"Are you ready?" he asked softly through the mask over his mouth he always worenow while working, to keep his breath from accidentally giving life to what hemade. "We don't have to do any more today. ..." Even if he had had the energy tocontinue, he did not think that the S'danzo woman could go on much longer.

"One more..." Illyra winced as she pulled herself upright against the pillows.She was pushing herself. Lalo wondered if she was beginning to feel incompletewithout a set of cards, as he always did without drawing materials somewhere athand, or if she simply wanted to get rid of Kama.

"The next card is the Three of Flames," said Illyra. Her voice altered,developed a peculiarly flat timbre, as if even visualizing the cards was enoughto push her into the seer's trance. "There is a tunnel, dark at one end and atthe other bright. In the tunnel I see three figures bearing torches. Are theymoving toward light or darkness? I cannot tell...."

As if the S'danzo's words had entranced him, Lalo found his hand moving, dippingup dark pigment for the shadows and red-orange for the three bright flowers offlame. As Illyra spoke of the meaning of the card, shape and color emerged fromthe slip of vellum before him as if his brush were a wand that made visible whathad always been implicit there.

The torchbearers were in silhouette, their faces hidden, but he could see thatone was small, one broad, one wiry and active. Could the big shape be MolinTorchholder? Lalo finished painting in the number of the card, and in the momentbetween the last brush stroke and his return to normal consciousness he thoughthe saw something of Gilla in the larger figure. Perhaps the other two wereIllyra and himself, then, but were they moving into deeper shadow or toward the