Butler, Octavia - Patternmaster

“Legal, hell!” said Joachim. “There is no legal way to trade an apprentice.”

“Why did you trade him then—if he was an apprentice?” It occurred to Teray that Coransee was at his most dangerous when he seemed most relaxed. That was when he had a surprise waiting.

“You forced me to trade him,” said Joachim. “I’ve told Journeyman Michael about the hold you have on me. It shames me, but it’s a fact. I won’t sacrifice Teray’s freedom by pretending it doesn’t exist.”

“You sacrificed Teray’s so-called freedom months ago, Joachim. You sacrificed it to your own greed.”

“I will open to Journeyman Michael to prove that you forced me to make that trade!”

“Open. Journeyman Michael will see that I forced you to give up Teray—as I did. But I did absolutely nothing to force you to take payment for him. You could easily have given him up as I demanded, without taking payment, and then gone to Rayal to complain if you felt you had been forced to do something wrong. Instead, you made a profitable trade for a valuable artist. Now you come back trying to cheat me out of the price you paid for that artist.”

Joachim stared at him incredulously, understanding dawning in his eyes. He rose to his feet. “You lying son of a bitch. You son of a whelping Clayark bit…”

Coransee went on as though uninterrupted. “Of course, only outsiders can be traded legally. And, Joachim, clearly, you did trade Teray. You accepted payment for him. How could you have done that if you honestly considered Teray an apprentice?”

Helplessly, almost pitifully, Joachim turned to Michael. “Journeyman, he hides his crime behind technicalities. Read my memories. See what actually happened.”

Coransee looked at Joachim with something very like amusement. Then he looked at Michael. “Journeyman, what is the penalty for the crime I’m charged with? Trading children, I mean.”

“The loss of… your House.” Michael glanced at Joachim.

Coransee nodded. “A Housemaster who trades an apprentice— or accepts one in trade—loses his House. But, of course, a Housemaster can trade as many outsiders as he wants to.” Now he looked at Joachim. “And certainly, any posttransition youngster a Housemaster picks up outside the gates of the school can be classified as an outsider.”

Joachim leaned back and rested his head against one hand. “God, I don’t believe this.”

Michael’s mouth was a straight thin line. “Lord Joachim, you made the charge. Is there any part of it that you want now to retract?”

Joachim gave a wild kind of laugh. “You’re going along with him. You want him to get away with

this.”

Michael looked pained. “Lord, did you receive an artist in trade for this boy Teray?”

“I never would have taken him if… Oh hell. Yes, I took the artist. But look, I’ll give him back if you’ll just…”

“That’s between you and Coransee if the trade was legal, Lord Joachim. Are you saying now that it was legal, that Coransee did not force you to take the artist?”

“Shit,” muttered Joachrm. “I withdraw the charge. That part of it anyway.” He glanced covertly at Teray.

Teray realized at once that now was the time he could have revenge on Joachim if he wanted it. His own memories would prove that Joachim had traded away a man he had acknowledged as an apprentice. Whether Joachim had Coransee opened or not, Teray’s memories would be enough. He could cause Joachim to lose his House. Not only that, but such an act might win Teray’s freedom. Joachim would lose his House, Teray might go free, and Coransee … ? Certainly Coransee deserved far more than Joachim to lose his House. He might actually lose it for the less-than-one-year period that Rayal had left to live. Of course, within that period Teray would have the freedom to learn. He would be able to travel safely to Forsyth and study at Rayal’s House. But for that possible freedom he would have to sacrifice Joachim. There was no way around that.

And somehow, in spite of his severely lowered opinion of Joachim, he could not quite bring himself to destroy the man.

He realized that Michael and Coransee as well as Joachim were looking at him as though awaiting his decision. He met their eyes for a moment, then went to a chair at one side of Coransee’s desk and sat down. “What about the other charge?” he said disgustedly.

Joachim seemed to sag, eyes closed in relief. Michael was impassive, and Coransee seemed almost bored. He toyed listlessly with a smooth cube of stone—probably a blank stone with nothing yet recorded into it. Perhaps he was even recording into it now.

“The other charge,” said Michael wearily. “Competing for the Pattern before the competition is open.”

“I deny it,” said Coransee simply.

Michael frowned. “You deny that you took Teray into your House in order to keep him from competing with you for the Pattern?”

“Yes.”

Teray sat up very straight, wanting to dispute, wanting to damn Coransee for the liar he was, but Joachim’s fate had made him cautious. He waited to see how Michael would handle it.

“Teray,” the journeyman said, “you say Coransee told you he meant to keep you from competing?”

“Yes, Journeyman.”

“And how did he plan to stop you?”

“Either by controlling me as Joachim is controlled, or by killing me—if I refused to be controlled.”

Michael turned slightly in his chair so that he faced Teray squarely. “Are you controlled, then?”

“No. I refused control. He’s given me time to change my mind.” Immediately Teray wished he had left off the last sentence.

“How much time, Teray?” It was Coransee who asked the question.

Michael looked at him in surprise. “Lord, are you admitting that you used such intimidation?”

“Yes. Though not for the reason Teray gives. But even if I had threatened Teray as he says … answer my question, Teray. How much time did I give you?”

There was no point in telling anything but the truth. It was in his memory—and he was not as good at twisting it as Coransee was.

“Teray?”

“You gave me as much time as Rayal has left, Lord.”

“As much time as Rayal has left. And of course when Rayal dies, the competition for the Pattern opens.”

Teray fumed silently, seeing the look of defeat

come to Michael’s face. The second charge had died even more quickly than the first. Teray let his mind go back over that morning, that breakfast with Coransee, trying to find some truth he could tell or twist. There was nothing. He himself could think of arguments to kill any arguments he might make.

Teray glanced at Joachim. “Thanks for trying,” he said quietly.

“He’s a hell of a talker,” said Joachim. “Among other things.”

Michael shifted in his chair, and said to Coransee, “Unless anyone has memories to the contrary, Lord, the charge against you is disproved. But there is something I would like to know for myself. Is Teray still under sentence of death?”

“He is.”

“Why?”

“For the same reason Patternmaster Rayal killed the strongest of his brothers and his sister. Even if I win the Pattern, Teray uncontrolled could become a danger to me. He will submit to my controls, or he will die.”

“I see.” Michael lowered his head for a moment, then looked at Teray. “You don’t have to answer me if you don’t want to, Teray, but I’m wondering whether you think you might eventually be able to accept the mind controls.”

“Not even if he was going to kill me right now,”

said Teray. “Especially not after this chance to see him in action.” That was reckless. Teray wondered why he was bothering to talk recklessly while he was still in Coransee’s House. Maybe the Housemaster’s lies had angered him more than they should have. After all, lies were what he should have expected from Coransee in such a situation. But Coransee had prepared for his lies long before he had to tell them. Coransee spoke quietly: