Leighton stood with his hand on the switch until the lights on the consoles seemed to satisfy him. To J, they made less sense than so many Egyptian hieroglyphics. Finally the scientist turned to J.

«Do you need a drink as badly as I do?»

«Probably more so.»

«I sincerely doubt if that would be possible,» said Leighton. He reached under the control panel and came out with a silver flask and a thermos jug.

«Weak or strong?»

Blade only saw the green light. Then the wire mesh and the room beyond it wavered. He seemed to be looking at them through the hot air rising from a fire. He felt a stab of some strong emotion in his mind from Cheeky, not quite fear but certainly discontent with the situation.

Easy, Cheeky, thought Blade. I've been through this dozens of times. It's not so bad after the first time. He hoped it was nothing more than facing the unknown which was bothering Cheeky.

Then the green light and the wavering booth and room both vanished. Blade felt Cheeky 's weight lift from his shoulder and heard him yeeep. He sounded more angry than frightened, but suddenly his thoughts weren't reaching Blade.

Then Blade felt himself falling. He fell down through dreamlike cold and blackness for what seemed like forever. It was so cold that he felt the sweat on his skin starting to freeze, and so black that even the idea of light seemed impossible.

His thoughts still came clearly. He'd just begun to wonder if something might have gone badly wrong, when suddenly the cold and the darkness vanished. There was blue sky overhead, damp grass under his hands, and a cool breeze puffing against his face.

Blade sat up. He was sitting in foot-high grass on a slope which looked like the bank of a river. Between the water's edge and the main channel lay a hundred yards of dead trees, patches of black mud, and clumps of reeds. The reeds were a sickly yellow-green, and looked vaguely familiar.