And maybe it was the person who was willing to obliterate another’s existence in order to cheat death who didn’t deserve to live. Maybe it was the person who killed powerful sorcerers just in case they became a threat who didn’t deserve to be resurrected. Maybe it was the person who would do anything–from making alliances with people who abused their power to manipulating young sorcerers into rebelling so that they and the allies would kill each other off–to remain in power who deserved to die. Or rather, to remain dead.
“Rielle,” Dahli said.
She started, catching herself before she could look up at him. His mind was closed now, but she looked beyond the block to see he was growing concerned.
Her resolve weakened. What she was about to do would hurt Dahli in a way he would never forgive. He would be devastated. He might even kill her, thinking his suspicions about her had been true all along. The Raen’s friends would help him. She did not have enough magic to fight them, or the knowledge how.
No, he won’t. He believes I’m the only person who can do this. Looking into his mind she saw that she was wrong. The sorcerer with the mechanical insect was strong, too. Maybe not as strong as Rielle, but perhaps strong enough.
The only hope for the young man in the casket was for her to flee, taking him with her.
That would require reaching him within the coffin of ice somehow. Once she touched him she could take him with her. How to do it before Dahli stopped her? She had barely more magic than she needed to leave the world. But the casket was only ice, so she did not need much.
Placing her hands on the back of the coffin, out of sight, she warmed the ice to melt a hole.
Dahli looked down at the casket and frowned.
“What is he…?” he began.
Her hand slipped inside the casket as the hole she was melting reached the interior. Bending down, she reached inside and groped around, seeking a foot.
“Rielle!” Dahli exclaimed. “What are you doing?”
She looked up at him.
“This is wrong, Dahli,” she said. “He is no mindless vessel.”
He shook his head. “There is no other way, Rielle.”
“Isn’t there? What about putting his mind into truly a mindless body instead of stealing this man’s? Or growing a new body from other living matter?”
“He must have a body that has developed fully,” Dahli told her, struggling to keep panic and anger out of his voice. “And a mind that is capable of using magic.”
How does he know this? She looked within his mind. He doesn’t. Valhan only left orders, not explanations. He trusted that Dahli would not question any of it. And he was right.
“All things come at a cost,” Dahli told her, moving around of the casket.
“The cost is too high,” she told him.
Dahli scowled and strode towards her. “Who are you to decide?” he shouted. “You’re a few cycles old. You know nothing. You’ve seen a handful of worlds–and you don’t even know how to travel between them.”
Her hand encountered cold flesh. She grabbed it, let the memories written into magic dissipate, and pushed out of the world. In the fading room she saw him turn to the others, his voice a muffled shout.
“Kill her.”
She pushed away from the world as hard as she could.
The shift to white was instant. She lost awareness of the world. Her senses told her she was still moving, propelled onward. A landscape of shifting grey and black slammed into her. She fell into warm liquid and sank.
Keeping her grip on the young man’s leg, she pushed again. She had no idea where she was going, let alone how to hide her trail from her pursuers. Thankfully she didn’t return to the icy world, but somehow steered herself down another path. She knew she ought to try some of the methods Dahli had used earlier to hide his trail, but she wasn’t sure how to forge a new path.
Five worlds on, one of the Raen’s friends caught up with her.
He materialised in the whiteness, grabbed her arm and yanked her in another direction. They emerged on a great flat plain of white spikes, from the size of her littlest finger to ones as large as towers. Those she landed on broke and rolled under her feet. She managed to stop the young man falling onto them, suspending him in the air.
The sorcerer still held her arm. It was the handsome one. The one the mechanical insect belonged to. The one who’d given Valhan the idea of how to resurrect himself. He stared at her face intently. He was breathing heavily.
“If you want… to escape… trust me,” he panted.
She gaped at him, then closed her mouth. What choice did she have?
“Wait a moment.”
She brought the young man closer. He was semi-conscious. She gathered him in her arms, where he slumped, an awkward weight. Then she nodded to the sorcerer.
“Go.”
They travelled fast–as fast as Valhan had taken her. After she lost count of the worlds she concluded that he must be keeping his word.
“Why are you helping me?” she asked when they reached the next world.
To her surprise he smiled, but with sadness. “Because you are right.” He nodded at the young man. “It is wrong, what they want to do to him.”
She looked closer, seeking the truth. “I can’t read your mind!”
“No,” he replied. He sounded as if he wanted to say something more, but a woman walked out of a door nearby and froze, staring at them.
The sorcerer closed his mouth and propelled them onward.