The allosaur stomped closer.
There was a pop inside Doc's head, and he was back in the museum hall, Cloudhunter's hand on his shoulder, Doc's fingers tingling against the dinosaur bone.
'I thought the sight would be interesting,' Cloud said, his voice a soft, plaintive rumble. 'I am very sorry if I displeased you.'
'No… I…' He shook his head to clear it. 'The dino died.'
'Not then. Memory needs time to dwell in the bone. It never knows its death.' Cloud took his hand away slowly. '] would never hazard you, Doc. Still…'
'Don't be sorry, please, Cloud. It was wonderful. I didn't have any idea you could do things like that.'
'Oh,' Cloudhunter said, and turned to the text panel next to the bone. 'Seventy million years. The depth of it…'
'How old are you. Cloud?'
''I?' Cloud seemed startled by the question, and Doc worried that he had violated some Trueblood rule. 'I couldn't tell you in years. I was not there to see the gates closed. Some of the Ellyllon were, and all of the Urthas- the Highborn.' He put his fingers on the dinosaur bone again. 'Seventy' million years… I don't know if even Urthas live so long.' He gave Doc a sidewise grin. 'Though I shouldn't say such things. Come on, let's see more.'
The next hall was lined with totem poles, painted headdresses of wood, pottery and spears.
'These are American native, I think?' Cloud said. 'From nearby?'
Doc read the labels. 'These are from the Pacific Northwest. Seattle-that's more than a thousand miles. Alaska's at least twice as far.'
Cloud absorbed this, looked around again. 'Are your people somewhere here. Doc?'
'Uh… I don't think so. Just a moment.' He found a wall-mounted building plan, scanned the listings. What was he looking for, exactly? Midwestern Tribes of Uncertain European Ancestry?
When he turned back, Cloud was crouching by a little girl, showing her the silver bracelet on his left wrist. Doc had a sudden hollow feeling in his stomach. He looked around for worried parents. There they were, closing in quick. He'd never beat them to Cloudhunter unless he sprinted. Maybe that was the best idea, he thought: create a diversion. But he just walked as quickly as he felt he could, and tried to work out the soft answer that turneth away wrath.
'… and these are the names of my sisters. They are very long names in English, but we also call them First Star, and Lilac, and Cools as Rain.'
'Those are pretty names,' the child said.
The father said, 'Does the blue stone have a meaning?'
'There are four like this, cut from the same large stone,' Cloud said. 'Each of us has one in a band like this. There is no meaning beyond that.'
The girl said, 'Momma, if I have a brother, could we have bracelets like that?'
The woman laughed. 'If you ever do, my dear, we'll see.'
The man said, 'Would there be any offense if we did that?'
'It would be your choice, and the jewelry of your making. There could be no offense to take. But I am being rude. This is my friend Hallownight. He has been explaining the museum to me.'
Doc shook hands with the father.
The woman said to her husband, 'I was thinking-what about that piece of rock crystal your grandmother brought with her from Greece? We wouldn't need to use it all, just have a few pieces cut.'
The man looked thoughtful, then smiled broadly. 'Just the thing.' He held out his hand to Cloudhunter again. 'That's a wonderful idea. Thank you so much.'
'I am glad that it pleased you.'
The family moved on. Cloudhunter watched them go, then said quietly to Doc, 'The girl will have a brother, the summer of next year.'
'You know that?'
'I believe the parents do as well. Are human children troubled by their brothers and sisters?'
'Sometimes. They get upset that their folks seem to like the new baby better.'
'Is that true?' Cloud asked. The question was perfectly innocent-as a child would ask it, with no prior knowledge.
'I suppose it is sometimes. I don't have any brothers or sisters.'
Cloud was silent. Somehow his silence seemed to echo in the long hall.
Doc said, 'I mean… I had a little sister, but she died when we were both small.'
'Oh,' Cloudhunter said. 'I am very sorry.' He looked in the direction the family had gone. 'Their fear is, I think, of some old pain, some loss they fear to come again.'
Doc considered this. Cloudhunter had used the Touch, of course, but it was apparent he was also interpreting what the magic had shown him. Maybe guessing as well. He wondered how Cloud had known he was lying-well, not telling all the truth — about his sister.
For the first time since he had crossed into Shadow. Doe fell a desire for magic, a Touch of his own. To be able CO read a patient's history from the bones and flesh themselves, know without being told where the worst pain was… He glanced at Cloudhunter, who was examining an eagle-headed totem pole and showed no sign of hearing Doc's thought.
How did the Touch show itself?
This wasn't the time to ask. Stagger Lee had said that elves lived their whole lives with magic: there was no reason to suppose Cloudhunter knew what it was like for humans. And there were halls and halls left to explore, a whole world inside walls.
I hirty-five points,' Stagger Lee said, examining Doc's cards. 'Good thing for you we're not playing Hollywood.'
Doc nodded and took a long swallow of beer. They were playing in his apartment, to kill a slow afternoon. He was down a substantial number of points-gin rummy didn't seem to be his game- but he couldn't remember how much they'd agreed the points were worth. 'Sure you wouldn't rather play poker?'
'What can you do in poker for two? 'Here's your cards. Yup, that pair wins. Next deal.' Now, two players left out of a table full, that's interesting.' He scooped up the cards and began shuffling. 'Hey, it's not that long till Monday.'
'Yeah. Another beer?'
'Much obliged.'
Doc refilled Stagger Lee's glass from the keg. As he set the beer on the table, Stagger fanned and interleaved the cards in an elaborate shuffle, and said, 'Last Deal still bothers you, doesn't it?'
Doc sat down slowly. 'You've got a right to do what you want with yourself.'
'Cool. Now say that again like you believe it.'
'Look, have I ever said a word to you about it? To anybody?'
'No,' Stagger said seriously, 'and I appreciate that. But you act like the word's stuck right there north of your xiphoid, and a good Heimlich would pop it right out. More to the point, about half an hour before Last Deal, the fun content of poker seems to take a serious drop for you.
'It's poker. It's not about fun.'
'Nice sidestep.'
'I… just don't think I get the idea of never knowing who you're going to sleep with.'
'We always know who. There aren't any strangers at Flats's place. Which is the question.' He took a long swallow of his beer. 'Don't be offended, but a big reason I didn't warn you about it the first time you were there is that you were a stranger, and you wouldn't have been allowed in anyway.'
'Stagger, what's this about?'
'Oh, well, the game wasn't going anywhere, cards made me think of Monday night, one thing led to another. I also thought it was about time to make sure of the situation. I take it you haven't just been politely waiting for an invitation to join the game?'
'No.'
'Fair enough. The other thing that you might as well know is that, on any given night, as many of those couples are going to spend the evening listening to Dave Brubeck, cooking an elaborate late dinner, reading comics,
