Hermia held up a hand. “I think I can, but I had no reason to try. It would just irritate Danny and Loki, for no good purpose. I have no business on Westil right now, except your business. I had some thoughts of going there and offering to take local mages to Mittlegard and back, spice things up a little there, but the problem is that with this new way of going from place to place, I’m not sure if it will have the enhancing effect of a Great Gate.”

Alf raised a skeptical hand. “Well, now, if—”

“Think,” said Hermia. “You’ve already made the Great Gate passage, so you don’t need any enhancing effect. All you need is to get from one place to another. What I don’t know is, does the enhancement come from just traveling between Mittlegard and Westil? Or does it come from passing through an area of dozens of gates aligned to carry people between the worlds? No way to know until we try.”

“The way you travel now,” said Gerd. “Without making a gate. Does it still heal the traveler?”

“Yes, absolutely,” said Hermia. “So it gives me hope that the Great Gate enhancement will work, too. I just don’t know yet.”

“If there’s no actual gate,” said Alf, “how do you find it again?”

“I don’t,” said Hermia. “I won’t send things through a gate, I’ll take things with me when I go.”

Alf laughed. “So you’ll be hand-carrying jet planes and attack helicopters and tanks.”

“Maybe it won’t work,” said Hermia. “I don’t know. What do you lose by letting me try?”

“One big problem,” said Gerd.

“Only one?” asked Alf.

Gerd raised a finger. “Runways.”

“Oh now,” said Alf. “That is important. Airplanes need a long straight smooth wide road for takeoffs and landings. How much paved road do you think they have in all of Westil?”

“Cobbled? Many miles,” said Hermia. “Straight? None. Smooth? None. So maybe no planes after all.”

“Good,” said Alf. “Because it’s a lot easier to learn how to drive and aim and fire a tank than a jet. And if you screw up, you don’t fall thirty thousand feet.”

“You’re thinking of training locals, then,” said Gerd.

“As soon as we can.”

“So you’re thinking of doing this,” said Gerd, feeling herself slump inside.

“Hermia has a point.”

“Hermia also has a record of betrayal,” said Gerd.

Hermia only looked at her. Calmly.

“She isn’t arguing,” said Gerd.