He made a swift gesture, something complicated and much too fast for Kordas to follow, and the image framed in the stones blurred, then settled again, this time a strip of blue sky streaked with white clouds, a stretch of grass, the suggestion of an old, enormous, long-fallen tree, and a tangle of undergrowth. The water in the basins started to boil.

The undergrowth gave a rustle suggestive of something small scurrying beneath it, and the black cat that had been trying to trip Kordas earlier gave a delighted meow—and leapt through.

“Sydney, you asshole!” bleated Jonaton, grabbing belatedly for his pet through the Portal.

Too late.

“Well,” said Dole. “It appears there are mice.”

“Delia—” Jonaton began, shaking the arm that he’d reflexively put through the Portal to grab the cat.

“I don’t Fetch live things,” she replied. “It’s dangerous. You want your cat to come back in pieces? This is bad enough—I can’t even see him! Now shut up.”

Jonaton snapped his mouth shut as Delia’s brows furrowed with concentration. She stared at something in the Portal—what, Kordas could not see from here. And she grew paler and paler, drops of sweat running down her temples, until he was just about to shout at Jonaton that this wasn’t going to work—

But he didn’t. He didn’t because that wasn’t his call. It was Delia’s.

And as she gave a sudden gasp, a grayish, mossy stone about the size of his fist appeared in her hands, and her knees buckled and she sat down hard on the stone of the floor.

“Now, Wis!” Jonaton shouted, and Wis tossed a cube of sandstone etched all over with runes through the two stone arcs, where it landed with a thud and another rustle of leaves on the other side.

Before anyone else could say or do anything else, another sound entirely emerged from the Portal.

A grunt.

An angry grunt.

Followed by another, and a sort of squeal.

Followed by the yowl of a cat.

Followed by the cat itself, puffed up to twice its size, tail a giant bottle-brush, hurtling back through the Portal as if on fire.

And Jonaton slapped his hands together, closing the Portal just as Kordas got a glimpse of black hair, a red tongue, and far too many white teeth snapping fruitlessly at the air then receding away.

“Well,” said Sai. “It appears there are bears, too.”

7