“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?”
