they were going. Not everyone was, of course, going anywhere. About a third were, which made Tor's heart sing a little. There was a problem, so people stepped up to help, even if it might be dangerous. Even if it would definitely be hard and uncomfortable.
Not all of them were fighters either. Ali and her roommate were standing by less than five minutes after Tor went outside for instance. They were young, but his wife had carefully gone through his other things and built a box of potentially useful items of her own. Sure, he'd probably have to remake them for the shops later, since a lot of them would be “lost” during the mission, they always were somehow, but as long as most of them helped someone in need first, he could deal with it.
They were only things, and he could remake them, it only took time and effort. He had effort in decent supply. Time less so, but that would work itself out. Tor reminded himself to focus on the important things first. Lives trumped objects and coin, every time.
Ali looked at him nervously when he walked over and gave her a hug, probably expecting him to tell her she couldn’t go. That would be foolish though. They needed the help and she’d already proved her worth, grabbing things he hadn’t even thought of and making up two floating cases.
“Good. You and Sherri can be in charge of the healing area. As soon as we put down, slap up a house for it and set up a hospital. We have healing amulets, you know how to use them?” He included both girls, Ali nodding, having used them a couple times if for minor wounds and burns. Sherri had no clue, but that was fine, Alissa could show her.
Kolb came and thankfully had a map, one oiled and folded to show the first part of the route. The flying would be dangerous, since it would take all night and that meant not landing until morning, so he warned everyone to go to the restroom while they could. Blind night landings were possible, if you took it slow and settled to the ground over the course of ten minutes or so. Otherwise it would probably mean slamming into the ground. That was survivable with a shield, but wasn't fun.
On a trip like this it would be fastest and safest to simply fly all night, staying spread out and going high as possible the whole time. It got hard to breath if you went too far up, but keeping on that edge of that zone would let them tell for sure that they weren't about to hit the earth.
The flight was hard, pretty much the hardest he'd ever had and Tor had gone across the kingdom before alone, more than once. People complained, calling out their problems as they flew, most of them going unheard. They may not be as fast as an Austran craft, but they were flying about half the speed that sound traveled through the air. It made talking nearly impossible, listening too. Of course that meant he didn't have to listen to people whining about things that no one could do anything about, but it also meant that if anyone had a real problem it might be missed. Tor made a point of checking the field of each person for serious issues as they all flew. It was hard while flying, but worth the attempt. In the main people just had to go to the restroom, were pretty hungry and felt a little lonely and isolated. That they were part of this large group didn't impact everyone as sharply as it did most of the people.
It took twelve hours for them to be able to see, and another half hour to fly back towards land, since they'd over-shot and found the east ocean. A mere three hours later they landed in Cannor, it being well up the coast. The flooding was visible from the air as they moved towards the county capital. Canton.
They landed near a small building that had men and women running in and out constantly, that looking like a likely place to get started. From inside a shrill voice yelled, nearly screamed to be honest, a tense and angry sound. It was Mary, and what she was yelling… Made perfect sense.
“Get men over there now, we need boats, river rescue… And food, shelter. Tell everyone to open their homes. I know they don't want to! Do it anyway. This isn't a time for being selfish.” Exasperated and just edging towards panicked, she stopped as soon as Tor and Kolb stuck their heads in.
“Finally! Here's the situation.” Her words were quick and precise. Sane, and not just reasonable, but intelligent. Tor didn't let himself be taken aback by the idea.
She was needed, so she showed up. He could accept that. Even if her mind was a little sloppy about where reality was kept most of the time, that didn't mean she wasn't going to try her best when the situation cried for it. Right now it was, loudly and with a passion. So Countess Cannor made a point of being in charge.
Kolb drew directly on one of his maps, “I'll take a team of twenty here and sweep down the coast. We'll send a second group here,” his pen tapped the page firmly, showing an area that was nearly a murky brown now from what they saw from the air.
“Karen will handle that. Tor?” It was clear that he was supposed to say something useful and helpful now. Yay.
“Alright, Alissa and Sheri have the hospital already started out front. Magical healing, but if we have any real doctors around or people good with that kind of stuff, send them over please. I also think we should send teams down all the rivers. We have the people, and they can fly. Some of them are a little new to things like this, but if we can send some of the older kids along, maybe groups of four? Hopefully we won't lose too many that way.” Hesitating Tor took a deep breath and prepared to dive in, but Hardgrove walked through the door, obviously having been listening.
“We can send an instructor with each group of four. They may not be any better off, but at least they'll have someone to listen to in a pinch. If they can stay on task, this will work.”
He sounded confident, which made Tor feel better at least. It was a trick of course, because the man had to be near gibbering at the idea of sending young and largely untrained kids out like this. Tor was too, but decided that he needed to do his own bit of covering and nodded. He pointed at the map and went over the working groups again. The plan left him in one of the five man search groups, but that was fine. The really important work now would be done by the main groups and the girls with their hospital. Searching was more glamorous, but the housing and medical groups would be the big deal. Ali had grabbed all the houses meant for sale, the little cottage type, but they'd work, clean water, provide heat and be safe. They had a hundred of them and if need be, he could make more.
No… that wasn't right.
They could make more. He wasn't the only builder here.
Tor was tucked into a group with Wensa, Rolph, and two small boys that still had thick country accents, one clearly from the Printer area down south, the other from further north, near the center of the kingdom rather than the coast, but also on a Printer scholarship. Both were about fourteen and looked as exhausted as he felt. Still, one had the fortuitous name Guide and the other was Sam. Not Samuel. No last name. Just Sam. Both were builders, like him.
The search and rescue operation moved quickly, daylight being key, Wensa told them.
“We can barley fly at night and lights help but don't seem much good for searching large areas. Unless any of you can make something about fifty times brighter than a hand light that won't instantly blind the user?”
It was a throw away comment, but not a bad idea. The woman took off, flying about three hundred feet above the water, and cautioned them not to make a sound at all.
For a second Tor didn't get it, then he realized that it was so they could possibly hear anyone calling for aid or attention. Another good idea. Wensa seemed full of them suddenly. It was her job, as a Royal Guard, to know things like that. Or to figure them out in a pinch.
As they flew, Tor started working on the field they'd need. A focused light that only went one direction. Heh. Just a minor variation on a simple light. Brighter, but that wasn't hard, the first light he'd ever made was many times brighter than sunlight. No the tricky part was trying to focus on the field being made while flying and placing it on the tiny brown stone in his pocket. A natural stone that he'd picked up from the ground. It wouldn't look as good, but that would have to be suffered through. It was an emergency.
They flew and stopped a few times to investigate odd sounds, but didn't find anything. No people. Just a single dog that Rolph moved to higher ground, plucking it from a log in the swollen and dirty river below. It was scared, but didn’t try to bite him, just running away once it was on dry ground.
Nothing more happened, until about three in the afternoon when Guide noticed something floating along, waving at them.
“Help!” The voice was female and sounded stressed, though Tor couldn't imagine why that would be. Couldn't she just swim to the shore and climb out? It wasn't that he was uncaring, just that his focus was still on the light he was trying to make in his pocket. Everyone else was suddenly puzzled as to how to get her, but it wasn't that hard. Not difficult in any way. Really, half the people here had the equipment…
