Down Station by Simon Morden

fire.
    Stanislav was the next to appear. He jerked his head for Dalip to follow him, and they walked together down to where Mary was still fishing. As they went, the older man took the makeshift net from him, examined it with an approving nod, and handed it back.
    ‘They tried,’ he said. ‘They tried all kinds of incredible things. The door would not appear to them. It was just rock.’
    That was, apparently, all that could be said about it. They tried, they failed, they came back.
    ‘The sea serpent came up the deep part of the river,’ said Dalip. ‘It was chasing the fish on the tide. I … got quite close to it. Closer than I’d like.’
    ‘You survived.’
    ‘Yes. It’s probably something we don’t want to meet on a dark night, though.’
    ‘Agreed. Was it big?’
    ‘Oh yes.’
    ‘Was it impressive?’
    Dalip caught the inflexion in his voice, and then the twinkle in his eye. ‘Yes. That too. I never imagined such a thing could even exist. Yet, if I hadn’t been trying very hard to get out of its way, I could’ve reached out and touched it.’
    ‘You are both drawn to and repelled by this place. It seems wild, and—’ He spent a moment searching for the word. ‘Untamed. This is outside of your experience.’
    ‘Lots of things are. My parents keep me on a pretty tight rein. Kept. I don’t know. This is all very new.’
    ‘This is very new to all of us. None of us know what we might find here. Just keep in mind this freedom means you are also free to fail. Badly.’
    ‘I understand. At least, I’m beginning to understand.’
    They looked at what Mary had caught. There were another two fish on the bank.
    ‘Shall we worry about varying our diet tomorrow?’ asked Dalip.
    Stanislav bent down and held one of the eggs in his hand. ‘Fruits, vegetables, grains: all change with the seasons. We do not know about seasons here, though it appears to be spring or early summer. ‘Are there more eggs?’
    ‘I think so. The geese – if that’s what they are – nest on the ground. I took two out of four, and I was going back to look for others, when the sea serpent happened.’
    ‘You should have heard him,’ said Mary. She took the net from Dalip, and poked at it, testing its robustness. ‘Did you know you screamed like a girl?’
    ‘I was surprised, that’s all.’
    ‘Course you were.’ She lowered the net into the river, and tried to chase a fish with it. It swam away with a flick of its tail. ‘This isn’t any easier.’
    Stanislav looked over his shoulder. Mama was walking in, a solitary and dejected figure in the distance. He frowned, and turned to where the thin stream of white smoke was rising through the tree canopy from their fire.
    ‘Where,’ he asked, ‘is Grace?’
    ‘She went with you.’ Dalip turned a slow full circle, looking for a tell-tale flash of orange, even as a fleck of ice lodged in his stomach.
    ‘She stayed only a short while. Long enough to see for herself that the door had disappeared. Then she said she would return to you.’
    ‘We never saw her, and we were in and out of the camp all day.’ He swallowed. ‘Mary?’
    She carried on trying the net out, but she shook her head.
    ‘Not seen her since this morning.’ Then she realised the importance of the discussion and splashed out of the riverlet. ‘So where is she?’
    Dalip did what he thought was sensible. He drew in a deep breath and cupped his hands around his mouth. Stanislav closed his fist over them and dragged them inexorably down.
    ‘No,’ he said.
    ‘But if she’s wandered off—’
    ‘This is not an accident. If she has been taken, we can shout for her until our throats bleed: she will be unable to answer. And if, as I suspect, she has left us to find the geomancer on her own, she will not want to answer.’ He made his lips into a mean, thin line.
    ‘Shit,’ said Mary. ‘The ungrateful bitch.’
    ‘We can’t just assume that,’ said Dalip. His heart was starting to race. Even faster