The men had fallen into new routines over the previous months and worked in shifts throughout the day. The first group spent each morning in drills and exercises, the afternoon in patrols and spell reinforcements, with the evening free for their own diversions and the night asleep. Each other group worked the same routine offset to ensure a team were always working on each duty, the teams rotated to spend equal times in daylight over the course of a month.

So far the massed fae attack Jacob feared had not occurred - only a few incursions of the odd beast now and again under cover of darkness. Attempts to locate the weak spot they were breaching were fruitless, and it proved difficult to motivate the men and stress the importance of the work with only irregular such confrontations.

Jacob’s company were on the day shift - morning drills and afternoon patrols - when Grey came to visit early one morning. By chance Jacob had been drilling the men in a more conventional defensive routine that met with his approval.

“You see, Brown,” Grey had said during a brief rest break, “there really was no need for you to worry, just a handful of lone creatures who got lost and didn’t even know they were over here.”

Jacob had nodded, holding his tongue at the veiled ‘I told you so’ tone. “We’re ready in case it happens though, don’t worry.”

“Where’s your shadow, Mr White? I wanted to check in with him too,” Grey said ignoring Jacob’s comment.

“He’s running another team, we’re about to take over from them on patrols. Come on, I’m sure he’ll be delighted to see you,” he added.

Harry did not appear surprised by Grey’s arrival, and extended a hand to shake. “All quiet, Brown,” he said with formality. “The wards in the south-east sector looked a little drained, there’s been some activity around there overnight but no sign anyone came through.”

“Thank you Mr White,” Jacob replied with a slight and sarcastic bow, “enjoy your afternoon off.”

“Oh we shall, don’t you worry; we’d never waste a nice sunny day like this. I feel a spot of fishing would round the day out while you slave away keeping us safe.” Grey followed Harry off towards the barracks to discuss his team’s performance.

Jacob and his men set to work patrolling the wider area in small teams of two or three, and he lost sight of most as they went their separate ways. His thoughts turned to the training for the following afternoon, debating with himself what techniques or tactics might be best to emphasise; a task that would be complicated by the presence of Grey. He was just wondering how best to ask how long he intended to stay when a huge explosion in the barracks’ direction raised a fountain of earth a hundred feet into the air. He and his companions set off at a run.

When they arrived Jacob sighed with relief at the sight of Harry already directing the men around the area; at least he was safe. But what had exploded? They had no heavy ordnance, not even pistols on the site. The most dangerous thing they had access to were a few flare guns no-one had fired yet.

He looked over at the large crater, smoke blowing towards the barracks from the hole in the ground. What had been there? The canteen was in that general direction, but the ramshackle building was still visible through gaps in the smoke, its windows broken by the force of the blast. With a jolt, he realised that the crater occupied the spot where their latrines had stood.

Harry jogged over to him. “Damn toilets blew up! Looks like some idiot had a misfire during target practice and hit a pocket of gas or something. We’re trying to do a roll-call to check who’s missing but they’re all running around like headless chickens.”

Grey closed his eyes to focus his attention inward for a moment. Jacob watched as, clutching his ebony staff, he lifted six feet off the ground, opened his eyes and his magically amplified voice boomed out.

“Silence!” His voice rang out crystal clear and everyone turned in astonishment to look. “Stand still!”

They obeyed him instantly. Jacob sensed an overlapping suggestion spell keyed to encourage obedience on top of the amplification. Clever, he thought.

“Fall in by company, quick-sharp! Let’s see who’s here and who isn’t.” Men fell over their own feet in their haste to create formations. It would have been funny if it weren’t such a serious situation, Jacob mused.

He did a quick head-count and came up five men short. “Has anyone seen Aqua, and his squad?” he shouted, audible now without magical means.

“They were down at the river,” someone replied. “I can go…” Grey nodded and the young man ran off to check.

“Anyone here injured?” Jacob asked. “If so, head over to the infirmary and get patched up. D-company!” A group of men jumped to attention. “Get over to the canteen and sort out that broken glass. Let’s hope none of it got into the food supply,” he added under his breath. “B- and C- company,” he paused for a moment, “had better get digging some new latrines.” A chorus of groans met this pronouncement. “Ah, you haven’t heard the good news yet,” he smiled. “You’ll be digging them downwind of the barracks this time!” A half-hearted cheer went up, and the men fell out of formation to search for pick-axes, shovels and wheelbarrows.

“Well done,” Grey said as he sank back to ground level again. “I can see I need not have worried about the men being in capable hands. Your experience does you credit.”

Jacob buried his surprise at the compliment. “Speaking of which, I’d best supervise the digging. That is my specialty, after all. If you’ll excuse me?” Grey nodded and Jacob headed over to oversee the digging. On the way he met the young runner returning with Aqua’s squad in tow. How they’d not heard the explosion he could not imagine, but it relieved him to know that no-one had died in the mishap. If it was inconvenient having Grey hanging around all day, it’d be much worse if a death in the field gave Black an incentive to visit.

Work proceeded with difficulty in the hard chalk that covered the plain, but despite the warm day the men worked hard with picks and shovels. Everyone pitched in between other duties, and they made good progress. About three hours in, the first set of holes were dug with tents erected over them for privacy, and people could stop making the lengthy trek into the woods to relieve themselves.

The second bank of latrine pits was well under way before light started to fade, but a shout from one digger brought Jacob over to see what was wrong. The man was waist deep in the coffin-sized hole, and Jacob stepped down into it to see what had caught his attention.

He had uncovered a small pocket in the chalk, full of packed soil. Out of it stuck a curved piece of metal which had the unmistakable glint of gold even the mud couldn’t obscure. The man was trying to work the soil loose around it with a pocket-knife to free the item.

“Don’t touch it,” Jacob warned him. The digger paused in his work before nodding and continuing to loosen the earth. Before long he uncovered a flat dish the size of a saucer. Jacob took a handkerchief from his pocket, carefully doubled it over his fingers and grasped the item. Even through two layers of cotton he felt the tingle of magic.

Wiggling the dish from side to side helped to loosen the soil still further, and it wasn’t long before he held it up to the fading light. Any resemblance to a saucer was only superficial; tarnished metal inlays snaked across the gold, the blackened lines forming curious symbols that squirmed in the corner of his eye. Jacob climbed out of the hole making sure his bare skin never touched the artefact and worked his way through the small crowd that had gathered.

“Bring a lantern,” he called, and someone thrust one forward. The flickering light of the burning oil amplified the symbols’ movement. “It’s definitely fae,” Jacob whispered. Then louder: “If anyone sees anything like this do not touch it with your bare hands. Leave it in place and call me immediately.”

“What is it?” someone asked.

“It’s nasty,” Jacob replied. “Beyond that, I’m not sure. But this is why we’re here. We’ll carry on digging tomorrow, but look out for anything untoward. And don’t touch!”

“Any ideas?” Jacob asked. He and Harry had met up with Grey in the village pub where they’d found a quiet corner table to avoid prying eyes. Light spilled across the shallow golden dish in the centre of the table between them.

“It’s fae, as you thought,” Grey said. “I recognise a few of the symbols, they’re to do with doorways and openings, as you might expect given our proximity to the stones. And it was buried deep?”

Jacob shrugged. “About three feet down, but the ground above hadn’t been disturbed. It was in a small pocket of earth surrounded by chalk.”

“Placed by supernatural means, then.” Grey peered at it again, prodding it with a pencil to turn it over. The back was unmarked, in contrast to the ornate front. At the sight of someone approaching their table he threw the handkerchief back over it, before relaxing. “Tommy,” he said, standing and smiling at the newcomer. They shook hands, and the new arrival sat at the table.

“Is that ‘ee?” he asked, gesturing at the handkerchief.

“Tommy’s an old friend, and something of an expert in local finds,” Grey explained. “And he knows about our mission here, so you can speak freely.”

“I’m the one as told yer man about the problems, so I am,” Tommy grinned, revealing a handful of crooked teeth. “So let’s see ‘er then.”

Grey glanced around to make sure they weren’t being observed and withdrew the covering with a flourish. Showoff, Jacob thought.

Tommy’s eyes widened. “Saxon, by the look o’ them markings. No, not quite roight, are they?” His hand reached towards the piece, but Jacob stopped him.

“Better not to touch it,” he said.

“I knows what I’m doin’,” Tommy scoffed, and picked up the dish. His eyes rolled back in his head and he froze in place on his stool. Jacob and Harry looked at Grey in alarm but he sat there and continued sipping his pint. After an interminable few seconds, Tommy’s body unlocked and he blinked a few times before placing the dish back on the table. He sat and regarded it in silence.

“Well?” Jacob asked, when the wait became too long to bear.

“Huh?” said Tommy. “Oh, well ‘ees a right piece and no mistake. Old magics, older’n us.”

Jacob sighed. “So what is it?” he asked.

“No proper name for ‘im in our words,” Tommy mused. “Nearest I can say is ‘doorstop’, but ‘ees much more’n that. Can’t open doors but can keep ‘em open, can’t close ‘em but can keep ‘em closed.”

“So if the fae break through…” Grey started.

“This bugger’ll make it mighty hard for youse to stop ‘em,” Tommy concluded. “How many you dug up then?”

Grey hesitated. “Two,” he said. Jacob and Harry exchanged a glance. “I didn’t tell you because we weren’t certain,” he added. “The first had no magical energy, so we thought it might just have been treasure trove. Like Tommy said, some Saxon thing.”

“Keeping bloody secrets,” Jacob muttered.

Grey looked sheepish. “I have my orders, you know.”

Harry stepped in before Jacob exploded again. “We need to know. We’re all on the same side and if Jacob might be right about a mass incursion…”

Grey swallowed the last of his pint. “You’re right, I shouldn’t have kept it from you. Black thought…” he paused as Jacob let loose a well-chosen epithet about Mr Black. “Well never mind what he thought, he’s not here. I’ll take this back to him and see if he changes his mind. In the meantime if anything else like this shows up, I want to know immediately, you got that?”