“Before you try to kill me,” said Hermia, “you should be aware that this kind of jump has nothing to do with any part of my physical body. You could fry my brain and I could still do it, and heal myself in the process.”

Gerd smiled. “It’s nice to know that we think alike.”

“I’m not like Danny,” said Hermia. “I grew up as a valued member of a Family, and so I learned to think like one. Your isolation of Danny allowed him to become soft.”

“Compassionate,” said Gerd.

“He’s a dear,” said Hermia. “He loves the drowthers and thinks their lives and their happiness are as important as ours. On even-numbered days I see his point. On the other days, though, I recognize that power only exists if you use it to increase your power. Every time you fail to act to protect your interests, you embolden your enemies to defy you more and more openly, until finally you have no influence at all, except whatever raw power you have. Danny doesn’t understand this. He has—or had—so much raw power that he didn’t understand that real power comes from getting other people to obey you before you have to compel them. But here you are in Taiwan, showing me that you understand that.”

“We do,” said Alf. “So here’s my question. Mittlegard is a known quantity. There are vast and terrible weapons here, but Gerd and I are uniquely qualified to use or neutralize them. We can and will dominate this world.”

“And every Family knows that you two are the ones that they must kill,” said Hermia.

“If you meant to do that,” said Gerd, “we’d be dead.”

“But we know nothing about Westil,” said Alf. “They’ve had fifteen centuries since our last map, our last history. We don’t know what kingdoms are where, which are on the make and which are declining.”

“And we don’t know what condition their magery is in,” said Gerd.

“They haven’t had Great Gates at all,” said Hermia, “and you have. Loki is the only one who can make Great Gates now, and he won’t do it. So if I can take you to Westil, and regardless of whether my version of travel will enhance your powers, you’ll still be the most powerful mages in Westil.”

“Except for Loki,” said Alf.

“And anyone else he or Danny brought from here to there,” said Gerd. She thought she saw a hesitation, a momentary deadness in Hermia’s eyes as she concealed something that she knew. There was someone from Mittlegard that Danny had taken to Westil. And maybe vice versa, for all they knew. That was a mystery that deserved a little prying into.

“Why should we go from the known to the unknown?” asked Alf.

“Besides,” said Gerd, “Odin and I have shaped and honed our magery to be able to control and enhance the technological artifacts of Mittlegard. There won’t be any electronics or heavy machinery on Westil, will there?”