Angel of Storms (Millennium's Rule, #2)(106)

“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.

Baluka nodded. “I’ll tell you. Though I’m sure you’ll read it from my mind first. I can see that’s a necessary precaution, but it’s going to take some getting used to. My people consider it bad manners to read minds without consent.”