"So. You didn't have to come to me about that. You're free to stay or go."

"I'm going because there're things I have to do. As you well know. If I walk, I'll probably get them done too late. It's a long hike to the Plain. Not to mention risky. I want to beg transportation."

She smiled, and this smile was genuine, radiant, subtly different from previous smiles. "Good. I thought you would see where the future lies. How soon can you be ready?"

"Five minutes. There is one question. Raven."

"Raven has been hospitalized at the compound at the Barrowland. Nothing can be done for him right now. Every effort will be made when an opportunity arises. Sufficient?"

I could not argue, of course.

"Good. Transport will be available. You will have a unique chauffeur. The Lady herself."

"I…"

"I, too, have been thinking. My best next step is to meet your White Rose. I'm going with you."

After gulping quarts of air, I managed, "They'd jump all over you."

"Not if they don't know me. They wouldn't, unless they were told."

Well, no one was likely to recognize her. I am unique in having met her and lived to brag on it. But… Gods, the heaps and bales of buts. "If you entered the null, all your spells would fall apart."

"No. New spells wouldn't work. Spells in place would be safe."

I did not understand and said so.

"A simple glamor will fade on entering the null. It is being actively maintained. A spell which changes and leaves changed, but which isn't active on entering the null, won't be affected."

Something off in the badlands of my mind tickled me. I could not run it down. "If you turned into a frog and hopped in there, you'd stay a frog?"

"If the transformation was actual and not just an illusion."

"I see." I hung a red flag on that, told me to worry it later.

"I will become a companion acquired along the way. Say, someone who can help with your documents."

There had to be levels of deceit. Or something. I could not imagine her putting her life into my hands. I do believe I gawked.

She nodded. "You begin to understand." "You trust me too much." "I know you better than you know yourself. You're an honorable man, by your own lights, with enough cynicism to believe there can be a lesser of two evils. You have been under the Eye." I shuddered. She did not apologize. We both knew an apology would be false.

"Well?" she asked.

"I'm not sure why you want to do this. It makes no sense."

"There is a new situation in the world. Once there were only two poles, your peasant girl and I, with a line of conflict drawn between. But that which stirs in the north adds another point. It can be seen as a lengthening of the line, with my point near the middle, or as a triangle. The point that is my husband intends destroying both your White Rose and myself. I submit that she and I ought to eliminate the greater danger before…"