in which the “free” countries of the world had declined to participate—and he knew full well how the military mind worked. He should, he supposed, have denied the possibility utterly. Maybe if he’d been a real soldier he would have.
“I don’t know.”
“Nor do I.” A skiff of wind moved the skirts of Rhion’s greatcoat like a dark wing. “And I don’t want to find out. Or what you’d do with it after that. I never wanted to come to your world, or to have anything to do with your verkakte war. In any case, my only way out of Germany—my only way out of your world—lies at the Dancing Stones near Schloss Torweg. That’s the only place the wizards in my world will know where to look for me, and tomorrow night, the night of the autumn equinox, is the only time when I’ll be able to raise enough power to reach out to them and make the crossing. And that’s where I’m going.”
“The hell you are,” Tom said, his voice now equally soft.
“Rhion,” Sara said quietly, “you did that at the summer solstice. Nothing happened. Except that you got caught.”
The Professor flinched at her words, averting his face; his pudgy hands tightened around the pale wood of the witch staff. “I don’t know why it didn’t work last time,” he said, keeping his voice level with audible effort. “Anything could have gone wrong. The political situation there was unstable when I left...” He shook his head, as if trying to clear some cloudy image there, some half-remembered dream. “But I do know it’s my only chance. My last chance. I have to believe they’ll try again, at least this once. I have to be there.”
Kindness, pity, and compassion deepened Sara’s voice. “And if it doesn’t work?”
There was a long silence, broken only by the distant hooting of an owl in the frost-thick silence of the starlight. Then Rhion whispered, “I can’t think about that.”
She moved toward him, hand outstretched, but he stepped back abruptly, dark against the starry darkness, the light catching in his glasses and the crystals of the ring. Looking at him, Saltwood had the curious impression that the night sky seen through the Spiracle was different. Perhaps it was only the way the crystals caught the light... but it seemed to him for a split second that half a galaxy of brightness, of tiny pinlights infinitely far away, seemed caught within that loop, an alternate firmament that had nothing to do with the one overhead.
“Tom,” the soft voice came from the compact silhouette, “if you could get Sara and her father to England I’d appreciate it. Von Rath planned to use the magic of the Spiracle to take out the RAF. Without it they’ve got no illusion, they’ve got no weather-witching—they’ve got no more than they had in June. By the time they can reformulate a plan—any plan—it’ll be winter. Tomorrow and the next few days are really their last chance this year. Just by escaping, just by taking this, I’ve put a hole in their plans, and von Rath knows it.”
“That doesn’t mean they couldn’t make another one, or use that Resonator thing.”
“If they made one they couldn’t charge it,” Rhion argued in the self-evident tone of a medium explaining why the lights have to be turned down before George Washington’s spirit will tip tables. “The Resonator’s useless away from the Spiracle. Believe me, once the Spiracle is gone there’ll be no way they can convert psychic energy to magic.”
“Not so fast.” Saltwood dropped his cigarette end and stepped clear of Sara, his automatic now in his hand, leveled at Sligo’s chest. “I don’t want to take you to England at gunpoint, Professor, but I’ll do it. We need you and we need that widget of yours, whatever the hell it really is and whatever it really does. And don’t think I won’t pull the trigger,” he added quietly, as Rhion made a move to step past him, “because I will.”
Behind him he heard the whisper of Sara’s indrawn breath, but, after all, she said nothing. She understood.
“Now, I was sent here to kill you. I’d rather take you back alive—I’d rather you came back with me willingly—but I’ll kill you rather than let you fall into Nazi hands again, which is exactly what you’ll do if you pull this dumb routine because you think the fairies are gonna come take you away if you stand in the right place. So sit down... Sara, there’s