Angel of Storms (Millennium's Rule, #2)(28)
He was right. Soon the sensation became more tangible, then obvious. I sense it, she told him.
“Concentrate on it. Tell me what you feel.”
They began to move in the direction of the pull. Baluka was propelling them forward.
You’re moving us. Their direction changed subtly. We’re travelling sideways. It changed again. Going back the other way. Their movement sped up and slowed again. Did we just pass through something?
They slowed then reversed direction, and their speed increased and then lessened again. They had passed a place of less resistance. Like before we found the arrival place in the forest, she thought.
“It is a path,” he confirmed. “The first time a sorcerer moves through the space between, he or she must force a way through. It creates a path. It is easier for the next person to follow in their trail, so people tend to use the same path over and over. Between uses the path fills in, like water flowing back where it was displaced, only much slower. This path is not very fresh. That suggests only my family uses it.”
Rielle looked around for clues of what the next world would look like. Not leaving with the rest of the Travellers meant there had been no song to describe their destination. Colour was starting to leach into the whiteness–an overall impression of muddy yellow-green. She would have guessed she was arriving in another forest except the colour was too smoothly spread. A divide between sky and land started to appear as darker areas formed within the green–they were arriving in an area that was mostly open. She could make out trees of many different sizes and shapes. They grew within the arms of a shallow valley, lines of them tracing smooth arcs and curves up and down the gentle slopes.
Another paved circle was appearing below her feet, only this time it was made of many tiny squares arranged in a pattern. A road led from this to a long three-storey building with a courtyard. She had never seen such a big house. Even Inekera’s house had been half as large.
Moist air touched her cheeks. At once her lungs began to expand, but the air was so humid it made her cough. Baluka, to her relief, did the same. Once she had recovered she looked up. The sky was, indeed, green. Unless…
“Is that the sky, or cloud?”
Baluka let her hands go and looked around. She was relieved to find his mind was open and readable again. “It’s both. I’ve never seen anything but a foggy green above, and the weather has always been like this, or raining.” He glanced at her and smiled. “It sounds unappealing, but it’s never cold here, at least.”
She looked down at the house again. This would be where she’d be staying, either for ever or until she learned to travel back to her world. What manner of people lived in a building like that?
“Lord Felomar,” Baluka replied. “And his household.”
“He’s the ruler here?” she asked, not sure what to make of the meaning of “Lord” in his mind.
He laughed. “Yes and no. He is a distant cousin of the Emperor, but he has quite a lot of servants and money so I guess you could call him their ruler as much as employer. Hereditary owner of the estate is a more accurate description. We’ve been trading with his family for five generations now.” He turned to face her. “He is also a sorcerer. Before we go down to meet Felomar I am going to give you a few lessons,” Baluka told her. “You need to know how to hide your thoughts, whether you decide to learn how to travel between worlds or not. I can also start teaching you how to travel between worlds, if you wish. Though it’ll be easier if we do it in the other order.”
Rielle nodded, part of her shrinking at the thought of learning more ways to use magic. Baluka frowned, and she saw he was thinking, again, that it would be a waste for her to return to her magically depleted world or remain untrained. He wanted to show her all the wonderful places they visited each cycle. But she can’t stay with us, he reminded himself. And Father says she’ll be safer in her own world. He clearly disagreed.
But he was young, and his father had most likely seen more of the worlds, she reasoned.
“Yes, but there is as much wonder as danger in the worlds,” Baluka told her. “I have always longed to explore beyond those of our cycle, but it is forbidden. Traveller families would grow weak in magical ability if they kept losing their strongest offspring to wanderlust.” Then she caught a deeper kernel of knowledge. They did, occasionally, take in outsiders if it would strengthen their magical bloodlines.
“Let’s keep your options open,” he said. “Perhaps we should start by testing your strength,” he told her. “There’s no point you attempting to learn anything if you don’t have the strength for it.”
She nodded. “By strength you mean how far I can reach to draw in magic, right?” she asked, thinking about how Inekera had urged her to reach to the limit of her world. Baluka’s gaze sharpened with interest.
“Yes. Reach out but don’t take any magic. I will be able to see in your mind how far you manage to stretch.”
Closing her eyes, she extended her will. As she stretched outwards she marvelled at the sheer quantity of magic she was sensing. If her own world had been a desert and magic was water, then this one was more than a jungle. It was an ocean.
“In all the worlds…” Baluka whispered, then let out a tight, short laugh. At the odd noise she looked at him closely, worried that something was wrong. He didn’t meet her eyes.