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“Remember what?I thought you knew the way?”

“Y-yes, but it’s been a while.Nobody comes in here anymore, or at least, I don’t.There are things that prowl the white expanse…”

“He doesn’t know where we are?”Pritkin asked sharply.

“He’s adjusting course,” I said, hoping that was true.

“What course?”Alphonse demanded.“There’s no damned street signs, or landmarks, or anything in here!Don’t tell me that little fucker is lost!”

“I’m not a little fucker,” Hansen said indignantly.“And he’s welcome to try if he thinks he can do better!”

“None of us can do better,” I said soothingly, or as much as possible with frazzled nerves.“We’re relying on you—”

“I know that!”Hansen looked slightly panicked now, which didn’t help my blood pressure.

“What’s he saying?”Alphonse demanded.

“I think we would all like to know,” Mircea agreed.

“He’s… reorienting himself—”

“He’s lost!Son of abitch!” That, of course, was Alphonse.

Then it got worse.

“What is happening?”I asked Hansen, who looked as spooked as I felt when a harsh wind suddenly swept over us, hard enough almost to rock me off my feet.

“I...don’t know...”

“Whaddya mean, you don’t know?”That was Alphonse, only it sounded like he’d heard what Hansen said, which was ridiculous.I hadn’t translated it yet.But neither of them seemed to notice that.“This is your world—”

“It is not my world!I fought to stay out of here and succeeded.This place gives me the creeps—”

“Said the ghost!”

“Exactly!You have the protection of a body.We ghosts only have whatever shell we can afford the power to project.And here, it’s often not enough.They eat you,” he added, with his big eyes glancing around nervously and his voice lowering.“Swarms of them, tearing away bits of your power until there’s nothing left.Until you’re entirely gone with even the memory of you faded from the world—”

“Whateats you?”That was Æsubrand, trying to shove Enid behind him, only she wasn’t having it.Maybe because she wasn’t a damsel in distress, and her magic was more likely to help us here than his sword.

“Everyone, these days!Ghosts, demons, the occasional god.Gods,” Hansen added bitterly.“More like vultures preying on anything they can find.And that’s if you’re lucky—”

“Lucky?”Mircea said before Alphonse could.“How is that lucky?”

Everyone else looked very interested in that answer, too, but Hansen suddenly realized they could hear him.And appeared weirded out, having spent who knew how many years invisible and unheard.“What… how?”he whispered.

“I am picking up your voice in Cassie’s head and sending it out to the others,” Bodil said as if that was in any way normal.“It is faster than her constantly translating for you, and we may need speed.”

“Why do we need speed?”Mircea said.“No time is passing!”

“For exactly the reason you fear, vampire.The battle is here, as well.”

“No, notthebattle,” Hansen whispered.“Butabattle, yes.HE’shere,” he added, and the emphasis gave the innocuous little pronoun all sorts of terrible connotations.

“Who?Zeus?”I asked worriedly.

“No, not the chief vulture!”Hansen said contemptuously.“HIM.The one who watches.The one who sends his legions out to hunt.The one who rules this realm as if born to it—”

“There’s no one born to it—”