Winter Door by Isobelle Carmody

home. This time it was accepted at once. Billy sniffed Logan as he got in and wagged his tail in recognition.
    “He remembers me,” Logan murmured, rubbing Billy between the eyes.
    “Billy smells that Rage likes you,” Uncle Samuel said, surprisingly.
    When Logan got out, he thanked them and ran lightly across the road, despite the fact that The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe audiotape and another of A Midsummer Night’s Dream were stuffed into his pockets, making the sides of his coat bulge. Rage wondered, smiling, what his foster family would make of him suddenly listening to Shakespeare.
    Rage thought happily about what had happened in English that afternoon. But the good feelings faded as the car began to climb the hills above the town, for here the bleakness of the winter was evident on all sides. Rage thought of the creatures that had chased her and Logan.
    Then a truly awful thought assailed her.
    What if the beasts had come through the winter door? What if they were what the wizard had sent the firecat to warn her about? Rage tried to remember exactly what the firecat had said. It had said something about needing the wizard. Then it had offered to take her to him. It could only have made that offer if it had possessed the power to take her to the wizard.
    A picture came into Rage’s mind of the tiny hourglass. What if it had contained dream-traveling magic? Perhaps the spell had been designed to activate as soon as it was near her. Then she might have been meant to dream-travel to the wizard, who would have told her how to block the gap between her world and Valley to keep out the winter. Or maybe she would have been told how to close the winter door, thereby saving both worlds.
    Rage began to smooth Billy’s fur with her fingers. It soothed her as much as it did him. She focused on the world outside the car again. The snowy world of hillocks and trees flew past, shadowy and as full of jumps as the old Charlie Chaplin movies that Mam loved so much. It was only when they were coming up the hill road to the farm that Rage glanced at her uncle and noticed a little nerve jumping crazily in the side of his neck.
    Rage told herself that her uncle was no different than usual. His coolness might only be because he was irritated at having to ferry her to and from school. Worrying about her uncle on top of worrying about Valley made her feel strangely hollow, as if fear had claws and were burrowing into her.
     
    Dinner was a frozen pizza to which they added fresh toppings. Rage had extra cheese and slices of tomato. Uncle Samuel put butter beans and feta cheese on his, then he drizzled on olive oil, saying it was better that way. While the pizzas heated, he unwrapped some bones he had gotten for Billy and put out a bowl of water. The news came on and Rage listened to it, half hoping that some expert would come on and talk about mutated boars.
    The first half hour was world news. Unusually, Leary got a mention because of its weather. The attention of the world was beginning to focus on the phenomenal weather pattern around their part of the globe. The announcer said that the freakish weather was spreading and continued to baffle experts. Rather than being the result of high-or low-pressure fronts, or hurricanes out at sea, or even of volcanic activity, this weather seemed to be spontaneously roiling out of the skies above Leary.
    Rage stiffened. If the weather was flowing from an opening in Valley, it would probably be near Leary.
    The announcer went on to say that experts from all over the world were coming to Leary for an emergency weather summit. Then a local news announcer came on and repeated pretty much all that had been said, only adding that the weather had immobilized all transport outside Leary. Snowplows were facing a struggle to keep open the main roads to smaller towns such as Hopeton and Cally to the north and south.
    Rage knew this would affect the possibility of visiting Mam in Leary. It was even