Betrayals (31 page)

Outside the air felt damp and a bit on the cool side, as though a rainstorm were taking its own lunch break. What Jovvi really wanted was a bath house and a lot of soap, but considering what they were in the midst of, bathing would have to wait. She looked around at the rather large clearing, where ten wagons had been stopped in a semicircle, and a large number of men now lay unconscious on the wet ground. Some of them seemed close to waking, but Lorand must have noticed that as well. The next instant they were out again, which had to mean he’d touched them. Happily they were all chained, but there was no sense in taking chances.

A man straightened away from the fire in the middle of the campsite, and Jovvi noticed him immediately. He was also a user of Spirit magic, and interestingly enough was now touching the power. He also tried to hide his emotions at seeing the five of them, but wasn’t quite as successful as he clearly thought he was being. If that was the man Grath, then her groupmates hadn’t been imagining things.

“Well, I’m glad to see that my business is growing,” the man said in an easy, casual voice as they approached him. “Two more customers for lunch, brought here by previous satisfied customers.”

“Actually, we’ve come to eat you out of business,” Lorand replied in a light tone that didn’t match what he felt on the inside. Apparently Lorand had also picked up the false note in the man’s supposed friendliness, but had decided against letting him know about it.

“I can understand why,” the man said, now trying to project a sympathetic concern. “If you two will find places on the tarpaulin, I’ll fill some plates for you right away.”

“No, I don’t think that’s a very good idea,” Jovvi said at once, reaching out with her ability to take the man’s mind and hold it. “You made a fast decision that pleased you, but it’s hardly likely to please us as well. I’d guess that the leftovers are perfectly edible and untainted, but you were about to change that.”

“I—don’t know what you’re talking about,” the man choked out, rigid with fear that approached terror. “Let go of me, please, I really must insist that you let me go. I haven’t done anything, you’re just imagining enemies because of what the nobles did to you. Please, one of you tell her I’m a friend so she’ll let me go!”

“Just calm down,” Jovvi soothed with both voice and mind as Valiant helped her to sit on the tarpaulin. Part of the man’s terror was from the ease with which her strength had brushed aside his own, as though he were a Low rather than a fairly strong Middle. “There’s nothing to be afraid of, so you needn’t worry.”

“All right,” the man replied equably, no longer on the verge of panic. Jovvi had merely overwhelmed him at first, the rest of her ability apparently still partially asleep. As soon as she realized her mistake, however, she had worked immediately to correct it. He was now docile and unafraid, and would answer truthfully any question put to him.

“I’ll get the food for you two,” Tamma announced as she glared at the man Jovvi held. “And while I’m doing it, why don’t the rest of you find another chore for Grath to see to.”

“That will be our pleasure,” Rion growled, having done no more than glance at Naran, who had hurried over to help Jovvi and Lorand settle themselves. “It seems our suspicions were correct after all, Grath. You work for the nobility rather than for the organization.”

“Of course,” Grath replied easily and pleasantly, smiling at Rion. “Surely you don’t imagine that a group like this would be allowed to exist without someone being there to make sure nothing was accomplished?”

“What’s going on?” a strange voice interrupted, and suddenly two more men, who had appeared from around the other side of one of the wagons, joined them. One of the men was large and somehow familiar, the other hanging back as though he felt his presence would be an intrusion. “Say, you’ve gotten Dom Coll and Dama Hafford back to themselves.”

“We’ve done a bit more than that, Meerk,” Valiant said, his voice a good deal colder than the other man’s had been. “We’ve also just listened to Grath admit that he’s workin’ for the nobility. Is there anythin’ you’d like to add concer-nin’ your own position?”

“Are you crazy?” the man Meerk demanded, his face paling as he turned to look at Grath. “Grath can’t be working for the nobility, not when he passed our entrance test. Tell him, Tamrissa, tell him it just isn’t possible.”

“Listen for yourself, Alsin,” Tamma said without looking at the man, using the plates she brought to Jovvi and Lorand as the supposed reason for not meeting his gaze. “Tell Alsin who you really work for, Grath.”

“I work for the nobility,” Grath obliged, smiling at Meerk in the same way he’d smiled at Rion. “Passing your test wasn’t hard, Alsin, not when I’m stronger than the Spirit magic user who questioned me, and not when I’ve also had training which she hasn’t had. You were a fool to think your system was proof against invasion, but we were glad to put that foolishness to our own use.”

“I don’t believe it,” Meerk whispered, his face even more pale now. “If the nobility knew about us, why weren’t we arrested and dispersed?”

“Why would we break up an organization that was keeping you hotheads quiet?” Grath asked very reasonably. “As long as you thought you were getting away with something, you made no trouble yourselves and kept the others from making any. I was sent to make sure that your very pure aims weren’t tarnished by those who would want to use force to overthrow the nobility rather than the law. As long as you continued to insist that things be done your way, you were no threat whatsoever.”

Jovvi had to block out the very heavy illness filling Meerk’s mind, that and a terrible sense of humiliation. The man now knew he had been used by the very people he’d dedicated himself to besting, and it was perfectly clear that he wasn’t pretending.

“He didn’t know about any of this,” Jovvi said, mostly to Valiant. “That means you can go back to questioning Grath while I fight to keep myself from swallowing this food whole.”

Lorand had already started on his portion, but Jovvi had had to pay attention to what was being said. Now that she had one of the answers they needed, she was free to fill the void inside her own middle.

“Were the men of this convoy alert because of something you did, Grath?” Rion asked, his thoughts seething. “If so, why did they drink the contaminated water?”

“They drank it because I didn’t know it was contaminated,” Grath answered at once. “Those two men in the dining room at the inn last night were my contacts, and I took the first opportunity to separate myself from the rest of you so that I could speak with them. If I’d known Alsin would devise a plan like this, I would have stayed to hear the details of it. As it was, I decided that Alsin’s learning what the sedative was couldn’t possibly do any real harm, and I needed to pass on certain things very badly.”

“Like the fact that we were followin’?” Valiant put in, just as angry as Rion. “It looks like you sent one of those contacts here, to the convoy, but where did you send the other one?”

“Back toward the city, and the contingent of guardsmen who are following us, of course” he said. “They aren’t as close as I would have liked, but you caught me by surprise when you left the city so quickly. I only had time to signal one of my men to follow, and then had to wait until he caught up with us and I could speak to him alone. He passed the word on to his own contact, picked up another of my people, and rode hard to get back here. Yesterday they passed us on the road and were waiting when we reached the inn.”

“And what happened to the one you sent here?” Tamma asked, her own anger more than a match to the men’s. “I don’t see anyone in that chained group except guardsmen and drivers.”

“Oh, he’s gone back toward the city as well,” Grath said. “I made sure he went around your coach, and now he’s riding to meet the guardsmen. When he reaches them, he’ll be able to direct them to the exact place where we are.”

“Just how close to us are they?” Valiant asked after exchanging a glance with Rion. “A day behind? Less?”

“They were more than two days behind, but hopefully they’ve made up a good deal of the time,” Grath replied.

“There was a delay in getting them started after us, something about my men not knowing who to report to. Then the Five became involved, and things began to move more smoothly. I’m hoping they’ll be here in no more than another day or so.”

“The Five,” Valiant growled. “Copper to gold he’s talkin’ about the new Five, so I’ll also bet we don’t have to worry about bein’ taken prisoner again. They’d be fools to want us kept alive, and I don’t believe they’re fools of that sort.”

“And there’s almost certainly more than a single contingent of them,” Rion put in. “So we’re caught between those following and those ahead. Just how far ahead is the destination of this convoy, Grath?”

“I have no idea,” Grath responded with a small shrug. “I got the impression from my man that we aren’t too far away, but its exact location is something only the leader of the convoy knows.”

“And he’s unconscious along with the rest,” Tamma said, looking at Rion and Valiant. “We’ll certainly have to question the man, but first I think we ought to concentrate on getting the rest of the prisoners clear of the lethe. We’ll have to find someplace other than here to stay for a while, and getting there will be easier if everyone can move by him—or herself.”

“But we’ll have to rouse them only a few at a time,” Lorand put in, the first words he’d spoken in a while. “They’ll certainly be as hungry and as eager to get out of those wagons as we were, and there aren’t enough of us to see to all of them at once. The weakness of not having moved in days doesn’t we ar off very quickly even if you want it to.”

“We’ll probably do best working out a routine,” Jovvi said in support of Lorand’s comments. “Some of us can be preparing food while the Blending wakes a certain number of people, then we can all help to get them out here. While they’re eating we’ll split up again to make more food and wake more people, and then we’ll take some time to help the first group begin to move around on their own. After that the ones we’ve roused can help with the others, so the process ought to speed up with every group we wake.”

“I certainly hope it does,” Tamma said, her mind even more grim than it had been earlier. “If those guardsmen get here before we’re through bringing everyone back, you know we’ll have to fight. With that in mind, we’d better not put everything we have into waking people up. I still don’t want to have to kill anyone, but those guardsmen won’t have orders to hand us visiting cards or courting gifts.”

“We might get lucky and have a large number of members from my organization among them,” Meerk put in diffidently. “If that happens, we may be able to talk sense to them. You know, tell them to step out of our way to keep from getting hurt. It would be better than just attacking them without warning, without giving them a chance to do what we want them to without trouble.”

“Let’s ask Grath what he thinks of that plan,” Tamma said, interrupting what looked to be a tirade in the making from Valiant. “Since he has no choice about speaking the truth, you won’t have to wonder how far to trust what he says.”

“That’s a good idea,” Meerk quickly agreed, beginning to lose the diffidence. “Then we’ll all know. Grath, if you were in that group of guardsmen following us or were leading it and some of your men insisted on talking to us rather than simply attacking, you’d bow to that sensible a course of action, wouldn’t you?”

“When I’m in charge, my men don’t dictate my course of action,” Grath said at once, this time without a smile. “If my orders were to destroy the lot of you, that’s what would be done—without any mindless discussions first. Do you think my superiors would be interested in what you had to say? Or in any excuses I might make for not having followed my orders? You don’t maintain yourself in power by compromise or shilly-shallying around. You do it by acting decisively when the situation calls for it, and this one is that sort beyond all doubt.”

“So now we know,” Tamma said to Meerk more gently, as the man stood staring at his former follower. “If we expect to stay alive in this … game we’ve fallen into, we have to be just as ruthless as the nobles will be. Worrying about obeying the law is idiotic when your opponents use the law rather than obey it themselves. You can see that now, can’t you?”

“All I can see is this empire falling apart because of what we all do,” Meerk replied, illness clearly filling him again. “I didn’t want it to be this way, but somewhere along the line I lost the choice. And I used to think I knew what it felt like to be helpless….”

The man’s words trailed off as he shook his head, then he moved a few steps away just to stand and stare at nothing. Jovvi could feel his pain and dismay clearly, but there was nothing she could do to ease it. Only time and an acceptance of the inevitable would aid the man now, assuming he didn’t simply walk away from the whole situation. That was perfectly possible, and the decision to go or stay had to be his alone.

“I think we’d better get started now,” Jovvi said after putting aside the plate of food she hadn’t been able to come close to finishing. Naran had brought cups of tea to her and Lorand, and that she did need to finish. Going along with the others physically wasn’t necessary in order to have the Blending do what it had to, but it was necessary if she were ever going to move normally again. She and Lorand, that was…especially if they were able to snatch some time to be alone …

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Lorand found that he just had to sit down for a while, but not because the Blending had spent too much of its strength. He was the one with the problem in his body, he and Jovvi both. He’d pushed himself more than she had in order to get over the weakness sooner, but there was a point beyond which it simply wasn’t smart to go. He’d extended himself as far as possible, and now he just had to sit down for a while.

Everyone else was busy with explanations and food preparation and helping people to get around, so Lorand went to the edge of the eating tarpaulin and eased himself into a sitting position. A canopy of canvas had been erected over the tarpaulin because of the light rain which had started, but feeling the light drops on his face actually made Lorand feel better all over. He was alive again after days of nonlife that somehow felt longer in memory, although not being conscious was supposed to make time pass faster. It hadn’t felt that way to him, though, and being back felt like he’d escaped a smothering, unpleasant death.