"But how did you know about me?"

"You're not discreet," Dowd replied. "You get drunk on the Queen's birthday, and you gab like an Irishman at a wake. Lovey, it draws attention sooner or later."

"Once in a while—"

"I know, you get melancholy. We all do, lovey, we all do. But some of us do our weeping in private, and some of us"—he let Chant's head drop—"make fucking public spectacles of ourselves. There are consequences, lovey, didn't Sartori tell you that? There are always consequences. You've begun something with this Estabrook business, for instance, and I'll need to watch it closely, or before we know it there'll be ripples spreading through the Imajica."

"The Imajica..."

"That's right. From here to the margin of the First Dominion. To the region of the Unbeheld Himself."

Chant began to gasp, and Dowd—realizing he'd hit a nerve—leaned towards his victim.

"Do 1 detect a little anxiety?" he said. "Are you afraid of going into the glory of our Lord Hapexamendios?"

Chant's voice was frail now. "Yes..." he murmured.

"Why?" Dowd wanted to know. "Because of your crimes?"

"Yes."

"What are your crimes? Do tell me. We needn't bother with the little things. Just the really shameful stuff'll do."

"I've had dealings with a Eurhetemec."

"Have you indeed?" Dowd said. "However did you get back to Yzordderrex to do that?"

"I didn't," Chant replied. "My dealings... were here, in the Fifth."

"Really," said Dowd softly. "I didn't know there were Eurhetemecs here. You learn something new every day. But, lovey, that's no great crime. The Unbeheld's going to forgive a poxy little trespass like that. Unless..." He stopped for a moment, turning over a new possibility. "Unless, the Eurhetemec was a mystif... ." He trailed the thought, but Chant remained silent. "Oh, my dove," Dowd said. "It wasn't, was it?" Another pause. "Oh, it was. It was." He sounded almost enchanted. "There's a mystif in the Fifth and—what? You're in love with it? You'd better tell me before you run out of breath, lovey. In a few minutes your eternal soul will be waiting at Hapexamendios' door."