The hand of Oberon (21 page)

“The end?” I said. “What do you mean? How long was she with you?”

“Almost a week,” he replied. “She had said she would take care of me until I was recovered, and she did. Actually, she remained several days longer. She said that was just to be sure, but I think it was really that she wanted to continue our conversations. Finally though, she said that she had to be moving on. I asked her to stay with me, but she said no. I offered to go with her, but she said no to that, too. She must have realized that I planned to follow her then, because she slipped away during the night. I could not ride the black road, and I had no idea what shadow she would travel to next on her way to Amber. When I awoke in the morning and realized she had gone, I thought for a time of visiting Amber myself. But I was still afraid. Perhaps some of the things she had said had reinforced my own fears. Whatever, I decided to remain in Shadow. And so I traveled on, seeing things, trying to learn things-until Random found me and told me he wanted me to come home. He brought me here first though, to meet you, because he wanted you to hear my story before any of the others. He said that you knew Dara, that you wanted to learn more about her. I hope that I have helped.”

“Yes,” I said. “Thank you.”

“I understand that she did finally walk the Pattern.”

“Yes, she succeeded in that.”

“And afterward declared herself an enemy of Amber.”

“That, too.”

“I hope,” he said, “that she comes to no harm from all this. She was kind to me.”

“She seems quite able to take care of herself,” I said. “But . . . yes, she is a likable girl. I cannot promise you anything concerning her safety, because I still know so little about her, so little of her part in everything that is going on. Yet, what you have told me has been helpful. It makes her someone I would still like to grant doubt’s benefit, as far as I can.”

He smiled.

“I am glad to hear that.”

I shrugged.

“What are you going to do now?” I asked.

“I am taking him to see Vialle,” Random said, “and then to meet the others, as time and opportunity permit. Unless, of course, something new has developed and you need me now.”

“There have been new developments,” I said, “but I do not really need you now. I had better bring you up to date, though. I still have a little time.”

As I filled Random in on events since his departure, I thought about Martin. He was still an unknown quantity so far as I was concerned. His story might be perfectly true. In fact, I felt that it was. On the other hand, I had a feeling that it was not complete, that he was intentionally leaving something out. Maybe something harmless. Then again, maybe not. He had no real reason to love us. Quite the contrary. And Random could be bringing home a Trojan Horse. Probably though, it was nothing like that. It is just that I never trust anyone if there is an alternative available.

Still, nothing that I was telling Random could really be used against us, and I strongly doubted that Martin could do us much damage if that was his intention. No, more likely he was being as cagey as the rest of us, and for pretty much the same reasons: fear and self preservation. On a sudden inspiration, I asked him, “Did you ever run into Dara again after that?”

He flushed.

“No,” he said, too quickly.

“Just that time. That’s all.”

“I see,” I said, and Random was too good a poker player not to have noticed; so I had just bought us a piece of instant insurance at the small price of putting a father on guard against his long-lost son.

I quickly shifted our talk back to Brand. It was while we were comparing notes on psychopathology that I felt the tiny tingle and the sense of presence which heralds a Trump contact. I raised my hand and turned aside.

In a moment the contact was clear and Ganelon and I regarded one another.

“Corwin,” he said, “I decided it was time to check. By now, you have the Jewel, Brand has the Jewel, or you are both still looking. Which one is it?”

“Brand has the Jewel,” I said.

“More’s the pity,” he said. “Tell me about it.”

So I did.

“Then Gerard had the story right,” he said.

“He’s already told you all this?”

“Not in such detail,” Ganelon replied, “and I wanted to be sure I was getting it straight. I just finished speaking with him.”

He glanced upward.

“It would seem you had best be moving then, if my memories of moonrise serve me right.”

I nodded.

“Yes, I will be heading for the stairway shortly. It is not all that far from here.”

“Good. Now here is what you must be ready to do-“

“I know what I have to do,” I said. “I have to get up to Tir-na Nog’th before Brand does and block his way to the Pattern. Failing that, I have to chase him through it again.”

“That is not the way to go about it,” he said.

“You have a better idea?”

“Yes, I do. You have your Trumps with you?”

“Yes.”

“Good. First, you would not be able to get up there in time to block his way to the Pattern-“

“Why not?”

“You have to make the ascension, then you have to walk to the palace and make your way down to the Pattern. That takes time, even in Tir-na Nog’th-especially in Tir-na Nog’th, where time tends to play tricks anyway. For all you know, you may have a hidden death wish slowing you down. I don’t know. Whatever the case, he would have commenced walking the Pattern by the time you arrived. It may well be that he would be too far into it for you to reach him this time.”

“He will probably be tired. That should slow him some.”

“No. Put yourself in his place. If you were Brand, wouldn’t you have headed for some shadow where the time flow was different? Instead of an afternoon, he could well have taken several days to rest up for this evening’s ordeal. It is safest to assume that he will be in good shape.”

“You are right,” I said. “I can’t count on it. Okay. An alternative I had entertained but would rather not try if it could be avoided, would be to kill him at a distance. Take along a crossbow or one of our rifles and simply shoot him in the midst of the Pattern. The thing that bothers me about it is the effect of our blood on the Pattern. It may be that it is only the primal Pattern that suffers from it, but I don’t know.”

“That’s right. You do not know,” he said. “Also, I would not want you to rely on normal weapons up there. That is a peculiar place. You said yourself it is like a strange piece of Shadow drifting in the sky. While you figured how to make a rifle fire in Amber, the same rules may not apply up there.”

“It is a risk,” I acknowledged.

“As for the crossbow-supposing a sudden gust of wind deflected the bolt each time you shot one?”

“I am afraid I do not follow you.”

“The Jewel. He walked it part way through the primal Pattern, and he has had some time to experiment with it since then. Do you think it possible that he is partly attuned to it now?”

“I do not know. I am not at all that sure how the process works.”

“I just wanted to point out that if it does work that way, he may be able to use it to defend himself. The Jewel may even have other properties you are not aware of. So what I am saying is that I would not want you to count on being able to kill him at a distance. And I would not even want you to rely on being able to pull the trick you did with the Jewel again-not if he may have gained some measure of control over it.”

“You do make things look a little bleaker than I had them.”

“But possibly more realistic,” he said.

“Conceded. Go on. You said you had a plan.”

“That is correct. My thinking is that Brand must not be allowed to reach the Pattern at all, that once he sets foot upon it the probability of disaster goes way up.”

“And you do not think I can get there in time to block him?”

“Not if he can really transport himself around almost instantaneously while you have to take a long walk. My bet is that he is just waiting for moonrise, and as soon as the city takes form he will be inside, right next to the Pattern.”

“I see the point, but not the answer.”

“The answer is that you are not going to set foot in Tir-na Nog’th tonight.”

“Hold on a minute!”

“Hold on, hell! You imported a master strategist, you’d better listen to what he has to say.”

“Okay, I am listening.”

“You have agreed that you probably cannot reach the place in time. But someone else can.”

“Who and how?”

“All right. I have been in touch with Benedict. He has returned. At this moment, he is in Amber, down in the chamber of the Pattern. By now, he should have finished walking it and be standing there at its center, waiting. You proceed to the foot of the stairs to the sky-city. There you await the rising of the moon. As soon as Tir-na Nog’th takes form, you will contact Benedict via his Trump. You tell him that all is ready, and he will use the power of the Pattern in Amber to transport himself to the place of the Pattern in Tir-na Nog’th. No matter how fast Brand travels, he cannot gain much on that.”

“I see the advantages,” I said. “That is the fastest way to get a man up there and Benedict is certainly a good man. He should have no trouble dealing with Brand.”

“Do you really think Brand will make no other preparations?” Ganelon said.

“From everything I’ve heard about the man, he’s smart even if he is daft. He just may anticipate something like this.”

“Possibly. Any idea what he might do?”

He made a sweeping gesture with one hand, slapped his neck and smiled.

“A bug,” he said. “Pardon me. Pesky little things.”

“You still think-“

“I think you had better remain in contact with Benedict the entire time he is up there, that is what I think. If Brand gets the upper hand, you may need to pull Benedict back immediately to save his life.”

“Of course. But then-“

“But then we would have lost a round. Admitted. But not the game. Even with the Jewel fully attuned, he would have to get to the primal Pattern to do his real damage with it-and you have that under guard.”

“Yes,” I said. “You seem to have everything figured. You surprised me, moving so fast.”

“I’ve had a lot of time on my hands recently, which can be a bad thing unless you use it for thinking. So I did. What I think now is that you had best move fast. The day isn’t getting any longer.”

“Agreed,” I said. “Thanks for the good counsel.”

“Save your thanks till we see what comes of it,” he said, and then he broke the contact.

“That one sounded important,” Random said. “What’s up?”

“Appropriate question,” I answered, “but I am all out of time now. You will have to wait till morning for the story.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

“As a matter of fact,” I said, “yes, if you’ll either ride double or go back to Amber on a Trump. I need Star.”

“Sure,” Random said. “No trouble. Is that all?”

“Yes. Haste is all.”

We moved toward the horses.

I patted Star a few times and then mounted.

“We’ll see you in Amber,” Random said. “Good luck.”

“In Amber,” I said. “Thanks.”

I turned and headed toward the place of the stairway, treading my tomb’s lengthening shadow eastward.

On the highest ridge of Kolvir there is a formation which resembles three steps. I sat on the lowest of these and waited for more to occur above me. It takes night and moonlight to do this, so half of the requirements had been met.

There were clouds to the west and northeast. I was leery of those clouds. If they massed sufficiently to block all moonlight, Tir-na Nog’th faded back to nothingness. This was one reason why it was always advisable to have a backup man on the ground, to Trump you to safety should the city vanish about you.

The sky overhead was clear, however, and filled with familiar stars. When the moon came up and its light fell upon the stone at which I rested, the stairway in the sky would come into being, sweeping upward to a great height, taking its way to Tir-na Nog’th, the image of Amber that rode the night’s middle air.

I was weary. Too much had occurred in too brief a time. Suddenly to be at rest, to remove my boots and rub my feet, to lean back and rest my head, even against stone, was a luxury, a pure animal pleasure. I drew my cloak together before me against the growing chill. A hot bath, a full meal, a bed would be very good things. But these assumed an almost mythic quality from that vantage. It was more than sufficient simply to rest as I was, to let my thoughts move more slowly, drifting, spectatorlike, back over the day’s happenings.

So much . . . but now, at least, I had some answers to some of my questions. Not all of them, certainly. But enough to slake my mind’s thirst for the moment . . . I now had some idea as to what had been going on during my absence, a better understanding of what was happening now, a knowledge of some of the things that had to be done, of what I had to do. . . . And I felt, somehow, that I knew more than I realized, consciously, that I already possessed pieces that would fit the growing picture before me, if I were only to jiggle them, flip them, rotate them properly. The pace of recent events, particularly today’s, had not allowed me a moment’s reflection. Now, though, some of the pieces seemed to be turning at odd angles. . ..