They walked for what felt like the rest of the day, through a low, domed tunnel intended only for the automated transit of the mail, past closed-off stations heavy with dust and darkness. The Stigs were close-mouthed, seldom uttering a word, even in their own mumbled language. They were untiring, too. In the end, Lee asked them to stop, to give their wards a chance to rest. Mrs. Stig had water, cold and clear with a metallic tang to it. Stig had some kind of dried meat, tough as shoe leather and entirely proof against Lee’s teeth.

When they ventured above ground again, it was to break against the surging tide of the rush-hour exodus. They met a flood of people shunting along the pavements into the grand Victorian train station that their service hatch led into. They ended up huddled on the street, filthy and cobweb-strewn. Lee and Khan looked like they’d been mugged, but the Stigs could have been any two destitutes abandoned on the streets of London.

“Where is this?” Lee asked.

The pushy, bustling roar of London seemed like another world after so long below. Lee found herself trying to look beyond it, in case there were dinosaurs out there, in case there were militaristic rodent soldiers in the shadows, in case, in case…

She shuddered and sat down. Abruptly it was all too much. She felt like she had after Mal disappeared, when she had been waiting for the world to tilt and decant her elsewhere at any moment, just like it had on Bodmin.

“Why are we at Paddington Station?” Khan asked wonderingly.

“Where it comes out. Far from where we were,” Stig explained, almost apologetically.

“What now? Your plan got screwed arse-backwards, I take it?”

“There will be another door,” he said defensively. “Until then, we move on.” His face screwed up, and he added, “Capisce?” with ponderously careful diction.

“Comedian,” Khan said, deadpan.

“But can’t you just…” Lee reached for the words. “Move us into…another world? Last time I just fell into that cold place—the whole car did.”

“Your friend Mal found a door. Not one we would have used. You almost died. These worlds, there are worse out there. Not to be travelled, not safe. Now, Kay’malkan, we go.”

Kay shrugged and glanced at Lee. “Come then on, love, let’s move.”

“No,” said Mrs. Stig. “Not her. You.”

Lee stared at her. “But…what?”

“They are hunting her,” the woman said heavily. “The doctor must stay with us. We need her.”

“They’re hunting me, too,” Lee said.

Mrs. Stig grunted an affirmative and turned away, no longer interested. Stig squatted on his haunches, gesturing for her to join him. It seemed a position he was infinitely comfortable in, but she sat down hard when she tried it, too tired to keep her balance.