Now, all Gabe could do was wait. Isobel was on the other side of the portal arch, helping to monitor it, and Gabe could feel the touch of her magic against his, all springtime potential. He could feel Alexander, behind him, a heat and intensity that Gabe never wanted aimed at him in anger.
Rathna’s former apprentice, Petrus, was a few steps back, the peak of a triangle between Gabe and Isobel. Petrus had quietly taken his place, observing and ready to assist, without much chatter. Gabe hadn’t seen him for months, and it was good to see he was as steady as he had been when he’d been working with Rathna. More so, as if the recent work had honed him into more of himself.
Manse had stepped back to divert anyone who might interrupt them. His help had, it turned out, been critical. He’d got them all in here two evenings ago, so Gabe could find the right spot and figure out how to get through the wall and undo the warding. That had taken most of the next thirty-six hours.
It had required the combined efforts of half a dozen Penelopes. Also Kate Lefton’s knowledge of preferences in warding enchantments during the Wars of the Roses, Uncle Gil’s ability to decipher much altered architectural drawings, and lashings of coffee and tea. It was all capped off with Mama’s knack with eyeing a comment in bad Latin and figuring out what the person must have meant.
Rowena had even been a help. Anthony had, with incredible patience, kept Avigail cheerfully entertained. Rowena, though, had not only run copies from person to person, as needed, but she’d twice had an eye for something in the portal information, making a connection that proved useful. Gabe was tremendously proud of her, and he was certain Rathna would be even more so.
Now, though, it was Gabe and an ancient portal, and he felt like he’d done this particular dance far too recently for anyone’s comfort, even his. Especially his. All he could do was wait and hope that everything worked up to this point. He did not like having it out of his control, as much as he trusted Rathna like his other self, because she was.
Gabe also had to restrain himself from checking his watch. It would take the time it took. Manse was in charge of alerting them if they were getting close to time. Fortunately or unfortunately, Manse’s orders from above had given them quite a lot of breathing space. Somehow. He kept his hand on the stone, hoping he’d feel the first hint of the portal humming to activity.
There was nothing. There continued to be nothing. The portal was alive, though they’d not dared open it to anywhere else. If everything went well, they’d take it to Veritas, all of them except Manse and Alexander, who’d cover the visible retreat. If things went wrong, they’d have a more complicated exit. Or at least, he hoped that was the case, that they’d need to make a complicated exit. There was a tiny chance, so small no one had actually talked about it, that they could do something drastic to the Tower itself, despite it having stood for century upon century. At least if they did, Gabe wouldn’t have to explain the problem.
The distraction, as pitiful as it was, actually worked. Gabe felt it before he heard it, the tiny flick, subtle as a cat’s inaudible purr, just the vibration making it clear the portal was preparing to open. Isobel was watching just as closely when he glanced at her. Before he could comment, the portal flared open, a burst of magic filling the space like a wave, then almost illuminating it.
Out came a woman who must be Grietje, then the Guards. Gabe had met those. They were followed by four people - three men, one woman - who looked tired and drawn, and also rather surprised. Then Ferdinand, stumbling through, and immediately turning back, looking worried. He didn’t quite reach back through the portal. It wouldn’t have worked, but he looked like he wanted to.
Gabe shifted, because he could count, and if this worked, it would be Rathna next. He didn’t crowd the portal. He knew better than that, especially if it were less than stable. There were half a dozen heartbeats before he started really counting, then another ten, an impossibly long time, before Rathna stepped through. She looked exhausted. Her clothes were hanging on her, and there was dust in her hair, but she was home, and she was real.
He held out his arms as soon as she got clear. She came right to him, hugging him tightly, as if he’d been as much a figment of hope as she had been to him. Gabe just held her and held her, burying his face against her hair, heedless of the dust and whatever else she’d walked through, metaphysically speaking. Someone moved behind her, and the portal closed.
Everyone gave them perhaps thirty seconds of silence, before there was a comment - that must indeed be Grietje. She sounded like Mason, though with a Dutch accent to her English. “Such a welcoming party. May I ask how we get the dancing started?”
It made Alexander snort. Gabe knew that sound anywhere by now. It also brought up a bit of chatter, as people introduced themselves, or made it clear who they were. Gabe ignored it for the moment, before Rathna finally pulled away to look at him and cup his cheek. “Missed you too, beloved.” Her fingers traced. “Do we try the portal again?”
“Isn’t that for you to say? Nothing alarming here, other than the wait.” Gabe let his hands slip from her back, giving her more space. She nodded, and then took in the alcove where the portal was placed, where Ferdinand was standing.
“Isobel, may I borrow your hands for the moment? Hold this, would you?” Rathna’s voice was clear, orderly, entirely in control. But Gabe knew how she’d been trembling, how she still was, and he could hear the edge in her voice even if no one else did. “What enchantments are on the room, please?”
Gabe listed them out, with Alexander adding two comments about this level of the Tower itself, folding the information into a tidy package. Rathna nodded a couple of times at particular points, then handed the case with her working stones to Isobel to hold, plucking out several to try an attunement. The first selection didn’t work, somehow, and she grimaced.
“Need mine?” Gabe was quick to offer.
“The pearl, if you would. And your, hmm. Do you have your fluorite? It’s a better cleavage than mine.”
Gabe nobly refrained from commenting on her cleavage, given how much he’d missed it. This was neither the time nor place. They would have those in a bit. At that point, he might properly indulge in both cleavage and puns. He pulled his own stone case out and handed over the fluorite first, then the pearl.
Neither worked, and Rathna grimaced, trying half a dozen more with equal amounts of success, which was to say, none. When she reached for another, Gabe cleared his throat. “You’re looking for a resonance?”
“Of course.” There was a note in her voice that others might have read at annoyance at Gabe. He didn’t, because - while he’d heard it very seldom, considering how much he could be sometimes - that wasn’t it. It was annoyance at herself that she hadn’t solved the problem yet.
“You could try a lodestone. But I’d try, hmm. You want something solar.” Gabe waved his free hand, almost toppling his case, and stopped. Grietje moved to hold out her hands, and Gabe set the case there. “Ruby’s classic, but it doesn’t feel right here.” For all there were rather a lot of rubies, stored not very far from here at all in ordinary times. His mind went whirring through the range of what he had, what Rathna had, which resonances might work best here.
Rathna shook her head, then tilted it, the posture she took when she was thinking hard. The others hadn’t interrupted, at least, though Manse must have all sorts of comments. And worries. Certainly there were plenty of worries to go around. “Lay out your reasoning, Gabe, while I think.”
“There are all the legends about it being a solar alignment, a temple of some sort, before the Conqueror. Something here must respond to something there. And we might as well draw on the light of whatever it is we’re trying to do. Bar the portal against the Continent, open a door to Veritas, making sure everything runs smoothly in the middle before we go through?”
Alexander snorted. “Not the most ept ritual statement I’ve heard, but in the circumstances, it will do.”
Gabe didn’t bother to look over his shoulder. He kept focused on Rathna, who considered. “We have four, yes? Isobel, you have yours?”
“Ma’am.” Isobel spoke right up. “Shall I?”
“We want the stability, yes.” Rathna considered. “Ferdinand, where’s your amber from?”
The younger man blinked. “Hungary, mistress. Is that a problem?”
“We’ll have to compensate. Our three are from the same piece, originally.” She held up her hand. “I know you’re willing, Petrus, but would you keep an eye? Let me know. I trust your sense of it.” Rathna was running a dozen calculations in her head now. Gabe left her to it, taking out a small piece from his own set and placing it in Rathna’s hand, automatically.
“Calcite.” Not that she needed him to say that, but the others probably did. It was from the Veritas demesne lands, and it would help balance things out, by force of identity of place, or whatever the proper term was. Rathna absently nodded before gesturing them into places and handing the calcite to Ferdinand.
“We want to anchor the portal here, remind it where it is, specifically. Do you have calculations?”
Alexander had those and handed them over. “Thesan did them, so you don’t need to trust my maths. Besides, she wanted a hand in getting you home. Schola and Veritas, like you asked. And Ytene, if you need a third.” Rathna’s lips twitched slightly at that. Then she was running through them, along with the implications she saw near-instantly and Gabe had to work for with pencil and scratch paper.
“Right. Compass?” Petrus held one of those out, and Rathna promptly aligned them, this way and that, making the angles as precise as any ritualist might like. They were playing off the connections, the similarities and differences, of the stones, of themselves, of the space.
Rathna positioned herself where she was half in front of the portal, one hand on it. Ferdinand took his place on the other side, with Gabe on the far side from her, tucked into the corner, and Isobel next to Rathna. A particular form of polarity, drawing on Gabe and Rathna’s relationship, across one axis, and the apprentice relationship across the square. Hopefully, they’d all make it work, even if Ferdinand and Isobel were not close. And for that matter Gabe did not know Ferdinand nearly as well as he expected he would in a few more months.
“Stand back, everyone, please, and give us a moment before any panicking.” Rathna’s voice was clear. “It may have some unusual effects.” The others stepped back, obligingly, and Rathna looked over at Ferdinand. “Ready?”
“Mistress.” Gabe wanted to know, rather a lot, what had changed for them, in their time on the Continent. Ferdinand had not been grudging, not since that day at the Natural History Museum, but what they had developed was visibly running far cleaner than it had. A deep river that could carry all sorts of things, rather than something silted up or dependent on the finicky coordination of locks and dams. The man just nodded and waited.
“Isobel?” She didn’t bother to ask Gabe, who just nodded and grinned, as Isobel nodded too. He could feel her, attuned enough to her magic to not need the outward cues. Nervous, but willing, which was all he could hope for. It wasn’t always possible to do much about the nerves, just about whether what needed to get done happened despite them.
Before he could get too tangled up in possibilities, Rathna went for it. She called the portal open, a flash of iridescent light flashing half a dozen colours and shades, before she did something that began to steady it. Gabe could feel her calling on all their magic to do it, building up a container, coaxing it like a potter would. Where he had put himself in the eye of the tumult, she stood, letting it shape around her. His mind flickered to the implications of lost wax casting, what it might mean as a magical metaphor. Also the question of how irritated Mama would be if he found somewhere to set up a kiln on the property.
All the while, he was holding as steady as he could. These were the trickiest workings for him, the ones where he didn’t need his whole focus on the work, but had to avoid too many obvious distractions. Just feeling Rathna there, nearly close enough to touch if he wanted, was a help. He’d fall into that, for seconds at a time, weighing out what was new and changed, what was steady and known.
It took longer than he expected, but then something shifted, as if she’d built up enough of a shape. The magic steadied, turning from a wave beating on the sand over and over into an increasing still pond, the ripples fading out quickly. The light grew steady too, more like stained glass than a shimmering prism that moved.
Only then did she let out a long breath, as if wishing with all her heart that nothing would shift. When nothing changed, she cleared her throat. “The portal’s locked to the Continent. Usual precautions. Petrus, can we leave you here to confirm it?”
“Ma’am.” That was gently teasing. “Of course. I’ll go out with Magister Manse and the Council Member and the others. I do need to get back to my work, but I can snag the, mmm. Southwark portal. Talk to you when you have a chance?”
“In a few days, likely, I’ll be in touch.” She pulled away from the portal to give him a proper hug, then kissed his cheek before she turned back. “Everyone else through first. Even you, Gabe.”
He wasn’t going to argue. For one thing, he was tired, bone tired. For another, arguing wouldn’t actually help anything. Rathna brushed her fingers against the stone, the way she touched him, when they were private, like there was nothing else in the world but what her fingers knew. Then she opened the portal again. Gabe went first, if he had to go, and that way he could meet people on the other side.
He stepped out into the twilight of Veritas at her most beautiful. Mama and Papa were waiting, and the children. He grinned at them, held up one finger, and then waited for the others to come through, one by one. Last of all, though not much after Ferdinand, came Rathna. As soon as she was through, Gabe caught her up in his arms, swirling her around, then kissed her soundly.
Behind him, he could hear Papa formally welcoming Ferdinand to Veritas as a friend and trusted guest. Rathna had explained that his mother was interned, his father had gone into active service, and if he went home, there’d be no one there but the staff. They had room; they had people, and - well. She hadn’t needed to ask, just lay out the situation. He’d be tucked into a nice suite in the guest hall within half an hour.
“Baths all round, for everyone who needs one. We have a cold collation in the breakfast room after that.” Mama was sounding terribly relieved.
Rathna finally pulled back from Gabe. She bent to pick up Avigail with a grunt, then got swarmed by Rowena and Anthony, none of them shy about showing how they felt.
There. That was proper. That was how things ought to be. If only they’d stay that way, but Gabe had a feeling, deep in his heart, that it wasn’t going to be that easy.