“The men are afraid of you,” she said. “They say you never grow tired.”
“I do,” I said, “believe me.”
“Of course,” she said, shaking her too-long locks and smiling. “Don’t we all?”
“I daresay,” I replied.
“How old are you?”
“How old are you?”
“A gentleman would not ask that question.”
“Neither would a lady?”
“When you first came here, they thought you were over fifty.”
“And…?”
“And now they have no idea. Forty-five? Forty?”
“No,” I said.
“I didn’t think so. But your beard fooled everyone.”
“Beards often do that.”
“You look better every day. Bigger…”
“Thanks. I feel better than I did when I arrived.”
“Sir Corey of Cabra,” she said. “Where’s Cabra? What’s Cabra? Will you take me there with you, if I ask you nicely?”
“I’d tell you so,” I said, “but I’d be lying.”
“I know. But it would be nice to hear.”
“Okay. I’ll take you there with me. It’s place.”
“Are you really as good as the men say?”
“I’m afraid not. Are you?”
“Not really. Do you want to go to bed now?”
“No. I’d rather talk. Have a glass of wine.”
“Thank you… Your health.”
“Yours.”
“Why is it you are such a good swordsman?”
“Aptitude and good teachers.”
“…And you carried Lance all that distance and slew those beasts…”
“Stories grow with the telling.”
“But I have watched you. You are better than the others. That is why Ganelon made you whatever deal he did. He knows a good thing when he sees it. I’ve had many friends who were swordsmen, and I’ve watched them at practice. You could cut them to pieces. The men say you are a good teacher. They like you, even if you do scare them.”
“Why do I frighten them? Because I am strong? There are many strong men in the world. Because I can stand up and swing a blade for a long while?”
“They think there is something supernatural involved.”
I laughed.
“No, I’m just the second-best swordsman around. Pardon me — maybe the third. But I try harder.”
“Who’s better?”
“Eric of Amber, possibly.”
“Who is he?”
“A supernatural creature.”
“He’s the best?”
“No.”
“Who is?”
“Benedict of Amber.”
“Is he one, too?”
“If he is still alive, he is.”
“Strange, that’s what you are,” she said. “And why? Tell me. Are you a supernatural creature?”
“Let’s have another glass of wine.”
“It’ll go to my head.”
“Good.” I poured them.
“We are all going to die,” she said.
“Eventually.”
“I mean here, soon, fighting this thing.”
“Why do you say that?”
“It’s too strong.”
“Then why stick around?”
“I’ve no place else to go. That’s why I ask you about Cabra.”
“And why you came here tonight?”
“No. I came to see what you were like.”
“I am an athlete who is breaking training. Were you born around here?”
“Yes. In the wood.”
“Why’d you pick up with these guys?”
“Why not? It’s better than getting pig shit on my heels every day.”
“Never have a man of your own? Steady, I mean?”
“Yes. He’s dead. He’s the one who found… the Fairy Ring.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m not. He used to get drunk whenever he could borrow or steal enough to afford it and then come home and beat me. I was glad when I met Ganelon.”
“So you think that the thing is too strong, that we are going to lose to it?”
“Yes.”
“You may be right. But I think you’re wrong.” She shrugged.
“You’ll be fighting with us?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“Nobody knew for sure, or would say if they did. That might prove interesting. I’d like to see you fight with the goat-man.”
“Why?”
“Because he seems to be their leader. If you killed him, we’d have more of a chance. You might be able to do it.”
“I have to,” I said.
“Special reason?”
“Yes.”
“Private one?”
“Yes.”
“Good luck.”
“Thanks.”
She finished her wine, so I poured her another.
“I know he is a supernatural creature,” she said.
“Let’s get off the subject.”
“All right. But will you do me a thing?”
“Name it.”
“Put on armor tomorrow, pick up a lance, get hold of a horse, and trounce that big cavalry officer Harald.”
“Why?”
“He beat me last week, just like Jarl used to. Can you do it?”
“Yes.”
“Will you?”
“Why not? Consider him trounced.”
She came over and leaned against me.
“I love you,” she said.
“Crap.”
“All right. How about, I like you?”
“Good enough. I —”
Then a chill and numbing wind blew along my spine. I stiffened and resisted what was to come by blanking my mind completely.
Someone was looking for me. It was someone of the House of Amber, doubtless, and he was using my Trump or something very like it. There was no mistaking the sensation. If it was Eric, then he had more guts than I gave him credit for, since I had almost napalmed his brain the last time we had been in contact. It could not be Random, unless he was out of prison, which I doubted. If it was Julian or Caine, they could go to hell. Bleys was probably dead. Possibly Benedict, too. That left Gerard, Brand, and our sisters. Of these, only Gerard might mean me well. So I resisted discovery, successfully. It took me perhaps five minutes, and when it was finished I was shaking and sweating and Lorraine was staring at me strangely.
“What happened?” she asked. “You aren’t drunk yet, and neither am I.”
“Just a spell I sometimes get,” I said. “It’s a disease I picked up in the islands.”
“I saw a face,” she said. “Perhaps it was on the floor, maybe it was in my head. It was an old man. The collar of his garment was green and he looked a lot like you, except that his beard was gray.” I slapped her then.
“You’re lying! You couldn’t have…”
“I’m just telling you what I saw! Don’t hit me! I don’t know what it meant! Who was he?”
“I think it was my father. God, it’s strange…”
“What happened?” she repeated.
“A spell,” I said. “I sometimes get them, and people think they see my father on the castle wall or floor. Don’t worry about it. It’s not contagious.”
“Crap,” she said. “You’re lying to me.”
“I know. But please forget the whole thing.”
“Why should I?”
“Because you like me,” I told her. “Remember? And because I’m going to trounce Harald for you tomorrow.”
“That’s true,” she said, and I started shaking again and she fetched a blanket from the bed and put it about my shoulders.
She handed me my wine and I drank it. She sat beside me and rested her head on my shoulder, so I put my arm about her. A devil wind began to scream and I heard the rapid rattle of the rainfall that came with it. For a second, it seemed that something beat against the shutters. Lorraine whimpered slightl
y.
“I do not like what is happening tonight,” she said.
“Neither do I. Go bar the door. It’s only bolted right now.”
As she did this, I moved our seat so that it faced my single window. I fetched Grayswandir out from beneath the bed and unsheathed it. Then I extinguished every light in the room, save for a single candle on the table to my right.
I reseated myself, my blade across my knees.
“What are we doing?” Lorraine asked, as she came and sat down at my left.
“Waiting,” I said.
“For what?”
“I am not positive, but this is certainly the night for it.”
She shuddered and drew near.
“You know, perhaps you had better leave,” I said.
“I know,” she said, “but I’m afraid to go out. You’ll be able to protect me if I stay here, won’t you?”
I shook my head.
“I don’t even know if I’ll be able to protect myself.”
She touched Grayswandir.
“What a beautiful blade! I’ve never seen one like it.”
“There isn’t another,” I said, and each time that I shifted a little, the light fell differently upon it, so that one moment it seemed filmed over with unhuman blood of an orange tint and the next it lay there cold and white as snow or a woman’s breast, quivering in my hand each time a little chill took me.
I wondered how it was that Lorraine had seen something I had not during the attempted contact. She could not simply have imagined anything that close to home.
“There is something strange about you,” I said.
She was silent for four or five flickerings of the candle, then said, “I’ve a touch of the second sight. My mother had more of it. People say my grandmother was a sorceress. I don’t know any of that business, though. Well, not much of it. I haven’t done it for years. I always wind up losing more than I gain.”
Then she was silent again, and I asked her, “What do you mean?”
“I used a spell to get my first man,” she said, “and look what he turned out to be. If I hadn’t, I’d have been a lot better off. I wanted a pretty daughter, and I made that happen —” She stopped abruptly and I realized she was crying.
“What’s the matter? I don’t understand…”
“I thought you knew,” she said.
“No, I’m afraid not.”
“She was the little girl in the Fairy Circle. I thought you knew…”
“I’m sorry.”
“I wish I didn’t have the touch. I never use it any more. But it won’t let me alone. It still brings me dreams and signs, and they are never over things I can do anything about. I wish it would go away and devil somebody else!”
“That’s the one thing it will not do, Lorraine. I’m afraid you are stuck with it.”
“How do you know?”
“I’ve known people like you in the past, that’s all.”
“You’ve a touch of it yourself, haven’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Then you feel that there is something out there now, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“So do I. Do you know what it is doing?”
“It’s looking for me.”
“Yes, I feel that, too. Why?”
“Perhaps to test my strength. It knows that I am here. If I am a new ally come to Ganelon, it must wonder what I represent, who I am…”
“Is it the horned one himself?”
“I don’t know. I think not, though.”
“Why not?”
“If I am really he who would destroy it, it would be foolish to seek me out here in the keep of its enemy when I am surrounded by strength. I would say one of its minions is looking for me. Perhaps, somehow, that is what my father’s ghost… I do not know. If its servant finds me and names me, it will know what preparations to make. If it finds me and destroys me, it will have solved the problem. If I destroy the servant, it will know that much more about my strength. Whichever way it works out, the horned one will be something ahead. So why should it risk its own pronged dome at this stage in the game?”
We waited, there in the shadow-clad chamber, as the taper burned away the minutes.
She asked me, “What did you mean when you said, if it finds you and names you…? Names you what?”
“The one who almost did not come here,” I said.
“You think that it might know you from somewhere, somehow?” she asked.
“I think it might,” I said. She drew away from me then.
“Don’t be afraid,” I said. “I won’t hurt you.”
“I am afraid, and you will hurt me!” she said. “I know it! But I want you! Why do I want you?”
“I don’t know,” I said.
“There is something out there now!” she said, sounding slightly hysterical. “It’s near! It’s very near! Listen! Listen!”
“Shut up!” I said, as a cold, prickly feeling came to rest on the back of my neck and coiled about my throat. “Get over on the far side of the room, behind the bed!”
“I’m afraid of the dark,” she said.
“Do it, or I’ll have to knock you out and carry you. You’ll be in my way here.”
I could hear a heavy flapping above the storm, and there came a scratching on the stone of the wall as she moved to obey me.
Then I was looking into two hot, red eyes which were looking back into my own. I dropped mine quickly. The thing stood there on the ledge outside the window and regarded me.
It was well over six feet in height, with great branches of antlers growing out of its forehead. Nude, its flesh was a uniform ash-gray in color. It appeared to be sexless, and it had gray, leathery wings extending far out behind it and joining with the night. It held a short, heavy sword of dark metal in its right hand, and there were runes carved all along the blade. With its left hand, it clutched at the lattice.
“Enter at your peril,” I said loudly, and I raised the point of Grayswandir to indicate its breast.
It chuckled. It just stood there and chuckled and giggled at me. It tried to meet my eyes once more, but I would not let it. If it looked into my eyes for long, it would know me, as the hellcat had known me.
When it spoke, it sounded like a bassoon blowing words.
“You are not the one,” it said, “for you are smaller and older. Yet… That blade… It could be his. Who are you?”
“Who are you?” I asked.
“Strygalldwir is my name. Conjure with it and I will eat your heart and liver.”
“Conjure with it? I can’t even pronounce it,” I said, “and my cirrhosis would give you indigestion. Go away.”
“Who are you?” it repeated.
“Misli, gammi gra’dil, Strygalldwir,” I said, and it jumped as if given a hotfoot.
“You seek to drive me forth with such a simple spell?” it asked when it settled again. “I am not one of the lesser ones.”
“It seemed to make you a bit uncomfortable.”
“Who are you?” it said again.
“None of your business, Charlie. Ladybird, Ladybird, fly away home —”
“Four times must I ask you and four times be refused before I may enter and slay you. Who are you?”
“No,” I said, standing. “Come on in and burn!”
Then it tore away the latticework, and the wind that accompanied it into the chamber extinguished the candle.
I lunged forward, and there were sparks between us when Grayswandir met the dark rune-sword. We clashed, then I sprang back. My eyes had adjusted to the half dark, so the loss of the light did not blind me. The creature saw well enough, also. It was stronger than a man, but then so am I. We circled the room. An icy wind moved about us, and when we passed the window again, cold droplets lashed my face. The first time that I cut the creature — a long slash across the breast — it remained silent, though tiny flames danced about the edges of the wound. The second time that I cut it — high upon the arm — it cried
out, cursing me.
“Tonight I will suck the marrow from your bones!” it said. “I will dry them and work them most cunningly into instruments of music! Whenever I play upon them, your spirit will writhe in bodiless agony!”
“You burn prettily,” I said.
It slowed for a fraction of a second, and my opportunity was there.
I beat that dark blade aside and my lunge was perfect. The center of its breast was my target. I ran it through.
It howled then, but did not fall. Grayswandir was torn from my grasp and flames bloomed about the wound. It stood there wearing them. It advanced a step toward me and I picked up a small chair and held it between us.
“I do not keep my heart where men do,” it said.
Then it lunged, but I blocked the blow with the chair and caught it in the right eye with one of the legs. I throw the chair to the side then, and stepping forward, seized its right wrist and turned it over. I struck the elbow with the edge of my hand, as hard as I could. There came a sharp crack and the runesword clattered to the floor. Then its left hand struck my head and I fell.
It leaped for the blade, and I seized its ankle and jerked.
It sprawled, and I threw myself atop it and found its throat. I turned my head into the hollow of my shoulder, chin against my breast, as it clawed for my face with its left hand.
As my death grip tightened, its eyes sought mine, and this time I did not avoid them. There came a tiny shock at the base of my brain, as we both knew that we knew.
“You!” it managed to gasp, before I twisted my hands hard and the life went out of those red red eyes.
I stood, put my foot upon its carcass, and withdrew Grayswandir.
The thing burst into flames when my blade came free, and kept burning until there was nothing remaining but a charred spot upon the floor.
Then Lorraine came over and I put my arm about her and she asked me to take her back to her quarters and to bed. So I did, but we didn’t do anything but lie there together until she had cried herself to sleep. That is how I met Lorraine.
Lance and Ganelon and I sat atop our mounts on a high hill, the late morning sun hitting us in the back, and we looked down into the place. Its appearance confirmed things for me.
It was akin to that twisted wood that filled the valley to the south of Amber.
Oh my father! What have I wrought? I said within my heart, but there was no answer other than the dark Circle that lay beneath me and spread for as far as the eye could see.
Guns Of Avalon tcoa-2 Page 4
