Angel of Storms (Millennium's Rule, #2)(51)

Tyen shook his head. “I don’t have any, yet, beyond telling my old friends the news.”

“You could stay here.”

Catching the look Ekkich gave his wife, Tyen suppressed a smile. “Thank you, but I have a promise to keep, and I can’t fulfil it here. There are others to warn, too. I should go now.”

Hekkirg nodded. “Then I wish you a safe journey to wherever you choose to make your home.”

As she returned to her chair Tyen pushed away from their world. Parel, Ahlen and Hekkirg had been his closest friends among his classmates at Liftre. He could visit other classmates now or seek out former students. Those who lived the furthest from Liftre would be least likely to have heard the news… which wasn’t entirely true because the news had originated somewhere else. Still, if he continued in the direction he was travelling he’d be more likely to encounter people who hadn’t heard it.

Yulei, a former student, lived out this way, in a world he’d visited before. The most direct route to her world passed through some unfamiliar, less visited ones. A familiar path was usually safer, but perhaps not now when there was a chance of encountering the Raen, who, if enforcing his law against sorcerers travelling the worlds, would catch more if he watched established paths than less used ones.

So Tyen started towards the less familiar worlds. As he travelled he recalled what Tarren had said about the Raen’s ability to move between worlds as easily as walking. “You might have the strength for it. I’ve met few sorcerers with your reach and ability, and I don’t think you’ve ever truly stretched as far as you could.”

A skill like that might save his life. Perhaps he should try it now. Pushing harder against the previous world, he quickened his progress. He passed the midpoint, where neither world’s gravity dominated, then pulled hard towards the next one. Instead of slowing before arriving, he let himself snap into the next world, grabbed magic, exhaled, inhaled, then pushed away again.

He reached the following world in less than half the time it usually took, then the next one even faster. It seemed reckless, however, and used more magic than necessary. Worried that he would be unable to avoid materialising within an obstacle, he passed through the next two worlds at his usual speed. The following was one he had not visited before, so he slowed at the midpoint to stretch his awareness out, seeking a path onward.

Something plucked at his senses, and he found himself searching his surroundings. His eyes picked up a variation in the whiteness: a shadow, taller than it was wide. It could be a person, standing in the distance. Someone watching him…

The Raen? His heart lurched. No, he told himself. I am imagining it, or I am seeing a particularly dark shape from the next or last world. When he checked his position, the gravity of the two worlds was so equal in strength that there was no pull at all.

Yet the shadow remained. When he stopped trying to look at it the feeling something was there only grew stronger. What is it?

“Another sorcerer,” Vella replied, her voice so unexpected he would have gasped, if he’d been breathing. “In the place between, but far enough away that your eyes don’t know how to interpret what you mind is sensing.”

Who?

“I don’t know.”

He could not stay where he was; he would suffocate. Keeping his eyes on the variation, he began to pull himself back towards the last world. If he was going to confront another sorcerer, better that it be in a world he knew was safe and strong in magic.

The arrival place was a huge, deserted city square, blanketed in heavy snow. It had been dimly lit before, but now it was tinged with the gold light of twin suns rising above the rooftops. Tyen drew in a deep breath of icy air and let it out slowly, willing his heart to stop hammering. His breath created a great cloud of mist.

When it cleared, a man stood in its place.





CHAPTER 4





Tyen took a step backwards. His heart lurched and began to beat quickly. The mist had hidden any sign of the other sorcerer’s arrival but it wasn’t the suddenness that startled him, it was the man’s stare. Direct and unwavering, it gave no indication of the stranger’s mood, only his interest.

This could be an ordinary sorcerer, he told himself. Perhaps one guarding the next world. It might not be the Raen.

The man smiled. It held no warmth, only amusement. “Or it could be,” he said in the Traveller tongue. “What would you do then?”

Tarren’s advice rushed through Tyen’s mind, then his own doubts and fears. He hadn’t had time to work out what he wanted to do. But he didn’t want to be stuck in one world. Not that he would have defied the Raen’s law for the sake of roaming freely, but even if he chose to settle in the world with the most magical knowledge, he might not find a solution for Vella there.

If this was the Raen, this man was her best chance.

If this was the Raen, he might be about to die for travelling the worlds. Or, at best, be about to make a bargain he could regret later.

For Vella’s sake, and for his own, he had to take the chance.

Then he realised the man had read his mind.

His stomach swooped. He’d never met anybody who could see past his mind block. Whoever this man was, he was stronger than Tyen.

“I…” Tyen began. “Who…?”

The man held out a hand, palm up, a finger extended to point at Tyen’s chest. “The book.”