Midwinter

She leaned back on the ground, her hands stretched out behind her. "It was June," she said. "My husband and I were driving our son Jamie to camp in Tallulah Falls, Georgia. We'd just moved to Atlanta from Rochester, New York. We thought maybe Jamie would meet some other kids, you know. Do some archery, whatever kids do at those places. He was thirteen, it was an awkward age for him." She stopped and peered at Satterly in the darkness. "Why are you smiling?"

"I'm sorry," he said. "It's just that I haven't seen another human being or spoken English in so long, it actually seems more strange than my life does now. It's just bizarre, that's all."

"Anyway," she continued. "We got lost heading out to the camp. My husband was driving. We were following the signs out to Lake Rabun, just like the directions said, then we hit a fork that wasn't on the map. We went the wrong way, we doubled back, got lost. Next thing I knew we were on this little dirt road and I was afraid the Volvo was going to bottom out any second.

"I don't know what happened next. One second, we were on a tiny dirt road near Tallulah Falls, Georgia. The next second, there was no road. It just disappeared. Like that." She snapped her fingers. "The trees changed, the goddamn mountains changed. All around us. All at once. David lost control of the wheel and we pitched into that big ditch.

"In those days, the hole was huge. Big enough for Paul to drive a semi through, at least. He was the first one through, or at least the first one who stuck around. He'd been here almost a year when we showed up. He was on his way to a construction site, just minding his own business, then boom! He crashed his truck, landed in some godforsaken alternate dimension or whatever the hell this place is, and he was alone. For a year. I don't know how he survived, I honestly don't.

"When we got here, Paul kept trying to convince us that we somehow weren't in Georgia anymore. I mean, as far as we knew, we'd just taken a really wrong turn. We couldn't figure out why this truck driver had been living in a lean-to for a year when he could have just walked down to the interstate and hitched a ride. I was never a Girl Scout, but even I know that if you walk in one direction long enough, you're gonna hit road sooner or later."

"But there was no road," said Satterly.

"No, there was no road. Just the path you were coming along when they… you know."

"Yeah." Satterly scratched his nose. "They call them shifting places," he said. "They spring up spontaneously; they do all kinds of weird things."

Linda stood suddenly, wiping the dirt from her back. "None of that matters anymore," she said. "Let's get back."

Satterly walked in front of her back the way they'd come. Neither of them spoke. When they passed the huge fire in the center of the encampment on their way to the cage, all the humans sitting there watched them pass. The girls, their eyes glinting in the firelight, looked on somberly as they walked by.

"Think about it," said Linda. "If you want to come with us, we could use the help."

Satterly sat in the cage, leaning against the bars. They were cold to the touch. In the center, his friends huddled together, sleeping fitfully. Were they his friends? Satterly closed his eyes and thought about home.

The next morning dawned bright and crisp. A breeze blew in from the north, raising the temperature to something approximating comfort. Satterly awoke to the sounds of breakfast being cooked around the fire. He knelt by Mauritane and gently shook him awake. Mauritane's eyes were bloodshot, underlined with dark circles. Wordlessly, the two of them roused Raieve, Silverdun, and Gray Mave. Mave's wound had come open again during the night, and Mauritane tore off another length of his cloak to use as a bandage. Mave refused to stand and would not eat when food was finally brought to them. Satterly helped replace Mave's bandages. He was beginning to understand how Mave was able to do what he'd done to them, and the thought chilled him to his bones.

Jim Broward came and rattled the cage. "Well, Satterly, are you with us?"

Satterly stood, his stomach clenching in his chest. He walked to the bars and nodded. "I'm with you," he said.

Broward nodded and opened the door of the cage.

From outside, the cave was invisible. Over time, the humans had encouraged trees and shrubs to grow over the opening, giving no indication that the opening existed. Its mouth was low, no more than six feet high, overhung with damp rock and fuzzy moss. Inside, though, the space was enormous; their torches glinted off far walls and slowly filled the cavernous room with light. There were two dark shapes huddled in the back of the space, black oblongs that were oddly familiar to Satterly as they entered the cave.