Patternmaster

There were deer and quail for hunting, and there were cattle that they left alone. The cattle belonged to coastal sectors whose attention they did not want to attract. On the fourth day they traveled within the boundaries of one of these sectors. They passed through as quickly and carefully as they could. They were farther inland than they wanted to be. At one point they found themselves looking down on a large House comfortably surrounded by its outbuildings, which lay below them in a small valley. They hurried on.

It was while they were passing through this sector that they became aware of a great tribe of Clayarks. They were well out of sight of the House, riding easily now since the people of the sector took care of their part of the trail. But they didn’t take care of themselves very well if they let themselves be invaded by so many Clayarks.

The Clayarks were resting—or at least they were not moving. Teray and Amber, their strength united, tried to find out how large the tribe was. They could find no end to it. It extended beyond their double range. Hundreds and hundreds of Clayarks; surely death to any but a large, strong party of Patternists. Teray and Amber detoured widely to avoid any possible contact with them. The Clayarks seemed not to notice, but neither Teray nor Amber could relax again for some hours.

Midway through the journey—on the ninth day rather than on the fifth, as it should have been—they had to leave the trail entirely even though it was well kept and smooth now. Here, it left the coast and ran through the middle of a large sector. It had only gone through an edge of the sector in which they had found the Clayarks. Now, though, the coast jutted out in a large peninsula while the trail continued on due south. Teray and Amber decided to lose a little more time and stay near the coast. They would not follow it as closely as they had, but they would stay well away from the Houses of the sector. As careful as they were, though, early the next day they suddenly became aware of Patternists approaching them on horseback. Seven Patternists.

By now Teray and Amber worked together almost instinctively, worked together as though they had been a team for months instead of days. And they both were strong. It was possible that together they could take on seven Patternists and have a chance of winning—if none of those Patternists was Coransee. Amber spoke as though on cue.

“I don’t think any of them is Coransee. I only got a flash of them before I shielded, but I think I would have sensed him if he had been with them.”

“People from this sector, perhaps,” said Teray.

“No matter who they are, we’re fair game.”

The two groups met in a grove of trees, Teray and Amber on one side, and the seven strangers—four men and three women—on the other. Teray and Amber sat still, tense, shielded from the strangers, joined to each other only by the link. They waited.

“It would be best for you,” said a small, white-haired woman in the center of the seven, “if you came with us without fighting.”

The woman’s hair was naturally white, not graying with age, yet Teray knew she was old. He could not have explained how he knew. Her age did not show in any definable way. Either she or her healer had stopped all physical signs of its progress, to leave her looking about thirty-five. Yet Teray had no doubt that the woman had lived more than twice her apparent thirty-five years. Which was unusual for a Housemaster—as this woman seemed by her manner to be. Most Housemasters were killed for their Houses long before they reached this woman’s age.

“There are seventeen of us,” the woman said quietly. “Ten that I don’t think you’ve noticed yet. We’re all linked. Attack one of us, and you attack us all.”

Immediately Teray and Amber became aware of the ten others approaching from the opposite direction, only now corning within range of the quick scan that they dared to make. Teray looked at Amber. Amber shrugged, then relaxed into a posture of apparent submission. What could they do against seventeen linked Patternists?

“What do you want of us?” asked Teray.

“To pay a debt,” said the woman.

Teray frowned. “A debt to whom?”

“Unfortunately for you, young one, to your brother. To Coransee.”

“You mean to hold us for him?”

“Yes.”

Teray relaxed as Amber had, aware of the tension in the link between them. It was not the tension of a thing on the verge of breaking, but of a thing held in check, ready to spring into action.

“No,” said Teray quietly.

The ten approaching Patternists came into view from among the trees. Teray ignored them, and felt Amber turn her attention to them, as he had expected her to. She was fast enough to sense any attack from their direction before it could do damage. Teray spoke again.

“If Coransee catches me, he’ll kill me. So I don’t have anything to lose in defying you.”

“You have the life of your woman to lose. I can see that you and she are linked.”

And Amber spoke up: “I’m not eager to have Coransee catch me either. And I’m my own woman, Lady Darah. Now as before.”

For the first time, the woman took her eyes off Teray. “I was afraid you might be. Hello, Amber.”

Amber lowered her head slightly in greeting. “You’re right, Lady. We are linked. We’re going to stay linked. And you should be able to guess where we’re going to direct all our power the moment you attack us.”

Teray picked it up at once, suppressing his surprise that Amber knew the woman. “You know Coransee is my brother, Lady. That should give you some idea of my strength. Unless you’re willing to sacrifice your own life as well as the lives of several of your people, let us go.”

“I know you’re strong,” she said. “But I don’t believe you could kill me. Not linked as I am with so many. If you think about it, you won’t believe it either.” She signaled the ten riders now waiting a short distance behind Amber and Teray. The ten began to move forward, clearly intending to herd Teray and Amber before them.

But neither Amber nor Teray moved. Through the link, Teray felt Amber’s slight expenditure of strength an instant before he realized what she had done. Then he understood.

Six of the horses approaching them—the six closest— collapsed. Shouting with surprise, some of the riders jumped clear. Some fell. All seventeen Patternists had been expecting an attack on themselves, or at least on Darah. This attack on their horses caught them completely by surprise. Amber finished it quickly, giving them no chance to take advantage of the momentary opening in her shield. Teray was instantly on guard to stop any who tried.

But there was no movement other than that of the fallen riders and their horses picking themselves up from the ground. None of them seemed to be hurt. And as the Patternists remounted, none of them seemed eager to close with Teray and Amber again.

“Lady,” said Amber softly, “you may have forgotten my skill, but I haven’t. I can kill you here and now, no matter who you’re linked with. I can kill you as easily as I’d kill a Clayark. I’m fast enough to do it to at least one person before anyone reaches me.”

The woman held Amber’s gaze steadily. “You’d die for it. My people would kill you.”

“No doubt. But what good would that do you?”

“You’re not under any death sentence from Coransee.”

“No.”

“And … in view of the favor you once did me, I might be willing to let you go. If you go alone.”