PRINCE OF CHAOS (23 page)

Growling, I adjusted my apparel, focused my attention on the Temple of the Serpent, and bade the spikard deliver me near its entrance.
 
It performed as smoothly and gently as if I had never doubted it, as if I had not discovered in it yet another cause for paranoia.

And for a time, I simply stood outside the doors of frozen flame, there at the great Cathedral of the Serpent at the outer edge of the Plaza at the End of the World, situated exactly at the Rim, opened to the Pit itself- where, on a good day, one can view the creation of the universe, or its ending-and I watched the stars swarm through space that folded and unfolded like the petals of flowers; and as if my life were about to change, my thoughts returned to California and school, of sailing the Sunburst with Luke and Gail and Julia, of sitting with my father near the end of the war, of riding with Vinta Bayle through the wine country to the east of Amber, of a long, brisk afternoon spent showing Coral about the town, of the strange encounters of that day; and I turned.
 
and raised my scaly hand, stared past it at the spire of Thelbane, and “they cease not fighting, east and west, on the marches of my breast,” I thought.
 
How long, how long ...
 
?-irony, as usual, a three-to-one favorite whenever sentimentality makes its move.

Turning again, I went in to see the last of the King of Chaos.

Down, down into the pile, into the great slag heap, window onto the ends of time and space, where nothing is to be seen at the end, I went, between walls forever afire, never burnt down, walking in one of my bodies toward the sound of a voice reading from the Book of the Serpent Hung upon the Tree of Matter, and at length came into the grotto that backed upon blackness, widening semicircles of red-clad mourners facing the reader and the grand catafalque beside which he stood, Swayvill clearly in view within it, half-covered with red flowers dropped by mourners, red tapers flickering against the Pit, but a few paces behind them; across the rear of the chamber then, listening to Bances of Amblerash, High Priest of the Serpent, his words sounding as if spoken beside me, for the acoustics of Chaos are good; finding a seat in an otherwise empty arc, where anyone looking back would be certain to notice me; seeking familiar faces, finding Dara, Tubble, and Mandor seated in frontal positions that indicated they were to assist Bances in sliding the casket past the edge into forever when the time came; and in my divided heart I recalled the last funeral I had attended before this.

Caine’s, back in Amber, beside the sea, and I thought again of Bloom and the way the mind wanders on these occasions.

I sought about me.
 
Jurt was nowhere in sight.
 
Gilva of Hendrake was only a couple of rows below me.
 
I shifted my gaze to the deep blackness beyond the Rim.
 
It was almost as if I were looking down, rather than out-if such terms had any real meaning in that place. Occasionally, I would perceive darting points of light or rolling masses.
 
It served me as a kind of Rorschach for a time, and I half-dozed before the prospect of dark butterflies, clouds, pairs of faces I sat upright with a small start, wondering what had broken my reverie.

The silence, it was.
 
Bances had stopped reading.

I was about to lean forward and whisper something to Gilva when Bances began the Consignment.
 
I was startled to discover that I recalled all of the appropriate responses.

As the chanting swelled and focused, I saw Mandor get to his feet, and Dara, and Tubble.
 
They moved forward, joining Bances about the casket-Dara and Mandor at its foot, Tubble and Bances at its head.
 
Service assistants rose from their section and began snuffing candles, until only the large one, at the Rim, behind Bances, still flickered.
 
At this point we all stood.

The ever-eerie light of flame mosaics, worked into the walls at either hand, granted additional illumination to the extent that I could detect the movement below when the chanting ceased.

The four figures stooped slightly, presumably taking hold of the casket’s handles.
 
They straightened then and moved toward the Rim.
 
An assistant advanced and stood beside the candle just as they passed it, ready to snuff the final flame as Swayvill’s remains were consigned to Chaos.

A half dozen paces remained...
 
Three.
 
Two...
 
Bances and Tubble knelt at the verge, positioning the casket within a groove in the stone floor, Bances intoning a final bit of ritual the while, Dara and Mandor remaining standing.

The prayer finished, I heard a curse.
 
Mandor seemed jerked forward.

Dara stumbled away to the side.
 
I heard a clank as the casket hit the floor.
 
The assistant’s hand had already been moving, and the candle went out at that moment.
 
There followed a skidding sound as the casket moved forward, more curses, a shadowy figure retreating from the Rim...

Then came a wail.
 
A bulky outline fell and was gone.
 
The wail diminished, diminished, diminished...

I raised my left fist, caused the spikard to create a globe of white light as a bubble pipe does a bubble.
 
It was about three feet in diameter when I released it to drift overhead.
 
Suddenly, the place was filled with babbling.
 
Others of sorcerous background having exercised their favorite illumination spells at about the same time I had, the temple was now over-illuminated from dozens of point-sources.

Squinting, I saw Bances, Mandor, and Dara in converse near the Rim.

Tubble and the remains of Swayvill were no longer with us.

My fellow mourners were already moving.
 
I did, too, realizing that my time here was now extremely limited.
 
I stepped down over the empty row, moved to the right, touched Gilva’s still humanized shoulder.
 
“Merlin!” she said, turning quickly.
 
“Tubble-went over-didn’t he?”

“Sure looked that way,” I said.

“What will happen now?”

“I’ve got to leave,” I said, “fast!”

“Why?”

“Somebody’s going to start thinking about the succession in a few moments, and I’m going to be smothered with protection,” I told her.
 
“I can’t have that, not just now.”

“Why not?”

“No time to go into that.
 
But I’d wanted to talk to you.
 
May I borrow you now?”

There were milling bodies all about us.

“Of course-sir,” she said, apparently having just thought about the succession.

“Cut that out,” I said, spikard spiraling the energies that caught us and took us away.

I brought us to the forest of metal trees, and Gilva kept hold of my arm and looked about her.

“Lord, what is this place?” she asked.

“I’d rather not say,” I replied, “for reasons that will become apparent in a moment.
 
I only had one question for you the last time I spoke with you.
 
But now I have two, and this place figures in one of them, in a way, besides being fairly deserted most of the time.”

“Ask,” she said, moving to face me.
 
“I’ll try to help.
 
If it’s important, though, I may not be the best person-“

“Yes, it’s important.
 
But I haven’t time to make an appointment with Belissa.
 
It concerns my father, Corwin.”

“Yes?”

“It was he who slew Borel of Hendrake in the war at Patternfall.”

“So I understand,” she said.

“After the war, he joined the royal party that came here to the Courts to work out the Treaty.”

“Yes,” she said.
 
“I know that.”

“He disappeared shortly thereafter, and no one seemed to know where he’d gotten off to.
 
For a time, I thought he might be dead.
 
Later, however, I received indications that he was not, but rather was imprisoned somewhere.
 
Can you tell me anything about this?”

She turned away suddenly.

“I am offended,” she said, “by what I believe you imply.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, “but I had to ask.”

“Ours is an honorable House,” she said.
 
“We accept the fortunes of war.
 
When the fighting is ended, we put it all behind us.”

“I apologize,” I said.
 
“We’re even related, you know, on my mother’s side.”

“Yes, I know,” she said, turning away.
 
“Will that be all, Prince Merlin?”

“Yes,” I answered.
 
“Where shall I send you?”

She was silent for a moment, then, “You said there were two questions,” she stated.

“Forget it.
 
I changed my mind about the second one.”

She turned back.

“Why? Why should I forget it? Because I maintain my family’s honor?”

“No, because I believe you.”

“And?”

“I’ll trouble someone else for an opinion.”

“Do you mean it’s dangerous, and you’ve decided against asking me?”

“I don’t understand it, so it could be dangerous.”

“Do you want to offend me again?”

“Heaven forbid!”

“Ask me your question.”

“I’ll have to show you.”

“Do it.”

“Even if it means climbing a tree?”

“Whatever it means.”

“Follow me.”

So I led her to the tree and climbed it, an enormously simple feat in my present form.
 
She was right behind me.

“There’s a way up here,” I said.
 
“I’m about to let it take me.
 
Give me a few seconds to move aside.”

I moved a little farther upward and was transported.
 
Stepping aside, I surveyed the chapel quickly.
 
Nothing seemed changed.

Then Gilva was at my side.
 
I heard a sharp intake of breath.

“Oh, my! “ she said.

“I know what I’m looking at,” I said, “but I don’t know what I’m seeing, if you follow me.”

“It is a shrine,” she said, “dedicated to the spirit of a member of the royal house of Amber.”

“Yes, it’s my father Corwin,” I agreed.
 
“That’s what I’m looking at.
 
But what am I seeing? Why should there be such a thing here in the Courts, anyway?”

She moved forward slowly, studying Dad’s altar.

“I might as well tell you,” I added, “that this is not the only such shrine I’ve seen since my return.”

She reached out and touched the hilt of Grayswandir.
 
Searching beneath the altar, she found a supply of candles.
 
Removing a silver one and screwing it into the socket of one of a number of holders, she lit it from one of the others and placed it near Grayswandir.
 
She muttered something while she was about it, but I did not make out the words.

When she turned back to me again she was smiling.
 
“We both grew up here,” I said.
 
“How is it that you seem to know all about this when I don’t?”

“The answer is fairly simple, Lord,” she told me.
 
“You departed right after the war, to seek an education in other lands.
 
This is a sign of something that came to pass in your absence.”

She reached out, took hold of my arm, led me to a bench.

“Nobody thought we would actually lose that war,” she said, “though it had long been argued that Amber would be a formidable adversary.” We seated ourselves.
 
“Afterward, there was considerable unrest,” she continued, “over the policies that had led to it and the treaty that followed it.
 
No single house or grouping could hope for a deposition against the royal coalition, though.
 
You know the conservatism of the Rim Lords.
 
It would take much, much more to unite a majority against the Crown.
 
Instead, their discontent took another form.
 
There grew up a brisk trade in Amber memorabilia from the war.
 
People became fascinated by our conquerors.
 
Biographical studies of Amber’s royal family sold very well.
 
Something like a cult began to take shape.
 
Private chapels such as this began to appear, dedicated to a particular Amberite whose virtues appealed to someone.”

She paused, studying my face.

“It smacked too much of a religion,” she went on then, “and for time out of mind the Way of the Serpent had been the only significant religion in the Courts.
 
So Swayvill outlawed the Amber cult as heretical, for obvious political reasons.
 
That proved a mistake.
 
Had he done nothing it might have passed quickly.
 
I don’t really know, of course.
 
But outlawing it drove it underground, made people take it more seriously as a rebellious thing.
 
I’ve no idea how many cult chapels there are among the Houses, but that’s obviously what this is.”