“And do you know what I am now?” asked Vinculus.

“Not exactly, but I know more of you than I did.”

“You see that I am not like the others,” said Vinculus.

“There is nothing here that says you are anything more than a charlatan,” said Childermass and he began to collect his cards.

“Wait,” said Vinculus, “I will tell your fortune.”

Vinculus took the cards and laid out nine. Then he turned them over one by one: XVIII La Lune, XVI La Maison Dieu reversed, The Nine of Swords, Valet de Baton, The Ten of Batons reversed, II La Papesse, X La Rove de Fortvne, The Two of Coins, The King of Cups. Vinculus looked at them. He picked up La Maison Dieu and examined it, but he said nothing at all.

Childermass laughed. “You are right, Vinculus. You are not like the others. That is my life – there on the table. But you cannot read it. You are a strange creature – the very reverse of all the magicians of the last centuries. They were full of learning but had no talent. You have talent and no knowledge. You cannot profit by what you see.”

Vinculus scratched his long, sallow cheek with his unclean fingernails.

Childermass began again to gather up his cards, but once again Vinculus prevented him and indicated that they should lay out the cards again.

“What?” asked Childermass in surprize. “I have told you your fortune. You have failed to tell me mine. What more is there?”

“I am going to tell his fortune.”

“Whose? Norrell’s? But you will not understand it.”

“Shuffle the cards,” said Vinculus, stubbornly.

So Childermass shuffled the cards and Vinculus took nine and laid them out. Then he turned over the first card. IIII. L’Emperevr. It shewed a king seated upon a throne in the open air with all the customary kingly accoutrements of crown and sceptre. Childermass leaned forward and examined it.

“What is it?” asked Vinculus.

“I do not seem to have copied this card very well. I never noticed before. The inking is badly done. The lines are thick and smudged so that the Emperor’s hair and robe appear almost black. And someone has left a dirty thumbprint over the eagle. The Emperor should be an older man than this. I have drawn a young man. Are you going to hazard an interpretation?”

“No,” said Vinculus and indicated by a contemptuous thrust of his chin that Childermass should turn the next card.

IIII. L’Emperevr.

There was a short silence.

“That is not possible,” said Childermass. “There are not two Emperors in this pack. I know there are not.”

If anything the king was younger and fiercer than before. His hair and robes were black and the crown upon his head had become a thin band of pale metal. There was no trace of the thumbprint upon the card, but the great bird in the corner was now decidedly black and it had cast off its eagle-like aspects and settled itself into a shape altogether more English: it had become a raven.