They might reveal themselves.

“It’s fantastic!” Mags said with more enthusiasm. “Which teams’ll be a- playin’?”

“All of them. East against South, us and North,” Gennie said with great satisfaction, rubbing her hands together with glee. “This is going to be amazing!”

It’ll be amazin’ iffen I kin get through this next moon wi’out droppin’ over wi’ exhaustion. An’ ne’er mind them Agents tryin’ t’kill me iffen they ever figger out I’m lookin’ fer ’em.

sb.png

Helping Bear was completely out of the question now; there was no way he would be able to do that and keep up with the training schedule that Gennie had imposed on them.

Training was in the morning, before the full heat of the day was on them, and with all four teams needing field space, they were beginning at dawn. The Dean had thrown up his hands in defeat as soon as this Festival had been announced. Those Trainees who were on the teams had been put into their own classes, which were more like big tutoring sessions, lasted all afternoon, and dealt with all subjects together. Instead of attending formal classes with lectures, each of the players was given daily assignments by his or her regular instructors and was expected to turn them in completed by dinner. Teachers came and went during the afternoon, and the Trainees were expected to help each other. Strangely enough, it worked well, at least as far as Mags could see—though he could also see the potential for slacking off, so he doubted this novel approach was going to last past the Festival.

But this approach pretty much decreed an end to his “snooping” up on the Hill. He simply did not have time. By the time dinner was over, the Collegia kitchen staff and the few servants were gone—because their working days began before dawn and ended as soon after dinner as possible. He had no reason to be poking his nose over into the Palace staff and absolutely no reason to be found among the courtiers. The Guard had been tolerating his presence by day, but by night, those who were not on duty were not in the least interested in socializing with a “boy”—and at any rate, most of that socializing was going on down in two or three specific taverns in Haven, where, again, he would stand out rather than blending in. If he’d had time, he might have been able to slip in posing as a potboy, but by the end of the day, he was far too weary to spend his evening delivering drinks and clearing tables.

The closer the time came for the Festival, the more agitated he felt. He was getting nowhere alone. He had no idea if Nikolas and the others had had any more success than he had—but he rather doubted it.

Finally, the week before the Festival, he made up his mind. So far as he knew, he was the only person, Herald or Trainee, who had exactly the right combination of Gifts to find the Agents, if they could be found at all. He’d had one brush with their minds; in theory at least, he should be able to find them at a middling distance... if . . .

He thought about this all through the afternoon tutoring session, and instead of going to supper and sitting down with the rest, he went out to Companion’s Field to consult with Dallen.

::Whatcher think?:: he asked, without preamble, when Dallen ambled up to the fence and put his nose over it. While occasionally it was a bit irritating to have Dallen “looking over his shoulder,” so to speak, virtually all the time if he didn’t specifically work to keep the Companion out, this was one time out of many when it was a distinct advantage that Dallen knew what he had been considering.

::I think it will work,:: Dallen replied. ::With a few changes. Nothing drastic. But it will make a great deal of difference. Do you remember that room with the crystal sphere in it?::

He blushed a little. As if he could forget! He and Amily had gotten rather beyond just kissing before prudence and Dallen’s reminder that the room was not a private one had brought them both to their senses.

::What ’bout it? I mean, ’tis shielded, so that’ll help, I s’pose—::

::It’s more than that,:: Dallen said, raising his head and flagging his tail. ::Much, much more. If you were being Gift-trained like the rest, you wouldn’t even know the thing exists, much less what it can do, for years, maybe not ever. But I am your instructor, and it is my determination that—::

::What thing?:: Mags interrupted him. ::Ye mean, thet glass ball?::

Dallen snorted and shook his head so his ears flapped. ::That ‘glass ball’ is not glass at all and —well, never mind. The point is that one of its functions is to allow anyone to focus a Gift with great precision, providing that the Gift us under conscious control. For instance, it helps Mindspeakers to focus right down on a single person at a great distance.::

Mags saw where he was going immediately. ::So, since I already know what these bastiches feel like an’ look like, what wi’ thet whatever ’tis thet’s watchin’ over ’em, I kin find ’em wi’out havin’ t’drop shields an’ kinda roam around open.::

::Exactly,:: Dallen replied and fixed Mags with an intense gaze, his blue eyes practically boring a hole into Mags’ brain. ::You’ll have to be careful—I honestly don’t know what is shielding these people, and we already know that it reacts poorly to any perceived meddling. For all we know, if it thought there was something about, it might lash out. And the danger isn’t only to you, it’s to anyone about that might somehow be open to it.::

::Aight. I’m headin’ fer thet room now.::

He patted Dallen’s shoulder, turned, and—

Well he would have trotted toward the Palace, if it hadn’t been so hot that it felt as if he were being weighed down by bags of baked salt. He concentrated on the fact that it was going to be a lot cooler in the shade and grimly forged his way toward the buildings.

Getting inside the Palace was a relief. The side door was in shade, and the stone walls of the Palace held out a lot of the heat. The cooler he got, the more energetic he felt, and he began to feel less like a baked brick as he made his way down the dim stairs and into the lower level. By the time he reached the door to that mysterious little room, he was feeling as if he could take on almost anything.

He opened the door to find that the room was empty, and there was no sign that anyone had been in it

Вы читаете Changes
Добавить отзыв
ВСЕ ОТЗЫВЫ О КНИГЕ В ИЗБРАННОЕ

0

Вы можете отметить интересные вам фрагменты текста, которые будут доступны по уникальной ссылке в адресной строке браузера.

Отметить Добавить цитату