Competitions Read Free Page A

especially…
    Genovir left the table abruptly, but Jovvi wasn’t given much time to worry about how Lorand was doing. It took only a couple of moments before Genovir was back, along with a man who looked more supercilious than self-assured.
    “Dama Jovvi Hafford, I present you to Adept Algus,” Genovir said, all but curtseying. “Adept Algus will witness your attempt at mastery, and certify it if you succeed.”
    “
When
I succeed,” Jovvi corrected, then rose to her feet to smile at Algus. “How nice that I’ll have a gentleman accompanying me. I always do much better in the company of gentlemen.”
    “I don’t doubt that for a moment, lovely child,” Algus replied, his smile having grown interested. “Allow me to offer my arm for the short walk to the practice building.”
    Jovvi took the man’s arm with her most charming smile of agreement, ignoring the roiling fuss coming from Genovir. The female Adept was furious over how quickly Jovvi had melted Algus’s aloofness, but that was too bad about her. The tall, saturnine man would do much better on Jovvi’s side, most likely missing entirely how he was being manipulated. Many men with power enjoyed letting beautiful women manipulate them, a fact Jovvi had learned during her time as a courtesan.
    Algus decided to chat as he escorted Jovvi to the practice building, so she obligingly chatted. He was an older man who was still in his prime, although obviously no stronger than Genovir. His attempts to unbalance Jovvi’s emotions to his own benefit were easily deflected, so they walked into the practice room still chatting about nothing. Six new subjects stood in the room, eyes dull from the drugs they’d been given, and Algus waved a languid hand at them.
    “There they are, lovely child,” he said, his smile more demeaning than amused. “As soon as I cue them, you may go right to it.”
    Jovvi nodded with a much better smile and walked to the center of the room, hiding her extreme distaste with the ease of long practice done elsewhere. The subjects they gave her to practice on here were all drugged, otherwise they’d never be able to maintain an almost constant state of unbalance for her to work with. Anger was the easiest thing to induce, with fear coming in a close second. She’d worked with both during the initial test and the sessions, but in this place they’d so far used only anger.
    “Hear one who is authorized to command you,” Algus said, obviously giving them the keying phrase. “This woman is your enemy, and your anger at her is boundless.”
    The six people immediately grew furious, their raging emotions aimed directly at Jovvi. It had disturbed her for quite some time that morning to see the expressions and gestures that went with the emotion, but she’d finally gotten almost used to it. At least she’d learned to be less concerned over working with actual people, something everyone was raised
not
to do. The far from easy life she’d led as a child now helped her in that respect, and Jovvi was willing to take any help she could get.
    So she immediately spread out her ability, touching the hostile emotions of the people before her. They really were furious and weren’t far from deciding to hurt her, so she quickly began to balance their hostility. Their emotions eased immediately, the drug’s presence in their systems doing nothing to stop her, and their shouting and fist-shaking ended just as quickly. They were completely mollified and under control, but Algus waited a moment or two before acknowledging that.
    “Very nicely done, lovely child,” he conceded at last, sounding more patronizing than approving. “One mastery accomplished, three to go. You people—division one.”
    At the command the six subjects divided into two groups of three, and then they were radiating heavy anger again. It was slightly more difficult for Jovvi to divide her abilities as well, but only because there were individual sources of unbalance in each of