The town clustered around the edge of a circular barren spot where the tower he’d seen on the other plane would fit nicely. Imagining a wooden palisade around it, Alec finally put the pieces together. He walked up to where the main gate would have been and found the remains of a street leading in. Keeping to it to avoid snakes and other dangers, he slowly walked to the open space and paced the periphery. It seemed about right. This was the mysterious woman’s town. On the other side, he’d seen it as it looked in the distant past, with the tower in place. How was it possible?

With the threat of snakes and man traps fresh in his mind, he left it with its secrets for now and started the long walk back to camp.

“There’s no use waiting here,” Micum called as Thero stood looking back at the spot where Alec had vanished. One moment he and Alec had been running full-tilt down the corridor; the next Alec had disappeared into thin air again and Thero had kept going on his own for a few yards before he slowed to a halt and turned around.

“It was just the same when he went in after Mika,” Micum explained as Thero walked back to join him. “Who knows where he’ll turn up this time? It’s never been in the same place twice.”

“What do we do?”

Micum had never seen Thero at such a loss. Resting a hand on the wizard’s shoulder, he guided him back the way they’d come. “Wherever Alec ends up, he’ll head back to camp for sure. We might as well wait for him there.”

“If we’ve lost him—lost them—”

“They’re no more lost than they were, Thero. You’ve got to hang on to hope.”

Thero looked up at him. “Is that what you do? Just hope?”

“It’s gotten me through some rough times.”

Thero said nothing more as they left the palace and rode back to the camp, taking Windrunner with them.

When they got there Thero started for his tent but Micum steered him instead to the camp circle, sat him next to the fire, and went in search of food and ale. He soon found it and carried a hard sausage and a chunk of white cheese balanced on a flat round loaf of bread and a large tankard of ale back to where the wizard sat cross-legged on the grass, hands resting on his knees, just as Micum had left him. There were soldiers and servants around the fire but they were giving Thero space.

Micum placed the food and drink in front of him and took out a knife. Cutting a slice from the sausage, he held it out to Thero on the blade. He took it and ate with no apparent interest and ate and drank more only at Micum’s insistence.