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“Tsar Nicholas II and his family escaped from the godless Russians and took to sea with many of their court, but he never thought he would still be wandering years later. Our tsar, his wife, his children, and Rasputin expected to go to England. They were sure they’d be welcome there.

He and King George V were first cousins.

They could have been twins, they looked so much alike.

Instead, George refused to give refuge to our tsar.

That is the true reason for the Long Sail. ”

That was what the Russians called the wandering of all the boats, some almost derelict, that held what was left of the Russian court and their servants. Some had died, some had married on the sea (like Eli’s parents), and some had been born, like Eli, Peter, Alice, and Lucy.

“Now that you think England’s going to be overrun, isn’t it a good thing the tsar landed here, and was made so welcome?” Felicia said, sounding a bit dry and testy.

“I see your point, but my mother said it seemed like the worst thing in the world when they weren’t given asylum,” Eli said, his eyes ahead on the traffic. “They all wondered if they would die on the water.”

“Are you saying the grigoris…” I didn’t know how to end the sentence.

“Are you saying you won’t help the English when the Germans invade?

” Felicia asked. She was indignant already.

“There are refugees already in England from Germany, and Belgium, and even France. If the Germans do have a big group of magic users, what will happen if the others of our persuasion don’t rise up to fight them? ”

This was all stuff I hadn’t even thought of. I felt small and dull. Again.

I forgot about myself when the full meaning of Felicia’s little speech dropped on me.

I wanted to turn and slap her, the way Penny had slapped Linus.

I took a deep breath, my fists clenched.

“Felicia, are you actually saying you think my husband should go to England to fight the Germans? When none of the countries in North America are at war with Germany?”

Felicia was in the back seat with her lower lip stuck out like a child’s. Eli was looking straight forward. That was what he did when he didn’t want to meet my eyes. Or if he knew I wasn’t going to like what he told me.

“That’s what you all have been talking about,” I said. “That’s why you’ve been going to all these meetings.”

Eli nodded, one sharp jerk of his head. “The debate is very hot,” he said.

“You made it clear you weren’t a fan of the English royals. But you don’t want this Hitler and his pet magicians to win. What side are you on?” I asked.

“If all the magic adepts in Britannia, Canada, and the Holy Russian Empire—and the ones now living in secret in New America and Dixie—agree to help England and France in the fight, it could make the difference between those countries being occupied or free. Otherwise, the Germans and their allies, which seem likely to be Japan and Italy, will win. They’ll occupy all the countries they can.

France and England, Belgium and Poland… they’ll go under.

All the people Hitler blames for Germany’s problems…

they’ll be killed in those countries as well.

Millions upon millions.” Eli’s eyes shut as he saw this happening.

His eyes crinkled up. He looked so fragile, just for an instant.

Felicia scooted up so her head was between ours. Her eyes were blazing. She was ready to go right now, no doubt about it. “We have to stop it,” she snarled.

My heart sank. We’d driven into the garage behind the house. I turned off the car. No one moved. Finally, I had to ask. “Eli, are you leaving me to go to Europe to fight in this war?”

He took a deep breath. “I am thinking of what is best to do.”

And that was it.

“If you go, I will go with you!” Felicia was on fire. “I will fight side by side with Hans and you and Felix!”

“Felix must not go,” I said.

“Why not?” Felicia was outraged.

“Because he’s going to be a father.”

Felicia’s face was a picture. I wish I could have photographed it, even at such a grim moment. “You’re kidding me?” she said.

“Not at all.”

She knew I was serious, and she finally believed it. A wide grin made her look like a different girl. “Those rascals!” she said. “The two of them!”

I had to smile a little, but Eli didn’t. “Lots of grigoris who have children, or are married, think they should go,” he said.

Just like that, my smile was gone. “Felicia, would you mind going into the house?”

Without a word, my sister climbed out of the car and went to the back door.

We were alone.

“Let me just say this, so you’re clear how I feel.

” I would not sit by and let him make this decision on his own.

It was our lives, not just his. “I do not want you to go out of this country to fight this war that isn’t ours.

If we are invaded here, of course we have to fight.

We have to kill them all. But otherwise? I say no.”

He looked straight ahead, and he thought about what to say in reply. Just when I thought I would scream, Eli said, “I understand your feelings. If I were you, I would feel the same way. But there are a lot of factors in this decision. You are the most important, but there are others.”

That simply meant I was not the most important.

I let that lie there for a minute. “All right. What factors?” I was proud of how calm I sounded.

“Maybe you should have married that Dan Brick,” Eli said. For the first time, he sounded… defeated? Exhausted?

“Don’t you ever say that, you ass,” I said.

That startled a half-smile from him. “You are honest,” he said. “I have tried to be, but I haven’t always succeeded.”

Oh, that wasn’t worrisome. Not at all.

“If I ever want to go back into the tsar’s service, I have to do what the tsar wants his grigoris to do. If he decides we should go, I have to go. If he decides we won’t take up that battle… here I stay.”

“You want to go back into the tsar’s service.” I wasn’t really asking a question.

“That was what I was raised and trained to do,” he said, sounding only tired. “I have been happy with you in Texoma, helping the people there with little jobs. But it’s not what I… expected in my life.”

“And not better than what you were doing here.” Before you got thrown out.

Eli shook his head. “Not better. Good, but not… what I was born to do.”

So he’d finally spoken the truth.

I’d lost, already. It was like he’d stuck a knife in me, but I didn’t bleed on the outside. I opened the car door and went into the house, thinking any second I would sink to the ground. But I didn’t. Eli did not come after me. He stayed in the car for a long time.

I had nowhere to go except our room. There wasn’t time to go anywhere else, if I could have thought of a place I’d rather be.

Maybe I should have gone to talk to Felicia, but she had her own dreaming going on.

Alice was too young. Eli’s mother was, well, Eli’s mother, so she was out of the question.

The telephone rang as I passed it on my way to the stairs. For lack of anything better to do, I answered it. “Savarov residence,” I said, hoping that was the right thing to say. Leah answered the telephone that way.

“Lizbeth, is that you?”

“Yes. Who is this?”

“Harriet. Listen, I need help. Bring your guns.”

It was like the Almighty had heard my prayer, if I was a praying person. “Where are you?”

“I’m at Ainslie Boardinghouse, 831 Nutmeg Street.

There are at least three men outside, maybe four, and I’m pretty sure they’re waiting on me and Soo-Yung.

They may rush the house if we don’t come out.

I’d be grateful for your help.” It wasn’t easy for Harriet to say this.

“Park on Sage, the next street over. The back door is the best way to get in. They probably won’t know you by sight. ”

“On my way.” I dashed upstairs, put on my city pants rather than my Segundo Mexia blue jeans, and packed my guns in a leather over-the-shoulder bag that Eli used sometimes for spell ingredients.

My hair was still fixed, so I figured I looked respectable.

Not out of the ordinary, anyway. Eli was on his way in as I was going out.

His shoulders were slumped in an unhappy way. Too damn bad.

“I need the car,” I said, and took the keys off the hook I’d just hung them on.

I was gone before he could ask any questions.

I’d grabbed the map I kept in the room, and I drove a block or two before I pulled to the curb to pick my route.

I’d been afraid Eli would try to stop me if I gave him time to think.

I am quick with maps. I found Nutmeg Street and figured out how to get there.

It took me twenty minutes. First, I drove past Ainslie Boardinghouse so I could fix its location and appearance in my head.

That would make it easier to approach from the back.

It was a narrow, two-story white building, as old as the teahouse but not as well kept.

I spotted the men, though I took care not to look at them directly. They hardly spared me a glance. There were four of them. They were all Asian, all wiry, and all armed. These weren’t young thugs, but serious men.

I found a parking spot against the curb on Sage.

Lucky for me the backyard of the boardinghouse wasn’t fenced.

I walked on the property line between two houses.

I paused to push myself against a tree so I could survey the backyard of the Nutmeg Street house.

Harriet was right. None of the men were behind the house or in the yard.

I thought that was strange. Maybe if they were actually in someone else’s yard, the property owner would call the police.

With a lot of confidence, I walked across the yard to the back door and found it unlocked. I stepped in, to meet Harriet’s gun. She lowered it when she recognized me. She looked very relieved.