Baluka drew magic as soon as they arrived. As Javox reached further, Tyen quickly took all that was within the man’s reach. He kept hold of the man’s arm to prevent him leaving the world.
The ally glared haughtily at Tyen, but his thoughts were panicky. He fought the urge to fight, knowing that the rebel who held him was stronger. The magic he still held might be better used in other ways–ways these rebels did not understand. And if I delay long enough Iphet and Nale will find me, he told himself. But would their combined strength be enough against these two rebels? Perhaps all they needed to do was scare his captors into letting him go.
“Javox, isn’t it?” Baluka said. The ally turned to stare at him. “Ever been to the Raen’s home world?”
The ally’s eyes widened slightly, and his arrogant expression became a little stiffer. He said nothing.
Baluka turned to Tyen. “Has he?”
Tyen shook his head. He dared not reply, in case he betrayed his excitement. In Javox’s mind he saw a cavernous hall and richly decorated corridors and rooms.
Baluka turned to the ally. “You’re not so important after all, then, if you don’t know the way there.”
The man’s gaze slid to Tyen, and a crease appeared between his brows. He knows I know, the man thought. Why doesn’t he say? There must be some advantage to him pretending otherwise. Well, if I can stir up some strife among the rebels before Iphet and Nale get here…
“Seven worlds,” Javox said, watching Tyen. “Begin at the ruins of Diomal palace, atop the tower, then move through six uninhabitable worlds. Water, fire, earth, air, light and darkness.”
Tyen opened his mouth to claim Javox was lying, then stopped as he realised that Baluka would realise Tyen had deceived him if he ever learned that Javox had been telling the truth.
“Tyen? Is this true?”
“He believes it to be.”
Baluka considered their captive. “Perhaps there is something else you can tell us in exchange for your release.”
The ally looked at Tyen. “What would you like to know?”
“Who lives at the palace?”
“Nobody.” Javox frowned. “Just servants.”
“Be more specific.”
“Cooks, cleaners and the like.”
“Musicians? Performers? Artisans?”
The ally sneered, guessing at the reason for Baluka’s question. “I hear he brought a whore in recently. I’ve not seen her myself, but they say she’s no great beauty and a bit stupid. I suppose the Raen can fix the former, but I’m afraid the latter is—”
Javox’s words were cut off. His eyes bulged, then a look of desperate determination set his features.
“Kill him, Tyen,” Baluka growled.
Tyen froze. “But we need—”
“Do it!” Baluka shouted. “I would do it myself but…” He shook his head. “We have to. He will tell the Raen we know of his world’s location.”
Tyen cursed silently as he saw the corner he was in. Baluka was not going to let Javox live while he thought the man had revealed the truth, and Tyen would only convince Baluka that Javox didn’t know the location of the Raen’s world once Javox was no longer present and attempting to prove otherwise.
The rebel leader was trying to get past a thin barrier the ally had put in place to protect his body. Javox ought to be suffocating, but some trick relating to agelessness was keeping him alive. While he had even a small amount of magic, Javox could heal all manner of damage to his body, so he was conserving his strength. The only way to kill him was to force him to use up all his magic.
If Javox realised he would die before his companions had the time to find and save him, he would change tactic and fight. A prolonged struggle could bring the roof crashing down on them. It has to be fast, he thought.
“Tyen!” Baluka growled. “If you don’t—”
“I’m working out how,” Tyen snapped. “Move back.”
Crashing down. Crushing. Tyen channelled magic into a force that enveloped Javox and squeezed, forcing the man to use more and more magic to resist. He watched, waiting for the thought that would betray when the ally ran out of magic or decided to fight. To his surprise, the former happened first. Tyen ceased the crushing force and let go of the man’s arm. Javox stumbled forward a step, caught his balance and staggered away from Tyen, his face a mask of confusion.
“What are you doing?” Baluka demanded.
“He has no magic,” Tyen told him. “He’s yours to deal with as you wish.”
Baluka’s eyes narrowed.
Javox clutched at his throat, fingers never meeting skin. A crack followed, then a gasp, and he fell to the floor, his head lolling to the side in an unnatural way. Baluka let out a sigh, but whether from satisfaction or regret it was difficult to tell.
Tyen shuddered. “Remind me never to get on your bad side, Baluka.”
“You really have no stomach for this, do you?” The rebel leader’s expression was sympathetic. “I know it isn’t cowardice, Tyen. Cowardice is the opposite of courage. You have courage. I’ve seen it. Not wanting to kill isn’t cowardice. It’s having a conscience.” I wish I still had such scruples, Baluka added silently. If I’m to save Rielle I can’t afford to have any. My friends don’t need to follow me down that path, though.
Tyen had to conceal his astonishment. Some time between his handing over control of the rebels and now, Baluka had decided Tyen was a friend.
“That’s why I’ve decided that, when the final battle comes, your role won’t be one that requires fighting unless there is no other choice,” Baluka said aloud. “You will be our transportation and escape route. There’s a risk so much magic will be used in the battle that we’ll become trapped in the Raen’s world. We’ll need someone who won’t get carried away and use all their magic to get us out. Someone who has moved many people at the same time before. Someone who can get them past six uninhabitable worlds that may not contain any magic.”
“I’m not sure what he told us is reliable, since he’d never travelled to the Raen’s world,” Tyen started.
“I know,” Baluka replied. “But if we can capture one ally, we can capture another. And next time it might be one who has been to Valhan’s world and can tell us the way.”
CHAPTER 18
It was only then, as Tyen cast about for his pack, that he realised it had been left behind. He cursed.
“What is it?” Baluka asked.
“My belongings. I left them in the mine. I will have to—”
“No.” The rebel leader shook his head. “You can’t go back for them.”
Tyen hesitated, then nodded. He’s right. Allies could be waiting. But they won’t watch the mine for ever. I’ll go back when they’ve given up on us returning. Beetle would guard his pack in the meantime. Though the insectoid could only sting a few times before he ran out of paralyser, and he wouldn’t survive if someone used brute force or magic against him. I’ll just have to hope nobody notices the pack, or is frightened off by the sight of a giant insect.
The irony was, he would not care less if he never saw the pack or its contents again, but he’d be sad to lose Beetle. He could always make another insectoid, but Beetle was one of the few possessions he still had from his world.
I will return for you, Beetle, he promised silently. But right now he had to get Baluka to safety.
“Where to next?” he asked.
“To meet the generals,” Baluka replied. “Read the path from my mind.”
Tyen did, then pushed away from the world, slipping from their arrival path to Javox’s and back again several times to confuse any pursuers. He did not follow Baluka’s directions exactly, circling and backtracking and taking every opportunity to confuse their trail.
The generals were in a world near to the Worweau Market, through which plenty of market traffic passed so Tyen had plenty of freshly used paths to hide their passing among. They arrived on a hill above a fast-flowing river, from where they hired a place on the robus
t canoes of traders. The men and women navigated the fast-flowing and treacherous waterway with impressive skill.
Half a local day later the river delivered them onto a vast lake, far from their arrival point. The calm body of water was dotted with numerous floating villages built on reed rafts, some little more than a cluster of houses. According to the traders, the villagers were prone to rearranging the location of their houses on a whim, and sometimes whole villages split or joined together. To help visitors find them, each house occupier flew a pennant featuring a personal design. Frell had told Baluka he would know theirs when he saw it.
Most of the designs related to the water. Sea creatures, flying animals, marine plants and water craft, fishing and boating tools and equipment were common, but plenty of unrelated subjects were included. Some were strange and fantastical. Now and then he or Baluka noticed an unrecognisable design and they would try to guess what it represented without consulting the traders’ minds.
Then Baluka laughed and told the paddlers to stop. As he paid the traders Tyen searched the pennants nearby but saw nothing that suggested the rebels were nearby. He gave up and read Baluka’s mind, then as they approached a house bearing a pennant decorated with a wheel design he chuckled as if finally realising the significance.
“Ah. I guess there aren’t many wheels around here.”
“No, but that’s not what tells me we’ve arrived at the right place. Look closer.”
Tyen did. “The wheel is broken.”
“Yes.” Baluka stopped. “The Traveller symbol for a thousand is a circle with ten spokes. We are hoping to gather a force of over a thousand fighters. One, at least, for every cycle he has lived.”
A thousand cycles… Tyen’s heart skipped as he remembered what Tarren had told him. “Do you believe the prophecy of Millennium’s Rule?”
“Believe? No.” Baluka shrugged. “I doubt there is a mystical force that ensures anything comes to pass. Prophecies, when they’re not about natural disasters that repeat, are about hope. They reassure people that things will not always be as bad as they are. They may even inspire those people to make sure the change happens. Perhaps that means one very powerful sorcerer is kept hidden and protected and trained until he is able to defeat the tyrant. Perhaps it means people who would have been too frightened or doubtful will support him. Or her.”
“If that is true, then sorcerers of the Raen’s strength are born more than once in a thousand cycles.”
“Probably.” Baluka shrugged. “Or maybe it hasn’t ever been a fight of one sorcerer against another. Perhaps many people unite to defeat him and only the most powerful gets the credit for it.” He glanced at Tyen. “Perhaps only the most powerful is remembered because he’s strong enough to become ageless, and so outlives the rest.”
Tyen frowned. “Perhaps he was the only one to survive the battle.”
Baluka grimaced. “That, too, is possible. I hope that is not the outcome this time.”
They had reached the house. It had no door, just a translucent curtain, yet Baluka scratched at the fabric as if unable to resist the habit of knocking. “Anybody home?”
“Come in,” a familiar voice replied.
Baluka grinned and pushed through into the dim interior. Frell, Hapre and Volk were lounging in hanging chairs, smiling and looking far too relaxed for generals of an army planning to attack the strongest sorcerer to exist in a thousand cycles.
Then a fourth chair turned slowly around and as Tyen saw the occupant his stomach turned to ice.
“See?” Resca smiled. “He knows me.”
I am an idiot, Tyen thought. I should have looked ahead to see who was in here, instead of chatting about prophecies. He opened his mouth to object, and to reveal the ally’s true identity, but he stopped as the man’s thoughts revealed his purpose for being there.
“Resca was an ally, but now he wants to join us,” Frell announced. The general’s voice was light, and his expression unconcerned, but as he met Tyen’s gaze he shook his head slightly.
We know about the massacre, he thought, knowing that Tyen would hear. He admitted it. Even apologised. He—
“And is this… your new leader?” Resca exclaimed. He leapt from his chair and knelt before Baluka. “Please, allow me to apologise for all I have done against the rebels–and some of it I admit was terrible. Your, er, friend saw the aftermath of one of my crimes and I would not blame him for hating me, but he is also the one who steered me towards becoming a better person. I am grateful for that, and always will be, despite what I know of him.”
Tyen saw the man’s intention even as Hapre voiced it.
“He says Tyen is the Raen’s spy,” she explained. “And has been since he joined the rebels.” Her lips pressed together firmly. She, of the three generals, was the most prepared to believe it was true.
Tyen drew breath to deny it, but Baluka spoke first.
“Well he would say that, wouldn’t he?”
The rebel leader was eyeing the kneeling sorcerer coolly, but his mind was spinning with possibilities. The fact that Tyen had never opened his mind to anyone had always bothered him. Yet Tyen, despite his aversion to violence, was clearly dedicated to the rebels’ cause, and had done a great deal to help the rebels survive. He had also been determined to ensure Baluka was suited to leadership before handing it over with obvious reluctance.
Frell was quietly outraged on behalf of Tyen. He had known Tyen the longest, and as another former lover of Yira’s, knew Yira would never have associated with someone duplicitous.
Volk simply worried that such an accusation might make Tyen leave. We need him, he was thinking. He’s by far the most powerful and knowledgeable sorcerer among us, so it’s no surprise he has a few secrets, but I doubt this is one.
Baluka looked at Tyen. How obvious to attack the only one of us strong enough to successfully spy on us, he was thinking. But I have to consider it is possible…
“I will open my mind to you,” Resca offered, “so you know I’m not lying.”
Baluka’s eyebrows rose. “Will you really?” He glanced at Tyen. “Very well. Do it.”
Resca looked around the room, then closed his eyes. Since he knew he’d detect no change, Tyen concentrated on Frell’s mind instead, and his heart quickened as he watched the general suddenly perceive the ally’s thoughts. It was a shifting, unsettled place, but as Resca focused on a memory the threads of his thoughts aligned. The scene of the massacred rebels appeared, but the details were indistinct.
Where I first met Tyen, Resca told them, the Raen forbade the killing of the rebel leader. Some said it was because Tyen was working for him. I asked Tyen and it made him afraid and angry. Tyen was the subject of the memory now, his face contorted in rage as he attacked, beating Resca down until he had no magic and was cringing on the floor. But he didn’t kill me. He let me go. Why would he do that, if he wasn’t secretly on our side? He told me to avoid the allies, perhaps so the rebels wouldn’t learn the truth if they caught one. So I did, but they have nearly caught me too many times. The safest place is with you, the rebels. If what I tell you leads you to killing the Raen… well, he deserves it.
Now a memory played out of a journey between worlds–the route to the Raen’s world and all the secrets to surviving it. Look for the tower in a ruined world not far from the Worweau Market. A vision of a thin, impossibly tall spire formed in his mind. The path begins at the top, taking you through worlds of water, fire, earth, air, light and darkness. Be ready to levitate above the first and protect yourself from the heat of the second. The third is benign but lifeless, the fourth full of life but the air is poisonous. Then the next is so bright you can’t see the difference between it and the place between, and the last… it has no light at all and the ground is treacherous, so don’t move from the arrival place.
The next world he showed them was entirely underground. The palace lay within a vast but mostly abandoned city. Few were allowed to visit it, so the only defenders were the Raen and
a few of his most loyal friends.
Tyen looked at the other rebels. The generals were excited by the information, which Resca had already shown them. They expected Baluka to be as well.
Yet the rebel leader was unimpressed.
“Thank you for so generously giving us this information,” Baluka said. “I regret it is not new to us. We already know the route to the Raen’s palace.”
Resca’s face fell. His gaze slid to Tyen. “Then all I can offer is my skills and strength, and the truth about him.”
Baluka shook his head. “Only Tyen can offer the latter. All you have is rumour and guesswork. But…” he smiled, “if you still wish to help us, well, when the day comes to fight we will welcome all the help we can get. There will be a signal. The place between will fill with travellers, details of the meeting place spreading among them. Come to that meeting place.”
Resca nodded. “I will.”
“For now you are safest away from us and we are safest away from you. Now go. Leave as you arrived, by boat, so you do not leave a trail back to us.”
“But—”
“No, Resca, your best chance of being free of the Raen is to hide, wait and respond when called, not stay with us.”
Resca nodded slowly. “All right. I’ll do that. I hope I do not have to wait long.”
“So do I, Resca.”
The man climbed to his feet, nodded to the generals, then walked out. Baluka moved to the empty chair and settled into it.
“Wait until he is too far away to read our minds.”
Tyen remained standing. All were silent until Baluka nodded.
“Good. He has rowed out of hearing. We can talk.”
Tyen crossed his arms. “Are you sure you want to accept his help? What he did to the rebels I found was…” He shuddered as he failed to come up with a word to describe the horror.
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