The Worlds of the Sheaf

The Confrontation - Part 3

     Their success at crossing the border gave them a feeling of elation, a feeling that they’d taken another step closer to getting home, but on the third night afterwards Thomas was crushed by a Farspoken message from Lirenna that he’d been lying awake waiting for.

     “Don’t teleport up to the ship!” she said first of all, as she did every time. “We’ll be going back through the portal in just a few minutes and…” There was a pause, and Thomas’s heart faltered as he felt the grief and despair that was transmitted along with her words. “…and this time we won’t be coming back. I know you’re still alive! I know you are, but everyone else… They say Saturn would have sent a Farspoken message by now if you were still alive and… They want to go on exploring the other worlds through the portal. They can’t do that if we have to keep coming here, to this universe. They say that there’s no point in us coming here anyway if we can’t go to the planet to rescue you, if all we can do is send these messages. The felisians still have a ship stationed beside the portal in our universe. If you somehow manage to make it back through, they can contact us using the Master’s communications apparatus.”

     There was another, longer pause before she spoke again. “I’m going to leave the ship. I’ll be waiting back in the University, so I’ll hear at once when you come back.”

     Thomas sensed her wiping away tears, unable to find the right words to say what she wanted to say. He also sensed something else. There was someone with her, comforting her. Holding her as she wore the Coronet of Farspeaking on her head.

     “I know you’re still alive!” she said at last. “I’m waiting for you!”

     The connection was broken abruptly, as if the demi-shae didn’t want the full extent of her anguish to be transmitted through the telepathic link, and Thomas’s eyes squeezed closed all by themselves, without any command from him. Beside him, he heard the others giving exclamations of despair, anger and disbelief as they also heard the news, passed on by other members of the Jules Verne crew simultaneously, but Thomas remained silent and just lay there, grateful for the darkness that prevented the others from seeing him shivering, as if with a fever, and wiping away his tears.

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     "How do the Malganians know what's inside southern territory?" asked Matthew, looking at the map spread out on the floor. They were planning their final approach to the spaceport, only three or four days journey away now, picking a route that avoided a group of sizable southern settlements between them and it.

     "Probably the same way we do," replied Thomas. "Stolen maps. Spies going into southern territory to bring back information. They've probably been spying each other out ever since they first came into contact with each other."

     The Flight Leader nodded. "So we've still got to be careful. They'll be on the lookout for strangers wandering around, just like the Malganians."

     "Bound to be," agreed the wizard. "We've got an advantage now, though. We can speak their language, try to bluff our way through..." He paused as a thought came to him. "Do they speak the same language, or do they have their own? Oh well, I've got the Translation spell."

     The densely populated region they were about to skirt around would make it too dangerous to stop and forage for food, so they spent a day hunting where they were, wanting to be carrying a full load of food before setting off on the last lap. While the soldiers were out chasing rabbits, Thomas remained in the skyscraper and spent his time memorising every detail of the room, getting to know it well enough to use it as a teleportation destination. If danger threatened, he didn't want to have to teleport back into Malgania and have to cross the border again. Once was enough!