“And I’m grateful to him. I taught him a lot as well. I think we’re even,” said Hermia.

“I have an idea,” said Gerd. “Take one of us to Westil right now and let’s see if we even have anything to talk about.”

“One of us?” asked Alf.

“If her plan is only to get us out of Mittlegard, then she can’t do it to both of us at once,” said Gerd. “You’ll be here to destroy her Family and continue to keep these weapons working until you bring Mittlegard into obedience and the other Families into submission.”

“She would just come back and kill me. Or take me wherever she wanted. Gatemages of any kind are uncontrollable,” said Alf.

“Except by other gatemages,” said Gerd.

“Good call,” said Hermia. “If I betrayed you by stranding his mother on Westil, Danny would take steps.”

“He could kill you whenever he wants, I think,” said Gerd.

“Well, I’m hard to kill, even for him,” said Hermia. “But he isn’t the killing kind. No, he would simply bring you back to Mittlegard and stop me from doing anything to either of you. So there it is—you have a guarantee that this particular trickster god won’t bother trying to trick you.”

Gerd held out her hand. “Take me,” she said.

Hermia took her hand, then looked at Alf. “You can bear to be separated from the woman you love?”

“It won’t be for long,” said Alf.

“I think you both need to see Westil long enough to judge for yourselves what you might accomplish there,” said Hermia.

“You’ve never been married,” said Gerd.

“We’ve worked in close partnership for decades,” said Alf. “Gerd will see anything that I would see. She will know anything that I would know. And I know she’s safe with you, or my vengeance will be terrible.”

“Danny’s vengeance,” said Hermia.

“You won’t care about the difference,” said Alf.

*   *   *

AND THERE SHE was on Westil. In a circle of standing stones, just like before. Her hand was still in Hermia’s hand—at least the girl hadn’t abandoned her to make her own way.

“Where are we?” asked Gerd.

Hermia looked around. “I find it interesting that the passage between worlds still has some element of randomness. I thought I was taking you back to the gatecatcher that we used before. But here we are in mountains overlooking a sandy desert. The obvious guess is Dapnu Dap, but I have no way of knowing if this desert is part of something that vast.”

“So the passage between worlds is random,” said Gerd. “Now we’re in a particular place, and you should be able to go to any other known place.”

“In Mittlegard, yes,” said Hermia, “because I know most of the places we might want to go. It’s not as if I ever set up housekeeping here.”