He took the coin from her, looked at it with astonishment.
“I guess Pap thought I should have something in case of emergency,” she said.
“Your pap is an astute old gentleman.” Stanton tucked the money into his pocket. “All right, that’ll get us the horses back.”
“That’s a mercy,” Emily sighed. “So when we get out of San Francisco—if we get out of San Francisco—what then?”
“We have to go to New York,” Stanton said finally. “We have to get to Professor Mirabilis.”
“New York!” Emily stared at him. “That’s … that’s thousands of miles away! We can’t go to New York!”
“Name me an alternative,” Stanton said. “Stay in San Francisco and wait for Caul to find us? Go back to Lost Pine and wait for Caul to find you there? Mrs. Quincy was my only connection to the Institute on this side of the continent. Now that she’s betrayed us, I won’t trust anyone but Professor Mirabilis himself.”
“And how, exactly, are we supposed to get to New York without any money?”
“I’ll have to sell my horses,” Stanton said.
“Oh, no!” Emily blurted, for she had grown surprisingly attached to Romulus. “I’m sure Pap still has the money you gave him, and that’s enough to get us a pair of tickets to New York. Maybe we could sneak back to Lost Pine and—”
“Lost Pine is the last place we should go. The Maelstroms will be looking for us there, after everything we told Caul.”
“But your poor horses!”
“Better them than us.” To his credit, it sounded as if he mostly meant it. “But I don’t think we should sell them in San Francisco. It’ll take too much time, and the Maelstroms will be on the lookout. Besides, it just so happens that luck is on our side. You remember when we were riding out of Dutch Flat, and we stopped near Colfax for lunch? I talked to a small group of men.”
“I remember. You didn’t tell me what they wanted.”
“They wanted to buy my horses,” Stanton said. “They were from a place called New Bethel, about ten miles east of Dutch Flat.”
“Dag goes to New Bethel to buy hay for his teams every week.” She paused, the memory of Dag giving her a twinge. “But Pap never let me go there. He said it wasn’t wholesome.”
Stanton hmphed grimly.
“Well, we’ve been through quite a number of unwholesome experiences already; I suppose one more won’t hurt.”
Emily sighed in frustration. The thought of selling Stanton’s regal horses to those sour-looking men made her angry.
“Isn’t there any other way to contact Professor Mirabilis? What about those Haälbeck doors? Can’t we get to one and … well, you could go through anyway, and bring Professor Mirabilis back!”
“Magical society in San Francisco is small and close-knit. There are only two Haälbeck doors in San Francisco, one of which is in Mrs. Quincy’s house. The other is at the Calacacara, a club for gentlemen Warlocks. I am not a member, and even if I were, Caul will have surely posted someone to watch it. The Maelstroms know that flight is our only recourse. I’m sure they’re doing everything they can to cut off our avenues of escape, magical or otherwise.”
“How about a telegraph? Couldn’t we telegraph the professor and tell him that he must come to San Francisco?”
Stanton thought about this, stroking his chin.
“Professor Mirabilis, your presence San Francisco required. Stop. Urgent. Stop. Professor Quincy untrustworthy. Stop. Maelstroms hot on our heels. Stop. Look for me lobby of Excelsior Hotel, wearing red carnation. Stop. Signed, Dreadnought Stanton, the man of whom you thought so highly that you banished him to the most pathetic little town in California.” Stanton gave her a look.
Emily gave him his look right back and then some, but said nothing.
“Besides,” Stanton continued, “there is no way to know who might intercept such a message. Mrs. Quincy is a highly placed member of the faculty. The fact that she betrayed us makes me worry that there might be others. A telegraph could be easily intercepted and a misleading reply composed that would send us directly into a trap. No, I won’t be satisfied until we’re standing in front of Professor Mirabilis himself.”
Emily was silent, biting her thumbnail thoughtfully.
“Your father,” she said, after a moment. “He’s a senator, right? Isn’t there some way—”
“Entirely out of the question.” Stanton said curtly. “I prefer not to involve him in such matters.”
“Well, I prefer not to run around San Francisco with blood sorcerers chasing