“Rielle,” he said. “Come in.”
His mind opened to her and she saw that her expectations were correct. They wanted to talk to her about Valhan. She frowned and Baluka’s smile faded. He beckoned. As she entered, Lejikh poured a red liquid from a pot into a glass. “Drink this,” he suggested, his meaning clear in Baluka’s mind. “It helps to wake you up when you’re tired. We’ve all had some.”
She took the glass and sipped. Bitterness tempered by something sweet filled her mouth. Her temples constricted but after a moment the pain faded and weariness subsided. Lejikh sat next to his wife. Rielle took a chair near Baluka’s.
“I need to tell you a story,” Lejikh said.
To her surprise, his mind was suddenly open to her. He paused to gather his thoughts and decide where to begin.
“When I was a child I looked forward to visiting one world of our cycle more than any other. The family we traded with were not as rich as Felomar, but the mother was sister to the land’s ruler. We would stay several days and the Traveller children would play with their three offspring.
“The oldest, Roslie, was a little younger than me, yet she was always in charge, always inventing games for us to play. Each cycle I would worry that something would change and we would not get along as well when we met again, but each cycle we only grew to like each other more. When we began to grow into adults we started to see life differently, but we promised each other this would not alter our friendship.
“One day I arrived to find her dismissive towards me. I sought the source of this coldness, and discovered that arrangements had been made for her to marry.
“We had never discussed or expected anything of each other but friendship. Outsiders can marry Travellers, and Travellers can leave to marry outsiders, but she was royalty and the eldest, and her value to her family was as much in whom she would marry as how she invested her wealth and power. She could never marry a Traveller.”
Lejikh’s smile was crooked. “Yet when she saw me again, and when I heard what was planned for her, we began to want what we couldn’t have. It grew more desirable the more unattainable it became.”
Ankari murmured something and Lejikh smiled. “Of course we thought we were in love. Maybe we were. It is different when you are young.” He shrugged. “I made an appeal to my parents but though they were sympathetic I could not talk them into allowing a marriage. It would have ruined trade with that world. It would have meant altering our path. I offered to do the risky work of finding another world with desirable goods to buy from a suitable source, but they still refused.
“I then approached Roslie’s parents and offered to stay in their world, my powers at their service, if I could marry her. They, too, refused, not wanting to break their arrangements with the Travellers or the agreement with the ally she was to marry.”
Lejikh shook his head, and a memory of a young woman’s face flashed into his mind. “Roslie was furious. She said neither family deserved us, and we should leave both. I could not see any other way we could be together. By the time our cycle took us to that world again she would be gone, so we had to go immediately. I took her out of her world and off my family’s path, travelling between worlds again and again to avoid pursuit.” His expression became wistful. “It was easier than I’d expected, but then we were in an area of worlds rich with magic with little danger of becoming stranded.
“We continued that way for many days, and Roslie began to miss the luxuries of her home. She had thought we’d start our own little kingdom, and never quite believed me when I said it wasn’t as easy as turning up somewhere and expecting people to do what you want. I realised we’d have to try and fail before she’d be content with a simpler life, and I am ashamed to admit I was willing to do so to please her.”
Pausing, Lejikh took a deep breath, remembered fear darkening his mind. “We were searching for a suitable place when the Raen found us.” He looked up at Rielle. “Valhan.”
In his mind Rielle saw a face, but he did not expect her to recognise it. Too many years had passed for the memory to be clear. Yet a thrill of recognition went through her even so. The eyes, the shape of the face… all similar to those of the man in the portrait.