Gamma Street, Number Forty-Nine

As Ilena struck the railing post in Sir Friedman's lounge, two uninvited guests arrived at a drab detached house at the end of Gamma Street, outside Alpha Castle.

It was afternoon, and the sun had just passed its zenith. A trace of languor lingered in the air, driving away the chill of the early winter morning. The bluestone paving on Gamma Street was dry and clean. Whenever a few yellowed leaves fell from the olive trees along the road, a stray breeze promptly swept them into a corner.

Two figures in white cloaks walked soundlessly along the bluestone road and stopped outside the gate of Number Forty-Nine, Gamma Street.

Gamma Street circled Alpha Castle's main keep. It was neither long nor winding. On the side nearest the castle, a row of silver-gray mansions stood neatly along the street. Their numbers began to the left of Alpha Castle's main gate and continued around the circle, skipping unlucky numbers such as four and thirteen, until they ended to the right of the castle.

Number Forty-Nine, Gamma Street, was the last mansion in that silver-gray row.

Unlike the Byzantine, Rococo, or Grand View Garden splendor favored by old families, Number Forty-Nine had far more of the Magic World about it: a mushroom-shaped house with eaves like rolled cream, window frames assembled from ladyfingers and decorated with fresh fingered citrons and cranberries. Outside, cream-puff chicks darted about, chasing several rice-flour sticks coated from end to end in cane sugar. In the courtyard, a hot cocoa fountain bubbled away. A few candy ducks paddled across it, looking thoroughly vacant as they occasionally flapped their wings and splashed the dark brown drink everywhere.

"Is this really the Xiangqi Society's clubhouse?" the visitor walking behind asked softly, disbelief in his voice. "This is ridiculous!"

The white-cloaked figure