Exodus of the Xandim (GOLLANCZ S.F.) by Maggie Furey

wanted to take a dozen winged bearers with him, it
looked as though he was going to have to think again.
    Kereru, moving at her usual rapid pace, whisked in with a tray containing a pot of fragrant liafa, bread, cold slices of roast mutton from the mountain sheep that roamed the lower slopes, cheese
from the same animals, and some dried apricots. With her elbow she swept a pile of Yinze’s clothing off the table and put down her burden.
    ‘Hey! I just folded those.’
    ‘Not from where I’m standing.’ Kereru shrugged, her glossy feathers rustling, and began to fold the garments again, making a much better job of it in half the time.
    ‘I’ll never be ready,’ Yinze said disconsolately. It was very late, he had to get up early in the morning, and it looked as though he wouldn’t make it to bed tonight at
all.
    Kereru laid a motherly hand on his shoulder. ‘Sit. Eat. Let me help you.’ As Yinze, his mouth full of bread and meat, looked on in astonishment, the room began to organise itself, as
if by magic, beneath her capable hands.
    ‘The climate in Tyrineld is very warm, isn’t it? Well, you won’t be wanting all this cold weather gear any longer, will you? Pick out what you’ll need for the journey and
anything else you’re particularly attached to, and I’ll put the rest aside.’ She ran her hands over the furs that had covered his bed, the thick, heavy pelts of bear and the great
cats that roamed the nearby Steelclaw mountain. ‘Do you want to keep any of these?’
    Yinze thought of Iriana. ‘No. Definitely not.’
    ‘Well, you’ll need to take a couple with you for travelling or you’ll freeze in that net, but if you don’t want to keep them the bearers will bring them back. We can
always use them here.’
    On she went, sorting, organising, helping him with practical suggestions and, when he had finished eating, directing him in the best ways to pack. Within an hour the chaos had been reduced to
two large bundles, a sack containing gifts for all his friends and family in Tyrineld and a roll of furs for the journey. Everything he was leaving behind was put away neatly or stacked against the
wall.
    ‘Kereru, I love you.’ Yinze hugged her. Even though he was longing to see his home again, his mother, his friends and Iriana, he was sad to be leaving. His entire day had been spent
in farewells, and he had felt his spirits growing heavier with each one, but this was one too many.
    ‘I’ll miss you very much, Yinze.’ The winged woman’s eyes were bright with unshed tears. ‘Wherever they send me to work next, I’m sure it won’t be
nearly so entertaining.’
    When she had left him, the Wizard looked around at the strangely altered room. The traces of his presence, all the little personal belongings, were gone now, and he felt peculiarly unreal and
displaced, as though he had ceased to exist. Like a compass needle, every thought turned unerringly northward now, towards home. For the last time, he went to his bedchamber, turned out the lamp,
and curled up beneath the tickling furs in his uncomfortable, scoop-shaped bed. By this time tomorrow, he would be at the northern borders of the mountain range, and well on his way home.
    Except that he wasn’t.
    In the depths of the night, the Wizard was awakened by a screaming gale outside, and the staccato clatter of hail hitting his shutters. He swore, long and inventively. He was used by now to
these violent mountain storms that blew up so fast and unexpectedly. When they were as bad as this one sounded, they could go on for several days. At a fresh blast of wind, he snarled another
curse. This just wasn’t fair. He’d said his farewells, he’d packed, he was
ready
, damn it. A wild thought entered his mind of taking his harp and trying to turn the bad
weather away, but he knew it was impossible. It would take many experienced Air Mages working in concert to disperse such ferocity, and the Winged Folk had learned long ago that it was