Strange Land (The Young Ancients Book 15) Page 15

  "All the builders, mages and anyone else that can sense people are needed to go inside right now. Search and rescue. Anyone with technologies that might work for this as well." Then he quickly rolled that off in six languages. Then he added two more.

  Sara hadn't thought there were more than four, or five if you included the funny way country folk spoke. Then she realized that a lot of places had to have people like that, didn't they?

  Still, when Roget and his group of people started away, one of them, a positively tiny woman, who was clutching a cross in her hands moved toward Sara. She touched her own forehead and held it. Or got as close as she could with a shield on, which wasn't that close. The plain cord in her hand had simple wood beads on it, in different tones of wood brown. It was wrapped around her fingers so tightly that her skin was a combination of white and red. Her lips matched it too, she was so tense.

  No, terrified. That, and ashamed of something.

  Given how people with the simple ability to turn on magic had been treated by her people in her own land, claiming that she could sense people at a distance was probably enough to have her killed. Possibly even by the other saints that were watching her as they all left.

  Except for one very old man, who Sara thought was probably their Day Leader. He turned and came back to them, also filled with shame. The others looked horrified, except for the commoner man in red and blue behind them, who waved his arms about, trying to get them all to move away.

  He mouthed something, looking at the front of the line, doing his job.

  "High saints."

  That wasn't a thing, as far as Sara had ever heard, but was actually a marvelous idea.

  "Right. Terry, have you announced the thing with the High Saints yet? That those that can do magic are required to use their abilities in the service of the All High and all people everywhere?" So, she sounded desperately transparent, but not ten seconds later the boy spoke to them all. In Tellerand.

  It was accent free as far as she could tell. Nearly perfect.

  "This is High Day Leader Terrance Baker. Let it be known that the All High has spoken to me, in a dream, and wishes all to know that those of his people that can perform miracles, His High Saints, are to be trusted and listened to by all. Any with these gifts from Him must use them now, and always, to save any in need. Praised be His Name." Then he repeated it in Noram Standard and, to her surprise, Vagish.

  He missed Soam for some reason, but a younger voice did that one. The Ancient of Soam itself, being Sara's guess. Taman Baker. She was nine now, or close to it. Also smart enough to realize that this was no time to be playing around. There was nothing added to the message but what her brother had said, then the device went silent.

  If that announcement helped the people left with her, the tiny woman and the older man, it didn't show. They both closed their eyes though and pointed off to the right. Then they rose into the air about two feet off the ground, with nothing under them, and moved off that way. She followed, until, about ten minutes later, they found themselves outside a stone door. In the residential area to the south of the entire city.

  It was, as she suspected, locked. Worse, the cutter she had wasn't going to work with a shield on. Taking a deep breath and then letting it out, she aimed the focus stone piece at the door, activated it, then turned her shield off.

  It was a mistake, she knew. Her ears rang, nearly bursting with the pressure change. Then her eyes tried to go dim as they sparked with pain. It was the vacuum of space, but it was close enough to make her day less than chipper and happy. She made a single cut before her shield kicked in. There was no air in it, but the door opened when the older fellow with his gray beard pulled on it then.

  Slowly, over the course of a minute, maybe less, air formed around her. Inside the room that they opened were at least fifty small dark people in bright colors, huddling as close together as they could manage.

  She spoke to them in Afrak.

  "Come with us! We have a safe place for you. Come!"

  It wasn't until the first of them started moving that she realized how she must look. She just didn't think about it. Once they were headed the right direction and had a guide, it was time to start looking for the next people.

  That was all she could do. Even though she knew she was going to be sorry about things in the morning. For the time being, saving lives was all that mattered. It had to be.

  Chapter six

  It wasn't just her doing the searching and in all they found over six hundred people hidden away in different places. Over half of them were children and a full third of those were doing a pretty good job of making sure no one could find them. At the back of closet spaces, hidden in bins and under their beds. Her secret fear there was that they'd find more of them over the next few days and weeks. Their bodies eaten away until there wasn't enough left to keep them alive. Like acid burning them, slowly, as their bodies were taken to make the air they needed to breathe.

  That had always been a trade off, but it meant they had a time schedule to keep, if they didn't want half disintegrated corpses popping up when everyone got home in a few days.

  There was a crew already sealing all of the places that had been breached, which was going to be needed before they could refill the city with air. As soon as that was done there were a hundred ground crews ready to work round the clock to make certain things didn't take too long.

  Sara was planning to help with that, but she really needed a nap first. When she got onto her ship, the Pain Maiden, that was the first thing she planned to do. After all, she didn't smell bad. All of the sweat and dirt had been turned into clean air already. Twice. It wasn't until she got to her cabin, which was where it always was, that she understood why people had been giving her slightly strange looks the whole time.

  For one thing, her golden hair, that had always been part of her, was gone. All of it. Looking into the shimmering wall that reflected a good bit better than a normal mirror, she winced. Her eyes were red shot and had blood in them in places, and her skin was pocked with bits of black, blue and red as well. In the main, she looked thoroughly beaten. She felt it too, but that was just because she hadn't slept for a long time.

  Thankfully at least part of the problem could be handled with a simple Healing amulet. She got hers around slowly, feeling a bit like she'd been drugged after the day she'd had, and turned it on. It hurt, healing like that, but five minutes later her eyes looked normal again. A nice blue. No blood to be seen in the slightest. Her skin returned to a nice golden tan color, with no extra decorations and her hair...

  Well, that stayed gone. It had been eaten up to make sure she could breathe. All of it too. Her eyebrows and lashes were gone, and so was every bit that might have been anywhere else on her body. She wasn't as smooth as a newborn. No, Sara realized that she was bare on a level that she never had been in her life.

  "On the good side I don't have to fight to shave my legs after three months without, so there's that." Except that had already happened the other day. She smiled, hoping that looking as funny as she did was enough to make up for not having to bother with that kind of thing.

  Her bed called to her, sitting as it was in the darker portion of her space. Her shield off, she took in air and felt each breath more keenly than she ever had before. Then, locking the door by making it vanish, she crawled into it and slept until someone woke her, shaking her shoulder firmly.

  Sara wasn't the type to hit people for getting her up, and there was a light on already, so she simply cracked an eye, not knowing who to expect.

  That was good, because even looking directly at them she wasn't all that certain who they were.

  "Captain Miss? Awaken, please, for the morning prayers?" It was said in Standard, but the woman was clearly not a native speaker. After a bit she got that it wasn't a woman at all, but the girl from the magic shop that had helped her pack away the entire inventory.

  She muttered at her, but managed a smile.

  "One min
ute. I need to get dressed for it. Where are we to meet for it?" They were on her ship, but the girl smiled and held up her communications device. One of the new ones.

  "All places. Torrance the Pious gives right to speak? Special, for those that will listen only."

  That took time to explain, so she asked about it in Tellerand as she shifted her clothing around to her tan Captain's uniform. It was more of a buff color, and had what seemed like leather in places, as well as very soft boots. Then she looked at her reflection on the mirror wall and sighed.

  "Well, I can at least do some eyebrows and lashes. Maybe someone will help with the hair later? I've seen it done, but it takes a lot of focus to get it right." Generally you had to be a builder to manage it very well. That, or so focused that you could be one of that sort, if you wanted to try.

  She did all right with magic, maybe well enough for that even, but it was mainly on a user end.

  Luckily she had friends. Ones with skills that could do a lot toward that end.

  The girl didn't make her leave to go to prayers, she just set her communications device down on the floor and knelt, almost primly. She wasn't dressed in all black, but in a nice pink jumpsuit that looked like it would be popular in Austra. Complete with a heavy looking cross around her neck, and a belt made up of copper disks, each shining in the white light of her cabin. The shoes she wore were black, but those seemed like hand tooled leather and might actually have been real.

  "We have some moments, before the Day Leader comes-" There was a poking gesture at the com unit, so that Sara would get the picture.

  "Ah. Well, we should make good use of the time then. Here, take mine and make sure that Terry Baker is up for this?" There was no reason he shouldn't have to suffer a lack of sleep too. It was his land, and people, that were being a pain at the moment.

  The girl looked up at her shyly, but swallowed and got a call going through after half a minute of stalling.

  "Terry Baker. Is there an emergency?"

  The girl looked almost ready to cry, but her voice only shook a little.

  "No... It is time for prayers. On the Tellerand sigil? Thing you are on."

  There was a brief and slightly sleepy sounding yawn in the background.

  "Oh? Right. Thanks for getting me up then. Um, who is this? If it's all right to ask?"

  The girl blushed, her cheeks turning a nice rose color.

  "Magda Chateau, High Day Leader."

  "From school? I think I have afternoon lessons with you. We should get together later then, if possible. I'm going to be on one of the air crews, but we can use a few more people on that."

  The girl looked like she was being asked to suck him off, rather than help with a simple task in public, but she agreed, then clicked the device off quickly.

  "It's... Not good, for me to be near him. He... Makes me feel..." She didn't go on, her face so red now it was pretty clear she didn't just hate the boy.

  Then, he was just about perfect for her, wasn't he? So good looking that only a few men could compare, and no one from Tellerand met that mark. Also incredibly intelligent, the leader of her entire land, and her own age. Blinking a bit, Sara smiled.

  "He's not married. You should send a note off to his mother and see if they want to set something up?" People in Tellerand got married, after all. It was required, unless you were considered unclean or an outcast.

  The girl shook her head, a little sadly, but then perked up when a voice came across her communications device on the floor, signaling that it was time for prayers.

  It was Roget, and he gave thanks to the All High for everything. Including the new High Saints that had been sent to them, all of their new friends that had helped them survive the night, and to her embarrassment, Sara. By name. Even Terry didn't get named that way. She praised the All High when she was supposed to, except on that one, though Magda did that one, looking at her slyly from the corner of her eyes when she did.

  It only took about ten minutes, but praying three times a day, it would add up.

  When they were done, though, and the girl stood up, Sara winked at her.

  "You like Terry, don't you?"

  The girl looked like Sara had just offered to toss her out an airlock, but nodded after a bit. Ashamed by her feelings.

  "He is too... Grand for me. I'm but a plain, and simple girl. Plus, High Day Leader or not, he is from far away from where I am... It would not work, would it?"

  Sara let her eyes squint a bit, then reminded herself not to fall back on her Noram ethics and morals. Terry was clearly interested in women after all, and Magda might be out of the three steps, but the fact was that him marrying a woman from his new land might just be a great idea. They were both too young for it yet, but setting something up now really wouldn't hurt when it came to influencing the people there.

  "I'll get with his mother on the idea. Him as well. It might not work, but it also might. We won't know until we ask. Do you think your parents would approve of that?"

  "My father... No. He is with the All High now. My mother, she was able to come with me, but she is not a saint. She is here, on your great vessel. Prayers are done... But work?"

  That made sense. They did have work to get to. Then, they always would, wouldn't they?

  "Let's run to her then. Come on. We really do need to get to the day. At least if I'm not going to go back to bed. Say, how did you get my door open? I hid the darned thing."

  "I'm a saint. I prayed to the All High to lead me to you, and He did. Then I asked for a door to be sent to me, and one opened, allowing me to pass." Then she held the cross around her neck, as if showing that it was all His will that had done it.

  It was a good enough way to describe things.

  "Praised be the All High." Sara intoned the words without being sarcastic. It seemed to make the girl happy, for some reason.

  "All Praise to Him."

  Then they left, the girl moving on foot, nearly running, down the hallway to the left. That got them to the rear cargo hold, which was a single giant space, meant to allow other ships to dock with the Pain Maiden. There was even one there, in the middle of thousands of people, who sat around the edges, in not so tiny groups, largely based on the land they were from. Not totally however.

  It took a while to find Magda's mom, who was a woman that seemed to be in her late thirties and was otherwise very similar to her daughter. Except for the plain black dress she wore. Her daughter looked like a Noram day ornament compared to her. She sat alone, near a group of Afrak men and women in bright colors.

  The woman didn't glare at her once she figured out who the strange bald lady in front of her was. A giant too, which had to make things easier to handle. They spoke in a combination of Noram Standard and Tellerand, which wasn't enough to stop the dark skinned women nearby from listening.

  One of them, an older woman, clapped her hands once she got it.

  "Ah, an offering of marriage! The people here do not trade directly for their men. You must win them, with hard work and praise. Things were simpler when having enough acres of planted land and silk goats were all that was needed. Now we must deal and wrangle in strange ways to win hearts. Still, it is not without chance. My daughter, Kimi, has won such a being for herself. The High Servant Erid. This High Day Leader might be won by a woman as fair and bright as you!" She was trying to be encouraging, which kind of worked, once the blushing wore off.

  The older Tellerand woman, Enid, agreed to go to Terry's mother, and see if something could be set up. Normally the local Day Leader did that, in their land, Sara was informed, but being that there was no local leader there...

  She nodded, and called Roget. He'd been their Day Leader hadn't he?

  It seemed only fair to make him face Laurie Baker on this one. Smiling she set it all up, then, on a whim, had both the women from Tellerand come with her. It was the first time that she'd ever had a non-saint to work with in a place where magic was so common. There had to be a way around the mental block th
at her people had in regards to magic.

  For some reason something that Laroque had said once filled her mind, very powerfully then. She blinked and smiled.

  "I think... I just had a message from the All High? An idea, to allow you and yours to use the miracles he has provided his people in their hour of need." She was ready to be doubted, but both of the women, the girl and her mother, simply nodded, as if that kind of thing was normal to hear. Even if she didn't speak in tongues first.

  "He... this was a little vague, but I think he wants you to pray to him, before tapping the sigil on a device. If you are allowed to use that device at that moment, if he deems the cause worthy, then he will activate it for you. You simply have to put your faith in him to work through you." That was, she hoped, enough.

  There was a subdued look from Enid, but when Sara dug out a simple light from around her neck, the woman took it without protest, holding it tightly.

  "Am I worthy of such a... blessing?"

  "How am I to know His will? If you have faith and need, then he will answer you. Pray to him, and then tap the sigil. I think that this time he will answer, though it may take many attempts. That is what he requires of us." She was about to go on when the woman stopped in place and closed her eyes. Her lips moved a bit, but there was no way to make the words out.

  Then, opening her eyes, she tapped the device.

  Which stayed dark.

  Sara shook her head.

  "While praying. As you ask for Him to turn it on. Tap then." It was what you did to make anything magic work, after all. You had to trigger it with concentration and focus. It had to be directed at the device, but it didn't take all that much to make it happen.

  Enid tried again, her eyes open this time near the end. When it got to the right part, she tapped the bit of focus stone, which began to glow around her hand, brightly enough that others in the hallway of the ship, a nice and cheery sand color, blinked in surprise.

  "Agh!" The thirty something and plain lady nearly threw the light to the floor. It had come on fully, which was nearly blinding to look at.