‘Probably,’ Steven said, ‘but it’s a long ride up there, so we may still have time to warn Gita that her cover’s blown.’
Gilmour agreed. ‘Right. And I don’t want to contact Stalwick until enough time has passed for Gita to get him into Traver’s Notch. Knocking him senseless on a Capehill street won’t do anyone any good.’
Kellin asked, ‘Steven, when will Hannah’s mother open her portal again?’
‘At seven a.m. on February twelfth,’ he said. ‘It’ll be open for fifteen minutes.’
‘Grand,’ Garec sighed, ‘and when is that?’
Steven started calculating.
‘While he’s thinking, what do we do with the table until febrerry-twelf?’ Brand asked.
‘We find a barn, someplace out of the way, and hide the table there,’ Gilmour suggested. ‘It’s too cold to keep it here, and with Mark coming for us we can’t hide out here in the Vale; we’ll be found.’
‘Or we’ll freeze to death,’ Kellin added.
‘That, too,’ Gilmour said. ‘There were a few farms between Wellham Ridge and the glen where we faced down Nerak. If one of those farmers would permit us to hide this in a barn, we can stay cosy, eat well and get caught up on our sleep while we wait around for Mrs Sorenson.’
‘Won’t Mark search every farm south of the foothills?’ Kellin asked.
‘Probably,’ Gilmour said, ‘but he knows that Gita is marching on Capehill so he might dispatch most of the Wellham Ridge battalion to assist in the north.’
‘That would leave him searching for us by himself,’ Garec said.
‘Just as Steven wants it,’ Brand said.
‘So, when do you plan to clobber this Stalwick fellow?’ Garec asked.
Brand said, ‘I do wish I could be there to see that one.’
‘You know him?’
‘Gods, yes,’ Kellin said. ‘He is, without hesitation, the worst Resistance fighter I have ever seen in my life. He remains the only soldier I’ve ever seen who I wished would defect and fight for the other side, because that would increase our chances of victory severalfold.’
‘Well then, I will delight in contacting him,’ Gilmour said.
‘Make it hurt,’ Brand added with an uncharacteristic smile.
‘I think I’ve got it,’ Steven interrupted. ‘It isn’t exactly right, but all this time I’ve been calculating based on a twenty-four-hour day in Colorado and a twenty-hour day here in Eldarn. I think I’m off by just a bit; I’d tell you exactly how much, but for that I either need a bit of paper or a calculator. At the moment, I have neither; so, you’ll just have to bear with me and accept the error margin. Agreed?’
Kellin shook her head, bemused. ‘What’s an hour?’
‘Actually, Kellin,’ Steven smiled, ‘it doesn’t really matter. Consider it one twenty-fourth of a day in my world or about one twentieth of a day here in Eldarn.’
‘Good enough,’ she said, ‘go on.’
‘When I left Colorado, it was at dawn on a Friday morning, October seventeenth. To my recollection, Mark and I were in Eldarn for sixty-six days before I fell back through the portal into Charleston Harbour. Now, if a day in Eldarn is twenty hours long, then I would take the sixty-six days we spent travelling through Rona and Falkan and multiply it by point eight three, or five-sixths, to get the amount of time that elapsed in Colorado while we were gone.’
‘You’re losing me,’ Garec confessed.
‘I’ll go slower,’ Steven said.
‘Thanks. My mother dropped me when I was a kid. Maths and I have never seen eye to eye.’
‘So what I’m saying is that sixty-six days in Eldarn equals fifty-five days in Colorado. So I should have arrived in Charleston exactly seven weeks and six days later. Right?’
Garec shrugged. ‘Your lips are moving, Steven, but I just hear noise.’
Gilmour said, ‘Steven, you should have arrived in Charleston on a Thursday in December.’
‘Top marks, Gilmour,’ Steven said, ‘Thursday, December eleventh, to be precise.’
‘But you didn’t,’ Brand guessed.
‘No, I didn’t,’ Steven said. ‘I arrived on Tuesday, the ninth, and returned here to the fjord north of Orindale on Friday, the twelfth.’ He grimaced as he remembered the dreadful tragedy at Charleston Airport and his sleepless three-day race to the Idaho Springs Landfill and Lessek’s key.
‘All right,’ Gilmour said, ‘so, you’re off by forty-eight hours, give or take a few. Over sixty-six days, that’s less than an hour a day. Who cares?’
‘We all will if we choose the wrong date to bring this table over to Jennifer Sorenson, and she hasn’t begun opening and closing the far portal yet.’
‘That might drop us anywhere, right?’ Garec asked.
‘The bottom of the ocean, the top of a mountain glacier, anywhere.’ Steven grimaced. ‘Not helpful.’
‘All of a sudden, you have my undivided attention.’
Gilmour looked confused. ‘What does your first trip have to do with when Jennifer Sorenson will open her portal tapestry?’
‘When I left Denver on Friday, the twelfth, Jennifer agreed to open the portal at seven a.m. and p.m. every day and keep it open for fifteen minutes, but she wasn’t going to begin for two months.’
‘Two months? Why?’
‘Because I figured we would need that much time to find Hannah in Praga.’
‘I don’t understand any of what you’re saying, Steven,’ Brand interrupted. ‘How does this tell us when we can get rid of this table?’
‘Sorry, Brand,’ Steven said, ‘it’s a little complicated. Since I came back to Eldarn, I think about seventy days have elapsed – I’m a bit fuzzy on our time at Sandcliff Palace.’
‘It wasn’t the most gripping holiday I’ve ever taken either,’ Garec said.
‘Anyway,’ Steven went on, ‘seventy days here is the equivalent to fifty-eight days in Colorado.’ He’d missed his maths quandaries.
‘Give or take,’ Gilmour clarified.
‘So February twelfth is sixty-two Colorado days since I last saw Jennifer Sorenson.’
Garec sat up, finally grasping Steven’s problem. ‘That means we have to wait four days before Jennifer opens the portal?’
‘We should wait six or even seven days,’ Gilmour said. ‘Remember, you were off by a couple of days last time.’
‘True, but then again, maybe I miscounted the days we were travelling. Some of our time in the Blackstones is more than a little hazy in my memory.’
‘All the more reason to be cautious.’ Gilmour was convinced he was right. ‘The last thing I want to do is to drag this thing through the jungles of Siam just because you made a maths error.’
‘Uh, Gilmour?’ Steven said.
‘What?’
‘Siam isn’t really there any more.’
‘What in the rutting world have you done with it?’ Gilmour feigned shock and horror.
‘We call it Thailand now.’
‘What kind of rutting name is that?’ he huffed. ‘I enjoyed Siam, wonderful cuisine.’
‘Sorry.’
Brand said, ‘So we find a barn, hide out for six days and then take this thing across the Fold?’
‘Yup.’
‘Very well,’ Brand said, ‘I think it’s time to alert Gita. With luck, they can be marching on Capehill in six days – and even if Mark has sent riders north, they won’t reach Traver’s Notch until well after the army has begun moving.’ He looked down at his boots.
Gilmour read his mind. ‘Feel free to go, Brand. Seeing us to Wellham Ridge and then through Meyers’ Vale was courageous; both you and Kellin have done more than we should have asked.’
‘I don’t even know how many of my company made it back to Traver’s Notch,’ Brand said quietly.
Steven gestured towards Kellin. ‘You two ought to be able to get back without any trouble. Travelling as a couple, you can pass yourselves off as almost anyone. The work we have yet to do here is all voodoo anyway; Gilmour and I can handle it.’
Brand pressed his lips into another rare smile. ‘Thank you. But I feel as though Gita would want us to remain with you two, at least until the table is safe. With Mark Jenkins almost certainly coming south to find you, I worry-’
‘You can bring nothing to bear against Mark,’ Steven interrupted. ‘Our best option is to avoid him until Gilmour and I can figure out how to divorce him from the spirit holding him hostage.’