Removing the boots and backtracking the two miles I’d overshot took a half hour. It was much simpler to stride at magically relativistic speeds across the continent, letting the boots worry about things like rocks and hills and rivers, not to mention wind resistance that should have stripped the flesh from my bones after the first step.

We circled around and settled in a hundred yards from the gate. New graffiti marred the walls, and the lights illuminated blackened patches of earth. The security measures I remembered were still in place, and there were devourers in the wall, just as we’d seen at the prison. One of the guards carried some sort of handheld scanner that reminded me of a Geiger counter.

“They’ve tightened things up,” Lena said.

‹Testing,› said Talulah. ‹Can you all hear me?›

We each checked in, joining Talulah’s mental conference call in a confusing jumble of overlapping voices.

“They’re scanning for magic, right?” asked Deb.

“Among other things.” The empath working security would pick up on our emotions as well.

I set my passengers on the ground and took what remained of the second Through the Looking Glass potion from my bag. Moments later, Smudge and I had joined the others as Smurf-scale miniatures of ourselves.

We jogged past enormous white bursage and creosote bushes, making our way toward the gate. The desert shrubs were the size of houses, and the gray cactus mouse we startled probably weighed as much as I did in this form.

“Keep an eye out for snakes,” I said. “Shrikes too. Also scorpions and burrowing owls.”

Lena punched my shoulder, just hard enough to shut me up.

At this size, it took another twenty minutes just to reach the side of the road. Every time I looked at New Millennium, I imagined a countdown clock, the digital numbers ticking down one by one like a Hollywood bomb.

“Over, under, or through?” asked Lena.

“I am not going in the way I came out,” I said with a mock shudder. “The wards will stop us from flying in. I’m sure they’re wise to the tunnel approach, too.”

“Waltzing through the front door it is, then.”

“I was thinking about hitching a ride.” A line of dust in the distance heralded our way in. We crept as close to the gates as we dared and waited beneath a blue-green bush with thorns the size of claymores. “Bi Wei, will you be safe here?”

She’d brought out a velvet pouch of dominos, and was arranging them carefully in the dirt for a game I didn’t recognize. “I’ll be waiting.”

“Wait, she’s not coming with us?” asked Deb.