Betrayals by Sharon Green Page B

facade and had become frightened anyway. Whoever it was had to have a respectable amount of power, and so was a dangerous enemy. As soon as Zolind and the current Blending—and certain of the rest of the Advisors—were seen to, Kambil would make it his business to identify the person, and then he would give the man his thanks for almost having ruined his life.
    Once the meal was over everyone separated to prepare for the outing, Delin being taken care of by two of the servants. Their group tended toward brightly colored clothing, which simply would not do for their current undertaking. Not being noticed was more easily accomplished when people had drabness to overlook, and Kambil’s groupmates never questioned the need to make things easier for him. That was one definite benefit which made up for the bother of having to be in charge.
    When all five of them had reassembled in the hall, Kambil switched Delin over to simply being under control, then he initiated the Blending. Their entity formed at once, of course, and proved to be almost completely stable despite Delin’s … buried desire to rage, might it be called? Somewhere beneath all the control and passivity was the angrily terrified Delin personality, hating what had been and was being done to him.
    But Delin had never been able to resist being taken advantage of, and now was no exception. After a moment his part of the entity settled down, and then their combined talents were able to search out and affect every member of the guard force around the residence. The guardsmen would continue to remain alert, but would see nothing of the five as they left and returned.
    Then it became simply a matter of their walking out to the coach Kambil had arranged for earlier. The driver would be seen to later by the Blending, after Zolind and the Five were taken care of. Kambil had no idea how long their practiced group could remain Blended before its strength was completely drained, and now was not the time to experiment. After they were securely Seated there would be time enough; for now, he kept their Blending separated when there was no real need of it.
    The drive to Zolind’s estate was a long, boring one, as Zolind detested living close to the city. During the day it would have been difficult to hide the presence of their coach, but with darkness all around they simply had to avoid the lanterns which had been strung along the approach to the house. The arriving guests saw nothing that way, which was just as it was supposed to be.
    Delin stirred uncomfortably where he sat on the floor of the coach, which told Kambil that the man’s position needed to be shifted. The movement meant the man’s body was in pain, and pain would detract from what he added to the Blending. For that reason Kambil had Selendi trade places with Delin, as she was the smallest of them despite her skirts. The exchange of places was made without argument, of course, and then they were able to Blend again.
    The entity floated to the large house and inside, locating Zolind after a few minutes in the salon beside the large dining room. It was clear not all of the Advisor’s guests had arrived yet, and that despite the fact that almost twenty people stood about sipping wine. Zolind himself drank only tea, but never insisted that his guests do the same. The conversation was much too desultory, however, so the entity touched one of the men immediately around Zolind with a suggestion.
    “Someone asked me today why the Seating ceremony for the new Blending hasn’t been announced yet,” the portly man who had been touched announced casually. “Since I don’t really know the answer myself, I couldn’t tell them.”
    “The answer is quite simple,” Zolind replied obediently, now completely under the control of the entity. “The time of the ceremony hasn’t been announced because there will be no ceremony. I wanted Adriari and her people to be Seated, and these others are not an acceptable substitute.