“Is it that sort of time already?” he mused, the human idiom rolling off the tip of his tongue as easily as a line from childhood memory or a phrase from a future assured.

He knew where to go; the old sense of duty was like a compass, taking him to the opportune point in the paisley-patterned tapestry of space and time, avoiding that straight thread that was his human life. The City was his destination, a place well known to him in its incarnations as war fortress, pirate refuge, and living museum. He emerged beside an intersection that was tangled in a writhing snarl of human and mechanical travel trails. No one noted him, but he was alert, searching for a figure that would be so familiar.

There she was! Miranda!

CHAPTER TWO

Chance lacked any tendency toward volatile emotion in his present frame, but there was enough in him to feel as if his breath should catch or his heart should skip. He shook off the somatic memory and moved forward, keeping his eyes fixed on her as she stood waiting at the crossing, her shoulders tense with the weight of her briefcase and other matters, her head moving stiffly as she glanced nervously from left to right to assess the traffic.

Best to stay unseen, grab her, and take her away; there would be time for explanations afterward. He stood behind her, prepared to gently encircle her—

Her head snapped around in shock; not his fault, he had not even touched her yet. Someone had come up beside them while he had been intent on approaching her, someone whose features gave him a similar shock. He had to choose quickly, and so he seized the one who was in front of him, catching her as she turned away from her double, cowering, closing her eyes and putting her fists over her ears. Chance had no time to see what became of the other. He was too busy tearing open the fabric behind him and dragging them both down into the colorless, half-lit environment of between-worlds. It was a clumsy transition, but he had been too startled for his usual elegance. Instead of screaming, Miranda craned her neck back to look at him with dazed, reproachful confusion as they fell through cloud.

Chance tried his best to look harmless and apologetic. “I’m sorry. I just do as I’m told. This won’t hurt at all, but it takes a little time.”

Miranda gasped and gave a faint, incredulous whisper. “I know you . . .”

“Of course you do.” He smiled, put a finger to his lips, and let her go.