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If I return to my office before Samhain, please destroy this letter without opening the sealed enclosure. I expect to be asking you to hand it back to me over dinner sometime soon, before the leaves begin to change color.

But, if I have not returned by the morning of Samhain, something has clearly gone wrong. In that event, please arrange for the sealed enclosure to be delivered to Will Porter and/or Zanfira Marinescu, whichever can be reached first. If neither can be reached, please pass it to V. Scalamandre at the Museum, with my most sincere apologies. The enclosure is evidence of something I would prefer to remain private for now, and I am trusting each of these people, and you above all, to handle it with discretion.

Give my love to Maida.

With great affection and complete confidence in you,

Amrita Berman

Director, Society for the Protection of Natural Magic

NINE

BUCKLE UP

Amrita had arranged for Will and Zani to meet up with her and Buffalo at a sleepy little shopping mall in Rancho Cucamonga. She suggested they depart shortly after rush hour, right before the mall opened for the day. What better place to launch an expedition into the past, than an Ordinary shopping mall? It was the safest place to meet and launch the airship in broad daylight, because Society studies had shown that nobody looked too closely at shopping malls that were over forty years old. They were considered such predictable spots as to induce a sort of mental static that made it possible for a magic time-traveling dirigible to slip through a crack in the time space continuum and past the Ordinary veil practically unnoticed. She was proud of herself for suggesting it.

She still had qualms about what they were about to do. In all her thirty-seven years with the Society she had never, not once, broken form. Not like this, anyway. She didn’t consider doctoring the tea while meeting with foreign dignitaries to be a rogue act. Everybody knew that that was commonplace. It wasn’t like she’d poisoned any of them. Not deliberately.

She hadn’t had much of a choice, she rationalized. Who else could the director of a large agency trust to investigate a time anomaly involving herself? It wasn’t that she saw herself as above the rules; nor was she acting purely in self-interest. If she’d reported her findings to the AITA, it would only have made things worse for everyone involved. Once the Society’s peripheral departments got tangled up with a case, investigations tended to get so bogged down in paperwork, they slowed to a halt. Mostly she felt bad for dragging Will and Zani into it. And Buffalo! If anything went wrong, nobody would excuse her decision to let her boyfriend tag along. That’s how others would characterize him. She could imagine the Magpie Oracle dispatch:

Has Amrita Berman lost her touch? Society Director and Old Flame Sneak Away to Secret Rendezvous in the Past…

A secret rendezvous in the past sounded quite lovely, though. Other than the fact that what she was presently doing violated the Society’s code of conduct and every mission protocol she herself had helped to draft, she didn’t know why she hadn’t thought of it sooner.

If they were caught, the Society would surely expel her. And if she got away with this?

Amrita knew she was going to have to take a long, hard look at her priorities when she got back. She knew all too well what happened when well-meaning public officials started taking liberties with the powers that they’d been granted. This could very well be the start of her villain arc.

She put these thoughts out of her head for now, as she waited with Buffalo for their ride. They weren’t going to get caught. Even though they’d changed the mission parameters with regard to staffing, all the usual wards, safeguards and precautions were still in place. They’d be back before anyone noticed she was missing. And if not, Arthur Hart had instructions. Will had delivered the package. If she was not back at her desk by the day before Samhain, the solicitor would know what to do with the contents of the envelope.

“I know how much you’ve wanted to see the Library, ever since we were students at uni,” Buffalo said to her while they were waiting for their driver. “This must be a dream come true for you. Are you ready?”

“As I’ll ever be,” Amrita said.

“I can’t wait to go on this adventure with you.” Buffalo took her hand. “It’s long overdue.”

The mall was located forty minutes away from Society HQ in Beverly Hills, which meant that Amrita and Buffalo had to get there by car. The minute Amrita had seen Buffalo’s bags, she was glad she hadn’t offered to drive her convertible.

For herself, the director had packed one small, sensible satchel. It was her standard travel bag for work or pleasure, and it contained the essentials, and only the essentials, that she’d need for an indeterminate stay anywhere or any when. She had her scrying compact, a flight of poison darts, two changes of clothes, her wand, some coffee, and three emergency protein bars. She also tucked in a novel, though she didn’t expect she’d have time to read it.

Buffalo, on the other hand, had brought an oversized leather steamer trunk with shiny brass buckles. There was, Amrita suspected, a full chest of drawers hidden within the thing, it was so massive. He’d also brought a pith helmet outfitted with mosquito netting, a picnic basket and a battery-operated handheld fan. She didn’t have the heart to tell him he was going to have to leave most of this behind on the dirigible. She’d let Zani be the bad guy.

“You’re wearing binoculars,” Amrita observed.

She considered the brass binoculars. On her, they would have been a literal pain in the neck. But on Buffalo’s broad neck, they were more like an interesting necklace. Useful, but not period appropriate.

“I am,” Buffalo agreed, looking pleased that she had noticed. “They’re compact but still high powered. I’ve always wanted to bring these on a big trip. They’re excellent for birdwatching.”

“We are going to be inside a library,” Amrita said. “At night.”

“But surely not for the entire time,” Buffalo argued. “There could potentially be outdoor portions.”

Not if things go according to plan.

“Didn’t you mention days at sea?” Buffalo asked.

She’d axed the visit to the port out of the itinerary as soon as she knew Buffalo was coming along. There was no way a man of Buffalo’s size and shape could wander around that ancient harbor unnoticed. Even cloaked, he was too unusual.