Intrigues

But Mags just rubbed his forehead; he reached the still-empty field and went and sat down with his back against the goal-castle. :Mebbe ye don’ know me as well as ye think ye do,: he replied. :Mebbe they’re all right, an’ ye’re wrong.:

:And maybe the sun will rise in the west tomorrow,: Dallen retorted. :I can’t prove it won’t, but I think that is more likely than that I am wrong about you.:

All Mags could do was sigh.

Chapter 7

:WHERE are you going?: Dallen asked, as he went past Dallen’s stall—wearing, not Grays, but the Palace page uniform he’d gotten through Nikolas. :And why are you wearing that instead of your uniform?: Dallen’s head was up, and his ears pinned back.

Mags turned and looked his Companion in the eye. :Goin’ t’ get breakfast. I ain’t eatin’ in hall till this gets sorted. An’ I don’ wanta get snubbed by kitchen staff neither. Figgered if I wear this, they won’t look past th’ livery. Gonna say I’m fetchin’ food for Herald Jakyr, get the stuff an’ bring it back t’ me room.:

Dallen went very still for a long moment. Mags shrugged, and moved on past. He was tired of knotted stomach and ruined meals. At least this way he could eat in peace.

But before he got to the door, one of the other Companions intercepted him and shouldered him aside, then planted her ample hindquarters right in front of it and stood looking down her long nose at him. He recognized her as Pip’s Litri. She didn’t have to Mindspeak him; it was plain she was not going to let him pass.

:You get back in your room and put on proper Grays,: Dallen said firmly. :What did Nikolas say about not making yourself conspicuous? This isn’t going to solve anything. People are watching you now. If you stop showing up for meals, you’ll only make people more suspicious of you.:

He stared at both Companions. “I cain’t eat wi’ ’em starin’ me down alla time!” he exclaimed in despair. “M’gut’s all inna knot afore I even get in th’ door!”

Litri snorted at him, as if to say she still wasn’t moving. Dallen was not going to give in, either. :Just do what I told you. We have a plan.:

Shoulders hunched, Mags obeyed his Companion. He went back to his room, changed, and shuffled unhappily up the path to the Collegium. With heavy reluctance, he pulled open the door and went in, although he would much rather have been slouching his way to the worst Languages class ever than have to go eat under a sea of—

He stopped in the middle of the corridor, in mid-thought. There were half a dozen people waiting there for him. Bear, Lena, Gennie, Pip, Halleck, and the alternate Gray team member of the South, Meled. If it hadn’t been friends, he’d have turned and bolted for the door, but since it was, he just stood there for a moment, baffled. Before he could say or do anything, they surrounded him, Gennie took one arm, Pip the other, and the lot of them bustled into the dining hall as a group.

As a group, they took up an entire table. Gennie and Pip pushed him down on a seat between them, with Bear and Lena across from him. And as a group—Bear and Lena included—they started chattering about Kirball, immediately, doing absolutely nothing to keep their voices down.

“. . . need a name for those clubs before we use them.”

“. . . neck brace, I think, but it ought to be flexible. Maybe a padded leather collar?”

“. . . think we ought to all get together at lunch, every lunch, from now on, because we are going to need all the time we can get for planning.”

“. . . for goal tending . . .”

“. . . someone with Fetching Gift could take the flag . . .”

“. . . someone with Fetching Gift could lob the balls in and we’d never know it!”

Lena loaded a plate and passed it to him; he got so wrapped up in the Kirball discussion he only noticed when it was under his nose.

For once, even though he was still getting hostile thoughts from some of the others in the room, his stomach wasn’t in a knot. He was in the middle of friends. No one was going to bother him or harass him, at least not right at this moment. The presence of the others pretty much guaranteed that.

Wonderful smells came up from the plate; hotcakes and bacon, hot porridge. His stomach growled and he dug in. The food went down easily and quickly and he was hungry for the first time since all this began.

Pip and Halleck got into a passionate discussion about the finer points of intercepting a ball—something that they hadn’t even begun to work out in practice. Bear waded in manfully, pointing out that a ball going as fast as this one might when hit with a stick would likely break bones if it struck you. That triggered a discussion of more padding. Under cover of this, Gennie leaned over and caught Mags’ eyes.

Her mind-voice rang out clearly in his head. :If we’d known you were getting harassed, we’d have done this before,: she said firmly. :I’m sorry, Mags, as your Captain and as a Trainee senior to you, I should have been looking out for you. From now on, we get meals as a team. All twelve of us, plus your friends Lena and Bear if they can, at lunch at least. Those of us that live up here at breakfast and supper. You’ll never come into the dining hall with less than six people around you. Nobody will want to lock horns with a group this big, we’re Kirball players, which is starting to count for something, and seeing us four sticking by you just quelled any doubts the other Grays had.:

He was so astonished that he could only blink at her. He could scarcely believe she was going to all this trouble.

She snorted quietly at the expression on his face. :What? We’re a team. And I’m almost as strong a Mindspeaker as you, with a lot more practice and training. You might be able to hold things back from me, but I would know you were, even if I didn’t know what they were. You’re good, Mags, but I have to tell you, you can’t keep me out if I want in. And all these stories coming out of the Foreseers makes it ethical for me to rummage around in your head, because of the danger to the King, if I were so inclined.:

:So did ye?: he asked solemnly.

She shook her head. :No, because I trust and I know you. I’d ask first, if not you, then the Dean, and I wouldn’t do it in secret. But others know that I am strong and trained, and they know I’ve had plenty of opportunity, and if they choose to assume I have had a walk around in your thoughts? Well that’s good all the way around. Because they see me here and now and that is just one more shot in the heart of these stupid suspicions.:

:Well... : he hesitated, because he really didn’t want anyone in his head but Dallen... but if that was what it was going to take... :You kin rummage aroun’ in there all ye like.:

She shook her head. :Thanks, but no thanks. You’ve got nightmares in there I’d rather not see. Joy says Dallen told her so. But the mere fact that you offered either means you are the sneakiest and most underhanded and clever person in the Kingdom, or perfectly honest, and since you’re Chosen, you can’t be sneaky and underhanded, so you must be perfectly honest.:

Her perfect trust in the Companions and their Choices shone through her thoughts, warming parts of him that had gone cold with rejection.

:I bin sneaky an’ underhanded wi’ Jeffers—: he said weakly.

:Oh, Jeffers. That doesn’t count,: she said dismissively. :In some parts of Valdemar, he’d be married and with his own family by now. He’s capable of deciding for himself what he wants to do, it’s honorable and honest, and all you are doing is helping him get it.:

:All right then... I gotta thenkee... :

A flash of irritation. :It’s what we all should have been doing. But if the others won’t man up and do it, your teammates will. So there.:

He found himself smiling wanly, and went back to the conversation, which had moved on to finding ways of disrupting Gifts during the game.

While he talked, he let his Gift drift over all the projected thoughts out there. It was soon clear that Gennie’s ploy had worked; no more hostile thoughts from anyone wearing Grays or Whites in this room—though he was getting plenty of curiosity and puzzlement.