Titans of Chaos

"I thought you had to obey all the rules anyone makes, or else your spirit-friends turn on you."

"Some rules carry more weight than others. The invitation on the base of the Statue ofLiberty-and I assure you that I am a huddled mass right now, yearning to breathe free, and Icertainly am tired, poor, and homeless, not to mention tempest-tossed-that invitation opens theward and acts as consent to permit me into the country. My friends regard that statue as a tributeto the reigning goddess here, no matter what the human lawmakers say or do. She is a symbol,and her name is Mother of Exiles. The spirit world pays more heed to symbols than to merewords. They would have to knock Liberty's arm off, or douse the torch, in order to revoke thatinvitation."

I hugged myself. "It is colder than I thought here."

Quentin raised his hand and waved at some joggers bouncing by, little electronic gizmos in theirears. One of the girls waved back. Apparently his sweeping black robes and five-foot warlockwand did not seem odd or out of place here. Did I mention we were not far away fromHaight-Ashbury?

There was an invisible stirring in the air near us, the grass shivered and blew, and I suddenlybecame aware of a giant black bird carrying Vanity and Victor in its talons. Quentin pointed hiswand at the bird, spoke a word in Latin, and Colin was there. All three sort of tumbled to theground. Well, not exactly all three; Victor caught Vanity. All one tumbled to the ground.

"Ouch," mentioned Colin. "Warn me next time." He fiddled with the ring on his finger to makesure the collet was pointing outward. The ring had been on his talon claw a moment before, whichshould have been his foot. He had also not been dressed and had enjoyed a different mass. I guesshis paradigm just did not worry about details like that.

First order of business was changing money. We spent an hour or so sight-seeing, watching trolleycars go by, that sort of thing, waiting for the banks to open.

Finally, we went into one. The metal detectors at the door decided not to go off when Victorentered, even though he was wearing forty pounds of chain mail under his long white jacket.

Guess how that happened... ?

The bank was enormous, bright with streamlined columns of gold, and a floor of shining marble.