was an arid, scoured place. Flick realised that, to him at that time, the whole world felt that way. He wanted to go back, so desperately. He wanted to wake in his bed at Saltrock, with Seel beside him, the Seel had had known, who had taught him and cared for him. Before Cal. Before Pellaz. When the world had been full of hope and promise.
Wearily, he squatted down amid the rubble and pressed the fingers of one hand against his eyes. His chest had turned to stone. He couldn’t weep. There must be a doorway back to the past. There had to be a way to undo all that had been done. Flick could almost feel it, a shimmering portal nearby, just beyond his perceptions. If he could only learn to see it, he could stand up and walk through it, and the past months would never have been.
Itzama had crept up behind him, for Flick could feel his presence strongly. ‘It was around here,’ Itzama said, ‘but difficult to find now. They closed it down before they left.’
‘What?’ Flick asked.
‘The gate,’ Itzama replied. ‘You would want to look through it.’
Flick shuddered because Itzama’s words so echoed what he’d just been thinking. ‘What kind of gate?’
‘The kind his horses use, or so I heard. He was not the first to discover it.’
‘I don’t know what you mean.’ Flick stood up. ‘Don’t talk to me in riddles, it’s too tiring.’
‘I don’t mean to do that,’ Itzama said, and in the torchlight, he appeared genuinely contrite.
‘What gate?’ Flick said. ‘Whose horses?’
‘A powerful being,’ Itzama said. ‘He learned about the gates, and he found creatures of flying energy to go between them.’
‘How can you know about that?’ Flick demanded. ‘We know nothing ourselves.’
‘If you knew, you would be less easy to control,’ Itzama said. ‘Such has always been the way.’ He began to walk further up the slope.
Flick got up and hurried after him. He caught hold of Itzama’s arm. ‘If you know anything about Wraeththu, you must tell me,’ he said. ‘And you must tell me how you know.’
‘I know only that the earth dreams,’ Itzama said, ‘and in her dreams, she thinks of ways to make her children grow. She will use whatever means she can to change them. But what is perfect in a dream is different in reality. The children have wills of their own, and go their own way. They wake up into life and forget the mother. They forget all that was golden they learned in a dream.’
Flick remembered his dream of Pellaz. ‘Perhaps some of us do remember,’ he said. ‘Some of us might have learned to know when we are dreaming.’
Itzama laughed. ‘Now, you sound like me. I am a great teacher.’
‘How do you know about us?’ Flick asked.
‘I know because you were inevitable,’ Itzama said. ‘Your advent was written in the landscape aeons ago. We knew that you would come.’
‘We?’
‘I know about the horses because I have seen them.’
‘Show them to me.’
‘Then find the gate. Look in the earth for it.’ Itzama gestured. ‘It was around here, I’m sure.’
Flick pushed back his hair and squinted at the ground. ‘What do we look for?’
‘Its light. The gates were constructed upon places of power, which can never be destroyed. You can only hide them.’ He pointed at the ground. ‘Dig there.’
‘Dig?’ Flick felt around and picked up a sharp-sided stone. He dragged it across the dark soil. ‘This is pointless.’ But even so, he began to dig. He pulled at the moist earth with his bare hands, and it was as if something was pulling him downwards. His digging became more frantic, earth flew up around him, and stones and shards of pottery.
‘There,’ Itzama hissed in encouragement.
‘No light,’ Flick said.
‘It is violet,’ Itzama said. ‘You will find it.’
Flick’s fingers were hurting now. He had ripped his nails and his skin. But he was compelled to continue, his limbs working automatically. There was something… something. He pulled at the ground, and there was a face below him. A white marble face like a statue. But then it opened its eyes, and the eyes were full of a terrible rage. The mouth stretched in a silent scream. Flick jumped back with a cry as if he’d been punched by a giant fist. He fell heavily and felt his spine jar. Some hideous creature was going to come up out of the earth, and its proximity filled him with a primal, indescribable horror. He knew he was not