Rath desired Nfaelythyr. The meter-long shafts struck him in the chest and hip and rebounded from Armor of Might.

Mostly.

The three arrows that hit him in the chest pierced his jacket and shirt, but not his skin. The force of the strikes was only slightly reduced, though, and the impacts hammered his body. The one that slammed into his hip shattered into dozens of pieces, and the sharp, whirling wood splinters raked across his face, leaving bloody scratches on his nose and cheeks. Though partially deflected by the magic, a slightly tardy arrow had also scoured a mark through his scalp just above his left ear.

To get out of range, he shot high into the air, the sudden flight causing him to gain fatigue rapidly, and lurched to a stop at a hundred meters, whipping his head back and forth to search for his attackers. He found them quickly.

At the west end of the plaza, opposite to the street that he had followed, a low barricade of sorts made from rubble and a broken cart was manned by a dozen Shields, some showing clear injuries. Four of the Shields had longbows, meaning that one had to be good enough to get off two accurate shots in a matter of seconds. Bowmen were rare in the Blades of the Custodian Nation, and these were the first that Rath had encountered in the Monitor Nation.

“Hold your fire!” Rath broadcast with his voice Talent. “I am the Magister of the Monitor Nation! I have come to help evacuate this area through Aehlkhndhosthyr!”

At this distance, Rath could see no real reaction from the Shields at the barricade, either positive or negative. He started down towards them.

At once, the four longbowmen drew and Rath retreated with alacrity.

Back at the mouth of the street to the east, the command group was forming up with swords drawn, the large Blades in the forefront. To prevent an open battle, Rath swooped back and down to land beside Vice-Exarch Llylm, who watched him all the way in. Banneret Fhreyhor, a sword in his right hand and a long knife in his left, was just behind the Blades at the head of the line of Shields.

“Hold steady,” Rath told Vice-Exarch Llylm, and she relayed the order immediately. The Blades and Shields did not relax, but they also made no move to withdraw.

“Longbowmen are rare in the Shields?” Rath asked her. “Would that tell us who those Shields are?”

The retired officer nodded. “14th Scout Group of the Coyote Band has longbowmen. Everyone else uses the horse bow or darts. 14th Scout are almost all of Leopard Lineage.”

“Are they allied with Wolf or with Bear?”

“Neither. Not exactly neutral, but not hostile to Wolf.”

“Are they openly antagonistic to the Custodian Nation?”

“Not aggressively so that I have seen.”

Rath frowned. “I don’t want to bypass them. They should be evacuated with everyone else.”

“We could raise a flag of truce and speak with them. The reality of the situation does not give them many options. If they remain in the Cantonment, they may perish.”

The ground beneath their feet trembled and both of them tensed. Some of the younger Shields looked about, but remained in their rank. Gravel skittered from piles of rubble. The trembling continued, growing and declining, but never quite ceased.

“They will perish,” Rath said emphatically. “Refuge is coming to an end.”

Wy had told him that and he believed it to be true. All of the people in both the Custodian Nation and Monitor Nation must come to the same belief and act to save themselves.

The Factory had not left Refuge; it had escaped.

All of the people living inside The Factory had escaped with it. He was convinced that The Tower, as damaged as it was, had likely tried to do the same when it had moved while he had been trapped inside it. The Wall must also try to escape. Everyone that was inside the colossal building when it ascended to the sky would live, though with a very uncertain future.

Everyone that stayed on Refuge would have no future at all; they would die with the world.

Vice-Exarch Llylm drew back. “Is The Wall going to leave the world too?”

“Yes. It must.”

“When?”

“I don’t know. The Tower may be restraining it. I’m not sure. Right now, we have to get everyone that we can into The Wall.”

The ground rolled, and Rath and all of the Blades and Shields were staggered. All around the plaza, loose bricks and stones toppled from damaged walls. More light tremors followed, though of diminishing strength.

Rath righted himself. “Vice-Exarch, we must keep going. Time is something we do not have. We have to convince Leopard Lineage to cooperate and we have to do it now.”

Banneret Fhreyhor volunteered to go forward holding a truce flag — one of the younger Amazon’s lacy white undershirt — and the Leopard Shield sergeant came out to meet him beside the ruined fountain. In less than five minutes, the Banneret came back.

“They agree to talk,” he reported. “Party of two. The sergeant said that at the first sign of magic, they will fill the Magister full of arrows.”

Rath nodded. “Right. I’ll go with Banneret Fhreyhor. Vice-Exarch Llylm, you’re in charge here.”

The retired officer frowned. “I’d advise against that, Magister.”

“I can’t be hidden behind the lines,” Rath said. He was operating on instinct, but there was not time for deep reflection. “I have to be up front where everyone can see me and understand. I am a citizen of both Monitor Nation and Custodian Nation. My objective is to save all the descendants of the people that Rhetyff saved from First World. Everyone needs to understand that, and I am the only one that can convince them. Leopard Lineage has to see me and learn that I am not a threat.”

Vice-Exarch Llylm saluted. “Aye, Magister. It will be done.”

Rath nodded. He had not realized until that moment how forcefully he had explained himself.

He wasted no time, going forward with Banneret immediately. The Coyote Band sergeant and a corporal came out to meet them beside the ruptured fountain. While the sergeant was gray-haired, the corporal, a woman but not an Amazon, was maybe five years older than Rath.

Rath had already decided that this could not be a negotiation. “Sergeant, you will stand down and prepare all of your people for evacuation to The Wall immediately.”

The sergeant only narrowed his eyes, but the young corporal’s narrow face constricted in a quick flare of temper and her hand went to the hilt of her sword. This made Banneret Fhreyhor put his hand to his own weapon, but he did not draw. The Leopard Lineage sergeant raised a hand to calm his companion, and she subsided, but still eyed Rath with restrained anger.

Watching for a reaction, the sergeant told Rath, “Some believe the tremors are the work of Custodian magic.”

“There is no Talent that could destroy a world. Refuge is dying on its own, and that death is the cause of the tremors. The Factory knew this and that is why it escaped. The Wall will escape as well and the Monitor Nation must be inside before it does. It is Monitor magic — my Talents — that will bring our people to The Wall. All that are inside The Wall will live. All that are left on Refuge will die.”

The sergeant showed no reaction but the corporal looked shocked.

“Leopard Lineage will rally,” the sergeant, with no emotion, told Rath. “We have orders to hold here until relieved.”

“We are the relief,” Rath said. “We are evacuating everyone to The Wall.”

Before he could continue, a loud rumble filled the air and the pavement under his feet shifted at least a meter to his left. As his feet were dragged out from under him, causing him to pitch over, he desired Wfythurgthyr and rose up just above the shuddering plaza. The sergeant and the corporal were tossed from their feet with yells and gasps of pain as they fell heavily.

The remains of the fountain to Rath’s right shattered as it was wrenched apart, one half moving north and east and the other south and west.

“Get back!” Rath yelled as the paving blocks of the plaza also split apart with a great sound of breaking stone.

Banneret Fhreyhor scrambled backwards, unable to stand, and the sergeant and the corporal also managed to heave themselves away from the rupture that seemed to be ripping the plaza apart.

As the violent shaking continued, cracks spreading on a north-south line through the fountain became open gaps and soon a widening trench that progressively collapsed in upon itself until a chasm several meters across and two to three deep had formed, exposing raw earth and breaking bedrock. All around, the stubs of walls and whole buildings disintegrated, and showers of brick and stone debris fell everywhere.

Just as Rath was beginning to fear that the tremor would not end, the earth movements faded and stopped.

The sergeant and the corporal were quick to pick themselves up.

Rath flew straight to them over the chasm. “Get your people ready now! I’m going to open a Bridge to The Wall from here! Do it now!”

Without waiting to see if the two Shields obeyed, Rath flew back to Fhreyhor, sent the banneret back to the command group with a Bridge that he kept open for only seconds, then flew across to the toppled Blades and Shields. He landed by Vice-Exarch Llylm and Banneret Fhreyhor, who was still agog from his journey across the Bridge, and helped the Elder to her feet.

To conceal his purpose, he said nothing as he created a Bridge to The Wall immediately that swept up the Blades — Eyr, Dhal, Khyrm, and Zhym would never have gone voluntarily — as well as most of the Amazons and Shields, including Corporal Wihn and Sylia. Though sprawled, they had still been in compact ranks and the close to ten-meter radius of the head had gathered most of them.

He dismissed that fifth Bridge at once, but the drain of its short existence drew down his strength by a marked amount.

Only the two staring officers and three startled Amazons who had been perhaps a rear guard remained.

“To me now!” Rath ordered without pause.

As soon as the three Amazons were in range, he desired Aehlkhndhosthyr again, placing the head almost underneath his own feet. The crossing was brief, hardly a perceived moment and a glimpse of the bizarre in-between space. The magic deposited them on to the far side of the plaza beyond the chasm that had opened in its middle.

A fresh building collapse had buried part of Leopard Lineage’s now undefended barricade and the remainder had settled in upon itself. Rushing ahead, Rath led his reduced group over the barricade and up the street beyond, snaking around old and new mounds of rubble. Not speaking or hesitating, the five Shields followed, running to remain close to Rath.

After a block, the street opened up into what must have been a tree-shaded park before the tremors. Now, it was a refugee camp, with dozens of improvised tents and shelters. The last tremor had overturned many of these and toppled some of the large oak trees as well. Many of the curving brick-paved paths were buckled, cracked, and shifted, and wide fissures had split open the the lawns and flower beds.

The refugees, some two hundred in Rath’s quick estimation and the vast majority civilians, were busy collecting in a group under the urging of the Leopard Lineage sergeant, the corporal, the longbowmen, and fifteen or so ambulatory Shields. The civilians, babes to Elders, were dirty, ragged, and mainly quiet. Some carried pitiful bundles, but most just held the hands of their children and Elders.

The sergeant ran up to Rath, stopped and seemed dazed for a few seconds, then saluted. “The Coyote Band of Leopard Lineage is assembled, Magister!”

Where Rath’s words probably would not have convinced him that survival lay in The Wall, this latest disastrous tremor certainly had.

Rath pointed at a nearby fallen oak whose exposed roots and the clay and brown earth that clung to them now terminated a long, straight stretch of a wide esplanade. This part of the esplanade was clear of rubble and still level, making it a suitable assembly point.

“The head of the Bridge will be three meters in front of that tree,” he told the sergeant. “Organize your people in a column six wide. March them towards the tree and the Bridge will open for them. Take all of your Shields and go with them. Your orders are to organize Coyote Band’s living quarters and arrange for rations when you arrive. You will manage their security and patrol their quarters. You will take orders from … Executive Cyhrin of House Llhynal. When I return to The Wall, you will report on the disposition of your people.”

Aunt Cyrin, who had been his Monitor Guide for the Trek, was the most politically senior Monitor available to him and hopefully could manage whatever issues arose between Leopard Lineage and Wolf Lineage. Mhagtyr, the head of the lineage — who Rath must absolutely try to find soon — was, alive or dead, somewhere in the devastated territory of the Monitor Nation.

The sergeant saluted again and trotted away.

“All of their officers must be dead or missing,” Vice-Exarch Llylm said to Rath quietly. “There are but two hundred here. I know that the families and Shields in this area who were of Leopard Lineage numbered close to three thousand.”

Rath nodded. He was beginning to believe that the death toll from the tremors was far greater than anything he had dared imagine.

As the remnants of the Coyote Band of Leopard Lineage assembled in a compact group and began to advance towards the fallen oak, Rath desired Aehlkhndhosthyr.

All the front rank of the march vanished immediately and those behind slowed in hesitation and surprise, but the sergeant and his Shields encouraged them onward.

Some of the people that passed turned their heads to stare at Rath: a young woman with a bandage over her eye; a lad with a hard glare; an Elder holding tightly to the hands of two little children just barely old enough to walk; a few others all worn down and uncertain. Most just trudged with their eyes straight ahead.

In moments, the esplanade was clear and Rath dismissed the Bridge.

Then, quite undramatically, his knees buckled.

Vice-Exarch Llylm and Banneret Fhreyhor rushed in to catch him and he did not fall all the way to the ground. The three Amazons were one step farther away, but they quickly assisted and the five of them were able to hold Rath upright.

“I’m going to have to rest for a minute,” he said.

Vice-Exarch Llylm freed one hand to pull a bottle of water from her the thigh pocket of her trousers and held it to Rath’s mouth so that he could drink. Banneret Fhreyhor pressed a Factory trail biscuit into Rath’s hand. He ate it mechanically, not tasting it at all, and then continued to consume four more. When the Banneret tried to get him to eat another, he pushed it away and stood under his own power.

“That’s enough,” he told them. “Thank you.”

The food and the water had recharged him, and he belatedly realized that he had unknowingly violated his own resolution to rest frequently. He still felt extremely tired, and was inexplicably still hungry and thirsty, but now had enough strength to continue.

With time seeming to have run out, he had thought to use another Bridge to reach the Training Complex rather than continue overland through the city, but that option would only drain him further. More flight also seemed unwise.

“How much farther to the Training Complex?” he asked Vice-Exarch Llylm.

“Less than three kilometers.”

“We’ll walk it,” Rath said. “Banneret, lead the way.”

The junior officer started off slowly, looking back often, and the three Amazons and Vice-Exarch Llylm remained close by Rath as they crossed the devastated park.

Not far beyond the end of the park, along a mostly open street, they came upon a wide terrace with numerous draped bodies laid out upon it.

There was no use in stopping, so they did not.

After a kilometer of clambering over mounds of debris and working their way around obstructions of one sort or another, Banneret Fhreyhor stopped dead in front of Rath.

A small girl had appeared from around a broken wall. Her filthy blue dress was torn and her face and arms scratched and bruised. She was carrying a limp kitten that was the color of the building dust. Rath looked closely and saw that the kitten was alive, but apparently uncaring.

She walked very calmly straight up to Banneret Fhreyhor. “Banneret, have you seen my mother? She is a banneret too. Her name is Ghreyvene.”

Banneret Fhreyhor seemed to have been stunned speechless and was frozen in place, clearly overwhelmed.

“Banneret Fhreyhor,” Rath said firmly, “give me that other biscuit. And another bottle of water.”

The junior officer turned about immediately to obey, extending both. For a couple of seconds his expression bounced around without conveying any fixed emotion, but then it came under control and showed only rock-solid discipline.

Rath took the water and biscuit, and then told the three remaining Amazons, “Stand by the girl. I’m sending all of you to The Wall.”

The three female Shields obeyed without hesitation or pause. They moved quickly to the girl, and the oldest one picked up the child. The kitten looked around, but remained limp. The girl submitted and said nothing more.

Rath took a few seconds to drain the water, chew and swallow the biscuit, then made a Bridge that carried the four away.

“Let’s go,” Rath told the two officers.

With Vice-Exarch Llylm close by his side and Banneret Fhreyhor once again in the lead, they continued through the ruined city.