Angel of Storms (Millennium's Rule, #2)(120)

Dahli had quickened his stride, plunging down a passage that led towards their rooms, but now he paused and looked back. “When the Raen commands his most loyal to tackle a task, it is not at the bottom of his to-do list.”

She suppressed a laugh at his indignation, not completely sure if he was joking or not. As he hurried on she lengthened her stride to keep up.

“He never seems all that concerned.”

“That is not his way.”

“And he must have more pressing things to worry about.”

“I assure you he is very interested in your training.”

She shrugged, though he was in front and couldn’t see the gesture. “Why? I’m not important.”

“He feels you are, therefore you are.”

“I can’t see why. If he needed more sorcerers to help him he could easily find one with more aptitude than I have. I’m better at making magic then using it. I’m better at using paint than magic, too. He obviously doesn’t want me for my company, and I’m hardly… well…”

“What?”

“Ah… never mind.”

He glanced back, then stopped.

“You hesitate to speak. Now I’m very interested. Go on. Out with it or I’ll insist you meet him now.”

She looked down at her filthy clothes. “I’m no great beauty.”

His eyebrows rose. “He has no interest in you in that regard.” He turned away. “You wouldn’t be the first to wish it were otherwise.”

“Oh, I have no ambitions in that direction,” she assured him. “And I would never have agreed to come here if I thought… if I thought I was in that kind of danger.”

“You are not.” His tone was gentler. He turned away and resumed walking, though slower now. “Few women can resist if Valhan wishes to seduce them, but I’ve not seen him do so in centuries. At least, not for the purpose of seduction. And never to an unwilling, er, seductee.”

Rielle nodded, not sure whether to be reassured or more worried by his answer. What Valhan did with other women was none of her concern, so long as he wasn’t the type to force his interest on any.

But Dahli’s answer still didn’t explain Valhan’s interest in her progress as a sorcerer. If all he wanted was to repay her for helping him leave his world it didn’t matter how well and quickly she was progressing. She sighed. How could she ever guess what motivated a man as old and powerful as he? Maybe if she ever lived as long as he had, she would understand. Which meant she would be mystified for a very long time.

And thankful.





CHAPTER 17





The Arrival Hall was, as far as she could tell, at the centre of the palace. It did not link up to the sequence of halls a visitor must travel through on arrival, nor was it as large or imposing. As Dahli led the way through a side door Rielle glanced at the enormous timepiece at one end, hanging high above a dais. It was an hour past the time her morning lessons usually began.

A man stood on the dais, talking to a middle-aged woman Rielle recognised as one of the head servants. The woman nodded, the movement exaggerated so it was almost a bow, then hurried away. Valhan turned, stepped down and walked towards her and Dahli, his every movement smooth and graceful. As always, he was dressed in dark, simple clothing.

Angels, he is a beautiful man.

Yet despite being here for nearly a quarter cycle, she still had to resist an urge to shrink back from him a little. Part of her still reacted with the awe and respect due to an Angel. Part of her hadn’t forgiven him for deceiving her. Both parts she could ignore.

But she was all too aware of his power and age, and that he had killed and would do so again to stay alive, protect his people and maintain control over the worlds. She was not na?ve or foolish enough to trust him utterly. And yet she had felt–still felt–that accepting his invitation had been the most logical, fair thing to do.

Except in the middle of the night, when she woke thinking she was still in the room of the weavers’ workshop she’d shared with Betzi only to jolt fully awake with the knowledge of where she really was. Then the only way she could stop worrying she had made a mistake was to tell herself she may as well continue to behave as if she hadn’t until the moment she was proven wrong.

If Valhan was reading this from her mind now, he showed no sign of it.

“Dahli,” he said, then looked at her. “Rielle. How are the lessons progressing?”

“Well enough,” Dahli replied. “We were about to resume them.”

Valhan shook his head. “No lessons today. I have something to show Rielle.”

Dahli’s eyebrows rose. He nodded and took a step back. “I await your return.”

She stared at him, then at Valhan, and as the ruler of worlds extended a hand she mentally shook free of her surprise and took it.

This is new, she thought. It can’t be lessons in immortality. Too soon for that. And he said he wanted to show me something, not teach me.

His grip was firm. The Arrival Hall brightened and faded to white, then darkened to an unrelenting blackness that she remembered from her journey to his world. A green world flashed by, then a landscape of ice. Heat like walking too close to a fire touched her skin briefly, and then an immense ocean came into sight, waves like mountains surging far below and an orange sky above. Finally they stopped at the top of an enormous tower.