“Like chess!” she said. “The king never leaves the board, but if he is trapped, the game is lost. Only the lesser pieces get wiped out. They count only for what they can do to protect their king.”
Your mind indicates a game situation which is parallel to the case here. The losing horse is seldom killed; his mind is restored on another pattern, one which will not be a problem to the winner.
Colene had one more concern. “Seqiro, if you had to fight—could you do it? I mean, not get skunked?”
Ordinarily I could.
“Okay. So all we need to do is prove to the other horses that you have a case, and then you can challenge Koturo. That should set the matter to rights.”
But I lack my minions, and without them I would not be able to prevail.
“Your old minions, maybe. But you have new ones. The four of us. Do we qualify?”
Seqiro was startled. You are not minions. You are free companions.
Colene went to Darius and touched heads. “Would you mind fighting for Seqiro? If it got us out of this mess?”
I am not a fighter, he thought in reply. But I see little hope in the present situation. If this offers a better chance, I would do it.
She went to Nona with die same query. If I had my magic—
“I wish I knew why you don’t. I think it was Seqiro’s ambience that brought your magic to Earth, where magic never worked before. So you should have magic here. But I can’t argue with the fact that you don’t. So it’s just you, yourself. Would you fight for Seqiro?”
I would. But I fear I would be a liability. I am no good with physical weapons, and I lack the fighting spirit you have.
“With Seqiro in your mind, you’ll have it.”
Nona nodded. I will do it.
Colene went to Burgess, grabbing a contact point and describing the situation as well as she could, not sure he could grasp it.
For answer, he fired a stone into a tree, hard.
She returned to Seqiro. “We will be your minions. How do we proceed?”
One of you must go to establish that the charge is in question, and that I wish to challenge. But it means laying one’s whole mind open to the horses, and this is not comfortable.
“I’ll go! It’s my idea.”
Then you must wear your tassel so. He made a mental picture for her to read, showing the position.
Colene explained to the others. Then she set her tassel and marched toward the enemy.
The moment she was alone, she began to doubt. She knew how strong the mental powers of the horses were, and she knew how many guilty little secrets she had hidden in the cluttered recesses of her mind. Was she doing the right thing, or merely bringing disaster upon them all?
But what else was there to do? They would not be able to hide for long, or to resist after they were located. So she went on, trying to quell her nervousness. It couldn’t be worse than the mind predator, after all.
In due course she encountered the first servant. The net was closing in; she had acted none too soon. The man took one look at her tassel, and signaled her to follow him. Soon she stood before a handsome mare. Who?
“I am Colene. Seqiro’s minion. I know he did not blast that mare. He was with me on the Virtual Mode when that happened.” As far as she knew, that was true.
She felt the mare’s mind exploring hers. Language was no problem to the horses; they read thoughts directly. Truth was no problem either; a horse could read a falsehood as readily as a truth, and know it for what it was. Evidently a horse could lie, and make his minions lie, but Seqiro was not protecting her from this verification by the mare. She hoped that her evidence was enough to satisfy this horse that Seqiro had a case.
You have some telepathy of your own! the mare thought, surprised.
“I learned it from Seqiro. Does it matter?”
You restored the mare! Seqiro could not have taught you that.
“I guess maybe I have some talents of my own, and I’m gradually learning how to use them. I do love horses, and maybe that helped. But you can read my mind. You can see that—”
Seqiro has a case. We support his right to challenge Koturo.
Just like that! But of course with telepathic communication, it could be very fast.
The mare turned and walked away. So did the nearby minions.
“But what am I supposed to do?” Colene demanded.
There was no answer. So she shrugged and went back the way she had come.
When she reached Seqiro, and told him what had happened, there was a sudden change. His mind came back, encompassing hers, and all of them were able to understand each other again. We must go to the field, he thought.
“But aren’t there arrangements to make, or anything?” Colene asked. “I mean, they just walked away.”
My right to challenge was granted. They read your mind and saw that my case was valid.
“You mean we don’t have to hide anymore?” Nona asked, relieved.
They reviewed it as they struck camp and walked back down the river to the field that would be the challenge site. A challenge was fair; there would be one horse and four minions on each side, and no other horse or minions would interfere. The winner would have the right of the case. The loser would in effect be dead. The winner would take over the minions of the loser—all of them, not just those participating in the challenge. And that would be it. The only problem was that the minions could get themselves killed during the combat. Even if Seqiro won, one or more members of the hive might be dead. Colene had found a way out of their predicament, but the cost might be suicidally high. Which was perhaps par for her course. The details were arranged by the horses, so rapidly that there was no delay. The combat would occur on the following morning, and probably be done within an hour. Meanwhile, they were free; no one would molest them. It was all very civilized, in a medieval way. They even had the use of several stalls for the night, and could fetch water from a nearby cistern.
Colene expected to be too uptight to eat supper, but she wasn’t; Seqiro made her mind relax. She feared she would be unable to sleep, but she was slumbering before she knew it. Seqiro again. The funny thing was that he did not seem concerned about the event of the morrow. They did not discuss it, or review tactics or anything; they just ignored it. Seqiro and Maresy ambled out to the field to graze.
Then, in her hidden (she hoped) thought, she realized what Seqiro was doing: he was concealing the devious advantages his minions might have. They knew that Colene had some telepathy, but it was so slight compared to that of any of the horses that they surely discounted it. Yet it might enable her to do something on her own, without having to draw from Seqiro’s power. Nona—was it possible that she could find a bit of her magic, when she needed it? That might help a lot. Darius—he was now able to resist the mind control of a horse, which meant that Seqiro might not have to protect him that way. Colene might resist some too, though she had lost her chance to practice when the mind predator attacked. And Burgess was almost immune anyway. So they just might represent a formidable array of minions, freeing Seqiro to act with force where he needed to. They might have a hidden advantage. She hoped.