Riders came from three sides now. Kelpie was fast enough that the gap wasn't closing, but it wasn't growing either. Finn worked the rifle rearward in short bursts, aiming at horses rather than riders to take more out of the chase per round. When a group cut in from the left and got close enough to swing their weapons, he dropped the rifle on its strap, activated the ice crystal of his lightsaber, and drove a block of ice up out of the ground behind them. Two horses hit it at full speed and went down. The riders behind them had to split around.
The signal ahead kept getting bigger. Then Finn could see the hill. A low slope rising from the open field, and at the top a barrier stretched across the grass in a rough circle. The beacon shone at the center. In front of it, a column of Wild Hunt riders had stopped and bunched up on the slope. One of them sat further forward than the rest, larger armor, no standard, positioned right at the barrier's edge and watching it. He was not attacking it. He seems to be studying it.
Finn looked at that figure for a second and turned away.
"In the first place," he said, "why is the signal so fucking obvious?"
"How do we get past them?" Ciri asked.
"Just keep running." He turned to face forward. "I'll worry about it."
Ciri leaned down over Kelpie's neck. "Can you run faster, girl?"
Kelpie huffed. She went faster.
Finn scanned the slope ahead. The riders were packed across it in a solid column. No gap wide enough to ride through. Charging straight into them meant riding into their swords. He looked at the angle of the hill, to the point where the barrier edge came lowest.
It was then that at about fifty meters out he drove his palm down and pulled a ramp of ice up from the ground, angled steep toward the low edge of the barrier.
Kelpie hit the ramp without slowing. Her hooves dug into the ice as she went up it. At the top she jumped. The riders below turned and looked up. Kelpie's mane and tail were burning majestically in the air.
They hit the barrier. He had about half a second to think about whether it would let them through before they were through it, and the noise behind them quickly cut off.
Kelpie landed hard and skidded across the grass, front hooves tearing into the ground.
Avallach was already there. A portal stood open behind him. He looked at them and said nothing for a moment. "Took you long enough."
"This beacon is stupid," Finn said. "You're drawing them straight here."
"That is the whole point." Avallach turned toward the portal, then stopped. "This barrier and beacon will mask our destination. Caranthir will not be able to block or interfere with our transport. Once you enter, you will be thrown through a series of portals in rapid succession, a matter of seconds each. It will be disorienting. That is the design. It makes the destination impossible to trace. Do not fight it. Brace yourself."
Finn had several things to say about that. He kept all of them to himself.
Avallach stepped through and was gone.
Ciri looked at Finn and shrugged. She pulled Kelpie's ball from her belt and retrieved her. Finn looked at the portal for a moment, then walked through.
—
The portal threw him into another one before he had registered the first. Then another. Then another. He lost count somewhere around six. Each pass he felt different temperatures and pressures, each one barely a second before the next. By the time it stopped, he was dizzy and felt sick.
He came out of the last one and his knees buckled. He caught himself on one hand in wet grass and stayed down for a moment with his eyes closed. He almost threw up but kept it down. When he stood up, Ciri and Avallach were a few meters to his left, already standing, already looking at something across the water. Finn walked over and looked.
A wide river. On the far bank, a city. Stone walls, towers, and a long bridge from one bank to the other.
"Novigrad…" Ciri said. "The Free City."
"Was a free city," Finn said. "The Eternal Fire runs it now. They burn mages and anyone they decide they don't like." He was looking at the bridge. The queue of people waiting to cross it stretched back off the far end and along the road for a long way. Guards were working the near gate, checking people one by one and letting them through slowly, or even refusing them. "The war with Nilfgaard pushed a lot of people north. Refugees. And they're restricting access. Which tracks."
"I don't suppose," Finn said, "you can convince the guards to let us through with magic?"
"We shall try," Avallach said.
"Actually, no. Scratch that. If anyone here sees magic being used, they'll put us on a pyre." Finn was already going through his bag. "Bribery should do the trick.I have coins, but I'm not sure I have the right ones. What does Novigrad use?"
"Crowns," Ciri said.
"Right. I don't have crowns." He pulled out a handful and looked at them. "I have Koviri bizants. Close enough in value, probably."
"We can only try," Ciri said.
The three of them walked to the back of the line and joined it.