The Worlds of the Sheaf

Escape - Part 4

     They had to wait three days for the portal to open, and when they passed through they found the felisian beacon ship waiting on the other side but not the Jules Verne. It was in another universe, exploring the ruins of another dead civilisation on one of the planets there, and there was no way to get word to it until the portal opened onto that universe again.

     Thomas didn’t care about that, though. Lirenna had said that she’d be back on Tharia, not on the ship, waiting for word that her husband had returned, alive and safe, and as the Bescot 2 used the communications apparatus of the Masters to send a message to the University he knew that he’d just have to imagine the demi shae’s reaction as the news she’d been waiting for finally arrived.

     The humans could have tried teleporting straight back to Tharia using the solo teleporting spell that Thomas and Saturn both possessed. The interference affecting long range magic had almost completely dissipated by then, and even when it had been at its worse it was now known only to have affected the area within Tharia’s atmosphere. They could have teleported to Kronos, then returned to Tharia by using the teleportation cubicles. No-one had ever solo teleported across such a great distance, though, and neither wizard was quite sure they wanted to take the risk. Not even Thomas, despite his desperate need to return to his wife. They remained aboard the felisian ship, therefore, while it carried them back to their homeworld.

     It was a journey of several days, but Thomas and Lirenna were able to communicate, after a fashion, using the communications apparatus of the Masters. It was a frustrating affair at first, as each message took almost a day to cross the distance, but as the Bescot 2 approached the planet the delay between sending a message and getting a reply shortening from hours to minutes until they were able to have proper conversations. After that they spoke for hours. Not saying much of any great importance but just delighting in the exchange of words, in the knowledge that they were drawing closer together as fast as the silver ship could carry them.

     The ship was given permission to land in Lexandria Valley. The silver ships had landed there many times before, in secret, but this would be the first time they had landed openly, with a crowd gathered around to welcome it. Thomas and the other humans gathered around a viewscreen near the nose of the felisian ship, and lumps rose in their throats as they watched their homeworld growing in space ahead of them. The final approach lasted for hours as the ship slowed to a crawl, descending through the atmosphere, but the Tharians stayed where they were, unable to pull themselves away from the view even to eat or answer calls of nature.

     Thomas felt his pulse racing and his limbs trembling with excitement as they passed through a layer of cloud and saw the towering peaks of the Blue Mountains below them. There was the valley, looking so tiny from this distance. A patch of green almost lost amongst the greys and whites of rock and ice, but growing as they approached until they could see the crowd gathered in Graduation Field, held back by a rope barrier from an empty, central area.

     There, at the front of the crowd, was a small group of people standing apart from the others. Senior wizards, high ranking officers and the families of the Bescot crew, and there, among them… Thomas’s vision blurred as he saw a slender, graceful figure with dark hair blowing in the light breeze, looking up at the descending ship and shading her eyes with a pale, slender hand.

     “That’s her!” he cried, almost laughed. “That’s Lenny! There she is!”

     The others grinned at each other, infected by his happiness, while they searched the crowd for their own families.

     Then the ship landed and Thomas hopped with impatience as he waited for the hatch to open. “What’s the delay?” he demanded, but he had to wait until people on the ground pushed a flight of stairs against the grounded ship. There was a hiss of equalizing air pressure, and Thomas squeezed through before the hatch was fully open, running down the stairs and across the grass towards where his wife was running towards him. They met in a bonecrushing embrace, and the whole valley broke into a thunderous cheer.

☆☆☆

     The human members of the Bescot crew didn't have much time to be together for the next few days because of all the celebrations that were laid on to welcome them home. First there was the biggest party Lexandria University had seen since the end of the Fourth Shadowwar, the entire valley so lit up with illusory fireworks that it was visible from Kronos even without the Lenses of Farseeing.

     Saturn was completely in his element, basking in the accolade and giving endless speeches and lectures to rapt audiences in which he described in minute detail how it had been he who'd overcome every obstacle virtually single handedly and brought the crew of the Bescot home by his own unaided efforts. Some of the other 'Boys from the Bescot' bridled at this, but Thomas was grateful for it as it allowed him to fade into the background to a certain extent, although he still had to accept the credit for their escape from Shonnla. A feat that Saturn was happy to credit him with since he hadn't been with them at the time.

     "Yes, have to give the lad some credit," he explained to a small group of senior wizards during a celebratory dinner in the Grand Assembly Hall, although speaking too low to be overheard by the massed students and junior wizards who crowded around them on all sides. "He does show some promise, if only he can learn to control his impulses and think before acting. The near loss of the Jules Verne because of his mishandling of the blight is just one example..."

     Just as they were beginning to think that the orgy of celebration was beginning to blow over, though, they were whisked off to Belthar to meet the King, and then paraded through the streets of Tara for the cheering crowds. All the people of Belthar had been informed of the bravery and resourcefulness of its armed servicemen. The wisdom shown by the King in supporting and financing the Rossem Project and the huge benefits that were now being reaped by this venture into the Worlds of the Sheaf. Well placed agents in the former provinces made sure that the peoples of these newly independent kingdoms knew it as well. The return of the Bescot crew was a propaganda coup that the King intended to exploit to the full, and he used all the political clout he possessed to have them assigned to him for as long as he could use them. All except Saturn, who alone had the power and authority to keep himself out of his clutches.

     Saturn's absence didn't bother the King overmuch, though, as it was his brave soldiers he was chiefly interested in. Matthew, Jop Sonno and Roj Villa. All three became instant celebrities, especially Matthew, and all three had Belthar's highest honours bestowed upon them.

     Thomas, as a former citizen of Ilandia, was kept more in the background, and when he was brought out much was made of the fact that he had voluntarily abandoned citizenship of the traitorous former province. Thomas wondered what they'd say if he pointed out that he had, in fact, done nothing of the sort. He still thought of himself as Ilandian, despite not having lived there for twenty four years, but he wisely decided it might be best to keep quiet about that.

     Matthew's happiness was complete when he was reunited with his wife and children, who'd been teleported to the capital by Corak Highdoor, the King's own wizard. Matthew had known they were coming, but he was a little upset that the joyful reunion had to take place in front of cheering crowds during an award ceremony, while the King stood beside them with a beaming smile on his bearded face as if he himself had moved heaven and earth to bring them together. As Matthew and Heather fell into each others arms, though, everything else was forgotten. The crowds, the ranks of saluting soldiers, the brass band. Even the King himself, while Thomas and Lirenna watched in delight.

     This was their first sight of the woman they'd heard so much about, and neither wizard was surprised to see that she was every bit as beautiful as Matthew had always said, as were the children when they were brought on a few moments later. Matthew was so focused on his wife that he didn't at first realise they were there, and the King took the two small boys by the hands while they waited for their parents to end their long, crushing embrace.

     The King didn't mind waiting, Thomas knew. This moment was pure gold for him. The ecstatic cheering of the crowds was like whisky in his veins and he'd be riding high on a wave of popularity for weeks afterwards, which he was sure to put to good use. Thomas had heard rumours of unpopular measures the King wanted to take to tighten his control over the Legate. Political pressures had kept him from implementing them up so far, but nobody would dare raise a hand against him now.

     The King waited patiently, therefore, with horny handed farm boys dressed in hastily measured silk finery on either side of him, one of them picking his nose, until Matthew became aware enough of his surroundings again to notice them, and them the crowd screamed in renewed rapture as he fell to his knees to welcome them into his arms.