A faint sound brought Tyen’s attention back to the passageway. One of the students was approaching quietly.
“We’re out,” he mouthed. Tyen nodded, then waved to indicate the young man should leave.
Having guessed at how the bomb worked, he considered Regur’s options. The student couldn’t get off the bed without causing it to move. He had realised he couldn’t hold the bomb still with magic without setting it off because when a sorcerer was in control of an area, he was also in control of the magic within it, which would stop its flow to the trigger. The young man had considered stilling everything around the bomb, but he was worried that Liftre had developed a way for a machine to detect the flow of magic around it. He could see how it might be done. Magic was nearly always moving, so for it to go still would be unusual.
Regur had contemplated surrounding the bomb with a shield and letting it explode, but he wasn’t a strong sorcerer, didn’t have much magic stored, and couldn’t guess how powerful the bomb was. When he’d risked creating a noise-blocking shield around the room, he’d hoped it would also reduce the damage to others when the bomb exploded.
But he was running out of magic by keeping the shield in place.
Tyen considered releasing magic for Regur to take, but the young man’s fear that the bomb could sense the flow of magic made him pause. Better that he shield Regur and himself, now that the building was unoccupied. But he wouldn’t be able to until the student stopped shielding the room, as it prevented Tyen reaching the air inside.
Looking up at Regur, Tyen pointed to himself, then at the room, and mimed turning the handle. Regur blinked as he worked out Tyen’s intention. The latch released and the door swung inwards.
Tyen leaned against the frame and unlaced his boots, slipping them off, then placing them gently on the floor. He stepped forward. An invisible wall stopped him, but the pressure immediately melted away. At once, Tyen placed a wall of stilled air between Regur and the bomb, dividing the room in half. This would not still the magic around the mechanism, since magic still existed on the other side of the room. He also stilled the bedframe in the hope that this would prevent vibrations.
Tyen beckoned. Moving very slowly, Regur unbent his legs, swivelled and placed his feet on the floor. A gradual lean forward shifted his weight enough that he could stand. Once upright, his movements were a little faster, and he padded on bare feet to Tyen, the fear in his eyes turning to relief and gratitude.
Go, Tyen mouthed. Regur nodded and slipped past into the corridor. Tyen listened to the faint sounds of his movements fade away, then drew in a deep breath and let it out again.
Alone with the bomb, Tyen considered what to do next.
He could leave and let it explode. That seemed unfair. The landlady might be an overbearing miser, but she didn’t deserve having her property destroyed.
He could hold a shield around the bomb as it exploded. It was a risky option. Tyen could not guess how powerful the bomb was. It looked small, but he knew of powerful explosive compounds that could be packed into tiny capsules. The chance that his shield wouldn’t be strong enough for the blast was small, but if it wasn’t, he might be struck by some of the force. Tyen could heal himself… if he was still conscious.
However, he badly wanted to see what was under the blanket. He needed to be certain that Liftre’s sorcerers – if they were behind it – had meant for it to kill him. This was the room he would have occupied if Regur hadn’t had his particular sensitivities. Also, since mechanical magic was least effective against sorcerers, particularly powerful sorcerers – and Tyen was one of the most powerful in the worlds – there must be something particularly clever about this machine.
Unless it was intended for Regur, or another student or teacher. Attack me by attacking others. Ensure no more students come to me for tutelage.
Examining the bomb could tell him how far Liftre’s development of mechanical magic had progressed. Letting it explode would teach him nothing, not even how to defuse a bomb like it in future. He took a step towards it.
Perhaps I’m supposed to try to defuse it. Perhaps it is a trap.
Well, he couldn’t just leave it there.
So how can I move it without setting it off, let alone examine it?
He smiled as the answer came to him.
Walking slowly and silently to the bed, he stopped before his invisible shield. Drawing on his store of magic, he enveloped himself in a thin, strong shield of stilled air. He let the wall of still air between himself and the bomb dissipate, reached down and took hold of the corner of the blanket covering the device. Then he stretched his conscious will out through the blanket to encompass the bed beneath…
… and pushed out of the world a little way.
Nothing happened. Nothing but the usual bleaching of his surroundings. The room didn’t explode. The blanket remained draped over the bed and bomb, all caught in the place between worlds.
It was a strange sight.
Since learning how to travel between worlds, Tyen had been perplexed to find that nobody could explain exactly what was happening when he did. He could think, but the physical sensation of emotion was absent. He could move, in what seemed like a physical way, and before he’d learned pattern-shifting his body would have died of suffocation if he’d stayed there too long. He could take hold of other sorcerers and, since almost all were weaker than him, take them wherever he wanted. As long as he touched an object he could bring it into the place between, as well as the objects touching the one he touched if he concentrated on the space they took up.
Yet this, he suspected, was an illusion. He suspected that objects and living things didn’t have a physical form outside of a world, and had formed a theory: though they were oriented with each other in a familiar way, their mass had been translated into some other state. He suspected that people only perceived them to be physical objects because the human mind had no other way to interpret what it was sensing.
For this he was grateful, in this moment, because it would allow him to examine the bomb safely. He pulled the blanket towards him and a dull metal disc appeared. It did not explode. Perhaps his theories about the place between worlds were wrong, and it was simply the lack of air that prevented whatever chemical reaction would cause an explosion, but he preferred his theory that it was no longer a physical object and so couldn’t react like one.
He let go of the bed and blanket. They would slowly drift back into the world. Taking a couple of small tools out of a pocket, he soon had the machine’s cover in two pieces. Within the body he found the motion-detecting mechanisms he’d expected, tiny and beautifully made. Two small squat bottles, one full of liquid, the other empty, filled most of the interior. A residue remained in the uppermost, empty bottle, telling him that two substances had been mixed. The trigger had been set off a moment before he’d brought it out of the world, but the chemical reaction hadn’t had the time it needed to happen.
So, when this re-enters a world, it’s going to blow up. He looked around the faded room. Better do that somewhere it won’t do any damage.
Searching with his mind, he sensed a faint path leading away to the east. He guessed it had been made by the sorcerer who had left the bomb. There was no other path. The man had arrived and left along the same route.
Moving through the ceiling, he continued through the roof and shot up into the night sky. When the city below was a small glow, he stopped. Unscrewing the filled reservoir, he left it hovering while he checked to ensure no other explosives remained in the device. Then he put the empty bomb in his pocket and looked at the chemical mix. With a mental push, he propelled the bottle back towards the world.
He knew the moment it arrived when his surroundings went white. A muffled boom reached his ears. Just as quickly, all went dark and silent again.
Satisfied that no danger remained, he propelled himself downwards. By the time he arrived, the streets of Turo were dark with people, their faces turned up to the sky. Most expressions w
ere of puzzlement and worry. Few would have been looking up at the time of the explosion. They’d have heard the boom and run outside to seek the source, only to find no clue about its origin.
Withdrawing further from the world so the onlookers wouldn’t see him descending, Tyen dropped through the roof of his school and aimed for the hall inside the main entrance. Arriving, he paused as his body healed from the damage caused by lack of air, then walked to the door and pushed outside. At once, his students hurried towards him, most of them with expressions of worry.
No relief, he noted. He sought their minds and saw why. At the same moment, an old man in the uniform of the Elders strode up to Tyen and saluted in the local fashion.
“Teacher Tyen,” he said, holding out a scroll. “I bring orders from the Elders for you to leave this world.”
Tyen looked into the man’s mind as he reached out to take the scroll. He saw guilt. The Elders had agreed to the demands of another otherworld sorcerer, who had threatened to destroy the city if Tyen and his school weren’t sent away. The Elder who had been murdered had objected to the decision, and the others suspected he had been punished because he tried to warn Tyen.
Tyen realised his face was aching and relaxed his jaw. Here we go again.
“Will you go?” the Elder asked, his attempt to sound forceful foiled by the tremble in his voice.
“Of course,” Tyen replied. “Unlike the man you encountered, we do not seek to harm the worlds, but to help them. We wish you only freedom and prosperity.”
Turning away from the man’s relief, Tyen considered his students and fellow teachers. All radiated anger and disappointment – and resignation. But also determination.
“We’ll find somewhere else,” one of them said, and the others nodded.
Tyen smiled grimly and straightened his back.
“You know what to do,” he said in the Traveller tongue. At once, all hurried into the house to gather personal belongings and pack instruments and books. Tyen followed, forcing his mind away from the two disasters of the night to the challenge ahead. Liftre knows where we are. They’ll have scouts around this world waiting for us to leave. They may try to follow us, and if the bomb is an indication of their intentions, perhaps even attack us.
But he had evaded them many times before and would do so again.
CHAPTER 2
The students’ packing never happened quickly enough for Tyen, but he was impressed at how fast they managed it this time. He’d taken to keeping most of his belongings in his pack so he could be ready to leave in moments, as did the students who had stayed with him the longest. Some of the newer students still had a habit of strewing their belongings about their rooms, and they always held up the rest.
He hid his impatience as the last of his students joined the group. Jefit and Vate, who spent as much time teaching as learning, stood on either side of him, their attention snapping to every movement in the room. As the final and ninth student joined them, her pack making a heavy thump as it hit the floor, the pair looked at Tyen expectantly.
“Right. That’s everyone,” he said. “Yes, it’s annoying that we have to seek a new home again, but remember this: a school is not a place. A school is a group of people dedicated to teaching and learning. We are this school, and as long as we work together Liftre cannot stop us sharing knowledge.”
They nodded, shifting restlessly and wondering why he was wasting time making a speech. He held back a laugh. The students were the impatient ones now. But they needed a moment to collect their thoughts and be ready for the journey ahead.
“You all know what comes next,” he told them. “We’ll travel in the usual formation. If Liftre’s sorcerers see us, they’ll try to follow, but we’ll outrun them. When I’m sure we’ve hidden our trail well, I’ll start looking for a new place to settle.”
Will they let us go? one of the students thought. This time they tried to kill one of us. He wasn’t the only one worrying, but most were assuming that if Liftre had wanted them all dead, the bomb would have been set off in the midst of them, not left in Regur’s room. They, too, thought Tyen had been the target.
It’s strange to hope they’re right, Tyen thought. As he swung his pack onto his back, the students followed suit. Behind him were the two large chests he’d bought a few cycles ago to hold books and tools for his lessons. He insisted they pack them away every night, and it was fortunate they were making an evening exodus, not a midday one.
Four students picked up the two chests by the handles, one at each end, and the rest formed a close circle around them. Everyone took hold of another person, two others if both hands were free. Tyen joined the circle and waited until they were still. “Anybody not ready?” Nobody replied. “Take a breath.”
A collective inhalation followed. None of his students had learned pattern-shifting yet. It was always the last thing he taught, if at all, since few were capable of it and unpopulated worlds strong in magic were hard to find. He must keep in mind that they would need to stop in worlds to breathe. Doing so would slow them down, but his powerful magical ability meant he could also travel faster than most sorcerers, which would keep them ahead of pursuit.
They had gathered magic already, the weakest first, followed in turn up to the strongest, so that all had access to some. Tyen had boosted his store by collecting it from the most distant edges of the world, where the absence would not be noticeable. The strengthening of the students had left the city in a temporary void, which he doubted local sorcerers were happy about, but magic would flow in to fill it within a few hours.
They didn’t say we couldn’t take any magic, Tyen thought wryly. And they won’t get the opportunity to object before we go. Pushing away from the world, Tyen sent himself and his companions into the place between.
During their stay in Turo, the school had taken care to never travel directly away from their home so no path would be created that would lead back to it. With no advantage in following that rule now, he headed straight into the whiteness. Turo’s official arrival place was a few streets away, close enough that a new path running parallel would take them near to the established path’s destination in the next world.
Where he expected sorcerers would be waiting to ambush them. He angled away from the other path. Doing so increased the likeliness they would arrive in a different world. Many of Turo’s neighbouring worlds were not hospitable to humans. One world in particular was volcanic, which made the atmosphere poisonous even in regions where there were no eruptions. Deadly air was invisible, so they could not trust the benign appearance of an emerging landscape. He always skimmed across a new world until he found signs of life, preferably human before arriving.
However, his students couldn’t survive in the place between worlds long enough for such a search. That wasn’t his only concern, too. As they travelled, he stretched his senses beyond the group, seeking shadows or sounds that might betray the presence of strangers.
He found them as soon as they passed the halfway point.
They came from three different directions, suggesting they had been patrolling the place between. Two men and a woman. As the trio rushed towards Tyen and his charges, the expressions of the students changed to dismay and fear. They looked at him expectantly.
Tyen did not bother trying to evade the sorcerers. The first slowed so that the others would arrive at the same time, then all three moved close to grab hold of arms and shoulders. One student, Temi, let go with one hand in an instinctive move to push a sorcerer away, then realised the danger and quickly grasped the next student again. If any of them let go, Tyen would no longer be in control of their progress. A stronger sorcerer could pull them away, and Tyen would have to choose between abandoning them or letting go of the group and risking that one of the strangers was stronger than all of the students.
Fortunately, the students were in no physical danger from the sorcerers holding them. In the place between worlds, no person was physically stronger than another. Nor could one
object damage another. Tyen felt a light pull to one side as the trio tried to influence the schools’ direction of travel. It was not hard to resist. None of these sorcerers were a match for him. However, once they arrived in the next world, the strangers could attack in physical ways.
New surroundings were rapidly emerging from the whiteness. A horizon line cut at a steep angle, so he orientated his group with it. The sky was a purple-blue. Below it was a white, featureless mass. White features were the hardest to discern in the paleness of the place between worlds. It could be snow, it could be a layer of mist with the ground just below or it could be clouds high above the landscape.
Faint texture emerged, swirling and bubbling, revealing that the whiteness was not snow or mist, but a pale liquid.
Tyen stopped. He could skim higher above this strange sea, then create a floor of stilled air for them to stand on as they arrived, but he did not trust the air over such a place. Looking back at the group, he saw that the strangers had let go and moved away a little.
Not wanting to be pulled into the world with us, he guessed. But I can take advantage of this. He sent the school skimming rapidly sideways, above the sea. At the same time, he drew them higher in relation to the sea so that he could see the landscape ahead. The strangers raced after them, but Tyen was faster and the trio shrank into the distance.
He could not travel this way for too long, however. His charges needed to breathe. Either he must return to Turo or hope that other parts of this world were hospitable. The sea soon changed, the whiteness fragmenting to reveal that it was only scum coating the surface. The liquid beneath reflected the colour of the sky. Land appeared on the horizon, coming rapidly closer then – in a flash – replacing the sea. At the sight of lines criss-crossing it, Tyen drew them to a sharp halt. Roads? He searched for signs of humans, still not willing to trust the air. As soon as he found them – a family travelling in a well-laden cart – he sent his students downwards, stopping when his feet were a hand span above the ground.
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