Voice of the Gods

He drew back, sank into the dream trance and sought her mind.

:Auraya?

She didn’t reply. After several attempts he returned to the minds of the guards. The chained figure moved and he realized she was awake.

I couldn’t sleep if I were in her position, he thought. Frustrated, all he could do was watch her through another’s eyes. I will free her, he told himself. I will find a way. And when I do, the Voices won’t even know I had anything to do with it.

Clever plans were easier hatched with two minds than one. Drawing away from the sight of Auraya and into the dream trance again, he sought the mind of an old friend.

PART THREE

37

Despite a week spent resting at the edge of the Si forest with plenty of food and water provided by the local tribe, Tyziss still had to fight a deep, unshakable weariness in order to fly. He craved rest, but his longing to reach the Open and his family was more powerful. Though news that he had escaped the Pentadrians must have reached them, he knew they would not stop worrying about him until he was home.

Sreil flew a short distance ahead. Their leader hadn’t rested more than one night in one place since being freed from the Sanctuary. He had refused to rest any longer, determined that he wouldn’t be the one to delay the return of the warriors to the Open.

He must be exhausted, Tyziss thought. Only half of the freed Siyee had made it back to the Si border. The water and food the Pentadrians had provided them with had not been enough for the journey, but then the Siyee couldn’t have carried more anyway.

Tyziss had decided to return home by a different route, following the coast of Sennon. He dropped into villages to ask for water and food, figuring that there was no longer any reason to fear that Sennonion Pentadrians would report the presence of Siyee in their land.

Only the warriors who had come to the same conclusion had survived the journey. It was a longer route, however. It had taken Tyziss four weeks to reach Si. Sreil had arrived a week later.

When the first Siyee made it to the edge of Si the local tribe had flown out into the desert with water for following escapees, but most of the Siyee who had died had probably perished of thirst within a few days of reaching Sennon. Some would have fainted and fallen from the sky, others were perhaps too weak to become airborne again after landing for the night, or might have lost their sense of direction. A few days before Tyziss had reached Si he had followed a trail of faint footprints in the desperate hope they’d been made by a landwalker who might help him. Instead he’d found a Siyee lying in the sand. He’d landed only to find the man was dead. It had taken so much energy to run himself into the air again he had nearly blacked out. Only a short distance later he’d seen a well in the distance.

Poor Tilyl. He didn’t know how close he was.

He pushed that thought aside and tried to think of home, but his mind moved to darker places. Thirst had not been the only killer of Siyee. When Sreil had ordered them to leave for the Open the day after he arrived, someone had asked about the priest.

“Teel is dead, and Auraya has been imprisoned,” Sreil told them heavily. “She spoke to me in a dream and told me of it.”

At least she managed to free all but one of us, Tyziss told himself. He could not imagine how the Pentadrians could keep her constrained. She was a powerful sorceress. But so were the Pentadrian leaders. And there were five of them.

The Siyee crested a ridge and a great scar of stone on a mountain slope appeared ahead. The Open. Tyziss felt a rush of emotion so powerful it left him weak and dizzy. His arm muscles began to tremble. Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to remain rigid and in control.

I’m not going to fail now, so close to home.

It seemed to take forever for them to reach that distant stretch of exposed rock. Siyee flew up to meet them, whistling greetings. Tyziss started to shake again as he saw his wife. He saw tears in her eyes. His own were quickly dried by the wind.

At last they were circling down to land. When Tyziss’s feet met the ground he sighed with relief. Yissi embraced him tightly. He was home at last.

“The girls?” he asked.

Yissi smiled. “Well enough. I’ve left them with my sister.” A crease appeared between her brows. “Oh, Ty. Will you be leaving straightaway? You’re so thin. You look worn out.”

“Leaving?” he asked.

He heard Sreil’s voice growing louder.

“When did they go?” the young man demanded.

“At the last black moon,” an old man, who Tyziss recognized as Speaker Ryliss, replied.

Sreil glanced at the returned Siyee. “We must join them.”

“No,” Ryliss said firmly. “You and your warriors are exhausted. You haven’t the strength to catch up with them.”

“A night’s rest will do,” Sreil replied.

“No, Sreil. I forbid it. Too many have gone, leaving us vulnerable. We need some fighters to remain in case we are attacked.” The Speaker glanced at them and shook his head sadly. “Though we were hoping more of you would return than this.”

“There are too few of us to turn back an invading army,” Sreil said. “But we can help the Circlians fight the Pentadrians. There is no point in us staying—”

“Are you so keen to drag these men across the desert again?” the old man asked.

Sreil stared at him, then shook his head.

“They aren’t fighting in green Hania, Sreil,” Ryliss explained. “They are taking this battle to the Pentadrians. Crossing Sennon to the southern continent. You would not reach them in time. More likely you would never reach them at all. Stay here, where you are needed.”

Sreil’s shoulders dropped. He nodded and the Siyee around him sighed in relief. Tyziss turned to Yissi.

“The Circlians are invading Southern Ithania?”

She nodded.

He straightened and shook his head. “Another war so soon after the last?” He frowned as a suspicion dawned on him. “Where are my parents?”

“Gone,” she said, sighing. “They weren’t the only ones too old or too young to be going to war, and yet our army was half the size of the last.” Her hand slipped around his waist. “If I hadn’t been so sure you were coming back I would have joined them myself.”

He looked at her closely and felt a pang of affection at her serious expression.

“You? A warrior?” he asked in mock disbelief.

She poked him in the ribs. “A fine husband you are. I tell you I never lost hope and would have sought revenge for your death, and all you can do is laugh at me?”

He nodded. “Yes. Let me laugh. I haven’t had much reason to lately. Now, where are those girls of ours?”

She smiled and led him away.

The light of Emerahl’s magic-fed spark revealed an empty room. She ducked through the small doorway and