Intrigues (9 page)

This time the murmuring held a note of underlying tension, but excitement rose above that. Using talent in anything but a minor way had been forbidden for so long that people were obviously nervous about acting differently. But the idea that they were about to learn something new and wonderful clearly overrode most of their fears. Naran smiled to herself, knowing just how they felt.

“Also, once everyone has had a chance to make the most of the lessons, they’ll be taught how to Blend,” Jovvi said when most of the commenting had quieted again. “We’ve found nothing to suggest that people of all levels can’t do what we have, so – “

There was suddenly such an uproar that Jovvi had to stop speaking. Naran noticed that some people were exclaiming in shocked delight, while others were exclaiming in shocked horror. It was difficult to tell which feeling prevailed, but then a sense of calm seemed to fill the room. Considering the number of people being affected, Naran knew that Jovvi must be using the help of her link groups to restore order.

“Please understand that no one will be
forced
to participate in any of this,” Jovvi told everyone in the relative quiet she’d provided for herself. “Our aim is to make sure that the knowledge we’ve worked so hard to regain is never lost again through suppression. There will also no longer be a Seated High in any of the talents. Instead there will be a Convention of Highs, a group that will work to expand our present knowledge and to discover new uses for our talents. That should bring about the birth of new industries as well, so that our people will have more to do with their lives than ever before.”

“How do you know there
are
new things to do with our talents?” someone in the audience called above the renewed clamor of voices. “If nothing can be found then people will be horribly disappointed, so isn’t it better not to give them false hope?”

“If you’re suggesting that we start to keep secrets again, then I strongly disagree,” Jovvi returned at once, speaking to the man as others quieted in order to listen. “Chances are that’s how the original nobility started their policy of suppression, supposedly for the ‘benefit’ of the people. And considering how little research has been done into our talents over the centuries, it’s highly unlikely that nothing will be found. But even if nothing
is
found, at least the people will know we tried.”

Comments and opinions began to be voiced all over the room again, and Tamrissa, who stood to Naran’s left, made a soft sound of amusement.

“If this is how they take the smaller doses, I can’t wait to see their reaction to the biggest one,” Tamrissa murmured to Naran. “Either there won’t be a sound for miles around, or we won’t even be able to hear ourselves – “

Suddenly Naran found herself uttering a sound of fear and warning, a flash of Sight causing the reaction. Something terrible was about to happen, but the heavy fog all around her talent kept her from seeing exactly what. Tamrissa lost her amusement and parted her lips to ask a question, but before the words could be spoken it became unnecessary to ask.

A heavy “Crack!” sounded from above the platform, the noise almost lost in the babble of comments and questions coming from all over the room. Naran quickly looked up, and her heart immediately began to thunder with terror. A large section of the ceiling directly above them had started to fall, so large a section that jumping out of the way would be impossible. In a matter of seconds they and most of the orchestra would be crushed -!

But then Naran’s fear dissolved as she became part of the Blending. Definitely a part of it, but oddly still partially herself. The entity she was now a part of knew there was more than enough time to avert disaster, especially since one of its flesh forms had recently recalled some of the lost knowledge. A large pattern of fire flamed into being above them, as large as the section of ceiling rushing to meet it. When the two came together there was a … volcanic explosion rather than a simple consuming, an explosion that would have scattered white-hot shards in all directions.

The explosion, however, had been anticipated by the entity. Although the wall quickly erected was invisible, it was quite thick enough to contain the burning shards until they were completely consumed. No more than a pair of seconds passed before not even ash remained, and then it was Naran alone again. Shocked and frightened silence now reigned in the ballroom, with at least one exception.

“So
that’s
what that pattern can be used for,” Tamrissa commented happily, her voice unamplified but still ringingly loud in the silence. “And now that I know marble explodes when it burns, I’ll be more careful next time.”

Naran almost joined many of the people in the room in staring open-mouthed at Tamrissa, but then a verbal explosion came that drowned out everything else. Hysterics made up a good portion of the noise, and Naran thought seriously about joining the effort until Jovvi came up to pat her arm with a smile.

“Thank you for the usual timely warning, Naran,” Jovvi said as Rion tightened the arm he had around Naran’s shoulders. “I … attuned myself to you, so to speak, making sure that I knew it at once if your talent gave you any sort of a hint about danger. That let me initiate the Blending in order to take care of the problem, which it did.”

“At the moment I’m wonderin’ what
caused
that particular problem,” Vallant said in a growl as he looked down from the wreck of the ceiling. “And please don’t anyone suggest it was nothin’ but an accident.”

“Of course it wasn’t an accident,” Lorand put in with a sound of ridicule, his own gaze still on the gaping hole above them. “The smoothness of most of the edges around that opening tells me that the marble was cut through, possibly from above, except for the four corners of the section. Those were probably knocked out with sledges, definitely from above, all of them at the same time. My guess is that our friend Ayl is at it again.”

“But how did his people get in without being caught?” Tamrissa demanded, now looking highly incensed. “I thought all new staff additions were being carefully checked.”

“There’s a chance they got in as temporary workers,” Jovvi said, her expression thoughtful. “That’s the way
I
would do it if temporary workers – and visitors – aren’t being looked at as carefully.”

“So the members of Ayl’s group that we caught
were
a diversion,” Tamrissa said, glancing at Vallant. “Vallant said they might be, and now we know what they were diverting us from. But it must have taken them a long time to cut through marble with hand tools.”

“What choice did they have?” Vallant countered, his mood obviously continuing dark. “They don’t have talents to reach us with, so they’re usin’ whatever else they can.”

“And they obviously don’t care about innocent lives,” Lorand said with his own growl while looking around at the members of the orchestra. “Those people would have been killed right along with us, but there’s something else to consider. How did Ayl know we’d be standing here?”

“I think that’s fairly obvious,” Naran said when no one else volunteered an answer. “Since I know for a fact that the man Ayl doesn’t share
my
talent, he must still have supporters working with Dom Mohr. If Dom Mohr decided in advance to use this orchestra platform and mentioned his intention aloud, that’s all they would have needed.”

“But this is hardly all that’s in store for us,” Rion put in, his air of thoughtfulness tinged with annoyance. “I would suspect that we were being tested again by Dom Ardanis and his fellow Sight magic users, but saving the members of the orchestra as well as ourselves is too minor a matter. I suggest, though, that if we survive whatever else occurs, that we have a word with Dom Ardanis about having too much faith in our ability. This could easily have turned out worse than it did.”

“I agree,” Jovvi said as everyone else showed his or her own agreement. “We may have been successful, but in my opinion that’s cutting it much too close. But right now we’d better see what we can do about the chaos in here. Lorand, will you please do me the favor of lending your voice to begin with?”

Lorand agreed to the request without hesitation, but as Jovvi turned toward their audience again Naran couldn’t help fretting. If this unexpected attack wasn’t what her people had been trying to keep them from knowing about, what in the world could they be hiding…?

“All right, let’s settle down now,” Lorand shouted, giving Jovvi the help of a louder voice that she’d asked for. “The danger should be completely over now, but we’ll still make sure. Please stand where you are and don’t try to distract those who are doing the investigating.”

A mild babble came in answer, but Lorand ignored it to look around for some of their secondary Blendings. A number of the Blending members were standing together toward the back of the room on the right, but those people were obviously surrounding the members of two Blendings already seated on the floor. Two Blending entities were investigating the matter then, and without having had to be asked.

“This has to prove we’re doing it right,” Lorand said to a waiting Jovvi, his smile sincere. “Two of our lesser Blendings are already on the job, looking around for any more traps that might have been set. Letting our people think for themselves has obvious benefits.”

“Having people who are wise enough to know when they’re out of their depth also helps,” Jovvi said with her own smile of amusement. “You run into trouble only when the ones involved don’t know enough to step back out of the way of –“

“Excuse me, Excellences,” Lavrit Mohr interrupted, having bustled over in great agitation. “I can’t imagine how something like this could have happened, but I’d be pleased to have a few words with the people who are responsible for the upkeep of this palace. A faulty ceiling
has
to be considered their fault, and – “

“Dom Mohr, if you please,” Lorand interrupted in turn, glancing around to be sure no one else could hear him. “The ceiling wasn’t faulty, it was tampered with, and I think we both know who did the tampering. How long ago did you decide to use the orchestra platform as the place to call us up to?”

“Why … it was early yesterday, as soon as I was shown this room as the place where the gathering would be held,” Mohr replied slowly, his expression now one of confusion. “You can’t mean that one of the traitor’s people was already in the palace and in a position to overhear me make that decision…?”

“That would be stretching coincidence a bit too far, Dom Mohr,” Jovvi told him gently with a shake of her head. “A more likely explanation is that some of Ayl’s people are pretending to be
your
followers instead, which keeps them in a position to pass on anything important that they might learn. I think you’d better consider having your people checked out by one of our associate Blendings.”

Mohr, clearly shocked by what he’d been told, moved back down to the floor in an unsteady way. The man seemed to be seeing his organization crumbling to pieces around him, and Lorand felt a great deal of sympathy. Mohr had wanted his people to play a larger, more important role in life, but Ayl’s efforts were ruining that for all the people Ayl had once been a part of.

“May I have your attention again, please,” Jovvi said as she suddenly raised her hands, her voice reverberating around the room once more. “I’ve just been informed by one of our associate Blendings that the rest of this room is safe, so there’s no need for anyone to rush home. There’s one more thing we’d like to tell you tonight, and then you can all get on with enjoying the dancing and refreshments.”

There was an uncertain note in the murmurings now to be heard all across the room, but no one hurried toward the nearest exit. Lorand considered that a good sign, and Jovvi apparently agreed with him.

“I’m glad to see that you all seem willing to listen,” Jovvi said to the crowd with one of her devastating smiles. “That shows how much wiser you are than the former nobility, all of whom would probably be back in their coaches by now. The final thing we need to tell you is a joyous occasion for us, since we, in your presence, will now be changing history like those people we’ve all learned about in school. We’re delighted to tell you that fivefold Blendings are now a thing of the past, and we will be the first sixfold Blending.”

Jovvi beamed around at the people in her audience, obviously trying to draw them into a positive response, but Lorand could see that the ploy wasn’t working. Most people were staring wide-eyed and open-mouthed with shocked confusion, and those with more specific responses weren't smiling even a small bit.

“There can’t
be
a sixfold Blending,” Relton Henris, the spokesman for the small shop owners, finally stated from the front of the crowd. “There are only five talents, after all, and adding a null to your group accomplishes nothing. Trying to make that girl seem important when she really isn't is a waste of our time and your effort, so why don’t we forget about it, eh? Buy the girl a new hat or something instead of trying to push her in where she doesn’t belong.”

“But that’s just the point,” Jovvi returned, completely unruffled, while everyone in Lorand’s sight nodded agreement with what Henris had said. “There
aren’t
only five talents, there are six, and it has now become time for everyone to know about it. Naran has Sight magic, which is the ability to see a short way into the future. It’s thanks to
her
talent that we were able to come to terms with the invading Astindans.”

This time
everyone’s
jaw seemed to drop to the floor, and not a few of the faces owning those jaws also went pale. Dozens of eyes fastened themselves to Naran where she stood beside Rion, and many of the stares, oddly enough, were filled with fear rather than resentment.

“Why are so many of you frightened?” Jovvi suddenly asked, looking around with confusion of her own. “This is unexpected news, I know, but there’s no call for fright.”

“How about outrage and indignation?” Relton Henris snapped, one of his hands closed to a fist as he looked up at Jovvi. “No one has the right to know what I mean to do before I do it, no one! That obscene ‘talent’ invades my privacy worse than the nobility ever managed to do, and I won’t have it! You get rid of that woman right now and we won’t have to say anything more about it. If you don’t…”