Betrayals (48 page)

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

When the Blending dissolved, Rion heard Alsin Meerk saying, “… people shouldn’t be doing that now. You should be sitting down and resting, because the five will need you later. Do you people hear me? What’s wrong?”

“There’s nothing wrong, Alsin,” Jovvi hurried to assure him, undoubtedly feeling the beginnings of panic that even Rion was able to see in the man. “We Blended to have a preliminary look around in the stockade, and our companions are simply protecting us.”

“Meanin’ nothin’ is wrong here” Valiant clarified, sounding as disturbed as Rion felt. “Inside the stockade is another matter entirely, since every man available has been put on the alert.”

“What?” Meerk yelped, now looking even closer to panic. “How can that possibly be? I thought Sord was given unbreakable orders about not telling his people anything.”

“It wasn’t something Sord said or did,” Jovvi explained, her distant expression suggesting she now examined the scene again. “Those men were alerted even before he returned to the stockade, so my guess would be that someone warned that commandant that the disappearance of the first guard pursuit was nothing to ignore or dismiss. And the commandant clearly hates and distrusts Sord, so his late return to the stockade simply made the man suspicious of what Sord might have been doing.”

“Which leaves us where?” Tamrissa asked, her own disturbance colored with frustrated annoyance. “We can’t wait for them to fall asleep because they’re not going to sleep, so what do we do now? Attack anyway, and hope we have enough strength to overcome that many men?”

“No, no, no, there’s no such thing as ‘hope’ in warfare,” Meerk said with a dismissive gesture, his head down as he obviously considered the problem. “We have to find something that will work, with no hoping about it. But first explain what was going on with your Blending. I was under the impression that you had to be a lot closer than this to whatever you were Blending against.”

“That’s right, you missed the first battle,” Lorand recalled aloud. “Then we’d better tell you what you need to know.”

They all took turns describing what their Blending entity was capable of—as far as they knew—and Meerk stood listening to most of it with his mouth open. By the end of the explanation he was merely shaking his head, most of his wide-eyed expression having disappeared.

“No wonder you didn’t want any of the others practicing exercises in camp,” he said then. “If they had and there’d been a working Blending in the stockade, we would have been spotted. Is it likely there is another working Blending there?”

“No,” Valiant answered, the words morose. “If there was we would have known about it, and I, personally, would have recognized Pagin Holter’s talent. He and his Blendin’ must have already been sent to wherever they send their ‘segments.’ ”

“So much for us having allies inside the walls,” Meerk muttered, then he looked around at the five. “All right, we’ll have to do this in steps. Step one will be to neutralize the High talents they have in there, otherwise we’re probably beaten before we start. And we might be best off waiting until tomorrow night after all, to take the edge off their alertness.”

“I knew we forgot to mention something,” Rion exclaimed, annoyed with himself for not having been able to pinpoint the thing which had been nagging at him. “We found out that waiting is out of the question, as they’re expecting another two hundred guardsmen by tomorrow night. We have to free their captives and then we must leave, but to go where we still have no idea.”

“And there probably won’t be any question about our having the strength to face those two hundred newcomers,” Tamrissa said with a sigh. “If we don’t end up expending everything we have on getting the captives freed, wishes will start to come true on a regular basis.”

“Is there any other good news you haven’t yet passed on?” Meerk asked, his tone more depressed than sarcastic. “If there is, please tell me now; there’s still one small patch of belief inside me that says we do have a chance to be successful. If it’s going to be wiped out completely, I’d rather have it done before I grow too fond of it.”

“Personally, I’d rather not have any more good news of that sort,” Jovvi said, putting a hand to his arm in gentle support. “If our first step is to neutralize the captives, you can consider the matter taken care of. We shouldn’t have any trouble with that part of it, but we still need to know about step two.”

“Step two will probably end up being the guiding of the captives to a back way out, as well as the total destruction of anyone who notices or gets in the way.” Meerk’s tone had now gone grim, a fitting match to his faintly haggard expression. “That is, if you can find a back way out. I would imagine that a stockade is usually considered a place which doesn’t need one.”

“We’ll probably have to make our own back way out,” Tamrissa said, clearly considering that part of it in her province. “But if we do, we’ll certainly attract more attention than we like. If so, what do we do then?”

“Anythin’ we have to,” Valiant said, looking around at all of them. “Does anyone disagree?”

Rion felt no happier than the others looked, but he also joined them in shaking his head. If it became necessary they would destroy anyone and everyone they could, no matter how ill the memory of it made them later on. Rion glanced down at Naran, concerned that she would be even more deeply bothered than the rest of them, but strangely enough she seemed serenely content. She smiled at Rion and gently squeezed the hand holding hers, as if to say that nothing he did would ruin her love for him. That was comforting to know—even though the point had as yet to be proven.

“Then let’s get to it,” Meerk said, obviously forcing himself to briskness. “Where does your five have to be for you to reach the captives and neutralize them?”

“We could do it from here, but I’d rather not,” Jovvi said, looking around at the rest of them to see if they agreed. “The closer we are the less our strength will be drained, so why don’t we try to find a place at least as good as this one, but closer to the stockade?”

“We’ll have to use the Blending,” Lorand said, also looking at his groupmates. “Sneaking around physically and checking out neighborhoods in a strange town takes too much time, not to mention increasing the risk of our being seen by the wrong people. We’ll do it from here, then we can go there a few at a time.”

“I have a different suggestion,” Valiant said, interrupting Rion and Tamrissa’s nods of agreement. “Let’s use the entity to question someone who does know this town, which ought to do the findin’ easier and faster. Then we all go together, but with our Spirit magic people usin’ that ‘I’m invisible’ trick of Sord’s. If we separate, it just increases the chance that one of our groups will be seen.”

“I like your idea better than mine,” Lorand said at once, giving Valiant an amused smile. “As a matter of fact, I like anything that means less work and less danger. Does anyone else have a better idea? No? Then let’s get to it.”

As soon as Jovvi reached to them they Blended, and a moment later the entity floated through the town, seeking the someone who was most familiar with it. That someone turned out to be a staggering drunk, who ceased being drunk when all the alcohol was removed from his system. By then the man was under the control of the entity, and he did indeed know the perfect place for its flesh forms. A large, in-town estate was situated not far from the stockade, only two streets separating the two locations. Even more, the estate had its own exit to a private road which led to the road outside of town. The owners of the estate had left two days earlier for a long stay in Gan Garee, and all their servants had gone with them.

“Obviously lesser members of the nobility,” Rion said once the Blending had dissolved after wiping the former drunk’s memory of the interview. “If they were really important, they would maintain a staff here no matter how long they stayed in the city.”

“Let’s be glad they are,” Jovvi said with a chuckle. “And if I had to guess, I’d say we had our… ‘friends’ in the city to thank for that house. Someone must have warned those people that they might be in a dangerous position, so they packed up fast and left.”

“I consider that extremely accommodating of them,” Tamrissa said, also amused. “Let’s get on the road and find that back gate, and maybe we can take a couple of minutes to bathe before we start our war. We’ll probably need a bath more afterward , but I doubt if we’ll have the time.”

“Let’s get there first, and then we can discuss making use of the place’s amenities,” Lorand said, interrupting Jovvi’s—and even Naran’s—enthusiastic agreement with Tamrissa. “And even if we can take the time to bathe, don’t forget that we can’t take the time or use the strength to reheat the water. Are you ladies all that eager to take a cold bath?”

“Talk about throwin’ cold water on an idea,” Valiant said with a grin for the expressions of distaste the women now wore. “I think bathin’ will probably wait for a time when they’ll get a…warmer reception.”

Rion joined Lorand in laughing and booing that terrible statement, but their banter was interrupted by a clearly annoyed Meerk.

“I do hate to intrude on your good time, but would the bunch of you mind sharing with the rest of us what you’re talking about?” he said tightly. “You were only … away ten minutes or so, and most of us expected it to take longer. Are you trying to say that you’ve found a better place for us already ?”

This time Rion joined the others in quickly apologizing for their thoughtlessness, then kept silent while Valiant described what they’d found. Everyone in the group was delighted with their good fortune, and they all made their way to their mounts in better spirits. Having an actual roof over their heads was far better than standing around in the dark behind a shack, even if they would not have the roof for long.

Rion rode close beside Naran after helping her into the saddle, fully aware of the easy, familiar way she handled her mount but nevertheless unwilling to take chances with her safety. They used the left-hand branch of the main road to circle the town rather than ride through it, and about two-thirds of the way around they came to the gate the former drunk had visualized. The heavy wooden bar on the inside was chained and locked, they discovered, but their Water magic members took care of the problem. They flooded the lock with water then instantly froze it, and after a loud cracking sound, everyone could hear the pieces of broken lock fall to the ground. Air magic then removed the chain and bar, and they were able to ride through the now-open gate before closing and barring it again behind themselves.

The rest of the ride was along the private road, which led after a while to the house. It was a fairly large house, which was all to the good. Being cramped and uncomfortable would certainly not have helped them, Rion knew, and possibly would have been worse than standing around behind a deserted shack.

They discovered that the estate was completely walled, but that didn’t mean they felt they could afford to be sloppy in disguising their presence. The horses were put into the stable even if there weren’t stalls enough for all of them, and then they were given liberal helpings of the fine oats they found stored in the feed room. Rion watched that activity for a moment, and then he realized what was bothering him.

“Unless I’m mistaken, we can’t simply sneak the captives out of the stockade,” he said to Valiant, who stood near him on Naran’s other side. “If we bring them out on foot, they’ll most likely be forced to stay on foot. We don’t have extra mounts for them, we aren’t likely to find the necessary mounts in that town, and we certainly can’t ride double or triple, depending on how many of them there are.”

“I never thought of that,” Valiant admitted with a frown. “I wonder if Meerk did, and has somethin’ in mind to solve the problem. If not, we’d better do some thinkin’ before we get to the attackin’ part.”

Rion agreed, of course, but discussing the matter with the others didn’t occur immediately. Half their number had gone toward the house, and when he and Naran and Valiant followed, they discovered that those with Fire magic were giving separate guided tours. Lighting lamps in every room was not something they were going to do, but kindling small columns of flame to see by was another matter entirely.

“Meerk and the others should be finished with the horses soon, so let’s tell the women and Lorand,” Valiant suggested. “That way if Meerk is as much at a loss as we are, one of the others might have a suggestion.”

Rion considered that course of action sensible, so he and Naran split up from Valiant to search for the others. Rion led the way to the second floor while Valiant searched through the first, and upstairs was where their three group-mates were. Tamrissa lit the way for Jovvi and Lorand as they explored the large, poshly decorated house, but when they heard the question they lost interest in exploring.

“I hope Alsin does have the answer,” Jovvi said, and from the various expressions on their faces she obviously spoke for Lorand and Tamrissa as well. “I have no idea how we can get them mounted, not if we don’t take the mounts from the stockade as well. But to do that we’d first have to…eliminate all those men, which we’re all still reluctant to do—even assuming we have the strength.”

“So let’s see what Alsin has to say,” Tamrissa suggested, then led the way back downstairs. By then Meerk had come in from the stable and Valiant had spoken to him, and unfortunately his reaction was a perfect match to theirs.

“I don’t understand how I could have missed that,” he muttered, now looking more haggard than ever. “And I thought I was doing so well with all this military nonsense…. So does anybody have a suggestion?”

“I suggest we ask the rest of our group,” Naran said when no one else spoke up. “If they don’t have any immediate ideas, they may be able to think of something.”

Since that was the most practical next step, that was what they did. Rion watched their companions while Valiant made the announcement about their dilemma, but no one’s face lit up with the answer. The dimness of the sitting room they’d all gathered in accounted only partially for that; the rest was deep perplexity.