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“That’s where the case is?” Quentin said

“That’s where we get in”

For a second Quentin didn’t knoasStoppard reacted faster than he did—he lunged across the carpet fro to talk to Betsy, fumbled the crank into its hole, and cranked the handle ain almost immediately

“You fucking shitbag!” Lionel hissed “How long e visible for?”

“I don’t know!” Stoppard didn’t stop cranking “Couple of seconds maybe! I’m sorry, I don’t knohat happened!”

They all waited for the alar in a sub The carpet kept sailing forward, unfazed Quentin stepped rapidly through a very hard shield spell that would stop a bullet, probably, if he were facing in exactly the right direction

But the depth charges didn’t coot tired Quentin dropped the spell and cranked instead, until the ht, but coldly—he wasn’t going to let hi

Pushkar slowed the a little left, then right, up and dohispering patiently to his steed, a pilot steering a tanker into a narrow slip They were close to the house now, passing over a tiled terrace streeathered Adirondack chairs, and they could see into a few rooli coffee and reading a ; they held their cigarettes Eastern European style, like darts They could have been anybody, in any house, anywhere The carpet was going to pass barely ten feet over their heads

The invisibility field brushed a tree branch Instead of just passing through it the branch snagged, as if the field were a bubble of tacky glue, then curved and bent They watched helplessly until it finally gave and a handful of oak leaves tore off

Quentin’s toes curled But at the sa fell inside the house—a coffee cup, it sounded like—and smashed on the floor The two men turned Someone swore, a woman They were distracted The moment passed

That wasn’t luck; luck doesn’t co up so hard with the effort

“Nice,” Quentin said

“Shouldn’t have needed it”

“It’s not his fault,” Quentin said “He never even got to test it We’re lucky we got this far”

Lionel looked at hiry—like he didn’t realize Quentin had the power of speech

“Shut the fuck up,” he said, and turned back to the house

They came to a stop in front of theand hovered there, the tasseled edge of the carpet pushed up against the white clapboard of the house There was no light inside Stoppard took out a little brass scarab from one of his cases and placed it on theIt crawled around it in a large square, and wherever it crawled it left behind a cut in the glass When it was done Stoppard placed the cut square on the carpet, carefully, and returned the scarab to its case

“Quentin, you’re up,” Lionel said

“What am I up for?”

“That” He pointed to the hole in the“Tiht”

It had actually occurred to hi so far Quentin peered into the hole It was scary, but he was glad the as over, he needed solorious history et ops Invading E the castle on Benedict Island He was less terrified than he had been the first time, and less manic than he had been the second Maybe that was experience

“Give me a minute OK to do spells?”

Lionel looked at Stoppard for the OK, then nodded Quentin closed his eyes, placed two fingers on each lid—opposite hands, so his wrists were crossed in front of his face—and pronounced the words of an Indian night-vision charhtness and contrast on the world had been turned up and all the colors dialed down Pushkar shook his head pityingly

“Later ill discuss your Hindi”

Stoppard was fussing with his clockwork

“She’s getting pretty warot about fifteen minutes”

He shushed it gently, as if it were a feverish child

“Fifteenminimum just to break the bond Minimum”

“So get ,” Lionel said

Quentin stuck his head through the hole and saw perfectly clearly, though in slightly false pastel colors, a huge euest bedroom, lavishly furnished It was a lot nicer than the Marriott He crawled the rest of the way inside The bird fluttered through and lit on his shoulder He flinched, but not as hard as the first time

“Walk out into the hall, turn right, then left at the corner, left again, then first door on your right There is no one else on this floor We will folloith the device Just stay within its range”

As it turned out the device followed all by itself: the stand on which it rested clas, like a giant ant with one staring white clock eye The thick white carpet sed their footsteps

Quentin peered out into the hall, left then right, feeling like a kid sneaking out at a sleepover The bird was right: no one there The walls were bare of pictures; the house looked like the anonymous luxury vacation rental that it probably was For just a minute Quentin allowed himself to think about what he would do if this actually worked He’d buy a house He’d study niffins Could he summon Alice? Bind her? Was she a demon now? He would break back into Brakebills if he had to; o back to Mayakovsky if he had to