"Could you turn that thing up?" she asked, nodding toward thespirit-light.

I did so.

"Now move it into the vicinity of your mirror."

I did that also. The mirror was very dark, but so was everything elsethere in Mandor's guest house, where I had elected to spend the nightfollowing our recent reconciliation.

I got out of bed and crossed the room. The mirror was absolutely black,containing no reflection of anything. "Peculiar," I remarked.

"No," she said. "I closed it and locked it after I entered here.Likewise, every other mirror in the house."

"You came in by way of the mirror?"

"I did. I live in the mirrorworld."

"And your family? And the four other families you mentioned?"

"We all of us make our homes beyond the bounds of reflection."

"And from there you travel from place to place?"

"Indeed."

"Obviously, to watch your pets. And to eat people of whom youdisapprove?"

"That, too."

"You're scary, Rhanda." I returned to the bed, seating myself on itsedge. I took hold of her hand and held it. "And it is good to see you again.I wish you had come to me sooner."

"I have," she said, "using the sleep spells of our kind."

"I wish you had awakened me."

She nodded. "I would like to have stayed with you, or taken you homewith me. But for this part of your life you a certified danger bringer."

"It does seem that way," I agreed. "Still...Why are you here now, apartfrom the obvious?"

"The danger has spread. It involves us now."

"I actually thought that the danger in my life had been minimized a bitof late," I told her. "I have beaten off Dara's and Mandor's attempts tocontrol me and come to an understanding of sorts with them."

"Yet still they will scheme."

I shrugged. "It is their nature. They know that I know, and they know I