“The Three of Pentacles. This card you covers.”
The Mouse looked at the captain’s forearm. The oval socket was almost lost between the double tendon along his wrist.
The Mouse fingered the socket on his own arm. The plastic inset was a quarter the width of his wrist: both sockets were the same size.
The captain lay the Three of Pentacles on the Kosmos.
“Again choose.”
The card came out upside down:
A black-haired youngster in brocade vest, with boots of tooled leather, leaned on the hilt of a sword on which was a jeweled silver lizard. The figure stood in shadow under crags; the Mouse couldn’t tell if it were boy or girl.
“The Page of Swords reversed. This card you crosses.”
Lorq placed the card crosswise on the Three of Pentacles.
“Again choose.”
Above a seaside, in a clear sky with birds, a single hand, extending from coils of mist, held a five-pointed star-form in a circle.
“The Ace of Pentacles.” Tyy pointed below the crossed cards. Lorq placed the card there. “This card beneath you lies. Choose.”
A big blond fellow stood on the flag path within a garden. He looked up, his hand back. A red bird was about to light on his wrist. On the stones of the court, nine star-shapes were cut.
“The Nine of Pentacles.” She pointed beside the pattern on the rug. “This card behind you lies.”
Lorq placed the card.
“Choose.”
Upside down again:
Between storm clouds burned a violet sky. Lightning had ignited the top of a stone tower. Two men had leaped from the upper balcony. One wore rich clothing. You could even see his jeweled rings and the gold tassels on his sandals. The other wore a common work vest, was barefoot, bearded.
“The Tower, reversed!” Katin whispered. “Uh-oh. I know what—“ and stopped because Tyy and Sebastian looked.
“The Tower reversed.” Tyy pointed above the patter “This above you lies.”
Lorq placed the card, then drew a seventh.
“The Two of Swords, reversed.”
Upside down:
A blindfolded woman sat on a chair before the ocean, holding two swords crossed on her breasts.
“This before you lies.”
With three cards in the center and four around, the first seven cards formed a cross.
“Again choose.” Lorq chose.
“The King of Swords. Here it place.” The King went to the left of the cross.
“And once more.” Lorq drew his ninth card. “The Three of Wands reversed.” Which went below the King. “The Devil—“
Katin looked at the Mouse’s hand. The fingers arched and the little nail bit Katin’s arm.
“—reversed.”
The fingers relaxed; Katin looked back at Tyy.
“Here place.” The upside-down Devil went below the Wands. “And choose.”
“The Queen of Swords. This final card here place.” Beside the cross there was now a vertical row of four cards.
Tyy squared the pack.
She brushed her fingers under her chin. As she bent over the vivid dioramas, her iron-colored hair broke on her shoulder.
“Do you see Prince in there?” Lorq asked. “Do you see me, and the sun I’m after?”
“You I see; and Prince. A woman also, somehow related to Prince, a dark woman—“
“Black hair, but blue eyes?” Lorq said. “Prince’s eyes are blue.”
Tyy nodded. “Her too I see.”
“That’s Ruby.”
“The cards mostly swords and pentacles are. Much money I see. Also much struggle about and around it there is.”
“With seven tons of Illyrion?” the Mouse mumbled. “You don’t have to read cards to see—“
“Shhh …” from Katin.
“The only positive influence from the Major Arcana the Devil is. A card of violence, of revolution, of struggle it is. But also the birth of spiritual understanding it signifies. Pentacles at the beginning of your reading lay. They cards of money and wealth are. Swords them overtake; cards of power and conflict. The wand the symbol of intellect and creativity is. Though the number of the wands three and low is, high the reading it comes. That good is. But no cups—the symbol of the emotions and particularly love—there are. Bad is. To be good, wands must cups have.” She lifted the cards in the center of the cross: the Kosmos, the Three of Pentacles, the Page of Swords.
“Now …” Tyy paused. The four men breathed together. “You yourself as the world see. The card covering you of nobility, of aristocracy speaks. As well, some skill which you possess—“
“You said you used to be a racing captain, didn’t you?” asked Katin.
“That with material increase you are concerned, this card reveals. But the Page of Swords you crosses.”
“That’s Prince?”
Tyy shook her head. “A younger person it is. Someone already close to you now it is. Someone you know. A dark, very young man perhaps—“
Katin was first to look at the Mouse.
“—who somehow between you and your flaming sun will come.”
Now Lorq looked up over his shoulder.
“Hey, now. Look …” The Mouse frowned at the others. “What are you going to do? Fire me the first stopover because of some stupid cards? You think I want to cross you up?”
“Even if he you fired,” Tyy said, glancing up, “it would nothing change.”
The captain slapped the Mouse’s hip. “Don’t mind it, Mouse.”
“If you don’t believe in them, Captain, why waste your time listening to …?” and stopped because Tyy had replaced the cards.
“In your immediate past,” Tyy went on, “the Ace of Pentacles lies. Again, much money, but toward a purpose pointed.”
“Setting up this expedition must have cost an arm and a leg,” Katin commented.
“And an eye and an ear?” Sebastian’s knuckles rippled on the head of one of his pets.
“In the far past, the Nine of Pentacles lies. Again a card of wealth it is. You success are used to. The best things you have enjoyed. But in your immediate future the Tower reversed is. In general this signifies—“
“—go directly to jail. Do not pass go. Do not”—Katin’s ears glowed again as Tyy narrowed her eyes at him—“collect two hundred pounds @sg.” He coughed.
“Imprisonment this card signifies; a great house topples.”
“The Von Rays have had it?”
“Whose house I did not say.”
At that Lorq laughed.
“Beyond it, the Two of Swords reversed lies. Of unnatural passion, Captain, beware.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” the Mouse whispered.
But Tyy had moved from the cross of seven cards to the row of four.
“At the head of your endeavors the King of Swords sits.”
“That’s my friend Prince?”
“It is. Your life he can affect. He a strong man is, and easily to wisdom he you may lead; also your death.” Then she looked up, her face sharply distraught. “As well, all our lives … He—“
When she did not go on, Lorq asked, “What, Tyy?” Her voice calmed already, became a deeper, solider thing.
“Below him—“
“What was it, Tyy?”
“—the Three of Wands reversed lies. Of offered his beware. The best defense against disappointment expectation is. The foundation of this the Devil is. But reversed. You the spiritual understanding of which I spoke will receive in the—“
“Hey.” The Mouse looked up at Katin. “What’d she see?”
“Shhh.”
“—coming struggle, the surface of things away will fall. The workings beneath strange and stranger will seem. And though the King of Swords the walls of reality back will pull, behind them the Queen of Swords you will discover.”