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enemies and friends alike, where you would have taken that girl to spend her day with you?"
    "Of course," he told her; and he watched her eat. She was missing many teeth and had a tendency to smack her lips now. But suddenly, behind her net of wrinkles, he saw the face of the young girl she had been. White teeth had flashed when she had smiled, and her hair had been long and glossy, as the darkside sky between stars. And there had been a certain luster in eyes the blue of dayside skies he had looked upon. He had liked to think it was only there for him.
    She must not have much longer to live, he thought. As the girl's face vanished, he regarded the sagging flesh beneath her chin.
    "Of course," he repeated, "and now that I've found you, will you accompany me back? Out of this wretched land and into a place of comforting shadows? Come spend the rest of your days with me, and I will be kind to you."
    She studied his face.
    "You would keep your promise after all these years-now that I'm an ugly old lady?"
    "Let us go through the pass and journey back toward Twilight together."
    "Why would you do this for me?"
    "You know why."
    "Quickly, give me your hands!" she said.
    He extended his hands and she seized them, turning both palms upward. She leaned far forward and scrutinized them.
    "Ah! It is no use!" she said. "I cannot read you, Jack. The hands of a thief make too many twists and turns and manipulations. The lines are all wrong-though they are magnificently ruined hands!"
    "What is it that you see but do not wish to tell me, Rosalie?"
    "Do not finish eating. Take your bread and run. I am too old to go with you. It was sweet of you to ask. That young girl might have liked Shadow Guard, but I am content to spend my days where I am.-Go now. Hurry! And try to forgive me."
    "Forgive you for what?"
    She raised and kissed each of his hands.
    "When I saw the approach of him whom I had hated all these years, I sent a message by means of my Art and resolved to detain you here. Now I know that I did wrong. But the Baron's guard must already be hurrying in this direction. Enter the pass and stop for nothing. You may be able to elude them on the other side. I will try to raise a storm to obscure your trail."
    He sprang to his feet, drew her to hers.
    "Thank you," he said. "But what did you see in my palm?"
    "Nothing."
    "Tell me, Rosalie."
    "It does not matter so much if they capture you," she said, "for there is a Power greater than the Baron that you would face, and face him you will. What happens then is crucial. Do not let your hatred lead you to the machine that thinks like a man, only faster. There is too much power involved, and such power and hatred would not go well together."
    "Such machines only exist dayside."
    "I know. Go now, Jackie boy. Go!"
    He kissed her forehead.
    "I will see you again one day," he said, and turning, he dashed toward the pass.
    As she watched him go she was suddenly aware of the chill that had descended upon the land.
    Beginning low and rising steadily, the foothills soon lowered above him. He ran on, seeing
    them give way to high, slanting walls of stone. The pass widened, narrowed, and widened again. Finally, he pushed his panic away, held it at arms' length and slowed to a walk. It would serve no purpose to tire himself quickly; a steady, slower pace would allow him to cover more ground before fatigue overtook him.
    He breathed deeply and listened for the sounds of pursuit. He heard nothing.
    A long, black snake flowed along the wall at his right, vanished into a cleft in the rock, and did not reappear. Above him, a shooting star burnt its sudden way through the sky. Veins of minerals glittered like glass in the starlight.
    He thought of Rosalie and wondered what it would have been like to have had parents, to have been a child, to have depended on others to assure his welfare. He wondered what it was like to be old and know that you were going to die and not return again. He grew tired of these thoughts