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.”