Instead of booking another passage when the reef of logs came at last to the mill, Loaf and Umbo decided to walk the last thirty miles to O. It meant one night paying to sleep in a farmer’s shed, and rising with the stink of goats on them and their clothing, but the breakfast was large and good, and arriving in O by land, looking privick and smelling of barnyard animals, would keep them from being recognized by any who had known them before.

Umbo was excited to return to O—to him it was a magical place where marvelous things had happened. But to Loaf, who had been there more than once, and most other places also, it was just another errand on the way. They passed right through the city late in the morning and took a room in a humble boardinghouse well off the main road—just what a frugal traveler would do. The young widow who kept the house was glad to have them, since a mature man traveling with his son (as she thought) was less likely to assume he had privileges with her.

They were tired enough from all their walking that they decided the next morning would be soon enough to go dig up the jewel. Instead they asked the landlady where they might find a bathhouse, and ended up paying their fee to her for hot water in a decent-sized tub, and soap, and a surprisingly good towel. They didn’t mind sharing the bed—it was big enough for both, and they smelled better than usual. Umbo slept like a brick and woke in the morning ready for a good brisk walk.

The landlady packed them a lunch to take with them to the Tower of O, their announced destination. The line at the tower was long—the spring weather had brought many tourists and pilgrims to the site. So it was perfectly normal for the man and his son to take their lunch around behind the latrine building. They lingered there near the hiding place of the jewels until there were no others near them. Then Umbo stood up, stretched, and knelt at the spot where they knew the jewels had lain.

Umbo cheerfully dug in the soil, exposing . . . nothing.

“What was that for?” asked Loaf. “You know we already took the jewels. It’s only in the past that they’ll be there.”

“I just wanted to be sure,” said Umbo. “In fact, I’d like to see the jewels right now.”

“I’m not getting them out to display them where somebody might come bounding around back here and see them and take it into their minds that an emperor’s fortune might just be worth killing us over.”

“But I want to see something.”

“See whatever you want, but I’m not getting out the jewels.”

“I was thinking,” said Umbo.

“Like climbing a cliff, thinking is a perilous activity for those unused to it.”

“What if I take two jewels instead of just the one?”

“Then I would have been carrying around sixteen instead of seventeen.”

“That’s why I want to see them, right here beside us. If I take out two jewels, fully intending to keep them both, will one jewel disappear from the bag?”

“You’re provoking me on purpose,” said Loaf.

“Or would we end up with two jewels? Could we take them all, and have duplicates of all but the one?”

“Or would you provoke the wrath of the universe and cause the sun to explode?”

“That’s not very likely.”

“Nothing you do is likely, boy. Now go back in time like a good little saint and steal the jewel that we wouldn’t have to take if you weren’t the spawn of a devil.”

“Your assessment of my father is right enough, sir,” said Umbo, imitating Rigg’s high manner of speaking, “though if you referred to my mother I’d have to kill you.”

“Get the jewel,” said Loaf. Then he closed his eyes to wait.

“Aren’t you going to watch?” asked Umbo.

“I don’t want to see you reach into an invisible hole and make a jewel magically appear in your hand. It’s too disturbing.”

“And I’m saying, watch. You don’t want to miss this.”

“Don’t tell me what I want,” said Loaf, getting testy. He didn’t like people telling him what to do. Especially a mere child. Though Umbo was a good deal smarter than some of the clowns whose orders Loaf had obeyed when he was in the army.

“Then I’ll put it another way. I don’t want you to miss this, because I’m trying something important. I’m going to try to bring you with me.”

“I have no such talent,” said Loaf. “So just do it.”

“Hold my hand,” said Umbo. “And keep your eyes open.”

Loaf closed his eyes.

Umbo took his hand anyway.

“Open your eyes,” he said.

“No,” said Loaf. He wanted to use the time to get lost in a dream.

“Please,” said Umbo. “Don’t be stubborn. Do it for me.”

Loaf sighed and opened his eyes.

The woods around them were vivid with autumn colors, and a rain as light as mist was falling. Now he could feel it on his face.

“By Silbom’s right ear,” said Loaf.

“Now I’m going to let go of your hand,” said Umbo, “and try to keep you here with me.”

He let go.

“Still see the autumn leaves?” asked Umbo.

“Yes,” said Loaf. “But I don’t see you!”

Umbo looked shocked. “I’m invisible?”

“I can still see your clothes, but they’re empty!”

“Liar,” said Umbo. “You’d be a lot more upset than that if I had disappeared.”

“You’d like to think so,” said Loaf. “Dig it up and take the jewel, you little thief.”

Umbo dug with his hands. “How far down did you bury it?”

“Not as deep as that.”

“Then . . . did I make a mistake? Did I take us back before you buried them?”

“Maybe. Or maybe it’s because you’re digging in the wrong spot,” said Loaf.

“I saw where you dug to get to them!”

“But you were watching from over there, and a long way, too. You didn’t miss by much. Back from there about a pace. But first fill in that hole and hide it.”

“Why? There’s nothing in it.”

“Because you don’t want to put it into somebody’s mind that something was buried here—not this near to the real hiding place. Remember, we’re leaving seventeen jewels hidden here and we won’t be back to claim them for a while yet.”

“Why don’t you fill up the hole?” said Umbo. “You’re the one who knows how to hide things.”

So Loaf refilled the first hole and scattered a handful of tiny pebbles and short twigs across it until it looked just like the surrounding dirt. Meanwhile, Umbo had found the real hiding place and had the bag opened to show all eighteen jewels.

“I can’t remember now which one is missing,” said Umbo.

“Don’t play games,” said Loaf. “Somebody could come along at any moment—in either time.”

“I’m not joking,” said Umbo. “You have to open up the jewels we already have and see which of these is the missing one.”

“You’re doing this on purpose because you want to do your experiment,” said Loaf.

“Who’s wasting time now?” asked Umbo.

Loaf sighed, drew the bag of jewels up out of his trouser leg, and opened them. “I can’t tell you which one is missing, I can only tell you which ones are here.”

“So lay them down beside the others.”

“No,” said Loaf.

“Then you do it—you look back and forth.”

Loaf reluctantly did as Umbo asked, looking back and forth. It bothered him deeply to be seeing duplicates of these one-of-a-kind gems. But he finally identified the missing jewel. He pointed. “That one.”

“So take it,” said Umbo.

Loaf felt very strange as he reached out and picked up the jewel and put it from one bag into the other.

“Now take another,” said Umbo. “Please, let’s see what happens!”

“No,” said Loaf.

“What can it hurt? Either the stone will disappear from the new bag or it won’t.”

“Umbo,” said Loaf, “I don’t know what it can hurt. But I also don’t know that it can’t hurt, and there’s too much at stake to play around. We have to get to Aressa Sessamo to help Rigg, if we can.”

Umbo sighed petulantly and retied the old bag—he had never seemed so young in all the time Loaf had known him. “Fill up the hole,” said Loaf as he counted all eighteen jewels, together again at last, retied the new bag, and dropped it back down into his trousers.