Chapter 5: Onward and Upward

The camp was soon tidied and everything cleared away save the fire and they were all seated around the embers. Nothing untoward had been seen by the lookouts, so even they were now with the group.

"Right Toby, I would be very grateful if you could tell us what happened as you saw it, last night," Rontis asked.

"I guess I'm not sure, exactly. I saw the fairy begin to fade and then Dorly was dragged along. Melic asked if anyone saw how she Travelled and suddenly I realised that I had seen how the fairy, fay, or whatever you call it, left. I can't explain exactly, I just knew how she had moved and while I was sort of looking I kind of moved after her. It wasn't completely unintentional, but I didn't realise I had done it until after I had. The fairy was just fading as I got their so I moved again," Toby explained, going on to describe the woman and the bit about there being a prize, which turned out to be Dorly.

"Let me get this straight; she said you were the one?" Rontis asked.

"Yes, but it may well not have been a compliment, though she did say we would talk next time we met. Do you know what she meant by calling Dorly my prize?"

"I don't think there is necessarily much to read into that: you had followed the Fey to save Dorly and in so doing had won the right to take her back."

"Yes I figured that might be what was meant, but I don't know; I can't quite put my finger on it, but I am sure she meant more, much more, but I don't know what. I mean obviously Dorly couldn't be a prize beyond the meaning you have mentioned, but I think taking her signified something, or had some much deeper meaning and if this woman is to be believed, I will have a chance to question her on the subject sometime in the future."

"Well it was certainly a strange experience and it would seem that this woman was waiting for you and that in itself seems impossible to believe. So I guess I am not surprised that you had the feeling that something unusual was happening or that there was some special meaning. I can honestly say I don't know who or what this woman was. Even if I were to try and guess, my best guess would be nothing more than wild speculation. So I can only say that I take these feelings of yours very seriously and so should you, but that I would advise you, not to form any strong opinions as to what happened until we have something a lot more concrete to go on."

"I guess that'll have to do," Toby finished resignedly, but then added, "Just one thing though. Dorly mentioned that you can't find things without a 'glean', so how come I found my way back without any trouble? I didn't feel this place or anything, I just retraced my steps."

"That works while there is still a path to retrace and for the few with a memory good enough to hold the route. Each jump multiplies the complexity, few could retrace more than three or maybe four jumps and then only if the route was stable enough that the jumps were still possible. You and mercifully Dorly were lucky, very lucky."

Rontis paused looked around and then fixing his gaze firmly on Toby continued, "Well there is not much more that we can do or say. Look Toby a word of warning, you are obviously a Traveller; without training or practice that could be very, very dangerous, please stay with us, I promise that doing so is the only way that you will be sure to get home. Dorly will be staying close to you, but as a result of what happened she has lost the glean, for this journey, so should you leave us you could both be lost, I feel I know you well enough to guess that at least will be a deterrent," Rontis warned.

"I'm tempted to call you names. No, I won't be trying anything, because I happen to believe you that I would lose myself. I also know that the other is an empty threat, you wouldn't risk your own daughter," Toby replied with some rancour.

As they prepared to continue the Travel, even Toby could sense that there was a strange atmosphere hanging over the group, he just assumed that it was to do with the fact that he had Travelled. He had guessed that had to have been a surprise. These people definitely had a reason for wanting him, but he was sure from everyone's reaction, that his Travelling had been a complete shock. What he couldn't get was, that though everyone was obviously pleased that Dorly had not been lost, they did not seem exactly delighted that she had been rescued either and Dorly herself was acting as though she had just been sentenced to death. One thing was sure, these people were aliens, that was becoming very clear.

"OK Let's move out," Sterk announced. "Toby, you and Dorly stay in the middle. You could probably follow yourself, but you have not had any training so for safety's sake take Dorly's hand and let her do the following."

Toby nodded his assent and took Dorly's cool right hand in his left. He couldn't help noticing how delicate and tiny her hand was; it was a nice feeling to hold her hand. Without realising it, he looked down towards her face, his own, without conscious intent, taking on a gentle and concerned smile. Dorly was already looking up towards him; there eyes met; Dorly looked away even before he did and in that small fleeting glance he felt more than saw the pained expression she wore. Toby felt awkward; this girl thing was difficult and it was just his luck that even now as a kidnappee his biggest fear was messing up with Dorly.

They were off: Toby could feel the Travelling he was aware of each shift and knew that he could indeed follow without help. Already they were many shifts from the camp, though their lateral movement was no more than a couple of hundred metres. At first he had not seen the point of moving, since surely one could just Travel, but now he realised that each shift was easiest at what he could perceive as weak points and that the steady walk was letting them shift and move between these weak points. Every now and then they would find themselves in a place where the next weak point was a little walk. He was finding the shifts and the changes they wrought, beguiling, incredible and fascinating all at once. Changes at a particular shift were usually very small, but they would build up over a series of shifts — perhaps it would get cold or wet or the sky colour would become exotic or strange. He quickly realised that the route was being chosen to keep conditions safe; things certainly got strange, but never too strange, and always they seemed to change back towards the norm.

They kept up the Travel at a steady pace all day, stopping every forty minutes or so for a breather. Sitting down for such a breather Toby couldn't help noticing how tired Dorly was looking.

"You OK Dorly? You look wasted," Toby observed.

"I'm fine. It's just that you're no lightweight to drag through a shift; please give me a minute."

"I'm no expert but one look at you, tells me you can't keep this up."

"I know, but I can't ask for help, not after... , " Dorly replied with a catch in her voice leaving the last bit unsaid.

"How about letting me do it and you be the passenger for a while, I could use the practice and I am fairly sure you could stop me before I made a mistake—it's got to be less effort just watching."

"No, Sterk and Rontis would never allow it."

"I say 'yes' and no one else need know."

"You're telling me?" Dorly asked.

"Yes." Why not be assertive, maybe it would work, Toby thought.

"Very well."

Well that had been easy. She's tired she wants to say 'yes' and if I'm being bullish it's just too much effort to fight, Toby reasoned.

"Only prob is I don't know how long I'll be able to keep it up for; just four jumps, last night, and I was on my back," Toby observed.

"Yes but what jumps, those were fairy leaps. Few Travellers can match the difference that the Fey achieve on a single shift and even fewer can catch the glean at the speed they Travel. You did both twice and then twice more you repeated the shifts carrying me and all that on top of having been recently stunned. I don't doubt your strength, just your focus. Last night was special, you were angry and scared, it was your anger that made and held your focus, now you are going to have to concentrate and keep doing it with no such aid. We shall see and I will watch," Dorly replied.

Toby was rather proud of what her answer implied, but also scared. Yes it was kind of nice to be special, but in this context, surely it made it less likely that they were going to let him go any time soon. Still he kept these thoughts to himself, Dorly did seem to be a little more helpful since the rescue, but he was pretty sure where her true loyalties lay. Still there was no harm in pumping her for more information.

"Look, if all you need is this 'glean' to Travel, surely lost or not you have a glean for Earth, so can't we just go there?" Toby asked.

"We don't have a glean for anywhere, while we are here. The only glean we could have would be the one we started with, so long as we were able to hold it," Dorly answered. "It's like this: a glean is like a sort of fingerprint for the place you want to get to in terms of where you are. It's a sort of recipe covering the differences in the realities. This is just a place on the way while we are managing those differences. We don't have a true glean for this place, we just know we can use it as one of the logs on the way across the river. But it is just a log it's not a stepping stone, we don't know it's complete relationship, with either our starting point or the end point, we just know that for a while we can use it to move towards our goal adjusting some of the differences, but it only works while this particular log is floating in just the right stretch of river, as soon as it floats out of this right area we are lost. This is our measure of stability."

"By that logic, you must know what differences you have managed, so can't you just undo them and get back to earth?" Toby asked.

"It's not quite like that. I suppose what we do in retaining the glean is modify our 'recipe' with each jump so that we still know what needs doing. We can't also keep tabs on what we have done—there are too many variables. Following a glean has to be a one-way process."

"So how do you get these gleans in the first place then?" Toby asked, perplexed.

"Now there is a question and I don't think you are meant to be asking that yet and I'm certainly not meant to answer that now. There will be a time to ask it again and of people who will probably choose to answer."

"I think I follow the gist of some of that, your final answer excluded. I am going to have to do some serious thinking on this," Tony replied, all too aware that this was more than just a little complicated and that for all the fact that he could Travel he had no idea what a glean really was or how to get one let alone use it. He decided not to let on regarding what he couldn't do; best to keep them guessing.

All too soon it was time to continue and Toby found that he could follow, though he began to understand what Dorly had meant about maintaining the focus; he certainly had the strength and energy, but the mental forbearance to maintain that clear vision for each shift was beginning to tell. He was pleased when they found a suitable place to rest, though a little disconcerted to find that though it was late evening for him, this place, they were in, was just finishing a spectacular sunrise. Their rest this time was uneventful, just eat and sleep, though he was somewhat surprised that Dorly had insisted on waiting on him and had not eaten until he had finished, but just assumed it was her way of saying thank you to him for covering for her with the Travelling after she had tired.

Morning, as his body perceived it, came all too soon. Sterk was keen that they should move on; Nandy saw to it that they each were given some bread and cheese to eat as they Travelled.