"Well, the place is a power center. The way the four worlds come together there releases an awful lot of free power, which an adept can tap into-"
"Four worlds actually do come together there? You mean you"re in a different shadow depending on the direction you might take off in?"
He studied me for a moment. "Yes," he finally said, "but I"ll never get this thing told if you want all the little details."
"And I won"t understand it if too much gets left out. So she went to the Keep to raise some power and got in trouble instead. She called you to come help her. What did she want that power for, anyway?"
"Mm. Well, I"d been having trouble with Ghostwheel. I thought I almost had him talked into coming over to our side, but she probably thought I wasn"t making progress fast enough and apparently decided to try binding him with a ma.s.sive spell after-"
"Wait a minute. You were talking to Ghost? How did you get in touch? Those Trumps you drew are no good."
"I know. I went in."
"How"d you manage it?"
"In scuba gear. I wore a wet suit and oxygen tanks."
"Son of a gun. That"s an interesting approach."
"I wasn"t Grand D"s top salesman for nothing. I almost had him convinced, too. But she"d learned where I"d stashed you, and she decided to try expediting matters by putting you under control, then using you to clinch the deal-as if you"d come over to our side. Anyhow, when that plan fell through and I had to go and get her away from you, we split up again. I thought she was headed for Kashfa, but she went to the Keep instead. Like I said, I think it was to try a ma.s.sive working against Ghostwheel. I believe something that she did there inadvertently freed Sharu, and he took the place over again and captured her. Anyhow, I got this frantic sending from her, so-"
"Uh, this old wizard," I said, "had been locked up there for-how long?"
Luke began to shrug, thought better of it. "h.e.l.l, I don"t know. Who cares? He"s been a cloak rack since I was a boy."
"A cloak rack?"
"Yeah. He lost a sorcerous duel. I don"t really know whether she beat him or whether it was Dad. Whoever it was, though, caught him in mid-invocation, arms outspread and all. Froze him like that, stiff as a board. He got moved to a place near an entranceway later. People would hang cloaks and hats on him. The servants would dust him occasionally. I even carved my name on his leg when I was little, like on a tree. I"d always thought of him as furniture. But I learned later that he"d been considered pretty good in his day."
"Did this guy ever wear a blue mask when he worked?"
"You"ve got me. I don"t know anything about his style. Say, let"s not get academic or she"ll be here before I finish. In fact, maybe we ought to go now, and I can tell you the rest later."
"Un-uh," I said. "You are, as you noted last night, my prisoner. I"d be nuts to let you go anywhere without knowing a h.e.l.l of a lot more than I do. You"re a threat to Amber. That bomb you tossed at the funeral was pretty d.a.m.n real. You think I want to give you another shot at us?"
He smiled, then lost it. "Why"d you have to be born Corwin"s son, anyway?" he said. Then, "Can I give you my parole on this?" he asked.
"I don"t know. I"m going to be in a lot of trouble if they find out I had you and didn"t bring you in. What terms are you talking? Will you swear off your war against Amber?"
He gnawed his lower lip. "There"s no way I can do that, Merle."
"There are things you"re not telling me, aren"t there?"
He nodded. Then he grinned suddenly. "But I"ll make you a deal you can"t refuse."
"Luke, don"t give me that hard-sell c.r.a.p."
"]ust give me a minute, okay? And you"ll see why you can"t afford to pa.s.s this one up."
"Luke, I"m not biting."
"Only one minute. Sixty seconds. You"re free to say no when I"m done."
"All right," I said. "Tell me."
"Okay. I"ve got a piece of information vital to the security of Amber, and I"m certain n.o.body there has an inkling of it. I"ll give it to you, after you"ve helped me."
"Why should you want to give us something like that? It sounds kind of self-defeating."
"I don"t, and it is. But it"s all I"ve got to offer. Help me get out of here to a place I have in mind where the time flow is so much faster that I"ll be healed up in a day or so in terms of local time at the Keep."
"Or here, for that matter, I"d guess."
"True. Then-uh-oh!"
He sprawled on the bed, clutched at his chest with his good hand and began to moan.
"Lukel"
He raised his head, winked at me, glanced at the door and commenced moaning again.
Shortly, there came a knocking.
"Come in," I said.
Vinta entered and studied us both. For a moment, there seemed to be a look of genuine concern on her face as she regarded Luke. Then she advanced to the bed and placed her hands upon his shoulders. She stood there for about half a minute, then announced, "You"re going to live."
"At the moment," Luke replied, "I don"t know whether that"s a blessing or a curse." Then he slipped his good arm around her, drew her to him suddenly and kissed her. "Hi, Gail," he said. "It"s been a long time."
She drew away with less haste than she might have. "You seem improved already," she observed, "and I can see that Merle"s worked something to help you along." She smiled faintly for an instant, then said, "Yes, it has been, you dumb jock. You still like your eggs sunny-side up?"
"Right," he acknowledged. "But not half a dozen. Maybe just two today. I"m out of sorts."
"All right," she said. "Come on, Merle. I"ll need you to supervise."
Luke gave me a funny look, doubtless certain she wanted to talk with me about him. And for that matter, I wasn"t certain I wanted to leave him alone even though I had all of his Trumps in my pocket. I was still uncertain as to the extent of his abilities, and I knew a lot less concerning his intentions. So I hung back.
"Maybe someone should stay with the invalid," I told her.
"He"ll be all right," she said, "and I might need your help if I can"t scare up a servant."
On the other hand, maybe she had something interesting to tell me....
I found my shirt and drew it on. I ran a hand through my hair.
"Okay," I said. "See you in a bit, Luke."
"Hey," he responded, "see if you can turn up a walking stick for me, or cut me a staff or something."
"Isn"t that rushing things a bit?" Vinta asked.
"Never can tell," Luke replied.
So I fetched my blade and took it along. As I followed Vinta out and down the stairs, it occurred to me that when any two of us got together we would probably have something to say about the third.
As soon as we were out of earshot, Vinta remarked, "He took a chance, coming to you."
"Yes, he did."
"So things must be going badly for him, if he felt you were the only one he could turn to."
"I"d say that"s true."
"Also, I"m sure he wants something besides a place to recover."
"Probably so."
"Probably," h.e.l.l! He must have asked by now."
"Perhaps."
"Either he did or he didn"t."
"Vinta, obviously you"ve told me everything you intend to tell me," I said. "Well, vice versa. We"re even. I don"t owe you explanations. If I feel like trusting Luke, I will. Anyhow, I haven"t decided yet."
"So he has made you a pitch. I might be able to help you decide if you"ll let me know what it is."
"No, thanks. You"re as bad as he is."
"It"s your welfare I"m concerned with. Don"t be so quick to spurn an ally."
"I"m not," I said. "But if you stop to think about it, I know a lot more about Luke than I do about you. I think I know the things on which I shouldn"t trust him as well as I do the safe ones."
"I hope you"re not betting your life on it."
I smiled. "That"s a matter on which I tend to be conservative."
We entered the kitchen, where she spoke with a woman I hadn"t met yet who seemed in charge there. She left our breakfast orders with her and led me out the side door and onto the patio. From there, she indicated a stand of trees off to the east.
"You ought to be able to find a good sapling in there," she said, "for Luke"s staff."
"Probably so," I replied, and we began walking in that direction. "So you really were Gail Lamp.r.o.n," I said suddenly.
"Yes. "
"I don"t understand this body-changing bit at all."
"And I"m not about to tell you."
"Care to tell me why not?"
"Nope."
"Can"t or won"t?"
"Can"t," she said.
"But if I already know something, would you be willing to add a bit!"
"Maybe. Try me."
"When you were Dan Martinet you took a shot at one of us. Which one was it?"
"Luke," she replied.
"Why?"
"I"d become convinced that he was not the one-that is, that he represented a threat to you-"
"-and you just wanted to protect me," I finished.
"Exactly."
"What did you mean "that he was not the one"?"
"Slip of the tongue. That looks like a good tree over there."
I chuckled. "Too thick. Okay, be that way."
I headed on into the grove. There were a number of possibilities off to the right.
As I moved through the morning-lanced interstices, damp leaves and dew adhering to my boots, I became aware of some unusual scuffing along the way, a series of marks leading off farther to the right, where "What"s that?" I said, kind of rhetorically, since I didn"t think Vinta would know either, as I headed toward a dark ma.s.s at the shady foot of an old tree.
I reached it ahead of her. It was one of the Bayle dogs, a big brown fellow. Its throat had been torn open. The blood was dark and congealed. A few insects were crawling on it. Off farther to the right I saw the remains of a smaller dog. It had been disemboweled.
I studied the area about the remains.The marks of very large paws were imprinted in the damp earth. At least they were not the three-toed prints of the deadly doglike creatures I had encountered in the past. They seemed simply to be those of a very large dog.
"This must be what I heard last night," I remarked. "I thought it sounded like a dogfight."
"When was that?" she asked.
"Some time after you left. I was drowsing."
Then she did a strange thing. She knelt, leaned and sniffed the track.
When she recovered there was a slightly puzzled expression on her face.
"What did you find?" I asked.