Atlas Never Shrugged

stepped forward, hard lines of concern chiselled in his face.

  Rel jabbed a finger in the thief's direction. "You said they wouldn't have any authority over me anymore."

  "Keshnu pulled some trick of Talerssi that made Taslin responsible for you." Pevan's glare drilled into him. "It's only temporary, but given how much it cost to get you out this time, I'm not going to let you get yourself locked up again."

  "I won't get locked up." Rel set his jaw, ready for an argument. "I can stop him, then we'll make a run for it."

  "You can't fight a Gift-Giver!" Pevan's voice shot up, her eyes going wide. "You won't even be able to See him. Or Taslin."

  Rel let himself raise an eyebrow. "Yeah, I've been working on that. I can't See them directly, but I can tell where they are by the way the air moves around them. I doubt many Clearseers are powerful enough, so maybe they never thought to protect themselves against that. How long do I have to worry about Taslin for?"

  "You attack Keshnu, and I'd be pretty surprised if this Taslin didn't step in regardless." Van Raighan's face matched his pessimistic tone. "You're just going to have to hope that you're wrong about him."

  "And if I'm not?" How could Van Raighan be so stupid? His brother had seen the danger of the Gift-Givers. "I've Seen this quake coming, dammit."

  "When?" Pevan broke in, her tone still high with alarm. "You're supposed to be the one paying attention to details all the time. When will it happen?"

  That wasn't a fair question, and Rel wasn't going to rise to it. "It's not like my Viewings come with the date written on them."

  "You got Chag's arrival in Federas down to the hour," Pevan shot back.

  "Because we put a clock on the wall." Rel rolled his eyes and sighed. "Look, I don't know when the quake will happen, but I know it'll be soon. It was too close after my release for me to be able to See very much happening around it. How long does Taslin have responsibility for me?"

  Pevan swallowed. "Till this afternoon."

  "Then I'll give you any bet you want that Keshnu will make his move in the next few hours." Would either Van Raighan or Pevan put the picture together on their own? Probably not. Rel folded his arms again. "Think about it. They'll assume that we'll stay out of the way for fear of Taslin. We know the quake's going to happen soon."

  "Maybe." Pevan looked down. She'd never been terribly happy admitting he was right. At least he'd got through to her this time, though. She looked up again, her eyes so hard that for a moment Rel thought she'd changed her mind. "You'll come with us if they haven't done anything by this afternoon, though, right?"

  "Why the big rush?" Rel realised he should have asked that earlier. It wouldn't do much good if he stopped Keshnu, only to get blind-sided by some other problem. "Can't we just wait till tomorrow?"

  Pevan shrugged and turned to Van Raighan. "I dunno. Chag?"

  "It's up to you. We leave late today, we'll be travelling into the night. Tomorrow, we can do it in daylight."

  "I just want to be away from here before those Wildren find us." Pevan hugged herself, looking out over Rel's shoulder. "Can we at least camp somewhere else tonight?"

  Van Raighan looked at Rel. "You happy with that?"

  It would have to do. Not like Pevan to be so afraid. Rel nodded.

  They passed the morning in a funk of slow, disjointed conversation. Pevan and Van Raighan had clearly spent too much time together to have anything left to talk about. Rel found himself more than a little angry at how quickly Van Raighan must have escaped. Some of Federas' Gifted were useless without him there to point them in the right direction, but Pevan was usually pretty good at organising things.

  Right now, Rel needed his sister on side too much to risk upsetting her sensitive temperament by bringing the matter up. She turned stroppy so quickly whenever he made any comment about her work. And it was possible the others had let her down. Notia Tollan had replaced Dora as Four Knot, after all, and she would be no use to anyone. They'd be lucky if there was a town left to go home to.

  Showers passed through periodically, the breeze stiffening until it lashed rain at them through the gaping holes in the walls. Wet clothing made the chill unbearable, so Rel abandoned his watch over the bay to crouch by the fire. Van Raighan was already there, and Pevan joined them soon after, sitting opposite the thief and staring at him through the flames.

  Rel resisted the urge to open his Gift and delve into the future. He'd pushed himself hard enough in that regard before Van Raighan had shown up. Keshnu would be making his move now, relying on the assumption that Taslin's authority would keep Rel at bay. The Gift-Givers would cause the quake, however much Pevan doubted him. He'd need all the strength and stamina he could save for the coming fight.

  The day wore on into afternoon, Pevan growing fidgety. She worried at a fraying patch at the cuff of her sleeve. For a while, she went and stood in the teeth of the wind, staring out at the sea. Rel watched her carefully, wondering which side she'd settle on when the quake came. When he turned back to the fire, he found Van Raighan staring at him. The thief looked away quickly, but Rel couldn't miss the suspicion in his sharp little face.

  Pevan asked for the second time if Rel was reconsidering. He shook his head.

  The quake chose that moment to hit. There was a sharp crack of stone on stone somewhere nearby, then the lurch as the floor swayed beneath them. Rel tumbled over, fetching up on his side. Van Raighan shouted in alarm as the fire scattered. Somewhere, tonnes of something hard crashed into something else.

  "Rel!" Pevan's shout choked off as the building bounced again. She was clinging to a half-smashed wall on the other side of the room, reaching for Van Raighan. Rel stumbled with the next tremor, let his staggering steps carry him across the floor to a patch of intact wall maybe fifteen feet from his sister.

  "Can you get a Gate open?" Rel raised his voice, trying to make himself heard over the grinding noise of the city outside. The floor heaved again, slamming him into the wall and sliding him back, away from Pevan. He gasped and slipped to the floor, winded.

  "Working on it." Pevan somehow managed to shout through clenched teeth. Van Raighan clinging to her couldn't be helping. The thief was white as a sheet, his arms tight around Pevan's waist, staring past her toward the hole in the wall.

  Suddenly, that hole seemed too large and too close. On all fours, Rel crawled towards his sister. The floor bucked again, sending a sharp jolt of pain through his elbow, but he gritted his teeth and pushed up to kneeling. He wrapped his arms around Van Raighan and pulled, but the thief didn't budge. Pevan grunted.

  A crack spidered up the opposite wall with a sound like someone rattling a bag of marbles. The room gave another heave, and something big enough to block out the light fell past the smashed wall. Somewhere far below, it crunched against tarmac.

  Pevan's Gateway spun open just in front of them, the view through it an unintelligible mess of concrete against a blue-sky background. Rel's foot slipped into the opening before Pevan could give any instructions. He tightened his grip on Van Raighan out of reflex, but the thief yelped and lost his footing too. Somewhere above him, Pevan cursed.

  Tangled together, the three of them tumbled around the edge of the Gate, rolling over one another across... whatever it was they'd landed on. Whatever it was, it was hard and more than a little damp. Pevan's elbow landed in Rel's gut, driving the wind out of him. Somewhere nearby, Van Raighan moaned.

  Rel managed to roll off his back and curl around his offended diaphragm. The motion helped a little, but also gave him a twinge of heartburn. Beneath his shoulder, the ground - a black asphalt road surface, now he could actually see it - shivered in sympathy with the constant roar of falling masonry.

  By the time Rel got his wind back, Pevan was already on her feet, bending down to help Van Raighan up. The thief's eyes were vacant and bewildered, as if he'd got a bump on the head while they fell through the Gate. That still didn't excuse Pevan helping him before Rel, but a crisis the size of the quake was always going to turn
people to some odd decisions.

  Getting up proved tricky. Rel was halfway to standing when the road threw him a good foot into the air. He landed badly and ended up back on hands and knees. Movement caught his eye, a shadow on the pavement less than fifty feet away. He had time to turn his head away before the descending hunk of concrete smashed into the paving, pelting him with sharp chips of stone. Pevan hissed a curse that would have earned her a reaming from Dora if the Four Knot had been on hand.

  So easy to fall back into old modes of thought. Rel made a second attempt and this time managed to stand. The way the ground moved beneath his feet made him feel almost drunk, but he swayed over to where Pevan still wrestled with Van Raighan. The thief was definitely out of it, whimpering something as he clung to Pevan's sleeves.

  Rel reached over Van Raighan's shoulder and grabbed his shirt under the armpit. The little man twisted, but Rel held firm, turning with Van Raighan's motion to all but tear him away from Pevan. She staggered free, and Van Raighan, off balance, became dead-weight in Rel's arms, almost dragging him back to the floor.

  With a grunt, Rel steadied himself and got Van Raighan's centre of mass back over his feet. The ground trembled again, less sharply this time, and Rel shared a grim look with Pevan. He shouted, "Get us out of here!"

  Pevan nodded and opened a Gate directly under her feet. Rel