She nodded.
‘If we can get the portals to open from this side, and assuming it still exists, we can go back to London, yes?’
She nodded again.
‘What if we didn’t go back to twenty twelve? What if we used the door that Bell found? We’d be in nineteen sixty-whatever. Or the one that Crows used, from the thirties? If we can find◦– or make◦– a door that’s last week, last month, last year, however long it takes, then it doesn’t matter how long we’re here. We could go back before we’d even left.’
Luiza worked her jaw, slowly becoming more animated.
‘And you think this would work?’
‘I have no idea. But there’s no reason why not. If the portals let people from different times come here to the same time, then they might let us back to whenever we want.’
‘Into the past? That is crazy. That is dangerous,’ said Luiza. ‘What if we make a mistake? Do you know what might happen?’ She grabbed hold of his overalls at the shoulders and shook him. ‘What if this has already happened? What if this is why we are here?’
‘Yes: yes, of course.’ He tried to free himself, but she maintained her strong grip. ‘We could also go into the future.’
‘This is what the geomancers lust for,’ she said. She let go, pressing her hands against him and pushing him gently away. ‘Control. Not just of Down, but of London too.’
‘All of the Londons.’ Dalip blinked. ‘We’re going to have to think very carefully about this.’
The sky flickered. A great bird-shape blinked over the clearing. Both of them glanced up, and when they looked back at each other, the tension had broken and was dribbling away.
‘Hungry?’ she asked. She put a hand in the outsized pockets of her overalls and proffered several glossy brown hazelnuts.
Dalip took one, and then two when urged. Each was as big as his thumb up to the first joint, big enough to bite in half and show the white flesh inside. He wasn’t hungry as such, because Down seemed to yield just enough, just when it was required.
Then he pressed his hand to his forehead again. ‘How could I have missed that?’
‘What?’
He chewed and swallowed, and still had to chase pieces of hazelnut around his mouth with his tongue.
‘Down. It never fails to surprise.’
3
Mary flew in over the beach, over the heads of the others, checking one last time that they were alone and nothing was going to sneak up on them. There was no sign of anyone, just their own filling footprints in the soft white sands of the dunes.
She turned back, feathered her wings, and touched down just below the still-wet strand line. The seagulls, scarce and scared, wheeled around to mob her◦– but she changed and left them without a target, just a young woman in a red dress, toes flexing and digging into the cold, gritty sand beneath her. She walked up the beach, stopping to collect a long length of driftwood in each hand to add to the already-smouldering fire.
‘Does anyone know what a coffee plant looks like?’ She cast the wood across the burning pile, and sat down with a thump. ‘I suddenly miss it.’
‘I thought…?’ said Dalip, sitting cross-legged to her left. He stopped, and inspected the soles of his feet.
‘I just fancied a cup, okay?’ She knew what she’d said, that night in the dark of Bell’s broken castle, how she didn’t want drink or cigarettes any more. And she didn’t, but her habits had a tendency to creep up on her when she wasn’t looking and mug her with need. ‘Anyone?’
‘The coffee of my homeland was the finest in the world,’ said Crows. ‘Rich and flavoursome, dark and strong. Once roasted to perfection over an open fire, the beans would be worth more than gold.’ He stared into the heart of the fire. ‘If there is coffee, then it lies far to the south. It is too cold here.’
‘I guess that goes for tea, too.’ Mama tutted. ‘I do like a nice cup of tea.’
‘We do not even have cups,’ said Luiza, ‘and Dalip has more important things to say.’
‘Do you?’ Mary felt aggrieved. He should be telling her his ideas first. Luiza had Elena.
‘I don’t know,’ he said, and carried on picking debris from the deep, leathery creases in his feet. ‘It’s a bit of a long shot.’
Mary glanced again at Luiza. ‘You going to share it with the rest of us, or…?’
Dalip got up and dragged the map trunk across the sand until it took his place in the circle.
‘It seems◦– Crows tells me, at least◦– that magic has its limits, and we can’t just wish ourselves across the bay. Magic, however, also has its rules: the most important one being that power, for the want of a better word, leaks out of portals. If you draw a line between portals, the power flows down that line, and if you stop on one, a house grows. Where the lines between pairs of portals cross, you get a castle. If you’ve a big enough map, you can predict where all these things are: portals, castles, villages. With me so far?’
Mary knew that maps were like bank notes, and what was in the trunk made them rich. She’d never been rich before, but now she was, she had nothing to spend it on. She fingered the tattered hem of her dress and waited for him to continue.
Dalip continued. ‘Okay. Now, given that all the portals from all the past Londons—’
‘And future ones too,’ said Luiza.
‘Wait.’ Mary held up her hand. ‘What?’
‘We’re from Crows’ future. We’re from Bell’s future. We have to assume that there are people here from our future too.’ Dalip laid his hands on the lid of the trunk, fingers splayed wide. ‘All of the Londons connect to now. So, even though the numbers coming are low for each portal, the overall count has to be the sum of all the portals, and therefore not insignificant.’
It took Mary a moment to work out what he was saying. ‘So where are all these people, then?’
‘The attrition rate’s high. We’ve lost Grace, and Stanislav. If seven of us hadn’t came through at once, we’d have been carved up and spat out by Bell. However safe Down is, people make it dangerous. Despite that, we can and will survive here. So where did everyone else go?’
‘Wherever they wanted?’
‘And where do they want to go?’
Mary stared at Dalip, and he stared back.
‘The White City,’ said Crows. ‘At some point, everyone goes to the White City.’
‘Is that actually true?’
Dalip shrugged. ‘Let’s say it is. Everyone goes, or tries to go, to the White City while they’re here. They learn that there aren’t any answers there and they go away disappointed. Maybe some people go more than once, just to make sure. Whichever it is, if you have enough people going to one place, across a natural landscape like this, where there are routes that are easier to walk than others, what are you going to get?’
‘Fuck, I don’t know.’
‘Roads,’ said Mama. ‘He’s talking about roads.’
‘More well-trodden paths, but yes. Roads.’
‘We’ve been walking for weeks, Dalip,’ said Mama. ‘There are no roads hereabouts.’
‘No. Which means something else, for us, here, specifically.’
‘Does it? Lord, but I’m tired.’
Mary stole a look at Crows. He’d never mentioned roads. She wondered why not.
‘We know that if you stop on a line, you get a house. We also know that houses are no use under the sea. So I’m willing to bet that at the point where a line crosses the coast, you don’t get a house.’
‘You get a boat?’
Dalip nodded, and Mama’s weariness suddenly left her.
‘Where then?’
‘We have absolutely no idea. But,’ and he tapped the trunk, ‘we might be able to work it out.’
‘What are we waiting for? Get them out and we can start putting them together.’ She lumbered to her feet and worked her way around the circle.