“I thought as much — I knew there was something more! Yes, it makes so much sense.” Her smile was a candle being lit in darkness. “Is that where I saw you, then? On another world? Asking about him…”

“I did ask about him! That’s why I came back. Then it was you who told me about him…” That he loved someone else. “That it wasn’t finished yet, that he needed me,” raising her voice to drown out doubt’s.,”But how do you know that? Can we remember what we say, and see? I’ve never been called.”

“Yes, you remember it. Clearly.” Fate smiled at the memory of clear sight. “It happens to me rather often, and that’s why I feel I’m needed here. I may be the only answer there is to questions about Carbuncle. And that’s why I began to suspect there was more to us than anyone pretended to know. How could the Hedge not know what we did was real?”

“There are a lot of things they lie about.” The mers… is that the real reason they don’t want us in Carbuncle — so no one can prove that they’ve lied about the mers? And about how many other things? “But we could change that, now that we know the truth. When the off worlders go—”

“Then Summer will reign, and they won’t listen.”

“I listened.” Moon felt her gaze drawn away to the mask on the wall. Would they listen to a sibyl Queen? A tingling excitement ran along her nerves from spine to fingertips. “Fate, in Transfer you said . you said I could be the Queen. What did it mean?”

“That was years ago…” Fate pressed a hand over her sensor eye. “I suppose I meant that you looked like Arienrhod.” She took her hand away, looking toward the mask on the wall. “But — maybe not. I called you back; it seemed important. If you ran the race with the others on the day of choosing, who can say? You could be chosen Queen.”

“How long is it until they choose?”

“It’s the day that leads into the Mask Night — the day after tomorrow.”

Moon wove her tingling hands together, completing the circuit, felt the current of terrifying certainty surge through her. This is the reason. This is why I’ve come. To make this a real Change, to open the circle… “Yes, I can; I know I can! I was meant to!” Possibilities exploded inside her eyes.

But it won’t save Sparks. The fire of revelation drowned in the cold waters of truth. There would be no rebirth without death; she would have no power until the Snow Queen died… “But that’s why I came!” She shook her head angrily; Fate’s face turned quizzical, listening. “Fate, I came to find Sparks, I want to help him, if I can. If he still needs me, if he even wants me…” She faltered.

“You know — what he’s become?”

“Yes. I know. I know everything.” She pulled on a braid, hurting herself. “Starbuck.”

Fate nodded, her face drawing down. She pulled the cat into her lap. “He isn’t the boy you knew any more. But you aren’t the girl he left in Summer either. And he does need you, Moon, he needs you desperately; he always has, or he would never have turned to Arienrhod. Find him, and save him if you can. It matters very much to me.”

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“And to me.” Moon jarred the table. “But I don’t know how to find him. That’s why I came to you. Can you help me find him, can you bring him here? There’s hardly any time.” Today and two more days, until he dies — three days to search a whole city.

“I know.” Fate shook her head, looking down. “But he comes here at his whim, not mine. A. d I don’t know… Wait.” Searching, she found the red bead, picked it up. “There is someone else who sees him more than I do. Her name is Tor Starhiker, and she runs the casino called Persipone’s. She calls herself Persipone; ask for her by that name. Are you here alone?”

“No.” Moon smiled. “I have someone,” realizing that she had been away from him far longer than she had meant to be. “I’d better get back and tell him what I’ve learned.” She stood up, hesitated. “Thank you for helping me. And thank you for being Sparks’s friend when I couldn’t be.” She longed for the time to hear all that had passed between them through that long brief gap of years. “May the Lady smile on you,” shyly.

“May She smile on us all. But especially on you, now.” Fate smiled.

Moon looked a last time at the mask of the Summer Queen before she went out the door.

She reached the rooming house where she had left BZ at last, burst in through the windowed door, breathless with elation and relief.

“Moon!” BZ stood in the narrow hallway, the tail of his ragged shirt half tucked in. His landlady stood beside him, overpowering his frail official presence with her own, midway through a shrug of denial. BZ pushed past her, ran to catch Moon in his arms, lifting her off her feet. “Gods! Where the hell have you been? I thought—”

“I went to the mask maker She laughed her surprise as he set her down again. “Stop, you shouldn’t—”

“The mask maker Alone? Why?” He frowned disapproval, but his face showed her only concern.

“I knew the way. You needed the rest.” She smiled until he smiled with her. “I found her. And BZ, you won’t believe this—” She broke off, remembering the landlady still listening intently behind his back. BZ glanced over his shoulder, cleared his throat.

“Ah” right, all right, Inspector.” The woman raised her hands in good-natured surrender. “I can take a hint.” She eased past them toward her own apartment door. “You had him worried.” She winked unsubtly. “Keep him worried and he won’t go off world without you, child!” She opened her door and went in; it closed behind her.

BZ glanced ceiling ward away from Moon’s embarrassment and his own. He moved them further down the hall. “Now tell me. You found her?”

“Yes! And BZ — when KR Aspundh went into Transfer, she was the one who told me to come back.”

It took a moment to register. “She’s a sibyl? Here?”

Moon nodded, missing the undertones of his incredulity. “The only one, for the whole galaxy—”

“What did you tell her?” He was suddenly angry.

This time she understood; old resentment and fresh disappointment darkened her eyes. She stepped back, away from him. “I told her I wanted to find Sparks.” And that’s all you have the right to know.

“I didn’t mean that.” He muffled a cough, muzzling his bad temper. “I — I was afraid you’d left me,” ashamed and awkward, “without even saying goodbye.”

Knowing that he knew it wasn’t the whole truth, she accepted it; because she knew that he wished it were. “BZ, how could I ever… not to you. Not to you.” She took his hands in hers, in promise, and kissed him with gentle grief. He let her go reluctantly, suddenly obsessed with the disorder of his shut. “So what did you find out? Has she seen him?”

“Fate doesn’t know how to reach him.” Moon saw his head come up. “But she told me about somebody who might: Her name is — ; Persipone; she runs a casino.”

She thought he was disappointed. But he nodded. “Right. I know the place. Uptown, one of the biggest. We’ll try it next.” He glanced toward the spidery stairway that helixed to the upper floors, and to the room that had been theirs for a night. “Just let me… get my coat.”