By morning, the aircraft had been arranged.
Jonathan came downstairs with his research in one bag and the padded box in another. Gabriel took the box from him, checked the fastening and placed it beside the four amulet cases.
Sal watched the bags being carried out.
“Are we going straight there?”
“Eventually,” Kane said.
The boy looked at him.
“That means no.”
“It means you’ll have time to ask me again.”
Elena joined them with Sal’s coat over her arm. She had spoken to her sister twice since the decision to leave, once about the journey and once simply to hear her other child’s voice. Lucía had written down the numbers they would need in Chile and tucked them into the front of Elena’s bag.
Daniel telephoned his parents before they left.
His mother wanted to know when he would be back. He told her he would call as soon as they arrived.
“Both of you,” she said.
Mara, standing beside him, heard enough to smile.
The journey lost its shape somewhere over the Atlantic.
There were meals at hours when no one particularly wanted them, a stop while the aircraft took on fuel, and long stretches in which the only movement beyond the windows was the slow passage of cloud.
The Watchers had made arrangements at either end, but there was still paperwork to inspect and luggage to account for. Elena kept her documents together and Gabriel remained nearby whenever anyone asked a question.
Kane said little during take-off.
Elena noticed his hand resting flat on the arm of the seat. She did not ask him to explain it. Once they were above the clouds, she laid her fingers over his.
He turned towards her.
“Thank you.”
She nodded, leaving her hand where it was.
Sal fell asleep between questions. When he woke, he found Kane still beside him and began again.
Jonathan tried to work.
He unfolded the map, compared it with his notes and read Isobel’s report until the figures stopped meaning anything. Across the cabin, Mara had fallen asleep against Daniel’s shoulder. Lindiwe sat with her eyes closed, while Vale watched the cloud beneath them.
Jonathan put the papers away.
For a while, he looked out of the window himself.
They landed in Chile with the evening already drawing in.
Two vehicles waited for them. Their drivers knew the observatory and had been given the passengers’ names, although the amount of luggage prompted a brief discussion before Gabriel helped rearrange it.
By the time they left the airport, Sal was awake enough to press his face towards the window.
The light faded as they travelled north. Buildings gave way to longer stretches of open ground, then the road began to climb. Beyond the headlights, hills appeared as dark shapes against a sky that seemed to contain more stars each time Daniel looked up.
Mara shifted beside him.
“What?”
“I was going to ask you.”
She glanced towards the bag at her feet.
Her amulet was still in its case. She rested her hand on the lid but did not open it.
Daniel looked ahead.
Something had begun to draw his attention away from the road. He could not have said where it was, only that each bend seemed to bring him nearer.
Vale sat in the other vehicle.
Daniel wondered whether he felt it too.
At La Silla, the vehicles stopped beside a low building.
Isobel had been waiting inside, where Ernesto had persuaded her to sit down until the drivers called. She emerged with a jacket pulled over her clothes and several sheets still in her hand.
Jonathan saw her before he had fully stepped out of the car.
For a moment, the sound of the engine seemed to recede.
She paused beneath the light above the entrance, looking along the arriving passengers until her gaze found his. A strand of hair had escaped behind her ear. She moved it back, and he had the peculiar impression that the small gesture took far longer than it should.
He had seen her photograph. It had prepared him for almost nothing.
Then someone closed a car door.
The sound returned at once.
“Jonathan?”
He realised she had come towards him.
“Yes.”
“Isobel.”
“I’d worked that out.”
He heard himself and wished he had begun differently.
But she smiled.
“Good. We’re both ahead of the introductions.”
They shook hands. Hers was cool from the evening air. Behind him, Sal asked which building contained the biggest telescope. Isobel looked past Jonathan.
“We’ll have to show you.”
Elena introduced herself, then Kane. Within a minute, everyone was speaking and Ernesto was helping Gabriel carry the bags inside.
Jonathan remained beside the car long enough for Daniel to notice.
“All right?”
“Did anything happen just then?”
Daniel looked towards the entrance.
“What sort of thing?”
“A pause. When she came out.”
“No.”
“Nothing at all?”
“Only Sal trying to climb over Kane.”
Jonathan considered that. From the doorway, Isobel called for them to come inside. Daniel followed Jonathan’s gaze, then looked back at him.
“Oh.”
“Don’t.”
“I haven’t said anything.”
“Continue doing that.”
Daniel smiled and picked up the remaining bag.
Isobel had kept food aside for them.
The room was plain and warm, with a large table and windows that reflected everyone back against the darkness outside. Ernesto found extra chairs while Lucía helped Elena settle Sal.
Jonathan put his folder beside his plate.
Isobel noticed.
“Eat first.”
“I only wanted to show you—”
“I know. I’ve been doing the same thing for a week.”
He left the folder closed.
She sat opposite him, and for a while the conversation concerned the journey, the rooms and whether anyone needed to telephone home. Ernesto explained where they could find him during the night. Gabriel listened carefully to the directions.
Daniel found himself looking towards the window.
The sensation from the road had not gone.
He could feel Mara beside him, the others around the table, and beyond them something less distinct. It was difficult to separate from the relief of finally arriving.
Across the table, Vale stopped listening halfway through one of Ernesto’s explanations. His eyes met Daniel’s. Neither spoke.
They brought out the amulets after the plates had been cleared.
Isobel stood as Lindiwe opened the first case.
The central stone shone with the five smaller ones around it. Beside it, Mara’s amulet carried the same arrangement of light.
Kane opened his case, then Sal opened his own with Elena’s help. Ernesto remained standing at the end of the table. For several seconds, he said nothing. Isobel laid her drawing beside Lindiwe’s amulet.
She had left small inaccuracies in the outline. The stones themselves were exactly where she had placed them.
Jonathan watched her compare the two.
“Well?” he asked quietly.
She touched the edge of the paper.
“I was rather hoping you’d have brought something less convincing.”
“So were we, the first time.”
Sal lifted his amulet from its case.
Ernesto moved closer, then stopped.
“May I look?”
The boy glanced at Elena. She nodded. Sal held it out.
Ernesto accepted it carefully. Its centre stayed bright, as did the five smaller gems. He turned it beneath the lamp, examining the back and the narrow spaces around its edge.
“Does it become hot?”
“No,” Sal said.
“Always this bright?”
“It depends who’s here,” Lindiwe told him.
He looked around the table.
“All of you?”
“Six of us,” Vale said.
Ernesto glanced towards Jonathan.
“Not me,” Jonathan said. “I’m mostly responsible for carrying things.”
The technician turned the amulet once more.
“You have to hold these while you work?”
“Usually,” Mara said.
Lindiwe touched the front of her blouse.
“I’ve kept mine close.”
“Could you wear them?”
Kane looked at the object in Ernesto’s hands.
“We haven’t found a way.”
Ernesto studied the edge.
“I could make a holder. Nothing through the metal. Nothing touching the stones.”
He looked towards Elena.
“A smaller one for him.”
“What sort of holder?” she asked.
“I’ll show you before he wears it.”
He returned the amulet to Sal and went to find a pencil.
It was Elena who noticed the eyes first.
She had reached across to wipe a small mark from Sal’s cheek. When he looked up, she paused with her hand beneath his chin.
“Stay still.”
He obeyed, although his expression suggested he expected another attempt at cleaning him.
She leaned closer.
Kane watched her.
“What is it?”
Elena looked towards him, and her hand slowly fell away from Sal’s face.
“Yours too.”
Mara turned to Daniel.
The change was slight enough that, at first, he thought she was only looking at him. Then he saw the colour of her irises.
Grey.
The silver brightness that had accompanied their earlier experiences had softened into a faint light within the colour itself.
Daniel moved his chair back from the table.
Nothing faded.
Mara followed him to the window, where their reflections showed the same unfamiliar eyes. Behind them, Lindiwe was looking at Vale.
Isobel approached slowly.
“Does that happen often?”
“Not like this,” Mara said.
Sal looked towards the window and tried to see himself between them.
Elena brought him closer.
“I’m not doing anything,” he said.
“I know.”
Jonathan stood beside Isobel, studying the six reflections.
The amulets still lay on the table. No one was trying to create a room or reach into a memory. They waited, allowing the familiar intensity to subside.
The grey remained.
So did the faint glow.
Vale turned towards the dark hillside beyond the glass.
“We’re close.”
Daniel looked at him.
“To them?”
“I think so.”
For the first time, Isobel understood that the objects on the table were only part of what had arrived.
Ernesto returned with a sketch.
He had drawn a shallow frame shaped to support an amulet from beneath, with small retaining tabs around the metal edge. A loop at the top would take a cord, leaving the stones uncovered.
Mara looked at it.
“You can make that here?”
“We repair rather larger things.”
“And smaller,” Isobel said.
Ernesto glanced at her.
“Usually with fewer people watching.”
They followed him to the workshop.
Jonathan carried the cases. Gabriel brought the padded box and left it on a clear bench, while Lucía remained beside Elena and Sal.
Ernesto made the first holder for Lindiwe’s amulet, checking the fit several times before closing the retaining tabs. He threaded a soft cord through the loop and handed it to her.
She slipped it over her head, letting the amulet settle against the centre of her chest. For a moment her hands remained around it, then slowly lowered. Vale noticed the change in her expression.
“What is it?”
She considered how to answer.
“I don’t have to keep reaching for it.”
Daniel understood the effort she meant. Since the first shared room, there had always been a moment in which they sought one another, finding the connection before they could do anything with it.
Lindiwe stood quietly. Now she seemed to have found somewhere to remain. Mara was next.
When her amulet rested against her chest, she drew a long breath and looked towards Lindiwe. The connection between them steadied, holding without either needing to lift a hand.
Ernesto watched them before returning to his work.
He adjusted the length of Kane’s cord, then made Sal’s shorter. Elena checked the holder and fastening herself before allowing him to put it on.
The boy looked down at the light against his shirt. Then he held up both empty hands. Kane smiled.
“Yes. Much easier.”
Daniel stood beside an unused bench while Ernesto began the remaining two frames.
He had not intended to make anything.
But with the four amulets resting against their owners, the others’ presence felt clearer. Mara leaned against the adjoining bench, her hands loose at her sides. Lindiwe watched him without the concentration she usually needed to hold them together.
A pale line appeared above the work surface as Daniel lifted his hand. When he stopped moving, the line remained. Mara came closer.
“What were you thinking of?”
“The table. In England.”
His fingers moved slightly, and the line widened into an edge. Beneath it, a small, flat surface took shape.
Kane tilted his head.
“Your wrist.”
Daniel glanced towards him.
“When you turn it, that end changes.”
He tried.
The surface curved.
Mara raised her own hand without quite knowing why. Daniel felt the wavering at its edge diminish, and the shape settled between them.
Jonathan set down the cases.
Ernesto had stopped working.
Daniel opened his fingers. The surface grew wider, smooth and pale beneath the workshop lights.
He could feel Sal’s quiet presence, the ease in his own body. Lindiwe held the connection without drawing them towards a memory. Vale stood close enough that Daniel sensed his attention before he heard him speak.
“Slowly.”
Daniel brought his hand down, lowering the shape with it, and rested his palm against the surface. It supported him. Mara looked from his hand to her own.
“We’ve been holding on to everything.”
Daniel smiled.
“Apparently.”
When they released it, the shape faded gently above the bench. No one stumbled. Nothing else in the room changed. Ernesto looked at the empty space, then at the two unfinished holders.
“I’ll make these adjustable,” he said.
Jonathan pulled out a chair.
“I think I’ll sit down while you do.”
Later, Isobel walked with them towards their rooms.
The observatory had settled into its night work. Behind closed doors, people spoke quietly over instruments and screens. Outside, the air was cold enough for Jonathan to fasten his jacket.
He paused beside Isobel.
“Thank you.”
“For the rooms?”
“For believing enough to arrange them.”
She looked towards Daniel and Mara ahead of them.
“I’ve spent days arguing that something impossible was happening to my telescope.”
“And now?”
“Now I have a different set of questions.”
“So do I.”
She smiled at him, and he found that he had forgotten the cold.
Farther along the path, Daniel stopped.
Mara came to a halt beside him. Behind them, Vale turned away from the buildings.
The sensation had sharpened.
Daniel looked across the slope. He could distinguish the road below, dark rocks and the faint outline of a ravine, but nothing there explained why his attention fixed on it.
Vale moved beside him.
“Where?” he asked.
Daniel pointed.
The older man followed his hand.
“Yes.”
Lindiwe joined them, her amulet resting steadily against her chest. Kane came with Elena and Sal. All four amulets shone, their central stones and five smaller gems bright among the folds of their clothing.
Isobel looked from Daniel to Vale.
“You can feel them?”
Daniel nodded.
He lowered his hand, then raised it again, checking that the direction had not changed.
Behind him, the others settled into the same quiet attention. There was no sudden room, no rush of another person’s memory. He could feel each of them clearly and still hear the wind moving across the hillside.
Jonathan stood beside Isobel.
“Is that near one of the surveyed sites?”
“In that direction,” she said. “I’d need the photographs to tell you more.”
Vale was still looking out into the darkness.
For years, he had travelled with other people’s artefacts. He had watched their stones answer someone else and learned to accept the small light that marked his presence.
Now something waited beyond the buildings that answered him alone.
Daniel looked towards him.
Neither needed to ask whether the other was certain.
Below them, somewhere among the rocks, the final two were waiting.