“Like the bone was sticking through the skin. Lucky for me it was a shard of bone china from all the dishes that had broken during the fight at the stall market. Sure looked like bone, especially since my finger hurt.” Merri Lee blew out a breath. “Most of us were lucky.”

Meg didn’t say anything. Girls had come and gone in the compound where she’d been raised and used, but she hadn’t known any of them well enough to feel the loss—not the way she felt the loss of Lawrence MacDonald and Crystal Crowgard. They had been friends.

I don’t want to lose any more friends, she thought as Ruth put the deck into its box and opened the next deck.

The next deck didn’t appeal to any of them, but the third...

Meg’s hands tingled lightly as she touched the cards. Realistic illustrations. She pulled out all the pictures of water—lakes, streams, waterfalls, surf.

“Here’s an illustration of the Great Lakes,” Merri Lee said, setting the card with the ones Meg had already culled.

“Specific and general.” Meg went to a drawer and took out the postcards she had gotten from Lorne. She pointed to one of the prophecy cards. “A waterfall would be a general image that could be anywhere.” She laid a postcard of Talulah Falls under it. “But this would mean a specific place.”

“How many specific places did you learn?” Ruth asked. “We had the impression that you were taught one image to represent a particular thing, like one image to stand for small dogs and one for large dogs, but no particular breed of dog.”

“But Talulah Falls is a distinctive landmark,” Merri Lee said. “Maybe different combinations of cards could mean different things. Meg, what does seeing these two cards together mean to you?” Merri Lee set the postcard of Talulah Falls on top of the card illustrating the Great Lakes.

“Lake Etu,” Meg said as soon as she placed her fingers on the cards, surprised that she didn’t have to think about it at all.

“It could also mean Lake Tahki,” Ruth said. “A third card might be needed to narrow down the location.”

“That’s a good point.” Merri Lee handed Meg a card that showed the sun setting behind a mountain range. “What about this?”

“West.”

“And together with this?”

She took the second card. “Sunset.”

Ruth eyed her. “How do you feel?”

“My hands tingle a little, but they’ve been tingling since we opened this deck of cards.”

“That doesn’t prove anything.” Ruth sounded disappointed.

“We haven’t asked a question,” Merri Lee said. “Let’s arrange these cards in categories, the way Meg did with the water, and then do a test. We’ll include the postcards too.”

“What about the other decks of cards?”

“Let’s start with what we have and see what happens. Ready?”

Meg nodded.