Prophecy (11 page)

“I wish we could,” Lorand said ruefully—and with a lot of relief. “But think about what we would have to tell them: there are people among you who are representatives of the Seated Five, here to do us harm because we mean to unseat the Five. You’ve gotten to know
them
over the last day or two and you don’t know most of
us
at all, but we still want you to betray them to us… I really don’t think that will work.”

“No, I’d have to agree with that assessment,” Meerk said with matching ruefulness as well as a headshake. “They’d be more likely to turn on us than help us, and that despite your presence among us. But how will you know if you get them all?”

“If we can find their leader and get control of him, we’ll know how many there are and where they can be found,” Lorand replied, back to thinking about the problem. “The trick will be to spot any of them, leader or not. We’ve walked past those crowds twice, and nothing about them struck even me as being different or not-quiteusual. And we’ll have to be very careful. The people of this town might consider themselves supporters of the authority represented by those guardsmen, but to the guardsmen they’renothing but hostages and pawns to be used to get what they want. If some of those hostages and pawns don’t survive, well, so what? As long as they serve their purpose…”

“Yeah,” Meerk agreed gruffly, knowing exactly what Lorand meant. “That’s always the way they look at it, isn’t it? They’renot bright enough to understand that if their bosses run out of pawns to waste, they’ll start to spend the guardsmen in the same way. They’ve been led to believe that they’resafe, which is the only thing some people worry about. They don’t seem capable of realizing that ‘safe’ is only temporary at best.”

“That’s true even with the right people in charge,” Lorand said with a nod of his own. “If you have the
wrong
people in charge… Well, I think I’m wanted for the Blending, so please remember what I said.”

“I intend to remember every word,” Meerk said in a way that seemed odd to Lorand, especially with the smile the man showed. “I’ve grown to consider you a friend, Lorand, and today you really proved the point. If things turn out the way I hope they will, I’ll owe you more than just a favor.”

Lorand felt the urge to ask Meerk what he was talking about, but the others were waiting for him to join them so he shelved the question for now. Later he’d have to remember to go back and find out what the man meant…

“We’ve decided to try something different,” Jovvi told him with her usual sweet smile once he stood with the others. “Pagin Holter and his group have agreed to try seeing if their entity can help ours. The last time both of our entities were active, we were at opposite sides of that battle with the guardsmen.”

“I wonder if two entities can Blend,” Rion said, looking around to see if anyone could answer the question. “If they can’t, what about linking? And would that increase our strength the way ordinary linking does?”

“We’ll probably find out when we try it,” Tamrissa responded with a shrug. “So what are we waiting for?”

“We’rewaiting to sit down and get comfortable,” Jovvi said with clear amusement as she shook her head at Tamrissa. “Standing up will just drain our strength faster, which we definitely don’t need. And it ought to help even more if we sit next to our respective link groups.”

Tamrissa put her hands up, palms out, to show she had no intention of arguing, which made Lorand chuckle. Tamrissa was always so eager to get the Blending going, as though… Lorand’s amusement disappeared as he realized that Tamrissa was always eager to get the Blending going because that was her only escape. The way she moved and held her body shouted that she wanted to be unaware of all personal problems, to
his
senses at least. She had to be a lot more unhappy than she’d let anyone know…

Well, that was something else for later, Lorand forced himself to understand as he took his own place near the link group of Earth magic users. They were all sitting down on the thick bed of straw which someone had spread, and with thirty people arranged in their immediate vicinity—not to mention the other thirty which included Holter’s Blending—the formerly wide-aisled stable became a good bit narrower.

The rest of their people stood in their own link groups, ready to defend the searchers if any of the guardsmen came into the stable. With everyone settled in place there was nothing more to wait for, so Jovvi initiated the Blending. Lorand responded to her reaching out with his own talent outstretched, and then—

—and then the entity was there once more, this time for a purpose other than immediate battle. There were enemy flesh forms out among the flesh forms of that town, and those enemies needed to be located. Also, hovering with the intention to be of help, was a second entity. The entity recognized the second as that which had assisted during a recent battle, and therefore welcomed its presence. The strength of the second wasn’t quite as great as that of the entity, but perhaps it would indeed be of help…

The entity floated swiftly out of the stables, the second following closely and watching intently. That was proper, of course, for the lesser to follow and learn from the greater, and to be at hand if assistance was required. That foolishness which one of its flesh forms had considered, the possibility of the two entities Blending… Surely even flesh forms were aware of the need for more than two to Blend. Linking, in the way that was currently done by the flesh forms was also undesirable, for there was a far better and more effective way to accomplish the same end. If such a thing became necessary, it would certainly be done…

Outside the stables there were even more flesh forms than there had been earlier, all of them in a state of agitation. It seemed that those who had met with the entity’s flesh forms had come out of the building in which they had been, and now two of them spoke to the throngs which stood about listening. The two were not saying the same thing, the entity realized, and the listeners were agitated because of being urged to two different courses of action. That foolishness could be easily corrected, but later, after the entity’s primary aim was accomplished.

And that primary aim might be more easily seen to than the entity had expected. It hadn’t appreciated the point earlier, during its two brief appearances, but its senses now felt more … sensitive and widespread. The entity was growing closer to the way it knew it really should be, which was extremely heartening. There would be more actions available to it once it had reached its optimum condition…

But for now, the improvement in its senses was very much of a help. Not only was the world about it much clearer, but the flesh forms it was required to examine were also more easily read. Those beings over there were all but terrified, and for that reason were refusing to heed the words of one of the two speaking flesh forms. If those words were heeded, the terror they felt would surely increase, therefore they heeded the second speaking flesh form instead. Denial of the danger was to them a refuge, unlike some of those who stood elsewhere. Those others were prepared to take action against the danger, even if the action were no more than running away.

The entity ceased inspecting those who were read easily, and moved its attention to those who were more difficult. Among this group would its enemies be found, but apparently not immediately. One after the other, the individuals the entity examined proved to be almost the same as the others. Some wore their feelings clearly upon their faces and others not quite so clearly, but all seemed of the same sort. Ordinary flesh forms, excited to one degree or another…

The entity pulled back from its investigations, momentarily vexed. Right now there seemed to be no difference between the ordinary flesh forms and those who were enemies, as both groups might be expected to be agitated to
some
degree. The enemy did, after all, know that they might be discovered and destroyed at any time. The objective, then, would be to produce a different sort of agitation in the enemy, to mark them out more clearly. With that point understood, there remained only the matter of constructing the
manner
of marking them out.

A moment of thought brought the entity a possible answer to its needs. The plan would, in a manner of speaking, see to solving two situations at the same time, an economy of effort which the entity fully approved of. With that in mind the entity floated closer to one of the two flesh forms who were speaking, specifically the one called Mollit Feldin. That flesh form was very closed-minded, clinging to its own beliefs no matter the foolishness of them.

“… so we gotta r’member these here strangers ain’t our own folk,” the flesh form was in the midst of saying, speaking to someone in the throng who had spoken first. “Idroy Welt there’ll b’lieve anythin’ ya tell ’im, since he don’t care none ’bout lookin’ foolish. He
allus
looks foolish, but I don’t aim t’do th’ same. There ain’t no trouble comin’, th’ trouble’s awready here, an’ it’s that buncha strangers. Like as not they’ll be tearin’ through our stuff soon’s we pack up ’n leave, takin’ whut they want without no one about to say not t’. I ain’t been workin’ m’backside off jest t’ give whut little I got t’ sum slick-talkin’ strangers.”

“Lorand Coll ain’t no stranger,” the flesh form called Idroy Welt countered, but in a way which suggested that he’d said the same thing many times over. “He’s one a ourn, an’ he coulda gone to any town in this parta th’ country. But he came
here
, ’cause he still thinks like one a us an’ couldn’t bear the idear a seein’ us done in. If we don’t tend t’ our own backsides an’ get ’em an’ our fam’lies outa here, there ain’t nobody else gonna do it fer us.”

“Hey, shore there is,” Feldin responded immediately, showing nothing of the fact that the entity now controlled what he said. “We ain’t no more alone now’n we been on our farms. If’n there’s sum trouble headin’ our way, the nobles’ll send us all th’ help we need. An’ why not? Don’t they need us t’make their holdin’s worth sumthin’ more’n jest dirt?”

The babble of voices which had been sounding all around during the speeches of the two men now increased in volume, as they all reacted to what had just been said. Most of those listening knew better than to expect help from the nobility, but some clutched at the suggestion with the panic of desperation. The minds of that sort were suddenly filled with hope, just as the minds of those with a realistic understanding of the world simply dismissed the idea as wishful thinking. Both of those reactions were to be expected from the natives, but the third reaction…

The third reaction was feelings of scorn, or ridicule, or actual outrage, in any combination or even all three. The messages came through clearly from the bodily stances and motions of those who felt the emotions, those who were guardsmen and therefore knew the nobility far better than anyone in the town. The entity was able to scan the throng quickly enough to pinpoint which of the flesh forms these were, but that was simply the first step in seeing to the danger. The second step would have to be finding a way to control so many diverse flesh forms.

Putting them under control a few at a time would be possible, the entity knew, but not highly practical. It floated about examining the various components of the enemy force, seeing how their mode of dress allowed them to blend in with the innocent flesh forms. But now it was also possible to see that they waited for something, were poised to react in a certain way when that something occurred. Their reactions would not be to the benefit of anyone in that town, the entity was certain, therefore something had to be done about them rather quickly.

And then the entity knew exactly what there was to be done. With their brother/sister entity right there, the answer became obvious. So the entity sent the knowledge to the second, which had not been in existence long enough to begin remembering all that the entity did. The second sent its amused agreement, amused because it, too, now remembered what was possible here, and therefore the entity moved to one side of the throng while the second moved to the other, and then it began.

The entity sent its desires radiating out in all directions, but not just at random as it would have done had it been alone. The desires reached the second and were reflected back, intensified as they radiated out again. The entity received this response and also reflected the incoming emanations, which sent them toward the second again. This happened much more quickly than can be described in words as well as over and over again, and when the effect reached its peak, the entity’s commands were many, many more times more powerful than they’d been at first.

Those commands reached the disguised guardsmen wherever they were in the crowds, and disobedience simply wasn’t possible. They left off speaking to others or simply standing and listening, and began to make their way toward the stables where the entity’s flesh forms were. They were now under the control of the true Five, and would obey any and all orders given them. The entity had time to reflect that it hadn’t had to discover the whereabouts of these erstwhile enemies to begin with, not with this newly remembered weapon at its command, and then—

—and then it was Lorand back again, suddenly aware that the entity must have borrowed strength from the link groups. He wasn’t nearly as weary as he’d been at first, but then he remembered just what their Blending had done.

“Now I know why the nobility is so terrified about having other Blendings running around,” Tamrissa said, actually sounding as shaken as Lorand felt. “I had no idea something like that was possible, and I suppose it wasn’t—until we had another Blending to work with.”

“There are a lot of things we don’t yet know about,” Jovvi said, looking as disturbed as the rest of their group. “This kind of thing… We’ll have to be careful not to start using it on a regular basis, or we could end up being worse for the empire than the ones now sitting on the Fivefold Throne.”

“I wonder how much of it those approachin’ Blendin’s from Astinda know about,” Vallant said, his disturbance even deeper. “If Holter and his Blendin’ are goin’ up against them even to talk, this kind of thing—or another—could get them all destroyed. I think they’ll need to take one or two of our fledglin’ Blendin’s along with them, just in case.”