Blood of Amber tcoa-7

by Roger Joseph Zelazny

  “I don’t know why you think me incapable of taking care of myself,” I replied.

  “I never said that,” she responded. “But some decisions are finely balanced things. A little extra weight this way or that sometimes makes the difference. You know Luke, but so do I. This is not a time to be giving him any breaks.”

  “You have a point there,” I said.

  “So you have decided to give him what he wants!”

  I smiled and drank some coffee. “Hell, he hasn’t been conscious long enough to give me the pitch,” I said. “I’ve thought of these things, and I want to know what he’s got in mind too.”

  “I never said you shouldn’t find out as much as you can. I just wanted to remind you that talking with Luke can sometimes be like conversing with a dragon.”

  “Yeah,” I acknowledged. “I know.”

  “And the longer you wait the harder it’s going to be,” she added.

  I took a gulp of coffee; then, “Did you like him?” I asked.

  “Like?” she said. “Yes, I did. And I still do. That is not material at this point, though.”

  “I don’t know about that,” I said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You wouldn’t harm him without good reason.”

  “No, I wouldn’t.”

  “He is no threat to me at the moment.”

  “He does not seem to be.”

  “Supposing I were to leave him here in your care while I went off to Amber to walk the Pattern and to prepare them for the news?”

  She shook her head vigorously. “No,” she stated. “I will not — I cannot — take that responsibility at this time.”

  “Why not?”

  She hesitated.

  “And please don’t say again that you cannot tell me,” I went on. “Find a way to tell me as much as you can.”

  She spoke slowly then, as if choosing her words very carefully. “Because it is more important for me to watch you than Luke. There is still danger for you which I do not understand, even though it no longer seems to be proceeding from him. Guarding you against this unknown peril is of higher priority than keeping an eye on him. Therefore, I cannot remain here. If you are returning to Amber, so am I.”

  “I appreciate your concern,” I said, “but I will not have you dogging my footsteps.”

  “Neither of us has a choice.”

  “Supposing I simply trump out of here to some distant shadow?”

  “I will be obliged to follow you.”

  “In this form, or another?”

  She looked away. She poked at her food.

  “You’ve already admitted that you can be other persons. You locate me in some arcane Fashion, then you take possession of someone in my vicinity.”

  She took a drink of coffee.

  “Perhaps something prevents you from saying it,” I continued, “but that’s the case. I know it.”

  She nodded once, curtly, and resumed eating.

  “Supposing I did trump out right now,” I said, “and you followed after in your peculiar fashion.” I thought back to my telephone conversations with Meg Devlin and Mrs. Hansen. “Then the real Vinta Bayle would wake up in her own body with a gap in her memory, right?”

  “Yes,” she answered softly.

  “And that would leave Luke here in the company of a woman who would be happy to destroy him if she had any inkling who he really is.”

  She smiled faintly. “Just so,” she said.

  We ate in silence for a time. She had attempted to foreclose all my choices, to force me to trump back to Amber and take Luke with me. I do not like being manipulated or coerced. My reflexive attempt to do something other than what is desired of me then feels forced also.

  I refilled our coffee cups when I had finished eating. I regarded a collection of dog portraits that hung on the wall across from me. I sipped and savored. I did not speak because I could think of nothing further to say.

  Finally, she did. “So what are you going to do?” she asked me.

  I finished my coffee and rose. “I am going to take Luke his stick,” I said.

  I pushed my chair back into place and headed for the corner of the room where I had leaned the stick.

  “And then?” she said. “What will you do?”

  I glanced back at her as I hefted the staff. She sat very erect, her hands palms down on the table. The Nemesis look overlay her features once again, and I could almost feel electricity in the air.

  “Whatever I must,” I replied, and I headed for the door.

  I increased my pace as soon as I was out of sight. When I hit the stairs and saw that she was not following, I took the steps two at a time. On the way up, I withdrew my cards and located the proper one.

  When I entered the room I saw that Luke was resting, his back against the bed’s pillows. His breakfast tray was on the smaller chair, beside the bed. I dropped the latch on the door.

  “What’s the matter, man? We under attack or something?” Luke asked.

  “Start getting up,” I said.

  I picked up his weapon then and crossed to the bed. I gave him a hand sitting up, thrust the staff and the blade at him.

  “My hand has been forced,” I said, “and I’m not about to turn you over to Random.”

  “That’s a comfort,” he observed.

  “But we have to clear out — now.”

  “That’s all right by me.”

  He leaned on the staff, got slowly to his feet. I heard a noise in the hall, but it was already too late. I’d raised the card and was concentrating. There came a pounding on the door.

  “You’re up to something and I think it’s the wrong thing,” Vinta called out.

  I did not reply. The vision was already coming clear.

  The doorframe splintered from the force of a tremendous kick, and the latch was torn loose. There was a look of apprehension on Luke’s face as I reached out and took hold of his arm.

  “Come on,” I said.

  Vinta burst into the room as I led Luke forward, her eyes flashing, her hands extended, reaching. Her cry of “Fool!” seemed to change into a wail as she was washed by the spectrum, rippled and faded.

  We stood in a patch of grass, and Luke let out a deep breath he had been holding.

  “You believe in cutting things close, buddy — boy,” he remarked, and then he looked around and recognized the place.

  He smiled crookedly.

  “What do you know,” he said. “A crystal cave.”

  “From my own experience,” I said, “the time flow here should be about what you were asking for.”

  He nodded and we began moving slowly toward the high blue hill. “Still plenty of rations,” I added, “and the sleeping bag should be where I left it.”

  “It will serve,” he acknowledged.

  He halted, panting, before we reached the foot. I saw his gaze drift toward a number of strewn bones off to our left. It would have been months since the pair who had removed the boulder had fallen there, long enough for scavengers to have done a thorough job. Luke shrugged, advanced a little, leaned against blue stone. He lowered himself slowly into a sitting position.

  “Going to have to wait before I can climb,” he said, “even with you helping.”

  “Sure,” I said. “We can finish our conversation. As I recall, you were going to make me an offer I couldn’t refuse. I was to bring you to a place like this, where you could recover fast vis-a-vis the time flow at the Keep. You, in turn, had a piece of information vital to the security of Amber.”

  “Right,” he agreed, “and you didn’t hear the rest of my story either. They go together.”

  I hunkered across from him. “You told me that your mother had fled to the Keep, apparently gotten into trouble there and called to you for help.”

  “Yes,” he acknowledged. “So I dropped the business with Ghostwheel and tried to help her. I got in touch with Dalt, and he agreed to come and attack the Keep.”

  “It’s always good
to know a band of mercenaries you can get hold of in a hurry,” I said.

  He gave me a quick, strange look but I was able to maintain an innocent expression.

  “So we led them through Shadow and we attacked the place,” he said then. “It had to be us that you saw when you were there.”

  I nodded slowly. “It looked as if you made it over the wall. What went wrong?”

  “I still don’t know,” he said. “We were doing all right. Their defense was crumbling and we were pushing right along, when suddenly Dalt turned on me. We’d been separated for a time; then he appeared again and attacked me. At first I thought he’d made a mistake — we were all grimy and bloody — and I shouted to him that it was me. But he just kept coming. That’s how he was able to do a job like this on me. For a while I didn’t want to strike back because I thought it was a misunderstanding and he’d realize his mistake in a few seconds.”

  “Do you think he sold you out? Or that it was something he’d been planning for a long time? Some grudge?”

  “I don’t like to think that.”

  “Magic, then?”

  “Maybe. I don’t know.”

  A peculiar thought occurred to me. “Did he know you’d killed Caine?” I asked.

  “No, I make it a point never to tell anybody everything I’m about.”

  “You wouldn’t kid me, would you?”

  He laughed, moved as if to clap me on the shoulder, winced and thought better of it.

  “Why do you ask?” he said then.

  “I don’t know. Just curious.”

  “Sure,” he said. Then, “What say you give me a hand up and inside, so I can see what kind of supplies you’ve left me?”

  “Why?” I got to my feet and helped him to his. We moved around to the right to the slope of easiest ascent, and I guided him slowly to the top.

  Once we’d achieved the summit he leaned on his staff and stared down into the opening.

  “No really easy way down in,” he said, “for me. At first I was thinking you could roll up a barrel from the larder, and I could get down to it and then down to the floor. But now I look at it, it’s an even bigger drop than I remembered. I’d tear something open, sure.”

  “Mm-hm,” I said. “Hang on. I’ve got an idea.”

  I turned away from him and climbed back down. Then I made my way along the base of the blue rise to my right until I had rounded two shiny shoulders and was completely out of Luke’s line of sight.

  I did not care to use the Logrus in his presence if I did not have to. I did not wish for him to see how I went about things, and I did not want to give him any idea as to what I could or could not do. I’m not that comfortable letting people know too much about me, either.

  The Logrus appeared at my summons, and I reached into it, extended through it. My desire was framed, became the aim. My sending extending sought the thought. Far, far…

  I kept extending for the damnedest long time. We really had to be out in the Shadow boonies…

  Contact.

  I did not jerk, but rather exerted a slow and steady pressure. I felt it move toward me across the shadows.

  “Hey, Merle! Everything okay?” I heard Luke call.

  “Yeah,” I answered, and I did not elaborate.

  Closer, closer…

  There!

  I staggered when it arrived, because it came to me too near to one end.

  The far end bounced on the ground. So I moved to the middle and took a new grip. I hefted it and carried it back.

  I set it against a steep area of the rise a bit in advance of Luke’s position and I mounted quickly. I began drawing it up behind me then.

  “Okay, where’d you get the ladder?” he asked.

  “Found it,” I said.

  “Looks like wet paint on the side there.”

  “Maybe someone lost it just recently.”

  I began lowering it into the opening. Several feet protruded after it reached the bottom. I adjusted it for stability, “I’ll start down first,” I said, “and stay right under you.”

  “Take my stick and my blade down first, will you?”

  “Sure.”

  I did that thing. By the time I climbed back he had caught hold and gotten onto it, had begun his descent.

  “You’ll have to teach me that trick one of these days,” he said, breathing heavily.

  “Don’t know what you’re talking about,” I answered.

  He descended slowly, pausing to rest at each rung, and he was flushed and panting when he reached the bottom. He slumped to the floor immediately, pressing his right palm against his lower rib cage. After a time, he inched backward a bit and rested against the wall.

  “You okay?” I asked.

  He nodded. “Will be,” he said, “in a few minutes. Being stabbed takes a lot out of you.”

  “Want a blanket?”

  “No, thanks.”

  “Well, you rest here and I’ll go check the larder and see whether anything’s gotten at the supplies. Want me to bring you anything?”

  “Some water,” he said.

  The supplies proved to be in good order, and the sleeping bag was still where I’d left it. I returned with a drink for Luke and a few ironic memories of the occasion when he’d done the same for me.

  “Looks as if you’re in business,” I told him. “There’s still plenty of stuff.”

  “You didn’t drink all the wine, did you?” he asked between sips.

  “No.”

  “Good.”

  “Now, you said you have a piece of information vital to the interests of Amber,” I said. “Care to tell me about it?”

  He smiled. “Not yet,” he said.

  “I thought that was our deal.”

  “You didn’t hear the whole thing. We were interrupted.”

  I shook my head. But, “All right, we were interrupted,” I acknowledged. “Tell me the rest.”

  “I’ve got to get back on my feet, so I can take the Keep and free my mother…”

  I nodded.

  “The information is yours after we rescue her.”

  “Hey! Wait a minute! You’re asking a hell of a lot!”

  “Not for what I’m paying.”

  “Sounds like I’m buying a pig in a poke.”

  “Yes, I guess you are. But believe me, it’ll be worth knowing.”

  “What if it becomes worth knowing while I’m waiting?”

  “No, I’ve figured the timing on this. My recovery is only going to take a couple of days, Amber time. I can’t see the matter coming up that fast.”

  “Luke, this is starting to sound like some sort of trick.”

  “It is,” he said, “but it will benefit Amber as well as myself.”

  “That’s another thing. I can’t see you giving something like this away to the enemy.”

  He sighed. “It might even be enough to get me off the hook,” he added.

  “You’re thinking of calling off your feud?”

  “I don’t know. But I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, and if I did decide to go that route it would make for a real good opener.”

  “And if you decided not to, you’d be screwing yourself. Wouldn’t you?”

  “I could live with it, though. It might make my job harder, but not impossible.”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “If word of this gets out and I’ve got nothing to show for letting you get away like this, I’ll be in real hot water.”

  “I won’t tell anybody if you won’t.”

  “There’s Vinta.”

  “And she keeps insisting that her big aim in life is to protect you. Besides, she won’t be there if you go back. Or rather, there will be the real Vinta, having awakened as from a troubled sleep.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “Because you’ve left. She’s probably already off seeking you.”

  “Do you know what she really is?”

  “No, but I’ll help you speculate sometime.”

  “Not now?�
�

  “No, I’ve got to sleep some more. It’s catching up with me again.”

  “Then let’s go over this deal one more time. What are you going to do, how do you intend to do it and what are you promising me?”

  He yawned. “I stay here till I’m back in shape,” he said. “Then when I’m ready to attack the Keep I get in touch with you. Which reminds me, you still have my Trumps.”

  “I know. Keep talking. How do you intend taking the Keep?”

  “I’m working on it. I’ll let you know that too. Anyhow, you can help us or not at that point, as you see fit. I wouldn’t mind having another sorcerer with me, though. Once we’re in and she’s freed, I’ll tell you what I promised and you can take it back to Amber.”

  “What if you lose?” I asked.

  He looked away. “I guess there’s always that possibility,” he finally agreed. “Okay, how’s this? I’ll write the whole thing out and keep it with me. I’ll give it to you — by Trump or in person — before we attack. Win or lose, I’ll have paid my way with you.”

  He extended his good hand and I clasped it.

  “Okay,” I said.

  “Then let me have my Trumps back, and I’ll be talking to you as soon as I get moving again.”

  I hesitated. Finally, I drew out my pack, which was now grown quite thick. I shuffled out my own then along with a number of his and passed him what remained.

  “What about the rest?”

  “I want to study them, Luke. Okay?”

  He shrugged weakly. “I can always make more. But give me back my mother’s.”

  “Here.”

  He accepted it, then said, “I don’t know what you’ve got in mind, but I’ll give you a piece of advice: Don’t screw around with Dalt. He’s not the nicest of guys when he’s normal, and I think there’s something wrong with him right now. Keep away from him.”

  I nodded, then got to my feet.

  “You’re going now?” he asked.

  “Right.”

  “Leave me the ladder.”

  “It’s all yours.”

  “What are you going to tell them back in Amber?”

  “Nothing — yet,” I said. “Hey, you want me to bring some food up here before I go? Save you a trip.”

  “Yeah. Good idea. Bring me a bottle of wine, too.”