“I’ve been fixing it,” Zeke said, noting the direction of Tyen’s gaze. “I—”
“What did you tell her?” Dahli cut in.
“Nothing.” Zeke shrugged. “Not that it made any difference. I couldn’t read her mind.”
Looking in the inventor’s mind, Tyen saw a face. His heart lifted.
Rielle! She’s back.
Then it plunged deep into his belly. She knows I’m working with Dahli. To resurrect somebody. She’ll have guessed who that is …
“We had better leave,” Dahli said. He was looking down at a pile of ash—from the location they must be Valhan’s notes, Tyen realised. Beetle had done his job. “I’ll send others back to fetch anything you need here. I’ll just check which way she went.”
Dahli vanished.
And in the next moment reappeared.
“Are you in the habit of hiding your path when you come and go from here?” he asked Tyen.
Tyen shrugged. “I did at first, but not for a while.”
Dahli pursed his lips, then without offering an explanation, took hold of Tyen and Zeke’s arms. The room faded from sight.
PART FOUR
RIELLE
CHAPTER 11
He had changed so much.
Yet Rielle recognised Baluka the moment he stepped into sight. In that instant, she was paralysed by doubt and regret. Of all people, I am the worst person to tell him of the betrayal of his friend. Me, who promised to marry him then left in the company of his enemy.
Baluka hadn’t seen her yet, his attention captured by the view. Massive trees stretched overhead and into the distance, lit by a thousand sunbeams breaking through the leafy canopy above. Hanging from them were hundreds of globes woven from vines, clustered together to form houses of varying sizes. These were connected by vine bridges to tree branch thoroughfares wide enough for two people to pass each other easily.
He looked down, then froze at glimpses of the abyss below, visible through the woven platform that was the arrival place. Taking a deep breath, he looked away.
She hadn’t known he was afraid of heights. If she had, she would have chosen another world to meet in. She’d only seen an advantage in being among a people whose skin tone and stature were similar to hers and Baluka’s. Locals with pale skin like Tyen and Dahli lived in the poorer levels below. If anyone of their appearance appeared in the upper levels the locals would object loudly, providing Rielle with a warning of sorts.
Baluka appeared calm, his fear only apparent to those who could read his mind. She scanned the minds around her again and found a few sorcerers she hadn’t noted before. All had travelled here with Baluka: his protectors.
As she moved into the opening of the globe she had occupied, Baluka’s attention snapped to her.
It’s her, he thought. It really is. She hasn’t changed at all. Though I suppose that’s because she’s ageless now.
The wariness that followed hit her like a punch in the stomach. He believed she had become another kind of human. Transformed. Different. Unreachable. I suppose he’s right, she thought. We ageless are a different sort of human. Realising this didn’t make her feel any better.
It didn’t help that the reality of his mortality was painfully obvious. He had aged in both body and mind—more than he ought to have in five cycles. Gone was the cheerful, boyish youth who had helped Rielle adjust to a new life outside her world.
The man he had become had a hard-won confidence and humility that was equally as appealing, however. He traced a path to her: along the bridge from the arrival place to a branch, then down to a ladder, up to a higher branch, turn right on a side branch, then climb across the bridge that connected to the doorway she stood within. He squared his shoulders and started the journey.
She retreated into the room. It was the last of a cluster of abandoned globes. The vines had been damaged by a falling branch, and the weave was slowly dying. From locals she’d learned that dead rooms were adopted by the poorer citizens living in lower levels, but they always waited until nightfall before climbing up to scavenge them.
The bridge was also dying. As Baluka made his way across, the vines creaked alarmingly. He told himself that if the bridge broke, and he was too panicked to levitate, Rielle would catch him. His trust in her soothed away the hurt at his view of her agelessness.
As he reached the doorway, he let out a long sigh of relief.
“Baluka,” she said. “I’m sorry. If I’d known this place would make you so uncomfortable, I’d have chosen another.”
“I’d endure worse to talk to you again,” he told her. Slipping a hand into the old, worn jacket he wore, he brought out a silvery object the length of her little finger, a chain sliding between his fingers. “I believe this is yours.”
She took it and looped the chain over her neck. Taking the pendant by the ends, she twisted to unlock it, and pulled it apart to show the brush within. She had sent it to him with a message curled up inside. The message was gone now. She looked up.
Baluka was gripping the edges of the entrance tightly, tensing whenever their movements made the globe swing.
“Let’s sit,” she suggested. Dropping to her knees, she tucked her legs to one side and sat down on the woven floor. Baluka followed suit, folding into an untidy, tense version of her own pose.
His mouth quirked to one side. “Is this a reunion only, or is there something you want to discuss?”
“Both, I guess, since we can’t have the second without the first.”
“No, I suppose we can’t.”
“How are you?”
He opened his mouth, closed it again, then spread his hands. “Still alive. You?”
“A long way from where I should be.” She grimaced at the thought of the distance between herself and Qall.
“I see.” He ignored the temptation to ask where that was. “Then … why are you here?”
“Trying to do a favour I should not have agreed to. Can you get a message to your family?”
His expression became grave. “They have told me not to approach them—that if I do I will put them in danger.”
She sighed and nodded. “Dahli, the Raen’s most loyal friend, intends to blackmail me and …” She broke off, as she read from Baluka’s mind that he knew already what she was about to tell him. He had met up with his parents after they’d resumed their trade. They’d told him Rielle had brought them a boy with no memories to look after. A boy who grew up to look identical to the Raen. He knew she’d taken Qall away to the edges of the worlds, to hide and protect him from those who would replace Qall’s memories with Valhan’s.
“And Qall,” he finished for her. “Dahli intends to threaten to harm them, to persuade Qall to obey him. I suspected as much.” He frowned. “Qall isn’t here, is he?”
“No. He persuaded me to take a message to his family.”
“Is it important?”
She slowly shook her head. “It is personal, and not worth endangering his family for. However …” She met his gaze and grimaced. “When I tried to reach them, I discovered something far more disturbing than Dahli’s watchers. Something you must know.”
His eyebrows rose. “Which is?”
She drew in a deep breath, then let it out again, all the while trying to decide which of the approaches she’d practised was best. Just get to the point. We might be interrupted. Every moment that passes, Tyen gets a little closer to achieving his goals, and the possibility of Valhan returning grows.
“Tyen is, and has always been, working for the Raen.”
Baluka smiled. “You heard the rumour.”
“No. Well, yes, I’ve known about the rumour for some time.” She paused to reconsider her approach. “When I tried to find your family, I learned from a watcher where Dahli was. So I got close enough to read his mind. I discovered that Tyen really was spying for the Raen, when he was with the rebels, in exchange for Valhan finding a way to restore the woman in Tyen’s book.”
Baluka’s amus
ement vanished. “Tyen has been spying on Dahli for me since the Raen died. He may have told Dahli this to convince him to trust him.”
“Tyen was spying on the rebels from the moment he joined them. And he has been spying on you for Dahli for the same time.”
“Playing both sides.” Baluka’s voice was quiet with worry, as the possible consequences of that sank in.
“That’s not the worst of it,” Rielle told him. “Tyen is not just spying for Dahli: he has agreed to resurrect the Raen. He’s working on it right now.”
Baluka’s eyes widened. “But … he doesn’t have Qall.”
“He believes he can find another way to do it. Using a corpse rather than destroying a living person.”
Baluka’s mouth opened, closed, then opened again. “Why would he do that?”
“Again, for the knowledge of how to give Vella a body.” She gritted her teeth. “And Dahli has convinced him that the Restorers aren’t capable of restoring order to the worlds. He thinks only Valhan can end chaos and war.”
“I know he feels bad about the war insectoids …” Baluka
began.
“Don’t believe anything he told you,” she advised. “He let me think he agreed with me, that the worlds would sort themselves out eventually. I thought we were … friends.”
He looked up. “You were seeing him often?”
“Up until around half a cycle ago. He was living in Doum, and I in Murai. We tried to get the two worlds to negotiate a peace agreement, but it went badly.”
“Rumours say your strength is almost equal to what the Raen’s was.” His eyes narrowed. “If you didn’t read the truth from his mind, he must be stronger than you.”
“No,” she corrected. “We’re equal in strength. Unless … unless he lied about that too.” She started thinking back, trying to remember all the clues that had convinced her that Tyen couldn’t read her mind, but Baluka interrupted.
“If Tyen is stronger than you, maybe the Raen couldn’t read his mind. Maybe Tyen was deceiving him from the start when he agreed to spy on the rebels. But surely if the Raen couldn’t read Tyen’s mind, he would have known Tyen was powerful and killed him. Unless he needed something from Tyen.” Baluka tapped on his knees. “Vella—or something she contained. But why wouldn’t he just take her? Ah! She absorbs the knowledge of everyone she touches. The Raen needed Tyen to communicate with her for him. But why not kill him and get someone less dangerous to read her?”
Rielle drew in a sharp breath. “Because he needed someone to resurrect him, if I failed.”
Baluka’s eyebrows rose, and he nodded. “It makes you wonder if he saw his death coming.”
“He did,” she told him. “He planned it all. His allies had enjoyed the twenty cycles they’d had without him meddling in their affairs, and wanted to kill him. He encouraged the rebels to grow strong, and then imprinted his memories into his hand and killed himself, so that the two sides would meet and destroy each other. When he retur—”
“Wait!” Baluka interrupted. “Valhan meant to die?”
“Yes. Dahli and I were supposed to resurrect him.”
“That was an enormous risk.” He shook his head. “The allies must have been a greater force than I thought.”
“Or Valhan wasn’t as strong as he appeared. I’ve wondered about that more than a few times. Bear that in mind, if Tyen succeeds in resurrecting the Raen.”
Baluka shook his head. “I can’t help trying to think of an explanation, to find an excuse for him, but I’m not sure I can this time and my advisers have been warning me not to trust him for the last ten cycles.” His face hardened as anger and determination stirred. “Can Tyen do it?”
“I don’t know.” She grimaced and looked away. “I thought that by taking Qall away and teaching him to defend himself, nobody would be able to resurrect the Raen. But from what I’ve learned from Dahli, Qall isn’t the vital ingredient. The hand is. Valhan’s hand, which he copied all his memories into.”
“And yet if that were true, why is Dahli watching my family?”
“As a second option if Tyen fails? As insurance against you, me and Qall trying to stop Tyen?” She looked up at Baluka. “The Restorers must find the hand, Baluka. You must destroy it.”
His brows knit together. “Getting it away from Tyen will not be easy.”
“Tyen doesn’t have it. Dahli doesn’t trust him, and has hidden it and blocked his memory of its location. He won’t unblock that memory until Tyen proves he can resurrect a person successfully and has a vessel ready for Valhan’s memories.” She rubbed at her forehead. “Unfortunately, I only found this out after I revealed to Tyen and Dahli that I know about their little project,” she added bitterly.
She paused as she recalled what she found in the basement where Tyen had been working, and wondered how much to tell Baluka. Dismantled insectoids had covered the tables at one side of the room. Between them and the bare tables at the other side, a human-shaped machine had hung from a chain suspended from the ceiling. A suspicion had crawled over her: not only had Tyen lied about finding a solution to the insectoid war machines, but he was developing a greater weapon—a mechanical warrior.
It wasn’t until the noise of her destroying it attracted Tyen’s assistant that she learned her suspicion was wrong. The humanoid was an optional vessel for Vella, if Tyen could not work out how to transfer her into a flesh and bone body.
If he can put Vella into a machine, why not Valhan?
“Are you going to kill me?” Zeke had asked. He suspected that Dahli had been one of the Raen’s friends. I’m not going to get the chance to find out if I’m right now, he’d been thinking, as Rielle realised that she must either kill Zeke or allow Dahli to know she had returned.
She’d left before reason had time to overcome her conscience. Left and hidden her path, then stopped in a nearby world to rethink her decision. She could not bring herself to go back and deal with him.
I should have killed him. She sighed. But I’m glad I didn’t.
“They’ll expect me to tell you what I discovered, and for the Restorers to try to stop them,” she told Baluka. “But it’ll be harder for Dahli to stop you than me. He will threaten to harm your family not just to prevent me acting against him, but to force me to assist him. My only choice is to leave before he gets the chance—and that is the other reason why I arranged this meeting. You must make it widely known that I have returned to my hiding place, so Dahli will learn of it. He can’t try to blackmail me if he can’t find me.”
Baluka looked at her intently. “Or you could stay, help us find the hand and deal with Dahli and Tyen.”
“What about your family?”
He looked away, a deep crease forming between his brows. “Preventing the Raen returning is more important than saving my family.”
She looked into his mind and saw the struggle within. His heart fluttered in panic and denial, yet his mind knew this was the cold truth. Am I really willing to sacrifice them for the sake of the worlds? he asked himself.
“No,” she told him. “Qall will never forgive me if I knowingly choose to let your family—his family—die.”
And what would he do to me, if I do? Baluka wondered. “I haven’t given up on finding a way to protect them. If I can, would you bring Qall here? We could train him together.”
She shook her head. “The rebels would never accept anyone who looks like the Raen among them—especially once they know he could easily become Valhan. If I return, it will only be once Qall is strong enough to change his appearance and defend himself.”
What kind of man will he be then? Baluka wondered. If he is as strong as Valhan, will he become another Raen anyway?
“Your family raised him,” she reminded him. “He’s had all the encouragement a young man could have to become a good person.”
His expression softened. “They do regard him fondly. I look forward to meeting him one day.” His gaze moved away as he wondered how hard it would be to see
beyond the familiar, hated face to the person beneath.
“By then he will look completely different,” she assured him. “I don’t think he’ll choose to look like Valhan.” She hadn’t given much thought to what Qall would want to do once his training was over. He couldn’t rejoin Lejihk’s family, unless he married a Traveller. Perhaps he’d join the Restorers.
“I should go.” Baluka told her. Shadows darkened his eyes, yet his back was straight. “The Restorers need to prepare—for the hunt for Tyen and the hand, and for another confrontation with the Raen if it comes to that. Is there anything else you need to tell me?” he asked.
“No. You?”
He shook his head. They both got to their feet, setting the room swaying. He paused to catch his balance.
“It is good to see you, Rielle,” he said. As he said it, something loosened inside him, as if a burden had been cut away. She is free. That’s all I wanted to achieve when I joined the rebels. In that, I succeeded, even if the friend who released her has turned out to be a traitor.
“Good luck,” Rielle replied. “I am sorry to have ruined your friendship.”
Baluka’s face darkened. “You didn’t. It wasn’t real.” A part of him still didn’t want to believe it had been. He was so convincing …
She squeezed his shoulder. “He deceived us both, Baluka. Be careful he doesn’t again.”
He nodded. “I will. And you have a safe journey back to your charge. Take care nobody follows you.”
She smiled. “You may not believe it, considering how well I did at your lessons, but I’m quite good at travelling between worlds now.”
His eyebrows rose. “I admit I do find that rather hard to believe.”
She let go of his shoulder and poked him in the side with a finger. Then before he could respond, she pushed out of the world and pulled the substance of the place between behind her to hide her path. Let him wonder at that, she thought as the whiteness surrounded her. Turning away, she started the long journey back to Qall and Timane.
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