“That’s a different story,” Delin allowed, his mind grudgingly releasing some of the intensity of his hatred. “A man should never hurry a lady, especially not one who makes the effort to come to
him
. But we won’t hold dinner, not when I’m as hungry as I am.”
“Holding dinner won’t be necessary,” Bron’s voice came, and then the man himself appeared to take his place at the table. “After my exertions of the past few hours, starving is a mild description of my condition. And I can’t afford to be starving, not when I’ll need all my strength for the next time we try to Blend. Next time it will work properly, I’ve promised myself that.”
Delin returned Bron’s smile, but Kambil could see that his mind was just short of being stunned. He’d never expected to hear that from Bron, and he turned uncomprehending eyes to Kambil.
“I suspect that Bron has come to realize just how few people are ever in our position,” Kambil supplied in an offhand way. “Our social status will soar once we’ve managed to Blend, and we’ll be saved from the ignominy of failure.”
“And we’ll have such marvelous control,” Selendi put in, turning her face away from Homin to look at Delin, but continuing to hold Homin’s hand. “Gaining control over ourselves is just the first step in controlling everything around us, so I can’t wait until we try to Blend again. Bron and I will manage it the next time, just wait and see if we don’t.”
Bron’s smile of appreciation for her vote of confidence brought an answering smile from Selendi, and then she returned her attention to Homin. The proper balance was there in all three of them, and even Delin’s stunned incredulity was turning to hopeful approval. Kambil’s work was beginning to pay off, but then a ripple of disturbance went through Homin.
“It’s just now occurred to me,” the small, overweight man said, looking from Delin to Kambil and back again. “A social position that very few can equal… The control we’ll be able to exert once we’ve Blended… No one but the Five wields that kind of power, and the social position is one that
no
one can equal. I’ve never met or even heard about someone who was part of a challenging Blending twenty-five years ago. Can any of you say you have?”
Now it was three minds which were producing shock, with Homin’s stunned realization not far behind. Obviously none of them had considered the point before, and in fact found it almost impossible to accept.
“What you’re suggesting just can’t be,” Delin protested, more than simply thrown off balance. “They’d never do to us what they do to the peasants, not when we
matter
. They may separate challenging Blendings who fail, which is, after all, simple caution, but to do more than that—No one would stand for it.”
“How would they know?” Kambil asked quietly, pleased that the others had finally reached a position of true understanding. “If our friends heard that we’d been rewarded for our efforts with extremely important positions in various parts of the governmental structure, how many of them would wonder why we didn’t call on them to say goodbye before leaving? They’d decide we’d gotten to be much too important to bother with them again, and then they’d shrug and forget about us. Am I misdescribing the situation?”
“No,” Delin grudged when the others remained silent. “It’s exactly what
I
would think if it happened to someone else. But what about our families?
They’d
expect to hear from us, and would certainly cause a stir if they didn’t.”
“Now you’ve penetrated to the heart of the matter,” Kambil agreed, trying to break it to them gently. “My father was very upset when he learned that I’d been drafted to be part of a challenging Blending, but he refused to discuss why until just before we all left our homes to come here. That was when he explained that he’d do the best he could until the competitions, but so far he hadn’t been able to find a way to get me exempted from whatever they mean to do with us afterward. All he’d managed to get was an apology for the necessity of having to use me. I wouldn’t have been chosen if they’d had any choice, they said.”
“Why not?” Bron asked, his tone absolutely flat. “We’ve all been told what an honor and privilege this is. Why would they have chosen someone else over you?”
“Because of two reasons,” Kambil replied, leaking his disgust over the subject so the others would know how he saw it. “The first reason is that I get along with my father and grandmother, and we’re actually quite fond of each other. The second is that I’m known for not getting into … escapades, and several important people in the government have seriously considered taking me on as their chief assistant. I had a … ‘bright future’ ahead of me, but they weren’t able to find anyone else strong enough in Spirit magic.”
The other four sat staring down at the table, and despite the thick silence Kambil knew exactly what they were thinking. None of them really got along with their families, and if there wasn’t out-and-out dislike between them, then indifference was as good as it got. And as far as promising futures went, there wasn’t a single one among them. Even Delin had been considered “too smooth to be trustworthy,” a condemnation Kambil had heard from more than one source. Most people seemed to believe that Delin would immediately try to replace anyone foolish enough to take him on as an assistant, which showed how astute even the dull and unimaginative could sometimes be.
“Why couldn’t they simply separate us?” Selendi asked, her thoughts throbbing with pained disappointment. “I mean, if we lost they wouldn’t have to do anything else, just keep us from ever getting together again.”
“Keep us under guard for the rest of our lives?” Delin asked, his tone less ridiculing than he would have wished. “Even if that were something
we
could live with, they would still have no guarantee that we’d never find a way around their precautions. It would be more than embarrassing for them if we got together, and their precious Seated Five turned out to be incapable of defeating us. No, they won’t simply separate us.”
“So you see that we, also, have no choice in the matter,” Kambil summed up, now sending determination. “We
have
to Blend and we
have
to win, but not just for the unique position and its incredible amount of power. We have to do it to save our favorite necks, which no one else can do for us.”
The others all stirred and began to absorb his determination, which they were able to do without interruption. No one had noticed yet that not a single servant had intruded on their privacy, something Kambil had made sure would be so before he began the conversation. Rigos’s spy on the staff hadn’t been easy to handle after all the rest of the work Kambil had done, but it had been necessary so he’d accomplished it anyway.
All
the servants were now waiting to be summoned, without the least thought about listening in.
“Well, if one or two of us didn’t really want to win before, I think they’ve now changed their minds,” Delin said after a moment, looking around at everyone else with an expression of grim satisfaction. “Before, winning could be looked at as simply saving face, but now it’s the only thing that will save the rest of us as well. Do any of you believe otherwise?”
“Not any more,” Selendi surprised them by saying, anger and resentment strong in her mind. “I can see now that I never really believed we would win. I thought we would just perform in the competitions and then go back to our previous lives, but now I know that my previous life doesn’t
want
me back. My father could have kept this from happening to me, but since he’ll still have my sister he probably didn’t even try. I want him to regret that, along with the way he never had any time for me once I reached the age of eleven. I
will
make him regret it.”
“Along with my father,” Homin agreed, his thoughts more hardened than Kambil had ever seen them. “I can now remember at least two occasions when I overheard him saying I was an embarrassment to him. Once it was to an associate who was just as powerful as he was, and once it was to Elfini. After that was when she first began to … concentrate on me, but I couldn’t bring myself to blame my father for the torment. Now I can, and suddenly I want to see him pay.”
“For me it’s my father and mother together,” Bron said with his gaze on his empty plate, another surprise. “They always gave me everything I wanted, then seemed to blame
me
for wanting it in the first place. If there were things they didn’t want me to have or do, why couldn’t they have just said so? Why is it my fault that they could never refuse me anything? I want to ask them that, but if we don’t win I’ll never get the chance.”
“And my father has spent my entire life trying to grind me under his heel,” Delin put in, his gaze distracted and far away. “He’s never been able to force me into accepting his authority without question the way everyone else does, and he resents that lack bitterly. He knows I’ve always been terrified of his punishments, but that’s never been enough. He needs to be in complete control of everything, and I’m the one who kept that from happening. I swore a long time ago to
always
be the one, and winning is the only way I can keep that oath.”
“Winning is also the only way I can ever see my grandmother again,” Kambil said, feeling that closing the circle was extremely necessary. “She’s always been my whole world, and would never understand if I disappeared without a word. I could never do that to her, not on purpose and not even involuntarily. I’ll do anything I have to to avoid it, and I mean anything.”
“So we’re all agreed,” Delin said with the first smile for his groupmates that wasn’t forced or artificial. “We’re going to do this, so I propose we get started right after dinner. Since we know what’s supposed to be done, let’s just go ahead and do it.”
Everyone liked that idea, a fact Kambil checked on before reaching for the table bell that summoned the servants. Every one of them was prepared to do his or her best, and the resolve was strong enough to carry them along with it. If they were just able to Blend the first time, the greatest hurdle would then be behind them.
Dinner was a little less than perfect because of the forced delay in having it served, but no one seemed to mind. Everyone ate with better appetite than they had in a long while, and after dessert they retired to the sitting room with a large tea service. They were all prepared to keep at the practice until they finally achieved Blending, and once again the servants had been put into a state of complete forgetfulness where the five of them were concerned.
“All right, let’s get into our positions,” Delin said after Kambil had closed the door and joined them. “Bron first, Kambil second, me third, Homin to Kambil’s right, Selendi to Kambil’s left.”
Everyone nodded and began to move, and actually checked their positions once they were in them. Kambil always found it amazing that the proper motivation was able to change a person completely, the proof of the contention now being right in front of his eyes. Bron and Selendi were totally different people, and Homin’s slow change of character had now strengthened and intensified.
But it was Kambil’s place to begin the exercise, so he put aside all extraneous thought and opened himself more widely to the power. The inrush of strength was both familiar and necessary, allowing him to extend invisible arms to his groupmates without the delaying drag of fatigue. He touched them all at the same time, and then—
And then was almost knocked over when all four of them responded immediately! Double lines of incredible strength held him to them and them to him, lines Kambil knew they were all aware of. And then the unexpected happened, when Homin also reached out to Selendi. Her instant touch in return spread to include the other two men, who also instantly returned the touch. And through her in some way, all three men linked up with each other! There was almost a burst of light, soundless and extremely brief, but enough to illuminate the fact that everyone was now linked to everyone else.
*
We’ve done it!*
Delin’s “voice” came through the link, exultant with delight and pleasure. *
We’ve Blended, even though they probably thought we couldn’t! So what do we do next?
*
*
I don’t know,
* Kambil admitted, aware of the way his frustrated annoyance reached the others immediately. *
No one really knows how this works, so it’s impossible to say. Let’s make sure our ties are strong enough to return the next time, and then let it go.*
Kambil shared the disappointment which came from the others, but prudence had dictated his decision. When you don’t know what you’re doing, it’s just as likely that you’ll harm yourself as it is that you’ll accomplish something positive. They’d come much too far to take a chance like that, not when their dream was almost in their grasp. Kambil checked his attachments to the others, decided that they couldn’t possibly be stronger, and so withdrew his touch and let the Blending dissolve.
“I’ve never experienced anything like that in my entire life,” Delin said then, his expression almost giddy. “I was myself at all times, but I was also each of
you
.”
“And I felt all the other connections go through
me
,” Selendi said with a faint frown. “The ones to Kambil and Homin were strongest, which means you were right, Kambil. I’ll visit Delin and Bron tonight, so that tomorrow
all
the connections will be strong.”
“And then we’ll begin to be a force to be reckoned with,” Homin said, giving Selendi a quick, encouraging hug. “Tomorrow our … mentor should be pleasantly surprised.”
“When this happens for the first time in front of him, I think you mean,” Delin corrected gently. “We don’t want them knowing we’re ambitious enough to have practiced, so we make sure not to mention it. And we especially make sure that Rigos doesn’t find out.”
“I’ve fixed it so that Rigos is less of a problem,” Kambil pointed out, having found a place to sit as soon as he released the power. “I’m too tired to go into details right now, but Rigos’s spy won’t be telling him anything we don’t want him to know.”
“That will just make Rigos a small bit less dangerous,” Delin disagreed, walking toward the tea service. “We need to be entirely rid of him, or he’ll certainly find a way to ruin our intentions. But don’t any of you worry about that. I’ll find a way to dispose of him, just wait and see if I don’t.”