"The documents you found in the Forest of Cloud, gave to my late sister Soulcatcher, took from her again, gave to your friend Raven, and took from him in turn. The papers you thought would give you the tool of victory." "Those documents. Ha. Not well at all."

"You couldn't have. What you sought isn't there."

"But…"

"You were misled. Yes. I know. Bomanz put them together, so they must hold my true name. Yes? But that has been eradicated-except, perhaps, in the mind of my husband." She became remote suddenly. "The victory at Juniper cost."

"He learned the lesson Bomanz did too late."

"So. You noticed. He has information enough to pry an answer from what happened… No. My name isn't there. His is. That was why they so excited my sister. She saw an opportunity to supplant us both. She knew me. We were children together, after all. And protected from one another only by the most tangled web that could be woven. When she enlisted you in Beryl she had no greater ambition than to undermine me. But when you delivered those documents…"

She was thinking aloud as much as explaining.

I was stricken by a sudden insight. "You don't know his name!"

"It was never a love match, physician. It was the shakiest of alliances. Tell me. How do I get those papers?"

"You don't."

"Then we all lose. This is true, Croaker. While we argue and while our respective allies strive to slash one another's throats, the enemy of us all is shedding his chains. All this dying will be for naught if the Dominator wins free."

"Destroy him."

"That's impossible."

"In the town where I was born there is a folk tale about a man so mighty he dared mock the gods. In the end his might proved sheer hubris, for there is one against whom even the gods are powerless."

"What's the point?"

"To twist an old saw, death conquers all. Not even the Dominator can wrestle death and win every time."

"There are ways," she admitted. "But not without those papers. You will return to your quarters now, and reflect. I will speak to you again."

I was dismissed that suddenly. She faced the dying city. Suddenly, I knew my way out. A powerful impulse drove me toward the door. A moment of dizziness and I was outside.

The Colonel came puffing along the corridor. He returned me to my cell.

I planted myself on my bunk and reflected, as ordered.

There was evidence enough that the Dominator was stirring, but… The business about the documents not holding the lever we had counted on-that was the shocker. That I had to swallow or reject, and my choice might have critical repercussions.

She was leading me for her own ends. Of course. I conceived numerous possibilities, none pleasant, but all making a sort of sense…

She'd said it. If the Dominator broke out, we were all in the soup, good guys and bad.