"Ah, connected, yes. That must have been the reason," Jacqueline said.

"Someone

Morpheus could use as an intermediary. And he doubtless only undertook this

contract as a courtesy, n'est-ce pas?"

"Something like that, I guess," said Wyrdrune dryly. "You'll excuse me, but

somehow I find it a little disconcerting considering my demise as nothing

more

significant than an exchange of business cards."

Jacqueline chuckled throatily. "The language of business is the same the

whole

world over," she said. "Only the coin is different. It helps to be flexible,

mon

ami, because sooner or later everyone does business with everyone."

Wyrdrune raised his eyebrows and glanced at Kira. "You know, she reminds me a

little of you," he said.

Kira scowled.

"I'd still like to know one thing, though," said Wyrdrune, turning back to

Jacqueline. "What makes you so sure Modred is here?"

She shook her head. "I cannot explain it," she said with a sigh. "I just know

it. You will think me mad when I say that it is no more than a feeling, a

powerful intuition that made me bring you here, and yet somehow I am sure

that

it is much more than that. In my dream I have seen a house. A town house, with

a

tall, black wrought-iron fence with spikes and black roses—"

"Black roses?" Kira said. "Are you sure?"

"It is what I saw," Jacqueline insisted.

"It could be a thaumagenetic hybrid," said Wyrdrune. "The English love their

rose gardens." . .

"They were black, I am certain of it," Jacqueline said emphatically.

"Yes, but a town house with black roses in the garden," Makepeace said, "it

really could be anywhere! London, Paris, Rome—"

"It is here, I tell you, in London!"

"Yes, but a town house?" Wyrdrune said. "Kira and I saw Modred chained in a

dungeon of some sort."

"I saw that as well," said Jacqueline, leaning toward them across the table.

"And the town house was not all I saw. In my dream there was also the image of

a

castle..." She frowned, trying to find the words to describe what she saw in

her

dream. "It was as if I could see the castle through the town house once I had

passed beyond the gate."

"What did this castle look like?" Makepeace said.