“Would Atorl?”
“Perhaps.” He scowled. “No, I’ll amend that to ‘probably’, but it would take a great change of circumstance. Atorl is not ambitious. He’s too lazy to rule over others. Instead he works for whoever is in charge. And that means if someone stronger came along, he’d work for them instead.”
“Valhan knows this?”
“Of course. Nobody can hide their mind from him.”
“So why does he tolerate Atorl?”
“Allies are useful.” Dahli grimaced. “Actually, some of them are more annoying than useful. Some are too dangerous for Valhan not to have some kind of agreement in place to keep them from uniting against him.”
Rielle shivered. “What about Inekera?”
At the name Dahli’s eyebrows rose. “She is more loyal than most.”
“She tried to kill me because she thought it would please Valhan.”
“You are fortunate to have survived.”
“She left me in a desert world. Unless she meant to strand me between two worlds. She let go of me in the place between. When I managed to hang onto her she seemed frightened and pushed me away, and I drifted into the desert world. Why didn’t she simply kill me with magic?”
“Because you are too strong. She might have failed.”
“But I didn’t know how to use magic.”
“If you had an instinctive grasp of magic you might have fended her off. Even if she had taken all the magic she could, your reach may have been so great that what lay beyond was still more than she could gather. Taking you out of her world meant hers was in no danger of being stripped bare, too. By travelling through several worlds to a weak world, gathering magic along the way and eventually stopping in a weak world when she attacked you, she improved her chances of defeating you.
“I suspect she noticed you struggling to breathe and realised she could just as easily strand you between worlds. However, a stronger sorcerer is always able to take control of a weaker one’s journey between worlds. When you kept hold of her she panicked and pushed you away. That you drifted into a desert world before you suffocated was probably unintentional.”
Rielle stared at him. “Well, then. It’s a good thing she didn’t realise how terrible I am at using magic.”
His smile widened. “It is. But you are not as terrible as you believe. Or rather, there is nothing a good teacher and a lot of training can’t overcome.”
She sighed. “Then I suppose we best be getting back.”
“Yes, I suppose we should.”
CHAPTER 19
They stood in shadow. Before them were stone archways carved into an interlacing pattern. A few steps beyond stretched an equally elaborate railing. As dry air surrounded them Valhan let go of Rielle’s hand and stepped forward. She followed him into sunlight and out onto a balcony.
It belonged to a building of seven storeys stretching out along the entire length of a curving city street. It was another sprawling city she could not see the end of, yet it did not teem with activity and noise. The street below was wide, but no vehicles and only a scattering of people travelled along it. On the other side the elaborate fa?ades of smaller, but still imposing, buildings faced them. From the high vantage point it was easy to see caved-in rooftops and vegetation growing unchecked in cracks and corners.
Valhan said nothing. In every world he had taken her to he’d instructed her to explore the minds of the locals, so she sought them out, beginning with the pedestrians below.
She read hunger. Worry. Determination. Minds were focused on acquiring the most basic necessities: food and clean water, clothing and fuel for cooking. Nothing more ambitious. Why not?
She would gain no fast answer from these people. Seeking minds unseen, she searched behind and below herself, reasoning that such a large building must be important and therefore house people with influence–or at least sufficient wealth that they had time to think about politics and history.
A scattering of servants worked at the front of the building, keeping the few rooms not abandoned in a reasonable state, or as best they could when the furnishings were old and threadbare. In one room a man sat at his desk, focused on calculations. Taxes now but he’d move on to expenditure next. Nearby a woman finished reading an appeal for investment from a merchant in a distant city. She sighed and tossed it in the growing pile of requests she’d have to reject. The Koijen Grand Elite were now so deeply in debt that she doubted they’d ever be financing new ventures again.