Azevedo walked over to the prisoners, zlinning, then took one of the dart rifles and without preamble shot each of the Gens in the thigh. They each recoiled in anticipation of horror, but that faded as the drug put them to sleep.
Desha said something, objecting in the gypsy dialect. Shanlun answered, and one of the other gypsy Simes argued. While they spoke, Laneff heard the Distect Simes remark on how the gypsies will argue until doom strikes. They made shift to construct a litter out of the splintered wood about them and jackets they took from the three Gens.
The slit in the clouds had closed, darkening the day ominously. A damp, cold wind skirled about them. Laneff cut into the gypsy discussion. "It isn't so important where we go as that we get out of here– now."
Shanlun looked at her, surprised, and she decided they had indeed been discussing destination. Azevedo replied, "We're in Gen Territory here. It's imperative that we cross over before nightfall—sooner if possible."
Desha again objected in the gypsy language, though Laneff had once heard her speak perfectly intelligible Simelan. Azevedo answered, "We can if we must. We'll discuss it later." He went to talk to the Distect Simes who were securing Yuan to the litter.
"We'll head north," announced Azevedo.
"We don't accept a channel's leadership just because he's a channel," answered one of the Simes.
"There are six of us and four of you," said Azevedo, counting Jarmi as Distect. "We know this country. You're welcome to join us if you like."
There was a bristling moment, and Jarmi said, "I think Yuan would go north with Azevedo. Shall we wake him and ask?"
The Simes zlinned their burden. "No," one said. "Let's move."
They helped one another up the path they'd cut into the rubble on one side of the crater, and when they got to the churned ground, they circled to stay on the matting of branches until they reached a stream that was now cutting a new bed. They tromped along the watercourse until they came to the spot where it joined the old bed and continued on the rocky wet pathway.
It was hard going. The air was chill enough to bother the Gens, so the Simes shivered, too. Before they'd reached the cover of a tract of woods, Laneff called out a warning. Moments later, Tecton reconnaissance planes zoomed out of the rising sun and circled the battlefield.
"Run!" called one of the Distect Simes.
But Azevedo overrode that, "Circle!" he commanded.
Immediately, the four other gypsies formed a circle with the channel, leaving the two Simes carrying Yuan balanced on their toes, ready to dash for the woods.
Azevedo motioned the Distect Simes to put Yuan in the center of the circle. "To move now is to attract attention. We must disappear into the landscape like a frightened rabbit."
The planes would carry Third Order channels as spotters. The sparse woods would not hide them then, nor would simple stillness. Jarmi complained, "This makes no sense."
"It will in a moment," replied Azevedo, arranging the gypsies in some special order and placing Shanlun and Laneff on the circle while herding Jarmi inside with the other Distect followers. Then he stepped into the ring with them. "Lie down. I'm going to put you to sleep." As they complied, his nager expanded to include the two Simes, Yuan and Jarmi inside a distorted shifting blur. He spoke to them softly.
At the same time, Desha and Shanlun got into another tart discussion in the .gypsy dialect. Dividing her attention, Laneff missed watching the odd hypnotic sleep overcome Jarmi.
Azevedo turned back to his two Gens. "Now our secrets are safe from outsiders."
Desha challenged that, and Azevedo answered, "Shanlun vouches for her. She is sworn." Then, comparing Shanlun and Desha with one eye on the Tecton planes, he said, "Shanlun will work this with me."
A flush of pleasure suffused Shanlun's nager, but he protested, "I haven't since—"
Azevedo snapped, "They have a Second Order channel up there. Desha couldn't handle this. Come!"
As the gypsies settled cross-legged about the circle, Laneff was drawn in between Shanlun and Desha while Azevedo placed himself opposite Shanlun. The brilliant confetti nager faded into a dark-purple shadow. In the space of a deep breath, the entire circle turned to purple mist.
Azevedo seemed to reach out to embrace Shanlun's intensity within his own blurred nager, and the two flowed into that same oneness she'd zlinned in Yuan's office.
The bubble of nageric shadow misted and smeared by channel's shimmer grew to encompass them all, drawing them outside of time. She gave herself to that nonexistence, reveling in the freedom of existing in the now. She was no longer stretched on a torture rack between past and future. Enraptured, she contemplated the now and found it exquisite.
Reluctantly, she was drawn out of that contemplation to find that nearly an hour had passed. Three times, planes had looped low over the nearby stand of trees, but without spotting them. Azevedo bent over the Distect group, waking them one by one. The others were rising, moving stiff limbs, brushing ants and leaves off. Shanlun remained, eyes nearly closed, nager still as a tidal pool, shrouded in dark purple. His face was as wiped clean of character as if he were a babe. Yet she knew he was aware.
She rose, feeling as if she'd just wakened from the most refreshing posttransfer sleep of her life. Zlinning, she reckoned that the Gens had all produced more selyn in that single hour than they normally would in a day, though the Simes seemed to have used less than a fifth the selyn for an hour.
She bent over Shanlun, worried, but Azevedo intervened. "Not yet. Leave him."
He drew her toward the center. "Yuan wants to see you."
The Sosectu was propped up against one of the Simes. He smiled. "Laneff! It wasn't a dream. You made it!"
"I wasn't even hurt! But you—"
"I'm fine now," he said, but it wasn't true. He was hungry, cold, but only a bit weak from his injury which was healed totally. He pulled his feet under him, struggling to stand. "I'm going to get a drink of water. Join me?"
"In a moment," replied Laneff, glancing back at Shanlun.
Yuan followed her gaze. "His people will care for him. Come." Unsteadily, he made for a nearby brook.
She knew, and Yuan knew, there was more to this moment of choice than a drink of water. Laneff compared the two Gens and wondered how she could ever have thought them similar.
Yuan shuffled toward the brook, not looking back to see if Laneff followed. But she could feel a thread of his attention on her. What they'd felt together was real. What he'd promised—and delivered was real, and she was grateful. But what she knew Shanlun to be drew her to his side. That clear motion told Yuan all he wanted to know. Azevedo, having checked each of the gypsies, now turned to Shanlun, motioning Laneff back. He hunkered down before the Gen, smiling, his nager reaching into the dark-purple shadow. Gradually, Shanlun grew aware, character returning to his face as he opened his eyes. He smiled up at Laneff, and it was as if she were engulfed by a rainbow.
Laneff asked, "Was that a demonstration of Endowment?" Azevedo laughed. "No! Just part of the training that leads to the ability to control an Endowment."
The other Distect people and now some of the gypsies followed Yuan to the brook to drink.
Shanlun accused the channel, "No, that was no training exercise. You used yourself unmercifully." "Nonsense. I'm more comfortable now. Not so post." "You haven't been post since I left!"
They were arguing now in English, and Laneff caught a whiff of the same tensions they'd argued with before. "The Tecton has taught you to be too domineering." "And perceptive."
"If I can grant you the right to cope with your own problems, can you not grant me the similar right?" "As long as you acknowledge the problem." Azevedo wilted. "Yes, I know it's a problem. You've made your point, Shan. And we will take both of you to Thiritees. But I don't know about the others."