“And I care about this because . . . ?”
“Because the globes are why we’re in Sallay. Mercator had a taste for traveling, but being a wanderer is a Roma’s life. The Roma found that beach to Bohemia centuries ago, and other Loopholes like it, without the help of any gadje globe. We found them because we were destined to, because we know the world like no other people. The way we figure it, the Mercator Globes belong to us. And, since the Roma are a right tricky sort, we just so happen to already have our hands on one of them.”
Unseen by the boys, the goatherd inched closer.
“And what does Gerard Mercator say to that?” Tomik asked.
“Nothing. He’s dead. What?” Neel said, catching Tomik’s look of accusation. “He died in his fluffy old featherbed, all right? The Roma don’t stoop that low. But we want that second globe. There was a meeting of the leaders of the four tribes—the Lovari, Ursari, Maraki, and Kalderash. The Pacolet was given the job to find the Celestial Globe. You see, the Terrestial Globe shows where the Loopholes are, but we can’t figure out which is connected to which. We know for sure that a Loophole’s a two-way street: each one goes to another location, just like the one on the Portuguese beach connects to that Bohemian forest you were mucking about in. Well, you can guess that it’s kind of important to know where you’re headed before you leap through a Loophole. Over the years, a few brave Roma have studied the Terrestial Globe, and tried out the Loopholes marked on it, to see where they led. But most of the explorers never returned. Probably stepped from a nice, safe place into a volcano and oozed into fiery goo, or something. And it wasn’t even easy for those Roma to enter the Loopholes in the first place, because of the way they’re mapped on the Terrestrial Globe. That globe is speckled with Loopholes, and a speck seems pretty small, but it’s the same size as a dot that marks a whole city. To go through a Loophole, you’ve got to enter its exact location. You can’t just be in the right city. You’ve got to stand on the right cobblestone in a specific street. You can’t just be in the right forest. You’ve got to step on the right blade of grass.
“With the Terrestrial Globe, we know more or less where the Loopholes are. But more or less ain’t good enough. Now, the Celestial Globe’s a big mystery, and we don’t know what it does. We’re hoping that, with both globes combined, we’ll be able to figure out not just the rough idea of where a Loophole is, but how to find its exact entrance, and where you’re going to end up after you enter it.
“The Pacolet has been searching for the Celestial Globe, and our sources pointed to North Africa. Imagine what it would mean for the Roma to slip through Loopholes to wherever we like. We would get rich with good trade. We wouldn’t face problems like what we’ve got with your prince.”
“You would be able to wage war,” Tomik observed warily.
“Huh? Oh, right. I guess I see why you’re saying that. The Mercator Globes would go a long way to surprising an enemy. Wouldn’t be too bad a plan to turn up on someone’s doorstep with a load of troops. But war’s always about land, one way or another, and the Roma’s a nation with no real country. We make our home wherever we please. So why would we bicker and kill over territory? In the history of the Roma, we’ve never fought a battle. If we had, you’d know it.”
“I still don’t see what this has to do with—”
“I’ve explained why the Maraki are in Sallay, but not why I’m here. We know that the Celestial Globe’s in these parts, but North Africa’s a big place, so . . . we’re going to see a scryer. That’s my part in all this. I’ll help scry to find the exact location of the Celestial Globe. When that’s done I’ll do my best to steal the globe out of whatever hiding place it’s in. After my expert thieving in Salamander Castle”—Neel straightened his shoulders—“I got a reputation to uphold.”
“A reputation for being an idiot! You’re going to scry? Willingly? That’s like diving off a cliff when you’ve no clue how deep the water is!”
“Pfft.” Neel waved his hand. “It ain’t that bad.”
“Have you ever done it?”
“Well . . . no. But Treb needs someone young enough, and someone he can trust. Who better than his own cousin, who also has a fierce talent for busting into locked and guarded places?”
“But a scryer needs a child to be a medium. You’ve got some growing up to do—”
Neel made a noise of protest.
“—but you’re not exactly a child,” Tomik continued. “Look, it’s none of my business. It’s yours, and your mind. If you want to lose it staring into a mirror and speaking a bunch of nonsense that no one’ll probably be able to understand anyway, go ahead.”
“Ain’t you the cautious type. There’s no fun in you. And you’re forgetting the very thing we’ve been talking about this whole time: Petra.”
“We have not been talking about Petra! We’ve been talking about globes and Gypsies and some dead man named Mercator! If you cared about Petra, you’d scry to find out about her.”
Neel heaved an aggravated sigh. “That’s my point.”
“It is?” Tomik gaped. “So you . . . you’re going to ask the scryer where Petra is?”
“No, you are. I’m going to be tranced out and speaking lots of gobbledygook, like you said. The Maraki will let you in the room. They’ll want to keep an eye on you, and they’ll think you don’t know enough Romany to understand what’s going on. And you don’t. It’s one thing for you to play a kids’ riddling game. It’s another for you to figure out a scrying—which, from all I’ve heard, is hard enough to follow when it happens in your own tongue.
“But I’ll teach you a few key Romany words. When Treb’s done questioning me about the Celestial Globe, you jump right on in. You don’t have to worry about understanding whatever I say in response, ’cause I’ll remember that when I snap out of the scrying. That’s how these things work, right? The kids who scry always remember what they see in the mirror.”
“That’s the problem. Sometimes they never remember anything else.”
“You want to know what’s happened to Petra? You’d better start studying how to ask.”