I—hope I’m not disturbing you,” she said, taking in his wrap with a glance and a faint blush. “I only need a moment of your time, and then you may certainly return to your privacy.”

“Please believe that the last thing your presence could be is a disturbance,” Rion assured her, meaning every word. “Did you wish to speak to me here, or would you prefer to come in?”

He stepped back to allow her access to the chamber if she wished it, and surprisingly she did. She hesitated a very long moment before coming inside, and her expression was determined when she used a gesture to ask him to close the door. He did so with brows raised high, then obeyed her next gesture which motioned him closer.

“I don’t want any of the servants to overhear us,” she whispered quite low, looking up at him with a delightfully delicate blush on her cheeks. “Jovvi and I need to speak to you men later, preferably after dinner when we can pretend to gather to celebrate over glasses of brandy. We’re certain some of the servants are being paid to report everything they hear us say, so we’ll have to have a pretend conversation going while we talk about what we need to. You
are
willing to join us in the pretense, aren’t you?”

“As it’s for the good of the group, I’ll certainly participate,” Rion responded in a matching whisper, then couldn’t help sighing. “But as far as being of use is concerned, I’ll probably be more of a hindrance.”

“How can you say that?” Tamrissa demanded indignantly in a hiss. “The support you helped Jovvi give me made it possible for me to move forward with everyone else, instead of letting self-doubt bog me down forever. I even achieved my first masteries today—” Her words broke off, and a stricken look replaced the indignation. “Oh, Rion, don’t tell me
you
didn’t achieve your masteries?”

“But of course I did,” Rion said with a smile, deeply touched by her very obvious concern. “That isn’t the source of my difficulty, so please don’t be unnecessarily disturbed.”

“Then what
is
bothering you?” she asked more calmly, obviously noticing that he’d quickly lost the smile. “If it’s something I can help with, you have to give me the chance to do it. Very few people have actually been on my side in my life, so I refuse to abandon one who is.”

“I sincerely wish it were something you could assist with,” he said, finding her fierce determination as delightful as the rest of her. “I have no doubt but that I would be well protected, from anything and everything one could imagine.”

“Please, Rion, I’m not your mother,” she responded, now looking faintly annoyed. “I won’t ever protect you, but I
will
do everything in my power to help you protect yourself. So why don’t you tell me about what’s bothering you? Sometimes just talking things out makes you feel better about them.”

“I doubt that will happen this time, but if you insist,” Rion agreed slowly. The truth was that he really didn’t want to go back to solitary fretting, not when he might have such pleasant company for a time. “Please take a seat while I consider the best place to begin.”

She nodded happily and went to the chair near the one he’d been using, so he reclaimed his own place and bent forward with forearms on knees and hands clasped tight.

“I’ve discovered that I’m the only member of the high nobility to go through processing in the facilities we’ve all so recently shared,” he said hesitantly, trying his best not to offend her. “I thought it strange that I came across not a single one of my peers, and now I’m told there are other facilities for the use of my class equals. But I’ve been sent through these facilities.”

“I’m personally very glad you were, but other than that I don’t understand,” Tamrissa said, sounding disturbed. “If the people of your class are treated differently, why weren’t you?”

“The answer to that is the source of my disturbance,” he replied with a mirthless smile, still looking down at the carpeting. “There are two possibilities, each one equally repugnant. The first, of course, is that Mother arranged the whole thing to be certain I would be kept isolated from my peers, just as I have been all my life. She would then have been able to come forward and ‘rescue’ me from an intolerable situation, which she was certain it would be.”

“And that, she must have thought, would keep you from trying to break free ever again,” Tamrissa said angrily. “It makes sense from her twisted point of view, and I quite believe her capable of it. So what could the second possibility be?”

“It concerns politics, which tends to be a nasty, bloodthirsty game among the nobility,” Rion answered. “I don’t know everything there is to know about it, not when Mother kept me almost completely cut off from the rest of the world, but I do know how ruthless it can be. It’s been suggested that one of Mother’s enemies caused me to be separated from my class equals, the object being to embarrass Mother enough to undermine the strength of her position.”

“And never mind what happens to
you
, because you’re an unimportant pawn?” Tamrissa demanded so indignantly that Rion looked up in surprise. “Well, you’re
not
an unimportant pawn, you’re our friend, and I really resent someone trying to use you like that. I can see why you’re disturbed, but I don’t understand why you’re letting it get you down. They threw you to the wolves, but instead of being devoured you’ve become one of the pack. Doesn’t that interfere with their plans to
some
extent?”

“I hadn’t looked at it that way, but I suppose it does,” Rion admitted, again surprised. “And about my becoming a member of the wolf pack… If someone hadn’t tried to maneuver me into something they were certain I’d never be able to handle, I’d never have
learned
to handle it. It looks like I ought to be grateful instead, even if the battle to control my movements does escalate.”

“You mean they might fight over you?” Tamrissa asked, back to frowning. “But what would they get out of it?”

“If it’s Mother alone, she’ll win possession of me again,” Rion explained, but without the depression he’d felt before. “If it’s an enemy of hers, she’ll fight to possess me again to restrengthen her political position, and her enemy will fight to embarrass both me and her and ruin it. So if I simply manage to hold onto my independence and keep moving ahead, both sides should be frustrated. Unless they try something unexpected.”

“If they do, then the rest of us will help you to cope with it,” Tamrissa said promptly, refusing to let anxiety get a grip on him. “You keep picturing yourself as all alone, Rion, but you really aren’t. Or don’t we count as much as members of the nobility would?”

“In one way you count for more,” he said gently, reaching over to touch her hand in brief reassurance. “This group had no reason to welcome me into its midst, but the fact that it did anyway is, in my opinion, more a strength than a weakness. But on the other hand you’re volunteering to go up against some very powerful people on my behalf, and that makes me frightened for you. They could well destroy you just to get at
me
, and I’d never be able to bear that.”

“If
they
consider us as helpless as you do, we should be able to give them quite a shock,” Tamrissa returned with an unsteady smile. “I might have to keep reminding myself that I’m
not
helpless, but it’s been getting easier to do and the others don’t have my problem. We’ll all stand together against whatever comes, so won’t you
please
stop being upset?”

“Only because you ask it, lovely lady,” Rion responded, finding it impossible not to laugh gently. “You’ve restored my sense of perspective as well as my mood, and I only wish I could do as great a favor for
you
.”

“Well, if you mean that, you can,” she replied, suddenly blushing a bright red and no longer able to meet his gaze. “I mean, only if you really want to. It’s a great imposition, I know, and I can’t imagine where I’ve gotten the nerve to ask in the first place, so if it’s really too much of a bother…”

“Tamrissa,” he interrupted softly, certain she meant to continue on in the same unintelligible way for the rest of the afternoon. He also took her hand gently in his, and although she stiffened slightly she didn’t pull away. “Tamrissa, I don’t understand a thing you’re saying. I would, as I said, be delighted to return the favor, but first you must tell me what the return favor is supposed to be.”