There were fewer people here, just farmers, carters, and a few boys driving a small flock of sheep up the road ahead of them. As Klia and Mika overtook them, the boy suddenly ran up to one of the shepherds, a boy about his age. Klia strode after him to see what the distraction was.

“This is my friend!” Mika exclaimed, hugging the dirty, starved-looking boy with his good arm. “He saved me from the man with the cudgel.”

The boy seemed just as happy to see Mika, though he said nothing.

“He can’t talk,” Mika explained. “He’s the one I played with down by the river that day.”

Klia extended her hand, but the boy shyly hung back. “How did you get here?” she asked. “Can you point and show me?”

The boy stared at her, hands at his sides.

“It’s all right, she’s my friend, too,” Mika told him, but the boy still did not respond. One of the older boys came over and pulled the mute one away from Mika, saying something incomprehensible that sounded defensive.

“I wasn’t making fun,” Klia told him. “I just want to know where he came from.”

The other boy said something that sounded angry. He picked up a stone from beside the road and cocked his arm threateningly. Some of the other shepherds had slings and stones ready.

Klia raised her hands and stepped back. “Come on, Mika, they aren’t going to help us. Your friend has to stay with these boys.”

They hurried on, Mika looking sorrowfully over his shoulder. “He was nice to me.”

“I’m sorry, Mika, but we can’t help him. He’s where he belongs.”

“If he came from this plane, then he must be able to get in and out like I can,” Mika pointed out.

Klia looked down at the boy. “Or that’s the first time you went here.”

“But the water was wet when we looked for crayfish,” Mika told her. He thought a moment, brow furrowed. “But after a while, when the man found us, I couldn’t find the road and the sky was like this.”

“Perhaps the separation of the two planes isn’t always so clear-cut.”

They forged on, Mika keeping an eye out for anything that looked like a way out. The grey day dragged on. They stopped only to rest and eat. Both of them were tired and footsore when Mika suddenly pointed across the river. “There, do you see it?”

Klia looked but saw only more drab grassland. “No, what do you see?”

“A sort of hole, right over there, hanging in the air,” Mika exclaimed. “I can see green grass and blue sky. We have to get across!”

Wet or not, however, the river was deep and had a strong current. They were going to have to find a bridge or ford. Eating as they went, they hurried on, weariness forgotten as hope grew.