‘Don’t be,’ said Thraun, his voice flat and emotionless. ‘The trail is well marked.’ The Unknown patted him on the shoulder.

‘Come on, let’s get inside and set up that stove. I could murder a coffee.’

With the ground covering pulled over and lanterns lighting their way, The Raven descended a steep set of rough-hewn mud and stone steps into a natural cave. The space rose thirty feet from the floor to the ground above and the main body was perhaps forty feet each side. Opposite the stairs, the roof tapered down sharply to a narrow alcove through which a steady draft blew, indicating a passage.

The floor of the cave was covered in dried leaves. Stacks of wood, metal bowls and plates and four big water butts stood to the left. Woven dried-grass matting was pulled from its position to the right and spread across the floor to provide comfort from the cold stone. Jatha’s men set their lanterns in carved hollows in the rock walls, illuminating ragged edges and shelves which jutted into the cave above their heads, and gently swaying strands of liana which grew from above. It was damp and chill, the smells of mould and rot mixing into an unpleasant cocktail for the nose, but at least it was safe.

The centre of the cave was dominated by a shallow pit in which Jatha’s men expertly laid and lit a fire, the smoke disappearing through the porous ceiling. Heat spread quickly outwards and soon the party began to relax, stretching tired limbs and leaning back on the matting, forming it into surprisingly comfortable bedding.

‘Choul,’ said Jatha, opening his arms wide to indicate the cave. Hirad nodded.

‘Choul,’ he repeated. Jatha and his men had taken the area opposite the stairs and were readying food. Dried meats and root vegetables appeared from backpacks and sacks, and metal stands held pots of water over the fire.

In the space in front of the stairs, Thraun bolted the stove together. Nothing would get in the way of The Raven’s coffee and The Raven themselves gathered around it, a familiar sight in unfamiliar surroundings.

That left Styliann and his six Protectors to sit against the wall to the right of the fire, quiet, contemplative but changed somehow. The former Lord of the Mount, with a brief word to Cil, walked to The Raven, a sheaf of papers in his hand.

‘We have much to do,’ he said.

‘Yes,’ said Hirad. ‘There’s coffee to be drunk, food to be eaten and The Raven to talk. Alone. Then you four can start your work.’

Styliann stared down at Hirad, his lips thinning. ‘Have we not moved beyond our petty parochialities?’

Hirad’s expression was blank. ‘I’ve no idea,’ he returned. ‘All I know is you’re holding us up. During a job, we talk each night, review and plan. It is The Raven’s way.’

‘Yes and I would hate to get in the way of your precious rules,’ spat Styliann. ‘After all, all we have to do is save two dimensions.’

Hirad regarded him coolly, shaking his head. But before he could speak, Denser’s weary voice filled the cave.

‘Styliann, for the Gods’ sake, please sit down before he trots out his “that’s the reason we’re still alive” speech.’

Ilkar laughed aloud, the sound echoing from the walls. Hirad glared at him. Styliann shrugged and returned to his Protectors.

‘Thanks for backing me up,’ muttered the barbarian.

Ilkar smiled. ‘Some day, Hirad, I’ll follow up our chat about sensitivity with one about tact.’

The glorious smell of rich stew slowly replaced those of the mould and rot, and quiet dominated the travellers. Jatha’s men communicated in gesture and what appeared to be a highly developed telepathy, leaving the clanking of plates and spoons, the crackling of the fire and the shifting of tired limbs as the only sounds.

After their short meeting, The Raven drank coffee in silence. There hadn’t been much to say though all of them had been comforted by the feeling of normality it brought them.

Later, with the fires stoked for warmth and the bowls, plates and spits stowed back next to the water butts, the quartet of mages examined the texts and papers brought from Xetesk and Julatsa.

For hours, all that could be heard was the turning of pages and the odd sigh or heavily indrawn breath. Occasionally, though little of the text was in lore script, one or other would need help translating certain terms or phrases, and hurried whispering would fill the chamber.

Initially intrigued, Jatha and his men had stared intently at the Balaians but the interest soon waned and, as the time drew on, most slept but for the two guards who sat just under the ground covering, at the top of the stairs.

Hirad leant against a wall, The Unknown next to him, legs stretched out in front of them. Idle talk had fallen to nothing and Thraun, who hadn’t said a word since they descended into the Choul, remained lost in his own thoughts.

Eventually, the mages had read everything and, resupplied with coffee, placed the texts in a pile between them and began to talk.

‘Styliann, how long have you known this information was in Xetesk?’ asked Erienne.

‘From the start. The only reason for my silence was the trouble I discovered I was going to have liberating them from the College.’

‘But have you studied them before?’ she pressed.

‘Not like this, I am ashamed to say. They’ve been in the locked vaults.’

‘And what do you think?’

‘Hold on,’ interrupted Ilkar. ‘We’ll get nowhere voicing random opinion. Let’s identify the task and try to solve it piece by piece. All right?’ The others nodded, a smile playing across Styliann’s lips.

‘Ever the diplomat, Ilkar,’ he said.

Ilkar shrugged. ‘We just don’t have the time to waste. Now, who wants to outline the problem?’

‘All right,’ said Erienne. ‘We have an unbounded rip linking two dimensions and drawing power from interdimensional space to grow at an exponential rate. We believe that because it was formed through conventional magic, it can be closed by the same method. However, there is no lore-defined spell for dismantling such a rip and we are left with having to piece together what will effectively be an untested best-guess from the fragments of Septern’s writings we have here and our own small knowledge. The risks are unbelievable, success is uncertain and the power needed is unknown. How does that sound?’

‘You’ve been framing that for some time, haven’t you, my love?’ said Denser, drawing a hand through her hair. Ilkar chuckled, more at the sparkle in Denser’s eye than at his words. This was the old Denser and he was very glad to have him back. He wondered on the change in the Xeteskian and knew Erienne had much to do with it though he suspected much of the strength had lain trapped within the man all the time. All it had needed was freeing.

‘I think it’s a very accurate summation,’ said Styliann. ‘Now if you will allow, Raven mages, I believe the first part of the puzzle to be determining whether we can construct a mana shape capable of forming a linkage with interdimensional space. Because if we can’t affect it in the region of the rip, we can’t hope to sew the sky back together, to use slightly emotive language.’

Ilkar looked at him. ‘Sew. Sew.’ He leaned forward and shuffled through the pile of texts. ‘Septern used that very word to describe something to do with bounded gateways. Here we are.’ He grabbed a slim leather-bound volume they had found in Julatsa and leafed through it, his eyes scanning quickly. ‘Listen to this. It’s part of a student lecture script on thought process. “It isn’t enough to simply understand the theory of a mana construct when dealing with dimensional forces. One must attempt to build into that shape, a flavour of an earth-bound activity, something mundane and every day that can keep your thoughts focused during not merely formation, but deployment.

‘ “You must realise that interdimensional forces affect mana in very different ways than Balaian space does. A spell you cast to tame or mould its power will develop what can only be described as a mind of its own and a shape you have fashioned to, say, open a bounded gateway, can quickly run out of your control. So, how to remain focused and in control? Think through your action and, as I said, link it to something ordinary. For instance, to take on the bounded gateway example, the deployment of the spell takes the material of Balaian space, the material of the target dimension and pulls them together before fixing them to one another.