David Clarke

The Second Nexus

Chapters 16-18

Chapter Sixteen

I dived straight back into the tent and told my friends in English that I thought the portal might be on its way back, that I didn't know exactly what we were going to do yet but that they should keep on their toes. I told Oli to get his bag from the store tent as soon as we were dressed and keep it close at hand. I urgently needed to talk to Torth, but I didn't get a chance straight away because Harlan spotted me as soon as I emerged from the tent and told me to get my clothes on – he'd brought the bags out and opened them – and then go and make a start on breakfast. The Greys of course didn't eat breakfast, and so I didn't see them until I had cleared away the breakfast things, and by then it was too late, because Torth had already seen the mist by then and realised what it meant.

"Sorry," he said when Harlan asked him to carry on with the previous evening's experiments, "but we're leaving. We've been stuck in this place for months, and I'm not risking missing a chance to get out of here."

Tommi translated that, and Harlan asked what he meant, at which Torth pointed at the mist.

"That's going to be a portal by midday," he said. "And we're going through it. You can come if you want or stay if you want, but we're leaving."

"I'm sorry, but you can't," said Harlan, firmly. "There's no need for us to take the risk of going through into another world if we don't have to, and we don't have to, because you're here. So you have to stay."

"Why shouldn't we go through?" I asked, leaving Tommi to translate. "I thought you were looking forward to a holiday on the beach."

"I was," admitted Harlan. "But I've been thinking about it, and it would be much harder for us to keep all of you under control in a world we don't fully understand, especially since I can't control the reptiles yet. Those monks you told me about, for example: how do we know they won't want to help you escape? Sorry, Jake, but now we've found your reptiles – which was the main point of the trip, after all – we don't need to take the risk. In fact I think we'll move the camp back out of the mountains away from this place – I don't want any of you thinking you can just pop off into another world without stopping to say goodbye."

"I don't care about your problems," said Torth. "We're leaving. It might be safe to go back to our own world now – we've been gone long enough, after all."

"I can't let you leave," said Harlan.

"You can't stop us," countered Torth.

By now everyone had gathered round and was following the argument by listening to Tommi's translations. I was standing not far from Harlan and the other three Konjässiem had gathered close to him; Marlo had gravitated to Killian's side and Dannis had moved to just behind Dervoran; Verdess and Sarleth were standing close to their tent and letting Torth do the talking for them; and the rest of the slaves were standing around here and there and just listening.

"I can stop you," Harlan continued. "Maybe not directly, but if you don't agree to stay we'll have to kill one of your friends."

"Go right ahead," invited Torth. "The mammals are nothing to do with us."

"I mean it," said Harlan, starting to look flustered.

"So do I. You know nothing about our species, do you? Try and have another look inside my head – if you make it you'll see I'm telling the truth: I don't care what you do to the mammals. Our race is different: we've evolved by not worrying about anyone except ourselves. It would make no difference if you threatened to kill Verdess and Sarleth, either: I'm going, and that's the end of it."

"You're bluffing!"

"He isn't," I said. "Greys only care about themselves. We helped them out, but I wouldn't expect them to help us out. If you want to keep working with them you'll have to go through the portal with them."

"Unacceptable! Alright, let's see if he's bluffing." He turned to his three colleagues. "Shut them down," he ordered.

Before any of my friends could move they were all clamped. As far as I could tell, the only slaves other than me (and of course Oli) who were not immobilised were Dannis and Marlo, and I supposed that was because their masters trusted them.

"Now, tell him again, Jake," Harlan instructed me. "Either they stay, or one of you dies."

"Harlan, they don't care!" I said. "Please don't do this…"

"Translate!" he yelled, and it was obvious that he was getting angry.

So I translated.

"Does he mean it?" asked Torth.

"Yes, he does. And we can't fight back – they can immobilise us, like they already have with the others."

"They can't immobilise us," Torth pointed out. "I think we'll start packing."

He nodded to Verdess, who went into their tent and started to hand stuff out to Sarleth, who began to pack it into their bags.

"Stop!" yelled Harlan. "Dervoran, show them we're serious. Pick whichever one you like."

Dervoran nodded and stared at Radu, and Radu began to tremble and his nose began to bleed.

"Torth, he's killing Radu!" I cried. "Can't you do something?"

Torth walked apparently unconcernedly over to his tent and unpegged the guy rope. I could hear him muttering something to the other two, but none of them showed any sign of acting. In fact the only person who was moving was Oli, who ran to the store tent and came out carrying his bag. I suppose he was hoping to be able to put one of our metal bands on Radu's head, but before he could do that the situation completely fell apart, and there was nothing I could do about it. And the first blow came from an unexpected quarter: Dannis pulled a sharpened piece of wood from his pocket and thrust it as hard as he could into Dervoran's back.

"That's for Raamiss!" he cried, thrusting his makeshift dagger in again. "You killed my best friend, you bastard, but you're not going to kill anyone else!"

Dervoran fell onto his knees, clutching vainly at his back, and then toppled onto his face. And then came the next shock: Harlan pulled a handgun from under his robe and shot Dannis in the head.

"What, you thought I was just going to rely on my brain-power?" he said to me, turning and pointing the gun at Stefan. "Call this insurance. Now, tell the reptiles they're staying, or else."

"But…" I looked at Torth, just in time to see Verdess pass him a rifle, which Torth loaded and then pointed at Harlan.

"Don't shoot!" I yelled in Grey. "If you hit him he'll pull the trigger!"

Harlan saw the rifle and his eyes widened – he seemed shocked to find that he wasn't the only one who was armed.

"Put down the gun!" he ordered.

"You put yours down," countered Torth, and there was nothing I could do except translate for them both.

"Put it down or I'll fire!"

"So what? You're not pointing your gun at me, but I am pointing mine at you. Fire and you're dead."

Harlan was starting to tremble and sweat, and I was terrified that he was going to shoot. So, apparently, was Oli, who was trying to get close enough to put a band on Stefan's head, until Harlan screamed at him to keep still.

"Please, Harlan, give it up," I begged. "Torth doesn't care about Stefan. Just let the Greys go – I don't want you to get hurt!"

"You don't want Stefan to get hurt, you mean."

"I don't want either of you to get hurt – look in my head if you don't believe me!"

"Then persuade them to stay!"

"I can't! I keep telling you – they don't think like us!"

"I'm going to count to three…"

"Harlan, don't, please? You don't need to do this – why can't you let them go?"

"What, and have you slaves think I'm weak? And I'm not stupid, Jake – if I put the gun down it won't just be the reptiles who leave, will it? As soon as we release your friends you'll all go with them, and I can't allow that."

"I'm not going anywhere," I told him. "I gave you my word that I'd stay with you, and that hasn't changed. I'm staying, Harlan – you can see that's true."

"Okay, maybe you will – but the others won't. They're itching to head for the portal. And I can't let that happen – so tell the reptile to put down the gun!"

So I tried, and Torth flatly refused, instead reiterating his demand that Harlan should put his own gun down. And when I translated that Harlan took a firmer grip on his gun and started counting again.

"One."

"Please, Harlan, I'm begging you, don't! Just let them go, please!"

"Two. I mean it, Jake – I'll start with Stefan and keep shooting them until you all DO WHAT I SAY!!"

If I'd been close enough I'd have thrown myself at him, but I was too far away.

"Oh, God, please," I begged. "Don't shoot him – I couldn't stand it…"

"Thr… aargh!" Harlan clutched at his head with both hands, and before I could do or say anything Torth took advantage of the fact that Harlan's gun was no longer pointed at Stefan and fired. Harlan was slammed backwards by the impact and fell on his back, and I rushed to his side. I was aware that there were other things happening around me: the slaves were moving again, Terry and Killian were fighting each other, Oli was thrusting metal bands at Stefan and Alain, but none of that interested me right then. I dropped to my knees beside Harlan and found a hole in the front of his tunic and a small red stain that didn't look too bad, until I realised that I was kneeling in a spreading puddle of blood that was obviously coming from the exit wound.

"Marc!" I yelled.

Marc appeared at my side, carrying a metal band that he put onto my head. For a moment I was worried that one of the other Konjässiem might interfere, but when I looked up Terry was trying to stab Killian, screaming incoherently at him, and Killian was holding onto his wrist and trying to keep the knife away from his body. And then Marlo hit Terry hard over the head with a large piece of wood and Terry fell to the ground.

I had no idea what was going on, and nor did I care.

"Can you stop the bleeding?" I asked Marc.

"I'm sorry," said Marc. "The bullet's gone right through, and it's hit one of the major blood vessels. There's nothing anyone can do, Jake."

"Well, try for God's sake!" I cried, putting my hands uselessly over the entry wound. "Do something, please! Don't let him die like this!"

Marc just shook his head slowly. "It's pointless," he said. "Look at the blood, Jake – he'll be dead in less than a minute."

I took Harlan's hand and squeezed it, and was conscious of a faint squeeze in return. Marc put his fingers gently against Harlan's neck, feeling for a pulse, and a few seconds later he shook his head again.

"Sorry," he said. "He's gone."

I stayed where I was for several seconds, feeling numb.

"If it helps," said Killian from behind me, "he wasn't hurting at the end, just feeling weak and a bit cold. And he knew you were there, too, and he appreciated it. And, for what it's worth, I wasn't trying to get him shot – I just wanted to stop him shooting your friend."

"What did you do?"

"He was concentrating so hard on what he was doing – keeping four of the slaves locked down, trying to force his way into the reptile's head and keeping the gun pointing the right way – that he'd let his shield slip. So I slipped in and sort of poked his brain, which is why he lost concentration and moved the gun. And Terry felt me do it, which is why he tried to kill me after Harlan got shot."

Marc had moved on to Dervoran now, and he couldn't find a pulse there, either: it looked as if one of Dannis's blows had penetrated his heart. There was no need to look at Dannis himself, because there was a significant hole on his head.

"Now what?" Marc asked me.

"Have a look at Radu. I think he's probably okay – when I saw Dervoran do that to another slave the kid survived even though it went on much longer, but you'd better make sure. Everyone else, let's get this camp…"

There was a roar overhead and a helicopter appeared above us.

"Stay where you are!" came an amplified voice. "Do not attempt to leave this area!"

Once again I didn't have time to react before Torth swung the rifle up to his shoulder and fired at the helicopter. There was a bang from the aircraft, which swung violently away as the pilot took evasive action. Torth fired again and the helicopter disappeared over the trees, trailing a thin line of black smoke.

"Now you've done it!" I cried. "They'll have the police here in no time!"

"So? We'll be gone before that," said Torth, pointing at the portal, and he was right: the mist was much thicker now, indicating that the portal was either ready to use, or very nearly.

"Right," I said. "Everyone get your shoes and socks on, then get the kit packed away. Oli, Verdess and Stefan will get the vehicles. I want us through the portal in the next ten minutes."

"What about them?" asked Stefan, indicating Killian, Marlo, Terry and finally Caradoc, who had been keeping his head down with my friends.

"If the slaves want to come with us, they're welcome," I said. "The police will take care of Terry and Killian."

"Hold on," said Marlo. "If I'm coming, Killian's coming too."

"You're not coming, then," said Stefan.

"Oh, come on – you know he's not like them! And he saved your life, remember?"

That was a fair comment, though I couldn't believe Killian would want to come with us even if we asked him. Still, I supposed he deserved to be allowed to speak for himself…

"Well, Killian? Would you want to come with us? Because if we once leave this world I can guarantee that we're never coming back."

"If I stay here, Terry's likely to get me arrested," he said. "He'll certainly blame me for Harlan's death, especially if the reptile who actually shot him is out of reach."

"Jake, we can't!" said Stefan, urgently. "It would be like carrying a live hand grenade around with us, one with a faulty fuse. You know how dangerous these people are – and he'd never be able to settle in our world, anyway: we're like stupid apes to him."

"You're not, actually," said Killian. "Because of what Harlan did to me I don't think the way the others do. Marlo will tell you that the only people I actually can relate to are Nevis, Altur and my other controllers. It's here that I don't fit in."

"No!" insisted Stefan. "We can't risk it… come on, Jake, tell him!"

"I think we owe him the chance," I said. "There are conditions, though: he swears to make no attempt to force any of us to do anything; he makes no attempt to get into the heads of the Greys; and he agrees to do whatever you and I tell him without arguing. If he agrees to that he'd actually be an asset, Stefi: he's clever, so he can give us useful advice, and if we get into trouble in some other world he can use his powers to help us out."

"Yes, but…" Stefan took a deep breath. "All right, Jake: as Alain keeps reminding us, you haven't let us down yet. I'll keep trusting you. Anyway, I'd better go and see if the jeep will still start."

He and Oli went and gestured to Verdess to follow them and then headed off down the valley to where we had left the vehicles, and the rest of us got on with striking camp. And then Killian called to say that Terry was waking up.

"Everyone not wearing metal, get down the valley to the vehicles and get into the tank," I said. "You should be safe inside it. Those with bands, finish getting the tents down."

I went and knelt next to Terry, helping him to sit up, though Marlo was standing next to me swinging his lump of wood threateningly, just in case Terry turned nasty. But instead he just looked around quietly.

"I see," he said. "What about Harlan? Is he…?"

"I'm sorry," I said. "I really am, Terry – you know I'd never have wanted him to get hurt."

"It still happened, though, didn't it? And as for you, you bastard…" He glared at Killian. "It's your fault he's dead. Just wait till we get back to civilisation – I'll see you shot for this."

"It isn't Killian's fault," I said. "Torth would have shot him anyway unless he'd put the gun down, and he wasn't going to do that. All Killian did was to make sure Harlan didn't take Stefan with him."

"He knew what he was doing," insisted Terry. "Don't be fooled by him, Jake – he wanted Harlan dead."

"Can you blame me?" said Killian. "You know what he did to me – so, all right, I wasn't exactly unhappy when he got shot. But I still didn't pull the trigger. And, as Jake says, if he'd been a bit less arrogant and had put the gun down he'd still be alive now."

"He wasn't arrogant, he was scared," said Terry. "I know you could feel it too, so don't pretend you couldn't. He was out of his depth – he'd never been in a situation he couldn't control before and he was panicking. And he wasn't going to shoot Stefan, Jake: he liked you too much to do that to you. He was just stuck in a situation and he couldn't see a way out. He shouldn't have died for that…"

He got up and walked over to Harlan's body, dropping onto his knees beside it.

"He was my friend," he said. "It's hard for us to trust anyone completely, like I said before, but I trusted him more than anyone except my parents… he shouldn't have died…"

I suddenly saw Harlan's gun lying beside the body and I started to move just before Terry reached for it, and I was just in time: by the time he had it in his hand and was turning to point it at Killian I had almost reached him, and I threw myself at him, knocking his gun hand above his head and landing on top of him.

"No," I said. "No-one else is getting killed, Terry, okay? It won't bring Harlan back."

He reached up with his left hand and knocked the metal band off my head, and I braced myself to resist… but the expected compulsion to get off him didn't come. Instead he let go of the gun, put his arms round me and started to cry, and I held him and tried to comfort him. Dimly I was aware of the sound of vehicles approaching and Stefan's voice telling the others to get everything loaded into the back of the truck, but still I lay there beside Harlan's body, holding Terry and sharing his misery. And the only thing that got me moving in the end was the roar of another helicopter overhead and another amplified voice telling us to stay where we were.

"Do you want to come with us?" I asked Terry, hoping that the answer would be 'no' – I thought Killian would be manageable, but Terry was a completely different kettle of fish.

"Don't worry," he said. "I'll stay. Someone has to look after Harlan. Go, Jake – go back to your own world while you can."

I gave him a last hug and scrambled to my feet, pausing only to grab the gun and the headband. The helicopter voice was still commanding us to stay still, but I ignored it and ran to the jeep, which was at the head of the line, only to find Oli in the driver's seat. Nicky, Tommi and Marc were in there with him.

"Okay, Oli – remember you have to come into the portal from the other side," I reminded him. "We'll give you a shout when it's time to go."

I ran on to the truck, saw that Verdess was at the wheel as usual and didn't bother stopping: he knew what to do. Most of the others were crammed into the back of the truck, and I was about to join them when Stefan yelled at me from the top of the tank, waving me to join him. And I was halfway there when someone started shooting at us. I thought it was the helicopter, but then I saw people moving through the trees, heading towards us, and there was at least one vehicle there, too – obviously they'd found a route for it between the trees.

"Come on!" yelled Stefan. Radu popped up out of the turret and fired a couple of times at the oncoming men, but they kept coming.

I scrambled onto the tank and Stefan more or less shoved me inside, where I landed on top of Radu. Stefan yelled to Oli and Verdess to move and jumped down, slamming the turret hatch closed on the way, and then he hit a button on the side of the turret and it began to swing to the right.

"Keep down, Jake," he said, and began to fire the heavy machine-gun at the advancing men, while Radu pushed past me, opened the breech of the main gun and began to wrestle a shell inside. I helped him – it was heavy for one boy to manage alone – and he slammed the breech shut. And then Alain threw the control levers forward and the tank started to move.

I could hear bullets hitting the tank now – it sounded as if someone was hitting the hull with a hammer – but they didn't seem to have anything that could penetrate our armour. Stefan abandoned the machine gun and came to help Radu line up the main gun on one of the enemy vehicles, and I just kept back out of the way.

"Cover your ears!" Stefan shouted at me, and he hit the firing button, and even with my hands over my ears it was deafening.

"Got it!" cried Stefan, peering through the viewing slit. "Pity there are two more of them… reload, Radu – and Alain, get us right up to the portal. We'll fire once more and then get through it as fast as you can."

I couldn't see where we were going, but I suddenly had a thought.

"Wait!" I said. "Don't fire yet – if we get through the portal and then fire from the other side, we might get lucky and disrupt it, especially if you can get the shell to explode right in the mouth of it. Get rid of the portal and we'll be safe, because if that lot follow us through I doubt if the monks would be able to fight them off."

"Good thinking, Jake," agreed Stefan. "Okay, Alain, you heard him: top speed, and stop once we're outside the monastery. Have the others gone through okay?"

"Yes," Alain confirmed. "Well, they've vanished, anyway, so I'd guess they're safely through."

"Then let's go!"

Alain drove us past the portal and then spun us round so that we were approaching it from the correct side.

"Ready?" he asked.

"Go!" confirmed Stefan, and Alain shoved his controls forward again. The tank leaped into the mist, and the sound of bullets stopped.

Ten seconds passed.

"We're still in the mist," Alain reported. "I'm going to have to slow a bit, Stefan – maybe the mist goes all the way to the monastery, and I don't want to hit it – or any trees, either."

"Okay," said Stefan, and he opened the hatch and stuck his head out. I stood beside him and looked out too, but there was just mist. I was sure it hadn't been this thick going through any previous portal… Alain had slowed right down by now, and I was peering through the mist looking for the outline of the monastery, but it failed to appear. And then at last the mist started to thin, and finally we emerged into a valley. A short distance ahead of us were the jeep and the truck, both of which were stationary, and here and there trees were growing, but much less thickly than I remembered. And of the monastery itself there was no sign at all.

"But… where the hell is it?" asked Stefan, looking around vainly.

"It must have been a different portal," I said. "It wasn't the one going back to the monastery at all – it's brought us somewhere completely different."

"Okay. Do you still want us to try blowing it up?"

I thought about it. There might be other portals leading out of this world, but then again there might not: after all, as far as we knew Vogesia only had a single portal. But we still had to consider the possibility – or, indeed, the likelihood – of pursuit.

"Yes, let's blast it," I said. "If all else fails we can probably come back later when the portal has gone and fill in the craters. But right now we don't want half of the Arvel police on our tail."

"Okay." Stefan ducked back into the tank. "Turn us round, Alain – and Radu, let's get the gun loaded."

This time I jumped out of the tank, and once Alain had spun it round I climbed down and stood on the grass next to it, leaving Stefan and Radu room to work. A few seconds later the gun roared and there was a loud explosion from somewhere in the mist, though we couldn't see where the shell had landed or how much damage it had done.

They reloaded and fired twice more, changing their aim slightly each time, and twice more there were explosions from deep inside the mist.

"How many shells do you want us to keep?" Stefan called to me.

"How many have we got left?"

"Five."

"Then give it one more," I said.

They gave it one more, and this time the mist swirled about wildly and then slowly started to dissipate. I stood and watched until the mist had gone, by which time the rest of the crew had climbed out of the tank to stand beside me. And now we could see that further up the valley, where the portal had stood, there was nothing except a few trees scattered about in a grassy valley. Further up the trees were thicker, standing up on the ridges to the sides of the valley and higher up as the valley climbed towards their level, but there was no monastery, and nothing to indicate that one had ever stood here. And there was only one shell-crater, too, which suggested that our earlier shells had passed clean through the portal and back into the Arvelan world. I hoped that Terry hadn't been too near where they landed…

And at that thought the death of Harlan rushed back into my mind and overwhelmed me. He was just a kid, younger than me, and if Terry had been right he'd been scared out of his mind at the end – and he'd died while I held his hand. In everything we had done, and every world we'd been through, there had been danger, and some of my friends had been hurt or wounded, and some of the nameless Grey soldiers chasing us back to Hub Two had died – but this was the first time I'd actually had to face the death of someone I knew and cared about. I'd known Dannis and Dervoran, too, but their deaths seemed small to me compared with Harlan's. I'd met his parents, I'd heard his secrets, I'd shared his bed… he was my friend. And he was dead because of me, because I'd brought him here and exposed him to the Greys, who I knew would have no compunction in doing whatever was in their interests, regardless of what that might mean for anyone who got in their way…

I dropped to my knees, crying, and when Stefan knelt next to me and put his hand on my shoulder I threw myself into his arms, sobbing uncontrollably.

"I killed him, Stefi," I sobbed. "He trusted me, and I killed him."

"No. Torth killed him, and maybe Killian helped a bit, but it wasn't you. Jake, he wasn't one of us – your friends are the ones who are here now, who got out of an impossible situation because of you. I'm sorry he's dead, too, because he's about the only one of them who seemed halfway decent – but they're still a race of monsters, who grow up to torture and murder in the name of their government, or their town council, or the village chief, or anyone else who has enough clout to wind them up and point them at their next victim. We're alive, Jake, and we're free, and we're all here – and I'd say that's what matters."

And that was true, but I couldn't get Harlan out of my head. Yes, if I'd been offered a choice between the life of Harlan and the life of Stefan – never mind the lives of Stefan and all my friends – I suppose I'd have taken it, but I wouldn't have liked it at all. And I still felt responsible, whatever Stefan might say: I should have found a better plan, come up with a way to get us through the portal without anyone getting hurt… but I hadn't been able to do that, and now he was dead. And I didn't think I would ever get over it. I'd been operating on adrenaline since the shooting had started, but now it was over I just felt tired, and sick, and wretchedly miserable. I was dimly aware of Stefan getting up and Alain taking his place, and I just clung to Alain, still crying hopelessly – and then I lost consciousness.

I opened my eyes and found myself lying on my back on the grass, gazing up at a clear blue sky. Tommi was sitting on the grass beside me, and when he saw that my eyes were open he yelled "He's awake!" and Stefan came trotting over.

"Feeling better?" he asked.

"A bit. What happened?"

"I asked Killian to knock you out for a bit. You were right – he is going to be useful. And then I moved us further down towards the plain, just in case they do manage to fill in whatever holes there are on their side and come after us again. I thought perhaps we could find out what the local version of Schlettstadt is like. Except… well, see for yourself."

He helped me to my feet, and I found myself standing on more long green grass, on a low hill that overlooked a wide grassy plain.

"We're roughly where the church in Orschweiler is," Stefan told me. "And out there is Schlettstadt – except, as you can see, it isn't. There's nothing out there at all, though about half an hour ago a large herd of antelope went past. This is prime farm country – as you know, this area has vineyards in most of the worlds we've seen. But here there's nothing at all. It's not even like the first world we went to together: there weren't any people there, but it was obvious that there had been people living there until recently. There's no trace here that there have ever been houses here, or out there, either."

I looked through the binoculars, which had been in Stefan's bag throughout our stay at the school, and found that he was right: I couldn't see the remotest sign to indicate that anyone lived here at all.

"Oh, wow," I said, as it hit me. "I think this is the Green World, Stefi. I think both portals appeared at the same time – they faced each other, remember? That's why the mist went on for so long: we weren't going through one portal, we were going through two. We went straight through a little bit of the Holy Roman Empire without stopping and on into the second portal. And Brother Paul said they'd never had a visitor from the Green World, didn't he? Well, if nobody lives here, that would be why."

"But if nobody lives here, what are we going to do?" asked Tommi. "How are we going to survive until we find another portal – and what's going to happen if we don't find one?"

"Well, Stefan said there are antelopes here," I pointed out. "And we've got rifles. So we hunt for meat when we need it. We've got tents, so shelter won't be a problem, and any water we find here is guaranteed to be clean and pure. We'll be fine."

I took Stefan's elbow and steered him a little way away.

"I need to know how many bullets we have left," I said to him, quietly. "Also, how much power the vehicles have left, because I don't think we'll be able to recharge them, somehow. Do it quietly – I'm not worried about Alain finding out, but I don't want the younger kids getting worried. And then you and I are going to have to sit down with Alain and Killian and try to decide where we go from here. I'm thinking about heading back to the Black Forest and looking for another portal there, because it won't be safe for us to risk going back the way we came, just in case the Arvelans got through the first portal and into the Empire, but obviously that'll depend on whether we can get there without our batteries going flat. If we can't we'll have to think of a Plan B."

Stefan nodded and walked over to the tank, which was parked with the other vehicles a short distance away, and I walked a little further down the hill to where everyone else was sitting on the grass – I suppose they were waiting for me to decide what we should do next. But first there was something that was still puzzling me, and so I went and sat next to Marlo.

"When Dannis attacked Dervoran, he said something about a friend dying, or something," I said. "Do you know what he was talking about?"

"Partly. Dannis had a friend called Raamiss, who died during one of Dervoran's experiments. That was months ago. And Dannis was determined to do something about it, and so he started making himself useful to Dervoran, volunteering to help with his experiments – I suppose he was hoping not to be used for anything fatal – and stuff like that so that Dervoran would trust him. He didn't tell me anything much else, because of course nobody can keep secrets for very long, but I suppose he was originally intending to stab Dervoran at school – he'd made himself a wooden knife because the Konjässiem tend to feel if someone is carrying metal. This trip must have seemed like a gift from the gods to him – not only would he get a chance to kill Dervoran, but he'd have a reasonable chance of getting away at the same time. I suppose originally he intended to do it somewhere quiet and then just run, but when he saw your friend going the same way as Raamiss he decided not to wait. Lucky for Radu, huh?"

"Very. But how come Dervoran trusted him? Couldn't he see what Dannis was planning to do?"

"There are ways to hide things, at least in the short term. Dannis spent ages developing a shielding technique that would allow him to keep things hidden as long as he wasn't probed directly on that subject, and apparently it was good enough. It probably helped that Dervoran was too arrogant to think that any mere slave would dare to try to hide things from him."

"And can anyone learn to hide stuff like that?"

"In theory, yes, but it's difficult. Killian's been helping me to learn, so I can use it to hide stuff from him even when I'm not wearing metal. He wants us to feel we can beat his powers, at least a bit. Again, it's hard to explain why, exactly. Probably when you've been around him and me for a bit you'll start to get it. Which is a good point: I suppose you're going to be around him and me permanently from now on – so what are we going to do now?"

"We'll have a talk about that shortly," I said. "Now, in fact," I continued, because Stefan was heading towards us.

I thought briefly and came to a decision, and instead of taking Stefan, Alain and Killian off somewhere I asked everyone to sit and listen.

"We're all in this together," I said, "and so I want to discuss what we're going to do with all of you. It's going to be difficult with so many languages to work through, but we'll manage. I'm going to speak in Kerpian, and I want Tommi to interpret for the Greys, Stefan to translate into English and Radu to translate into Arvelan. If anyone wants to speak, please raise your hand. Okay, you three, translate that much and then we'll start."

Each of the three translators gathered his own audience around him and translated what I'd said so far, and then I was able to start. First I asked Stefan about the vehicles and our ammunition supplies.

"The truck's fine," he said. "We recharged it in Vogesia and it's still got about a ninety percent charge. The jeep has around forty percent, but the tank is below twenty – it won't make it back to the Black Forest. The jeep might not either, bearing in mind that there are no roads here and we'll probably need to use four wheel drive a lot. Of course, there's another major problem if we're going to try to get back to the Feldberg: there won't be any way to cross the Rhine in this world. Either we'll have to build a raft strong enough to take the truck, or we'll have to drive right down into Switzerland to get around the source of the Rhine – though we'll have problems even with smaller rivers like the Ill in a world with no bridges.

"As for ammunition, we've got about a hundred rounds left, plus one more belt for the heavy machine gun in the tank, so as long as we're careful we'll be able to keep ourselves supplied with meat for quite a long time – long enough for us to learn how to make and hunt with spears if we have to."

I have to admit that the lack of bridges was a problem that hadn't occurred to me, and it was going to be a major issue, because I seriously doubted our ability to make a raft strong enough to carry even the jeep, never mind the truck, especially given our lack of decent tools. And I didn't think driving into the Alps to try to get past the source of the Rhine was going to work, either: in an uninhabited world with no roads the Alps would be impassable except on foot.

"Okay," I said. "We might end up having to try to swim the Rhine and walk back up to the Feldberg, but that would be a really difficult journey. I think we could do it, but I'd want us to rest up for a while before trying it. The alternative is to wait here and see if we can find another portal back, but to be honest I'm not very keen about waiting around too close to where we came through in case the Arvelans find a way to follow us. So I think we should move out onto the plain – if we go down to where Irtengarde was in Oli's world we'll have the river for water, and it's likely that the animals will come to drink at the river, too, which should make hunting easier. We'll wait there for a week or two – I should think that if the Arvelans are going to find a way through they'll have done it by then – and then go back and look for a portal back where we just came through. If that fails we'll think about crossing the Rhine, but really that's a bit of a last resort. Anyone want to say anything?"

"What if the Arvelans do come through?" asked Marc.

"Then… well, it will depend how many of them there are. If there aren't too many we could fight – we've still got the tank, after all. If there are, we'd have to retreat across the river and hope it holds them up long enough for us to get away. But I think we disrupted the portal, and as it only appears occasionally they'll have a very long wait before they can start to come after us. Anyone else?"

Everyone looked at each other, but nobody else seemed to want to say anything.

"Okay, then we'll head down onto the plain and set up a camp near the river," I said. "But before we do I just want to say one thing: we've got some new members of our group now, and I want everyone to make them feel at home. You can all remember what it was like when you left your home world for the first time, and it won't be any easier for them. And I want you all to remember that Killian saved Stefan's life back there by making Harlan…" I swallowed, but managed to keep going. "…move his gun. None of us has any reason to like the Konjässiem, but Marlo says that Killian is completely different from the others, and I think he's right. So treat him just like anyone else, okay?"

"That's easy for you to say," said Radu. "You've got a metal band."

"I won't be wearing it – in fact none of us will. Killian's one of us now and we have to trust him, and wearing metal isn't how to show him our trust."

Killian raised his hand, and when I nodded to him he said, "I'm very grateful that Jake allowed me and Marlo to come with you. I promise I won't try to do anything to any of you unless I'm asked to, and if I do you can beat me up and throw me back through the portal for Terry to deal with. After all, you know I can't touch the reptiles or Oli, and I can only lock down about three of you at a time, so I'm not going to be able to take over, or anything. I just want to help, that's all."

There were a few sceptical looks but nobody actually argued, and so I stood up and said that we should move down to the river, and half an hour later we had found a suitable place: we were able to put up our tents close to a small wood about a hundred yards from the river. The trees hid us from the portal site, so a casual observer standing close to the portal site wouldn't be able to see us even if they had binoculars. We had plenty of tents now: we had the four that we'd brought from the Grey army base, plus the seven that had been brought with us from the school. And that meant we had seven two-man tents, plus a kitchen and a stores tent, and the large one the slaves had slept in to serve as a meeting place in case of bad weather.

We had enough food with us for several meals before we had to start hunting, so once the tents were pitched Alain and I prepared some sandwiches, and after we'd eaten them we spent the afternoon getting everything put away, having a walk along the river to find signs of where the antelopes and other animals came to drink, and then just resting. I cooked a decent meal for supper and we had an early night: most of us were only too keen to take advantage of the fact that, for the first time in ages, we were able to spend the night in private accommodation with just our partners – okay, Stefan and I had been able to use Harlan's room on my birthday, but for Alain and Oli and Radu and Marc it was the first time since we'd been arrested. Tommi went back in with Sarleth, as he had done in Vogesia; Marlo and Killian shared a tent, as did Nicky and Caradoc (and I thought that if Nicky tried it on with the red-haired boy he'd find a willing partner), and Torth and Verdess shared the last two-man tent, though they said they would probably invite Sarleth to join them in the back of the truck for a night now and then.

So I was able to sleep in Stefan's arms again, though it would be fair to say that I was a bit distracted: I was glad to be out of the Arvelan world, but I was still grieving for Harlan. And I was seriously worried about our chances of finding a way out of this world…

Chapter Seventeen

Next morning after breakfast I sat down with Stefan and looked at our maps, and very depressing it was, too. When you've lived all your life in civilised countries you don't think about rivers very much at all – if you want to go from A to B you just get in a car and drive there, and generally you're not even aware of crossing water. But when you're in a world where there are no roads and no bridges, there suddenly seem to be rivers everywhere you look.

The River Ill, beside which we were camped, ran straight through the centre of the Plain of Alsace (and in fact it gives its name to the province), rising many miles to the south in the Jura Mountains and finally joining the Rhine at Strasbourg. It wasn't impossibly wide, but it would certainly prevent us taking any of our vehicles with us if we wanted to cross it. Beyond it lay the Rhine itself, and that would be a formidable barrier even to those of us who could swim, because it would be a major logistical problem to get our tents and equipment across. Stefan said we could probably rig up some sort of rope system to carry our gear across the Ill, though he wasn't sure if we had enough rope to span the Rhine.

And it wasn't as though we could simply drive down to the Jura and attempt to get around the source of the Ill either, because the Ill had tributaries of its own, the most important of which, the Thur, rose in the Vosges south of our position and effectively blocked us in. North of Sélestat more rivers came down out of the Vosges and joined the Ill, the largest of which seemed to be the Bruche, running just north of Obernai to complete the third wall of the box we were in. The fourth wall, the Vosges themselves, would certainly be impassable except on foot.

"Well, it looks as if we won't have to worry about the batteries running flat," I commented. "It doesn't look as if we'll be able to get very far on wheels whichever way we go."

"It's a pity we can't cross the Ill," Stefan said. "If we could we'd be able to get right back to Milhüsa and hide in the forest – there's no way anyone would ever find us in there."

"We could, but we'd be on foot all the way. I think it would be sensible for us to try rigging up a rope crossing, though – at least that way we'll have a way to retreat if the Arvelans turn up."

"Okay, we'll have a go at that today. But in the meantime we might as well stay where we are: we've got everything we need here, and the animals are likely to come to that flat bit of riverside we saw yesterday to drink, so we'll only have to go a couple of hundred metres when we run out of tinned food."

And that seemed like the sensible thing to do, so when everyone else joined us for breakfast I told them that we would be staying here for a bit until we worked out a long-term plan. I asked everyone to help Stefan with setting up a rope crossing for the river and said that once that was done we should just relax for a few days. It was a pity we didn't have a beach here like the one in Vogesia, but it was warm and sunny and we could swim in the river, and I thought that would be good enough. And apparently everyone agreed with me.

Stefan dug into our stores: in the truck we had some rope that had come from the Grey base in Hilsstok, and Harlan had brought some along with us in case it was needed, too. We had two spades, packed mainly so that we could dig latrines, and a small hatchet for cutting up firewood, and the tank was carrying a basic toolkit of spanners and wrenches and hammers. It wasn't exactly a full set of engineering tools, but it was enough for what Stefan needed.

By the time he had finished we had a rope spanning the river with a sort of bosun's chair suspended from it, which we would be able to use to carry things, or non-swimmers, from one side of the river to the other. It meant that we would be able to retreat across the river if necessary, though it would take a while because we didn't have enough rope to make a second one. We all tried it out over the next couple of days and found that it worked well and would support a person and a packed-up two-man tent at the same time without difficulty.

Once the crossing was complete there was nothing else that had to be done, and so we settled down to wait for a while to see if there was any sign of the Arvelans. Of course if they did make it through the portal they would be able to find us easily enough: even though we were hidden behind the wood they would only need to follow our tracks through the grass, because our vehicles had left an easy trail for them to follow. And so to play safe I drew up a rota to make sure that someone was always keeping an eye open in the direction of the portal. But after a couple of days there was still no sign and I was starting to relax a bit.

On the second day Killian emerged from his tent in the morning naked.

"Marlo says I'm not allowed clothes while we're here," he explained. "He says everyone ought to be allowed to see what a Konjässi looks like under his robes."

"Does he? Well, I suppose it's warm enough… how do you feel about it, though?"

"Well, it's what I deserve, obviously. Marlo says I haven't got anything worth hiding, and he's right, isn't he?"

"I don't think that ought to make any difference. Maybe I ought to have a word with him."

I went into their tent and found Marlo folding their sleeping bag away.

"Have you seen him?" he greeted me. "It's small, isn't it?"

"It is, but… look, Marlo, we're going to have to do something about you two. I don't know if we can turn around what was done to him, but I think we ought to try. But we won't be able to do it unless you agree, because you're the one he listens to. So what do you think?"

"Well… it's complicated. See, it wasn't just him who got messed about with: us slaves who work with him did, too. Harlan wanted to make sure we kept after him, and so he found slaves who liked sex to start with and sort of tweaked us to make us something close to sex mad. And that means I wouldn't be all that happy to lose him, except… like I said to you before, I do like him, and I can see that it's really degrading for him, the stuff we do to him. So if you can find a way to turn him normal again, I'll try to help – but you'll have to try to make me normal again, too. And your main problem is going to be that both us like how things are now, at least some of the time."

"Right, but if you really like each other I suppose you'd both like the other one to get well… we'll try, anyway. I'd like to see you just having a normal, loving relationship like me and Stefan or Radu and Marc. There'll still probably be plenty of sex, just not quite the same sort as at the moment."

I went back outside and found that Killian was no longer the only one who had no clothes on: Oli had thrown his own clothes off and was running about naked again, the way he'd done back when we were staying in the Hub. And that started a chain reaction, and within half an hour we had all dumped our clothes in our tents and were enjoying the sunshine. After all, it was nice and warm, and at least in this world we could be fairly confident that nobody was going to walk in on us. Marlo seemed a bit surprised when he emerged from his tent and found himself in a nudist colony, but he just shrugged, went back into the tent and came out again naked.

On previous occasions when I'd found myself surrounded by naked boys – except in the furnace room, when I was too busy and too tired to do any sight-seeing – my body had betrayed my interest, and it happened again now.

"If you're not thinking about me you're in trouble," growled Stefan in my ear.

"How could I possibly think about anyone else?" I replied, virtuously.

"Very easily. I know you, Jake."

He sat down behind me, pulled me against him and hugged me, and that at least gave me a valid excuse for my state of excitement. But I wasn't alone – several of my friends were also showing signs of interest.

"It's being free again," said Stefan in my ear. "We've been too tired, or too scared, to even think about sex for most of the last few weeks. You and I were lucky because Harlan fixed things up for us to get together, but for everyone else it's been either sex on order from one of the Konjässiem, or sex they didn't want, like Radu and Marc went through, or no sex at all. It's no surprise that they're enjoying being here with each other now – and of course most of them don't come from the sort of society you and I do, so they've got no worries about doing things openly. I'll bet a lot of them pair off and head for their tents before much longer."

"We could do that, too," I pointed out.

"I thought you'd never ask."

When I emerged from the tent again about an hour later the only people in sight were Marlo, who was sitting on the riverbank idly lobbing stones into the water, and Killian and Tommi, who were standing talking a short distance away from him. And then Sarleth put his head out of the back of the truck and called to Tommi, who ran to join him, pausing to wave goodbye to Killian as he went.

"He was telling me about his stepfather," said Killian as I walked over to him. "He saw the bruises and marks on my bum and felt sorry for me, so he showed me his own scars and told me how he got them. And he wasn't scared of me at all – he just spoke to me like I was one of his friends, the same as the rest of you. And it felt strange, but I liked it. That's how I want to be, Jake: just one of the group."

"You'd be the smallest one of the group, at least where it counts," commented Marlo. "I hope you noticed that Tommi's is a fair bit bigger than yours, even though you're older than he is."

"There's more to life than size," replied Killian.

"You'd better hope so. Come here."

Killian walked over to Marlo, who stroked him gently until they both had erections, and then he demonstrated to me that his was substantially bigger than the Konjässi's.

"Nearly five centimetres [2 inch] longer," said Marlo, though I hadn't asked. "And he's older than me. So you'd really better hope size isn't everything."

"Tommi's taller than you," Killian pointed out.

"Now you're being cheeky. I think I'll have to whip you for that."

"It's true, though," I said. "And – remember what we talked about earlier, Marlo – try to hold back on the whipping for a bit."

"But if I'm cheeky I deserve it," said Killian, thus demonstrating how hard it was going to be for me to get them out of their current abusive relationship.

"You do," agreed Marlo. "But Jake wants you and me to sort of turn into him and Stefan, being equal and all lovey-dovey and with no discipline at all. So he's asked me not to beat you for a bit, which I'm really not sure about – you'll just get even cheekier if I don't teach you some manners. Still, if you try not to be cheeky, I'll try not to beat you for a while."

"Well… crumbs, Marlo, I can't imagine you and me being equal, let alone 'lovey-dovey'."

"Me neither. But since Jake got us out of Arvel I think we should at least give it a try… except would it be all right if we sort of ease into it, Jake? We're not even used to being in a new world yet, and it would be easier to change the way we do things once we've settled in a bit."

"I suppose so," I said.

"Thanks. And I will ease back a little bit, as long as he doesn't annoy me too much."

Killian promptly put his tongue out at him and ran off, and Marlo chased after him, threatening him with all sorts of retribution. Obviously it was going to take a long time to change the way they acted with each other, and I wasn't even sure that I should have been trying. But it just seemed so weird and unhealthy to enjoy being hurt, and I wanted to change that if I could.

***

A week went by. There was still no sign of the Arvelans, and I was fairly sure that even if they had filled in the shell holes the portal wouldn't reappear for a long time, and even if it did there would still be a major problem with the portal to this world, not least because the last shell-hole was on our side and so couldn't be filled in from theirs – at least, I didn't think it could. So we began to explore our new environment a bit. Stefan and I crossed the Ill on our rope and walked the eight miles [13 km] or so to the banks of the Rhine, discovering that, as Stefan had feared, it was far too wide for our limited length of rope. If we wanted to cross it without swimming we would obviously have to go a very long way upstream first.

Next we followed the Ill northwards until we reached the point where the first tributary ran into it and then followed the tributary back into the Vosges without finding anywhere that we could get the truck or the jeep across it, though I supposed the tank might make it in a couple of places.

I saw no reason to expect things to be different south of our position, and so I postponed the next trip for a while. Instead we decided to try hunting an antelope – we still had quite a bit of food left, but it seemed sensible to try hunting before we had no choice. None of us had ever hunted an animal this size before, and Stefan wasn't quite sure where to aim to be sure of killing it cleanly.

I left Stefan and Radu to organise things, and in fact when they headed out on their hunting expedition I stayed in the camp. In due course they came back with a carcass draped on the bonnet of the jeep, though Stefan admitted to me afterwards that he'd found it hard to pull the trigger, and harder still to fire again when the animal didn't die straight away.

"I know we're probably going to have to do this," he told me, "but it's hard, Jake. They're beautiful creatures. At least now we know where the heart is, though, so it should be easier to kill it with one shot next time."

The Greys, however, weren't at all squeamish, butchering the carcass expertly and telling me which bits tasted best. I hadn't realised they had any sort of deer in their own world, but apparently they did. The antelopes here were much larger, but that just meant that we got more meat from one animal. Keeping it wasn't so easy, though: we had the battery-powered cool-box we'd bought in Vogesia, but it wasn't big enough to keep all the meat we didn't eat straight away. It was really too warm to risk leaving it lying about, so I set about smoking and drying it, which was probably safer than trying to store it in the river or something.

So by the end of that week I thought that we would be able to live here for quite a long time if we had to, though whether things would be quite so good by the time winter came around was another story. Sooner or later I was going to have to decide if we should abandon this camp and make the long expedition on foot across the Rhine and up to the Feldberg, or remain based here and hope a new portal would appear back in the valley where we had come through, even though there would be more of a risk of meeting the Arvelans if we went that way, especially if we filled in the crater we had made. In an attempt to postpone that decision for another day or two I decided that instead we would follow the Ill south and see if the Thur and other tributaries in that direction would be crossable in our vehicles or not.

So, leaving Alain in charge of the camp, Stefan and I took a two-man tent and enough supplies to last two days and set off in the jeep heading south, following the river bank. We could have walked it, but according to the map it was about twenty-five miles [40 km] from our camp to the point near Ensisheim where the Thur joined the Ill and then at least that distance again until the Thur ran out of the Vosges, and I was feeling lazy. I thought we'd follow the Thur up into the Vosges as far as we could get in the jeep, camp out overnight and then head back next day, thus combining a bit of necessary exploration with a chance for the two of us to be on our own for a couple of days, away from cooking and decision-making and worrying about Killian and Marlo… just me and Stefan, forty or fifty miles from any other people. It sounded like heaven.

We reached the junction of the Ill and the Thur without incident and set off to follow the smaller river towards the Vosges, and we'd covered about five miles [8 km] when we found something that changed everything. We could very easily have missed it, and the only reason we didn't was because Stefan decided that he needed a pee: he parked the jeep close to a small copse of bushes growing on the riverbank and went into it – and ten seconds later he yelled to me at the top of his voice. I snatched up Harlan's gun, which we'd brought with us in case we ran into a sabre-toothed tiger or something (well, who knew how evolution might have gone in a world with no humans?) and ran into the bushes, and found him standing staring at what was undoubtedly a bridge. It looked as if it hadn't been used for a very long time, because the bushes totally obscured this end of it, but it seemed solid enough. We walked gingerly out onto it, but it didn't even creak.

"Looks like we were wrong," said Stefan. "Seems this world isn't uninhabited after all. At least, it was inhabited at one time."

"It's odd we've seen no other trace, though. You'd think prime crop-growing land beside a river would be the first place people would settle, but there's no sign that anyone has ever lived where our camp is. Even in the frozen world there were traces of people having lived on the surface."

"True. And it's odd nobody's been this way for ages, too – why abandon country like this?"

Well, maybe they were only passing through, like us. Perhaps they had vehicles, too, only they had proper engineers with them, so they were able to build bridges…"

I tailed off, because I had just had a flash of inspiration.

"Hey, Stefi," I said, "do you know where I think we are?"

He shook his head and waited.

"You remember when we first found the Hub and were reading its history on Dead Guy's computer? Remember it said they found a world where humans had never evolved? Well, I think this could be it."

"I suppose so," he said. "It would certainly make sense: explorers from the Hub might well have wanted to build a bridge if they were coming and going a few times. And… wow, Jake, if you're right it means there's a good chance of a portal appearing… wait, I can't remember: was that world reached from Hub One or Hub Two?"

"Hub Two," I said. "It was one of the first five they discovered from the Vosges Hub. Of course I'm pretty sure the Kerpians won't have been able to rebuild the Hub and reopen all the portals yet, but it does mean that eventually they'll reconstruct it. All we have to do is wait, and eventually they'll reopen the portal and we'll be able to go back to Kerpia – and I'm sure by now they'll have managed to establish a link back to Elsass."

"We might have a long wait, though. We left the Hub in a bit of a mess, and all those tunnels will have to be rebuilt and the portals re-established. And if anything goes wrong – like the Greys reappearing, or something – it could take them years. In fact it could take years anyway – it's a massive job."

"I'd sooner not have to stay here over the winter… do you think that if we hang around up there the portal might appear on its own?"

"Possibly, though the Arvelans could appear too if we wait up there. I'd sooner stay down on the plain and just go up to check every couple of days. I think that would be safer."

I waited a short distance away for Stefan to have his pee and then we walked back to the jeep and got in.

"Should we have a go at clearing the bushes and go across the river?" Stefan asked.

"It would be easier to bring the tank – that will clear the area quickly enough. I'm not sure the bridge will take the tank, though: it might be safer to try the other vehicles first – if we decide we want to go that way, that is. Let's try carrying on towards the mountains. Maybe there will be more bridges further up."

So we carried on the way we had been going, and this time I was driving. I was thinking about what we had read on the Hub computer about this world: a world where humans had never evolved, and so a world just begging to have its mineral wealth harvested. And then later it had said that exploration of other worlds took a long time because a lot of resources were being diverted to exploiting the minerals in the empty world… and then something else hit me, and I stamped on the brake.

"We might not have to wait," I said, staring at Stefan in excitement.

"What are you talking about?"

"Stefi, you know what the tunnels in the Nexus Rooms were like," I said. "They were narrow and not very high, and at the end of each one there was a ladder and a trapdoor."

"That's right. So what?"

"Well, if you wanted to dig a mine-shaft or something, you wouldn't want to try to do it using a couple of shovels, would you? You'd need proper heavy machinery. And when you'd dug out your coal or whatever it was, you wouldn't want to take it back to your own world a sack at a time, either. So…"

"So they must have built another portal," supplied Stefan, his own excitement growing. "A large one, more like the ones we've been using this time around, big enough to allow heavy machinery to pass through it. But where, though?"

"As near to the mine as they could get it, I should think. It would have to be somewhere away from the Hubs, anyway – they'd want to be on the plain if possible, so as to be able to get their vehicles in and out quickly and easily, and unless they wanted to have to build bridges all over the place they'd want to have the portal right next to the coalfield or whatever they wanted to dig out. So the question is, what minerals are there in and around the Black Forest, the Vosges and the area in between – and especially around here, because they wouldn't have built a bridge right here otherwise. You know this area much better than I do, so what would they be looking for? Coal?"

"Not round here. Most of the major coalfields are a lot further north, in the Ruhr, and there are some in Lothringen and the Saarland, I think. We could head that way if we don't find anything closer, I suppose. What else? Let me think… There are lead and silver mines in Saxony, but that's a really long way from here… we know there's a little uranium in the Black Forest, of course, but it's not economical to try to extract it, unless you're using slave labour…"

He thought some more. "Hey, wait a moment… in my world they used to mine potash just north of where I lived – so that's just south of here. When they first explored from the Hub they'd have been on foot, so I don't suppose they'd have gone prospecting too far from this area. It's worth looking, anyway."

"Where exactly?" I asked.

"There was a whole area north of Mülhausen where it was mined at one time. Most of the mines had closed by the time I joined the Jungvolk, but once I went to visit one of the ones that was still operating. It was near Wittenheim, and that's probably only seven or eight kilometres [4½-5 miles] south of where the Thur meets the Ill. Should we go and look?"

"Well… I don't think we'd get the jeep over the bridge without clearing all the bushes first, and we haven't brought the tools. I suppose we could walk… but why don't we move the camp down here? If we're right and there is a mine at Wittenheim we won't need to pitch camp again, and if we're wrong it still wouldn't be a bad idea to move a bit further from the portal, just in case the Arvelans find a way through."

"Okay. Of course, we could still spend a night out here on our own before we go back…"

"We could, couldn't we?" I smiled at him. "After all, if there is a mine they're hardly going to abandon it overnight…"

So we drove on up the Thur until the mountains began to close in on us from both sides, and when we were as far up the valley as we could get easily – which would have put us in the region of Thann on my map – we pitched our tent close to the river and then walked a little way up into the hills, just to stretch our legs a bit. It was quiet and peaceful there: there were some birds in the sky, but otherwise nothing was moving. We lay on our backs in the long grass and watched the clouds drifting past.

"Sometimes I think I'd like to own a portal to a place like this," I said. "Whenever we get fed up with life and want to get away on our own we could just head through the portal and come here, to our very own empty world."

"Empty apart from a load of Kerpian miners."

"Well, okay, right now I hope there are some miners. But we could sort of claim this bit for ourselves, anyway."

We lay there side by side for ages. The thought that the Kerpians might have a presence in this world had taken a tremendous load off my shoulders, because if they were here and we could find them our troubles would be over. And so I relaxed and watched the clouds and held Stefan's hand, and I dozed a little, too.

Eventually we stirred ourselves and walked back down the hill to the tent. I'd collared one of the few remaining tins of Grey army corned beef and some rice, together with a little two-ring gas burner to cook it on, and once we'd eaten it we went and sat on the riverbank for a while.

"I hope you realise you missed our anniversary," Stefan said.

"I did?"

"Yes, you did. Assuming I haven't completely lost track of time, today is Saturday July 3rd. You and I met last year on June 30th, so we've known each other for a year and three days."

I thought for a moment. I had lost track of the date, and I hadn't realised that Stefan had been counting, either: sometimes he could be even more romantically-inclined than I was. But I realised that he was right.

"Then thank you for an amazing year," I said, putting my arms around him and kissing him, a kiss that he returned enthusiastically.

"It has been interesting, hasn't it?" he agreed, when we came up for air. "How many different worlds have we seen now?"

"I know it was eight for me when we got to Elsass," I said. "That would make it six for you, because you never saw my world or the first Grey one. And since then… let's see: the second Grey one, the Holy Roman Empire, Vogesia, the Frozen World, Arvel and now this one. Although I have to say that I wouldn't mind too much if we didn't see any more: back to Kerpia and then home to Elsass – that's all I want now."

"Me too. Of course we might not have a home there any more: they might have given our room to someone else, seeing that we've been away for six months now."

"Then we'll bunk in with Frank and Shander until they find us another one," I said. "I like it there, and I really don't want to have to move again."

We sat by the river until the sun had disappeared behind the mountains and then we went back to the tent and eventually, after a certain amount of other stuff, went to sleep. And the next day dawned bright and sunny again, and I got up feeling happy and optimistic: if we were right about the mine, today might actually be the day we finally got back home, or at least to Kerpia, where I knew we'd be made welcome. We had breakfast, packed the tent away and drove back down the valley and out onto the plain.

We went back the way we came because I wanted to be sure I could find the bridge again: there were a few places where there were bushes growing alongside the river. But we found it easily enough, and after we'd checked that the bridge really was there and not just a figment of our imagination Stefan got his map and compass out and took a bearing from a couple of hilltops off to our left, just to make sure we could find the place again. Then we drove on back to the camp.

We found a couple of the boys splashing about in the river and Radu lounging on the bank, but not everyone was there: Radu told us that Oli had actually talked Alain into going for a walk with him, and they had headed off back towards the portal, while Marlo and Killian had crossed the river straight after breakfast and headed off towards the Rhine.

"I think that was so the rest of us wouldn't have to put up with Killian yelling while Marlo beats him," Radu added.

"I thought they'd agreed to stop doing that for a bit?"

Radu shrugged. "Marlo had a little whip with him, and Killian was carrying a bag, though I don't know what was in it," he said. "It still seems weird to me, though: Killian's the one with the brain and the power, and yet he lets Marlo do whatever he wants to him."

"They both had their heads messed with," I explained. "I'm hoping that eventually they can forget all that kinky stuff and just start behaving like the rest of us, though I think it might take a while… anyway, we think we might have found a way home." And I told him all about the bridge and our speculation that it dated from the early days of the Kerpian exploration of this world.

"That would be brilliant," he said. "You mean we could really go home – today, even?"

"I hope so. We're all heading that way this afternoon, anyway, as soon as the others come back, so you might as well start packing."

Radu ran off to find Marc and give him the good news, and I got the swimmers out of the river and sent them to get dressed, pack their bags and get the tents down. And while they were doing that I went and found the Greys, who were in the back of the truck with Tommi, though for once they weren't actually having sex with Sarleth.

"I think we've found a way out of this world," I told them. "And even if I'm wrong about the mine, I'm confident that eventually there'll be a portal we can use."

"What mine?"

Once more I explained about the bridge. "And if we can get back to Kerpia they'll be able to get you to another world where the people are the same race as you," I went on. "They can open a portal to a reptile world, one where there isn't a war going on. I have some friends there, too… well, okay, maybe not friends as such, because I know you don't really have friendships like we do. But acquaintances, anyway. They're around your age, and they go to a military school. I could give you a letter for them to give their school director – maybe they could find a place for you there. And even if not it would be a safer world than the one you came from. What do you think?"

They looked at each other. "If we can't get back to our own world," said Torth, "which we probably couldn't even if we could get back to the portal that brought us here, because there would probably be nothing left to go back to, then another world with our own kind would be a good place to go. It's been an interesting experience, interacting with mammals, and a lot of what we have done while we have been with you has been pleasurable, though not all – being in the forest on our own was boring. But we've learned a lot about you, watching you and talking with you and Tommi, and that has been interesting. In one way we would be content to stay with you. But if we could go to be with our own kind that would be preferable."

"Then I'll ask the Kerpians to send you on. Now if you'd like to get packed and take your tents down we'll be ready to leave as soon as the others come back."

It didn't take too long to get the tents down and everything loaded into the truck. We left the two remaining tents for their occupants to deal with on their return: I thought they'd prefer to do their own packing, as at least then the rest of us couldn't be blamed if they were subsequently unable to find something…

Marlo and Killian got back first, and it wasn't too hard to see them approaching against the green background of grass and trees because Killian was stark naked, though Marlo was fully dressed. They crossed the river using the bosun's chair, Marlo making the trip first.

"I didn't think you'd be back yet," he told me.

"So you thought you and Killian could go and do your thing somewhere nice and quiet?"

"Well, yes. Come on, Jake, we are trying, honestly. If we weren't I'd have punished him here and invited everyone else to join in. At least we're keeping it private now."

"I suppose that is something," I conceded. But you'll have to put that stuff on hold for a bit, because hopefully we'll be going to another world this afternoon. Go and get your stuff packed and take the tent down – we'll be heading out as soon as Alain and Oli get back."

Killian reached our side of the river and Marlo helped him out of the bosun's chair and started explaining what I had said as they walked past me. I could see that Killian had some fresh marks on his bottom and I shook my head, wondering if there was any chance at all of straightening them out.

Once they had their tent down I surrendered to impatience and got in the jeep, driving up towards the portal-site, and I found Alain and Oli heading towards me at the point where the last foothill flattened out at the edge of the plain.

"What's up?" Alain asked as I gestured to them to get in.

"We're moving out. I think I might have found a way home… so, did you go and look at where the portal was?"

"Yes, and there's no sign of anything happening there at all, so we had to find something else to do… it's probably a good thing you didn't find us about half an hour ago, because we were sort of busy… so what do you mean about a way home?"

So I gave them my hypothesis that this was the world mentioned in the Hub records, and they both agreed that it made perfect sense, and the result was that they wasted no time at all in getting their gear packed up and their tent on board the truck. I had a quick scout round the campsite to make sure we hadn't forgotten anything, but it looked clear: while I'd been off collecting Alain and Oli Stefan had dismantled our bosun's chair and packed the rope away in the truck, and as far as I could see we hadn't left anything behind.

I stuck my head over the back of the truck to make sure everyone was aboard, and saw something out of place.

"Give him his clothes back, Marlo," I said. "He can't travel naked, I'm afraid – what sort of an impression is that going to give the people I'm hoping to meet?"

"But he doesn't deserve… okay, okay, he can have his robe, and his shoes. But he isn't allowed anything underneath it!"

"I suppose so," I said. "I definitely need to do some work with you two, though. In fact… come with me. You can travel in the jeep with me for a change."

I left Killian putting his robe on, nodded to Verdess, who was at the wheel of the truck as usual with the other two Greys beside him, and walked forward to the tank. Alain was in the driver's seat again, and Stefan, Oli and Radu were aboard with him.

"Stop when you get to the bushes," I told Stefan. "We'll clear the approach to the bridge and then decide whether or not to risk the truck and the tank on it."

I walked back to the jeep, collecting Killian and Marlo on the way, and took my place behind the wheel. Nicky was sitting in the front passenger seat, so I told him to stay where he was and sent Marc and Tommi forward to the truck. Today the tank was going to lead because Stefan knew where we were going, and in any case the tank was, I hoped, going to clear away the bushes from the end of the bridge, either by crushing them flat or by dragging them out by the roots using its tow cable.

We made good time along the river – as we had found out before, the tank could move at a decent speed on flat ground – and we reached the bridge in mid-afternoon. Once we got there we got out of our vehicles and waited while the tank crew cleared the bushes away using its tow cable. That left us with a few small holes to fill in, but the soil around the riverbank was fairly soft and it didn't take too long to make the approach to the bridge passable.

"Now I want everyone over to the far side except the three drivers – no, in fact I want Verdess and Alain over there too," I said. "That way if the bridge does collapse at least you won't have to swim across. Then I'll bring the jeep, and if I make it Verdess can bring the truck, and after that we'll decide if we should risk the tank or not. Any questions?"

There weren't, so I waited until everyone had crossed the bridge and got clear of the far side and then I got back into the jeep and drove it slowly across the bridge. But there wasn't so much as a creak, and I drove off the far end of the bridge and pulled over to the side, confident that we would be able to get the truck across at least.

Verdess walked back across the bridge and drove the truck over, and again there wasn't a hint that the bridge was in danger of collapse. He pulled the truck over in front of the jeep and got out.

"What do you think?" I asked Alain. "Do you want to try?"

"Might as well. I don't fancy leaving it for the Arvelans to use, and if we don't bring it with us the back of the truck is going to get very crowded."

So he walked back to the tank and climbed in, though he left the hatch open in case he had to get out in a hurry. And then he lined the tank up and roared across at top speed, no doubt thinking that if the bridge did start to give way his momentum might be enough to carry him across. And in the event the bridge held. He parked the tank next to the truck and climbed out.

"They're good, those Kerpian engineers," he said.

"They are, aren't they?" I agreed. "I wonder why they bothered making it that strong, though, if it was only going to be used for a short period… after all, if they were going to open a larger portal nearer the mine they wouldn't have needed to transport a lot of stuff back up to the one in the Vosges."

"Maybe they originally intended building another large portal up there," suggested Stefan. "Or perhaps it was because they wanted to be able to use some of their potash in other worlds, and it would be easier to do that if it was delivered direct to the Hub."

"Maybe. It doesn't matter, anyway: what matters is that we're across. Which way is Wittenheim?"

"Straight ahead from the bridge – we just have to keep going the way the vehicles are pointing now."

"Then let's go," I said. "Eight kilometres [5 miles], you said? So if you're right about the mine we could be only eight kilometres [5 miles] from Kerpia – and that means we could be almost home!"

Everyone got back in the same vehicles that they had travelled this far in, though this time Sarleth got in the back of the truck so that he could sit with Tommi. And once everyone was aboard we set off. Because the truck was in front of the jeep Verdess led the way, and I followed him with the tank bringing up the rear – after all, I was fairly sure that if we were going to be attacked it would be by the Arvelans coming up behind us.

After we had been driving for around ten minutes we went through a belt of trees, and as we emerged from the far side of them Verdess sounded the truck horn a couple of times. I swung out a little so that I could see past the truck, and then I was able to see what Verdess had seen: there was a pithead winding-gear tower in view ahead of us, and some buildings close to it. And the winding-gear wheel was turning: the mine was actually in use.

"I bet they're going to be surprised to see us!" I commented happily, already contemplating being home in time for supper, and still not realising that I'd made my worst and most costly mistake yet. And even when they started shooting at us it took a few seconds before I realised what I'd done: I'd led a column of Grey military vehicles, headed by a truck with two Greys in military uniforms in the cab, towards a base crewed by people who had recently been at war with a Grey world. I knew the mining operation in the Green World was important to the Kerpians, and so it shouldn't have come as a surprise to discover that they had assigned a unit of their militia to protect it, and yet I'd been so busy thinking about getting home that I hadn't stopped to think what we would look like to them.

The truck slewed to a halt and Verdess fell out of the cab door and landed in a heap on the ground. I drove the jeep just past the truck and pulled across in front of it to try to give Verdess some cover, and then I jumped from the driver's seat and ran towards the mine, waving my hands frantically and yelling at them in Kerpian that we were humans and that we weren't hostile. I could hear bullets hitting the truck and the jeep and I hoped that Nicky and the others would have the sense to keep their heads down… and then something hit me violently in the side and knocked me to my knees. I put my hand to my side and it came away red. And then something else hit me on the head and I blacked out.

Just when you were thinking they were home and dry, too… I can at least promise you that this will be the last cliffhanger ending, because the next chapter will also be the final one.

Chapter Eighteen

I woke up with a splitting headache, and I was also finding it hard to breathe: something was constricting my chest. A few seconds more and my head had cleared enough for me to realise that I was lying in a bed, and from the machinery to my left and the needle in my arm I surmised that I was in hospital somewhere. I must have made a noise as I tried to sit up, because Nicky suddenly appeared on the right hand side of the bed.

"Hey, Jake," he said. "How do you feel?"

"Lousy. Where am I?"

"We're at the mine – it has its own mini-hospital in case of mining accidents. I was just here because I wanted to talk to Killian, but if you hold on a moment I'll go and find Stefan for you."

"No, wait – what happened, exactly?"

"Well, you got shot. You were lucky – the doctor said that if you'd been standing three inches [8 cm] to your left you'd be dead, because the first bullet sort of pinged off a rib – which is why your chest is all strapped up – and the second one creased your head as it went past. The doctor says you'll be fine in a day or so – they just want to hang on to you for a bit in case there are any delayed reactions to getting hit on the head. Anyway, I'll go…"

"No! Wait… did everyone make it?"

He turned his head away and began to mumble something about Stefan being only just outside, he'd just go and find him.

"Tell me!" I insisted. "Please, Nicky, I have to know."

He sighed and sat down beside my bed.

"Killian had a bullet in his thigh," he began. "He's fine, the bullet missed the… I can't remember what Marc said it was called, but it's the main blood vessel in the leg."

"The femoral artery," I supplied. "Go on."

"Well… Verdess is dead. I don't suppose he even knew what had happened, because he took a bullet right above the left eye and… well, Marc says he would have died instantly. And… see, what happened is, we saw you get shot, and Killian jumped out of the jeep to go and try to drag you back under cover, only he got shot, too. So Marlo and I ran out to help: I dragged you back towards the jeep, and Marlo tried to move Killian, only he couldn't manage on his own, so instead he tried to shield Killian with his body… and he got hit. Three times, in fact… I'm really sorry, Jake, but he's dead, too."

"He saved my life," said Killian's voice, and I turned my head and saw that he was in the next bed. "Even after the first bullet hit him he wouldn't leave me: he said my white robe made me too easy a target. He said he'd stay on top of me until Nicky got back from dragging you back to the jeep, but by the time he got back – and Torth came too – Marlo had been hit twice more. They tried to save him, but… but…"

Killian tailed off, sobbing, and I couldn't think of anything to say, because I knew it was my stupidity that had got Marlo and Verdess killed. Nicky got up and left, and a couple of minutes later Stefan came in and sat down beside me. Nicky trailed in after him and went and sat next to Killian, first holding his hand and then putting his arms round him.

"So you know about Verdess and Marlo," said Stefan.

I nodded mutely.

"Well, it wasn't your fault," he said. "I know you, Jake: right now you're convinced it was down to you, but you're wrong, it wasn't. There was no way you could have known they'd react the way they did – I mean, it didn't occur to me either, and I'm supposed to be able to think like a soldier. But we'd all got so used to seeing the Greys wearing the uniforms they found in Hilsstok that we didn't even think about it any more. Anyway, if I'd been in charge things would have been far worse, because when I saw you lying next to the jeep with blood all over your face I lost it and wanted to start shelling the mine, only the other three wouldn't let me, and when I tried to load the gun single-handed Radu hit me. And Alain stopped the tank sideways on in front of the jeep and the truck so that you'd be out of their soldiers' line of fire, and Radu hit the turret button and turned the gun to point away from the mine, and then they finally got the message that we weren't hostile and stopped shooting.

"And then Alain took off his shirt so that they could easily see he wasn't a Grey and climbed slowly out of the hatch with his hands in the air, shouting that we were human. We kept Torth and Sarleth out of the way until everything had calmed down and tried to help Marc deal with you and Killian and Marlo until the mine doctor turned up. Only there was nothing he could do for Marlo: he had two bullets in his chest and his lungs had been punctured, and he died before they could fix him up.

"But it wasn't your fault, Jake! You're not psychic: you couldn't have foreseen what would happen. None of us could, not even Killian with his super-clever brain. So stop beating yourself up about it."

Well, he could argue all he wanted: it wouldn't make any difference to the fact that I was in charge and, for the second time in a fortnight, people had died. I had no idea how I could cope with this, so I said, "My head hurts, Stefi. Can you go and find a doctor to give me something?"

The doctor came and gave me some sort of painkiller, and as I result I fell asleep again, and when I woke up – and that didn't happen until the following morning – my head felt better but my heart still felt completely numb. And when Stefan came to see me I told him that I didn't want to be in charge any longer, and that as far as I was concerned he was our leader now, unless maybe Alain wanted to try.

"No chance!" said Alain – he and Oli had come to see me with Stefan. "I'd make a complete mess of it! If I'd been in charge we'd probably all have died in the Grey world, from hunger or cold or both. Jake, you're the only one who can lead us – Stefan's fine if we have to plan a battle or something, and I can cope if we're just staying in one place and there aren't any enemies around, but otherwise you're our leader."

"Only if you want to get killed," I commented, bitterly.

"Jake, you took six of us with you into the Grey world, and all six of us are still here. I'm sorry about Marlo, but Dannis more or less decided his own fate when he attacked Dervoran, Verdess would have died ages ago if you hadn't rescued him from the caves, and Dervoran and Harlan… well, I'm sorry, but after the things they did back at the school I'm not going to shed tears for them. Time and time again you've got us out of trouble when the rest of us were floundering about without a clue – you got us out of the Grey world even though there was a war on there, you had a logical plan to find us another portal, you remembered about this place – which is going to get us all home, because there is a portal here back to Kerpia – and, most brilliant of all, you got us out of the school – all of us – and back to the portal, and so you saved everyone from a hopeless future as a lab rat to the Konjässiem. Nobody else would have ever found a way to do that. We need you, Jake: you're our leader – and you're the best friend Oli and I could ever ask for, too. Please don't give up."

That was enough to start me crying again, and the three of them hugged me – gently, because of my cracked rib – and held me until I calmed down, and after that I did feel a bit better, though I thought it would be a very long time before I completely forgave myself for not thinking ahead. And I had no idea what I was going to say to Killian, because I knew how much he was going to miss Marlo.

The doctor kept me in hospital for another twenty-four hours, just to make sure there was no danger of any after-effects to my head injury, and by the time I got up again my side was feeling much better: apparently they had some clever technique to accelerate the healing process of damaged ribs. During that time I had a visit from the captain of the militia unit, who apologised for shooting at us, though he said he hoped I could understand why it had happened. So I said that I didn't blame him or his men at all, and that I should have realised what we would look like. And it would be fair to say that his visit didn't leave me feeling any better about myself.

On the following day I was able to get up and rejoin my friends, and although they were sorry about what had happened to Verdess and Marlo they were also looking forward to getting home, and so on the whole they were feeling positive about things. I suppose it helped that Torth and Sarleth reacted to Verdess's death in typical Grey style, which could be summed up as 'I'm still alive and that's all that matters', and in fact they found it hard to understand why we wanted to bury him and Marlo by the belt of trees we had driven through. I explained that in our culture we liked to have a chance to say goodbye to people who had died, and Torth told me that in his culture the corpses of the dead were used to make fertiliser.

"Don't you miss him at all?" I asked. "After all, you were together for a very long time."

"I suppose we are aware that he isn't around any longer, and I regret that," Torth admitted. "I've learned that in your culture you see other people differently, and that you interact much more closely with them than we do. At times I think that perhaps we lack something, but then when someone dies it affects us far less than it does you, so perhaps our way is best."

"It's strange that you came to help drag Killian and Marlo back under cover when they were getting shot at, then. What happened?"

"I don't know. For a moment I found myself thinking like a mammal, I suppose. I can't understand it now, because now that I'm thinking sensibly again it seems insane to risk your life to help someone else."

"I don't think so. I think we gain a massive amount from having friends, and although it makes it harder for us when one of our friends dies, I still wouldn't prefer to live alone the way you do. It's having friends that has kept us going when things have been difficult, and that's why it's worth taking risks to help them."

And we were able to demonstrate that when we buried Verdess and Marlo that afternoon because, even though some of my friends still had reservations about having a Konjässi in our party, they all put them aside for long enough to try to support Killian as he grieved for Marlo. Nicky had scarcely left his side over the past couple of days, sitting by his bed in the hospital and supporting him as he limped about the place after the doctor allowed him to get out of bed.

"It's because he was the one who wanted to go and help you when you got shot," Nicky admitted to me. "You know I really like you, but I was too scared to leave the jeep. But Killian said he couldn't leave you and ran to help you, and that sort of shamed me into getting out of the jeep myself. He's a lot braver than me, and I'm really sorry that Marlo's dead. Maybe if I'd gone to help you straight away he and Marlo could have stayed in the jeep and been safe. So now I'm just doing my best to help him. And now I'm not scared of him any more, either – now I can see he's just an unhappy kid, like I was back in Vogesia."

And after we'd finished saying farewell to the two dead boys and had gone back to the mine Nicky stayed with Killian while he said his private goodbyes. And a bit later it was Nicky who came to tell me that Killian wanted to talk to me.

"I don't know what I'm going to do now," Killian said. "I don't know if Terry told you this, but in the first year at the Academy you don't get involved in the more serious experiments. So I've never seen anyone die in front of me before, and it was horrible, though I suppose at least I was able to help him a bit: he was hurting a lot, and he was scared of dying, so I sort of numbed the pain a bit and did my best to calm him, and at the end when the pain got too bad I just closed his brain down so that he went to sleep. But how am I going to manage without him? I need someone to look after me and keep me under control, and he was the only one who could do that…"

"We'll all look after you, but not like that," I said. "We'll show you what a normal friendship is like – I'm pretty sure everyone feels better about you now than they did before, and that means you'll have people you can count on and who will help you to cope with being in a strange world. You won't ever have to feel alone again."

I hoped my friends would back me up here, because I knew that not all of them were happy about Killian being with us.

"Yes, but you know what I need."

"You don't need it – you just think you do. And if Harlan was strong enough to make you think you did, I can't see why you can't be strong enough yourself to realise that you don't need it after all. You needed it because Konjässiem don't have any friends, not real ones, but now you're with us you'll have friends. You'll be fine, Killian – I believe in you."

"You've got doubts, though – I can see them," he pointed out. "You're not sure everyone is going to accept me."

"Oh, they will: the Mad Hintraten Stokers accept all sorts – hell, we even accept Greys, and you're a lot more like us than they are. Give them time, Killian: once they see the real you, they'll like you. Ask Nicky."

"Yes, he has been nice to me… Okay, I'll try."

"Good."

***

Later that afternoon we were taken to a large warehouse at the far side of the site. There was a railway track running into the warehouse and a loading area for goods wagons just outside it, but when we went into the warehouse we found a railcar on the tracks instead of a goods train. The track ran up to a closed shutter door.

"The portal's on the other side of the door," our guide explained. "We've got two, one for heavy road traffic and one for rail, and on the other side of the portal, in Kerpia, there's a line that goes to the distribution centre on the north side of Molnarhass. You can get a train across the Rajna from there – you said you wanted to get back to Hintraten, I think?"

I confirmed that this was correct – after all, if we were going to be able to send Torth and Sarleth through to the other Grey world I was fairly sure I would need to talk to Narj Larzel again.

"Then you want the train for Ulm. Anyway, you speak our language perfectly, so you shouldn't have any problems. So, have you got everything?"

We'd decided to abandon the tents and the heavier gear we'd been carrying – after all, once we were back in Kerpia we shouldn't need them any more – and so were now just carrying our own bags, and since most of our clothing had been left behind at the school they weren't very heavy. So we took our places on the train and waited while the shutter was raised, and once it was the train rolled slowly forwards through the portal and on into Kerpia. We emerged from the far side of the warehouse into a normal landscape of houses and roads and electric pylons, and that was a view that stayed with us throughout the short journey to the distribution centre. Word had obviously gone ahead of us, because we were met on the platform by another employee of the mining company, who directed us to a more conventional train waiting at another platform. And this one took us across the Rhine and, in due course, back to Hintraten once more. We walked the short distance from the station to the Town Hall and asked for Mr Narj, whose reaction on seeing us was similar to the one he had displayed when Stefan and I had walked into the same building the previous December.

"I knew you were still alive!" he greeted me. "You're indestructible! Come through and tell me what happened."

He took us to a conference room and sat us around the table, and then sat back and looked at me expectantly. "So," he invited, "tell me what happened after the tree fell on the portal."

"Huh? What tree?"

"You didn't know? A tree came down in the storm and one of the branches hit the tent. We hoped you'd got through before it happened, but when we finally re-established the portal a week or so later, once the scientists from your side were able to converse with us properly, we found that half of your party was missing. The first group had got back safely, but after that, nothing. So we guessed that you'd been thrown off somewhere else – after all, you weren't at our end or theirs, alive or dead, so you had to be somewhere. So where were you?"

"In another Grey world – not the one you were at war with, but a completely different one. Only that one was at war too, internally. We rescued three boys who had been underground when the bombs went off – these are two of them. The third one didn't make it. But I was hoping you'd be able to send these two through to the Grey world you already know about – they can't go back to their own world because the war there went nuclear."

"I don't see why not. Obviously I don't know what sort of a welcome they'd get there, but we can send them through if that's what they want."

Tommi had been translating for Torth and Sarleth, and they both indicated that they wanted to do that. So that was one problem solved.

I went on to explain, briefly, about the other worlds we had been through, and about the problems we had encountered in Arvel, and I ended by saying that we just wanted to get back home.

"That won't be a problem," Mr Narj told us. "There's a permanent portal between your world and ours now, and there are more under construction. We have a political agreement with your state for preliminary portals, and an agreement in principle for a full political alliance and trading accord once the portals have been extensively tested. It should be beneficial to all of us, and I guess we've got you to thank for it. I hope your own world is suitably grateful."

"To be honest, I don't care whether they're grateful or not. I just want to get home. Where's the portal – up on the Feldberg?"

"No – we decided that it made sense if the first permanent one was on Elsass soil, rather than over here, where your side of it would be in the neighbouring state. So it's just outside your capital. We are rebuilding the two Nexus Rooms, though, and eventually there'll be another link between your world and ours up in the mountains on your side of the river. Once we shipped the last of the Greys back we started work repairing the tunnels at Hub One, and we've been working on Hub Two for the past three or four months as well. It's going to be a long job, but it's worth it, because when we have a success – like finding the uninhabited world – the rewards far outweigh the costs. Anyway, it would be best if you stay with us overnight: that will give us time to make the travel arrangements to get you to the portal tomorrow, and it'll give us a chance to send your Grey friends through to the other reptile world, too. Wait here for a few minutes and I'll make some calls."

He came back fifteen minutes later and told us that he'd booked us into a hotel in town for the night and that we'd be travelling by train to the new portal-site next morning. He took us to the hotel personally, and it was clearly the best one in town, and when I commented on that he said that we were national heroes and that meant we got only the best. In one way I'd have quite liked to stay if that was going to be the attitude of the Kerpian authorities, but on the other I was still looking forward to getting back to our own room. Assuming we still had one, of course…

We saved the state a bit of expense by asking for five double rooms instead of ten singles: Nicky said he would share a room with Killian, rather than leaving him on his own, and that left Tommi and Caradoc together. Of course their hair colour and the two-year age difference meant that anyone meeting them for the first time would quite possibly take them for brothers, and although they didn't really know each other very well yet, I thought that would change once they'd shared a room a couple of times: Tommi was outgoing and friendly, and both were keen on physical activities…

Once everyone was relaxing in their rooms at the hotel Mr Narj took me, Tommi and the two Greys up to the Grey checkpoint above the Hub One Nexus Room. There were a number of people working there, and already one of the tunnels back to the Hub had been reopened: Mr Narj disappeared into it and returned a few minutes later with some men in pale green coats. These bustled about on the surface outside the checkpoint, setting up equipment and connecting it to the power supply inside the checkpoint using thick electrical cables. We stayed back out of the way, though I took the opportunity to write an introductory letter for Torth and Sarleth. My written Grey was a bit ropy, and it took a while before I was satisfied with the result, but eventually I ended up with this:

Hi Haless,…

I was involved in a portal accident about six months ago, and while I was trying to get home I met the two boys who are carrying this note. Their names are Torth and Sarleth, and they come from another reptile world like yours. But they can't go home because there was a nuclear war in their country and their town and the whole area around it were destroyed.

I don't know if your school can take them, but I think they'd be suitable, because they survived on their own for long periods, first while trapped in some caves and later when stuck in a forest for several weeks. I think they would make good soldiers. If your school can't take them I hope your director can find somewhere else for them.

I don't suppose we will meet again, but I found it interesting being with you. My best wishes to Issin, Rathyk and the others – and to Ssyrl, if he's with you again. I heard what he did, and he's a lot braver than me. And Tommi says hello to Trethar.

Jake.

I couldn't remember the name of Haless's school, but I was able to describe how to get there from the cable car station, so I explained to Torth how to get there and gave him the note.

"Ask for a boy called Haless," I said. "If he's not there you could try the other names I mention in the note – all of them will remember me."

"Thank you," said Torth. "As I said before, it has been interesting living with you and the other mammals. I know that we would be dead if you hadn't led us from the caves… I know I said before that I didn't understand why you decided to save us – especially Sarleth, since he had to be carried – but now I think I do understand: it's because you're social creatures. What you said when we put Verdess in the earth… I can see why you choose to live in such a way, co-operating with each other and helping each other: when something bad happens you don't have to face it alone. It's a strange way of living, but I can see that it makes it easier to deal with problems if you face them together."

"We think it makes us stronger," I said. "It's hard to hurt you because you're not affected when something bad happens to your colleagues, but we think it worth accepting the risk of hurt in exchange for being able to face life together."

"I think I can understand that. It's a mammal way of thinking, but I've seen that it has positive results. Like I said, being with you has been interesting, and educational, too."

We waited for the scientists to finish rigging up the temporary portal, and once they had run their checks and were satisfied they gave Mr Narj the nod and he motioned the two Greys forward.

"Good luck," I said. "I hope everything works out for you."

Torth nodded. "I don't suppose we will meet again," he said, "and I find that strangely dissatisfying. I would never have used this word before meeting you, but now I think I would consider you a 'friend'. Thank you, Jake."

He turned and walked over to the portal, and once Sarleth joined him – he'd been saying his own goodbyes to Tommi – one of the scientists threw a switch and the portal hummed for a few seconds. And once it was properly established the scientists waved the Greys forward, and they stepped through it. The scientist hit the switch again and the two Greys disappeared.

"Thanks," I said to Mr Narj.

"No problem. If you'd like to wait by the jeep I'll be with you in a few minutes – I need to talk to the head of the repair operation."

"It's okay, we'll walk," I said. "It's a nice day, and I wouldn't mind a walk, especially if it's downhill all the way. Is that okay with you, Tommi?"

"I'd like that," said Tommi, and so we started walking.

"I'm going to miss Sarleth," he said. "He was fun. I reckon if more Greys and humans spent time together we'd understand each other a lot better, and then there wouldn't be any more fighting between us. We're not really all that different from them."

"If what Torth was just saying to me is anything to go by, perhaps you're right. So what did you and Sarleth get up to while you were sharing a tent? Did you actually do what you were talking about when we were in Vogesia?"

"Well… yes, actually. I mean, not everything – I wasn't going to let Torth and Verdess actually do it to me, but I did do it to Sarleth a couple of times. It was nice, and he seemed to like it, too. I wasn't sure if he would, because of course I'm much warmer than the other Greys, but he said it felt good. I'm going to miss doing that."

"I should think if you end up spending time with Caradoc you won't miss it for long, because he likes playing sex games. Borrow Alain's cards and challenge him to a strip game tonight and I expect you'll find out what I'm talking about."

"Okay, I will. Thanks. So – are we really going home tomorrow?"

"I hope so – provided nothing else goes wrong."

"I'm sure it won't if they've got a proper portal now. It'll be really nice to get back and see all our friends again won't it? I wonder if Markus and Sylvie are still together… I think they probably will be, because he was sort of serious about her…"

We walked on for another fifteen minutes or so.

"Jake… I know you're still sort of unhappy because people got killed, but it really wasn't your fault, all right? I was talking to Oli on the train, and I said something about how amazing it was that all of us got out of the school and all the way back to Kerpia, when we'd been prisoners almost two thousand ezerhersps away, and he said that it wasn't all that surprising because we had you as our leader. He said he always knew you'd find a way out for us because you're so brilliant, and because you'd never dream of leaving anyone behind. He never doubted for a moment that you'd think of a plan. And you did, didn't you?"

"God, Tommi, that makes it sound so easy – does Oli really think that it doesn't matter what happens to us because Super Jake will always find a way to rescue us?"

"Pretty much."

"Well, he's mad, then! There was so much that went wrong with this one, and even more that could have gone wrong. I didn't know how Torth would behave, I had no idea how far Harlan might have gone, we could all have been shot by the police helicopter – I had no control over any of it. And if they'd had some heavy guns at the mine we could all have been killed there too, not just Verdess and Marlo. I was lucky, Tommi. And next time I might not be so lucky, and everyone might die, which is why I don't want to do this any more. Alain and Oli keep saying stuff like 'you've never let us down yet', but sooner or later I will, and I couldn't stand it if anything happened to them, or to the rest of you, either. And that's why I don't ever want to see a portal again after tomorrow."

"I don't suppose there's any reason why we should, is there? All you have to say next time is 'No, thanks, I'm allergic to portals' and they'll leave you alone. Although I still think they're exciting – I love seeing completely new worlds, with different ways of doing everything and interesting places to visit."

"That's just because you and I were lucky at the school: neither of us got messed about with too badly. But if we'd stayed, sooner or later you'd have got too old to be a runner, and after that you'd have found yourself on the end of the nastier experiments. Okay, so I liked lying on the beach in Vogesia, and once I got over the shock of the Nazis running Greater Bavaria that whole world was pretty good. But the rest of the worlds we saw this time around weren't too good, were they? A Grey world where they drop nuclear bombs on each other; a world where it's so cold you'd freeze if you stayed there for too long; a world with no TV, no radio, no computers, no books and nothing to do except go to church; a world where they do ghastly experiments on you; and a completely empty place that I suppose was nice enough in the summer but which wouldn't have been a lot of fun in the winter, especially if the antelopes migrated away. No, I think I've seen as many other worlds as I want: all I want now is to get back to Elsass and settle down to a nice boring life."

I'm fairly sure that Tommi disagreed with that, but he didn't say so – perhaps he was afraid of hurting my feelings. But I meant it: even if the portal scientists came and waved sheaves of credits under my nose I had no intention of ever going through another one after we got back home.

We walked back to Hintraten, taking our time, enjoying the scenery and the nice weather and talking about inconsequential stuff, and when we got back to the hotel I said I'd see Tommi at supper-time and headed for our room. And I found Stefan lying on the bed looking at the ceiling.

"Everything okay?" he asked me, and I assured him that it was.

"Good. Last time we slept in a hotel in this town we had to hide behind clouds of steam when we wanted to do anything. This time we won't have to. Still, maybe we should take a shower before supper. What do you think?"

Strangely, I thought that was an excellent idea.

***

Supper was excellent, especially when compared to what we'd been living on in the last couple of weeks: Harlan's choice of slave rations had been functional rather than selected for gourmet diners, and I'm not sure that my Antelope Surprise was the greatest dish that had ever been created, either. And the bed was comfortable, too, especially as we had been camping and so sleeping on the ground until a couple of days ago. I decided I liked being a hero of the state.

Next morning after breakfast Mr Narj came to the hotel and escorted us to the station. He'd booked us on the local train as far as Sábavar, which was the Kerpian name for Freiburg, and there we would change onto a fast train that would take us the rest of the way to Utkravar (or Strasbourg). He'd arranged for someone to meet us at the station to take us the rest of the way to the portal-site.

"Have a good journey," he said to me as the train arrived. "And remember, you're welcome to come back and visit any time you want."

And that was very kind, but I thought – just as I had when Lothar Fischer said something similar about me going back to Greater Bavaria – that the chances of me coming back here were small to non-existent.

We didn't have long to wait in Freiburg, and the express only took about an hour to get us to Strasbourg. It followed a route on what I would have called the German side of the Rhine and crossed the river at Kehl, and the scenery was nice, but I didn't appreciate it as much as I might have done because I was really only thinking of getting home. As promised, we were met on arrival by one of Mr Narj's colleagues, and he took us by minibus to what looked like an industrial estate to the east of the city centre.

"We didn't think there was really a risk of anything going wrong," he told me, "but it still seemed like a good idea to put the portal away from residential areas. It's something we've always done, and we didn't have too much trouble convincing our colleagues from your side, either. Anyway, here we are."

He took us into an anonymous-looking building that looked exactly like any other building on a light industry estate, and in the middle of the large room that took up most of the ground floor there was an archway set up, big enough to allow quite a large truck to pass through.

"They're expecting you," our guide said. "We popped through this morning and told them you were coming, so if you're lucky you won't have to walk back to the station over there. Anyway, if you'd like to stand in front of the arch, we'll give you the word when it's safe to go through."

Once again switches were thrown and motors hummed, and then a cyan light on the arch lit up and we were told we could go.

I hoped this would be the last time I went through a portal, and really it was a complete anti-climax: nothing went wrong at all. We stepped out of Kerpia and into Elsass without incident.

There were three or four scientists waiting for us, including Dr Szabo, who I had last seen at the clinic in Hintraten, and one other that I recognised but whose name I had forgotten.

"Welcome home," that one said. "I have to say that I'm glad to see you: we were afraid you were lost for good when the original portal failed. We'd like to debrief you on what happened, and perhaps you can tell us a bit about your new friends, because I can see that your party is a bit bigger now than when you left… anyway, once you've done that we'll get you back to your Résidence. So… where did you go when the portal failed?"

So once again I gave the short version of our history over the past six months, and while I was doing that I asked if Nicky, Killian and Caradoc could stay with us – after all, I said, it was largely thanks to us that the state now had access to portal technology…

And the chief scientist said that he could see no reason to object to that, and he gave me a short note to take to the director of the Résidence, asking if the three new boys could be accommodated with us.

Half an hour later we were on our way back to the station, and a couple of hours after that we got off the tram and walked the short distance back to our Résidence. I was a bit disappointed that nobody came to meet us, but it seemed that nobody had told them we were coming, and all our friends were at school – they were now all studying at the local school, rather than in the Résidence itself. We went straight to the director's office and knocked at his door, and the look on his face when we walked in was priceless.

"They were right, then," he greeted us.

"Who was?"

"Markus and the others. They all swore you were alive and that you'd be back sooner or later. And when I tried to reassign your rooms I nearly had a riot on my hands. In the end I let them persuade me, so you've still got the same rooms, if you can remember where they are after all this time… you'll have to tell me where you've been and what you've been doing when you get a moment, but for now I expect you'd just like to go and start to settle back in. Perhaps we can talk a bit after supper. Now… there seem to be more of you than when you left…"

"Ah, yes…these are friends we sort of picked up on the way. We'd like them to be able to stay here with us if possible. The chief scientist at the portal in Strossburi seemed to think it would be okay, legally-speaking – he gave me a note for you…"

I handed it across and he perused it briefly.

"Well, we have got a couple of rooms available, as long as a couple of them don't mind sharing," he said.

"We don't mind at all," said Nicky – of course we were speaking in English, which meant that Nicky at least had been able to follow the conversation. "I'm Nicky, and this is my friend Killian, and we'd both like it if we could share a room."

"Ah, you speak English? That's a nice change – the last batch Jake brought with him couldn't. What about your two friends?"

"Sorry," I said. "That one's called Caradoc, and neither he nor Killian can speak English or French. But I'm sure we can help teach them…"

"I'm sure you can. Anyway, those of you who already have rooms, you can go and relax until supper-time. Jake, perhaps you could show Nicky and his friend Room 2-13, and the other one 2-14. And now I'd better call Marc's parents and tell them that their son isn't dead after all."

"Oh, God, I'll get grounded for about a million years," said Marc, gloomily.

"I shouldn't think so," said the director. "I should think they'll be so happy to see you safe and well that they won't even consider grounding you. Besides, what happened was a freak of nature, and nobody could blame you for that."

"And when we tell them what a brilliant doctor he's going to be I should think that will help, too," I pointed out. "He saved lives out there, you know."

"I have a question," said Stefan. "You said our friends were all at school. Does that means we'll have to go to school tomorrow, too?"

"Strictly, yes," said the director. "But there doesn't seem any point, because tomorrow is the last day of school before the summer holidays. So you can have an extra day off tomorrow to give you a chance to recover, and then you can go back to school with the others at the beginning of September."

And that, I thought, was really good news. Last year we'd missed the whole of the summer holidays; this year we seemed to have timed things to perfection.

Stefan and I went up to our room, which had been cleaned but otherwise not been touched since we had left the previous December, and we unpacked (which didn't take long) and changed into some of our other clothes, only to find that they were mostly a bit too small: we'd both grown quite a bit in the past six months. We found some that weren't too tight and got changed, and then we lay on the bed to wait for supper. I wasn't too surprised when, over a period of about fifteen minutes or so, the rest of the party came to join us.

"I'm going to move in with Caradoc," Tommi told us. "That'll make it easier for Markus if he wants to talk to Sylvie, or do anything else with her, in private: he won't have to worry about me walking in on them. And I have to help Caradoc to learn English, too."

The new boys asked us some questions about their new home and seemed to like the answers, although both Killian and Caradoc were going to have to try to learn English or French, or even both. At one point I was asked to go back to back to the director's office with the three of them to help them register, and although Nicky's name caused us no problems (he had a surname, Tessier, just like the rest of us) the other two were less straightforward. When I asked Killian his full name he replied "Killian ved Carran of the Clan of the West," which I didn't think entirely suitable – it wouldn't fit onto the director's documents, for a start. I suppose we could just have called him 'Killian West', but in the end I decided to replace the Konjässi patronymic indicator 'ved' with the Scottish equivalent, and he went into the register as 'Killian McCarran'.

Caradoc usually followed the Arvelan practice of calling himself by his given name and the town he came from, which was called Kullaneeme in Arvelan, though he said its real name, in the language of his own country, was Cuanór. And so, as we already had a Scot, I decided to make him Irish – both his name and his town sounded sort of Celtic, after all – and so he became Caradoc O'Cuanór, which I then anglicised to O'Connor. And both of them said they were happy with their new names.

Once the paperwork was done we went back to my room and continued the general discussion, and I was halfway through explaining about the Tammids when the door burst open and we were invaded: the rest of our friends had returned from school and heard that we were back. The next half hour or so was amazing: I was hugged and kissed, even by the normally undemonstrative Frank and Shander, and Tibor actually burst into tears, and Markus said that he'd never doubted for a moment that I'd find a way home…

I really can't describe how I felt: a little over a year ago I'd been Invisible Jake, the kid nobody noticed, and now here I was in a room full of real friends, all of whom obviously cared deeply about me. It was overwhelming. And when Stefan asked why I was crying I said it was because I was so happy, which I'm sure the Greys would have found extremely confusing if they'd still been with us.

***

And that evening after supper Stefan and I closed our door and finally did what we had been intending to do almost seven months previously. I'll be honest and say that the first time he entered me it still hurt a bit, despite all the things Tibor and Hansi had shown us, but then by now Stefan was a fair bit bigger than he had been when we had first met. And once he was fully inside and was just lying on top of me holding me it stopped hurting and began to feel wonderful instead. The only drawback to it was that he got excited a bit too quickly and so it didn't last as long as I would have liked, but when we swapped places I found out why, because being inside him was the most incredible sensation, and I was pulled over the edge even faster than he had been.

"Don't worry," he said, when I apologised for finishing too quickly, "next time we can make it last a lot longer. And we'll have plenty of chance to practise, because as far as I'm concerned we won't be going anywhere until we leave school, and especially not if it involves portals. I've had enough adventures to last me a lifetime."

And I said that I couldn't agree more, and that this world was the only one I wanted to see from now on. "No more adventures for me, either," I added. "From now on I'm staying right here."

The End of Book II