I was probably already fading from his view as he said, "I"ll have you yet."
"And sweets to the sweet," I replied, then spoke the word that completed the spell, dropping a load of manure upon him.
I stepped through into the main hall of Amber, bearing Jasra with me. Martin stood near a sideboard, a gla.s.s of wine in his hand, talking with Bors, the falconer. He grew silent at Bors"s wide-eyed stare in my direction, then turned and stared himself.
I set Jasra on her feet beside the doorway. I was not about to screw around with the spell on her right now-and I was not at all sure what I"d do with her if I released her from it. So I hung my cloak on her, went over to the sideboard and poured myself a gla.s.s of wine, nodding to Bors and Martin as I pa.s.sed.
I drained the gla.s.s, put it down, then said to them, "Whatever you do, don"t carve your initials on her." Then I went and found a sofa in a room to the east, stretched out on it and closed my eyes. Like a bridge over troubled waters. Some days are diamonds. Where have all the flowers gone?
Something like that.
12.
There was a lot of smoke, a giant worm and many flashes of colored light. Every sound was born into form, blazed to its peak, faded as it waned. Lightninglike stabs of existence, these-called from, returning to, Shadow. The worm went on forever. The dog-headed flowers snapped at me but later wagged their leaves. The flowing smoke halted before a skyhooked traffic light. The worm-no, caterpillar-smiled. A slow, blinding rain began, and all the drifting drops were faceted. . . .
What is wrong with this picture? something within me asked.
I gave up, because I couldn"t be sure. Though I"d a vague feeling the occasional landscape shouldn"t be Rowing the way that it did. . . .
"Oh, man! Merle. . . ."
What did Luke want now? Why wouldn"t he get off my case? Always a new problem.
"Look at that, will you?"
I watched where a series of bright bounding b.a.l.l.s-or maybe they were comets-wove a tapestry of light. It fell upon the forest of umbrellas.
"Luke-" I began, but one of the dog-headed flowers bit a hand I"d forgotten about, and everything nearby cracked as if it were painted on gla.s.s through which a shot had just pa.s.sed. There was a rainbow beyond- "Merle! Merle!"
It was Droppa shaking my shoulder, my suddenly opened eyes showed me.
And there was a damp place on the sofa where my head was resting. I propped myself on an elbow. I rubbed my eyes.
"Droppa. . . . What-?"
"I don"t know," he told me.
"What don"t you know? I mean. . . . h.e.l.l! What happened?"
"I was sitting in that chair," he said, with a gesture, "waiting for you to wake up. Martin had told me you were here. I was just going to tell you that Random wanted to see you when you got back."
I nodded, then noticed that my hand was oozing blood-from the place where the flower had bitten me.
"How long was I out?"
"Twenty minutes, maybe."
I swung my feet to the floor, sat up. "So why"d you decide to wake me?"
"You were trumping out," he said.
"Trumping out? While I was asleep? It doesn"t work that way. Are you sure "
"I am, unfortunately, sober at the moment," he said. "You got that rainbow glow and you started to soften around the edges and fade. Thought I"d better wake you then and ask if that"s what you really had in mind. What"ve you been drinking, spot remover?"
"No," I said.
"I tried it on my dog once . . ."
"Dreams," I said, ma.s.saging my temples, which had begun throbbing.
"That"s all. Dreams."
"The kind other people can see, too? Like DTs a deux?"
"That"s not what I meant."
"We"d better go see Random." He started to turn toward the doorway.
I shook my head. "Not yet. I"m just going to sit here and collect myself. Something"s wrong."
When I glanced at him I saw that his eyes were wide, and he was staring past me. I turned.
The wall at my back seemed to be melting, as if it were cast of wax and had been set too near a fire.
"It appears to be alarums and excursions time," Droppa remarked. "Help!" And he was across the room and out of the door, screaming.
Three eyeblinks later the wall was normal again in every way, but I was trembling. What the h.e.l.l was going on? Had Mask managed to lay a spell on me before I"d cut out? If so, where was it headed?
I rose to my feet and turned in a slow circle. Everything seemed to be in place now. I knew that it could not have been anything as simple as hallucination born of all my recent stresses, since Droppa had seen it too. So I was not cracking up. "This was something else-and whatever it was, I felt that it was still lurking nearby. There was a certain unnatural clarity to the air now, and every object seemed unusually vivid within it.
I made a quick circuit of the room, not knowing what I was really seeking. Not surprisingly, therefore, I did not End it. I stepped outside then. Whatever the problem, could it spring from something I had brought back with me? Might Jasra, stiff and gaudy, have been a Trojan horse?
I headed for the main hall. A dozen steps along the way, a lopsided gridwork of light appeared before me. I forced myself to continue, and it receded as I advanced, changing shape as it did so.
"Merle, come on!" Luke"s voice, Luke himself nowhere in sight.
"Where?" I called out, not slowing.
No answer, but the gridwork split down the middle and its two halves swung away from me like a pair of shutters. They opened onto a near-blinding light; within it, I thought I glimpsed a rabbit. Then, abruptly, the vision was gone, and the only thing that saved me from believing everything was normal again was several seconds" worth of Luke"s sourceless laughter.
I ran. Was it really Luke who was the enemy, as I had been warned repeatedly? Had I somehow been manipulated through everything which had happened recently, solely for the purpose of freeing his mother from the Keep of the Four Worlds? And now that she was safe had he the temerity to invade Amber herself and summon me to a sorcerous duel the terms of which I did not even understand?
No, I could not believe it. I was certain he did not possess that sort of power. But even if he did, he wouldn"t dare try it-not with Jasra my hostage.
As I rushed along I heard him again-from everywhere, from nowhere. This time he was singing. He had a powerful baritone voice, and the song was "Auld Lang Syne." What sort of irony did this represent?
I burst into the main hall. Martin and Bors had departed. I saw their empty gla.s.ses on the sideboard near which they had been standing. And near the other door-? Yes, near the other door Jasra remained, erect, unchanged, still holding my cloak.
"Okay, Luke! Let"s have it out!" I cried. "Cut the c.r.a.p and let"s settle this business!"
"Huh?"
The singing stopped abruptly.
I crossed slowly to Jasra, studying her as I went. Completely unchanged, save for a hat someone had added to her other hand. From somewhere else in the palace, I heard a shout. Maybe it was Droppa still alaruming.
"Luke, wherever you are," I said, "if you can hear me, if you can see me, take a good look and listen: I"ve got her here. See? Whatever you"re planning, bear that in mind."
The room rippled violently, as if I were standing in the midst of an unframed painting someone had just decided to give a shake, to crinkle and then draw taut.
"Well?"
Nothing.
Then, a chuckle.
"My mother the hat rack. . . . Well, well. Hey, thanks, buddy. Good show. Couldn"t reach you earlier. Didn"t know you"d gone in. They slaughtered us. Took some mercs in on hang gliders, rode the thermals. They were ready, though. Took us out. Don"t remember exactly then. . . . Hurts!"
"You okay?"
There came something like a sob, just as Random and Droppa entered the hall, the lank form of Benedict silent as death at their back.
"Merle!" Random called to me. "What"s going on?"
I shook my head. "Don"t know," I said.
"Sure, I"ll buy you a drink," Luke"s voice came very faintly.
A fiery blizzard swept through the center of the hall. It lasted only a moment, and then a large rectangle appeared in its place.
"You"re the sorcerer," Random said. "Do something!"
"I don"t know what the h.e.l.l it is," I replied. "I"ve never seen anything like it. It"s like magic gone wild."
An outline began to appear within the rectangle, human. Its form settled and took on features, garments. . . . It was a Trump a giant Trump -hanging in the middle of the air, solidifying. It was Me. I regarded my own features and they looked back at me. I noted that I was smiling.
"C"mon, Merle. Join the party," I heard Luke say, and the Trump began to rotate slowly upon its vertical axis.
Sounds, as of gla.s.s bells, filled the hall.
The huge card turned until I viewed it edge-on, a black slash. Then the dark line widened with a ripple, like parting curtains, and I saw colored patches of intense light sliding beyond it. I also saw the caterpillar, puffing on a hookah, and fat umbrellas and a bright, shiny rail. A hand emerged from the slit. "Right this way."
I heard a sharp intake of breath from Random.
Benedict"s blade was suddenly pointed at the tableau. But Random laid his hand on his shoulder and said, "No."
There was a strange, disconnected sort of music hanging in the air now; it seemed somehow appropriate.
"C"mon, Merle."
"You coming or going?" I asked.
"Both."
"You made me a promise, Luke: a piece of information for your mother"s rescue," I said. "Well, I"ve got her here. What"s the secret?"
"Something vital to your well-being?" he asked slowly.
"Vital to the safety of Amber is what you"d said."
"Oh, that secret."
"I"d be glad to have the other one too."
"Sorry. One secret is all I"m selling. Which will it be?"
"The safety of Amber," I answered.
"Dalt," he replied.
"What of him?"
"Deela the Desacratrix was his mother-"
"I already know that."
"-and she"d been Oberon"s prisoner nine months before he was born. He raped her. That"s why Dalt"s got it in for you guys."
"Bulls.h.i.t!" I said.
"That"s what I told him when I"d heard the story one time too many. I dared him to walk the Pattern in the sky then."
"And?"
"He did."
"Oh."
"I just learned that story recently," Random said, "from an emissary I"d sent to Kashfa. I didn"t know about his taking the Pattern, though."
"If you knew, I still owe you," Luke said slowly, almost distractedly.