I chuckled. "Human gullibility being what it is—" I began.

He chuckled, also.

"Of course," he said. "I doubt he succeeded with the homunculus."

I waited for him to continue, and he did not. I glanced at him.

"As to the transmutation," he finally said, "I speak as one who knows that he succeeded."

"Oh," I answered, both out of politeness to my host, and out of a sudden realization that in this place such a thing might actually have happened. "A useful skill, to say the least."

My gaze followed Ellison in his pacing, which had taken him to the far end of his quarters. I noticed for the first time that a low bench he was passing bore various pieces of arcane equipment. Noting my attention, he smiled wistfully and flipped a hand in that direction.

"Alembic, retort, distillator, furnace," he announced, in passing. "Yes, I dabble a bit in these matters myself—which is why I understand both the achievement and the conspiracy." He picked up a small burnished object, held it for a moment. It emitted a high-pitched shriek, lowered its voice to a growl, grew silent. He set it aside casually, shifting his attention to something floating in a green liquor within a helical vessel. "Von Kempelen found the secret," he continued, "then fled back to Europe when he realized the Unholy Trinity had discovered him out and was after it. They feel that Annie can be used to run him to earth and to force the gates of his mind."

"Can she?" I asked.

"I believe so," he replied. "By all reports she is a formidable lady."

"Whose reports?"

"Yours, and that of a thing which came into a mirror at my command, to advise me. And there is yet another—"

I felt momentarily dizzy, and I knew it wasn't the wine because the total of all those little glasses hadn't even equaled one good goblet of the sort to which I was accustomed.

"I'm trying," I said, "to understand. I repeat, who are these people who have Annie and wish to use her to steal Von Kempelen's secret?"