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‘I wish to see Tadia,’ you say, bowing politely so as not to appear threatening to the frail old crone. ‘Are you the fair lady I seek?’

A smile crumples her face and a blush, like an angry bruise, discolours her leathery cheeks. ‘I am her mother,’ she says coyly. ‘What is it you wish to see her about?’

Before you can answer, a young woman’s voice calls from inside the house, ‘Show them in, mother. I’ve been expecting them.’

The old woman leads you and Paido to a room at the top of the stairs. Books and charts, stacked high on shelves and scattered about the floor, fill the room which is illuminated by daylight streaming through a domed portal in the ceiling. A massive bronze telescope is fixed to the portal and below it rests a circular table of carved bone set with gems. Seated at the table is a beautiful young woman. Her hair is silken gold, and around her high, pale forehead she wears a circlet of jet inlaid with runes and mystic symbols.

Illustration XIX—Tadia wears a circlet of jet inlaid with runes and mystic symbols.

Turn to 42.