Angel of Storms (Millennium's Rule, #2)(89)

At last the stone ground below their feet and the purplish blue sky above began to fade. The sensation of travelling between worlds was familiar now. Baluka had not attempted to teach her how to do it again–not even the basic uses of magic–for which she was mostly relieved, yet a little disappointed as well.

She had to admit, she did not know how to regard magic now. While using it in her world was to steal from the Angels, her world had been very poor in magic. It had occurred to her that if Valhan had stripped her world of magic in order to leave it, no Angels could now enter it to right an injustice, as Valhan had done at the Mountain Temple, without becoming trapped. Maybe that was why they’d forbidden the use of magic. Maybe that was why they hadn’t, elsewhere.

So much of what the priests had believed about Angels was wrong. They didn’t even know Valhan’s name. Oddly, that made it easier to accept that nobody knew of Angels outside her world or believed using magic was forbidden. All were wrong about Angels, and who was to say which level or kind of “being wrong” was more unacceptable?

Maybe the Angels were content to remain unknown outside magically poor worlds so long as they had enough magic to work with. Maybe Angels were happy for humans to use magic when there was plenty to go around.

She remembered what Sa-Mica had told her the day she’d sailed for Schpeta. “Valhan once told me that this world will not be so depleted of magic for ever. One day, many generations from now, mortals will be free to use it again.”

One day her world would be more like the ones she had travelled through. Yet they would not be as free to use it as Valhan had said. The Raen forbade the teaching of magic, and travel between worlds. Was he, then, restricting the freedoms the Angels had allowed?

He killed powerful sorcerers. Except, obviously, the allies the Travellers had referred to. And Travellers.

If the Angels were working quietly to help humanity, why hadn’t they done something about the Raen? Did they approve of his laws? Were they unable to stop him murdering people? Did he learn to change his appearance to look like an Angel in order to deceive people? She would have caught her breath, if she had been conscious of breathing. That would explain so much!

Warm air surrounded her and her lungs flexed to draw in fresh air. Ankari moved away. Gently undulating grassy hills covered in grazing lom surrounded them. Wagons were clustered on the tops of hills. In the centre, a wide, flat-topped hill–a small plateau that looked as if it had been levelled for human purposes–was free of vehicles. On this, colourful shelters had been built to protect the people gathered there from the wind, which was whipping the streamers attached to the edges of the shelters into tangles.

“Let’s move,” Lejikh bellowed.

Baluka squeezed her hand, and she looked down, surprised but not displeased to find he was still holding it. “We have to get off the arrival area quickly to clear the space for other families to arrive,” he told her.

She nodded and followed him to Lejikh’s wagon. Ankari was already leading the lom to the beginning of a track that ran along the ridge towards the central hill. To Rielle’s surprise, most of the Travellers not occupied in driving the wagons were walking beside them rather than riding inside as they usually did. She and Baluka joined Ankari.

“Don’t get close to the lom,” Baluka advised. “They’ll have smelled the others.” He sniffed then pointed to the grazing animals, some of which had stopped to watch the newcomers. “They want to join them now.” He patted the closest lom’s neck. “Soon,” he said. The beast’s ears flicked.

“How will you know which are yours?” she asked.

He lifted the ear of the lom, pointing out a mark on the inside that was too perfectly round to be natural–a mark similar to the ones the Travellers had around their wrists. She nodded. Each family must have their own design.

Before they reached the plateau, Lejikh steered his wagon down a side track. They wound their way between a few occupied hills to an empty one, then curled into a circle at the summit. As soon as all wagons were still, the extended family busied themselves unharnessing the lom, coordinating the release of the last straps so all of the beasts were free to move at the same time. The normally slow-moving animals lumbered off at a surprising speed, headed for the nearest group of lom, which had turned to watch the newcomers.

Rielle started as arms hooked into hers. Jikari and Hari grinned at her as they guided her towards the path to the plateau.

“We want to show you to all,” Jikari explained.

“And show all to you,” Hari added with a giggle. “And the boy Jiki likes.”

“Not now!” Jikari objected, which only made Hari laugh.

Rielle considered the younger woman. “When did you see him… before?”

“At the last Gathering,” Hari answered.

Jikari sighed. “A long time. He might like another girl. He might be married.”

Hari shrugged. “Or he might have waited, like my Lukaja did.”

“He might, and I might not like him now,” Jikari pointed out, and the other girl let out a small laugh of wry agreement.

They continued chatting as they walked. Jikari’s arm linked in Rielle’s was a little tense, but she walked with confidence. As they reached the plateau a view of similar hills stretched out on all sides. The sky was a pale blue, streaked with white, wind-stretched clouds passing a pair of small suns that appeared to be linked by glowing bands of light. The hills were pastel yellow-green and green-blue, covered in a range of thick-leaved plants. In contrast to both, the canopies and wagons of the Travellers were intensely coloured.