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“As long as you ’ave the stomach for eet,” Françoise muttered darkly.
“Wait a minute.” I was really hoping I’d heard wrong. “You’re saying that, even if I find Tony’s portal, I’d have to kill someone to use it?”
Radella shrugged. “Well, you know. Not anyone you like.”
“I’m not committing murder!”
“I theenk I could power ze portal,” Françoise said, “for a short time. With some help.”
She was looking at me, but I shook my head. “I was never trained. Tony was afraid of having a powerful witch at court.”
“But…you know notheeng?” She looked horrified.
“Pretty much.”
“But, you run ’ere and zere”—she made some flailing motions in the air—“doing theengs, all ze time!”
“As opposed to what? Waiting for someone to come kill me?”
“But, eef the dark mages catch you, they weel drain you of your power! Eet would be awful!”
I smiled grimly. “Yeah. Only they’d have to get in line.”
“Quoi?”
“Nothing.” I glanced at the pixie. “We can worry about how to power the damn thing once we find it. Any little ideas on that?”
She looked thoughtful. “It has to be a hidden portal. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“We know it’s hidden!” I said, exasperated.
“No, hidden hidden. As in, not in this world until summone
d.”
“Did you hear me just say I know nothing about magic?”
Radella scowled. “Think of it like a door. A door that uses energy whenever it’s open. So you keep it closed until needed.”
“When you open it with a sacrifice.”
“Right. But if that’s how this portal works, there’s probably a special incantation to summon it.”
“Let me guess. You don’t know the incantation.” It figured.
“It’s different for every portal, a password known only to the users.”
“Who are now all in Faerie,” I reminded her. “How am I supposed to get it?”
A sly look came over her tiny, doll-like face. “Perhaps I could figure something out, for the right price.”
I narrowed my eyes at the scheming little thing. “Now what?”
She fidgeted, trying to look nonchalant. I thought it was just as well she was too small to do any gambling; with a poker face like that, she’d have been soaked in five minutes flat. “I want a second casting of the rune,” she finally blurted out. “In case the first one doesn’t result in a child.”
I got busy checking out another gun for a moment. I’d been under the impression that we’d already agreed that I’d give her the rune, not just cast it. Maybe the thing was more valuable than I’d thought.
“All right,” I said slowly, trying to sound reluctant. “Another casting.”
