The moonlight was bright on the other side, and the cold was numbing after the heat of the jungle. A spear flashed through the Gateway, striking the ground and half burying itself in the snow. Beltzer moved to one side of the Gateway; when an arm and a head showed through, his axe smashed into the head, catapulting the man back through the opening. Then there was silence.
‘All that gold,’ said Beltzer, ‘and I didn’t get a single piece of it.’
‘You have your life,’ Finn told him.
Beltzer swung on him. ‘And what is that worth?’
‘Enough!’ roared Chareos. ‘We have a comrade on the other side. Now cease your arguing and let me think.’
Within a circle of boulders, within sight of the Gateway, Maggrig lit a fire and they all gathered around it. ‘You want to go back, Blademaster?’ asked Maggrig.
‘I don’t know, my friend. We were lucky to escape the first time. I should think they would place guards on the Gate – and that makes it doubly perilous.’
‘I think we should go back,’ said Beltzer. ‘I’m willing to risk it.’
‘For the boy or the gold?’ asked Maggrig.
‘For both, if you must know,’ Beltzer snapped.
Chareos shook his head. ‘No,’ he said, ‘that would be foolhardy. Kiail is alone there, but he is a resourceful lad. Finn marked the trees and if he still lives Kiall will follow the trail back to the Gate. We will wait for him here.’
‘And what if you are right about guards, eh?’ enquired Beltzer. ‘How will he get past those?’
‘My guess is that they will be watching the Gate to see who passes from this side. He may have an opportunity to run at it.’
‘Aren’t you forgetting something, Chareos?’ asked Mag-grig. ‘If he chooses the wrong time, there is no knowing where the Gate will take him.’
‘As I said, he is resourceful. We wait.’
For some time they sat in silence. The wind picked up, gusting the snow around them; the fire spluttered and little heat seemed to emanate from it. ‘We could freeze to death waiting here,’ grumbled Beltzer. ‘At least it is warmer on the other side.’
‘It is colder than it ought to be,’ remarked Finn suddenly. ‘When we left the thaw had set in. The weather should not have turned so swiftly.’
‘It has not necessarily been swift,’ said Chareos, drawing his cloak more tightly about his frame. ‘When I first looked beyond the Gate I seemed to be there, frozen, unable to move, for an hour at least. You said it was but a few heartbeats. Well, we were beyond the gate for a day – that could be a week here, or a month.’
‘It better not have been a month, Blademaster,’ said Maggrig softly. ‘If it is, we are trapped in this valley for the winter. And there is not enough game.’
‘Rubbish!’ snorted Beltzer. ‘We would just pass through the Gate and wait for a few of their days, returning in spring. Isn’t that right, Chareos?’
The Blademaster nodded.
‘Well, what are we waiting for?’ asked Beltzer. ‘Let’s go back and find the lad.’
Finn bit back an angry response as Beltzer pushed himself to his feet. Just then a spark lifted from the fire and hung in the air, swelling slowly into a glowing ball. Beltzer’s mouth dropped open and he took up his axe. Chareos and the others stared at the floating sphere -watching, astonished, as it grew to the size of a man’s head. The colour faded until the globe was almost transparent and they could see the Gate reflected there, and the snow gusting around it. Finn gasped as two tiny figures showed inside the sphere, stepping through the miniature Gateway.
‘It is Okas,’ said Beltzer, peering at the ball. ‘And the lad with him.’ He spun round, but the real Gateway was empty. The scene inside the floating sphere shimmered and changed; now they could see Finn’s cabin, and a warm fire glowing in the hearth. Okas was seated cross-legged before the blaze, his eyes closed. Kiall sat at the table.
The sphere vanished.
‘He found the old boy,’ said Beltzer. ‘He found Okas.’