A FEW DAYS AFTER Teray had decided to run away, he saw the Clayark. It was like a sign, a warning. Teray had taken several learning stones out far from the House to study in the privacy and solitude of a grove of trees. He had been so involved with the stones that he had neglected his personal security. There had been no trouble with the Clayarks within the sector since the day he left school, but still there was no excuse for his carelessness. To let a Clayark almost walk upon him unnoticed …
Normally, any Patternist wandering away from the buildings of his Housemaster’s estate spread his awareness like a canopy around him. The moment that canopy—perhaps a hundred meters around—touched a human-sized creature, the Patternist was warned. Fortunately, Clayarks possessed none of the Patternists’ mental abilities and had to depend entirely on their physical senses. Unfortunately, the Clayark disease, which so mutated human genes that it caused once-normal mutes to produce children in the familiar sphinx shape, also placed the minds of those children beyond Patternist reach. Only Clayark bodies were vulnerable. As Patternist bodies were vulnerable to Clayarks. Teray drew back farther behind the tree that had thus far concealed him from the Clayark.
The creature was a male, now standing on three legs and eating something with the fourth. Teray found himself watching, fascinated, comparing the creature to Laro’s figurine. He had never had such a close look at a live Clayark before. And now that he was aware of the creature, aware that it was alone, it could not possibly act quickly enough to hurt him. But it was armed. It had the usual rifle slung across its back, the butt protruding over one shoulder so that it could easily be seized.
The creature threw something away, and Teray saw that it was an orange peel. Doubtless the Clayark had been stealing in the groves of Bryant, a neighbor of Coransee who raised fruit. The Clayark also had something that looked like saddlebags strapped across its back. The bags were bulging, probably with stolen fruit.
The Clayark was like a life-size version of Laro’s figurine—well-muscled, tanned, lean, human-headed, and almost lion-bodied. It moved with the easy grace of a cat and wore a flaring red-gold headdress to make up for its lack of a mane. Being furless, it also wore clothing—the skin of some animal fixed about its loins, and another skin wrapped about the torso, probably to ease the strapped-on load.
But most unlikely were those forefeet that served also as hands. For Clayarks who bothered to wear running gloves of the kind that this one was now putting on, the hands remained supple and humanly soft. Clayarks who did not wear gloves developed the heavy callouses that caused the legendary clumsiness of the species.
Suddenly intensely curious, Teray checked the area once more, making certain that the Clayark was alone, then rose and stepped clear of his hiding place. A moment later, the creature saw him. It froze, stared at him.
“Kill?” The voice was deep and harsh, but undeniably human.
“Not unless you make me kill you,” said Teray.
“Not kill?” The Clayark sat back on its haunches like a cat. “Why?”
“I don’t know,” said Teray.
“Boy? Schoolboy?”
Teray smiled grimly, reached out and contracted the muscles of the Clayark’s right foreleg. The Clayark gasped at the sudden pain of the cramp, half collapsed, righted itself, and glared at Teray in silent hatred.
“Man,” said Teray. “So don’t do anything foolish.”
“You want?”
“Nothing. Only to hear you speak.”
The creature looked doubtful. “Your language … not much.”
“But you understand.”
“To live.”
“If you want to live, you’d better stop stealing in Redhill. The Masters here are already after your people.”
The Clayark shrugged. On it, the gesture seemed strange.
“Why do you raid us? We wouldn’t kill you if you left us alone.” He knew the answer, but he wondered whether the Clayark knew it.
“Enemies,” the creature said. “Not people.”
“You know we’re people.”
“Enemies. Land. Food.”
It did know, then, indirectly at least. Clayarks always needed more land and food. They bred themselves out of whatever they acquired almost as quickly as they acquired it.
“You had better go,” said Teray. “Before another Patternist finds you and kills you.”
The creature stood up and stared at Teray for several seconds. “Rayal?”
For once, Teray did not understand. He frowned. “What?”
“You … your father. Rayal?”
Teray had the presence of mind not to answer. “Go, I said.”
Catlike, the creature bounded off toward the southwest boundary of the sector.
Teray stood where he was, wondering how a Clayark had managed to recognize him as Rayal’s son. Well, Coransee had said Teray looked like Rayal, and the Clayarks had gotten a good look at Rayal once years before. Some of them had even lived to tell about it. Perhaps one of them had lived to draw a picture.
Disease carriers that they were, they had deliberately mutilated Rayal, bitten him to give him the one disease that no Patternist healer could cure—the Clayark disease. Were they now seeking out his children, his possible heirs, to do the same to them? Was that why they had come raiding at Coransee’s House to begin with?
Teray reached out, searching the direction in which the Clayark had gone. He swept the area, seeking, searching, but the Clayark was gone. That was one of the difficulties Patternists had—not being able to reach Clayarks’ minds. They could locate Clayarks only if those Clayarks were physically close to them—close enough to be touched by a spread canopy of awareness. Teray’s canopy was much wider than usual because Teray was strong. The Clayark must have strained even its agile muscles to get out of range so fast. Teray wished he had killed it when he’d had the chance.
Hours later when Teray wandered home, he sensed something different about the atmosphere of the House. There were a number of strangers in the common room with the usual clusters of mutes, outsiders, and women. His first thought was that there had been some trouble with the Clayarks and Coransee had called for help. But things were too relaxed for that. The strangers were sprawled about, lazily, resting, being entertained by a stone or a figurine, or trying to seduce members of Coransee’s House.
Teray looked around the room and spotted Amber deeply immersed in the contents of a learning stone. He went over to her and touched her wrist lightly to make her aware of him.
She jumped, and looked around like a person just waking up. Then she saw him and put the stone aside. “I think you may have come home just in time,” she said.
“Why? What’s going on?”
“Your friend Joachim. He’s brought one of Rayal’s journeymen here. I don’t think it was a very bright thing for him to do, but I think he did it for you.”
He frowned at her. “Why would you think that?”
“You mean how do I know anything about it?”
“Yes!”
She hesitated, “Well, you might as well know. Remember that heart attack Coransee gave you on your first night here?”
He said nothing, stared at her in comprehension and humiliation.
“It’s so much easier to hurt or kill than it is to heal,” she said. “Especially to heal someone other than yourself. Coransee had to call me to save your life. I didn’t ask any questions then, but I did later—after Suliana. And Coransee answered them.”
Teray turned away from her in disgust. She caught his arm before he could leave, and held on just a moment longer than necessary. Communication flared between them, wordless, startlingly easy. No information was exchanged. There was only the unexpected unity, closer than Teray had ever experienced, and certainly closer than he wanted.
Amber took her hand from his arm, and the unity ended. It did not halt abruptly, but seemed to ebb away slowly until Teray was alone with himself again.
“I didn’t ask him out of idle curiosity,” she said.
It took him a second or two to remember what she was talking about. By then, he did not care. “Listen,” he said, stepping back from her, rubbing his arm. “Listen, don’t do that again. Ever.”
“All right,” she said.
She agreed too quickly. He did not trust her. But before he could reinforce his words, he received a call from Coransee. He turned without a word and walked away from Amber.
As he went, he tried to shake himself free of the shared unity. He should have remembered his own resolution to keep away from Amber unless he needed her as a healer. What if she accidentally—or not-so-accidentally—picked up his plan to escape? But no, as he had gotten nothing from her, she had learned nothing from him. She hadn’t been trying to snoop through his thoughts. He would have shielded against that automatically. She had been trying a little seduction of her own. He wondered whether she had heard his “no.”
In Coransee’s office, the Housemaster himself waited with Joachim and another man, who was built along the same solid lines as Joachim but who was several years older.
“This is Michael, Teray.” Coransee gestured toward the stranger. “He’s a journeyman in Rayal’s House.”
Still standing, Teray looked at the man, sensed in him solid strength, surprising nearness to Teray within the Pattern, and quiet maturity. The man could have been a very competent Housemaster on his own, Teray guessed. But apprentices in the Patternmaster’s House often opted to stay on as journeymen and never try for Houses of their own. Apparently, they found prestige enough in being Rayal’s officials. And Rayal, as powerful as he was, still needed powerful, impressive servants. Michael was easily both.
“Teray,” Michael greeted quietly. “I have some questions to ask you. First, though, I want you to know what’s happened. Joachim, who was your Housemaster for a short period, has accused Coransee first of illegally forcing you into his House while you were still under the protection of the school—thus, of trading in schoolchildren.”
Teray winced inwardly.
“And second, of competing for the Pattern now, before the legal beginning of the competition—while Patternmaster Rayal is still alive.”
“It’s true,” said Teray. “I was Joachim’s apprentice—technically still in school. Coransee forced me into his House as an outsider so that he could keep me from competing with him for the Pattern.”
“Why do you say he forced you into his House for that reason?”
“He told me that’s why he was doing it.”
Even Joachim looked surprised at that. “It’s clear then,” he said. “Coransee was competing for the Pattern ahead of time.”
Michael looked at Coransee. “I could look into the boy’s thoughts for verification, but I would rather not have to.”
Coransee shrugged, almost lazily. “If you expect me to confirm all that, you’re going to have to. It’s true up to a point, of course. I did take Teray from Joachim. And Joachim accepted payment for him. He accepted a very good young artist I had just acquired. I claim that to be a legal trade.”
“Legal, hell!” said Joachim. “There is no legal way to trade an apprentice.”
“Why did you trade him then—if he was an apprentice?” It occurred to Teray that Coransee was at his most dangerous when he seemed most relaxed. That was when he had a surprise waiting.
“You forced me to trade him,” said Joachim. “I’ve told Journeyman Michael about the hold you have on me. It shames me, but it’s a fact. I won’t sacrifice Teray’s freedom by pretending it doesn’t exist.”
“You sacrificed Teray’s so-called freedom months ago, Joachim. You sacrificed it to your own greed.”
“I will open to Journeyman Michael to prove that you forced me to make that trade!”
“Open. Journeyman Michael will see that I forced you to give up Teray—as I did. But I did absolutely nothing to force you to take payment for him. You could easily have given him up as I demanded, without taking payment, and then gone to Rayal to complain if you felt you had been forced to do something wrong. Instead, you made a profitable trade for a valuable artist. Now you come back trying to cheat me out of the price you paid for that artist.”
Joachim stared at him incredulously, understanding dawning in his eyes. He rose to his feet. “You lying son of a bitch. You son of a whelping Clayark bit …”
Coransee went on as though uninterrupted. “Of course, only outsiders can be traded legally. And, Joachim, clearly, you did trade Teray. You accepted payment for him. How could you have done that if you honestly considered Teray an apprentice?”
Helplessly, almost pitifully, Joachim turned to Michael. “Journeyman, he hides his crime behind technicalities. Read my memories. See what actually happened.”
Coransee looked at Joachim with something very like amusement. Then he looked at Michael. “Journeyman, what is the penalty for the crime I’m charged with? Trading children, I mean.”
“The loss of … your House.” Michael glanced at Joachim.
Coransee nodded. “A Housemaster who trades an apprentice—or accepts one in trade—loses his House. But, of course, a Housemaster can trade as many outsiders as he wants to.” Now he looked at Joachim. “And certainly, any posttransition youngster a Housemaster picks up outside the gates of the school can be classified as an outsider.”
Joachim leaned back and rested his head against one hand. “God, I don’t believe this.”
Michael’s mouth was a straight thin line. “Lord Joachim, you made the charge. Is there any part of it that you want now to retract?”
Joachim gave a wild kind of laugh. “You’re going along with him. You want him to get away with this.”
Michael looked pained. “Lord, did you receive an artist in trade for this boy Teray?”
“I never would have taken him if … Oh hell. Yes, I took the artist. But look, I’ll give him back if you’ll just …”
“That’s between you and Coransee if the trade was legal, Lord Joachim. Are you saying now that it was legal, that Coransee did not force you to take the artist?”
“Shit,” muttered Joachim. “I withdraw the charge. That part of it anyway.” He glanced covertly at Teray.
Teray realized at once that now was the time he could have revenge on Joachim if he wanted it. His own memories would prove that Joachim had traded away a man he had acknowledged as an apprentice. Whether Joachim had Coransee opened or not, Teray’s memories would be enough. He could cause Joachim to lose his House. Not only that, but such an act might win Teray’s freedom. Joachim would lose his House, Teray might go free, and Coransee …? Certainly Coransee deserved far more than Joachim to lose his House. He might actually lose it for the less-than-one-year period that Rayal had left to live. Of course, within that period Teray would have the freedom to learn. He would be able to travel safely to Forsyth and study at Rayal’s House. But for that possible freedom he would have to sacrifice Joachim. There was no way around that.
And somehow, in spite of his severely lowered opinion of Joachim, he could not quite bring himself to destroy the man.
He realized that Michael and Coransee as well as Joachim were looking at him as though awaiting his decision. He met their eyes for a moment, then went to a chair at one side of Coransee’s desk and sat down. “What about the other charge?” he said disgustedly.
Joachim seemed to sag, eyes closed in relief. Michael was impassive, and Coransee seemed almost bored. He toyed listlessly with a smooth cube of stone—probably a blank stone with nothing yet recorded into it. Perhaps he was even recording into it now.
“The other charge,” said Michael wearily. “Competing for the Pattern before the competition is open.”
“I deny it,” said Coransee simply.
Michael frowned. “You deny that you took Teray into your House in order to keep him from competing with you for the Pattern?”
“Yes.”
Teray sat up very straight, wanting to dispute, wanting to damn Coransee for the liar he was, but Joachim’s fate had made him cautious. He waited to see how Michael would handle it.
“Teray,” the journeyman said, “you say Coransee told you he meant to keep you from competing?”
“Yes, Journeyman.”
“And how did he plan to stop you?”
“Either by controlling me as Joachim is controlled, or by killing me—if I refused to be controlled.”
Michael turned slightly in his chair so that he faced Teray squarely. “Are you controlled, then?”
“No. I refused control. He’s given me time to change my mind.” Immediately Teray wished he had left off the last sentence.
“How much time, Teray?” It was Coransee who asked the question.
Michael looked at him in surprise. “Lord, are you admitting that you used such intimidation?”
“Yes. Though not for the reason Teray gives. But even if I had threatened Teray as he says … answer my question, Teray. How much time did I give you?”
There was no point in telling anything but the truth. It was in his memory—and he was not as good at twisting it as Coransee was.
“Teray?”
“You gave me as much time as Rayal has left, Lord.”
“As much time as Rayal has left. And of course when Rayal dies, the competition for the Pattern opens.”
Teray fumed silently, seeing the look of defeat come to Michael’s face. The second charge had died even more quickly than the first. Teray let his mind go back over that morning, that breakfast with Coransee, trying to find some truth he could tell or twist. There was nothing. He himself could think of arguments to kill any arguments he might make.
Teray glanced at Joachim. “Thanks for trying,” he said quietly.
“He’s a hell of a talker,” said Joachim. “Among other things.”
Michael shifted in his chair, and said to Coransee, “Unless anyone has memories to the contrary, Lord, the charge against you is disproved. But there is something I would like to know for myself. Is Teray still under sentence of death?”
“He is.”
“Why?”
“For the same reason Patternmaster Rayal killed the strongest of his brothers and his sister. Even if I win the Pattern, Teray uncontrolled could become a danger to me. He will submit to my controls, or he will die.”
“I see.” Michael lowered his head for a moment, then looked at Teray. “You don’t have to answer me if you don’t want to, Teray, but I’m wondering whether you think you might eventually be able to accept the mind controls.”
“Not even if he was going to kill me right now,” said Teray. “Especially not after this chance to see him in action.” That was reckless. Teray wondered why he was bothering to talk recklessly while he was still in Coransee’s House. Maybe the Housemaster’s lies had angered him more than they should have. After all, lies were what he should have expected from Coransee in such a situation. But Coransee had prepared for his lies long before he had to tell them. Coransee spoke quietly:
“Journeyman, if you’re finished with my outsider, I’d like to speak with you privately.”
And that simply, it was over. Teray and Joachim were dismissed so that Michael and Coransee could discuss more important matters.
In the common room, Joachim said to Teray, “I owe you thanks, too.”
Teray shrugged.
“The trouble I went to to get that Michael here!” Joachim continued. “And then all the lot of us did was give Coransee a few moments of amusement.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
Joachim looked at him strangely. “I’m more upset about this than you are.”
Teray said nothing, his face carefully expressionless. He did not want to lie to Joachim but he could not confide in him. Joachim was Coransee’s man, whether he liked it or not.
Joachim must have understood. He changed the subject: “What has Coransee promised you if you submit to his controls?”
“This House.”
“This!” Joachim only breathed the word. He looked around the huge room. “He must be certain of winning the Pattern.”
“I think he is.”
“If you can resist this …”
“I can. I am.”
“Teray … most of the time, the controls aren’t that bad. And when he has the entire Pattern to keep him busy, he’ll have even less time to concern himself with you.”
Teray ignored him, and looked around the room to see whether Amber was still there. She had gone. Good. “Joachim, do you know a woman named Amber?”
“Teray, listen! You wouldn’t be giving up as much as I did when I submitted. He’s made me a kind of political puppet. But when he’s Patternmaster he won’t have to do such things with you. You’ll be almost independent. And you’ll be alive.”
Teray shook his head slowly, eyes closed for a moment. “I can’t do it, Joachim. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. A long leash is still a leash. And Coransee will still be at the other end of it, holding on. Now, do you know Amber?”
“All right, change the subject. Kill yourself. Yes, I know Amber. What do you want to know about her?”
Teray frowned. “Anything you know about her that isn’t personal. She says she’s an independent.”
“She is. Strange woman. She’s only four or five years out of school, but she managed to kill a man, a Housemaster, before she even made her transition. You ought to ask her about it. Interesting.”
“No doubt,” muttered Teray. “But look, how likely is she to go running to Coransee with anything unusual she hears?”
Joachim shook his head slowly. “Not likely at all. She likes Coransee, but she doesn’t make any special effort to impress him. She does her healing and otherwise keeps out of House business.”
Silently, Teray hoped he was right. It would be too easy for the woman to pick up something. No matter what happened, he was going to have to leave soon.
He found himself wishing he could speak privately to Michael, but he knew it would do no good. Even if the journeyman sympathized with him, the law really was on Coransee’s side. Michael could not change that.
Journeyman Michael stayed two days more, then headed farther north on more of Rayal’s business. North. Forsyth was 480 kilometers south. Teray could not even hope to catch up with Michael and try to attach himself to the journeyman’s party. That might not have been a good idea anyway though, since it would have meant asking Michael to risk his own life by defying Coransee. After all, if things went as Coransee expected, Michael would soon be under Coransee’s direct control.
Teray would have to go alone. He realized that he was putting off leaving for just that reason—because the journey looked more and more like suicide to him. And what should he do about Iray?
That was something he did not want to think about. He was afraid to talk to Iray—afraid she might not want to leave Coransee, afraid her apparent interest in Coransee might be real. But even if it was not—she had kept her word, after all, she had not changed her name—how could he ask her to risk herself with him again? How could he take her out and perhaps get her killed? Then, strangely it was Amber who gave him hope.
She was waiting for him in his room the night after Michael left. He walked in and found her staring out his window.
“Good,” she said as she turned and saw him. “I’ve got to talk to you.”
“You came all the way up here to talk to me?”
“Necessary. I have a message for you from Michael.” And suddenly he was listening.
“Why would Michael give you a message for me?”
“Because I offered to carry it. He and I are old friends, so he trusted me. He couldn’t very well give it to you directly.”
“Why not?”
“God, you must really be preoccupied with something. Don’t you have any idea how closely Coransee has watched you and Michael for the past two days?”
Teray went to his bed, sat down, and took off his shoes. “I didn’t notice. It’s probably a good thing that I didn’t.”
“Michael didn’t think you would have lived long if he had shown any particular interest in you. There would be some kind of accident. You know.”
Teray shuddered. He hadn’t known. He hadn’t even thought about such a possibility. It was true enough, though, that personal attention from Michael could lead to personal attention from Rayal. And surely Coransee would not want Rayal to have the chance to pay attention to another potentially powerful son.
“What’s the message?” he asked Amber.
“That there’s sanctuary for you at Forsyth if you can get there on your own.”
In the moment of utter surprise that followed her words, he did the thing he had feared he might do: He betrayed himself to her. His screen slipped—not far, and only for an instant. Coransee would have been hard put to read anything in so short a time. But Amber, it seemed, knew how to use her closeness to him. She read everything.
“Well,” she smiled at him, “it looks like I’ve brought you better news than I thought I had. Just the news you need, in fact.”
Teray dropped all pretense. Now, either she would report him or she would not. And Michael had seen fit to trust her. “What I really need,” he said, “is a few good fighters to go along with me. I counted twelve women and outsiders traveling with Michael.”
“Fifteen,” she corrected. “Are you taking Iray?”
“I don’t know yet. It seems to me—” He broke off and looked at Amber. She was still barely an acquaintance. Someone to sleep with, perhaps, but not someone to talk over his personal problems with. But on the other hand, why not? It was so easy. And who else was there? “It seems to me that I’ve done enough to Iray.”
“I don’t think you’ve done anything to her. Joachim has, and certainly Coransee has. But you’re only about to.”
“By leaving her—or by taking her?”
“By deciding for her.”
“I don’t want to get her killed.”
Amber shrugged. “If it were me, I’d want to make up my own mind.”
“I told her once that I wouldn’t leave her here.”
“Well, it’s between you and her.”
“Just out of curiosity, what are you trying to build between you and me?”
She smiled a little. “Something good, I hope.”
“What about Coransee?”
“Yes.” She took a deep breath. “Point to you,” she said.
“What?”
“You remember telling me you hoped you’d be around the day I tried to leave Coransee?”
“You tried?”
“No. But I should have—some time ago. Now I’ve become a kind of challenge to him. Now I’m going to settle here as one of his wives whether I like it or not. He says. Which shows that he hasn’t gotten to know me very well in two years.”
“What are you going to do?”
“The same thing you’re going to do. We’ll live longer if we do it together.”
He took several seconds to digest this. His main emotion was relief. “Two, or perhaps three, traveling together. That’s better than one—though not much better.”
“You’re going to ask Iray, then?”
“Yes.”
“Good. We’ll need her.”
“We.” Teray smiled. “I wish you were just a little harder to accept.”
“I’ll wish that myself when the time comes for me to leave you. But I don’t wish it now.”
“You’re staying the night.”
“What about Suliana?”
“I just reached her. She’s going to sleep in her old room—or wherever else she wants to.”
“I’m staying, then.”
She was a lighter golden color beneath her clothing. Honey-colored. The cap of black hair was softer than it looked and the woman was harder than she felt. He would have to keep that last in mind, if he could.