Angel of Storms (Millennium's Rule, #2)(66)
“Can I help?” Daam asked.
She smiled at him. “Of course! What is your name?”
“Daam.” His face reddened as she looked him over.
“Come with me, Daam. Tyen, you head to the left and gather the sorcerers. I’ll go to the right. We’ll meet down by the cooking area.”
To their surprise, they managed to recruit sixty-one sorcerers from the newcomers and women. After explaining what they were about to do, Yira sent them around the room to tell the families to pack and prepare. The first to return she sent down the tunnel, three to a sled, to bring back the rest of the vehicles left at the bridge.
Not all of the recruits were effective at explaining, or had heard the instructions correctly, and some of the families were not happy about leaving. Yira and Tyen had to walk up and down the hall answering questions, and more time was lost when a small group insisted on interrupting the leaders to confirm the decision. When two parents, of different rebels, attempted to argue against it, Ceilon looked at Yira in annoyance as if she had sent them in to annoy him.
She shrugged and walked out, loudly reminding the families that they could only take what they could hold, including their children, so they had better pack wisely as well as quickly. This had the argumentative parents scurrying back to the main hall for fear they would have no time to sort through their belongings.
Tyen had no idea how much time had passed when he finally stood on the ice sheet outside the cave, surrounded by several hundred people, all warm within a bubble of heated air. Yira was arranging them into several concentric circles, each person’s arms linked to a neighbour’s and a person in the ring in front. Sorcerers also linked each circle like spokes. Hopefully if anyone let go of their neighbour they would still be connected to the main group, and should a section break from the rest the sorcerers still linked to it could bring it through to the next world.
As Yira joined him at the centre, Tyen hoisted his pack onto his shoulders. He’d grabbed it so he could use Beetle to distract the children if needed, but hadn’t had time to lighten the contents.
“Are you sure you can manage moving them all together?” she asked as she took hold of his hands.
“Moving a thousand people is no more effort than one,” he reminded her. “One journey means only one chance of attracting attention, and the path we take will only show one recent use.”
Yira nodded. “Several Traveller families take this route. The Raen gave them permission to travel between worlds long ago. The next time they use it they’ll hide our passing.”
“If they are his allies, is it wise to use their paths?”
“Oh, the Travellers are nobody’s allies but their own.” She looked around. “We have six worlds to cross,” she said, raising her voice so all could hear. “We will stop in each to check if anybody is missing. Remember to take a deep breath before we leave a world. Parents, keep a firm grip on your children. If some of you are separated the sorcerers with you will move you to the next world. Stay there. We’ll come back for you.”
She placed a hand on his shoulder. Two sorcerers gripped Tyen’s arms. Two more took hold of Yira’s.
“Is anybody not ready?” she called.
Nobody replied, though there was plenty of shuffling, and a child somewhere asked if everybody was going to start dancing now.
“Take a breath,” Yira ordered. From all around came the sound of indrawn breaths. “Go now, Tyen.”
Tyen drew in magic and pushed away from the world. It was disconcerting, but only because it felt no different to usual. Despite his assurances to Yira, moving so many people worried him, not because of the effort but because of the responsibility. If he lost any he would feel he was to blame, doubly so because it had been his idea to move the families.
What would it be like to move an entire nation of people? He recalled the story a Liftre teacher had told of the Raen saving his people from a disaster in their world by taking them to another. It’s hard to believe, after all the explaining we had to do today, that everyone would understand they must keep hold of their neighbour, and take a deep breath. The Raen probably lost some people in the place between. Some may have suffocated before they arrived–though if the Raen is as powerful as they say, maybe he transported them so quickly that it was never a danger.
The fear of losing someone urged him to quicken the pace. The next world was a wasteland, so it was not hard to find a place large enough for so many people to arrive in. To his relief, nobody had disappeared and none collapsed.
The next arrival place was a small dais in the middle of a city, so he moved sideways to a field, surfacing a little above the ground so they dropped down onto the crop. There were exclamations and complaints, but when Yira asked if everybody was missing all quietened as their numbers were checked.
Next he deposited them on a beach, where he had to adjust for the slope, but this time nobody complained when it meant a few of them staggered sideways. As Yira drew breath to ask if all were present a woman shrieked.
“Where is she?! Where?”
Tyen’s stomach sank. The voice came from the edge of the group. He let go of Yira and shrugged out of the grip of the sorcerers holding his arms. Pushing between worlds, he sped towards the woman, but before he surfaced again he saw a movement over by the water’s edge. A child was running towards the foaming, pink waves. To his amusement, it was the same girl who had taken a ride through the place between at the base while holding his trousers. He skimmed on, catching up with the girl, and appeared before her.