Convergence (49 page)

None of them knew—or would believe—that the marriage had turned out so well because my father was colder on the inside than even my mother could hope to be.

"Tamrissa, child, how good it is to see you again," my father said in his warm, friendly baritone, smiling lovingly at me. "Do come closer so that I may feast my eyes. I've let business keep me away far too long, but that's over with now. I promise we'll be seeing a lot more of each other from now on."

"You shouldn't make promises it won't be possible to keep, Father," I said after I swallowed, reluctantly moving to a place about six feet away from them. "You won't get this house away from me without a fight, and even if I lose then I won't return to your roof. I've already told that to Mother, and now I say it to you: you'll never have the chance to sell me again."

"Oh, Tamrissa, your penchant for joking has never failed to amuse me," Father said with a delighted laugh, his eyes sparkling with enjoyment. "You know as well as I do that the proceeds from the sale of this house will go toward your new dowry, so nothing will be 'taken away' from you. And as far as returning to my roof goes, you're absolutely correct. You won't be coming back to your poor old
parents,
you'll be going to live with your husband."

"My husband is dead," I reminded him, terrified at the way his gentle conversation drained the anger out of me. Without the anger it would be impossible to fight him, and if I didn't fight____

"Your first husband is dead, child," he corrected softly with just the right amount of sadness and compassion. "And since you're much too young to spend the remainder of your life alone, I've done a father's duty and arranged your second marriage. This is Dom Odrin Hallasser, who will take you as his wife as soon as this testing nonsense is over and done with."

He'd glanced at the identification I wore on its chain before gesturing to the stranger, completely dismissing the possibility that I would be in the least successful with the testing. That might have been enough to bring back my anger—if I hadn't followed his gesture and looked at Odrin

Hallasser.
The man was both taller and heavier than my father, with dark hair, a long, plain face, and sallow skin. His clothes were expensively designed for comfort as well as style, and his fleshy hands were covered with rings worth a fortune. He wet his thick lips as he stared at me, so lost to inspecting the merchandise that he made no effort to acknowledge the introduction. That was bad enough, but his eyes . . .

Those eyes were dead black in color, but there was nothing dead about the expression in them. Cold cruelty swam in their depths, along with a sickening anticipation even worse than what Gimmis had shown. The man couldn't wait to get his hands on me, and in addition he was at least fifteen years younger than Gimmis had been. This one was meant to keep me a good deal longer than two years, and the thought of that brought a shudder I couldn't suppress.

"I won't do it," I managed to get out, tearing my gaze away from the
thing
in human form trying to capture it and me. "You can't force me to marry, so I won't do it. Find another sacrifice for that . . . that. . ."

"What a silly child you are," Father said with an indulgent laugh, shaking his head in mock exasperation. "Of course you'll do it, just as you did the first time. It's all arranged, so there's no need to discuss it any further. And now you may tell your people that there will be three more for lunch, during which time you and Odrin may become acquainted. He and I have been discussing the possibility of a very large joint venture, but I shan't bore you with the details. And you needn't worry. The venture isn't scheduled to begin until
after
you return from your honeymoon."

So that was the price he'd sold me for: a business venture he couldn't afford to begin on his own, which meant it had to be very large indeed. And he'd even thrown in the price my house would bring. That told me how determined he
was,
which in turn spread ice all through my bloodstream. I'd never found it possible to stand up to him before, and fear was beginning to overwhelm my anger. What if he was right . . . what if I did find it impossible to refuse . . . ?

"Ah, Tamrissa, good morning," I suddenly heard, and then Jowi was stopping beside me. "I don't mean to interrupt, but I've been thinking about the conversation we had yesterday. If you intend to sell this house I'll be glad to buy it from you, and I'm even willing to pay a bit above what others might offer. This is exactly the kind of neighborhood I've always wanted to live in, and you know you'll always be welcome here—for as long as you care to stay."

"Who
is
this person?" my mother demanded, for
all the
world sounding like someone who considered herself noble. My father hadn't slipped so far that he actually frowned, but his everpresent good humor evaporated to a large degree before he regained control of himself.

"It really doesn't matter who the young lady is, my dear," he said' to my mother with familiar self assurance. "The courts aren't in the habit of allowing total strangers to outbid their longtime supporters, so the house isn't likely to go to her. And even if by some incredible chance it did, that would hardly affect Tamrissa's marriage. Since it's all arranged, it will go ahead exactly as planned."

"Are there different laws here in Gan Garee?" Jowi asked with a smile even sweeter than my father's. "Where I come from, all the planning in the world can't change a refusal on the bride's part. Without full agreement you can't have a wedding—and I did hear you say no, didn't I, Tamrissa?"

"What she says or doesn't say is beside the point," my father countered before I could
speak,
his manner now more sleek and self-satisfied than open and friendly. "This marriage was arranged on her behalf, and Dom Hallasser would be fully within his rights to sue both me and her if anything should interfere. Again, I'm quite certain the courts would insist on having the marriage gone through with rather than allowing me to suffer for having acted out of concern for my child."

"Odd that you should mention lawsuits," another voice drawled as Jowi and I exchanged a glance of frustrated worry. My father
did
have a few members of the court on his side . . . "Tamakins had" already agreed to marry
me,
which as a grown woman she's entitled to do. If you and your friend try to press the matter, I'll have to sue both of
you
for interferin' with my happiness. And daddy would certainly stand behind me with every copper he has."

And then Valiant Ro was standing beside me to my right, his arm coming to circle my shoulders. I had the strongest urge to gape at him after what he'd said, but all that support let me find something of my own to say.

"And on top of all that, you can forget about being allowed to invite yourselves to lunch," I told my parents, delighted to see the way my father fought to keep a snarl from his face. "Even if this house wasn't an official residence for the use of applicants
only,
you people would not be welcome here, please leave now, and don't ever come back."

"If you're that upset, child, of course we'll leave," my father said soothingly, sparing Valiant Ro a glance that said he knew he'd been lied to.
"But as far as never coming back—don't be foolish, my dear.
Of course we'll be back, and then we'll get this misunderstanding straightened out once and for all."

He had to put a hand to his "friend's" arm to get his attention, and then all three of them left. The awful man hadn't stopped staring at me the entire time, and I couldn't keep from shivering again. My father had said that he refused to give up, and the thought of having to face him again made me sick to my stomach.

You
handled that very well," Jowi said once the door was closed behind them, putting her arms around me. "And don't you worry. Now that they know they have more than just you to face, they won't be as anxious as he pretended to be to come back again. Aside from us, Dom Ro makes an admirably difficult opponent."

"Discouragin' them was what I had in mind," Valiant Ro said, having taken his arm away as soon as my "visitors" were out the door. "I've never liked seein' the helpless bein' taken advantage of, so if—'Tamakins'—needs my help again, it will be my pleasure to supply it."

"Helpless," I echoed, feeling even worse as I straightened away from Jowi. "Everyone thinks I'm helpless, but I refuse to let all of you be right. I will be
strong,
and I won't give up no matter what they do. And for the sake of sanity, don't
ever
call me that nauseating name again!"

I left Jowi and Dom Ro looking completely confused, and marched back into the library before leaning against the closed door and shutting my eyes. I'd meant to apologize to Dom Ro for what I'd called him and should have thanked him for helping, but instead I'd yelled at him and then had stalked off in insult. And all because he'd gotten even on his own by calling me helpless.

I took a deep breath and opened my eyes,
then
walked slowly to a chair and sat, feeling very tired. I hated the idea of being helpless, but the condition was so obvious that
two
new acquaintances had felt obliged to come to my rescue.

Maybe I'd been deluding myself into thinking I could win, in the tests as well as against my parents. Maybe I ought to just give it all up, pick a direction, and simply walk away. I'd heard it said that if you wander too far, you can never find your way home again-Even if you actually have a home
...
or something to make you want to go back . . . instead of wanting to be dead. . . .

Twenty-six

Valiant watched the girl Tamrissa disappear into the library, wishing he'd bitten his tongue. Of all the attractive and charming things it was possible to call a woman, "helpless" had to be at the top of the list.

"She wasn't really angry with
us,
you know," a gentle voice said from behind him. "She's horribly frightened of what those people want to do to her, and she thinks her courage failed. It didn't really, but I can't think of a way to tell her so that she's likely to believe."

"Not bein' a quitter is so important to her that even I can feel it," Valiant said, turning to look at Jowi Hafford. "But she said she meant to be really strong from now on, so I guess I didn't put my foot in it as deep as I might have."

"She wasn't telling the truth," the beautiful woman said with a sigh, pain showing in her lovely eyes. "She was feeling despair rather than
determination,
and I can only hope she manages to pull out of it. That awful man
...
I'd kill myself before I'd let him touch me."

Valiant was shocked to see Jowi shudder as she said that, a reaction he never would have expected from her. He'd met few women who seemed completely self-possessed and capable, but Jowi Hafford certainly was one.

"Are you talkin' about the prospective bridegroom?" he asked, definitely disturbed. "I didn't get a very good look at him, because he's so unimpressive that he's easy to ignore.
Aside from all those rings.
I admit he seemed to be smitten with Tamrissa, but—"

"No, not smitten," Jowi answered quickly and firmly. "He has . . . centered on her as an object he means to possess, an item of obsession that won't let him rest until he owns it. I've come across people like him before, and they never take no for an answer. Her father's a fool for thinking he can deal with someone like that, because the man will use anything including him to get what he wants."

"I think I knew someone like that once," Valiant said with a frown as a distant memory surfaced. "That man wanted my daddy's business, and set about tryin' to ruin it when Daddy refused to sell. I was young then and only startin' to ship
out,
and the man brought a bunch of paid bullies on board my ship one night. They were supposed to wreck the ship while he came after
me,
intendin' to kill me to pay Daddy back for refusin' his offer. He said as much before tryin' to throw me overboard near the place on deck where I slept."

"What stopped him?" Jowi
asked,
her brows high. "He obviously didn't succeed in killing you, but I can't imagine what would have changed his mind."

"Dyin' stopped him," Valiant said, more disturbed than before but not because of the memory. "He and one of his bullies had Water magic and meant to use it to drown me, but they were both of ordinary strength. They were the ones who ended up overboard and drowned, and then I put out the fires and chased off the rest of his men. He had a bad reputation, so nobody official ever asked any questions about exactly how he'd died. . . . And you think this Hallasser is one like that?"