Rachaela laughed. She had come to laugh, among them, strangely, with ease and genuine pleasure. Even now, the board of little beasts intrigued her. And stopped her concentrating.

"I have to say," Rachaela said, "this house has been my fortress. But now. Now it's a prison. With a prisoner."

"Ruth," he said.

"Yes." She thought, / had this conversation with Ste-phan, the last time. But it isn't the same. And Stephan is dead. "You see, I understand now," Rachaela said. "There's nothing to be done about her. I accept… what you'll do. There's no doctor on earth who could help her. Only Malach seemed—but then—" She recalled Ruth dragged shrieking up the stairs. Ruth, screaming for Malach. "And I can't do anything. I never could. I always disliked her and now there's just an emptiness in me with her name. The same as there is for Adamus."

"Yes," said Eric. His thin hand lay over the little armadillo, like the hand of a god of miniatures.

"And so—I leave her to you. That's all I can think of or decide. Maybe I'm grossly in error. Probably. God knows."

"And Althene is leaving with Malach tonight," Eric said.

"I'd like to say I was tricked there. But perhaps I only tricked myself."

Eric said, "It's difficult to have faith in a lover. They possess so much of you. You're at their mercy. How can you ever anticipate kindness?"

"Well, I haven't had much."

"None of us," he said, "has."

Rachaela felt an urge to go over to him. Instead she went to the other side of the board, and looked more closely at the tiny animals.

She remembered. Had he carved masks once? He had been so silent. A gift of feathers to dead Sylvian. How he had ordered champagne.

Eric said, "When do you wish to leave?"

"As soon as I can. But, I'll need to make some plans."

"Not necessary. We will provide all you require. By that I don't mean you will be tied to us. Go as far as you want. But the provisions of our house are also yours. You are ours."

"I have to concede that. So, I'll agree. I suspect you will anyway. You've put money and possessions my way in the past, I think. Before I even knew."

"Perhaps." Eric slid the armadillo forward. "And now I've trapped myself."

Rachaela picked up the silver cat-queen, who waited to one side. Poor thing, taken so early and bizarrely from the game.

"I feel," Rachaela said, "I want to be in London. I don't want to go farther than that. London's what I know."

"There is a large apartment," Eric said, "a third-story flat, overlooking the river. It could be made ready in three or four days."

"Thank you," Rachaela said.

"And if you should want us," Eric said, "we are here."