Destiny (45 page)

"Yes, you're right," Edmin confirmed with his own sigh. "She's completely determined to accomplish what she set out to do, and I have no idea how to change her mind. I think that I really must enroll in one of those classes at the first opportunity. I
should
be able to do something for the woman, but I don't know where to begin."

Driff parted his lips to answer, but a sudden flurry of shouts out in the hall distracted him and the others. Whatever was causing the noise sounded serious, and Driff headed for the door with the sinking feeling that even more trouble had found them…

We discovered that mind-traveling was really rather tiring, so after telling Arinna and Pagin Holter that we'd just visited Liandia we went back to our house to rest. We were chuckling over the reaction we'd gotten from Arinna and Pagin, a kind of open-mouthed shock and awe that quickly changed to the realization that they would soon be able to do the same thing. They'd run off screaming for their Blendingmates, leaving the freeing of the invader slaves to the rest of the Blending members.

"Holter's Blendingmates aren't the only ones babbling about what's been happening to us," Lorand observed after we were all sitting down with cups of tea. "Apparently the word's been spreading like a fire deliberately started by Tamrissa, and all of our people are jumping up and down like children on Feast days."

"But I noticed that the Gracelian Blendings aren't as down-in-the-mouth as I would have expected," Jovvi observed with a thoughtful look. "Considering the fact that it will be a while before they can follow after us, I wonder why that is."

"I would guess that they're not despondent because some of the members of my link groups spoke to them," Naran put in with a smile. "My link group people have apparently Seen the very strong possibility that some of
our
people with Sight magic will be visiting here in the near future. Making the innocent people in this country wait years before they can be complete Blendings would be in no one's best interest."

"That's very true, and I'm relieved to hear about it," Jovvi said with one of her beautiful smiles. "If the Gracelians had to wait years, many of them would be nursing more grudges against
us
than against their own people for 'putting down the useless.' And if they weren't consumed by a reasonless urge to 'get even,' their envy would probably be at least as bad if not worse."

"Which means we may actually avoid a war with this country," I put in, enjoying the idea. "If it ever comes to war we'll have to help out even if we're not the Seated Blending, and if I never come back to this place I won't miss it for a minute. What I want more than anything right now is to go home."

"Not without me," Vallant said with a smile, beating the others to similar comments by only an instant. "But we'll be goin' home really soon now, so we can start lookin' forward to bein' there."

"I think I'll first start looking forward to making dinner," Rion said as he rose to his feet with his teacup still in his hand. "I've
been
looking forward to going to bed, but since we have to eat first we might as well do it in as tasty a way as possible."

"If you need any help, just let us know," Lorand said to Rion's retreating back without moving from where he lounged on his sleeping pad. "If not, you'll find us right here when the food is ready."

I leaned back myself then, finding that I was too tired even to think about what our next experiment ought to be. There was so much it might be possible to do, but before we could do any of it we'd first have to think about it all in detail. If we missed something, there was a good chance we'd never stumble across the missing item by accident…

No one seemed very interested in conversation, and I nearly dozed off before Rion turned to announce that dinner was ready. Considering the fact that he'd cooked the meal in the room's fireplace, the formal announcement of dinner was almost amusing. I thought about laughing, then decided that I was too tired to make the effort.

The meal was only a quick stew with some bread, but it filled the hole inside me and increased my sleepiness. Vallant and Lorand volunteered to clean up after the meal, which made Jovvi, Naran, and me love them even more. I saw Jovvi take off her boots and settle down alone just as I was doing, Naran snuggling up to Rion as she closed her eyes, and then… sleep…

There are times when you know that you've slept longer than just a few hours, and when I woke up I knew it was one of those times. I felt much too well rested for an ordinary night's sleep, but I also felt lazy. I didn't want to sleep anymore, but enjoying the comfort of the bed was something else again. It really was
so
comfortable -

"Bed?" I suddenly said out loud, my eyes opening instantly with the word. "How can I be in a bed? And why is it so dim in here when there aren't any curtains on the windows?"

That was when I took a closer look at my surroundings, and for a moment I was certain I had to be in the midst of a dream. The dim room
did
have curtains as well as drapes on its windows, and it was very familiar for an excellent reason. Somehow I was back in my own house, in bed in my own bedchamber.

"But that can't be," I said in a very reasonable voice as I sat up to look around even more. "I'm in Gracely right now, and I only
want
to be home. Flashing to Liandia is one thing; going all the way back to Gan Garee just isn't possible."

I agreed completely with that summation, but my surroundings refused to cooperate. They kept insisting that I
was
back in my house, and even standing up and walking to the door didn't change matters. I opened the door, peeked out into a dim sitting room, then closed the door again to lean on it with one arm and my forehead. I'd stubbed my toe on the way to the door, and the faint throbbing in my foot was as disturbing as the solidity of the door I leaned on.

"So what do I do now?" I asked the air with a sigh as I straightened again. "I suppose I have to go back to that little house where the others are, and soon enough to keep them from getting frantic. But it would be really nice if I could bathe and change into clean clothes first. That would make
me
feel better, and might even convince them all that I wasn't simply imagining things."

I really didn't like the idea that I'd transported myself in my sleep, but that was a worry best left for another time. The first thing to do was get a clean outfit to wear, and then heat the water in the bathing house. I walked to the wardrobe and opened one door, then opened the other even as I remembered: all my clothes had been moved to the palace, and not even an old, worn outfit was left.

"Rot," I muttered, knowing I had a choice to make. Either I went back just as I was, or I took a quick trip to the palace to do my bathing and changing. I really didn't want to go back as I was, not when there was an opportunity for a real bath so close to hand. That meant I had no real choice at all, but at least there was no need to waste a lot of time. I sent my new vision into my wing of the palace, found it empty, then moved myself there.

Moving from place to place so easily was still a bit startling, but it was even more satisfying. I'd put myself in my bedchamber, so it took only a minute or two to get out clean clothes, which I then carried to the bathing room. The water in the bath was both clean and hot, and the hardest part of the bath was keeping it from lasting for hours.

But I did let myself soak for a short time, and while I did an odd thought came. Wilant Gorl and his Blendingmates were sitting in for us, so they should have been occupying the various wings. We'd all agreed that if they had to do the work, the least they were entitled to was a few of the pleasures. Having servants around to do things for you was more than nice, but I hadn't seen any sign of the servants who should have been in the wing. And my bedchamber had looked as though no one had used it for quite some time…

"All of which means I really do need to take a quick look around before I go back," I murmured as I finished dressing. "If there's a problem, it might not be able to wait for us to get back here in the ordinary way."

That decision carried me out of the bathing room and into the corridor that led out of the wing and into the public part of the palace. There was no sign of a servant until I reached that public area, and then I was stared at with the man's mouth hanging open.

Surprise, surprise,
I thought as I walked toward the gaping servant.
Now, how am I going to explain where I came from…?

Deslen Voyt felt as if he were strutting even when standing still. He'd finished his training class and then expected to be put out in the streets as a guardsman, but instead had been assigned to the palace. Since everyone seemed to know his origins as one of the renegade's men, the amount of trust in him showed by his placement in the palace was both incredibly encouraging and horribly daunting. No matter what happened, Deslen knew he
had
to prove himself worthy of that trust. Even though it did make him want to strut…

"Well, will you look at that," Jeemar, Deslen's training partner, murmured from Deslen's left as he stared to their right. "How did the Seated Blending get back without us knowing about it?"

Deslen looked over to see a pretty woman with reddish hair heading toward the servant who stood not far from Jeemar and him.

"She's one of the Seated Blending?" Deslen asked, feeling a shadow of disappointment. The woman was really attractive, and he wouldn't have minded asking her out to dinner.

"Yes, she's Tamrissa Domon, the Fire magic user," Jeemar confirmed with a shake of his head. "I still don't know how she got into the palace without us knowing about it, but where are the others? She couldn't have come back without the rest of her Blending."

Just as Deslen was about to suggest that the others must be in their individual wings, everything began to happen at once. A tall, thin stranger appeared from somewhere behind the pretty woman and began to walk toward her. The servant scrambled away to the right with a cry of alarm, because the tall man held two knives.

Jeemar must have seen the knives at the same time, and the guardsman didn't hesitate. He ran forward with a shout, actually pointing at the tall man, the pointing most likely an aid to using his talent. Jeemar had Earth magic, Deslen knew, and was a fairly strong Middle talent. The tall man should have gone down at once, but instead he paused to throw one of his knives, and then it was Jeemar who went down with a knife in his chest.

Deslen wasn't the smartest man ever to be born, but it didn't take much intelligence to see that using talent wasn't working on the tall intruder. Deslen had tried using his own Water magic, and the intruder had acted as if nothing at all was being done. That meant force had to be used rather than talent, but there wasn't much time. The intruder had moved his remaining knife to his right hand, raising the knife as he neared the pretty woman. The woman had begun to turn toward the intruder, but if talent didn't work against the man she was as good as dead.

Which meant that Deslen didn't hesitate. The pretty woman was one of the Seated Blending, one of those who had changed everything in Gandistra. That change had given Deslen a chance to make a life he could enjoy and be proud of, and now someone was in the midst of trying to kill one of those who had made his new life possible.

"Not while I still live," Deslen growled even as he moved faster than he ever had in his life. He reached the pretty woman an instant before the intruder, grabbed her by the arms, and spun her around. That put Deslen's back toward the intruder rather than hers, but even as he felt the terrible pain of the knife plunging into him he didn't regret what he'd done. He pushed the woman feebly, to get her as far from the intruder as possible as he whispered, "Run!" and then everything went black -

The first guardsman had screamed when Holdis Ayl's knife hit him, but the second only whispered "Run!" before he collapsed to the floor. Everything had happened incredibly fast, but suddenly I felt rage fill me as it rarely had before.

"I don't know where the others are, but you'll do for my purposes," Ayl said to me, the bloody knife still in his fist. "With you dead your Blending is finished, and that will prove that no one can expect to rule this empire without
my
permission. And I'll certainly get out of here as easily as I got in. Those fool guardsmen gave so much attention to capturing the cretins trying to use their Blending that I was able to walk in here without notice. While everyone stands around screaming over your death, I'll be able to walk out the same way."

"Guess again," I growled as the knife came flashing down toward me. At the end of the swing Ayl stumbled, mostly because his knife no longer had a blade. I'd melted the steel so fast that he hadn't even realized the blade was gone, and then I added the touch I'd learned from Rion. A block of hardened air struck Ayl even as he stumbled, and then he was face down on the floor and mostly unconscious.

I used Lorand's way of putting the madman into a deep sleep, and then I quickly turned my attention to the guardsman who had tried to give
his
life for mine. Crouching over the man's body showed me that he still lived, but that wouldn't hold true for long if something wasn't done.

"What's going on out here?" a male voice demanded, and then a group of people came hurrying out of a nearby meeting room.

"It's already handled," I answered without looking up, working to heal the guardsman I crouched near. "Go and see if you can do anything for that other guardsman."