“You must be stronger than you look.” He steadied himself and gripped her shoulders.
“Oh, I am very strong. I have had to be, as did my sister. Each other’s lives were depending on that strength and one slip would have made one of us an only child.”
“Her talent was light, you said?”
“Yes. We were born on the same day, light and dark. We were separate entities that shared a womb and friends since that time.” She smiled, fighting tears. She hadn’t had time to grieve yet and she was almost desperate to howl with the loneliness.
“You miss her.”
She swallowed. “More than I can say. Until a few days ago, we never spent an hour apart, and now, I am here in the past and she is fighting for the future. I wish there was a way I could help her.”
“If you are truly in her past, can’t you help her now?”
His words hung in the air between them.
She turned and looked at the tower then stared at the world around them. “After meditation practice tomorrow, I am going out recruiting.”
“What?”
“I am going to break open the pits and bring the sleepers here. Can the settlement handle thirty or more newcomers at a time?”
He blinked. “You are not going alone.”
“I am. You can’t move fast enough.”
He grimaced and stepped back, crossing his arms. He looked out over the countryside and muttered, “I can if you carry me.”
She smiled and a tiny bit of her loneliness cracked and fell away. “If this is successful, this will be the first of many.”
He turned back with a smile. “You plan on stealing all the powers on Skora-Mark?”
“Only the ones who want to be stolen. I have an idea for the city and it—”
In the sky, far off, a light moved from earth to heaven. She took Urad’s hand and swallowed as the ship with thirty-nine talents began its courier run.
“For them, time has run out. I don’t want anyone else to meet the same fate.”
He squeezed her hand. “Just tell us what you want us to do.”
“If you want to come with me, we leave after lunch. It takes me two hours to get to the nearest city, and walking in is the easiest way to get to the temple.”
“How do you know that?”
She chuckled. “I wear robes, they take me for a priest and the temple is my first stop. From there, getting to the pit will be easy and going in knowing where the bots and gas is will make things go more smoothly than it would have otherwise.”
“Should I wear robes?”
She cocked her head. “It might not be a bad idea. Do you think that you could have some made by the afternoon?”
“I believe that would be possible.”
“Good. Now, I had better call it a night. Shall I help you down?”
He laughed. “Please.”
They parted ways at the base of the wall. She returned to her monitored quarters in the tower and he returned to the bachelor quarters in a building along the wall.
She brushed her hair and twisted it in a braid. She settled her robes around her, checked to make sure that the orb was still inside its little case of shadows and she headed off to seek breakfast.
Noma had just stepped into the courtyard when Hroki came up to her and handed her a breakfast bun and cup of tea.
“We have heard that you will only be teaching a half day, so we decided to come to you.”
Hroki whistled sharply and a crowd of well over a hundred formed.
Noma quickly scarfed down the bun, gulped the hot tea and elevated herself so that the crowd could see her.
She raised her voice and spoke firmly, “Since you are all here and I am guessing that everyone has been practicing their breathing, let’s move on to internal focus. If you can keep your mind centred—even with chaos around you—you can use your power much more effectively.”
She walked them through the mental candle in the centre of their thoughts and progressed into keeping that candle steady no matter what happened. Noma used her shadows to tickle her audience and the laughter spread quickly.
“Do you see what I mean by lack of focus? Even if it was laughter, it would still keep you from being able to focus your talent. That is what the mental candle is for. It keeps your power at the ready and brings it to you in an instant. It won’t stop the distraction, but it will help you recover. Now, let’s go to the practice field and see how effective the others around you are at creating distractions.”
It seemed a competition now, and everyone trooped over to the practice field in an effort to try their power before anyone thought of a distraction.
New talents made themselves known. Illusionists, assessment talents, even a man who blew bubbles that contained bright gasses and a woman who exhaled sparkles; they all lined up to distract those who were trying to focus. It was a very entertaining morning.
It was an exhausted Noma that sat with her new people at the table and laughed at the absurd efforts. One of the folk could even make a passable animal call that had distracted the more animalistic shifters right out of their civility and conscious thought.
She looked at the roasted fowl on her plate and asked, “Who goes out for the supplies?”
A slight woman who turned into a truly amazing creature with scales, fangs and fur smiled. “We take turns going hunting. There is a tunnel under the wall that can only be accessed by power and can only be found by enhanced senses.”
Sharp and pointed fangs that never completely receded marked her bright smile.
Noma smiled in return, unfazed by her appearance. “So, you are familiar with the surrounding area?”
“Yes. The nearest settlement is to the east, but the nearest temple is to the west if that is what you are thinking. It is a faster trip than the northwest city and far more concealed for an approach.”
“Thank you, Silphy. I will bear that in mind.”
Urad entered the eating space with some of the guards. He came directly toward her, and she had to admit the robes looked good on him. The bodysuit was a bit of a surprise, but she supposed that she had created a trend.
Silphy blinked rapidly. “That is…I like it. Is it comfortable?”
Urad grinned, “Surprisingly so. It also looks very dramatic when in motion or flight.”
Everyone within earshot laughed, even Urad’s sister, Rynil, who had been nursing a bit of a pout since Noma’s arrival.
Urad leaned over and pressed a quick kiss to Noma’s lips in front of the entire dining area. Apparently, he had decided to shine a light on the situation.
Noma and Urad walked through the city gates, side by side. The gate guardians had directed them to the temple without letting them say anything.
“So, the robes work very well.” Urad nodded, impressed.
“Most species have some kind of formal wear, and oddly enough, wearing extra layers of fabric is a common expression of rank. As a keeper, I needed to project a competent air. The clothing gets it going without me saying anything.”
Their banter took them to the steps of the temple. Urad tensed, but she swanned forward as if she belonged there.
The acolyte at the door smiled and beckoned them in. “Be welcome, travellers.”
Noma smiled in return. “Thank you for your hospitality. We have been on the road for some time.”
They were escorted inside and taken past the capped area of the pit. Urad was silent and seething with leashed hostility.
Noma counted the priests in the temple, and she smiled. As long as Urad was close, she wouldn’t shut him down with the others.
She reached out and took Urad’s arm, pulling him tightly to her as she sent a ring of darkness out around the priests, knocking everyone in a five-hundred-foot radius unconscious.
She let Urad go and whispered, “Come on.”
“What did you do?” He kept his own tone hushed around the sprawled forms of the priests.
“Touched their minds with darkness. By the time we consummate our relationship, you should be able to do the same with light.” Noma smiled and opened the door to the pit, listening as the light activated the bots.
Urad extended his hand and a beam of light lashed out. The sound of gears and metal being savagely ground was distinctive.
Noma waved her hand toward the darkness where gas awaited. “Shall we?”
“I have been wanting to taunt you with how long I could hold my breath.” He waggled his brows suggestively and jumped into the pit.
Noma followed him down, glad that he was getting into the spirit of it.
They returned to the city near moonrise. Nineteen talents were rescued and no priests were harmed in their recovery. The oddest moment of the whole manoeuvre was when they were leaving in a cloak of shadows two young talents threw themselves into the embrace of the tendrils and hung on for dear life until she caught on that they were there.
Twenty-three living beings passed over the wall and into the courtyard where they were greeted by cheers.
Noma staggered and Urad carried her to rest in the tower.
“You did well today, Noma. We have never gotten so many at a time before.”
She chuckled and leaned her head against his shoulder. “I am glad you are impressed. We are doing it again the day after tomorrow, and we will continue until we have to get ourselves around the world.”
“You cannot do this all yourself.”
“I want to do it with you.”
“We can train others what to expect and how to get the sleepers free. We have the training ground right here. Now that we know what to expect and how to go about it, we can show anyone who wants to try and rescue friends and family. You can stay here and keep training folk while we go out and rescue.”
“Recruit. It is called recruiting. We would need more room, if only for livestock. Was any of today’s talents a stone shaper?”
“I believe there was a large, strapping lad who had that talent. Minny could teach him control by getting him to make armour or spindles.”
“I just thought that since the locals will not approach this place, we may as well use all of our land. I have an idea for a series of walls, one inside the other, for livestock, orchards, anything that needs more land than the city can offer.”
“You work on that. I will begin training others to rescue the sleepers.”
“Good. Once we clear the last one, I have a surprise for them.”
“What?” He edged her door open with his shoulder and entered her room to deposit her on the bed. “What is your surprise, Noma?”
“I thought you and I should set off one of the ships and blow it out of the sky to tell the Vorwings that Skora-Mark is closed for harvesting. If they want powers, they will have to come here, and they will find next to none in the cities, especially when they learn that we will take all powers without hesitation.” She grabbed her pillow and pulled it to her chest.
“Don’t you need light?”
She giggled. “Most of the time, but not to see.”
He smiled and stroked her hair. “You did a very good thing today. There are going to be a run on robes.”
“Make sure that they only go to the completely controlled. Call them masters or something to indicate that they have reached a competency level, but all those who journey out should wear the nondescript grey. It inspires confidence and projects a helpless air. Folk try to help you get your business done when you wear it.”
She was mumbling against the pillow, and he stroked her hair again. “We will talk in the morning and you can write down your plans for us to discuss with the community.”
She heard his voice as a distant rumble, but she clung to the bright spot in her mind. Part of him was sticking to her consciousness, and it was an interesting start.
While they were hesitant at first, the community meeting brought everyone, and they learned of not only the ship beneath their feet but of the chance to rescue hundreds of other powers around their world.
With the help of a mapmaker, Noma marked out the cities of the orbs imagery and tapped her fingers on the nearest ones. She looked down the huge expanse and pointed. “This is the rising star we saw the other night. It was a ship ripping itself from the soil and stone and into the stars. I have no idea what damage was done to the city it was in, and I would like to know what the ship did to the structures.”
Robik smiled. “I could go there and find out. It would take me a day, and I would have to carry a lot of food, but I could do a reconnaissance.”
“Don’t we have a distance viewer or a seer?”
“No, they are allowed into the priesthood. It helps them find powers.”
Noma closed her eyes. “Of course. Right. Well, Robik can’t go alone. Anyone able to shrink and travel along?”
An older woman held up her hand. “I can get down to two inches. Is that small enough.”
Robik smiled. “If you can hang onto my hair while I run, you should be able to do it.”
Noma sat back and listened to the talents group off and come up with plans of travel and attack.
She nibbled at the breakfast bun and enjoyed watching them work on something that wasn’t just survival, it was evolution.
Six weeks. It took six weeks to change the face of a world and to put out the word that powers could leave their home and be safe and accepted, as well as instructed and educated.
The ringed city she had imagined was expanding outward, one ring at a time, each slightly shorter than the one before it and the outer ring had no access point. The inner rings had doors that were not only locked, they were staggered so an invading force would have to walk to the rear of the city and then the front and then the rear just to make it to the hidden doorway in the stone.
They had animals enough to feed them for two years; fruit trees were growing in a separate ring so as not to tempt the animals. Fibre plants were sprouted as were oil-producing vegetable crops.
The city was no longer a city; it was a Citadel and ready for a siege.
She was ready to fire her warning shot.
Everyone was at home and tucked in. No others were out, and she took this opportunity to sneak out to the city she had first been to, and she entered the temple, knocking the priests out but carrying them outside the temple with her shadows.