Angel of Storms (Millennium's Rule, #2)(170)

Though if he ever wanted to get rid of Dahli…

She turned her mind away. The pattern of memories was coming faster as Dahli grew more proficient at reading them. I won’t have too long to explore Valhan’s mind. So what do I want to know next?

If she was the only person who could resurrect him, then how long ago had he come up with the plan? Plunging into his memories, she looked around, hoping to find a starting point that would lead to an answer. Some time between leaving her world and bringing her to his palace…

She glimpsed herself walking with the people of his world. Except… stopping, she examined them more closely and her stomach sank.

They aren’t his people! He took me to see people that resembled him, and who I would identify with and trust. People who lived in a desert but were nomadic traders, like the Travellers.

So what of his true home world? Did he even remember…?

Oh.

His home world was where had learned how to rule–and how not to. It was where he–too young to know how to handle power of both the magical and political kind–had made a great many mistakes. It was so long ago that the regret he had once felt had faded, but the echo of it was still there.

I see why he lied. I’d not want anyone to see my mistakes.

Exploring further, she stopped when she saw an old memory of Inekera in his mind and was able to link back to more recent encounters.

He thought she had killed me, she discovered. Wait… he ordered Inekera to kill me! After the woman had tested Rielle’s strength she had chased after him and offered to dispose of the new sorceress, knowing that he always killed powerful sorcerers before they could gain the skill and courage to become a threat. He had agreed, and felt only mildly disappointed at the necessity. But it had turned out he didn’t need a Maker after all. His world was still intact.

But then he learned from another new and powerful sorcerer of a method to preserve all his knowledge and memories. It had given him an idea. A daring idea that would deal with both his allies and the inevitable rebellion that would rise after his long absence. An idea that required someone very powerful, who he could be sure would perform the task. The one with the sentient book was of more use as a spy. He’d regretted ordering her death. When he learned that the Travellers had adopted a powerful Maker he had investigated, and discovered that Rielle had survived.

Rielle let that thread of his memories go, disturbed by his assessment of her. What would he have done if I’d decided to stay with the Travellers and marry Baluka? Would he have ordered Baluka’s death? Was he that ruthless?

But she might just as well wonder if she’d have killed Sa-Gest deliberately, rather than accidentally, if he’d attacked her that day on the mountain road. He hadn’t. She hadn’t. Valhan hadn’t. And she had never deluded herself about Valhan’s willingness to kill in order to protect himself and the worlds. She’d only accepted it because she believed his ultimate motive was good: peace throughout the worlds.

This death and resurrection isn’t only to save himself. It’s about getting rid of the allies. He’s taking a huge risk in order to achieve that. If a safe life was all he wanted it would make far more sense to live quietly somewhere nobody paid much attention to.

She couldn’t imagine him doing that, though. He was not a man who would be satisfied with a simple existence. He was a man who burned himself alive in order to ultimately return to rule.

Despite everything she had learned, despite knowing he had used her, and had even ordered her death, she couldn’t help admiring him.

As abruptly as before, the pattern stopped flowing from Dahli. She blinked, looked up at him, then down at the casket.

One more step.

Reaching for more magic, she discovered that the world was running low. The others and Dahli still held more than enough to leave the world, so she took what remained in the world. Seeking the life below her, she relocated the young man’s mind.

It was not as it had been before.

Where there had been no mind there was consciousness. Thoughts were forming. Memories were waking. None of them were Valhan’s.

What is doing this? At once, she recognised pattern shifting. The mind within the body was undergoing the same constant habit of preservation and restoration that hers had gained when she’d become ageless. But of course it is. That was part of the pattern I imprinted. Valhan’s pattern, as an ageless man.

But it meant the original mind of the young man was being restored.

It was happening slowly and unevenly. As with Valhan’s memories imprinted in the hand, the most recent woke first.

She saw Valhan. She saw confusion. Is this really how a sorcerer became ageless? he wondered. He knew something was not right, but it was too late. His struggles were ineffective, and he gave up, terror fading at the same time as awareness.

Rielle shuddered as she realised the truth. This was no young man who had been born mindless. This was an ordinary young man whose body had been stolen, and mind suppressed.

Why hadn’t I seen this in Valhan’s memories?

She turned back to them, searching, and found nothing. Only then did she remember Valhan telling her that memories could be erased. She found knowledge of the experiments he’d undertaken to develop the method of resurrection, but none of the details.

She sought the mind of the young man. He was half awake, shivering and panting with terror.

If she imprinted Valhan’s memories over his, it would be as close to killing him as plunging a knife into his heart.