Heads turned. People stared. Minds registered surprise at his boldness, then fragmented into annoyance and admiration. Inekera caught the thought of someone cursing the rebels for causing unnecessary strife, and jumped from mind to mind until she saw the pier through the eyes of the people around him. She laughed at the unfortunate timing of a rebel seeking supporters unaware that one of the Raen’s allies was close by.
He had to move fast, before she tried to read his mind and failed.
“She’s seen us,” Tyen said. “Can you see her?”
The young man shook his head. He was growing worried now. If I can’t read her mind, he thought, she must be—
Tyen jumped down, grabbed the newcomer’s arm and pushed out of the world. He sent them skimming across the city at dizzying speed, and as he sensed a shadow following he felt a surge of triumph. She’d taken the bait.
The canals flashed beneath them. They passed through countless walls. Suddenly nothing lay before them but water occasionally punctuated by the old spire of an abandoned building, sunk below the sea long ago. Inekera was gaining on them. He sped up. She continued closing the gap so he moved faster and faster, delaying the point at which she caught up. Then, before he and the newcomer ran out of breath, he stopped and moved back into the world on a tiny crescent of glittering sand. The woman flashed past them.
Anticipating that the need to breathe would be strong, both he and the newcomer hauled in air as soon as it surrounded them. By the time the woman stopped and returned they were breathing deeply, but no longer gasping. She laughed as she appeared, exhilarated by the chase, but her smile froze and died as she looked from the newcomer to Tyen. One mind she could read, the other not.
Yet, to her relief, the stronger one did not attack. She wasn’t going to hang about to find out why. She narrowed her eyes and lifted her chin in defiance. Then she fled into the place between.
Alone, Tyen gave chase. The newcomer didn’t follow, smart enough to realise that if Tyen hadn’t taken him he didn’t need him. Inekera fled deep into the place between. He followed her past the midway point to the next world, then retreated. As he returned to the islet, the young man sighed with relief.
“I wasn’t sure what you wanted me to do. Did she leave?”
Tyen nodded. “She slipped out of this world before I could catch up, and I don’t have time to chase her across other worlds.”
The man nodded. “And she has the advantage, in the place between, since she doesn’t need to breathe. She might lead you straight to the Raen or other allies, too.” He looked around. “I suppose you’ll have to abandon this world now. She’ll spread the word that you’ve got a base here, so you’ll have to move fast before the Raen or more allies arrive.”
Tyen nodded, impressed. The young man had worked out the consequences of the ally’s appearance quickly, and remained calm despite having confronted one of the Raen’s allies within the first few hours of joining the rebels.
But this also means I can’t send him to join any of the rebel groups. Tyen cursed silently. Well, he may as well know what he’ll be facing in the next few hours or days.
“The allies already know we’re here,” Tyen told him. “One of our hiding places was attacked earlier today. We’re organising a distraction so we can get all the rebels out.” Tyen held out his hand.
“All?” The man frowned and ignored Tyen’s hand. “You don’t mean… all of the rebels are on this world?”
“Yes.”
“But… if you’re discovered you’ll be trapped here. Wait… That’s what has happened, isn’t it?” He read the answer from Tyen’s expression. “Why didn’t you spread yourselves across many worlds?”
“Because communicating between worlds is too dangerous.” Tyen began to revise his opinion of the man. To his amusement, the man was doing the same of Tyen.
What a disorganised bunch of fools!
Tyen let out a humourless laugh. “You should have seen what they were like when I first joined them. Believe me, this is an improvement.”
The man looked Tyen up and down. He laughs. How can he laugh? People under his charge died today. And the Travellers’ livelihood, if not their lives, will be in danger once the Raen realises one of them has joined the rebellion.
“Traveller?” Tyen repeated. “You’re a Traveller?” This man’s people were the source of the language and measurement of time that linked all the worlds? Nothing about the man stood out in any way. Neither tall nor short, mid-brown skin, a pleasant but unexceptional face. But then, it made a strange kind of sense for a race that interacted with all worlds to appear ordinary and unthreatening.
“Yes?” the man answered. “Why?”
Tyen shook his head and offered his hand again. “I’ve not met one of your people before. What did you say your name was?”
“I didn’t.” The man grasped Tyen’s hand. “My name is Baluka.”
CHAPTER 12
“A Traveller?” Volk said. Tyen could hear the frown in his voice. “Your people are allies of the Raen.”
“Not allies,” Baluka corrected. “We’ve had an understanding with the Raen for several hundred cycles. He allows us to trade between worlds so long as we do not teach others how to do so, or work against him. That is not the same as serving him.”
“What does he get in exchange?” Tyen asked.
Baluka paused. “What do you mean?”
“The Raen takes exception to anyone working against him or teaching world travelling. It’s hardly a requirement particular to your people. Why does he make an exception for the Travellers?”
The young man frowned. “I… ah… Perhaps because…” He let out a long exhalation and shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Looking into Baluka’s mind, Tyen could not help smiling in sympathy. The man was surprised and a little disturbed to realise he’d never questioned the explanation he’d been told, and now was wondering if there was something more to the agreement. “Something else I am risking other than our lives and livelihood?” Baluka was wondering. “If there is, it must be a secret many centuries old…”
“We don’t have time for this,” Hapre said, tapping her foot on the threadbare floor rug. “The messengers are ready to deliver the signal to depart. Are the decoy hiding places ready, Volk?”
The man, as always, considered his reply carefully before speaking. In the dimly lit room the dark-skinned man’s expression was hard to make out, but Tyen could see he was only hesitating to tell them something they wouldn’t like to hear.
“Volk?” he repeated.
The man sighed. “No. I need more time. This can’t be done quickly.”
“How much longer?” Tyen asked.
“A few days would be ideal.” Volk paused. “I suppose it can be done by the end of the night if I reduce the number of sites.”
“Can I help?” Frell offered.
“Hmm. Perhaps.”
Tyen frowned, sure that something had slipped his mind. As he considered Frell’s offer it came to him. “Frell, can the other arrival places for new recruits be safely checked? It’s possible the allies only discovered the one, and some newcomers may be waiting for us to contact them.”
“Perhaps.”
“They may have let a few would-be rebels through in the hopes of catching those who come to meet them,” Hapre warned.
“I’ll be careful,” Frell assured her.
She made a small noise of frustration. “What should I be doing while everyone else is busy?”
“I’m sorry, Hapre. Your role requires you to stay put,” Tyen said. “But… could you explain to Baluka what he needs to know?”
“Of course.” She glanced at Baluka and moved towards the door. “Come with me, Traveller.”
“I will keep watch for the minds of allies arriving in the local area,” Tyen finished.
He waited until they all had left, then peered behind the heavy cloth window covering to the moonlit street beyond. Revellers roamed up and down t
he pavement. Some carried lamps and staggered, arm in arm and laughing. Some walked with shoulders hunched, silent and hurried. The room was tiny and shabby, but being in the midst of a poorer quarter of a city, plenty of minds, dreaming and awake, provided ample background for the rebels to be lost within. Unfortunately, it also made it difficult for him to spot allies among the thousands. It was possible they, learning from Inekera that he had been in the canal city, were hoping he and other rebels were still here.
Tyen scanned the area for enemy minds, then once satisfied that no allies were nearby, he took a deep breath and slipped a little way out of the world. The noises of the city faded to a muffled clatter.
Vella, he said.
“Tyen.”
Can you see any flaws in our plans?
“Only the risks that you are already aware of.”
Do you know what the Travellers exchanged with the Raen for permission to travel between worlds?
“No. The agreement was made after I was entombed in your world, and I have not touched anyone with that knowledge since you unearthed me.”
I wonder who might know. Aside from the Raen, of course.
“Perhaps one or some of the allies do.”
I can’t leave to chase one of them down and if the rebels defeat another I doubt they’ll let him or her live long enough to be questioned. But perhaps when we’re settled in a new world I could go out and find one.
“That would be dangerous.”
Yes, but I have to do something.
“You want a distraction, so your mind doesn’t keep returning to thoughts of Yira.”
He sighed. I’d have thought I’d be past the grief by now.
“It takes longer than you expect.”
And I suppose I don’t want to be over it. That would be too much like forgetting her.
A faint sound reached him. He returned to the world to hear a tapping from the door. Seeking the mind beyond, he found Hapre hoping to talk to him–and to escape the Travellers’ relentless questions.
“Come in,” he called.
“How is our most recent recruit?” Tyen asked when the door had closed behind her.
She let out a short breath. “I tried to tell him about the attack on Preketai, but he kept interrupting.” But not out of disinterest in her tale, she admitted to herself. He’d asked smart questions about strategy and how much the rebels knew about the Raen. “He wants to know if we know where the Raen lives. Do we?”
“No.”
Hapre clicked her tongue, as she did when mulling over a piece of information. “Are you sure? It’s possible one of us does, but never thought of it while you were around.”
“Possible but unlikely. Something like that would be foremost in their thoughts.”
She clicked her tongue again. “I wonder if the allies even know.”
Tyen opened his mouth to voice his earlier idea of capturing and questioning an ally, then quickly closed it again. He wasn’t supposed to be encouraging the rebels to attack anyone. Sometimes it was too easy to forget that he was a spy, not a rebel.
“If you don’t mind, I’ll start investigating once we’re settled again,” she said.
“I don’t mind. Just be careful,” Tyen replied.
“I will.” She paused. “Can I…?”
Tyen grimaced. “Yes, send him in. I’d like to know his reasons for joining us.”
“Thanks.”
Sitting down in the only chair in the room, he listened to the noises of the city. At the end of the street a woman was laughing hysterically. Groans were coming from somewhere closer, in the direction of the brothel, but he resisted the temptation to seek out the mind behind them. The cause could be good or bad, and both disturbing and distracting either way. Instead he scanned the minds in the local area for signs of the Raen’s allies again.
A knock came from the door. He opened it with magic. A faint light etched the outline of a young man with curly hair, hesitating on the threshold.
“I guess I didn’t even consider there might be a hierarchy,” Baluka was thinking. “I don’t know if I like their… no, don’t think about that.”
“Come in, Baluka,” Tyen said.
The Traveller entered, stopping a few steps inside the door.
“You have some questions,” Tyen said. “And so have I. For a start, I want to know why you sought us out.”
At once a face appeared in the man’s memory. A woman of striking beauty. Tyen almost smiled. He’d learned that, most of the time, the difference between a beautiful and merely good-looking face existed only in the mind of the admirer. The depth of feeling behind a lover’s recollection would make anyone’s face glow with magical enchantment.
But then another, familiar face replaced the woman’s, and Tyen’s amusement evaporated as he realised Baluka had seen the Raen–and recently.
“The Raen stole my fiancée,” the young man said in a low voice.
A scene was playing out in Baluka’s mind. The woman smiled and turned away. The Raen appeared out of the darkness. A gasp came from the woman, before they both vanished.
“I intend to find and free her.”
Tyen frowned. “Do you know why he took her?”
Baluka nodded. “She is a Maker.”
And a powerful sorcerer, Baluka added silently. An unusual combination. Almost unheard of.
“So… you believe your fiancée…”
“Rielle.”
“Rielle is in the Raen’s palace. In his world.”
“Yes.”
At least it’s unlikely the Raen will harm her, Tyen thought. Though what he might do to persuade her to work for him if she resisted… He shivered, glad that Baluka could not see into his mind. He’d seen things done by the allies, in the rebels’ memories, that he wished he could forget. Yet nobody recalls the Raen dealing out such cruelties. Still, he has aligned himself with these allies, and they act on his behalf, which is almost as bad. All the uneasiness he’d ignored in the past at serving the Raen stirred in him again, followed by a stubborn hope that the ruler of worlds was not as terrible as his allies–or that not all the allies were bad.
He sighed. “I’m afraid it’s going to be a very long time before we will be strong enough to attack his world. We don’t even know where it is.”
“I understand. If it was easy, it would have been done already.”
If Tyen hadn’t been able to see Baluka’s mind, he’d have read no more than acceptance and determination in the man’s tone. But in the newcomer’s mind the words were laced with sarcasm and dismay. The Traveller was not impressed with what he had seen of the rebels so far. He was half tempted to leave and seek another way to retrieve his fiancée. The other half wanted to take this disorganised rabble in hand and shape it into a force even the Raen would fear.
And then he remembered that Tyen could read his mind.
Tyen had no intention of pretending he hadn’t seen everything. “So what would you do to make us such a force?”
Baluka swallowed audibly. “I have some general ideas.”
“Only general ideas? Details are the scaffolding of a war plan. Without them you only have a pile of materials and ambitions.”
“Well, I only just got here.”
“Tell me what you’ve thought of so far, then.”
“I’d spread our bases across the worlds, so we can’t all be trapped in one.”
“And how would you communicate with them without the messengers being detected travelling between worlds?”
“I wouldn’t. We would send a message to them only when we are ready to attack. It would be safer, for most, if they stayed in their home world until then.”
“People join us because they want to be part of the action, to help and be listened to, not to be ignored.”
“They expect all that because you tell them to. We should not invite recruits to come to us, anyway. They risk their lives and could–and already have–led allies to us.”
“If they don’t even
come to us once, how do we know where and who they are?”
“We don’t have to. We send out recruiters through the worlds, leaving information on what to do and where to go when the time comes to attack.”
“And how do the recruiters travel and report back to us safely?”
“They don’t either. They only need to travel from world to world, telling those who would join us that there will a message or signal.”
“How do we know when we have enough support?”
Baluka grimaced. “Perhaps we wait until we know we have more than enough.”
“And this signal. Would it be the same signal everywhere?”
“Yes.”
“But if any recruiter or rebel is caught by the allies, the signal’s meaning will be known. They’ll watch for anyone making it, and kill them.”
“That depends on the nature of the signal.”
“Oh? What kind of signal are you suggesting?”
Baluka hesitated, then sighed. “I don’t know yet. I’m still working on that part.”
For a moment Tyen was disappointed. The Traveller’s suggestions had a mad kind of sense to them. A few tweaks… But I’m not supposed to be encouraging ideas that will work. He tapped the chair arm, then stopped as he saw an advantage in Baluka’s idea. Keeping the rebels spread through the worlds would not only be safer for them, but the risks of travelling would prevent them getting together and pressing for action. So long as they believed a signal would come one day, they would wait. And the excuse that there weren’t enough rebels to attack the Raen yet could never be disproven. And if I resist this idea for a while, then let Baluka take the credit, he’ll take the blame when it fails to lead to an attack on the Raen.
He cringed inwardly at the thought of setting the Traveller up. Could he make up for that in some way? What would the Raen say, if I suggested that freeing this man’s fiancée would weaken the rebels? Would Baluka leave if the woman he loved was free and unharmed?
“If you think of something…” Tyen began.
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