Descending the mountain path was difficult and slow. I began to consider that we might not reach the mountain's base before nightfall. I’d also forgotten how steep the drop at the side of the road was; when travellers approaching the capital passed us by I was suddenly fearful that the considerable breadth of the road was insufficient, and that Lilac would slip and we'd go tumbling to our deaths. The carriage master seemed to be constantly straining to maintain control.

Eventually the road began to level out. We were too weary to continue after that point, and more self-congratulatory than perhaps we deserved. Timoth made the decision to make camp at the roadside only a few hundred feet from the mountain's base, and that was when I was confronted by the lack of an attendant: I had to find a pillow and blanket and lay them down on my own.

I considered sleeping in my portal to escape the biting cold, but I got the sense that doing so would have been impolite. Something about the soldiers having to sleep in the dirt. Of course, there was always a risk with becoming uncontactable. If I slept late while in my portal the rest of the party would have had to wait for me. As such I slept beside Timoth, the last in a row of seven beds laid alongside the road.

We set out the next morning despite the aches in our legs and backs. They slowly lessened over the course of the next few days, and I became aware that we were approaching Helmfirth. I was dubious about having to see Duke Wiseria again, but hopefully the absence of his son would reduce the tension.

The lowland roads were frosty with the chill of winter and it became the responsibility of the soldier on watch to periodically tend to the fire, even as we slept, for we needed its warmth during the night. I was grateful for the warmth provided by my fur coat. I smiled when I thought of how it suited me, and how it concealed my mundane riding blouse from view.

On the third morning, I found thin sheets of ice coating my cheeks and my blanket heavy with damp despite the lack of rain. I stood and shook my clothes clean of stray dirt, wiping my face with my hands to clean it. Timoth was stamping the fire out with his boot, and I pulled my blanket over my shoulders and waddled over to embrace its dying warmth.

'Do you have to put it out?' I asked him. I could see my breath in the dim morning light.

'We need to get moving, Saemara. The sooner we get to Haelling Cove, the sooner you can enjoy the comforts of the keep,' Timoth said. I knew he was right, of course, but every second of self-indulgence made the frosty air that much easier to breathe.

Nevertheless I saddled and mounted Lilac, and Timoth led our party back to the road. We trudged along the road, our steeds plonking one hoof before the other, in silence. I had found a pair of gloves in my chest, and retrieved them on the second night. They kept my fingers warm on the reins.

I thought of Alum a lot, as it was more refreshing than thinking of Mother and Father. I knew that if he were here, I could never feel cold, for the warmth of his company would protect me.

We rode through sparse woodland. I had a bad feeling about the mist that snaked through the trees and rode closer to Timoth. It proved to be a prudent decision, as the first barbed arrow that shot out from the treeline whizzed past my shoulder seconds later.

'Attack! We're under attack!' Timoth had the sense to shout.

He drew his sword, and the soldiers followed suit. I was terrified and wanted to run as far away as possible as quickly as possible. Lilac could sense my trepidation and bucked under me, and it was the need to focus on steadying him that prevented me from panicking.

After Lilac had calmed down, I rode beside the carriage and dismounted. Arrows were flying thick from both sides of the road, but Timoth had led his men to the left side of the road and was hacking through our assailants. They discarded their bows in favour of swords, but they were no match for Father's trained and better-equipped men. Timoth almost seemed to be toying with them before he'd kill them, though the deliberateness with which he delayed was probably a tactic to prevent himself from presenting an easy target to the archers on the right side of the road.

Two of Father's men were pierced in their backs with arrows. They fell to the ground on the side of the road, and I considered running to them and dragging their bodies to the relative shelter of the carriage. I decided against it: it wasn't worth risking myself for the soldiers. Besides, they were almost as safe there, lying flat against the ground.

I suddenly remembered the knife Timoth had given to me. I had stopped wearing it in Hollowhold and I realised that I’d forgotten to wear it again today. I cursed my lack of foresight as I huddled uselessly between Lilac and the carriage. I was terrified for a moment when the carriage moved, sliding and then stumbling, and I realised that the lead horse had been struck by an arrow and fallen to the ground, shifting the carriage with it.

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Timoth was shouting. He had butchered or broken the men on his side of the road. Only two of Father's men were with him and another was sheltering behind a tree, gripping a wound in his ankle. Timoth led the two remaining men to where I was hiding, and the four of us used the carriage as shelter for a few seconds.

'How many are left?' I asked him, referring to the archers on the right side of the road. He didn't respond. He was panting hard, and his faced was possessed by a blank stare. I was suddenly scared, more by his expression than the highwaymen assailing us. 'Timoth?!' I demanded, grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him as roughly as I could manage.

'Saemara…' he said, as if emerging from a daze. There was blood all over his chest. 'There are too many. There were six of us to clear this side of the road. Three cannot clear the other side. Yet if we fail to act quickly, they will surround us anew.'

'We could make a run for it, now that half of them are gone,' I suggested, though secretly I hoped he wouldn't agree to that option. Lilac seemed like such a big target. Thankfully, Timoth shook his head, and I made another suggestion. 'We could each take a soldier into our portals and hide until help comes.'

'I have a wounded man out there,' Timoth objected. I personally felt that he was merely reluctant to run from the fight, but his next point was valid. 'Besides, we have no help coming. If we disappear, those highwaymen will simply get in a better position to kill us, and wait for us to emerge. I have food stashed in my portal, but you do not. Do you think you will outlast them?'

I felt so stupid at that moment, as if I had been a complete fool. I’d mocked Timoth when he had spoken of his stowing non-perishable food in his portal, but now I saw that he had showed considerable foresight. I hadn't even remembered to carry my secret knife! I wondered how Prince Alum could see anything in me.

In desperation, I made another suggestion.

'We could both go into your portal.'

He gave me a look of utter disdain, so primal that it hurt.

'I will not abandon my men.'

I wanted to suggest that they could come too, but it would have been useless. Cramming four people into a portal would have seriously strained the available space, not to mention the food and water supplies. It was a stupid suggestion in the first place.

An arrow skidded under the carriage, skidding to a stop harmlessly against my boot. No matter what else, I knew we could not hide behind the carriage indefinitely. It had already cost us as least one horse.

'If you're going to go, go,' I told him. I knew he might die, and I was scared of that possibility. But I knew that he would die, as would I, if he did nothing. He and the two soldiers were armed with shields as well as swords, and I hoped that they could utilise them to survive the archer's arrows until they closed the distance to the treeline.

'Prepare yourselves,' Timoth grunted, though not to me. The two soldiers nodded, and I admired their grace under pressure. Men of the Reach, truly. 'Now!' Timoth shouted, and the three men rounded the carriage and burst from cover.

I peeked around the corner to watch them, and saw arrows thudding against their shields as they ran. They made it to the treeline, and I saw Timoth raise his sword in a sweeping arc when I was suddenly distracted by footsteps from behind me. Someone was approaching.

I cursed, my voice a whisper, and looked around. There was nowhere else I could hide without breaking cover for a dangerously long time.

I had only one choice. I summoned my portal.

The pressure of the situation made it difficult, but its summoning had become a simple enough matter over the months of Master Orjeik's teachings that I managed it nonetheless. I stepped through it without a second thought, finding myself in the relieving grassy patch of my portal realm. It was an odd contrast, the serenity of my private getaway against the backdrop of the brutal ambush. I suddenly was concerned that I would have no way of knowing when I should emerge from my portal, but the shock from the thought was enough to close the portal. I could summon another, of course, but I had to think about this.

I could summon it and stick only my head through it to look around, but that would achieve little if the man I had heard sneaking up on me was still there. I resolved to wait until the battle had been decided, one way or another. Perhaps none of them had seen my portal, and if the rest of my party was dead they would leave. I would be poor, and Timoth would be dead, but I would be alive. Or else, if Timoth won, I would emerge to surprise him with my appearance and survival.

I tried to relax, lying back on the grass. It wasn't winter in the portal realm, nor was it ever. Eternal warmth embraced me, supplied by the gentle winds of autumn and the caressing sunlight of spring. I closed my eyes and sprawled over the grass. I knew that I could die in the portal, if there were men waiting for me on the other side so that I could never emerge without capture. Highwaymen would have few scruples about using me for their pleasure and then discarding me on the side of the road with my throat cut and my purse emptied.

I wondered if I would prefer to jump into the void or wait until I died of thirst. It was a difficult question, for none truly knew what happened to those who fell into the void. Some thought that they did not die, but simply lost their ability to return to reality. That would be no better a fate than starving on the grass.

Eventually some hours passed. I waited until I thought that it would be night-time. Then I waited even longer, for I had no accurate means of timekeeping, and I did not want to be wrong. I was hungry and thirsty, but I tried to keep such thoughts to the back of my mind as I summoned my portal. I held my jacket over the top of my head so that my golden hair would not be so obvious in the darkness of the night, and peered through the portal.