Resca nodded. “I will.”
“For now you are safest away from us and we are safest away from you. Now go. Leave as you arrived, by boat, so you do not leave a trail back to us.”
“But—”
“No, Resca, your best chance of being free of the Raen is to hide, wait and respond when called, not stay with us.”
Resca nodded slowly. “All right. I’ll do that. I hope I do not have to wait long.”
“So do I, Resca.”
The man climbed to his feet, nodded to the generals, then walked out. Baluka moved to the empty chair and settled into it.
“Wait until he is too far away to read our minds.”
Tyen remained standing. All were silent until Baluka nodded.
“Good. He has rowed out of hearing. We can talk.”
Tyen crossed his arms. “Are you sure you want to accept his help? What he did to the rebels I found was…” He shuddered as he failed to come up with a word to describe the horror.
“I fear what he would do if we refused him, and we do need all the help we can get.” Baluka set the chair swaying. “His claims about you are curious.”
“Why did you let him go?” Hapre asked.
Tyen sighed. “I couldn’t bring myself to kill him,” he confessed. “And he did decide, at the time, that he would do what I ordered.”
“Which was?”
“To not harm anyone. To leave the allies.”
“What would prevent him changing his mind later?”
All Tyen could do was shrug in reply.
“I am not bothered by a reluctance to kill,” Baluka said, “so long as that is what it is. I think it is time we knew that for sure, Tyen.”
A chill ran through Tyen. What Baluka was hinting at was clear in his thoughts. He wanted to finally see into Tyen’s mind.
Tyen doubted he’d live long if he let them. Their combined strength was considerable. Probably enough to defeat him. Unless he took all the available magic first… “More often than not, he who moves fastest wins,” Tarren had once quoted.
But sometimes he who spoke most convincingly won.
“Not yet.” Tyen had rehearsed this reply many, many times, knowing he would face a moment like this eventually. “You know I hold secrets that would endanger others if the allies read them from your minds. Wait until the last moment, when there will be no risk that what I know will be used against us.” He paused, reading resistance in their minds. “And I think I can risk showing you one thing…”
Concentrating, he brought up a memory of the rebels Resca had slaughtered, then opened his mind enough that they saw it. Like opening the pages of Vella briefly, before snapping the covers closed.
All four rebels flinched.
“I can only ask you to trust me as much as you trust him,” Tyen told them, with as much dignity as he could gather. Then he walked out of the house.
He had almost reached the place where they’d stepped off the canoes when he heard his name called. Glancing back, he saw Baluka hurrying towards him as quickly as anyone could who didn’t have the local knack of walking on the soft ground. The others weren’t following.
“Wait,” the rebel leader called.
Tyen stopped. To his relief, Baluka no longer wanted Tyen to open his mind. He’d convinced the others to do as Tyen had asked: to wait until the last possible moment. Baluka smiled as he reached Tyen, then stepped past to the water’s edge and beckoned to one of the many young men and women paddling around the islands hoping to earn some money transporting people from village to village.
“Join me,” Baluka said as he stepped on board. Tyen obeyed, settling on the woven seat. The rebel leader directed the young man to paddle towards the distant shore, speaking haltingly in the local language as it was the only one the man understood. Then he turned back to Tyen. “So. You made your point. I won’t demand you open your mind to us. Not until just before the battle.”
Tyen nodded. “Thank you.”
“Can you tell me anything of the book you thought of?” he asked, turning to Tyen.
A curse slipped off Tyen’s tongue. The rower glanced at him, not understanding the words but recognising the sound of someone swearing when he heard it.
“Is it so dangerous to know of it?” Baluka asked. He was curious, but also wary.
“Yes, but more to some than others.”
The rebel leader nodded. “I don’t need to read your mind to know you are not a violent man. And more important than the memory was the feeling behind it. Not just your horror at what he had done but your fear that letting him live will cause us more harm.” Baluka’s eyes narrowed. “Does the book belong to this woman named Vella?”