The next morning they flew British Airways to Ankara where they spent two days acclimating and dealing with jet lag. Then it was a short flight to Van which wasn't nearly as comfortable since it was a local airline. Still they arrived intact and unharmed.  They'd made most of the arrangements on the phone, and Lev, Jonah and Simon took on the task of arranging what hadn't yet been put to rights. Land Rovers were hired, food and supplies loaded, and then, two days total spent dealing with the locals, and they were ready to head east.  The challenge would be getting across the border unaccosted but since there were quite a few talented folks along - all right all of them - between spells and talented other sorts of deceit and subterfuge, they made it across with little disruption. However, the way became harder over the border in Iran and they took a 'secondary' read dirt and hardly any road toward Qotur. It improved markedly at Khoy as they turned south towards Tabriz.

They spent one night on the road and reached Mt Sahand in the early afternoon of the next day.  They spent the rest of the day getting ready for the climb and hiding the Land Rovers along with the gear they wouldn't need.  They hired a donkey from a local farmer much to Smitty's relief.  Dia had estimated it would take three days to make the climb, given the shape of the climbers, the height of the peak and the need to acclimate to the altitude. 

Betty Jo looked up the trail and thought of the Himalaya's and shivered.  She hugged herself for a moment and then went to help Bobbie with dinner.  Jonah had conjured a smokeless fire for them and Bobbie already had water going for tea and a pot of coffee boiling.  They had mostly trail food for the rest of the trip, but tonight they were supplementing it with eggs bought from the owner of the donkey and fresh bread supplied by his wife. 

Ian and Jonah were going over, for the tenth time at least, the list of supplies, to make certain they had what they thought they'd need. Lev was off doing a recce of the area, and keeping an eye on the two vehicles that had been discreetly pacing them for days. They'd made no move to bother them, so it had been their agreed on plan to ignore them unless and until they tried to interfere.

Simon and Smitty were putting the satellite hookup together to get a feed to the computer and the GPS was already downloaded.  They'd heard from Leroy at the Zoo and St John at Blackheath and all seemed relatively safe and normal from their ends.

"This is not," Bobbie said, watching them with the electronics, "a true quest.  It's much too cushy."

Betty Jo and Dia giggled.  "You really think they'd have left the toys home?"  Betty Jo asked, cracking eggs into a pan.

Bobbie made a face.  "Of course not."

"Look, we get lost on one of those glaciers, or fall into a fistula or whatever they're called, you'll be happy we have GPS coordinates to use to zap you outta there," Simon replied with a grin.

"Oh look. Damn it, I've lost my prime rating in the game!" Smitty wailed, checking out his current favorite computer game. 

"Don't waste the batteries!" Simon told him. "You'll be home in a few days and can take the lead again when you are."

"It ain't right," Smitty wailed.

Bobbie bit her lip to keep from laughing and turned her attention firmly to the coffee pot.

"I know honey," Dia said.  "But seriously, you'll get it back and I'm just real glad you decided to come along.  I know it's a big sacrifice for you what with everything you have going on.  Is there anything I can help with or are you guys ready for a cuppa?"

"Nope, we're good," Simon announced. "I'd love a cup of coffee, thanks Dia."

"I want a Coke," Smitty said stubbornly.

"Smitty'll take a coffee too," Simon told Dia.

"Coming right up," Dia said.  She poured two cups and carried them over.  "Careful.  The cups are hot." She looked down the trail at a noise and smiled.  "Lev's back.  We'll eat soon."

Lev tramped into camp looking totally at ease and comfortable in the primitive surroundings. Ian and Jonah looked up.  "What?" Ian asked.

"I think we might have a problem tonight. We'd best prepare for it."

"Our friends?" Ian asked.

Lev nodded. "They seem to have teamed up with a couple of locals or mujaheddin or maybe just bandits. I don't like the look of them."  Then, as Dia handed him a steaming cup of coffee he met her eyes and said, "Thanks."

She smiled and passed a cup of tea to Ian.  "So how do you want to prepare?" she asked.

"I think we should set a couple of guards and a spell or two. I don't trust either alone."

Dia nodded, then smiled as Salem appeared and dropped a rabbit at her feet.  Cele stalked over to Lev.  "I wondered where you two were," she said.

"What you aren't a hunter?" Lev asked Cele.  "What good are you?"  Cele meowed disdainfully and started cleaning his whiskers, unimpressed.

Dia laughed.  "Anyway guards and spells, you said?"

"Yes. Reliable guards."

That made her laugh harder.  "You're so demanding," she said. 

Lev shook his head at her and wandered over to Jonah and Ian who were frowning over a topographical map of the 'hill' they were about to begin climbing. They'd told Smitty it was a hill. He was beginning to think they might have lied to him.

"So, figured out a path?" Lev asked, aware of Dia standing just near his shoulder.

"There's a hiking trail that goes this way. Looks like the most logical place to begin," Ian replied.

"They do tours all the way to the summit, so it's probably fairly well maintained," Jonah said.  Plus in the winter there's a lot of skiing here.  I don't think we're going to have to do much trail blazing."  He squinted at the copy of the tapestry map they were using with the topo map and then pointed.  Once we get to the lake at the top, though, it's hard to tell."

Lev dropped down on his haunches. "Doesn't this bother you?  All these people here all year round and here's where we're looking for some supposedly hidden land and someone who's been sought for centuries?"

Jonah shook his head.  "No, not at all.  Sometimes things operate on their own logic, hidden until they choose to be seen.  I suspect that that's the case here.  I'd be willing to wager that where ever we're going, the top of this mountain is just the first stage."

"You are probably right, most of the time, to be ruthlessly concrete," Dia said.  "But until you Awoke, would you have believed the world of the talented co-existed right under your nose, out in the open?  Or that magic itself was real and not something from a fantasy novel?  In magic, there is always the hidden, the thing waiting to be found."

Lev regarded her for some time. "Possibly. I'll wait for evidence first, if you don't mind."

She smiled brilliantly.  "Not at all.  Just don't blink, in case you miss something."

Lev made a face just as Bobbie announced that dinner was ready.

"Probably just as well," Dia said, her tone teasing.  "Food will help."

Ian watched the pair walk toward the food, frowning. "I really don't like that tattoo on him. It worries me."

Jonah turned to watch them.  "As signs and portents of predestination go it's among the more powerful.  It's possible it simply marks him as her champion and nothing more."

"Perhaps," Ian agreed. "I hope that's all it means. I'd hate to lose him to this Quest."

"Now is that caution from good sense or a different sort of knowledge," Jonah asked swinging his eyes back to Ian.

"Let's just call it an abundance of caution. But it's occurred to me the mark makes him it's champion not hers. Which might mean he isn't meant to leave."

 "Well that might also imply that as it's guardian she isn't meant to leave either," Jonah said softly, rubbing his chin. 

"Yes, it might. But I'll be damned if I'm going to let whatever it is decide for either of them."

"A position you may depend on me to support to the last gasp," Jonah said.  "Ready to eat?"