“What? Goodness, child, where did you get a notion like that?” Mama said.

“I thought maybe it was to keep Uncle Earn from putting me in jail,” I explained.

Mama took a deep breath and let it out very slowly. Then she looked at me with a serious expression. “Uncle Earn could not have you put in jail, whether we stay in Helvan Shores or not,” she said.

“But—”

Mama held up her hand, and I closed my mouth on my questions and listened real hard. “I can’t deny that moving will get you and Lan away from a type of attention and comment that your father and I think is very bad for you,” she said. “And I must admit that removing you from that poisonous atmosphere was one of the things we thought was a good reason to make the move.”

“Then—”

This time, Mama gave me a stern look. “Eff, you should wait until someone is quite finished speaking before you jump in with your comments.” She waited a moment, but I knew well enough not to open my mouth again. Once she was satisfied that I wasn’t going to interrupt, she went on, “But if you and Lan had been the only reasons we had for moving—if your father hadn’t been pleased and excited by the thought of trying out his ideas for teaching practical magic at a brand-new school that has no traditions to overturn, and if he hadn’t liked the notion of setting his stamp on an institution that will be teaching young magicians for the next hundred years and more—then we wouldn’t be going. Not even for you.” She smiled. “So you should be very glad that your father does feel that way shouldn’t you?”

Well, when she put it like that, I could see that wild horses couldn’t have kept Papa in Helvan Shores when there was something like this waiting. Only—“If Papa wanted to go West so much, how come it took him a whole year to make up his mind?” I asked.

“Because it’s a hard thing to leave a place where you’ve lived most of your life, where your brothers and sisters and parents still live, where some of your children will stay behind,” Mama said. “It’s a hard thing to risk what you know and are sure of, just for the possibility of something better. Even when it’s a pretty strong possibility, and something that’s a whole lot better.”