Jonaton had stressed earlier that there was always a level of uncertainty and “fuckery” in trying anything new. He turned around and clapped his hands once. “No time like now, everyone. Magic like this is about reaching into unseen worlds where things already live, pulling and twisting at the environment around them, uprooting it and turning it toward what we want. Sometimes, even investigating what’s out there, well, it’s like picking a grape from a big fruit bowl, and a lot of deadly spiders can hide in a heap of fruit. Now, the kind of distance we’re trying for today is like me punching my whole arm into a narrow tunnel lined with spiders. I think we have it all set, but I’ll throw away the shot if I get ‘bitten’ even once, understood? So catch me if it goes badly.” Jonaton thoroughly washed his hands, in a very ritualistic way, in both of the basins at the table’s sides. The basins looked to be hammered copper, and were joined to each other by a graceful arc of the same material.

So Kordas really had no idea what to expect when Jonaton began work.

He certainly didn’t expect that the work was going to be so . . . simple.

He had expected muttered incantations, the drawing of diagrams, the sketching of runes in the air, and perhaps even the spilling of oils or scattering of essences.

He got none of those.

Instead, Jonaton set up a pair of matching, curved stones, like a pair of graceful, curving horns, atop his stone table. He placed a sliver of wood between them—the wood from that table he’d described?—and held out both hands toward the arrangement.

Kordas had to brace himself against the sudden draining sensation that coursed through him in that moment. The diagram of which he was a part pulsed with light, all of it flowing toward Jonaton. Two cats chased after the lights, eyes bright and tails twitching. There was a sudden sharp scent, all the hair on the back of his neck stood up, and then a flash of light and a snap exactly like an enormous static spark.

And light suddenly spilled from between the two curved stones, along with a breath of wind scented with pine needles and a hint of heated stone. From where he stood, Kordas saw what looked like an oval of blue sky. The Circle and Jonaton made happy noises, but then Jonaton frowned.

“Bugger all,” Jonaton muttered. “Punched through the world and came out too high. Looks good, though—Sai, pull the top axis guide down the arc another step—good.”