They'd made the hex sign at Mark, too, but Mark had scarcely noticed. He'd been more concerned with taking stock of his surroundings. He doesn't think he's gone crazy - he's familiar enough with crazy to be fairly sure this isn't it - so that leaves the possibility that this is real. That somehow he's been thrown back through time to the worst goddamn period of Barrayaran history. ...Okay, to one of the top five bad periods of Barrayaran history. And just when things were going so well - just when he'd been about to get home to Kareen, beautiful wonderful Kareen, with a truly exciting business prospect...The little box with a small sample colony of butter bugs is still buzzing in his pocket. He hopes they don't die in the cold.

Ah - He's not sure whether it's a jolt of alarm of relief that goes through him when he sees Miles. Good, that the little bastard is here; terrible, that the little bastard is in the same insane danger as he is. Worse, even, half-buried as he is in snow. He makes his way over, grabs his brother by the arms and drags him out.

"What," he hisses as he does, "the hell," another tug gets Miles free, "is going on."