Dee’s smile grew pained. “I just saw where I wanted us to be-” He stopped suddenly and looked at his hands again. “You know, these are really starting to hurt…”

“Put some aloe vera on them,” Dare said automatically. “And where, exactly, are we?”

“Pioneer Park, San Francisco.” He turned his head to where Coit Tower rose above the treetops. “Five minutes from my home.”

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

“So there are four moons, and this is good news?” Joan of Arc stood at the cave mouth and looked at the four moons-one huge and yellow, another smaller and tinged sepia; the third was a bright green emerald, while the fourth was colorless. The slender Frenchwoman ran her fingers over her short boyish hair, flattening it. “There is so much that I do not know, and astronomy is not one of my strongest subjects, but even I know that the earth does not have four moons, has never had four moons.”

The moonlight turned Scatty’s red hair black and made her skin even paler than usual. Her eyes were silver mirrors. “Don’t you see what this means?” she said excitedly.

Joan shook her head.

“It means we’re in a Shadowrealm.”

Joan continued to look at her blankly, four pinpricks of moonlight reflected in her gray eyes. “So we’re not in the past.”

“No,” Scatty said, taking her friend’s hands in hers and squeezing tightly. “We’re not.”

“And that’s good?”

“If we were in the past, then we’d be stuck, with no way out. Or at least, I couldn’t think of any way out, other than someone coming through time to find us, and the chances of pinpointing us in time would have been astronomically small. The only way for us to get back to our own time would be by living maybe a million years.”

“Is that even possible?”

“Theoretically, yes. Elders and Next Generation can live incredibly long lives, but I’m not sure about the humani. Look at what happened to poor Gilgamesh after ten thousand years. I think the body can live on, but the mind breaks down under the weight of all the memories and experiences.”

“So if this is a Shadowrealm…,” Joan began.

“… then there must be a leygate,” Scatty finished delightedly.

“And how do we find it?” Joan asked.

Scathach’s smile faded. “I haven’t quite worked out that bit yet. But there’s got to be one around here somewhere.”

The Dire Wolves attacked at dawn.

Scathach and Joan beat them off easily, sending them howling into the thick mist lying heavily across the landscape.

A single lion prowled around the foot of the cave shortly afterward, but Scatty pelted it with rocks until it scrambled out of range.

The giant short-faced bear appeared next.

The two women watched it approach, loping on all fours, its head thrown back to sniff the air. The creature was huge.