Intrigues (22 page)

And with that he turned away from us, raising his arms as though asking the audience for silence so that he might speak. How he meant to make himself heard without the help of Highs in Air magic I have no idea, but the question became moot. Jovvi looked at him, and suddenly all the frenzy in his actions disappeared into true calm and serenity. He lowered his arms and stepped back away from the edge of the platform, and Jovvi shook her head.

“Doing nothing but waiting for someone else to change things entitles you to the exact same nothing, Dom Meerk,” Jovvi told the man softly. “You can’t let other people make the effort and sacrifice, and then step in and take over just because you think you deserve to. That’s the way the nobility thought, and a million people could have died because of that mindless outlook. If you think we’ll give it a second chance to destroy us, you’re completely insane. Now go and stand behind the others where you belong.”

Meerk turned and walked toward where the city leaders were standing and looking shaken, moving behind them as he’d been told to do. Once again we were faced with people who knew little or nothing of what we could do, a truth Wilant Gorl had pointed out a short time earlier. Well, hopefully that would soon change.

“You ladies are making the rest of us feel superfluous,” Lorand said to Jovvi, Naran, and me with a teasing grin. “Rion, Vallant and I are thinking about taking a nap while you finish up the rest of this.”

“I know you older folk
need
to nap, but try to hold off for a short while,” I countered while Jovvi and Naran chuckled. “Those people in the stands with the hidden weapons haven’t made a move yet, and it’s time for me to make that speech. Are you ready to help me, Rion?”

“My link groups will also be helping, Tamrissa,” Rion answered with his own amusement. “This place is the least bit bigger than the ballroom we had the party in.”

“Yes, the
least
bit bigger,” I echoed in a mutter, making myself walk to the edge of the platform. The crowds seemed to have grown even larger somehow, and they’d been quieting down ever since Meerk held his arms up. Now they were all but completely silent, waiting to hear what I had to say. Speaking up when angry has never been a problem for me, but I couldn’t help noticing that anger is never around when you really need it.

“Hello,” I began in a really weak way, hearing the word echo to every corner of the amphitheater. “Thank you for coming today.”

The sudden roar of delighted voices was accompanied by thunderous applause, a reaction that was encouraging in spite of being rather startling. A glance back showed all my Blendingmates smiling, so I held my hands up a bit and in a moment or two I had silence again.

“There are a number of things we have to tell you before we actually get to the Seating ceremony,” I continued, finding it slightly easier to get the words out. “The first thing, I think, ought to be the fact that we’ll only be Seated for a year. Next year the competitions will be held again, and the winner of them will be Seated for five years instead of twenty-five. Making people wait half a lifetime to compete for the place of strongest Blending just isn’t fair.”

This time the applause was composed of surprise and startlement, but it was also strong and supportive. Most people obviously thought we’d just continue on with what the nobility had started, and were clearly finding themselves pleased that that wasn’t so. I just hoped they’d continue to be pleased – with everything.

“The next thing you have to know about is the training classes that will start tomorrow,” I said once I had enough quiet. “Offices are being opened throughout the city today, and anyone who wants their talent trained can go to one of the offices and register. Classes will be filled on a first-come, first-served, basis, but don’t be upset if you aren’t in one of the first classes. The initial training won’t take more than a few days, and then new classes will be started. That will continue until everyone who wants the training has gotten it, but no one will be
forced
to take it. If you’re not interested, then you’re not.”

There was applause again, but only a smattering as most people seemed more interested in commenting to the people next to them. It was hard to tell what the comments were about, but I decided not to let that distract me. There were more things to tell them before we would all be able to go home.

“Once everyone who wants to be trained
is
trained, we’ll go on to the next step,” I said, and the ripple of talk died down to a bit of muttering. “Those people who want to learn how to be part of a Blending will be shown the way, preferably with others whom they feel they can get along with. You don’t want to be part of a Blending with just anyone, not when the association is closer than anything you can imagine.”

The crowd noise rose almost to its original roar, and most of the people I could see looked downright shocked. We’d been hoping that word of our intentions would spread, but obviously it hadn’t spread nearly far enough.

“The leader of our empire is supposed to be the
strongest
Blending, not the only one,” I said, and somehow Rion and his link groups made my voice loud enough to be heard over the noise. “There will also be minor competitions during the year, to let people know how strong they are in comparison to others, and to give them chances to practice. When the real competitions are held a year from now, everyone will know that the Blendings competing really are the best of the best."

The comments and exclamations coming from all around now sounded as if they were filled with excitement, and the shock I’d seen a minute ago had changed to expressions ranging from wild elation to deep worry. More people seemed to be pleased than worried, though, definitely a positive sign.

“Please try to calm down,” I finally said when the uproar refused to end, my voice echoing all over the amphitheater. “There are still a few more things to say, and I’d like to get to them.”

“Wait, wait just a minute,” a voice called as a man left his place to walk a short distance onto the sand. It should have been impossible to hear the man, but somehow his voice managed to reach us.

“He’s a Middle talent in Air magic, and has a few other Middle talents helping him,” Rion said from where he stood, a faint smile on his face. “They’re not using the proper pattern, of course, but their effort is quite credible. Do we want to hear what he has to say?”

“Of course we do,” Jovvi said at once, looking around at the rest of us. “We need to know what people think, people who aren’t appointed leaders as well as those who are. Does anyone disagree?”

“Of course not,” I said, as the rest of our Blendingmates smiled or shook a head. “If he says he hates our ideas and everyone else here agrees with him, we can go home that much sooner.”

“Then for that reason, if no other, I’ll give him a hand,” Rion said, returning his attention to the man. From what I could see the man was dressed in simple clothing, clean but not very new. He was of average height and build, but his hair was light and his face was on the square side.

“All right, I’m waiting,” I told the man, and the noise died down just a little. “What did you want to say?”

“I wanted to say – “ he began, the words chopping off when the volume of them surprised their speaker. It took a moment or two for the man to recover, but then he smiled wryly.

“Thank you for that,” he said as he gestured with one hand, obviously referring to the fact that everyone could now hear him. “I don’t know why I was surprised, but I guess I’m no more used to being treated like I’m actually worth something than anyone else here.”

There were a lot of garbled comments made by the crowd at that, but all the comments clearly agreed with him.

“What I want to say first is something not everyone here may have heard about,” the man continued after a moment. “Friends, on their way here, our new Blending was attacked by some crazies who threw etching acid at them. The acid didn’t reach them, of course, but it did manage to splash onto quite a few people who were watching them go by. The guard escort wanted the Blending to ride away to some place safe, but they refused to do that. Instead they got off their horses and tended the hurt, and people who would have been blinded or scarred are now going to be all right.”

Here and there exclamations of surprise sounded, but for the most part the crowd seemed to know all about our little mishap. The others and I exchanged glances of surprise over how the story had managed to get there and spread so quickly, but we weren’t given a chance to ask about it.

“Now we’re told that we’ll be given the chance to do something none of us had even dared to dream about,” the man went on. His attention was on those of us on the platform, but his words seemed to be addressed to everyone in the amphitheater. “I’m tempted to think I’m dreaming, but if I am then a lot of other people are having the same dream. I don’t know what we did to deserve you people, but whatever it is I hope we never stop doing it.”

Pandemonium broke loose at that point, and the man who had spoken just stood there smiling at us while everyone cheered and screamed out their agreement. I felt tempted to simply accept that approval and enjoy it, but I knew all too well how quickly approval could turn into condemnation. My parents had been delighted with how well I learned to act like a lady, but their approval disappeared when I began to act in a way they hadn’t told me I could…

“I think you’d better hear the rest of what I have to say before you decide how happy you are to have us here,” I said when the cheering and shouting finally died down. “We’re going to do something else that hasn’t been done before, and your city leaders aren’t very pleased with that something. You’ll do well to hear about it before you say something you may regret.”

“Unless you’re planning to murder all of us, I can’t see myself changing my mind,” the man said while a concerned buzz circled the crowd like bees considering the benefits of a rampage. “Go ahead and say what you have to, and then we’ll see.”

“Yes, we will, won’t we?” I agreed with the faintest of smiles. “All right, here it is. You’ve probably been wondering why there are six chairs on this platform instead of five, so here’s the answer. We have a sixth member of our Blending, a full, useful member with a talent called Sight magic which you haven’t heard about before. Some of our associated Blendings have also taken the same kind of sixth, but that doesn’t matter. We’ve decided that either we’ll be Seated as a Six or we won’t be Seated at all, and the decision about that is yours.”

This time there was a moment or two of silence before the buzz began again, wilder than before. The noise rose to a true roar, and after a short time the man on the sand shook his head.

“Wait a minute, everybody, wait just a minute,” he said, holding up his arms toward the crowd. “I never expected to hear anything like that either, especially the last part of what she said. There are going to be six of them no matter what, but if we decide that what they’re doing is wrong they won’t be
our
six. Is that what you want? To find someone not as good as them, not as good to
us
, just as long as they’re five instead of six? For myself, I don’t care if there are ten or a dozen of them, as long as they keep on making my dreams come true. So what do the rest of you think? Do we want them to walk away?”

“No!” the crowd roared, taken up and carried away on the words the man had spoken. “No, no, no!”

Other people said other things as well, but for the moment it was perfectly clear what the general opinion was.

“So there you have it,” the man on the sand said, his smile now filled with satisfaction. “There are a lot of damned fools in this city, but most of them seemed to have stayed home today. We want you Seated no matter what your number is.”

“It looks like we have our decision,” Jovvi murmured while I stood there trying to think of what to say. I’d been sure everyone would turn against us, but now… “Tamma, tell them we accept, at least for the year we promised.”

“If that’s what you want, you have it,” I said after taking a deep breath. “But if you change your minds once you get home, don’t worry about it. This Seating is only for a year, just as I said to begin with. And now let’s get
to
the Seating.”

The cheering rose to deafening proportions as we turned and headed for the chairs on the platform, the group of city leaders – wearing a variety of expressions - stepping aside to let us do it. Lavrit Mohr stood there beaming with pleasure and pride, but Ristor Ardanis, the leader of those with Sight magic who was so happy with us, was nowhere to be seen. We each took a chair and sat, and I couldn’t help noticing how expensively made but shabby those chairs were.

The wood surrounding the back of the chair, as well as the arms and the legs, were all intricately carved with representations of the five previously known talents, and the padded back and seat was of red velvet. It came to me that the chairs were very old, and the extra one must have been a spare. It would never do if one of a new noble Blending had to stand because his or her chair had collapsed at the last moment…

That, of course, was when Naran’s indrawn breath reminded me about the people waiting to murder us. It must have infuriated them that the platform refused to collapse and send us down into the hilsom powder they still thought was in the sand, but fury didn’t make them change their plans. When I looked up into the tiers of seats where one of the bows had been hidden, I could see that it wasn’t hidden any longer. A man stood holding it with an arrow nocked, and I could even see the choking anger on his face.

A single, sweeping glance told me that the other bowmen were also preparing to loose, so it was time to try the new trick we’d thought of. That morning our Blending entity had … marked the bows and arrows with a touch of my talent, somehow linking the weapons and their missiles to my Fire ability. I had no idea how the trick had been done, but even as I sat there looking up into the tiers, I could feel those bows and arrows as clearly as I felt the power I used.