Destiny (19 page)

"If there
is
someone like that out there, I'd venture to guess that they aren't controlling everything," Rion put slowly as he thought the matter through. "To believe that someone would encourage - or allow - the deaths of hundreds or thousands of innocent people in this invasion merely to put
us
in the middle of it is quite insane. We may have been rather important to the people of our own country, but we simply aren't important enough for something like that."

"I have to agree with Rion," Vallant said as Lorand added a sigh and a nod. "We've been feelin' as if the world revolves around us, but it just isn't so. Every now and again we might be important to those around us, but no one in the world is important enough for somethin' like what's happenin' now to be done on purpose."

"But it doesn't necessarily
have
to be something that's being done on purpose," Jovvi said, looking more thoughtful as doubt began to quiet the flames in Tamrissa's eyes. "Do you remember the way Ristor Ardanis, the leader of those with Sight magic, kept testing us before he came forward to tell us about his people? Somehow this feels very much like another test situation."

"Who would be mad enough to test us when there are so many lives at stake?" Lorand asked as he showed the same confusion Rion had begun to feel. "And to add to the question list I just started, what would be their purpose in testing us? Not to mention asking how they can stand apart and do the testing in the midst of all this insanity."

"Is it possible that we're imagining things?" Tamrissa asked, her doubt clearly having grown. "I know I tend to be arrogant most of the time, and arrogance does encourage a feeling of self-importance. Is it possible that my arrogance has rubbed off on the rest of you, and that's why we all feel that someone is doing something?"

Rion joined most of the others in conceding that Tamrissa's suggestion
might
be true, but Naran simply shook her head.

"No, I don't think that that's possible," she said, her gaze on the distance rather than on anything around her. "This new pattern lets me cut through quite a lot of the fog that's been keeping me almost blind, and I'm getting a hint of a larger picture that's been kept from me before this. There's more involved here than just a simple invasion, and there's the suggestion of other forces on the fringes of what I can See. We seem to be walking a tightrope among the probabilities, and if we fall off we won't have another chance to survive."

"Somehow I get the feelin' that more than our own survival is at stake," Vallant said, a frown creasing his face again. "I don't know why I'm feelin' that, but there's no doubt surroundin' the notion."

"I don't know how you're doing it either, but you're right," Naran answered with a faint smile, her gaze still distant. "More than our own survival is definitely at stake, but the number of probabilities covering that fact is too large for me to see them all. Now it's not just Tamrissa who's stealing my talent, brother. You're doing the same."

"Although I brought one of the matters up myself, we really don't have time to worry about shadowy figures or odd thievery," Jovvi said, apparently feeling it was time to change the subject. "What we do have to worry about is practicing with the new pattern so that we'll be ready for the intruder the next time we meet. One of the things we need to find out is whether to use the pattern at all times, or only at certain times."

"Hopefully, practice will show us that," Rion said, agreeing that it was time to return to the matter at hand. "And perhaps our Gracelian colleagues will assist us in learning the truth."

"We'll definitely be glad to help any way we can," Hoad agreed as all the others either nodded or spoke different words of agreement. "But I'm still a little confused. Am I wrong in believing that you asked us over here for a different reason entirely?"

"No, as a matter of fact you're right, and once again we've been diverted from our original purpose," Rion said, definitely feeling foolish. "I have the distinct impression that a good deal of the difficulty we have is due to our being too often diverted from our original purpose. What we wanted to know was, when your Blendings look at ours, are you able to see which of the six talents is missing in your own Blending?"

"No, not really," Hoad said after exchanging glances with several others. "We can see that your Blending is larger, stronger, and more complete than ours, but we can't tell what's missing in our own."

"Well, that answers our original question," Vallant said with a nod. "The intruder may know there's somethin' missin', but it can't tell what that somethin' is. Okay, people, let's get on to the practicin' now. I'm sure you've all realized that we'll be better off takin' the fight to the invaders rather than lettin' them come to us. We'll need room to run if runnin' becomes the only thing left, so we don't have much time."

There was a disturbed murmur in reaction to Vallant's comments, but Rion's reaction was more internal and a good deal colder. They
would
have to go after the invaders and see what could be done against them, but Rion had the definite feeling that their attempt would not be as successful as they were hoping it would be.

But Rion kept that opinion to himself. He, too, seemed to be sharing Naran's talent, and as he ran a hand through his hair he admitted to himself that he would have been happier without it…

Chapter Twelve

If Lorand hadn't been quite so hungry from the practicing they'd been doing, he knew he'd probably have nothing in the way of an appetite. He sat among his Blendingmates as they all ate, but he had the impression he also seemed to be sitting alone. Practicing with the new pattern had been individual efforts for all of them, but in a short while they would be trying the new technique as a Blending.

It was only a short time past noon, but the coming rain had put clouds all over the sky and lowered the temperature more than was comfortable. Lorand felt a definite urge to shiver and wrap something around himself, but he wasn't certain that the chill he felt was entirely physical. He'd loudly announced a few hours ago that he was a changed man, but now that boast felt more like wishful thinking than fact. Was he really changed, or would he still find himself barred from merging with the others?

After muttering something about getting more tea, Lorand got to his feet and went over to the cook fire. He somehow felt less alone over here, even though he'd left the midst of the people most important in the world to him. He
did
love them all and living without them would be impossible, but… Just how much
could
you change the way you'd been thinking since you were a child? Enough to let you get over the prejudices that would ruin your life?

"I thought you wanted more tea?" a soft voice commented from his right. "Standing here staring at the pot won't fill your cup, love."

Lorand smiled as he turned to Jovvi, who stood to his right.

"How did I ever manage to earn the love of a woman who's always there when she's most needed?" Lorand asked as he put a hand to Jovvi's face. "If I stop to think about what I might have done to deserve you, I tend to notice all the things I've done to accomplish the exact opposite."

"You've never done
anything
to destroy the love I feel for you, Lorand Coll, and you'd better never say you have," Jovvi countered fiercely, her expression making Lorand want to chuckle. But he knew better than to do more than smile and shake his head.

"See what I mean about how wonderful you are?" Lorand told her, leaning down to kiss her cheek. "But I have to say that I think you've been spending too much time with Tamrissa."

"Tamma has been rubbing off on all of us including Naran," Jovvi returned, her own smile full of amusement. "At first I worried, but now I've decided that it's really for the best. There are times when it helps quite a lot to show a bit of temper… Lorand, you're worried about whether or not you'll merge with us the next time we Blend. If you worry about it
too
much, your anxiety might bring you the opposite of what you really want. What all of us want."

"I know that, but I can't seem to help myself," Lorand replied ruefully as he moved forward to use the provided cloth to pick up the teapot. "Left to myself, all I can do is worry and fret. Maybe if you talk to me for a while, I can start to think about other things. Would you like more tea?"

"Yes, please," Jovvi answered, holding out her cup, and once Lorand had poured tea for both of them she studied him. "If you need something else to think about, let's try this: the intruder entity said that we were backward because our own entity thought of itself as 'we' rather than as a single being. Does that mean the intruder is Blended but not merged?"

"What else
can
it mean?" Lorand asked in turn, waiting until he replaced the teapot before he shrugged. "When this individuality thing first started in the Blending, even we were wondering if it was a step forward or a step back. But I have a different question. If the intruder entity is older than our own, and I think it's fairly obvious that it is, why hasn't
it
progressed to individuality - if the individuality really is progress?"

"Maybe it's the lack of a Sight magic user," Jovvi said, her expression growing thoughtful. "The intruder entity isn't complete, so it can't grow beyond its present state no matter how old it is. The Gracelian Blendings had entities older than ours too, but the Blendings were so unbalanced - and also unfinished - that they were pale in comparison to us and our associates."

"I hate to say this, but I have the definite feeling that there's another difference between us and the intruder entity that will keep us from equaling them," Lorand said, the sudden conviction forcing him to voice it. "I can't imagine what that other difference is, but I also can't get past feeling certain."

"And
I
hate to say it, but I feel the same certainty," Jovvi agreed with a sigh. "There's still something we're missing, something we're doing wrong maybe, and that something will keep us from winning. I just hope we have the chance to figure out what we're not seeing or doing."

"You're not the only ones feelin' that, so I've taken steps," Vallant's voice came, and then he stood with them in their small group. "Naran brought up the matter first after you two walked away, so I did some thinkin' and then spoke to our associate Blendin's. The farther away from here we keep those invaders, the longer we'll have to get where we're supposed to be strength and technique-wise. When we go to try ourselves against the intruder entity, our associates will do some attackin' against their army people."

"Which ought to delay their advance at the very least," Lorand said with a nod of understanding. "But we ought to be ready to leave this place fast if we have to. There's no sense in losing any of our people just to make a useless gesture of defiance."

"That one's been taken care of since last night," Vallant assured him, one hand coming to close gently and briefly around Lorand's arm. "We can move out of this village almost as soon as we decide we want to, so hopefully you and the other Earth magic users won't have any extra healin' to do."

"That's good to know," Jovvi said as Lorand felt the weight of an unnoticed worry lift from his shoulders. "But if we're all finished eating, we really should get on with trying to delay the invaders."

"I'll be with the rest of you as soon as I make sure that everyone else is finished too," Vallant said, and then he moved off in the direction of their associates. Lorand joined Jovvi in walking back to the place the rest of their Blending waited, and Tamrissa sent Lorand an evil smile as he and Jovvi reclaimed their sitting places.

"We're about to Blend again, Lorand," she said, reminding Lorand of the fact he hadn't really forgotten about. "I've decided that if you don't merge with us
this
time, I'm going to do something really horrible to you afterward."

"What sort of something horrible?" Lorand asked as he blinked in confusion. "What can you possibly have in mind?"

"I'm not going to tell you that," Tamrissa answered, her smile turning even more evil. "The something won't be painful, but it will be so embarrassing and terrible that you'll never live the episode down. The idea came to me suddenly, and you'll never guess what I have in mind no matter how hard you try."

Lorand blinked again but kept silent, his mind already working on what Tamrissa could possibly have decided to do to him. Not painful, but still embarrassing and terrible. There were any number of things that Lorand would find embarrassing, but what could she mean by terrible? Lorand didn't doubt that she knew what terrible was, but how would that relate to
him
?

"All right, let's do it," Lorand heard Jovvi say, and he had just enough time to look up and discover that Vallant had rejoined them before Jovvi initiated the Blending. And then it was the Lorand entity who looked about, seeing his associate entities as well as the newly born entities of the flesh forms belonging to the place in which they were. All were prepared to seek out the intruder entity and its captured flesh forms, and all knew the location where the invaders would be found.

-We will flash to a point just short of the invaders' position,-
the Lorand entity told his associates and the new ones. -
Those who were designated earlier as emergency protection for those of us engaged in battle will remain somewhat behind. It would be redundant to speak in detail of the need for caution.-