Thawed Fortunes (14 page)

The nine Guadel selected at random from the
individuals available at the Capital had listened impassively to
the evidence and then closeted themselves away for the better part
of two cycles.

A'vril conferred with two of the members of
the jury for several minutes and then nodded. "On the question of
whether the accused is guilty of an unlawful link, the court has
carefully weighed the defense's argument that the pair fully
intended to marry and finds it lacking. The defendant is found
guilty on this charge."

There was a rustle of movement throughout the
court as everyone nodded or shook their heads depending on where
their sympathies happened to lie.

A'vril swept the court with a stern look that
settled everyone down before they could really even consider
getting out of hand, and then continued.

"After examining the wounds of candidate
Va'del, comparing the testimonies of all parties present for the
incident, and the pattern of behavior existing previously, the
court finds the defendant guilty of attempted murder."

The noise from around the court was louder
this time, but A'vril slapped the stone table before her and the
blow rang out like she'd used a hammer. "The jury was very specific
regarding the punishment. Although there is no wish to create a
precedent for interference with the sponsoring decisions of
individual Guadel, we cannot tolerate the presence of a murderer in
our ranks. Be'ter is consequently stripped of all rights and
privileges, and sentenced to be exiled from the caves of the
People. We leave his fate to the winter snows and the Goddess he's
abandoned by his actions. If he is found among the People again he
will be summarily executed."

##

Va'del scanned the sky and once again
suppressed worry at how unpromising the weather was starting to
look. His instructors had escorted a group of candidates out nearly
two days' journey from the Capital and then told them that their
score would be based on how quickly they could make it back. On
their own, without any worked stones.

Depriving them of gurra would have been
plenty draconian enough, but the route they'd taken meant there
weren't any way caves, so they had to spend each night in the thin
way tents that were generally only used in an emergency.

Va'del sighed, his face buried beneath his
gurra-cloth hood, and wondered why he'd somehow thought his life
would be easier once he was a candidate. To be fair, it probably
would have been a little easier if everything had stayed the same
other than his status. Having them throw in the tests for him to
become a sub-Guadel represented a pretty broad departure from what
everyone had expected to happen, and having Se'ath in the same
batch of candidates being tested only made things worse.

Anyone with even an ounce of intelligence
would have looked at the weather, weighed the very good odds that a
storm was on its way, and hunkered down in their tent. Se'ath had
shot Va'del a nasty look, muttered something venomous, and headed
towards the Capital.

By the time Va'del came to his senses and
decided that becoming a sub-Guadel very much wasn't worth dying
for, it was too late. There wasn't enough light left to turn back
to the sheltered spot he'd noticed a couple of cycles
previously.

A large drift situated
between a pair of rocky outcroppings suddenly sparked Va'del's
memory. It'd been no way cave, but the night they'd passed in the
bandit's snow burrow had been a huge leap up from the cold hell of
an emergency tent.
If I work quickly
enough I just may survive to make it back home and learn that my
scores in diplomacy and religion were too low to pass regardless of
how well I did out here.

Se'ath had kept moving when Va'del paused to
examine the drift, and was nearly to the next turn of the trail
when Va'del yelled for him to turn around. It was possible that the
wind really was strong enough to drown out the shout, but Va'del
couldn't escape the suspicion that Se'ath had just been convinced
Va'del had been trying to slow him down.

As Be'ter's best friend vanished from sight,
Va'del was momentarily torn between following him and leaving him
to the fate he probably deserved. A sudden gust of wind pushed with
nearly enough force to knock a person over, and Va'del's mind was
made up. He'd never catch Se'ath now.

The outer crust of the drift was incredibly
hard, but Va'del's snow axe was just up to the job and he quickly
cut out a rough circle and began digging into the softer snow
underneath.

Even being extremely careful not to overexert
himself to the point of sweating, the initial phases of the burrow
went quickly, and Va'del soon found himself protected from the
raging wind. Progress slowed further once he finished the downward
shaft and began tunneling upwards. Not only was it hard to use his
snow axe in the cramped confines of the tunnel, the snow he did
manage to break loose would partially fill the tunnel and have to
then be pushed outside in a separate step. Va'del briefly
considered using his dagger instead of the snow axe, but the weapon
had belonged to his late sponsor I'rone, and not wanting to risk
damaging it, he decided to stick with the now unwieldy axe unless
circumstances became even more desperate. Even so, the work was
enjoyable enough that he lost track of time, and it was several
moments before he was able to separate the sound of someone yelling
from the continual howl of the wind.

Chills arced their way down Va'del's neck as
he realized just how vulnerable he was, trapped in the burrow,
completely unable to turn around or do anything more than slowly
inch backwards back into the elements, I'rone's knife now clasped
firmly in his right hand.

Temporarily stuck halfway in the burrow as he
was, it was a surprising relief when Va'del finally recognized the
voice as belonging to Se'ath.

"Powers, it was you. I wasn't sure if this
was where I last saw you or not. If it wasn't for your pack I would
have kept going."

Va'del brushed snow away from his gurra-wool
hood and looked at his pack, barely visible in the failing light,
still sitting where he'd anchored it in the snow before beginning
to work on the burrow.

"We don't have much time, it's nearly dark,
and if the wind picks up much more it will be strong enough to blow
an unanchored person right off of the mountain. I'll go back in and
continue clearing the inside of the burrow, you move the snow
outside as I push it down to the low point in the initial
tunnel."

Se'ath seemed to bristle at having to take
orders from the half-breed. For a moment Va'del was worried that
the other boy would draw his weapon, but he finally nodded and
anchored his things next to Va'del's pack.

Va'del didn't feel completely safe even once
he was inside the burrow, but he put his concerns aside and began
digging into the relatively soft snow as quickly as he was able.
Half a cycle later the burrow had been completed with as many of
the finishing touches as he could both remember and execute in the
dark, and he called for Se'ath to grab both packs and then follow
them in.

As amazing as gurra wool was at shedding
moisture while still retaining a person's body heat, even its
near-magical abilities had met their match when faced with digging
a shelter out of nothing more than a large drift, and despite the
relatively warm environment of the burrow, Va'del knew he needed to
shed the wet outer layer of his clothing and replace it with
something dry before his core temperature started dropping.

Se'ath more or less cooperated, but there was
a grudging feel to the silence. Finally, the surly candidate broke
the silence. "I suppose I owe you. As rapidly as the temperature
was dropping I wouldn't have been able to make one of these by
myself in time."

That's of course assuming
that you'd both known how to make one, and thought of it before the
cold stole your wit.
 Mindful of the
fact that his thoughts were less than charitable, Va'del tried to
be a little conciliatory. "I was to the point where I couldn't have
finished it off very quickly by myself. Having you here to help
sped things up dramatically."

Somehow the words weren't
the right ones. Even through the darkness Va'del could feel Se'ath
bristling with indignation. "Whatever. Once the storm abates and
the sun rises the truce is over and I'll beat you back to the
Capital. Your lucky breaks with the bandits let you wrap everyone
on the Council around your finger, just like Be'ter always said.
You'd think they'd have been smarter than that with all the trouble
you've caused since you got here. Somehow I'm going to prove you're
nothing special, that they exiled the wrong person. And when I do,
I'll make sure I'm there to see them send
you
out into the snow with nothing
but a couple of days' worth of food and the clothes on your
back."

##

Va'del tried to stretch and loosen up for his
next set of tests, but his muscles had been through far too much in
the last two days to forgive him that easily. Se'ath hadn't waited
for the storm to break properly before setting out, and the pair
had fought the wind the whole way back. If Jain and Guadel Ah'bi
hadn't augmented Va'del's muscles he'd never have managed to win.
Even with those advantages, Se'ath had stumbled in less than a
quarter cycle after Va'del. Measuring based on sheer will, he'd
been the clear victor.

The instructors who'd met them at the
entrance to the city hadn't known whether to give the boys high
marks for having completed the nightmarish journey so much quicker
than anyone had expected, or fail them soundly for having thrown
out all of the important things they'd ever been taught, pressing
on under conditions which should have probably killed them.

At best the test seemed to have been a draw,
not bringing Va'del any closer to advancement, but not edging him
any further towards failure either. He'd done passably on the
verbal law test, which helped some but didn't feel like enough to
swing the tide in his favor.

Va'del knew that carrying so many worries
into his next task would be a bad idea, so he tried to clear his
mind as he carefully put on his protective padding. Weapons skills.
If he could do well enough on this last set of tests, maybe that
would be enough to impress the instructors.

The teenager turned around to see who his
first opponent would be, and felt his confidence drain away as
Fi'lin saluted him and dropped into a ready stance.

##

Fi'lin looked around at the other testers and
upon seeing that they were satisfied with what they'd seen, waved
for Va'del and the others to leave. The huge room, by far and away
the largest in the Capital, was uncommonly dark. Most of the
candidates hadn't made any kind of fuss over the change, but Va'del
had served as a tester, and no doubt remembered that the previous
time the room had been flooded with light. It was fortunate Va'del
hadn't said anything. The unofficial observers very much hadn't
wanted to be found out.

Still moving slowly, partially to stall, and
partially because Va'del had pressed him harder than he liked to
admit, Fi'lin turned towards the waiting group, and was surprised
at some of the faces appearing out of the darkness.

Va'ma was the first, a heavily-scarred
mountain of muscle exuding so much excitement it was a wonder he'd
managed to remain quiet in the darkness.

"That was amazing. The boy is the best I've
seen in ages. It's too bad I'rone's wives got to him before one of
my boys. Still, I suppose if he had to go to another bloodline,
Stephens' is as good as could have been hoped for. Such smoothness
in someone so young, no wonder he always came out on top in his
scuffles with Be'ter."

"He hasn't always come out the victor. It
wasn't that long ago that the exile nearly killed him, and we on
the Council let Ja'dir see to it that the offender received no more
than a slap on the wrist."

Per'ce hadn't been one of the ones Fi'lin had
been expecting to come down and watch the testing, but on second
thought it shouldn't have been much of a surprise. Per'ce always
seemed apprised of the latest development, whether as a result of
his own observations or because he'd debriefed Fi'lin or one of the
other members of his bloodline. Considering how big an avalanche
the motion to make Va'del a sub-Guadel was likely to trigger, it
wasn't surprising that he'd want to personally verify Fi'lin's
report. No, the only thing that was really surprising with regards
to the situation was the way that Per'ce's position on the boy
seemed to finally be softening.

Va'ma shrugged the comment off. "He's fine
now. Plenty of us have scars as bad or worse to show from tussles
with a mated pair of snow cats. The important thing is he seems
more than ready for advancement out of being a mere candidate."

"The difference is that his
scars were all received from his 
peers
."

The outburst was so uncharacteristic for
Per'ce that for a second Fi'lin didn't know what to say. Va'ma was
bristling, and things looked as though they were going to
deteriorate quickly.

Garth's appearance gave both Council members
an excuse to back down. "He really is coming along quite nicely. I
don't know anything about the kinds of things you really select on,
so I can't say how good a Guadel he'd make, but he'd make a fine
guardsman if you all decide to discard him as you've been
threatening to for so long now."

That kind of bitterness wasn't like Garth,
and for the first time Fi'lin wondered just how much resentment the
other man was carrying over having been passed over for candidacy
when he'd been a boy. All those years of dedication and
accomplishment and he still had to take orders from the newest
Guadel. A certain amount of resentment would be understandable, but
the guardsman was usually so careful to make sure nobody realized
how he actually felt.