Angel of Storms (Millennium's Rule, #2)(114)

“Does she require rituals and preparation before you move her?”

“She didn’t say, so I guess not.”

“No family?”

“All dead.” Which was the reason she had joined the rebels, he knew.

She nodded. “If she had come here sooner we might have been able to help her. This will be more common, now that the law against travelling between worlds is in place again.”

“Will the hospital have to close?”

“No, we have always had plenty of patients. Either they have the Raen’s approval to travel here, or they are desperate enough to risk defying him.” She shrugged. “I’ve never heard of him punishing anyone, though.”

“Perhaps he is not as bad as some say.”

She looked at him guardedly. “He and his favourites can heal with magic. If this knowledge were available to us, we could cure everyone who came to us.”

Tyen’s heart sank a little, but then he thought of Vella. “Perhaps one day you will learn it from another source, or work it out for yourselves.”

She smiled. “Perhaps we will.”

He looked at Reke again. “What do you do with those who have no home to return to?”

After he had made arrangements and paid for the cremation and the healer’s services, he headed back to the room he shared with Volk. As he walked along the road to the dorms he turned the conversation with the Raen over in his mind. He considered the prospect of handing over rebel leadership to Baluka. “It is not preventing the Traveller from ousting you that is the challenge,” the Raen had said. “It is doing so while retaining a position of influence among the rebels.”

If he suggested it to the generals, it would look cowardly–like he was giving in too easily, or trying to escape responsibility. He needed to retain as much respect as possible, if he was still to have some influence with the generals. Admitting he wasn’t the best leader might be admired, but he had to convince them he had good ideas and a role to play in decision making.

How he could then gain Baluka’s respect would be even harder. Perhaps all he needed was for the generals to want him around. Baluka, new in his role, would not want to offend them.

Tyen needed a role to move into that they would approve of. A role that favoured his strengths. For Yira he had been an adviser and protector. It was too much to expect Baluka to trust a man he had just supplanted. This had to be something else. What could he offer them that others couldn’t?

I am stronger than everyone else.

That didn’t require him to be around Baluka and the generals, though. They could easily give him a task that sent him away.

I can read everyone’s mind.

Which was another good reason to send him away. They could not keep secrets from him. It would make him useful for recruitment, however. Which was probably the role Baluka would set for him, if he had a say in it, as Tyen would be away for a long time and wouldn’t need to return often.

So long as I did often enough to keep track of their plans, I can still be a spy.

The thought of spending some time away from the rebels appealed. He could consult Vella more often. He could meet with the Raen, make his reports more frequently, perhaps even see some of the man’s efforts at finding a way to restore Vella. So long as the rebels needed him to return regularly, he would be able to gather information about their progress.

Information. That’s it!

So long as he was gathering information that Baluka and the generals needed, they’d want him to meet with them regularly. But what? His heart skipped a beat as the answer came: the task he’d given Volk. He would volunteer to seek the location of the Raen’s home world and the number of his allies. Volk didn’t want to do it. He’d be grateful to have the task taken from him, and the others would appreciate that Tyen had not asked anyone to do a dangerous task he wasn’t prepared to do himself.

Tyen could be the rebels’ scout, their information gatherer, their–he almost laughed aloud as he thought it–their spy.

But Volk had been right about one thing: it would also be dangerous, even for Tyen. The allies knew only that they were not to kill the rebel leader. Once Tyen was no longer leader, he would not have that protection. Perhaps the Raen would have a solution for that.

“Tyen,” a voice said.

He turned to see Daam hurrying along the road to catch up, so he slowed. “Yes?”

“How is Reke?” the young man asked as they fell into step side by side.

Tyen let out a long breath. “Gone.”

“Oh.” Daam was silent for several steps. “Does that mean we have to leave?”

“Yes, I guess we must.” Tyen looked at the young man. My assistant. The promotion had both pleased and frightened Daam. The latter because the allies had targeted rebel leaders, and he was sure to be close by if they attacked Tyen. I can’t take him with me, Tyen thought. But it would be good to have someone close to Baluka and the generals to represent me when I’m absent.

“So the healers couldn’t help her?” Daam asked. “Or did she die before they could?”

“If she had sought help sooner they might have saved her.” Tyen recalled the healer’s claim about the Raen and his allies hoarding the knowledge of healing with magic. Why would they? Probably to prevent their enemies surviving when they’d otherwise die. But surely anyone powerful enough to be the enemy of an ally must be powerful enough to be ageless. From what I recall Vella telling me, agelessness means being able to change anything about your body, and that must include healing yourself.