Another rebel’s thoughts caught his attention: Ceilon didn’t like them, but he and the woman have done the only smart things so far, and he was right about the base.
Face it, another was thinking. You panicked. You weren’t thinking at all. A leader has to be able to think, and they both look so amazingly calm.
… one of those two. I’d follow either, but I doubt everyone here will follow the orders of a woman.
Tyen turned to Yira.
“What do you think?”
She glanced at him, then around the watching faces. “Good advice,” she said. “Very good. Splitting into smaller groups for a while would be smart, too. I will leave a message at the inn in the city of Tarmten on Grenwald. Does anybody not know where Grenwald is?” A few hands rose. “Keep your hands up. Those who do know the location please pair up with those who don’t.” She waited until all of the pairings had been made. “Those of you with families go now and relocate them as quickly as possible–leave from here and go in different directions. The rest of you stay with me.”
Rebels began to vanish, and within a few breaths a diminished group of about twenty remained. All looked at Yira expectantly.
“There are hundreds of inns in Tarmten,” Yira told them. “We are going to leave different messages in each of them. The holders of those messages won’t know what they mean, except that they must give it to someone asking for me. The message will be directions to another location, where they will find a clue that will lead them to our new meeting places. The meeting places will be public, so we can observe who turns up.” She smiled. “Only those who have made it that far will find out where the new base is. Now, let’s get out of here before someone notices there are multiple new paths leading from this spot.”
She took Tyen’s hand and held her other one out to the nearest rebel. The rest shuffled quickly into a circle, took a collective breath, then the mine faded from sight.
A long time later, the rest of the rebels sent on their errand, Tyen and Yira finally paused to rest. They arrived in a sparsely populated world, in a narrow ravine crowded with vegetation and full of the noise of a fast-running stream. Choosing a mossy boulder, Yira sat down and stretched out her legs.
“By all the women who lived and fought before me, I hope this works.”
Tyen chose a rock a few paces away to settle on. “It’s a lot smarter than what Ceilon and Ayan were doing.”
“Is it?” She was staring intently at the vegetation, no doubt searching with both eyes and mind for other people. “I used nearly the same system of clues to bring my friends to the base, and you didn’t approve of that.”
“The weakness in that arrangement was nobody bothered to check if anyone was who they said they were until they had already arrived at the base. We’ll be making sure only the people we know are genuine rebels will reach the new one.”
“What if they’ve been caught and blackmailed into betraying us in the meantime?”
“I’ll read their mind to find out.”
Her eyebrows rose. “You convinced us all that mind reading was unwise.”
“Because everyone knew everything about all the other rebels. This time only one person will know what every person knows, and I will pass on what is safe for you to know.”
She narrowed her eyes. “That won’t seem fair.”
“It’s not. It can’t be.” Tyen sighed. “This isn’t about fairness, it’s about survival.”
“And what if someone reads your mind?”
He looked away. “I have never met anybody who could. That doesn’t mean someone stronger won’t join us and mess up our system. We’ll have to deal with that when it happens.”
“If none of the rebels can read your mind…” She chewed on her lip. “Can I risk seeking your opinion on my idea for the base location?”
He smiled. “Of course.”
One of her eyebrows rose. “You know, I didn’t fail to notice what you did back there, in the mine.”
He blinked at the sudden change of subject. “What?”
“You handed them over to me. You made me their leader when they would have followed you.”
He looked at his feet. “I suppose I did.”
“You’re not comfortable with the prospect of leading them,” she observed.
He nodded. He couldn’t tell her that it was because he needed the rebels to fail, and they would with her in charge because some, stupidly, wouldn’t obey the orders of a woman. He certainly couldn’t explain that being the leader wouldn’t work when he was already a spy.
I wish it wasn’t her, though. I have to hope the rebels are wrong that the allies targeted Ceilon and Ayan. Or that some fool will decide the rebellion will do better with a man in charge.
“You could, you know,” she told him. “And not just because they’d follow. You’re smarter than most of them.”
He shook his head. “I don’t want to.”
“No. You feel responsible for the deaths, don’t you? You were absent when you could have helped. I feel that too.” She sighed. “We both know we aren’t to blame, but I am better able to trust the knowing more than the feeling. I remember how you blamed yourself for the collapse of the tower in your world. You couldn’t have prevented that, or this.” She smiled, but it quickly faded. “We’ve known each other for over five cycles, Tyen. We’ve been closer than friends, but you understand me better than most of my friends and lovers. It’s almost unflattering how readily you accepted my warning that I would remain celibate while with the rebels.” She smiled, then tilted her head to the side. “I suspect… I suspect I remind you of someone–though you’ve never mistaken me for her.”
He blinked in surprise. She’s right. He’d never mentioned Sezee to her but he’d often seen similarities between the two women.
Then he felt a chill. Beneath Yira’s practical manner was a perceptiveness that he ought to fear. Of all the rebels, she is the one most likely to work out I’m a spy. It disturbed him that he had a reason to fear her now.
“But, Tyen,” she said, her tone suddenly hard, “if I am going to be leader and you my adviser then I have to trust you completely. There’s one thing that is preventing me.”
His stomach clenched, and all his muscles went rigid. Had something made her suspect him? He made himself look up and hold her gaze. When she didn’t speak, his guts began to hurt, as if a noose had been looped around his middle and was being slowly tightened.
Then he realised she was waiting for him to speak–perhaps so she could listen for clues of treachery in his voice.
“What is that?” he asked, his voice weaker than he hoped.
She looked at his chest. “I must know what it is that you conceal.”
Relief flooded through him. He looked down at his shirt. “The book?”
“No ordinary book. I want to see it.”
“And if I refuse to show you?”
Her expression did not soften. “Then your place isn’t among the rebels.”
He studied her carefully, not doubting she was serious. Ceilon and Ayan kept me out of meetings because they couldn’t read my mind, never considering that I could be reading theirs. Yira is smarter. Yet she understands the value in not learning more secrets than necessary. She won’t ask to read my mind, but she must test me somehow and the book is something she knows I value.
Except that if she questioned Vella about him, she would learn of his deal with the Raen. Vella could not refuse to answer, or lie.
And yet… there might be ways around this.
“You’re not asking me to let you read my mind,” he observed.
She nodded. “No.”
“This will be akin to it.”
Her eyebrows rose. “How so?”
“The book absorbs all the knowledge of those who touch it.”
Yira’s eyes widened. “So when I touched it, back at Liftre…?”
“From what I recall, you lifted the satchel from around my neck by the strap. You never touched
it.”
“I see. So if I touch it now, it will know everything I know.”
“Yes. She will.”
Her eyebrows rose again. “She?”
“Her name is Vella. She was a sorcerer who was transformed into a book over a thousand cycles ago.”
She drew in a quick breath. “How?”
“I don’t know exactly,” he admitted. “The little I know is rather gruesome and it seems a bit rude to press for details.”
She let out a quick bark of a laugh. “That is so typical of you, Tyen.” She sighed and looked at his chest again. “So how does all that knowledge fit on so few pages?”
“Words appear when she speaks to you.”
“And do you write your questions?”
“No. You only have to speak to her in your mind.”
“Can you hold her while I ask questions?”
His skin pricked. “Yes, but…”
“Asking questions about you would be akin to reading your mind.” She nodded. “We won’t talk about you at all. She sounds far more interesting.”
Pushing aside his reluctance, he rose and sat beside her on the boulder, then drew the satchel out from under his shirt. He removed Vella and opened her so that Yira could see the pages.
Try not to betray me, he thought.
“Hmm,” Yira said. “Well, then. Hello, Vella.”
Hello, Yira, appeared on the page.
Yira drew in a quick breath. “That’s amazing!” She chewed on her lower lip for a moment. “So what do you know that doesn’t involve Tyen?”
A great deal.
Yira laughed. “I’m sure there’s plenty he doesn’t need or want to know. Unless… is there knowledge in you that he needs to know?”
Tyen’s heart skipped. Yira was only being helpful, but if the information was related to his deal with the Raen…
Not yet.
“Not yet?” Yira glanced at Tyen. “Give me an example?”
When he is older he will need to learn to stop ageing.
Yira spluttered. “You know how to cheat death?”
Yes.
“And Tyen hasn’t bothered to learn it yet?”
No.
She turned to stare at him. “Why not?”
He shrugged. “It takes a long time to learn–many cycles for some–and part of what it involves is… disturbing.”
“Like?”
“It changes you.”
“Of course it does. That’s the point.”
“But the point of stopping ageing is to stay as you are.”
“We’re all changing, all the time,” she reminded him. “Otherwise we couldn’t learn anything.” She paused. “Though I suppose you know that, so the changes have to be something more. Something worse.” She looked down at Vella. “Could I learn this?”
Yes, if you find a world so rich in magic that it boosts your strength sufficiently to achieve it, leaving enough magic for you to either stay and maintain agelessness or leave the world again.
“Are there worlds that strong?”
I have never heard of one strong enough to turn a sorcerer of moderate strength into an ageless sorcerer.
Yira’s shoulders slumped. “And my powers are not even strong enough to be called ‘moderate’. Well, that’s a disappointment I wasn’t expecting today.” She looked at Tyen, somewhat accusingly. “You are going to do it one day, right?”
He nodded. “Probably.”
She reached out to touch the book, then thought better of it. “It was an honour to meet you, Vella. I hope we can speak again. I know I’ll think of more questions to ask you, and none of them about Tyen.”
I look forward to it.
Yira chuckled. “Put her back in her bag,” she instructed. As he did so she stood up and looked around the ravine, but her gaze was distracted.
“The temple city of Aei,” she said quietly. “That’s where I’m thinking of setting up our new base.”
Tyen nodded, though she was not looking at him. “Plenty of traffic from other worlds. Lots of people to be lost among. It is a good location, if people are still visiting there.”
She smiled. “Oh, they will be. Tens of thousands of pilgrims will be determined to get there, no matter what the cost. Unlike merchants, they won’t be so easily dissuaded from travelling between worlds.” She looked back at him. “And he may not want to stop them. Aei is the Raen. The religion started when he first began meddling in the affairs of worlds. The Travellers know, and the founders of Liftre confirmed it through their studies of old texts and such.”
He frowned. “But doesn’t that mean he’ll visit it frequently?”
“Oh, he’s not appeared in the temple for over a hundred cycles.” She shrugged. “That’s far less than most worlds. I used to know a priest of the order, who said they wished their god would visit more often. I suspect he avoids the place so he isn’t bombarded with requests.”
Tyen shook his head. “I’m going to have to seek out the Travellers one day. They seem to know a lot, and influence everything. The language we speak, the paths through worlds…”
She smiled. “I’m sure you will run into them one day. But right now, we need to make over a hundred clues that will disappear once they’re read, and deliver them to the locations the messages in Grenwald will send the rebels to. And we need to decide where in the temple city of Aei those clues will send them to.”
He stood up. “Then we’d better get to work.”
CHAPTER 9
The new rebel base couldn’t be any more different to the last, Tyen reflected as he padded, barefoot, over the elegant wooden bridge. Two rebels accompanied him, one chatting, the other following quietly. They were from the same world, but different lands, and while Joi was tall and broad-shouldered and Gevalen short and slight, both had slightly greenish-brown skin covered in fine hairs.
“Yes, it is warm here,” Tyen agreed.
“I guess if I could choose anywhere to build a temple, I’d choose somewhere nice,” said Joi, the chatty one. “It hasn’t rained once since we arrived. But there’s a lot of water about, so it must some time.”
“At night mostly.”
“And as it’s called a temple city, I was expecting something… something more city-like.”
Tyen chuckled. “Me, too.”
The temple of Aei was a great sprawl of low buildings, each house set amid gardens and small fields, threaded through with streams artfully diverted to supply all houses with water and made to look natural with careful planting. Once away from the main temple complex, the city didn’t appear to be highly populated, but in reality the place was teeming with people.
Most were ordinary people, from the families that ran the boarding houses for pilgrims and worshippers, to field workers, to the men and women who provided goods and services around the city, to most of the priests and priestesses who ran the temples. After so long living in a school of sorcery, Tyen had almost forgotten that most people had no magical ability. Here only the upper hierarchy of priests and priestesses were sorcerers. The rest lived without magic in their lives, except for when visitors had the ability to use it.
Fortunately the priests and priestesses of Aei were too busy with temple business to pay attention to pilgrims, and those of other worlds were so busy taking care of the visitors they brought to Aei they spared little attention to anyone else. The rebels had been able to settle safely in the boarding houses without raising suspicion. All in eight days.
“I didn’t see anywhere big enough for everyone to meet,” Joi reflected. “Are there fewer of us, ah, followers left? Did some change their minds?”
“We’ve lost some and gained some.” Tyen glanced at the young man following behind them to make sure he was still there. “No more than twenty people can stay in each boarding house, and we had to take what was available, so we’re scattered all over the city. We’re moving people when rooms are available in order to occupy whole houses, but staying in small groups does have advantages
.”
Joi nodded, and Tyen saw that he understood. A big group might draw attention.
“Everyone is undergoing training,” Tyen added, “to learn the rituals required when visiting the main temple.” Joi’s nose wrinkled, but he didn’t object. If the rebels didn’t participate it would be obvious they weren’t really there on pilgrimage.
“What do these rituals involve?” the other man asked.
“Offerings, prayers, readings by the hosts of the boarding houses. Some pilgrims come here to make a request of Aei or seek advice from the priests and priestesses, others simply to purify their souls.”
“Offerings?” Joi said, frowning and thinking that he didn’t want to waste his limited savings on a religion he didn’t follow.
“It is what pays for your food, clothing and bed.”
Joi looked down at Tyen’s clothing. “If the quality of what you’re wearing is an indication, someone’s profiting from that.”
“They ask that you contribute only what you can afford, but in return you get exactly what everyone else receives. All people are treated the same way here, whatever their status at home. You’re meant to be equally humble in the presence of Aei. Or at least appear to be.” Tyen shrugged and looked down at the simple trousers and vest he’d been given to wear. “They’re actually very comfortable and most pilgrims do wear them.
“Most? That means some don’t.”
“If they aren’t wearing these, they are adhering to the stricter customs of modesty of their world. Which means they do tend to stand out from other pilgrims.”
Joi nodded again. “Not a good idea for us, then.”
“No.” Tyen said. “Now remember: no mind reading. I will be watching the both of you.”
They’d arrived at a single-level house built of thick reeds as strong as wood. The host family for this house was led by a woman, currently occupied in trimming a small tree overhanging a path. She looked up and smiled as she bent in a half-bow. Tyen stopped to return the gesture, his companions following suit, then ushered the two newcomers inside. A corridor ran down the centre, and he glanced through the open doorways on either side as he passed, nodding to the rebels occupying them. They appeared to be contemplating the view outside, but were actually keeping watch for anyone lingering nearby who might overhear their leader’s conversations. He stopped outside the only closed door. At his tap a familiar voice called out.