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end of the Second Cycle."

    "I know all that, and I am no Rememberer." Then I turned to him and spoke words I never thought I would say aloud. "For twice your lifetime, Changeling, I've listened to the stars and done my Watching. Something done that often loses meaning. Say your own name ten thousand times and it will be an empty sound. I have Watched, and Watched well, and in the dark hours of the night I sometimes think I Watch for nothing, that I have wasted my life. There is a pleasure in Watching, but perhaps there is no real purpose."
    His hand encircled my wrist. "Your confession is as shocking as mine. Keep your faith, Watcher. The invasion comes!"
    "How could you possibly know?"
    "The guildless also have their skills."
    The conversation troubled me. I said, "Is it painful to be guildless?"
    "One grows reconciled. And there are certain freedoms to compensate for the lack of status. I may speak freely to all."
    "I notice."
    "I move freely. I am always sure of food and lodging, though the food may be rotten and the lodging poor. Women are attracted to me despite all prohibitions. Because of them, perhaps. I am untroubled by ambitions."
    "Never desire to rise above your rank?"
    "Never."
    "You might have been happier as a Rememberer."
    "I am happy now. I can have a Rememberer's pleasures without his responsibility."
    "How smug you are!" I cried. "To make a virtue of guildlessness!"
    "How else does one endure the weight of the Will?" He looked toward the palace. 'The humble rise. The mighty fall. Take this as prophecy, Watcher: that lusty Prince in there will know more of life before summer comes. I'll rip out his eyes for taking Avluela!"
    "Strong words. You bubble with treason tonight."
    "Take it as prophecy."
    "You can't get close to him," I said. Then, irritated for taking his foolishness seriously, I added, "And why blame

    him? He only does as princes do. Blame the girl for going to him. She might have refused."
    "And lost her wings. Or died. No, she had no choice. I dol" In a sudden, terrible gesture the Changeling held out thumb and forefinger, double-jointed, long-nailed, and plunged them forward into imagined eyes. "Wait," he said. "You'll see!"
    In the courtyard two Chronomancers appeared, set up the apparatus of their guild, and lit tapers by which to read the shape of tomorrow. A sickly odor of pallid smoke rose to my nostrils. I had now lost further desire to speak with the Changeling.
    "It grows late," I said. "I need rest, and soon I must do my Watching."
    "Watch carefully," Gormon told me.
    At night in my chamber I performed my fourth and last Watch of that long day, and for the first time in my life I detected an anomaly. I could not interpret it. It was an obscure sensation, a mingling of tastes and sounds, a feeling of being in contact with some colossal mass. Worried, I clung to my instruments far longer than usual, but perceived no more clearly at the end of my seance than at its commencement.
    Afterward I wondered about my obligations.
    Watchers are trained from childhood to be swift to sound the alarm; and the alarm must be sounded when the Watcher judges the world in peril. Was I now obliged to notify the Defenders? Four times in my life the alarm had been given, on each occasion in error; and each Watcher who had thus touched off a false mobilization had suffered a fearful loss of status. One. had contributed his brain to the memory banks; one had become a neuter out of shame; one had smashed his instruments and gone to live among the guildless; and one, vainly attempting to continue in his profession, had discovered himself mocked by all his comrades. I saw no virtue in scorning one who

    had delivered a iaise alarm, for was it not preferable for a Watcher to cry out too soon than not at all? But those were the customs of our guild, and I was constrained by them.
    I evaluated my position and decided that I did not have valid grounds for an alarm.
    I reflected that Gormon had placed suggestive