wheel through the window.
Satterly grunted a yes.
'Well, it's been climbing that hill for years now. Problem is that it's now about fifty feet off the ground in our world.' He leaned into his work. 'We have to bring it down to earth.'
Satterly wiped his forehead. 'Mind telling me why we can't just drive out of here?'
'Batteries won't hold a charge in this place,' said Meyer. 'We have to roll them down the hill.'
Broward stood by his truck, scowling. 'Hey, you two. Stop screwing around and push.'
It was backbreaking work pushing the two automobiles up the sloped floor of the cavern and into the sunlight. Satterly looked out across the hilltop and could see what looked like spires protruding from the mist in the distance. Past the hilltop the ground grew level; only baked earth and lonely trees separated them from the veiled city.
'What's that?' he said, pointing.
'Fae city,' said Meyer. 'Sylvan. We don't go there.'
In the other direction lay the blue sphere, or the Hole, as the humans called it. By day it wasn't particularly remarkable, just a swatch of color in the dirt. From the mouth of the cave, the ground sloped downward to where the Hole lay in its ditch.
'When we're ready, we'll start the cars rolling, pop the clutches, and put the cars in place running,' said Meyer.
Paul, the former truck driver, reached into the back of Broward's pickup and pulled out a length of chain that rattled metallically against the truck bed. At its end was a menacing steel hook.
'Is it strong enough?' said Broward.
'How the hell should I know?' said Paul, tugging on the chain.
Broward nodded. 'Let's go get Hereg.'
Satterly felt a tug on his shirtsleeve. It was Rachel, Linda's daughter, her hair done up in pigtails.
'Mister,' she said, her face grim. 'Once they all leave, can we go with you to Sylvan?'
Satterly frowned. 'No, honey, we're all going home together.' She made him uncomfortable; it was a discomfort he'd experienced before but couldn't place.
Rachel shook her head. 'I am home,' she said. She reached for the bandages around her ears and tugged. They came off, revealing ragged wounds dried to the color of rust, sliced across the tops of her ears. Despite having been cut, however, Satterly could see the beginnings of two perfect points sprouting from the raw flesh. The points were perfectly formed, perfectly Fae.
'See,' said Rachel. 'I am home.' She pointed at Satterly. 'You don't know it yet, but so are you.'
Chapter 29
Satterl stood in front of the cage, feeling like a traitor.
'Mauritane, can I talk to you?'
Mauritane seemed to take a moment to recognize him. The influence of the steel bars was worsening. 'What?' he said, keeping his distance from Satterly and the bars.
'It's just that these people have found a way back to my world,' said Satterly, looking into the dirt. 'And that's all I wanted, was to go home. And also, you know, I was never much help to you anyway. It seemed like I was always getting in the way or getting yelled at or laughed at by somebody. So, I think I'm going to go ahead and leave with these people. Back to my world.'
Satterly looked up at Mauritane. Mauritane's face was tired. The lines in his face were deeper and the number of gray hairs in his head seemed to have doubled since they'd met.
'You betray me as well?' said Mauritane. 'I should have expected it from you. I never trusted you. I trusted Mave.'
'This isn't easy for me,' said Satterly. 'If that's any consolation.'
Mauritane laughed and staggered away, his right hand constantly reaching for a sword that was not there.
'Come on!' said Chris Broward. 'We don't have all day!'
Chris and Meyer Schrabe opened the gate to the cage, shotguns at the ready. No one in the cage moved. Raieve glared out of the bars at Satterly and spat into the dirt.
The two men took Gray Mave beneath the arms and dragged him out of the enclosure, his boots making double lines in the muddy ground.
'God, this guy is heavy,' said Meyer. 'We should have brought my car around.'
Satterly waved, awkwardly. 'Bye,' he said. 'I'm sorry.'
Only Raieve watched him leave. Silverdun and Mauritane sat with their eyes cast downward, their fingers drawing idly in the dirt.
Hereg had been painting symbols all morning long. He carried a handful of brushes, painting on every available surface in blue, green, and black. Meyer's wife, jenny, followed him around with a collection of earthenware jars, each containing a different color of ink. Slowly, methodically, he worked. By midday he'd covered most of the small clearing with Fae runes, their multicolored angles and curves covering the stone ground, the rocks, the tree trunks. Even the flowers of the magnolia tree at the top of the hill had been painted. Meyer complained when Hereg began applying paint to the LeMans but relented after a withering stare from Broward.
As the day wore on, Satterly helped push the cars into place and attach the chains to the makeshift harness that Paul had built for the Hole. When sent down the hill to retrieve something from the huts, he studiously avoided his former companions in their cage. Several times he stopped and spoke with Linda. She was flushed and nervous; she continuously moved her hands. Satterly understood how she felt. As Hereg's spell came closer and closer to being cast, Satterly found himself remembering his own home, his own past. He started opening doors in his mind he'd long assumed shut for good.
'Do you know what?' he said to Linda. 'I can't remember my phone number. I can remember my locker combination from tenth grade, but I'll be damned if I can remember my phone number. Can you?'
Linda thought long and hard and eventually gave up. 'It started with a three. I'm pretty sure of that. But we'd just moved, so that's hardly my fault.'
Satterly laughed. He threw his arms around Linda and hugged her. She hugged him back. What the hell? They were going home.
Hereg finished lighting his candles and approached Satterly, plucking bits of dried wax from his fingertips. 'Your companions will survive,' he said in halting English. 'I will release them once you have gone.'
'Thank you,' said Satterly in Common. 'I would hate for anything to happen to them because of me. I don't know how you survived so long in there.'
'I am schooled in the mind and body art of meditation,' Hereg said. 'I taught them a few lessons. It should keep them.'
'You seem much improved,' said Satterly.
'One thing,' said Hereg, still in English. 'The children. Will your companions take them once you are gone? I know nothing of children, and they would not be welcome in the Unseelie lands.'
Satterly squinted at the tired scholar. 'Why do you say that? The children said the same thing. Aren't they coming with us?'
Hereg smiled, a broken, wasted gesture. 'You'll see.'
'The thing begins now!' he suddenly shouted. 'Bring the wagons! Pray to your gods. The thing begins now!' He swept his robe around him and began chanting in an ancient dialect of High Fae. 'Kho felas she annas! Kho fel ess biret! Kho felas ananaar!'
Hereg walked to the ravine, where the blue sky of Earth glittered like a sapphire. He knelt before the sphere, where it rested in the center of his runic scrawl. Satterly tried in vain to follow what Hereg said. Something about
