Angel of Storms (Millennium's Rule, #2)(23)

The young man nodded. He faded to a ghostly figure, then flashed away at great speed. Rielle wondered if this was what the Travellers had looked like as they’d moved through the forest earlier.

She looked at Baluka. “So many precautions,” she said in her native tongue. “Is there a chance you won’t be welcome?”

He shrugged, but his expression was serious. “Always. Worlds like these–well, the area within it that we are in–are very changeable. We are trading with the most powerful of the chiefs here, but kingdoms around here are small. Most of the time one or more are at war with another. Even in peaceful times there are squabbles between families that lead to assassination and death duels.”

“Death duels?” she repeated. The picture she was getting from his mind was frightening.

“Don’t be worried,” he added hastily. “All of us but the young children are sorcerers. We don’t let our guests come to harm.” He looked at her closely. “You know you can trust us, don’t you?”

She nodded. It was clear in his mind that he believed she could and he’d never known his father to break with Traveller custom concerning guests. “Yes.”

“Stay with me,” he told her. “I’ll look after you and let you know how to behave and speak here.”

“Will I be finding a teacher here?”

He shook his head. “There’s no local sorcerer knowledgeable enough to teach you what you need to know, as far as I know. It’s in the next world you’ll most likely find a teacher. The society there is peaceful and used to foreign visitors, though it’ll take some time for you to adjust to people doing things differently to what you grew up with, and you’ll have to learn the language.”

“I’ve adjusted before,” she told him, remembering her first months in Schpeta. “I’m sure I can do it again.”

“When you settled in a new land before it was not by choice, was it?”

“No.” She looked at him, wondering how much he had learned of her past from her mind. Nothing she hadn’t had reason to think of yet, she guessed. Thinking back to her meal the previous night… a few hours ago… she realised the Travellers had not asked her many questions. She’d assumed they didn’t need to because they’d read all there was to know about her from her mind. But if she hadn’t thought of something then perhaps they hadn’t learned it yet.

If that was true, then asking her questions could make her think of things she’d rather keep private. Perhaps that was why they hadn’t sought more information.

Would a teacher be as considerate? Perhaps not. I guess I’ll have to learn how to hide my thoughts as soon as I can. A chill ran over her skin as she realised she was thinking as if she had decided to learn magic. But if I don’t I will never be able to go home.

But where was home? Was it Fyre, where she was tainted–a criminal and exile? The people there would never believe that an Angel had forgiven her for the use of magic, or told her she’d created more magic than she’d stolen. They would not know why all the magic in the world was gone. They might blame the tainted for the loss. No, she couldn’t return to Fyre.

Was home Schpeta, then? Betzi and the weavers might welcome her back, but she had known her friend would be leaving with Captain Kolz after the siege ended, and nobody in the town would ever treat her quite the same now they knew she had met an Angel. She had been and always would be a foreigner there. It did not feel like home.

Maybe I could make a new life for myself again, somewhere else. But if she was going to do that, why return to her home world at all? She could find a new world to settle in.

Perhaps even a world where using magic was not a crime.

Sensing exasperation from Baluka, she turned to regard him. He shook his head in apology and looked away. She saw then that, while he didn’t want to offend her by disbelieving her, he thought the Angels she’d met were sorcerers. Not sorcerers like the Travellers, but men and women who ruled whole worlds–sometimes several–and were more often feared than loved. Sorcerers who… no, don’t frighten her unnecessarily… Still, they had no right to deceive her into thinking they were higher beings, and that she couldn’t use magic. It was such a waste! But it was clear she couldn’t easily dismiss the taboos of her world, and it was unfair to expect her to.

Change the subject, he told himself again. Rielle heartily agreed. She considered the people around her.

“Does your family have a home world?” she asked.

He shook his head. “We consider some places ours in that only this family visits them. Like the world we just left. It is a safe resting place because there is magic and it is unpopulated. The closest we come to a home world is the one where all Traveller families meet each cycle.”

“Cycle?”

“A measure of time based on the lom’s fertile cycle. It has become a method of measuring time across many worlds, used in combination with each world’s own seasons, because it is always the same length, whereas nearly all worlds’ seasons don’t match and some don’t have any. Travellers meet in a particular world at the lom’s fertile time so we can crossbreed our animals. We exchange news and catch up with family members who have married outside of the family, arrange ma… Ah! Derem is back already.”

Following his gaze, Rielle saw the young man talking to Lejikh. He was smiling, and Baluka took this to mean all was well at their destination. Lejikh moved to the centre of the circle and called for everyone’s attention.