And although Theron might not have understood the last bit, Niko did, and movedpainfully to embrace him, stepped back, bowed as best he could to Theron, andthen, with a blush of humility, mumbled that he'd best begin preparations totake the boys and make away.

Tempus took Theron out of there, then, and on the way back upstairs they chancedto glimpse the skyline out the palace window, where a hair-thin column of fire,a weakened pillar of flame, blew far right, then left, and then winked out.