Page 34 of Beyond

“Um—”

“You stay there until Ivar comes back, even if that takes until sunset,” said Ponu sternly, as Jonaton sagged down onto a stool. It appeared that he had done the brunt of the work. “I certainly hope it won’t take that long. The longer this thing stays open, the more likely it is someone in the Capital will sense something.”

“And if he’s not back by sunset, he’ll have to camp there,” added Dole.

“Does he know that?” she asked, alarmed now.

“Of course he knows that! Why do you think he was carrying that pack?” Koto snapped, speaking for the first time. “We’re not idiots! We gave him a thorough lecture!”

“Well, not complete idiots,” Sai snickered, earning himself a glare from the usually silent mage.

“Do you have something you can do?” Ponu asked. “A book you can read or something?”

“I—uh—”

“You didn’t give her a thorough briefing,” Sai pointed out. “You didn’t give her a briefing at all.”

“I thought that was your job,” Wis accused.

“Why should it be my job?” retorted Sai.

“Because you aren’t good for anything but talking and baking?” said Ceri.

Well, the resulting bickering that erupted was good for one thing, at least. It was entertaining. Entertaining for her, anyway.

It was just as the bickering was dying down that Jonaton sprang to life again, pointing at the (to her) empty space between the stone horns.

“He’s coming back!” he shouted.

Elation mixed with alarm erupted on all seven faces, and before she could ask what was going on, Bay suddenly appeared in a leap that carried him tumbling into Jonaton, knocking him to the ground. A moment later Ivar dashed into view as well, skidding to a halt on the floor of the chamber. The Circle burst into confused shouting, of which she could make nothing except extreme agitation.

So she did the only thing she could think of. She stood up and moved.

Light erupted from the crystals and the horn again, then blinked out, leaving her half blinded.

“Well …that worked,” said Jonaton, as she rubbed her dazzled eyes. “Good job, Delia.”

“Why were you running?” “Was it a bear?” “Was it wyrsa?” “Was—”

“I was running,” panted Ivar, “because the seven of you pounded it into my thick head quite thoroughly that as soon as I found a body of water that suited us, I needed to get back here as quickly as possible to avoid alerting the mages in the Capital. So I did.”

Silence.

“Ah,” said Jonaton, finally. “Uh, well done.”

“I want it known right now that I do not much care for that Gate you built,” Ivar said crossly. “It wasn’t like any Gate I have ever used before. It felt as if something was stretching and pulling me like taffy, and there were entirely too many things in the darkness between here and there that fancied a nice piece of taffy.”

“Really?” Koto stood up and came to stand over the kneeling Ivar. “Can you—”

“Later, Koto,” Jonaton cautioned. “We’ll go over all of this later. Right now—you said you’d found what we need?”

Ivar began laughing, in between panting for breath. “Good gods, I could smell it, it was so close! More to the point, so could Bay, and it was his nose I was counting on. When I got to the other side—this Gate dumped me out in the middle of a lot of trees, facing west.”

“That’s good, because that’s what I was going for,” Jonaton said with satisfaction.

“Well, I could smell water, and I told Bay to find it. We hacked our way through some brush, got to the other side of the trees, and found ourselves above a sort of bowl, a flattened, round valley. Most of the valley was filled with a lake in the shape of a crescent. A big lake, bigger than anything in this Duchy, for sure.”

“This sounds promising. Go on,” murmured Koto.