Convergence (39 page)

"I sympathize with your suffering, Dom Drowd, and admire your strength in bearing up under it," Jowi said to him with a small laugh. "I'd be curious to know the device which caused you to be taken by such misfortune."

"The device was quite simple, dear lady," Dom Drowd replied with his own laugh. "I realized almost immediately that each coach would only seat four
comfortably,
and therefore made certain to be the last of the group. I'd hoped, you see, that you ladies would travel together, and fortune smiled on my carefully thought out preparations."

"How odd," Beldara said, giving him a very cool look. "I could have sworn you'd forgotten to bring your silver down to lunch with you, and had to be reminded to return to your room to fetch it. Or wasn't that you who was nearly out the door ahead of everyone else?"

"I would never think to cast doubt on a lady's word," Dom Drowd returned, his tone still easy but all amusement suddenly gone from his eyes. "If that's what you wish to believe, please continue to do so. My previous remarks stand as they were made."

"As if that alone makes them true," Beldara returned with a smile of ridicule. "Nothing you say rings true, especially what you've had the nerve to comment about
me.
A man with true intelligence would know enough to sit quietly and not make a fool of
himself
."

"It takes wisdom to recognize foolhardiness, Dama Lant, which means you don't qualify," Dom Drowd countered in a drawl, smiling at the girl without true humor, "I suspect your jealousy now begins to get the better of you, since you're no longer among those who worship you as unique. Haven't you yet realized that your only true competitor among us is the lovely Dama Domon? You and she share the same aspect, after all, so why do you spread your vitriol among the rest of us? Do you fear, perhaps, that we will prevail while you do not?"

"I fear nothing where
you're
concerned," Beldara returned with scorn, but then her rather intense gaze came to me. "But I must say I
hadn't
realized that Tamrissa and I shared the same aspect. I hope you won't be too upset when I outdo you, dear. I'm sure you're really very good, but I'm better. You'd be wise to accept that truth now, to spare yourself disappointment later."

"Truth and opinion are
not
interchangeable words," I pointed out, forcing myself to say that despite the drumming of my heart. "When it comes to proving which of us is best, we'll save the opinion and let the test results show the truth."

"You can't really expect to make a decent showing against
me,
"
 
Beldara
said with a small laugh of incredulity, obviously believing every word she said. "I'm the best there is, girl, and no one has ever been able to prove differently. If you think those flashy dresses of yours will make the difference, guess again. We'll all be dressed alike for the sessions, so no one will know you currently have more gold than I do. And that's
all
you have going for you, take my word on it."

I didn't want to take her word for anything, but her self-assurance was so like what my parents usually showed that I actually felt myself beginning to have doubts. I
had
to do well in the rest of the tests, my future life and sanity depended on it, but what if she turned out to be
right.
. . ?

"It wasn't wealth that brought her through the first of the tests," a voice commented as I stared down at my hands, watching my fingers twist about each other. Surprisingly it was Jowi who spoke, a definite hint of amusement behind the words. "I think you're deliberately forgetting that, Dama Lant, in an effort to ease the fear Dom Drowd mentioned. No one ever told you you'd be meeting your equals during the tests, so they certainly never mentioned meeting superiors. Now you're worried that everyone may have been lying to you all these years, and you'll end up failing and making a fool of yourself."

"I'm worried about no such thing!" Beldara spat, her face twisted up into something harsh and ugly, her hands curled into claws in her lap. "No one lied to me, and no equals or superiors were mentioned because I don't
have
any! All of you hate my superiority and envy it, so you're trying to talk me out of it. Well, once the tests start again you'll be forced to admit you were wrong; so I won't have anything more to say to any of you until then."

And with that she leaned back in her seat and gave her attention to the places and people our coach passed, clearly prepared to carry out her promise. Personally I felt grateful for the proposed silence, but not as grateful as I felt for the help Jowi had given. I looked at her, trying to find a way to express my thanks, but she smiled and shook her head and patted my hand. Apparently she felt thanks weren't necessary, which convinced me they certainly were. Later I'd have to find
something. . .

But right now we were on our way to the tailoring shop, and the route the coach driver took became something of a surprise. We'd driven through the neighborhood I lived in and then passed a section of the business district, but after that we took a sharp left turn. That put us on a street I'd never traveled before, and after two blocks it was actually possible to see refuse scattered here and there on the walks. The farther we went the more refuse there was, along with a growing conglomerate of smells that began to turn my stomach.

"This must once have been a fairly nice neighborhood," Dom Drowd commented, gesturing toward the predominantly stone buildings. "The street was decently cobble-stoned, but no one has bothered to fix those holes our wheels keep falling into in quite some time. And those small shops and stalls of wood between the buildings may be relatively new, despite the fact that they look old and ready to fall down."

"Most shops and stalls like those are made with scrap wood," Jowi said, also looking out at what we passed. "That's why they seem so old, even if they were only just put up. Those who put them up can't afford paint or any other decorations, of course. . . . What they earn selling their wares goes to keeping them and their families alive."

"With existence always so precarious for them, I've often wondered why they bother," Dom Drowd said, sounding as if he discussed a pack of wild and unimportant animals. "They can't hope to better themselves, not when they have no education, no talents, and nothing of any real value to offer. The government would do us and them a service if they took people of that sort and put them out of their misery."

"Well, you may be right," Jowi responded, her voice still sweet and even but now far from amused. "I've heard that very opinion expressed many times, but there's always some trouble in defining exactly who can be considered expendable. Why, I've even heard the suggestion that most academics fall into that category."

"What?" Dom Drowd exclaimed, obviously outraged. "That's preposterous! Academics are the
ones
who educate the populace to a knowledge and appreciation of the important things, so how could anyone dare to suggest that we're expendable?"

"Now,
that
was the interesting part," Jowi said, looking as if she were trying very hard to remember the point and get it right. "One gentleman pointed out that he learned what he knew about business practices from his father and uncles, so what good had academicians done
him?
He paid someone to choose and buy the artwork hung in his house, had paid them to decorate it, and even paid to have someone organize his parties and balls. He himself was able to read and write and do his figures—which he'd learned from his parents— so all things academic were completely useless to him."

"The louts of this world always tend to believe that," Dom Drowd said with a deprecating gesture. "You call the man a gentleman out of the goodness of your nature, dear lady, but clearly he was no such thing."

"Perhaps not, but the three nobles he spoke with agreed with him," Jowi said with a very sweet smile. "The three lords saw no reason for places of learning and people to work in them, since they'd all had private educations. They were also of the opinion that educating anyone who wasn't nobly born was a waste of time, since the lower orders weren't capable of really appreciating what was taught. They added that all academicians knew that, but spent their time holding classes so they might have an excuse for feeling superior to their low-class brothers."

"Of all the absurd—!"
Dom Drowd swallowed the rest of what he'd meant to say, but that didn't mean he wasn't thinking it. People learned not to speak against the nobility out loud in the company of strangers, since too many had thereafter been called to account for their indiscretion. No one ever admitted to passing on tales to the nobility for the silver the action brought, but admitting it was hardly necessary.

"And, of course, there are always those misguided souls who consider the nobility themselves unnecessary," Jowi continued blithely on, apparently seeing nothing of the mottled color now staining Dom Drowd's face. "I'd venture to guess that everyone feels that way about someone, and deciding who is right would be a terribly confusing affair. Don't you agree?"

Dom Drowd made some sort of sound deep in his throat, then returned to looking out the window the way Beldara continued to do. Jowi glanced at me from beneath her lashes, a vast amusement visible in her eyes, and it was all I could do not to cover my mouth and laugh uproariously. It had obviously never occurred to the highly intellectual Dom Drowd that a sweet woman like Jowi might be making up everything she said. And crediting it to those whose opinion Dom Drowd couldn't simply brush aside. . . .

There wasn't anything in the way of conversation after that, but the trip didn't last long enough for the time to become uncomfortable. In the midst of the soot-covered stone buildings and rickety wooden stalls and shops was a sturdy two-story house with a walled-in back courtyard. The front of the house obviously faced on another street, but the gate into the back courtyard had been opened to allow our coaches to enter.

By the time we pulled up to the back entrance, people had come out of the house. A moment's worth of study showed that although one of the men gave all the orders to the servants who were there to help us from the coaches, the woman standing to his left and just behind him had authority of her own. She studied
we
women as Dom Drowd and one of the servants helped us from the coach, her expression far from dissatisfied.

There was a short time of confusion when we were led inside, the men being directed to the left and the women to the right. Beyond the door leading from the back entrance hall was a spacious workroom with seven seamstresses sewing away at a rather brisk pace, and a small cluster of comfortable chairs just to the left of the door. A tea service stood on a table near the cluster, and the woman I'd seen outside came in to gesture to the chairs.

"Welcome to our house, ladies, and please make yourselves comfortable," she said in a voice like starched sand. She was in her middle years with dark hair and eyes, a buxom rather than overweight body, and a bearing that strove to be regal. The end result was more stern than regal, though, like the headmistress of an academy teaching deportment.

"The girl will serve you all some tea, and then we'll begin," the woman said, now gesturing to a servant. "I am Regensi, the one who designed the clothing you will soon be fitted for, and I am delighted to see that two of you are the ideal I had in mind. The style was meant for silk, of course, but cotton has been decreed and so cotton it will be. With you two ladies, it won't matter in the least."

"With them," Beldara said flatly, certainly noticing the way Regensi spoke only to Jowi and me. "Are you saying that your marvelous creations won't look just as good on me?
Since I happen to be the best in this group or any other, that doesn't say much for your supposed talent."

"Don't be ridiculous, girl," Regensi answered with a withering expression and a dismissive evaluation in a quick up and down examination of Beldara. "Your average prettiness looks cheap beside the glowing beauty of these two, and that would hold true even if you were smothered in silk. They, on the other hand, will be just as outstanding in cotton, so kindly seat yourself and refrain from discussing matters you know nothing about."

"I was referring to my ability," Beldara began to grind out with gritted teeth and a flush to her cheeks, but by then it was clear that she'd wasted her breath. Regensi had turned away to snap orders at two of her workers, which obviously turned her deaf to any and all rebuttal.

"Don't let this silliness disturb you," Jowi began in turn to Beldara, clearly trying to soothe the girl's embarrassment and anger. Regensi's speech had been horribly tactless and insulting, but Beldara apparently had no interest in being soothed. She glared hatred at Jowi and me before turning abruptly and heading for the chair farthest away from us, and Jowi gave up her attempt with a sigh. If we and Beldara hadn't precisely been friends before, now we had probably become enemies.