Tyen shook his head. “I can’t stay long.”
“So what news… bah! Who am I kidding? I’ve had five visitors bearing the same story already. The Raen is back.” He waved a hand dismissively.
“So they tell me.” Tyen sighed. “The school has closed.”
Parel grimaced. “A pity. They’d have been mad to keep it open, though.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Me? Nothing! Father says everything will go back the way it was. Not that much changed here after the Raen disappeared anyway. It’ll be good news for the local schools. They couldn’t compete with Liftre.”
“The Raen won’t shut them down as well?”
Parel shook his head. “They’ve never taught world travelling, and to enter you have to swear to serve Troff and her people for life–which means honouring the alliance made with the Raen three hundred cycles ago, so he’s hardly going to object to that.” He shrugged, sand cascading from his shoulders. “What are you going to do?”
Tyen looked away. “Warn a few friends.”
“And after that?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, don’t go roaming around. And keep away from those fools talking about rebellion.” Parel pushed up onto his elbows, the sand on his chest falling away. “My advice is: find a quiet world where the sorcerers are weak and ignorant. Make your fortune, find a wife or three and raise a big family. You’ll be too busy to miss the school, or exploring the worlds.”
Tyen chuckled. “With three wives and a big family I certainly would be.” He lifted his bag onto his shoulder again. “I must warn a few others. Take care of yourself, Parel.”
“You, too.”
Tyen pushed straight into the place between. It was easy enough to find the established path again, skimming sideways until he found the courtyard. It was always polite, and sometimes safer, to arrive in a world at an official arrival place, but a sorcerer could usually leave from any place. He retraced his path to the world of the monks. Finding the next route was trickier.
Nobody he’d met had ever been able to explain exactly how the worlds were arranged in relation to each other, though plenty had tried. The best analogy he’d heard was that they were like marbles of different sizes sitting in a jar of jelly. Some pressed up against a handful other worlds, some appeared to link to only one. All that appeared to be certain was that the number they could link to was limited–all worlds couldn’t be reached by all other worlds–and you couldn’t travel from one side of the jar to the other without passing through the worlds between.
Moving out of the monks’ world a little, he moved sideways, passing through several mountains. Far to the south he located another arrival place, this time in the ruins of a city. From there he found a path to a different world.
It was a frozen place, but Tyen didn’t stay any longer than needed. He propelled himself onward, six then seven more worlds along, until he reached a marshy landscape. He stayed in the place between, rose high above the stone arrival platform and started skimming across the world, looking for signs of humans.
Some way from the arrival place he found it. From above they would have been dismissed as the nests of the giant, squat lizards grazing around them, but Tyen knew better. The nests were houses, and the lizards the means of transporting them and the belongings of the Etilay.
Wary of strangers, the people had elaborate rituals of greeting. Tyen emerged into the damp air a hundred paces from the camp with his boots firmly supported on a mound of moss, and waited.
Moments later a man almost as pale as Tyen, with dark red hair, stepped out from beneath the canopy of one of the houses.
“Tyen!” he cried, leaping from mound to mound. Behind him, heads peered out from around the buildings.
“Ahlen,” Tyen replied. He raised his hands, palms upwards. “Requesting permission to approach.”
“Pah! You don’t need to go through that ritual again,” Ahlen told him. “We accepted you once, so no need to ask again.”
Tyen smiled. “That’s good to hear. I can’t stay long.”
“Nor can we. The dem herds have been sighted to the west, so we’re leaving.” Ahlen beckoned then led Tyen back to the houses.