To Tyen’s relief, Volk began to calm down. He nodded slowly. “I know a few people who would suit the role.”
“Let’s all think about the nature and delivery of the signal we will send,” Tyen suggested. “Then meet back here tonight. I’m going to check on Reke.”
The three generals nodded, then moved to the door. He followed them into a narrow corridor. Their paths soon diverged, and he walked alone out of the dorms and along a road towards the building where Reke was being treated. Since they’d arrived he’d visited the woman twice a day, at first out of guilt that they had used her as an excuse to come here, even if it was for her benefit, and then to escape the others. The generals had been relieved to see Tyen take up the role of being Reke’s concerned friend, leaving them free to worry about him and the rebellion’s future.
To his surprise, tending to Reke was mostly calming, even comforting. Aside from escaping the generals for a while, here someone only required him to be present. He never had to give orders, make decisions, manipulate and direct. Reke was the focus of attention, not him, Baluka or the Raen and the rebels.
Reke was deeply asleep when he arrived, lying on a clean bed in a tiny room. Her breathing was loud and rough, but treatment the healers had given her had dulled the pain enough that she could sleep. Their assessment had been grim: the disease was so advanced that no cure was possible. He settled on the stool beside her, drew a little magic to still the door closed so that nobody could interrupt, and drew Vella out.
Well, that meeting didn’t go as we hoped it would.
No.
Separating the generals and sending them out into the worlds will at least remove Baluka’s influence on Volk and Frell.
It will, yet it may also give them the chance to meet without you there to discuss the leadership.
If they do, they’ll know I will learn about it as soon as they return.
Yes, so if they decide they want to make Baluka leader, they will act straight away. If not, they know you’ll have no choice but to accept that they considered it. They believe you need them, though not for the reasons you do. You’re better off with them in place, not a new set of generals who will demand more progress from their leader.
She was right. A chill ran through his blood.
What can I do to stop them if they decide to support Baluka?
You can’t hold on to leadership with force–unless you secretly kill or threaten Baluka–and you don’t want to do that. You must change their minds. Convince them that Baluka is unsuitable.
Or that I am more suitable.
A sound drew Tyen’s attention to Reke. Her eyelids moved and the vague images of dreams flashed through her mind. Her breathing was more laboured, fluttering in her throat. But she did not appear to be waking, and she relaxed again, so he looked down at the page again. He began to form a question in his mind.
“It is not preventing the Traveller from ousting you that is the challenge,” a voice said close behind him. “It is doing so while retaining a position of influence among the rebels.”
Tyen’s whole body jerked, and Vella slipped from his hands. Heart pounding, he reached down to pick her up then turned to face the intruder.
The Raen’s attention was fixed on Reke. Tyen followed the direction of his gaze. The woman was awake, but her thoughts had the glamour of a dream. She was staring at the intruder, a crease between her brows. Then the crease diminished as her face relaxed. A look of recognition and amazement came over her features. Turning back, Tyen caught his breath. The Raen’s skin had darkened, and his hair was rapidly turning white. His eyes lightened to a startling yellow–a fresher shade than the dark orange of Reke’s–and his chin narrowed.
He walked over to the bed, took her hand and said one word. The meaning bloomed in her mind, in the language of her world. Rest.
She closed her eyes, nodded, exhaled and her whole body shifted, limbs settling, chest no longer struggling for breath. Tyen stared, caught between horror and wonder at both the signs of physical death, and the calm fading of her mind from his senses.
He tricked her, he thought. Pretended to be a deity of her world. But if he had not and she had realised who he was, would that have been more cruel? Would she have died in terror?
There had been no advantage to the Raen in soothing her passing. It had been an act of kindness. And an extraordinary demonstration of his abilities.
The Raen’s face, hair and eyes were returning to normal–or at least, what was familiar to Tyen. Then all started to fade. He jumped to his feet.
“Wait!”
The Raen’s gaze snapped to his and he grew substantial again. One eyebrow rose in question. Tyen paused to gather the right words.
“Baluka could as easily become a competent leader as a failure.”