got the distinct impression the Wildhawk pulled the sky down behind it.
Jashi pushed her Warding ahead of them and again Pevan could watch as the Wildhawk slammed into it. No mistaking the greater force of the collision this time; no lazy roll from the Wilder. Instead, the thing's body spasmed, its shining wings snapping open as it trumpeted again. Pevan felt Jashi shudder as the Second-Realm part of the creature's scream brushed over them. The sound pressed on her brain, clouded her vision, dizzied her for an instant.
Then the sensation vanished, leaving only the cold fingers of the wind, stinging eyes, and the realisation, as they rose towards it, that the Wildhawk was even bigger than she'd thought. Her count reached seven. The Wildhawk seemed a net, trapping them against the ground. Or holding the whole sky up. It had levelled out, drifting south-east, but the way its body still writhed warned of just how riled it still was.
Eight. How close was it? What would happen if she'd misjudged, and they ran into its wings? Or, God forbid, it decided to roll over and they were caught up in it? Pevan counted nine, resisting the urge to reach out a hand, to see if she could touch the Wildhawk.
"Ground us." Jashi's voice held steady despite the hundreds of feet of air between them and the ground. Technically, it was Pevan's call to bring the jumping to an end, but the Warder was right. If the Wildhawk didn't turn back towards Federas, there was nothing more they could do. She gritted her teeth as she turned them over for the descent again. Fat chance the Wilder would leave the town alone, but it wasn't worth risking the peace to pre-empt it.
Still, it had turned away more easily than expected. Easily enough that stopping was going to be the hard part of this jump. Pevan tightened her grip on Jashi, burrowing tightly against the other woman, pressing into her shoulder for the sense of comfort. It was a psychological trick; she'd feel safer, and so concentrate harder.
Her count passed ten. The first Gate was easy, snapping into place beneath them, opening in the floor of the hollow tower block. That would take care of the first half of their deceleration. Eleven. Holding the open Gateway tightly with her mind, Pevan thought her way into an image of the North Field barn. It was easy to spin a Gateway between the floor and ceiling; much harder to balance it shy of slipping into place and obliterating the Gate they were currently falling towards.
Thirteen. Holding the unopened Gateway felt like trying to hang on to a wet bar of soap. She reached for another, connecting the ceiling of the tower to the same spot on the floor of the barn. As soon as the two Gates touched, end-to-end, they came alive. Pevan counted off fourteen, barely registering the sting of the wind as her brain wrestled with the snake of Second-Realm power the proto-Gateways had become.
By the time she got a firm hold, her awareness drawn in tightly to bear down on her writhing Gift, she was up to sixteen. Just enough time to settle her thoughts and focus. The ground swallowed them, spitting them out with the same lurch of the guts, hurling them up the tower. Pevan killed the extant Gateway, ripped the two squirming Gates-to-be apart and slammed the second into place.
It took less than two seconds to fly the whole height of the tower, but the crescendo of adrenaline slowed it down, prickled her to distraction with unnecessary sensations, sensations she couldn't afford; the wrinkle in Jashi's dress that was going to leave an angry red line across her cheek, the ever-so-slight tingle of pinched circulation where the other woman's arm pressed tight against hers.
The Gate in the ceiling delivered them into a twelve-foot-high room at close to a hundred miles an hour. Pevan folded her mind back over itself, flicking from the old Gateway to the one she needed. It was more like releasing a caught bird than imposing her will on the world, the Gates leaping from her mind into the ceiling-and-floor positions that gave them infinite height to slow down into.
The first second or two was a blur as the barn streaked by, over and over again, but gravity took hold soon enough. Pevan got one last brush with the miracle as they topped out, hanging close to the barn's roof, the sense of danger flickering for a moment. She banished the Gateway beneath them, pushing Jashi away so that they wouldn't tangle as their boots hit the packed dirt of the floor.
Even with that precaution, Pevan's landing was flat-footed and clumsy enough to make her hiss. She flexed her ankle and shot Jashi a rueful glance.
"You alright?" The Warder sounded shaken, breathless.
Pevan nodded, spun up a Gateway back to the South side of town and waved at it. "What do you bet it's turned back for the town already?"
"If it has, Kos can do the next jump." Jashi's frown was at least part humour, Pevan was sure. She followed the other woman out of the gloomy barn, blinking against the sunshine. Jashi looked skyward straight away, and lasted all of half a second before she looked back down, pressing a hand to her brow and wincing.
Taking it slower, Pevan let her eyes adjust before turning them upward. Overhead, there was nothing but deep blue and a sprinkling of white. The Wildhawk had kept its south-eastern course, already little more than a black thread dropping towards the horizon. Pevan left Jashi with a curt instruction to keep an eye on it and opened a Gateway beneath her own feet. Her call of “’Ware the Gate!’ drew a yelp of surprise from Kos, but she dropped through anyway.
He caught her arm to steady her as she came through; courtesy she didn’t need, but she wouldn’t fault him for it. Behind him, the door stood open, and a metallic glint from within reassured her the Stable Rods were still in place. She barrelled past and into the Hall, met Barrit's eyes. He flinched, glanced away.
"Pevan!" Notia didn't need to shout, but her voice rang back from the roof of the Hall, harshly reminiscent of a pick breaking stone. When Pevan didn't stop, the other woman scuttled up alongside, fell into an uneven, sideways walk to keep pace. "Who gave you authority to go into action without me?"
"It's my job to run defensive operations." Pevan couldn't help the curt tone clipping her words. She kept her face forwards, fixed on the door to the cell, trying to ignore Notia.
"You still should have waited for me."
"You should have got here faster." Pevan grabbed the door-handle, her speed almost carrying her shoulder-first into the frame. She checked her stride just a little too late to spare the wrench to her wrist, but barely slowed as the door swung open, banging hard against the wall behind. The stairs were narrow enough to keep Notia behind her, and she took them two at a time.
The Four Knot - in training - yelped as she stumbled, but didn't relent. "Don't talk to me like that. I'm in charge here!"
"Not during operations." Pevan rounded the corner, hand out to steady herself against the back wall, and plunged down the last steps. "Will you please just let me get on with my job?"
The cell stood empty, Dagdan resting his head against one of the bars. He turned as Pevan and Notia entered, little of his usual cheer in evidence. His years seemed to have reclaimed him.
Before Notia could make another grab for the conversation, Pevan said, "What did you see?"
"Not much. Mostly sky."
"Show me." She stepped closer to him, dimly aware of Notia hovering behind her, radiating pique in what she probably thought was an imitation of Dora's intensity. The Witness raised his hand, palm up. The bubble of his Witnessing seemed stronger than Van Raighan's, less cowed by the Stable Rods' proximity. But then, Van Raighan's hadn't actually been a Witnessing. Couldn't have been.
In Dagdan's bubble, the burst of colour resolved quickly into the familiar outline of the cell. Dagdan must have waited more or less where he'd been standing when they arrived, right up against the bars; Van Raighan filled his view, standing in the middle of the cell until, almost too fast to follow, a Gateway opened under his feet and swallowed him. Dagdan looked down to see the Gate already closing.
"Sorry I couldn't get any more than that." Dagdan held the Witnessing frozen, the last hint of the Gateway caught inches from vanishing. "It happened so quickly... I thought I'd have more time."
Pevan spoke quickly, before
Notia could lay into him. "Don't worry about it. Back it up a bit, please?"
Inside the bubble, the image blurred as the Gateway spiralled open again. Van Raighan's head appeared in the aperture, eyes wide, mouth open in a shout of alarm. Pevan stuck up a hand, and Dagdan held the image. Behind Van Raighan, the sky shone blue; the back wall of the cell bathed in a shaft of sunlight cut to the thief's silhouette.
The only sign of the Wilder responsible for the Gate was the glimpse of a forearm and wrist, too long and slender to be human, reaching towards where Van Raighan's legs would be. They weren't making any of the obvious mistakes, leaving landmarks Pevan could use to locate the other end of the Gateway.
"How long since this happened?" She hadn't been out of the cell for more than five minutes. Focussing on the easy, First-Realm connection between the Witnessing and the room they stood in, she could feel the ruffled edges of Realmspace where the Gateway had been.
"A minute thirty-eight." Delivering the clipped, exact answer seemed to rally Dagdan's spirits a little. In her head, Pevan took up the count; nine, forty, one, two...
She could feel the shape of the Gateway, the length and width of the oval that had fitted so neatly between the cot and the bars. Grunting as she focussed, stretching out with her mind between those bars and