Patternmaster p-1 Read online

  “Coransee, for the third time, will you tell me what you’re trading for?”

  “Of course,” said Coransee. “Of course. I offer you Laro for Teray.”

  The words were said so casually that it seemed to take Joachim a moment to digest them. More likely, though, Joachim used his moment of “surprised silence” to think of a negative answer that would not close the trading.

  Teray looked from one man to the other. He had known what Coransee was going to say just an instant before he said it. Joachim had probably known too. Coransee had been a little too eager, had not concealed his thoughts as carefully as he might have. In his carelessness, he had permitted Teray to learn one other thing—a thing that was somehow part of the reason why the Housemaster wanted Teray badly enough to trade a talent like Laro’s. A talent that had surely cost him several of his people.

  But perhaps it would not matter. Already Joachim was turning down the offer.

  “Coransee, I’ve told you this man is an apprentice, not an outsider. He’s not my property. In fact, as an apprentice he’s still under the protection of the school. I can’t legally trade him.”

  “And you wouldn’t if you could.” Coransee spoke lazily, as though he had gotten the answer he expected and was merely playing another game. “Let’s be realistic, Joachim. You want my artist, I need your apprentice. Laro is much closer to you in the Pattern than Teray is. And law or no law, Teray would have no power to object if you traded him.”

  Surprisingly, Joachim seemed to reconsider for a moment. Teray, watching him, felt the beginnings of fear. He had waited so long to avoid being taken as an outsider. If now, on his first day out of the school, all his waiting was to prove in vain …

  “You were talking about strength,” Joachim was saying. “Now that the Clayarks have found a way to get into the sector undetected, I’ll be needing Teray’s strength myself.”

  “For what? That miniature Pattern of yours would wipe out any Clayarks who haven’t heard what a waste of time and lives it is to attack you.”

  “Even a miniature Pattern can always use additional strength.”

  “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 that.”

  “Maybe he just wants to do something to Joachim—get even with him for something.” She shook her head angrily, bitterly. “Maybe he just likes being a son of a Clayark bitch!” She stood leaning against him, radiating her anger. “Joachim won’t let it happen,” she said. “He must have expected some kind of trouble, the way he kept warning us. But we can depend on him.”

  “I hope so. But there was something … at the last, when he made me leave, he threatened to help Coransee against me if I attacked.”

  “He was angry. He didn’t mean it.”

  “He was angry, all right. But he meant it. He would have done it.”

  She opened her mouth to protest again, to defend Joachim. Then she closed it and lowered her head. “It can’t happen, Teray.” She seemed to surrender to the fear that she had been holding at bay with her anger. She pressed hersel
f against him, trembling. “Don’t you see what it would mean?” she whispered. “The outsider restrictions.”

  He said nothing, only looked at her. He knew which restriction she had in mind. There were several: outsiders were not free to father children as they wished, and of course they had little or no say in where they lived or how long they lived there. They were property. But the restriction Iray had in mind was the one that said outsiders could not marry. They were free enough to have all the sex they wanted with any woman in the House who would have them—as long as they were careful to father no unauthorized offspring. But if, as in Teray’s case, a man was married before he lost his freedom, his wife took her place among the women of the House, the Housemaster’s wives. And she became the only woman in the House permanently forbidden to her former husband.

  The laws were old, made in harsher times.

  Perhaps it was reasonable, as the old records said, to forbid weak men to sire potentially weak children. But what reason could there be for denying a man access to his chosen one, his first, while permitting him so many others? What reason but to remind him constantly that he was a slave?

  Teray drew a ragged breath. No matter why the laws had been made, they were still in effect, being used every day. Now, if Joachim failed him, they would be used against him.

  No, he had chosen Joachim as well as been chosen by him. He knew the man. Iray was right. Joachim would not make the trade.

  When they had talked for a while longer, Teray assuring Iray, reassuring himself, another mute approached them to say that Joachim had decided to stay the night. They had been assigned a room. If they wished to go there now…

  ************************************

  They had dinner in their room that night, served by a young mute girl who knew enough to go about her work without bothering them. The girl was on her way out when, finally, Joachim came to see them. The mute girl smiled at him and continued out of the room. Joachim watched silently until she closed the door behind her. Then he crossed the room to them, still silent. Teray stood up.

  Joachim faced him, met his eyes. “I’m sorry, Teray.”

  “Sorry?” Teray repeated the word mechanically, then explosively: “Sorry! You mean you did it? You traded me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Joachim, no!” Iray almost screamed the words. Then she was on her feet too, and beside Teray. “You’ve betrayed us.” She radiated more anger than fear. “After I introduced you to Teray.”

  “How could you do it?” Teray demanded. “Why would you do it?”

  Joachim turned away, went to stand beside a window. “You heard him. He wanted you. I couldn’t stop him.”

  “Then why didn’t you let me try?”

  “You can try if you want to.” Joachim shook his head wearily. “You probably will, sooner or later, because he wants you to. He wants to know just how strong you are. And he wants you to know his strength. He wants to put you in your place.”

  “You’re so sure that I have no chance against him?”

  “No chance at all. In a few years, maybe, when you’ve had more training, more experience, when you learn more control. But now… he’ll humiliate you before the rest of his House, before Iray.” He looked at Iray. “And that will be that.”

  “That’s already that as far as you’re concerned,” said Iray.

  Joachim said nothing.

  “After all, you’ve sold us, and you’ve been paid.” Her voice was harder than Teray had ever heard it. “You’re sorry! What do you want? Our forgiveness?”

  Joachim answered softly, “I tried. I did everything I could to make him change his mind.”

  “I don’t believe that. Either you wanted the artist and you did what was necessary to get him, or you let Coransee frighten you into making the trade.” She looked at him closely. “You are afraid of him, aren’t you?”

  Startled, Teray looked at Joachim. The Housemaster looked tired, looked almost sick. But he did not look frightened.

  “I’m afraid for Teray,” said Joachim softly, “and for you.”

  “Then help us,” demanded Teray. “We need your help, not your fear!”

  “I can’t help you.”

  “You mean you won’t help us. No one outsider is worth the trouble you could give him for taking me. You wouldn’t even have to fight.”

  “Teray, it doesn’t have to be as bad as you think, being an outsider.” There was desperation in Joachim’s voice. “If you can just accept it, stop fighting Coransee, he can teach you more than I ever could. And he’s not as far from you in the Pattern as you think.”

  “And what about me, My Lord?” If there had been any of Iray’s childishness left, it was gone

  now. “Will it also be ‘not as bad as I think’ with my husband forbidden to me, and his slaver my owner!”

  Joachim shook his head, his pain clear in his expression. He reached out to her, but she was closed to him. He took her by the shoulders and held her when she tried to turn away. “If I could help, do you think you would even have to ask me?”

  Teray watched him silently for a moment, then, “Tell us why you can’t help, Joachim.” He thought he knew why. Joachim’s anguish was real enough. But he still showed no signs of the fear that Iray had thought she had seen.

  Joachim released Iray and turned to look at Teray. “You know, don’t you?” he asked softly. “You’re too good. You see too much. It got you into trouble this afternoon. Finished any hope I might have had of talking Coransee out of the trade. Too good.”

  “Tell us why you can’t help,” Teray repeated. He did know now, but he wanted to hear Joachim say it.

  “I wonder how long it will take him to make an outsider of you,” Joachim said.

  Teray waited.

  “All right!’ Joachim seemed to have to force himself to go on. “I’m conditioned … controlled! That special horse of mine has more freedom than I have when it comes to dealing with Coransee.”

  Iray looked at him with disgust. “Controlled? Like a mute? Like an animal?”

  “Iray!” Teray wondered why he bothered to stop her. Did Joachim still have pride to save? Did it matter? He was alone. Joachim was useless. What was he going to do?

  “Do you know why I allowed him to plant his controls, Teray?”

  Teray did not know. Or care. He said nothing.

  “Because I wasn’t as patient as you were. Because I left the school too soon. And I left alone except for my wife. Coransee picked me up, forced me into his House as an outsider.” Joachim hesitated. “So you see, I know what you’re both going through. I had been with him seven years when he offered me a chance for freedom. I had to cooperate with him, let him plant his controls in my mind. It’s delicate work—the planting. Not like just linking with someone. As strong as he is, even he couldn’t have done it if I had resisted. So I didn’t resist. By then, I would have done anything to get free. Anything.”

  “You call what you have now freedom?” Teray’s own contempt was coming through.

  “Yes!” said Joachim vehemently. “So will you after a few years of captivity.” Then his tone changed, became what it had been earlier—saddened, hopeless. “No. I’ve been ‘free’ for years now and Coransee’s controls have been in place every minute. He doesn’t need my cooperation to hold them. I think I’ll wear them

  for the rest of my life.” He shrugged. “He doesn’t use them often. But when he does, there’s nothing I can do.”

  A contrite Joachim was no more helpful than an angry one. Teray wanted to ask him to leave. But then he would be alone with Iray, and she would ask him the questions that he was already asking himself. He had no answers even for himself. What could he do?

  Joachim talked on, but he had changed his tone again. Now he spoke quietly with anger. “Teray, you were wise enough to stay under the protection of the school until you were accepted for apprenticeship. You were careful. You did everything right. Yet through my weakness and Coransee’s dishonesty, you’ve lost
your wife and your freedom. All while you were supposed to be under my protection. No matter what hold Coransee has on me, I can’t just go away and forget about you.”

  “What will you do?” Teray asked resignedly. He already knew the answer.

  “I can’t do anything directly. You know that. But indirectly, I’ll do everything I can, including an appeal to Rayal if necessary.” Joachim was moving toward the door and Teray was relieved to see him going.

  Parting words: “Teray, believe me, I’ll get you away from him.”

  Teray did not believe him. Nor did he bother to pretend. He went to the door and opened it.

  “Good-bye, Joachim.”

  Joachim looked at him a moment longer as though trying to instill belief in his good intentions. As though he would have reached out to Teray if he had not feared finding Teray closed to him. Then he was gone.

  Teray turned to Iray and saw that she was trembling.

  “What are you going to do?” she whispered.

  “I don’t know.” He ran a hand over his brow and was not surprised to have it come away wet. “I don’t know. Maybe tomorrow …”

  She was shaking her head. “Now, Teray. Don’t you feel it? Coransee is coming now.”

  Chapter 2

  As Iray spoke, both she and Teray received Coransee’s wordless announcement of his presence, a mental image of the Housemaster standing outside Teray’s door.

  With mechanical politeness, Teray returned an image of Coransee inside the room. Not that he wanted Coransee inside. He was not ready for a confrontation. He had had no time to gather his thoughts, decide what battle strategy might give him the best chance. If he had a chance at all. Joachim had left him all but drained of confidence, of hope. Yet he had to fight.

  But did he have to fight now?

  As Coransee entered, Teray glanced back to Iray. She was watching him, her expression frightened, questioning, her eyes bright with unshed tears. Yes. He had to fight now. A duel, one to one, unless he wanted to give Coransee an excuse to call in members of his huge Household.