“So that only leaves the rest of the world,” he muttered. But Mika was a smart lad. Chances were he’d try to get out the same way Alec had, since there was no other known way. Alec looked around again, getting his bearings. The land sloped away in the distance; that should be the direction for the river.

He suddenly heard shouting from the direction of the flock. The shepherds had caught sight of him. Hoping that the dogs were safely tied up at some cottage, he ran for the river. As he hoped, he soon reached the lip of the hill and saw the river in the distance. It was farther away than he recalled, but then, he’d entered this world from a different place, so perhaps it made sense.

The going was easier in daylight. He loped and slid down the hill, then paused halfway to scan the landscape again, surprised at how suddenly tired he felt. Shaking that off, and trying to ignore how thirsty he was, he scanned the road below. There, perhaps half a mile away, not far from the town gate, something small lay in the road.

“Mika!” Alec set off again, more slowly this time. The last time he’d been here he’d blamed the dog attack for his exhaustion, but he felt it again now. His legs grew heavy and his breath came in hollow gasps.

Never mind, he told himself as he struggled on. Mika’s there and I’ll get him out.

He hadn’t gone far, however, when the gates opened and a woman in a flowing red gown rode out on a black horse with a white mane, like Klia’s Moonshine. She cantered to where Mika lay and Alec watched in horror as she waved a hand, levitating the boy’s limp form up into her arms. Even if he’d had his bow—now lying uselessly in that corridor in Menosi—it would have been too long a shot to chance. Wheeling her horse, the woman galloped back into the town, hair streaming like a black banner on the wind, and the gates closed after her.

Alec fell to his knees. He didn’t know if Mika was alive or dead but now he was beyond reach and Alec felt too weak to go after him.