It was the hour before dawn. Sunanon had snatched some sleep in the night but he wasn't able to rest for long before curiosity and anxiety made him return time and again to the Token. On this occasion though, there was something to report and he'd dared to wake the others to tell them.
The Wedge Token had stabilised at last. Sunanon looked at the cyclic patterns of black and white lines which were marching through the key with some considerable satisfaction. It was exactly as the Cataconquine Books of Lore had said. Up until this moment he had harboured just a small element of doubt, never having seen the process in action and wondering if it might after all be the fancy of a mad old sage. Now he knew that the Token really did have some very special properties.
One more link to strengthen the matrix, then he would give the Gate an hour to rest, establish a second link and open the whole thing up wide.
"About time," Kark said when Sunanon explained the situation to the assembled Agents.
"Relax," Eryndra said. "It's all going to plan. I told you it would work! I hear that our pursuers have run into some trouble. I'm afraid they may be a little delayed and by the time they arrive they'll be too late for the party."
Sunanon, touched the code sequence on the Token. The link sprang into being with remarkable speed which was in itself an excellent sign. The locking wards were utterly shattered and as the Gate became accustomed to regular use it was establishing the tunnel through the Barriers to its twin in the Christmas Passage with ever increasing ease. On the other side of the Gateway, the Advent Cave was now visible, richly decorated with purple hangings and lit by banks of tiny candles. Normally the Cave was deserted apart from a couple of guards posted by the Proton King to hold the station. This time, unexpectedly, there was someone waiting on the opposite side and before anyone had time to react the stranger stepped through into the Temple of November.
He was a tall man, almost impossibly thin with a waxen face and an explosion of wild white hair. He was wearing a white double breasted suit, with a white tie, a white shirt and white trousers. Even his socks and shoes were white as though he were the photographic negative of an ultra conservatively dressed businessman. The only colour to flavour his spectacularly monochrome clothing was a single thin pale blue sash which ran from his left shoulder to his right hip. A silver star burst medal gleamed at his left breast pocket, looking vaguely like an ornate sheriff's badge.
"Who are you?"
Jepson had readied his sword and was already advancing towards the stranger with menace in mind. He didn’t like surprises and this was certainly a surprise. Kark and Browning had also reached for weapons but neither had yet moved.
The newcomer said nothing. He stretched his right arm towards Jepson. A stream of white light flowed out of the palm of his hand and struck the blade, flowing down the steel accompanied by a rain of blue sparks.
The sword dropped to the floor of the temple with a clatter of metal on stone.
"Fuck!"
Jepson brought his hand up to his face and began to suck the fingers of his injured hand with urgent attention.
"If I'd made it any colder," the stranger said. "Your flesh would have been welded to the metal. That can do a lot of damage. Please don't draw a sword on me again. I don’t like it."
The man smiled and his teeth were as harsh as glaciers clashing on the shores of some Arctic Fjord.
"Alright," Kark said. "What do you want?"
Somehow in a situation like this he always assumed leadership of the Agents. They all waited now for the stranger to make the next move.
"I've been sent by the Proton King," he said. "My boss isn't very happy with the way things are going here. He was expecting the link to be opened by now. He needs the link opened.
"So I'll be taking charge from here on. I've been given overall operational command of all our activities in this Realm. And that includes the four of you.
"I'm just here to make sure everything goes smoothly."
He smiled again. It was not the sort of smile Sunanon wanted to see for a third time.
"You may call me Colonel Frost," the man said. "Colonel Jack Frost."
Just before sun rise, Sunanon announced that the Wedge Token and the Gate were ready. Without interference he would have waited a little longer to confirm that the patterns in the Token weren't subject to any drifting. Colonel Frost, however, was demanding the immediate opening of the link and Colonel Frost wasn't the kind of man to argue with.
Sunanon touched the faces of the Token in a new sequence and waited for the confirm prompt. Naturally there would be a confirm prompt on a request like this! For an instant he hesitated and then accepted the change.
In a soundless moment the Gateway glowed bright white. Only seconds later, a wave of hard bright icy fractures shot out to cover the whole temple in a blanket of frost far deeper than the thin rime it had suffered before. This one made the previous coating look pathetic. Now the interior of the temple resembled the inside of an ice box which is overdue to be defrosted. The aquamarine scatter sparks were buried in the ice and they made it glow from the inside with a pale blue fire. All the pillars were thickly encrusted with crystal masses which began to cast delicate prisms of split sunshine round the room as the first light of dawn entered the temple.
A ragged cheer went up from the Agents and they were obliged to witness Colonel Frost's dreadful smile again.
"That's much better," he said. "Now we can begin the next phase…"
