Changes

::Should we tell ’im we already did?:: Mags asked Dallen. ::Well, except for th’ part ’bout doin’ it durin’ th’ Kirball game... ::

::No. Let him keep some shreds of his dignity.::

Nikolas got up, still shaking a little, and looked down at the three of them. “I think you are both very brave, and very insane,” he said to Mags and Amily.

“Says the man in the ‘Here I Am, Shoot Me’ uniform,” muttered Bear.

Mags shrugged. “Reckon best way t’keep Amily safe’s t’let ’em think they got high ground when it’s us’s got it.”

“I hope you’re right, Mags,” the King’s Own said, and left.

“It’ll be all right,” Pip said, as Mags fidgeted with his gloves for the twentieth time. “No one, and I mean no one, is going to try to get her where she is right now.”

“I wouldn’t try it,” Gennie agreed. “She’s out in the open, and there’s a stiff wind, so that means these people can’t use some sort of smoke or powder to incapacitate everyone. If they had incredibly powerful Mind- Magic, they’d have used it already. There’re Heralds all around the ring. There’s absolutely no way you could eliminate all those dogs. You might be able to do something to, oh, maybe half of them. And the ones you didn’t—” She shook her head. “They’re boarhounds and deerhounds, sure, but Herald Sorald told them to protect her while she’s there. When Sorald tells an animal to do something, it generally gets the job done.”

Right now, Amily was judging a dog contest. She was, indeed, surrounded by wolfhounds, boarhounds, deerhounds, and bearhounds—not to mention a nice selection of the enormous mastiffs trained from puppyhood to guard children. She was in the middle of a riding ring, set up for horse and hound judging. A Herald with the Gift of Animal Mindspeech had—so Mags understood—made it quite clear that besides behaving themselves and ignoring anything that might be a distraction, the dogs were all required to protect Amily from any threat.

This, or so those whose expertise in this sort of thing said, was likely to drive the Agents and any help they had hired on insane. There she was, out in the open and untouchable. They all felt that this would make the Agents snatch at the first opportunity that presented itself to make their play.

Mags wasn’t so sure about that. If the Agents really had recruited local criminals for this—certainly. But to his mind, they were much, much too cool to be irritated into acting before they were ready. No, he was pretty certain that, despite all their plans, something would happen where, for a moment, everyone would be caught off guard, and only then would the kidnappers move in.

As he saw it at this point, his job was not so much to keep them from taking Amily himself but to buy time for the rest of her protectors and the ambushers to get to them. It was one thing to tell himself that there was no way they would get to Amily except through him—but the reality was the very best he and Dallen could do, if Ice and Stone were as good as he thought they were, was to delay them until the odds were just too great for them to succeed.

::Are you sensing anything?:: Dallen asked.

::I’m thinkin’ mebbe I put m’foot in’t when I bumped them shields,:: he admitted ruefully. ::I’m thinkin’ now them things knows me, an’ they closed up even tighter nor afore.::

::If you did, there’s nothing we can do that will change that, so you have to watch for the shields themselves,:: Dallen admonished. ::And if you didn’t, then they’ll be leaking away, and you need to watch for the telltale signs of them.::

“Hate it when yer right,” Mags muttered.

“What?” Pip whipped his head around.

“Jest—Dallen.”

“Right.” None of them really had their heads in the game today. Mags wished he’d been able to divulge what was going on, but even if the only ones he’d told were his fellow Grays, that still meant there was a chance that Ice and Stone would get wind of the plan. Only the specific Heralds guarding Amily knew what had been predicted. I’d still feel a hella lot better iffen t’others knew . . .

Even as he was thinking this, he noticed something... odd.

The Trainees on his team stiffened. So did those on the opposing team. Was some sort of message being passed? Then why hadn’t he heard it? And why was every Gray on both teams turning furtively to look at him?

A Mindvoice that was completely new to him “spoke” inside his head. ::Mags. It’s Riker.::

Riker? But he was the Captain of—

::We all just got told by our Companions what’s going on.:: Mags looked up, startled, to meet Riker’s solemn gaze. ::Gennie’s blocking everything at the moment, I think she’s a bit stunned at the mere idea that Amily could be in serious danger. Ask her to come over and talk to me quick, please.::

Mags gave an abrupt nod and turned to see that Gennie was looking at him with a horrified gaze before she got herself under control. “Gennie, Riker wants ye t’ go talk to ’im,” he told her. “Not sure why, ’cept ’e says you an ’im need t’ talk ’bout what’s goin’.”

She nodded brusquely and moved out of the pack, heading for the other side of the Kirball field.

“What’s going on?” asked Jeffers, puzzled. “Gennie—”

“Huddle up,” Pip said sharply. “I’m going to tell you.”

When they had huddled, Pip and Mags together explained the situation as best they could. A shocked silence filled the space where the team huddled together when they were done.