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"Of course I'll do what I can, but saving the world just isn't my style, Sethra. I specialize in smaller things: breaking legs, collecting debts, knocking off the occasional squealer. You know, small stuff."
    Neither she nor Teldra replied. At length I said, "Okay. What do you need me to do?"
    "There is a procedure," she said, "that I believe might work. You must be the one to do it, however."
    "Uh ... if I ask why me, will I get an answer lasting less than an hour?"
    "Because you have the chain you call Spellbreaker."
    "I see. Well, actually, I don't."
    "Use Spellbreaker to make contact with Blackwand, then follow the link through one of Morrolan's windows."
    "That's it?" I said.
    "That's it. Your artifact should be able to connect to the Great Weapon, even across necromantic boundaries, because Blackwand should always be able to sense, at some level, what is happening in those windows. Or so I think. It will either work, or it won't."
    "Yeah, I imagine those are the options. The question is, what then? I mean, if it works, what do I do?"
    "Improvise."
    "Improvise?"
    "How can I say what to do, when I don't know where you are going, or what you will find there?"
    "You know I don't care much for improvising."
    "I know. But you are good at it."
    "Thank you so much."
    "And you don't rely on sorcery; you have other abilities."
    "Great. Once I open up the way, if it works, and I get there, if I do, will I have any help?"
    "What about me, Boss?"
    "Shut up, Loiosh."
    "No," said Sethra. "There will be none to give you."
    "I see. I just go in, and improvise. While I'm improvising. what will you be doing?"
    "Waiting."
    "Can you, I don't know, keep an eye on me? Maybe yank me back if I get in over my head?"
    "I don't know how. If I can't reach them where they are, 1 don't know how I'd be able to watch you there."
    "Uh ... magic?"
    "If sorcery worked there, I don't think we'd be having this problem, and I can't think what other magic we might use. Unlike you, I'm not a witch."
    "If you'd asked, I could have taught you. But you're saying that witchcraft will still function?"
    "It should; that's one reason I wanted you for this."
    "Witchcraft is not usually useful—"
    "Have you forgotten the Paths of the Dead, Vlad?"
    "I've tried to." I had visited the place where the dead hang around like old Dragonlords with no battles to fight except the ones they've already lost, and, even though I was living at the time, I just didn't enjoy the experience enough to dwell on the memory.
    She didn't answer. I said, "How about the Necromancer?"
    She cocked her head to the side. "That is a thought, Vlad. And not a bad one at that."
    "See what a good vacation will do for the creative powers?"
    "I'll speak to her."
    I ran it through my mind. "Sethra, do you understand what you're asking me to do?"
    "Yes."
    Yes, of course she did. She was, to begin with, a Dragon; moreover she had led armies. She had no problem ordering people off to get killed - it was a way of life for her.
    "Before I go jumping into this, tell me one thing: Do you have any reason to believe I might get out of this alive?"
    "Oh, yes, certainly," she said. "I have a high regard for your skills."
    "Ah. My skills. Well, that's reassuring."
    "Don't underestimate yourself, Vlad."
    Anything else I said would sound self-pitying, so I shut up; but Teldra said, "I will go along." Sethra and I looked at her. She had said it as if she were announcing the wine she intended to serve with dinner.
    "Teldra," said Sethra at last. "I am not certain you are qualified for this mission."
    "Perhaps I am not," she said. "But I am not quite as helpless as you, perhaps, believe I am."
    "Nevertheless," said Sethra. "This is the kind of activity that Vlad is trained for" - this, by the way, was news to me -
    "and you are not."
    "Are you certain of that, Lady?" said Teldra. "I speak not of Vlad's training, but perhaps with what lies before us, my talents would not be useless."
    "I see," said Sechra slowly,