“I protect the school,” said Coransee. “I need the strongest outsiders I can get for the good of the school.”
Joachim made a sound of disgust. “You don’t even expect me to believe that. What is it really, Coransee? Why do you want my apprentice so badly?”
“Perhaps because he’s another son of
Patternmaster Rayal?” Teray spoke for the first time. “One of my many brothers?” His questions were not really questions but he looked toward Coransee as though expecting him to answer.
Coransee stared at him blankly for a moment. Then he smiled without humor and spoke to Joachim. “You see? Already he proves his usefulness to me. I was careless about maintaining my shield, and immediately he reminded me.” And to Teray, “What else did you pick up… brother?”
By now Teray knew that he had made a mistake. He should have kept his findings?and the strength and stealth of his probe?to himself. But it was too late now. No lie would get past an alerted Coransee.
“Only your determination to make me your outsider, Lord.”
“And how do you feel about that determination?”
Perhaps it was the condescending man-to-child tone of Coransee’s voice that made Teray shut out the urgent warnings Joachim was sending and answer in his own way.
“Slavery has never appealed to me, Lord.”
Something hardened in Coransee’s voice. “You consider outsiders slaves then. And, of course, you would never voluntarily become a slave, would you?”
Teray! Joachim finally managed to make his
thought felt. Stay out of this! You don’t know what you’re doing. The more you antagonize him, the less chance we have.
I won’t become his outsider, Joachim. Teray screened heavily, protecting the thought from Coransee’s interception.
You will if you don’t stop talking and let me handle it. I’ve got the rest of the day to talk him out of it.
He won’t be talked out of it. He’s made up his mind. I’m going to have to face him sooner or later, no matter what.
If you’re foolish enough to attack him, Teray, I’ll help him against you myself. Now be quiet and fade into the background with Laro!
The intensity of Joachim’s anger burned into Teray. He had no doubt that that Housemaster was completely serious. The dialogue had taken place in only a few seconds, so there had been no more of a pause in his conversation with Coransee than Coransee’s last questions deserved. Now he still had to answer that question and do it in a way that would not lead to his deeper involvement. Somehow. He was about to speak when Joachim took the matter out of his hands.
“Are you trading with me, Coransee, or with my apprentice?” he asked angrily.
Coransee turned slowly to look at Joachim. Teray was startled at the relief he felt to have the man’s eyes off him.
“Don’t you think the boy should have something to say about this?” asked Coransee.
“You said it yourself.” Joachim ran the words on both the vocal and mental level for emphasis. “What we decide, he will have to accept. He shouldn’t even be here. Neither should the artist.”
“All right,” Coransee agreed. Teray wondered, under his renewed fear, how it felt to Joachim to have his most serious words answered with no more than mild amusement. “But the boy is right, you know. Sooner or later he will have to face me.”
Teray said nothing, sent no parting thought as he left the office. Coransee’s casual undetected eavesdropping into his conversation with Joachim was no more than payment for his own earlier snooping. But it angered him. one should have been able to bypass his screens so easily without being noticed. He had been careless himself. It would not happen again.
He located Iray as quickly as he could, then managed to find a private corner where he could tell her what happened.
She heard him, her eyes widening with disbelief as he spoke. Then before she could respond, a mute interrupted them with an offer of cool drinks and food
It was the first time he could recall her being harsh with a mute.
“Get away from us! Leave us alone!” Teray, what are you saying?
“Speak aloud,” he ordered. “And screen. This will be all over the house soon enough.”
But Joachim wouldn’t…
“Iray!”
She switched in mid-sentence. “… trade you. He wouldn’t. He needs you. You’re the strongest man he?s ever been able to fit into his House.”
“I didn’t say he was going to trade me. I said Coransee wants him to.?
“But why?”
“I don’t know.” Teray frowned. “He’s found that he?s my brother?half-brother, probably. It has something do with that.”
“What difference could that make?”
“I tell you, I don’t know.?
It must be something else. Maybe he really does need your strength now that the Clayarks are raiding him.”
“He can use my strength. But he doesn’t really need it. He didn’t even expect us to believe him when he said
