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HAPPENS IN THE HOUSE, the computer replied.
    There was more to Tamson House than its vast size—secrets an outsider could never guess. Otherworlds bordered the world in which it was originally built by Jamie Tams’s grandfather. Tamson House straddled more than one of them. The spirits of Jamie’s father and grandfather were a part of its essence. When Jamie died—at the end of that war between the druid Thomas Hengwr and his darker half—his spirit had joined those of his forefathers to become a part of the House with them, living in its foundations and walls, seeing through its windows.
    Since their return from the Otherworld that last time, Jamie’s spirit had been dominant. It was Blue who discovered that his friend could still speak to him through the computer that sat in the Postman’s Room. That computer was never turned off now.
    “There’s something strange about her,” Blue said. “She doesn’t have a shadow.”
    The cursor pulsed for a long moment, as though in thought. Then the word ASCIAN appeared on the screen.
    Blue typed in ??.
    COMES FROM THE LATIN, Jamie replied. TWICE A YEAR IN THE TORRID ZONES, THE SUN IS AT ITS ZENITH AND THE PEOPLE LIVING THERE DON’T CAST A MERIDIAN SHADOW.
    “We’re not living in a torrid zone.”
    THEN PERHAPS SHE’S A CHANGELING. SOME FAERIE DON’T CAST SHADOWS EITHER.
    “And maybe I’m the bogyman,” Blue said. “Come on, Jamie.”
    YOU’RE TALKING TO A DEAD MAN, AREN’T YOU?
    Blue stared at the screen. There was that. He sighed. Taking out the bone disc that Button had been carrying, he set it on the desk beside the keyboard.
    “She was carrying one of those bones,” he said. “Like Hengwr’s Weirdin.”
    !?
    “Yeah. That’s what I thought, too. This one’s not like the one Sara found. It’s got what looks like a mask on one side and a stick or staff on the other.”
    The computer hummed to itself for a moment; then a block of information appeared all at once on the screen.
    SECONDARY: FIRST RANK
    21. A) THE MASK—PROTECTION, CONCEALMENT, TRANSFORMATION, NONBEING
    B) THE WAND—POWER
    Blue read the information through, shaking his head. All he knew about the Weirdin was the little he’d heard from Jamie back when Thomas Hengwr was still alive. It was some kind of an oracular device, like the Tarot or the
I Ching
, only it had a druidic origin. It was composed of sixty-one two-sided flat round discs, made of bone, with an image carved on either side. Each image meant something, but knowing how to put it all together was a subtle study that Blue had never had enough interest in to work on.
    “What’s all that supposed to mean?” he asked finally.
    AT FACE VALUE? Jamie replied.
    “Sure.”
    IF THE BONE RELATES TO YOUR GUEST, IT MEANS SHE’S EITHER UNDER SOME ENCHANTMENT, OR SHE DOESN’T EXIST BUT WE’RE SUPPOSED TO THINK THAT SHE DOES, OR SHE HAS SOME MEASURE OF POWER. PERHAPS IT ALL RELATES TO HER; PERHAPS NONE OF IT DOES. WHERE DID SHE GET IT?
    “She doesn’t know. She doesn’t know who she is, or where she’s from.” In a few brief sentences, Blue described his encounter with Button and what little he knew of her to date.
    SHE HAS NO PAST—NO IDENTITY? Jamie asked. KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORLD, BUT NO KNOWLEDGE OF WHERE SHE FITS IN?
    “That’s about it,” Blue replied. “So what does it mean, Jamie?”
    TROUBLE.
    “Yeah. I kind of figured that. But what can we do?”
    There was a long pause. The computer made a humming sound that seemed to resonate throughout the House. Finally a response appeared on the screen.
    WAIT UNTIL SHE WAKES UP?
    Blue leaned back in his chair and rubbed the back of his neck. He hated waiting for anything, but he didn’t suppose he had much choice. He couldn’t just go roust her after putting her to bed an hour or so ago. Who the hell knew what she’d been through before he found her? He remembered the feel of her against him, the guileless look in her eyes...
    “Shit,” he muttered. Leaning forward again, he