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she murmured under her breath as she examined each card, both sides, before placing it.
    “That’s the finest deck of Gates I’ve ever seen,” said Julian, leaning forward to watch Kate’s movements.
    “SACU, or UCAS,” said Aunt Laetitia in a low voice. “It is double-sided, Julian.” She examined Chryse and Sanjay with a new light in her eye. “I have heard of double-sided Gates, but never seen one. It is said to contain so much power that even unused it is dangerous.”
    “What does sacu mean?” asked Chryse. “And what ‘gates’ do you mean?”
    This question brought her the immediate attention of all three.
    “Oh dear,” said Aunt Laetitia.
    Julian merely looked startled.
    “I think,” said Kate, laying the last card, the Gate, out between two others, “that we will have to start from the beginning.” She looked at Aunt Laetitia, who nodded.
    “This deck is called the Gates,” said Kate. “Or, academically, the SACU. I’ve also heard of the UCAS, the other side, but never known anyone who has seen a set.” She swept her hand, palm open, over the cards. “It starts here, with the Gate set between the cards of Dawn and Dusk, beginning and ending, youth and age. These three cards are the centerpiece, the hinge, of the deck.”
    “Out from the hinge is the round, the wheel of the year, known to most of us as the eight holidays. These eight cards are set in a circle, so. They begin and end with the Festival of Lights, the Winter Solstice—”
    “Yesterday!” said Chryse.
    “Exactly. And progress through the year: The Festival of Lights, Twin’s Faire, Sower’s Day, the Feast of Somorhas, High Summer’s Eve, Hunter’s Run, the Harvest Faire, Lord Death’s Progress, and back to the Festival of Lights.
    “Below the circle of the year lies the journey, the thirteen months. These thirteen cards form a progressive line: the Hut, the Village, the Road, the Town Square, the Temple, the Tower, the Harbour, the City, the Great Hall, the Garden, the Barrow, the Labyrinth—” Here she paused, staring for a moment at the card, a maze of walls in which a tiny figure, perhaps a child, was about to lose its way. “—and the Castle.”
    “And the face cards,” said Chryse, “they’re above the circle.”
    “The days of the month,” said Kate. “But you’re missing one, the Sinner, the fifth day of the first week.”
    “Ah, I see,” said Aunt Laetitia. “The card properly called the Queen, or Mistress, of the Underworld. This must be a very old deck. I see cards here that are archaic, medieval. Your archer is naked, while we always see her clothed. And this card of a child in rags, the Beggar, is certainly medieval, or older.”
    “Yes,” said Kate. “That should be the Monk.”
    “Not ‘should be’,” said Aunt Laetitia. “‘Is now,’ but was not years ago. I have seen a medieval deck. You see, the days of the month are most changeable. The four weeks: the Queens, the Kings, the Knights, and the Magi, combine with the seven directions to identify the twenty-eight days of the month.”
    “Seven directions?” asked Sanjay.
    “Of course,” said Kate. “East, South, Heaven, the Wheel, Underworld, North, and West. So you have, for instance, the King of the West who is the Hunter, the Knight of the South who is the Crusader, and the Queen of Heaven.”
    “What direction is the wheel?”
    “The center. The most powerful card of each week, each suit. Here is the Empress of Bounty, ruling over the Queens, and the Emperor of Reason over the Kings. The Master of Waters over the Knights, and last, the Angel of War.”
    “Ruling over the Magi,” said Sanjay as Kate touched a card with an armored woman advancing, sword out, light radiating around her.
    “And so on for the other days,” said Kate.
    “I know which one is missing,” said Chryse suddenly. “I showed it to you, Sanjay. The blindfolded woman running through that grim forest.”
    Kate and Julian merely stared at her,