She watches that without comment. Balthazar's ability to tell what people are is occasionally handicapped in Baedal by the sheer variety of entities: humans, mostly humans, xenians, supernatural things, it's a vast sea in which he is but a tiny drop. Shrieky feels mostly human to him, but only mostly.

"No," she answers, because the way he tells it, the truth is almost always more misleading than a lie. Briskly, she turns over the next card. An armored man on a horse carries a long lance, looking forward.

"Your future. The Knight of Wands. It means there's someone in your future — someone unpredictable, with an unusual way of looking at things. He is a good man, a man who inspires with his enthusiasm and gift of language. He can see patterns and opportunities that others cannot. He would be a good ally and friend."