“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 as 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.”