If anything, the market seemed busier at night than it had been when Tyen had first seen it. Brev wasted no time, going straight to the stalls he preferred and bartering with the efficiency of familiarity. He consulted a list, paid with slips of gold from a wallet attached to his belt, and filled the packs efficiently. The goods went into Tyen’s pack first before Brev started filling his–a decision that gave the man a mean feeling of satisfaction. Tyen said nothing, concentrating on noting the position of stalls, their stallholder’s names, and the price of the goods. He doubted he’d remember everything but he’d retain more if he came here again.
When they arrived at the cave entrance, Tyen decided to risk a question.
“How do you feel about the rebels using your world as a base?”
Brev stopped halfway down the stairs and turned to stare at Tyen.
“How’d you know this was my home world?”
Tyen attempted to shrug, but the heavy pack prevented his shoulders from moving. “The rebels haven’t been in this world long enough for you to know your way around the market so well. Some of the stallholders knew you, and not because you’ve bought their goods a few times before. One even asked after your family.”
Brev scowled and turned away. “You noticed a lot.”
“I didn’t have much else to do,” Tyen replied as they continued into the cave. “So are you going to answer my question?”
The man slipped off the pack and swung it onto a sled. “The Raen has allowed the market to continue. That means lots of people travelling to this world. That means it’s a good place to hide.”
Tyen chose a sled and eased out of the pack. “But would that change if he knew this world was harbouring rebels?”
“It’s not. Nobody outside the base knows we’re here,” Brev replied.
“So he wouldn’t punish people if they didn’t know about us?”
The man’s brows lowered. “I don’t know.” His gaze flickered up to meet Tyen’s, then away. “What do you think?”
Tyen shook his head. “I have no idea. I grew up in a magically poor world. We’d never heard of him. I didn’t know much about him until several days ago. People have told me terrible stories about him.” He shuddered. “I know risks must be taken, and sacrifices made, but surely the fewer lives we risk the better.”
“Trouble is, it’s easier to hide where there are lots of well-used paths in the space between worlds, and lots of other minds,” Brev said. “That means being around lots of people.”
“Yet we aren’t around lots of people out here. I worry that, if the Raen is as powerful as they say, he could sense all the minds in our base at a distance. But we’ll need more sorcerers if we’re going to defeat him.”
“The cave isn’t going to hold many more.”
“Unless we…” Tyen shook his head and let the sentence remain unfinished.
Brev passed the fold in the wall, pointed his sled at the tunnel, sat on the seat, then turned to look at Tyen. “Unless what?”
Tyen grimaced. “Something I suggested when I arrived, but the others didn’t like it.”
“Oh? What is that?”
“To move the families somewhere safer.”
Brev’s eyebrows knitted as he considered that. Then he nodded. “Not so much food to gather, too. Why don’t you suggest it again?”
“They won’t listen to me.”
“Not yet, they won’t. But they will eventually, when they decide you can be trusted.” He straightened and propelled his sled forward.
Following behind, Tyen ventured another look into the man’s mind. Well, he didn’t kill me off and pretend the Raen found me, though I suppose he could still try pushing me into the rift, the man was thinking. But he seems nice enough–worrying about our safety and all. Has some good ideas, too…
If the rest of the rebels were so easy to sway, Tyen would have the families sent to safety in days. He doubted they would be, though. Brev did not speak again, but this time the silence wasn’t frosty. When they arrived at the cavern the man gave him a list and instructions to unpack the bags and make piles of supplies for each of the recipients. Tyen took note of the names of the women and men who came to collect their purchases. Finally only a few piles were left.
Brev pressed a sack into Tyen’s hands. “These are for Ayan’s wife. She’s at the other end of the cavern. It’s a bit of a walk and it’s getting a bit late, so skim your way there.”
“Skim?” Tyen asked. “You mean go into the space between a little?”
“Yes.”
“But we aren’t supposed to go between the worlds from here.”
“Not to leave the world, but going a little way so we can travel to another part of the cave faster only creates small loops.”
Tyen hefted the sack over his shoulder, then pushed away from the world only so far that his surroundings faded a little. Skimming along the cavern, he followed the curved wall to the far end, where he returned to the world and delivered the supplies to a woman distracted by the challenge of getting a brood of eight children to go to sleep.
He pushed out of the world again, speeding back to Brev. When he arrived the man looked down at Tyen’s leg and his eyebrows rose.
“You have a stowaway.”
Looking down, Tyen found a pair of round eyes gazing up at him. A girl about four cycles old was clinging to his trouser leg.
“Hello,” Tyen said. “I’d better take you back to your mother.”
He took hold of the child’s hand and returned to the other end of the cave. As he appeared, Ayan’s wife, who had been casting about with an expression of annoyance, sighed with relief.
“I’m sorry,” Tyen told her. “I didn’t notice she’d taken hold.”
The woman crouched down beside her daughter. “No, I should apologise. She’s always doing that.”
“So long as she doesn’t let go midway, though it doesn’t look like that’s likely,” Tyen said as he struggled to extract the girl’s hand from his trouser leg. She had quite a grip. “Though if you can, discourage her from grabbing anyone who materialises here, just in case they’re not, well, one of us.” The woman looked up, a look of horrified realisation on her face.
“I never thought of that…”
Tyen winced. “I didn’t mean to worry—”
“No. We should worry. We should be more careful.” She straightened and drew the blanket around her shoulders closer, and from her mind he heard a fierce thought: I hate it here!
The girl was reaching for his trouser leg again. He took a step back. “Sorry,” was all he could think to say. “Um… I have to get back.”
She nodded, but her attention was elsewhere. As Tyen travelled back to Brev he pondered the likelihood that many others were as unhappy in this place. Maybe it wouldn’t be so hard to persuade the families to leave after all. Maybe he could do some good here.
CHAPTER 7
Tyen steered the sled into its place among the others then looked back to see the two new recruits’ reactions to the base. Daam’s pale eyes widened as he took in the ice walls, then his gaze dropped to the people crowding the space and he frowned. Coben merely shrugged and pushed his sled next to Tyen’s, his two servants stepping off and beginning to unstrap the numerous bags they’d brought.
The rebels had decided that all recruits should be met at the market to be questioned and tested before being allowed to come to the base. Frell, as the strongest of the leaders and therefore able to read most minds, now spent a great deal of his time occupied in this task, which he was clearly unhappy about as it meant he had to be left uninformed of the rebels’ plans. Ceilon thought it was a neat way to resolve the issue of Yira’s ex-lovers antagonising each other, despite the fact that neither had shown any intention of doing so.
He’d also come up with the idea, several days before, of asking “second tier” sorcerers to volunteer to go out into the worlds and seek recruits, which had the advantage of keeping them busy and out of mischief as well a
s increasing rebel numbers. When asked why he hadn’t volunteered Tyen had pointed out that the only people he could approach were former Liftre students and teachers, and Yira had already recruited the ones likely to join the cause.
As a result of the recruiters’ efforts, the number of new arrivals had increased dramatically. Tyen always brought a few into the cavern on his supply trips.
“Surprised?” Tyen asked Daam. The quiet newcomer was younger than Tyen had been when he’d joined the Academy, and his round face only enhanced his youthfulness. His father had sent him to join the rebels, angered that his son’s training at one of the smaller schools had been left unfinished, and having no use for a half-trained sorcerer.
Daam nodded. “Yes. I was afraid there’d be only a few of us.”
“These aren’t all sorcerers,” Coben said, looking around at the crowd. “They’re mostly servants.” He was tall and muscular, and the son of a prince. Tyen had disliked him the moment they’d met.
“They’re family,” Tyen corrected. “And sorcerers who haven’t yet earned the right to join the leaders. As you are.”
Coben sniffed. “Not for long.”
Tyen wasn’t sure whether to be amused or annoyed by the man’s arrogance. Sorcerers! he thought. So full of their own importance and superiority. “What makes you so sure of that?”
“You need us,” Coben replied.
“I’ve been here over twenty days, and they haven’t seen fit to include me yet,” Tyen told him.
Coben sniffed again. “So where do we train?”
Tyen held back a bitter laugh. “Ask the leaders. There’s two of them now,” he said as he spotted Ceilon and Yira standing near the entrance to the meeting room. “I’ll introduce you once we’ve distributed the…”
But Coben was already walking away. Tyen shrugged. “Oh, he’ll make friends quickly,” he muttered.
As he turned back to Daam, the young man smiled. “What do you need me to do?”
Tyen took out his list. “First we divide everything into piles–one for each family–then we hand them over, making sure nobody takes anything they didn’t order. Finally there are a few people we make deliveries to.”
To his relief, Daam didn’t complain about being asked to do a menial task. When they were nearly done Tyen heard his name called. He looked up to see Yira walking towards him, a broad smile on her face.
“What are you so happy about?” he asked.
“They’ve agreed to have the families moved somewhere safer.”
He smiled. “Congratulations! Is this the part where you delegate me the task and saunter away?”
“Actually, no.” Her grin vanished as she turned to face the room. “They want me to move them. Now.”
“Now as in immediately?”
“Yes. They’ve picked a location and sent me out to deliver the bad news.”
“Where?”
“Six worlds from here. A remote temple. Apparently people will have to get used to eating lots of fish.”
“So everyone is going to the same place.”
She nodded. “Ceilon insisted. It means they can all be contacted quickly.”
Tyen sighed. “If they can be contacted quickly they can all be reached quickly. Will every leader know where this place is?”
“Yes. They are afraid that, if only a few know and are killed, nobody will be able to find their family.” Her eyes strayed to the servants standing by Coben’s bags. “They don’t look like someone’s family.”
“No. Servants.”
“They’ll have to go, too.”
Tyen nodded. Daam, he saw, was gazing at Yira in admiration. He hid a smile and looked down at the remaining supplies to be delivered. “I guess that was a wasted trip, then.”
Yira shrugged. “I’m sure the rest of us will make good use of it. There will be food available where the families are going. The hard part will be getting them there in one move.” She looked around the cavern and frowned at the chaos. “This is not going to be easy.”
Tyen shook his head. “Which is why they’re not safe here. Did anyone offer to help?”
“No.” Yira’s shoulders sagged.
“Well, since you’re one of the leaders, you can recruit all the new sorcerers–and the ‘second tier’ ones.”
She straightened. “You’re right. First we should gather the sorcerers together and let them know what we’re doing. Then perhaps we’ll divide the families into groups and designate one to each sorcerer. We’ll have to get them through the tunnel to the front cave, as we can’t leave from here. We should bring all the sleds at the bridge to here…”
“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.