“No, but I don’t want her to know what I am. It was just the first thing that came into my head.” He rubbed his head. “She filled a golden bowl and told me to look for somebody named Antoinette Carter.”

I frowned. Antoinette Carter had been an Irish celebrity in the early forties. I recalled her as middle-aged and thin, as frail as she was enigmatic. She had a TV show, Toni’s Truths, which broadcast every Thursday night. She would touch people’s hands and claim to see their futures, sounding them out in her deep, measured voice. The show was canceled after the Incursion of 2046, when Scion had taken Ireland, and Carter had gone into hiding. She still ran an illegal pamphlet, Stingy Jack, which spoke out against Scion’s atrocities.

For reasons unknown to us, Jaxon had asked a screever called Leon—an expert in sending messages outside Scion—to make contact with her. I’d never heard the outcome. Leon was a good screever, but it took time to bypass Scion’s security systems.

“She’s a fugitive,” I said. “She used to live in Ireland.”

“Well, she’s not in Ireland now.”

“What did you see?” I didn’t like the look on his face. “What did you tell her?”

“You’re not going to be happy.” When he saw my expression, he sighed. “I said I’d seen the sundials. I remembered Carl said he’d scried them, and I thought it was believable if I repeated what he’d said.”

I looked away. Nashira was searching for Jaxon. Sooner or later she’d work out where those dials were.

“I’m sorry. I could have kicked myself.” Julian rubbed his forehead. “Why are the sundials so important?”

“I can’t tell you. I’m sorry. But whatever happens”—I glanced at the entrance to the shack—“Nashira must never hear of those sundials again. It will put some friends of mine in danger.”

Liss pulled a blanket around her shoulders. “Paige,” she said, “I think your friends have been trying to contact you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Gomeisa took me to the Castle for a while.” Her expression grew stiff. “I was in my cell, sorting through my deck for his reading, when I was drawn toward the Hanged Man. When I picked it up, it was inverted. I saw the æther. The face of a man. He reminded me of snow.”

Nick. Soothsayers always said that about Nick when they saw him, that he was like snow. “What did he send?”

“A picture of a phone. I think he’s trying to find out where you are.”

A phone. Of course—he didn’t know where I was. The gang didn’t know I’d been taken by Scion, though they must have smelled a rat by now. Nick wanted me to call him, to tell him I was all right.