Excitedly: "What sorts of dragon do you know about? Are there really ones who bring rain?"

"I've met some water dragons. They live in the ocean and can spit water so hard it can blow away hills. Those guys were tough! And cool!"

"Did you find out whether it was fresh or salty water?"

"Salty. Blech. I can make it rain! It easiest if I steal rain from somewhere else, though."

"Well, there's a story where dragons used to live in an ocean in the Far East and carry the rain to the land in their mouths because the gods weren't doing it like they should have been."

"How do you make it rain?"

She takes one step that brings her halfway across the room with a brief flare of orange and blue. "Portals!"

"Portals to move the rain from one place to another?"

"What if you want to make rain without taking it from somewhere else?"

"I can boil up some ocean and do clouds. It's stupid hard and annoying though."

"So you use fire to make rain?"

"Portals seem really useful. Could you teach us how to make them?"

"Fire rain! Yep. All the rain comes from the ocean in the first place anyway. I can give people powers but they never last long. Plus teaching is boooring."

"If I could make portals I'd never have to worry about locked doors, and I could see my parents wherever they were in the world, and I could, visit my uncle and grandmother whenever I wanted to, and I could go and see Africa and China and India!"

"If you could make portals, it would still be dangerous for you to visit your father when he was near the Front."

"Could you take us to see China?"

"Probably! I don't know where China is. And I probably shouldn't show you guys anything really dangerous. I'm safe from anything less kaboomy than a star exploding, but you're not."

"China's a long way East of us. If I drew a map of the world, would you be able to take us to China?"

"Yeah, I could. I can go anywhere on this world I want to. I could go to some other world too but I'm not done with this one yet."

"Well, come inside and I'll find some paper."

Eustace leads them into the house

"Could you take us to other worlds?"

"...Ehhh one round trip between worlds probably won't put too much strain on your squishy bodies. I'll have to pick a good one."

Eustace gets a sketchbook and draws a map.

"We're here, in England. And China is there.

"Be right back!"

She steps through a portal that gives a glimpse of - multicolored clouds - and disappears.

Thirty seconds later, she steps back into the room from a paddy field. "I found some China farmers. There's actually a war here too I think... But not near this place."

The peasants in the background are abandoning their farms and scattering.

Lucy indicates the fleeing farmers.

"Zoe, I think you've frightened those people."