Evacuation

by Sherry Foster

  “No, I told you before, we do not approve of how Darian has handled the council in the past, we have never approved. We have gotten things done in a timely manner in the past. We do not approve of his methods, but the alternative is far worse. And like I said, and Patro and Kane agree with me, we may be thankful by the end of this crisis, assuming we survive this crisis.”

  Darian stood up, “Really tired of you discussing me like I was not here. If they had worked with us, in the beginning, everything would have been fine. But they argued and squabbled worse than children and we could not get anything settled. Every single time, argued, about everything, how they run their towns with that kind of attitude always amazes me.” He looked around the room, “If everyone is finished we should head back. Last time we took too long we had to get medical help for two of them.” As Darian turned to head out of the room everyone heard him mutter, “just like children.”

  Everyone scrambled to get up and catch up to Darian, his Lyra because they knew from past experience it was better if he was the last to enter the room, they could turn him around if needed, depending on what they saw when they entered the meeting room. The other Lyra hurried because they were suddenly curious about the time medical aid had been required in a meeting with the councils.

  Chapter 19

  As the twelve men and women of the three Lyra neared the meeting room they heard only silence. Kervin began to swear, which caused everyone to stop and look at him. Even though they had not opened the doors yet Kervin motioned to the doors, “They left. I knew leaving them alone, without allowing them to ask any questions, was going to cause problems. I hope you have a good plan for dealing with the mass panic we are going to be facing.” He snarled the last sentence while looking at Darian.

  Darian smirked, “They did not leave. I can assure you they did not leave.”

  Kervin, eyes narrowed, did not trust himself to speak, he just gestured toward the closed doors.

  Trista, eyes wide, also gestured to the door, “If they were still here, we would have heard them before we reached the doors. You forget, we have dealt with councils for thousands of years before you were even born.”

  “You have not listened to a word we said about dealing with the councils have you?” Sarian was beginning to get frustrated with Kervin and Trista.

  “We listened, but we know the news we dropped on them before we just up and walked out. We heard the chaos break out as we closed the doors. I just don’t see them sitting quietly waiting on our return.” Kervin told Sarian.

  “Easy enough to prove, Patro, if you would be so kind, open the door for Kervin and go ahead and find out who our lucky winner is this time. Or loser, I have never figured out how they decide who the spokesperson is going to be, and they have never said.” Sarian gestured toward the door, then suddenly moved to block Darian, “No Darian, you know the agreement, you go last.”

  “The agreement was last of our Lyra, not last of anyone walking in the room.”

  “No, the agreement was last, you will always be the last to enter the room when we have a meeting with the councils. That is the agreement, it has been the agreement for almost two thousand years.” Kane moved along side Sarian to block Darian giving Patro time to enter the room with Kervin to assess what damage the council may have caused with the infighting that often occurred.

  When Darian finally entered the room he found Kervin and Trista and both of their Lyra standing, mouths open, eyes wide in disbelief staring at the crowd of council and shire seats. Patro was at the front of the room standing in front of a lone chair occupied by one of the council members. Not one person in the room had so much as turned around to see who had entered the room. Kane and Sarian had already taken their seats at the front of the room. The table Kervin and Trista had claimed for their Lyra remained empty, awaiting their return. Kervin and Trista were blocking Darian from moving further into the room and he had no way of moving them to pass.

  Darian cleared his throat, and then cleared it again. After the second time Kervin, Trista and their Lyra seemed to shake themselves from a trance, all eight turned to Darian, the looks of disbelief still on their faces. Darian just smirked, winked and taking his hands made a parting motion. When no one moved Darian raised his eyebrows questioningly. Finally the two Lyra made their way to the front of the room and settled at their table. Kervin was shaking his head and muttering to himself. Whatever he was saying was causing both his Lyra and Trista and her Lyra to have to fight laughter.

  Suddenly, to everyone’s surprise a great wall of ice shot up around the table with the other two Lyra. Sarian looked at Patro and Kane but both were shaking their heads. A few of the council members had squeaked in fear or dismay when the ice wall shot up.

  Darian was surprised and turned from the ice wall to look at Patro and Kane. Both men again just shook their heads. After looking out on the frightened council and shire seat members Darian sent his thoughts toward Kirrilla, while amplifying his thoughts to include his Lyra. I don’t know what is going on but one of the ice walkers just built a massive shield wall in the meeting room. Please speak to their dragons and tell them they are frightening the council members. Ask them what is going on.

  In a moment eyes wide with mirth Darian and his bond brothers turned away from the council members. When Patro believed he had his voice under control he told the council members, “We will be right back. We are going to step in the next room for a moment. Something just came up. Please stay seated, it does not have to do with the situation at hand.” The four barely made it into the small attached room before Patro threw a sound proof shield around them. As the shield settled into place the men, gasping from the effort of suppressing the laughter finally allowed it to burst forth. It was some time before the men were able to get the laughter under control. Finally, the men straightened up and Darian again sent his thoughts toward his dragon. Please let the other Lyra know as soon as they have themselves under control we would like to continue the meeting.

  The men stayed in the small room, surrounded by a shield of ice, until the dragons could assure them the others did indeed have their emotions under control and were ready to resume the meeting.

  When the men reentered the meeting room it was to see eight very contrite looking Lyra sitting at the table which just moments ago had been surrounded by ice. Darian could not stop himself from smirking at the other Lyra before turning to face the room. According to the dragons Kervin had been so incredulous about what he had seen when they entered the meeting room he had began muttering that if he had only known all it took to get the council to work together was a few fireballs he could have accommodated them years ago. From there his muttering had apparently gotten progressively more aggrieved until no one had the table could contain their laughter. Fearing what damage the laughter could to the meeting one of Kervin’s ice walkers had thought to shield the table from sight and sound.

  Sarian, with a satisfied look on his face walked by the table and muttered, “I told you so.”

  Patro, looking around the room finally gave his attention to the council member sitting in the lone chair at the front of the room. Motioning him to go ahead he sat down in his seat and just waited. Depending on the spokesperson it could take a moment for the person to gather their courage. After the ice shield incident, it might take longer this time than normal.

  Patro was thankful the choice today was a councilman named Frain. Council members were elected as were shire seats, which was the equivalent of a council member. The current Lyra knew all of the council members and shire seats, it was their job to know the people who led under them. Council members were leaders of towns and islands, depending on the size of the island and the population. Shire seats were leaders of large areas of land more suitable to farming and herd land. A shire seat might have many small communities in it while a council area had a large town and some surrounding area, or, in the case of Frain, a decent size island with one large town surrounded by small fishing communities.
The island was the location of a large fishing fleet which exported fish to the main land.

  Frain was a man known to be a good leader and an even better planner. His island was in the path of many storm systems so Frain had developed several innovative processes to keep the island safe and bring it back to full function after a storm. Patro thought Frain, and his people, should probably be one of the first to go through a portal and settle on the new planet. He determined to discuss it with the others when the meeting ended.

  Frain was also not easily intimidated by Darian. It stood to reason any man who stood against all nature could send against him to keep his people safe and bring the industry back to full function after nature sent some deadly storms against them would have to be a strong person. Patro and the others had a high opinion of Frain, and in this case Frain did not disappoint.

  Frain began by meticulously going through each question the members had come up with and taking notes on the information provided. In several instances none of the Lyra had an answer to the question, in which case Frain would set the question aside to be discussed later. After all the questions had been asked Frain laid out what plans the members had thought needed to be worked on and then requested the Lyra go on their walk about. He looked around him and back at Patro and told him to make sure it was a long walk about.

  As the twelve Lyra stepped outside the meeting room and closed the door they heard pandemonium break out in the room. Kervin looked at Darian with a bit of awe, “I still do not agree causing them to fear you was the best answer to lead them, but I wish I had known it worked so well. Not that I could have ever used it, I just think it would have been nice to have known. I could have dreamed about it.”

  “If you had known, you are telling me you still would have sat through some of those meetings and not used it?” Darian shook his head, “I don’t believe you.”

  Kervin blinked a couple of times, looked at Nalia, his shadow walker, confusion on his face then turned to look at Trista and then finally turned to look at Hered, Trista’s shadow walker. Trista and Hered had shared a look and when Darian turned to look back at them he found Kervin and Trista looking blankly at each other. Everyone had stopped walking and were watching Kervin and Trista. Darian walked back to them and looking at Patro, Kane, and Sarian found them just as confused about why everyone else had stopped as he was.

  Finally Darian, tired of feeling left out of whatever silent communication the others seemed to be in, and having found his Lyra to be just as ignorant, asked, “What?”

  Trista and Kervin turned to look at Darian and his Lyra, pity on their faces. Kervin was just shaking his head while Trista looked ready to cry. Finally Nalia, quiet withdrawn Nalia spoke, “He could not have done what you did. He could have dreamed of it, like he said, but, he could not have lost that kind of control. That is why I exist, I keep the darkness from his soul. He can’t lose control like that, even if he wants to, my soul draws it from him.”

  Before she finished talked Hered was nodding. “We never realized, we knew you did not have a good bond, we have always known something was wrong. We could never figure out why you could, it was, shadows, we have discussed it before but we have never figured out how you did some of the things you did. Your bond should have stopped it, so we knew something was wrong. We had no idea some of the things you were doing though. I don’t think it even occurred to us until just now, when you told Kervin he could have done it, we never realized you, I have no words. We, Nalia and I, keep the darkness at bay. We knew your bond did not protect you as well, but we never dreamed you did not know our fire walkers can not lose it like you do.”

  “We never realized the extent of what you were capable of doing. We just thought you were exceptionally strong, we thought a few times maybe Sarian was not the right one for your Lyra. We have thought many things over the centuries, but you see, we had no idea how bad it was until just now. You should not be capable of flying into rages like you do. Not to say you can not get upset, but you should never be capable of losing control, it should be impossible.” A tear slid down Trista’s cheek when she finished talking. She wiped it away.

  Sarian, a broken look upon his face, whispered, “So it is my fault? I should have been doing something but I wasn’t? No one told me. I did not know. How do I fix it? Was I not the right person to be the shadow to his fire?”

  At the last question his three bonded bristled in anger, turning on Trista and Kervin all three began to shout at them. Darian’s voice rang the loudest as he demanded “Take that back. He is ours, he does belong to us. How dare you!”

  Trista, a small, sad smile on her face, motioned for quiet. “No Sarian, you are the right one. They could not defend you so if you were not. I have heard the story of how you met. Even my Bryol was ready to defend you to the death based on their reaction. That reaction can not be faked.”

  Hered laid his hand on Sarian’s shoulder, “I am sorry.” Shaking his head he continued, “It isn’t something you didn’t do. It isn’t something you can do. It is something your bond does, automatically. Just like breathing, you breath in, you breath out, but you never think about having to breath, it just happens. That is how it works. We don’t know why it doesn’t work for your Lyra. Trista is right, we have discussed it so many times. We just never knew until today how bad it was. We never realized. To tell you the truth, it is so impossible that we could not even conceive of it being this bad. And we have no way to fix it.”

  The twelve men and women who entered the meeting room a little later were more somber than when they had left. It was one thing to know something was wrong, it was another to find how wrong that something was.

  Fortunately the rest of the meeting went well, or as well as a meeting where everyone found they had to move could go. When the meeting was over several key council members and shire seats were, if not happy, at least they were understanding of why the people from their area needed to go through the portals first. Everyone agreed the information did not need to be relayed to the masses until plans were in place. The meeting broke with everyone headed home to gather the key people they would need to make further plans. The understanding they left with, if those key people let slip to the population, Darian would be coming to visit. No one wanted a visit from Darian.

  Chapter 20

  “You know, I get that you told us to come back in seven sunrises with what we planned to do. But we have questions we need answers to before we can plan. I mean, we can take Malory with us today, that is not the problem, we have questions though. Seriously, major questions.” Kane was frustrated. He had returned to the meadow to get Malory just as he was told to do. But he had come with the list of questions everyone at the meeting the day before had decided was vital to future planning. Tresimiaset did not seem to think they had spent enough time researching everything they needed to do to have any questions.

  I told you to return in seven sunrises with the plans. Today you are only to get Malory so he can sit in on all the meetings. I can get an idea of your plans from him. I can guide your plans, but what I will not do is spend my days answering questions before you have even started. This is not the first move I have made with your people. You need detailed plans to even begin. Return in five sunrises and we will go over the plans.

  Kane was ready to throw balls of ice at the stubborn dragon. She refused to even listen to what he had to say. He should have brought Patro with him. He thanked the shadows he had not brought Darian. Although, when he got back and told the others Tresimiaset would not even discuss the situation with him, Darian was going to lose his mind. Grabbing Malory he stepped back to his home. As soon as he did though he realized he had no reason to hide Malory anymore so without releasing him he stepped through to Central just inside of the rooms Malory had been living in for so long.

  Releasing Malory he turned to walk out of the room. It would take awhile to walk back to the office and he needed that time to come up with something to tell the others. Just as he reached
the door Malory called to him, “Wait, where are you going? When is the first meeting?”

  Shoulders tightening Kane tried to reign in his frustration, without turning around he snarled, “Apparently in five sunrises.”

  “Um, Kane, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but she will not like that answer. I have some memories from her. I know it will be hard to look past my age but I can help. I don’t have all her memories, she said no mortal could hold all her memories, but I have some pretty important ones when it comes to the portals.”

  Kane could feel the tension leaving his body. He had not thought of that. Maybe Malory held the answers to the questions they had. After a moment Kane turned around, “Let’s hope you can answer our questions then, come on, we are going to our offices.”

  Having decided to take Malory, Kane reached for him and stepped out into the reception area just outside the offices of his Lyra. Letting go he turned and led the way to Patro’s office where the other three were waiting. He sent a short prayer to the Shadow Goddess for Darian to have patience with Malory.

  “Well, that did not take as long as I thought. What did she say about sentient races?” Patro almost pounced on Kane when he walked in the door. Darian and Sarian turned to look at him and Malory, and although Darian glared at Malory, they didn’t bother getting out of their chairs.

  Kane had done some quick thinking since Malory announced the fact he had some of Tresimiaset’s memories. Without one second of remorse or hesitation he blatantly twisted Malory’s words, “We are suppose to ask Malory all of our questions. He has the memories to answer the questions we need answered before we can finish planning.”

  While Malory gaped at Kane for saying such a thing, he had never told Kane that, Darian looked at Malory in disgust. Patro, seeing the look on Malory’s face snorted. With a quick look at Darian he decided to keep his thoughts to himself. Instead he told Kane, “Well the sooner we start the sooner we can move.” He motioned Malory to a seat. After everyone was seated, Patro, eyes narrowed, looked once more at Kane, before preparing to take notes. “Go ahead, I’m ready.”