Evacuation

by Sherry Foster

  “I hate to point this out,” Darian interrupted Patro as soon as he could, “but we have to get the farmers, fishermen, and herdsman on board before the portals are set. We need Kervin and Trista to cross with Tresimiaset.”

  Almost before he finished talking Kervin, Trista, and some of the others started trying to cut him off. Darian crossed his arms and sat back in his chair, ignoring all questions and protest directed his way. After a few minutes Sarian called for quiet in the room. “Hold on, we will get no where if everyone tries to shout Darian down at once.” Turing to Darian he continued, “I do not see why you would even think that was a good idea. You wanna explain.”

  Darian shrugged, “Not really. What I want is for everyone else to open their eyes and figure it out themselves. But since it only just occurred to me, and based on what has been said so far, it has not occurred to any one else, I guess I can explain. Tresimiaset is going to be going across the other planet, and we will be here, with Malory, going from place to place opening portals while she anchors them on the other side. We will be trusting her to open portals and communicating with Malory for the best places. When she finds a place on the other side Malory will anchor it somewhere on this side.”

  From around the room mummers were heard as everyone realized what Darian was getting at with his explanation.

  Darian continued with his explanation. “So if both your Lyras cross with Tresimiaset, and she finds the first likely looking place for a portal, you can communicate with her telling her where Malory should set the portal on this side, and she in turn can communicate with Malory telling us what kind of place it is. You both know the land better than anyone else on the planet. You know where the farms are and the herds you can communicate where, exactly, we should set each portal on this side based on what you see on the other. If it is likely looking farm land we step Malory to a farm and explain to that farmer what is going on and then open the portal. We will step soldiers to that farm or herd land to secure the land, then have the farmer or herdsman cross over for a look around their new place. Then we need some builders to cross over and they can start building. Soldiers will be in place to help with the move, the building, and keeping the area secure. I think, we did not talk about this, but I think it would help if we concentrated on getting the larger farms and herds moved. They are suffering as much as anyone, but if they can get production started on the other side, they have the ability to produce more than the small farmers and herds men. If they can get production to increase they can always send food back through the portal to our side. If they lose too many or too much here, they will not have the means to increase on the other side.”

  Kervin, rubbing his cheek with his hand appeared deep in thought by the time Darian stopped talking. Trista had gathered her Lyra around her and was moving away from the table, deep in discussion with them. Darian sat back in his chair again while Sarian and Patro began a heated discussion beside him. Kane looked around the room and, grabbing their notes began to scribble more information on the papers.

  “You know Darian, that is the best idea I have heard today. If we are on the other side, and find a suitable spot for a large herd, we can tell you exactly where to set the portal on this side. I had not considered that aspect. Neither, I believe, had Trista and her Lyra.” As Kervin looked toward his Lyra, eyebrows raised in question, he noticed Nalia looked disturbed by the conversation. Nalia was quiet and shy and nine thousand years had not changed her much. The only thing that brought her out of her shell was when she wove the shadows. She had always been timid, and she hated change more than anyone he had ever met. In nine thousand years he had met a lot of people. Nalia was going to be the hardest to convince, and knowing her he decided it would be best if his Lyra talked to her in private, later, after the meeting here ended. Fortunately his ice walkers nodded their heads at his silent question. They were willing to cross over with Tresimiaset.

  Soon Trista had returned to the table with her Lyra. “We think the idea has merit. We will not know until we talk to Tresimiaset but we are willing to cross with her. We still think the fishermen should be some of the first to go over. They have the potential to begin catching fish from the first day they arrive, while others can set up the living areas. Farmers and herdsmen need to go quickly, but both of them need time to grow crops and breed more herds. Time is the one thing we don’t have much of to begin with. We think,” nodding toward Kervin, “Kervin’s planning should be put to the side for the moment while we plan for food production to begin on the other side. If we can not get it going full scale, we will starve shortly after we get there.”

  Kervin looked around the room, “I am agreeable to setting aside the plans for the remainder of the population until we can get food production going.”

  Before he could say anything else Kane startled everyone by shouting, “We are absolute idiots.”

  Taken aback Darian had to protest, “We are not idiots. We are doing the best we can, it isn’t like any of us have moved our entire race before.”

  “No no,” Kane was shaking his head, “We are idiots. What is Tresimiaset?”

  Sarian narrowed his eyes, “The Planet Walker is what she told us.”

  “No, I mean, what is she?”

  “A dragon?” Darian did not see where Kane was going with his question. From the confusion on everyone else’s faces, no one saw where the question was going.

  “Right, a dragon. And what is Malory?”

  “A demon begotten evil creature.”

  “Shut up Darian, no one asked you.” The disgust was evident in Sarian’s voice.

  “Well, yes, he did. Kane asked the room at large what Malory was, I was in the room, so therefore I was one of the people he asked. So, technically, yes he did ask me.”

  Kane rolled his eyes and took a deep breath. “Let me try this a different way. What is Malory to Tresimiaset?”

  When everyone still looked confused at where Kane was going with his questions he gave up, just a little, “Remember she said he was bonded to her? Well what is one thing a bonded pair can do? A rider can open his thoughts to his dragon letting her follow along with the conversation around the rider. In this case, we could have waited two more days, had Malory here in the meeting, and it would have been instant access to her thoughts on our plans.”

  Everyone looked dumbfounded for a moment. Patro suddenly remarked, “I think she kept Malory for a reason. She did say we can have him in two sunrises and he needed to be in all our meetings. Also, I think she wanted us to try to plan what we could before she left to minimize the meetings not planning would entail. Once she gets to the other side, most of our information will have to go through Malory unless one of us crosses over and uses our dragons to talk to the two Lyra on the other side. Malory may be bonded to a dragon we can not even guess the age of, but he is still a child in our race. Anyone know how old he is?” As Patro looked around he saw everyone shaking their heads, no one had a clear idea how old Malory was. They all knew he was too young to step from one place to another by using the void, but that only told them he was younger than one hundred of their years. “We need to plan down to the smallest detail we can before our next meeting with Tresimiaset. Malory is still young enough to be overwhelmed by what we have to do.”

  Darian snorted, “At almost three thousand I am still overwhelmed by what we have to do to move our race. We have a starting place for the planning, Malory would not have done anyone any good today. We did not have an idea where to start till we separated and discussed it. Now about those council members and shire seat members we have coming here tomorrow. We discussed it and came up with a suggestion on what to tell them. We need your thoughts on the meeting tomorrow. I know everyone was suppose to brainstorm for that also, let’s hear everyone’s thoughts.”

  The discussion for how to handle the meeting the next morning took hours but by the end the twelve members of the Lyras felt they had plan. With few hours left of the night, and the meeting planned with the
council members just a few hours away everyone decided they would return to their homes to try to get at least a little sleep. After the next meeting no one believed they would be getting much sleep for awhile.

  Chapter 18

  The meeting with the council members and shire seats was going far worse than expected. But only according to Darian and his Lyra. Trista and Kervin believed it was going quite well. True no one had argued, shouted, or been disruptive of the meeting, at least not exactly. After seeing what did happen Trista and Kervin had both agreed, they would not have liked to deal with the meeting without Darian in charge, if what he was doing could be deemed being in charge. Neither of them could believe they agreed Darian being in charge of anything was a good thing. However, after spending the last few hours in the meeting room, and seeing how the council members would start an angry outburst only to shut up as soon as Darian moved, even a small amount, no one could deny fear, in this particular situation, was a good planning tool.

  Patro had outlined the situation and before the council members could say anything Darian had stood up and moved behind Patro. The council members had looked around the room and, instead of asking question had taken out notepads and began to write. The problems occurred when Patro went on to announce the plans to start moving the fishermen, farmers and herdsmen first, along with the two older Lyra, the Elites, and all the soldiers. The mini outbursts had started then, short lived though they were, no one could fail to notice Darian getting more and more upset each time one happened. When Kane had noticed Darian’s hair lifting as though blown by a wind that did not exist he had stood up and announced the Lyra, all the Lyra, were going to get something to eat and had invited the council members and shire seats to help themselves to the refreshments provided in the side room.

  Surprised they were leaving the meeting, without having made any plans, Trista and Kervin had been more than confused at the announcement they were going to eat. Darian had stood at the door to the meeting room, waving all the other Lyra members out of the door leaving him the last to leave. Before closing the door he had told the gathering, “Figure it out.”

  As he shut the door the noise level climbed. When he turned to face the hallway, where the other eleven leaders and former leaders of the race waited he winked. Striding away from the meeting room he called over his shoulder, “Come on we are late. I told the restaurant we would be there, and we are running late. Hurry up, I’m hungry.”

  Trista and Kervin looked at each other, then at the four men striding away. They looked at their individual Lyras and back to each other. “What just happened there?” Confusion was evident in Trista’s face as she asked Kervin a question he obviously could not answer.

  “I want to know where the food came from. I did not know they had arranged for food to be catered to the meeting. If they had food delivered, why didn’t we stay and eat. We could have answered questions while we mingled with the people. That would have made more sense than dropping the information in their laps then walking away before they could ask any questions.” Hered, Trista’s shadow walker had a good point. No one had an answer for him, and with Darian and his Lyra moving further away with each step it looked as though no one would get an answer until they caught up.

  For a moment Kervin was torn as to whether they should follow Darian, or return to the meeting to try to answer questions. As he stood there trying to decide the best course of action for the future of the race Sarian called back to him. “Come on Kervin, Trista, the agreement was for our Lyra to handle the council members. This is how we handle it, if you hurry up we can explain it better while we eat. I agree with Darian, I’m hungry.”

  With one last look at the meeting room, where Kervin would swear he heard screaming and yelling, he turned and with the others took off at a fast walk to catch up. By the time Darian had reached the Atrium everyone was together. Darian led the way to a small meeting room off the cafeteria where tables were already set for all twelve of them. After settling down in the room Kervin was the first to demand answers. “How, by all the shadows, are you going to make plans with the council members and shire seats if you walk away before they can ask even one question? What kind of leadership do you call what you just did, what you caused us to do?”

  Darian shrugged, “You agreed to let us handle them. This is the best way to handle them. This is the only way to handle them.”

  “By walking away? Great shadows man, you can’t lead by walking away. No one can lead by walking away.” Kervin was so upset by this point he wanted to hit Darian. He was not too happy with Sarian, Patro, and Kane either.

  Silence fell over the room when the door opened and waitstaff began to bring food and drinks into the room. No one wanted to cause problems by letting others see strife among the Lyra. It did not matter if they disagreed in private but in public they always kept a united front. After everyone was served, and the waitstaff had withdrawn from the room Kervin opened his mouth to continue is tirade. Before he could say anything Sarian started speaking. “We told you, Darian has no patience for the arguments. The best thing, the only thing we have found that works, is to inform the council and shire seats of the situation at hand. Tell them what we plan to do about it, then leave them to discuss it and make plans based on the information we give them. That is why we were later leaving than Darian planned for, Patro had to give more information than he planned.”

  Trista shook her head, “Why, wait, if he had a plan for a certain amount of information, what caused him to change that amount?”

  “Easy, I based the information I dumped on them on where in my speech the outburst occurred. Those outburst gave me a clue as to what information I needed to expand upon. We do this every time we have meetings with them, only, we have never given them this kind of information. They will take what we gave them, come up with questions, one person will end up as their spokesperson and we will do this all again. The next time we will just be stretching our legs, probably the next time we will be breaking to eat the evening meal. Although, I don’t know what will happen after that, we have never had such dire news for them before. We have never had something so massive that the meeting had to last through two meals and a walk around. Usually short meetings, the longest meetings were maybe one meal and a stretch our legs break.”

  “So, I have to know, when did you plan for the food to be brought? You knew this would take all day, we all did, but I never thought to have food catered to the meeting. I did not even know it was in the side room.” Trista continued, “I agree this will last long into the night, or at least I suspect it will, so what do you have planned for the evening meal?”

  Kane was the one to shrug this time, “We arranged it yesterday, sort of. When the runners left not all of them left. One is always left behind, always, just in case. That one took the information that all the council members and all the shire seats would be meeting here today and the time frame and arranged food to be catered. I stopped by the kitchen this morning before coming and arranged for an evening meal to be catered in to the meeting room. It seemed prudent.”

  “How is it you believe they will make the best plans if Darian continues to stare at them without letting them ask questions. I worry the method you are using is not going to work in such dire circumstances.” Kervin gave voice to the concerns he was having.

  “It is the best method though. This way they are forced to work together, usually against Darian, but they have to work together to find solutions. In this case they will be able to see so many things we may have missed, and they will find the best way to phrase the questions they need to ask. And when we return you will see, they will have chosen one spokesperson to ask the questions, which will be well thought out. And that person will ask one question at a time while the others take notes on the answers. When we leave again, I can assure you they will go through the whole arguing process again to come up with more questions, or maybe solutions. We can only hope they can add to our planning.” Sarian shook his head as he f
inished his explanation.

  “I don’t know whether that is a genius plan, or the most idiotic plan I have ever heard. What happens if we get back and they are not there? I mean, they could leave and go back to their towns and shires and cause mass panic before we even start.” Kervin shook his head, “How do you know, with this crisis, they did not leave as soon as we left?”

  Darian snorted.

  “Ah, well, they have actually left once, before everything was settled, before we had dismissed the meeting. They have never done it again.” Kane’s mouth was twitching from trying not to laugh.

  “I sense a story there, you might as well tell us what happened. We,” Kervin motioned to the others, “Have already seen your Lyra has an unusual, irregular, and I must say disastrous way of dealing with the councils.”

  Darian snorted, again. “I had to go get them, each of them, and bring them back to the meeting. They have never made me fetch them again. I was not happy, at all.”

  Trista looked at Darian in disbelief, “You fetched them? Like one would fetch a child?”

  “And I was not happy about it. I did mention that right?”

  “But Darian, you can’t just fetch grown men and women, leaders in their communities, as though they were children. Why have we never heard of this?” She turned to Kervin, “Did you hear of this? How could we have not heard something of this. The scandal alone should have rocked our race.”

  “You did not hear of it because they are terrified of Darian. I am telling you, by the end of the day we may all be thankful Darian has no patience with the council. That fear may be the only thing in our favor when it comes to the planning we need to do with the councils and shire seats.” Sarian looked around the room as he told the other two Lyra his thoughts.

  Hered looked thoughtful, “You almost sound like you approve of Darian terrifying the council.”