“W-w-wait,” Anna stuttered. “What?”

“This,” her aunt told her, “was my Granpappy’s. ’Tis called a scryin’ plate. Thet means I c’n use it ter talk ter other people what gots th’ Glory, an’ iffen I had the power ter look inter th’ future—which I don’t—I could see what was a-comin’. Or iffen I had the power t’ see what’s a-goin’ on fur away, I c’d do thet. My Granny showed me how t’talk to ’bout a dozen folks up Nawth a-ways, ’cause them’s who she knowed. An’ they innerduced me t’their kin, which’s who I talk to now. An’ iffen y’all wanter know more ’bout thet—read yer book.”

With that she took the black plate and went out onto the porch, where the westering sun was turning everything a deep gold.

So Anna got a candle and her book, and climbed up on the stove, where she shortly had company. But the three little leaf-and-stick critters didn’t seem inclined to do anything other than share the warmth and twitter at each other, so she settled into the book again.

Pavel was passed from Master to Master, right across Germany and France and all the way to England. Most of the time he left with more money in his pocket than when he’d arrived, because the Earth Masters he was sponsored by all seemed to be prosperous, some extremely so. And England was where he settled for the winter months with a “squire,” which seemed to be a sort of rich man whose money came from his land, rather than a mine or a factory. Not as important as a “lord,” but more important than a farmer.

It was this “squire,” living in a place called “Devon” (which she gathered was something like a state even though it was called a “shire”), who also advised him to go to America, reinforcing what the Hungarian Master had said. Or as Pavel put it, “The New Territory of the United States.” It hadn’t been a country for more than thirty years at that point, maybe less, which was something of a shock to Pavel, whose home country had been a nation “forever” as far as he knew.

And it was there, at the home of Squire Thomson, that he met Sally Lacey, who was both the daughter of the fellow in charge of all of Squire Thomson’s cows, and a very skilled magician who was well known for her healing ways.

Now, Sally had got her powers from her Ma. And things were changing in England. People weren’t going to “herb-wifes” anymore; they were going to doctors. Only the poorest were resorting to Sally’s Ma for help. And Squire Thomson was a bit concerned that at some point in the near future, it might actually be illegal for people like Sally to help others with their ailments. Certainly all the newly minted doctors were complaining to people like Squire Thomson and other “members of Parliament” that “medicine should be taken out of the hands of the unwashed and ignorant peasant midwives” and entrusted solely to them.