Sign of Chaos

Chapter 3

If you had a choice between the ability to detect falsehood and the ability to discover truth, which one would you take? There was a time when I thought they were different ways of saying the same thing, but I no longer believe that. Most of my relatives, for example, are almost as good at seeing through subterfuge as they are at perpetrating it. I’m not at all sure, though, that they care much about truth. On the other hand, I’d always felt there was something noble, special, and honorable about seeking truth — a thing I’d attempted with Ghostwheel. Mandor had made me wonder, though. Had this made me a sucker for truth’s opposite?

Of course, it’s not as cut and dried as all that. I know that it is not a pure either/or situation with the middle excluded, but is rather a statement of attitude. Still, I was suddenly willing to concede that I might have gone to an extreme — to the point of foolhardiness — and that I had let certain of my critical faculties doze for far too long.

So I wondered about Fiona’s request.

“What makes it such a threat?” I asked her.

“It is a Shadow-storm in the form of a tornado,” she said.

“There have been such things before,” I answered. “True,” she responded, “but they tend to move through Shadow. This one does have extension through an area of Shadow, but it is totally stationary. It first appeared several days ago, and it has not altered in any way since then.”

“What’s that come to in Amber-time?” I asked.

“Half a day, perhaps. Why?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. Just curious,” I said. “I still don’t see why it’s a threat.”

“I told you that such storms had proliferated since Corwin drew the extra Pattern. Now they’re changing in character as well as frequency. That Pattern has to be understood soon.”

A moment’s quick reflection showed me that whoever gained control of Dad’s Pattern could become master of some terrible forces. Or mistress.

So, “Supposing I walk it,” I said. “Then what? As I understand it from Dad’s story, I’d just wind up in the middle, the same as with the Pattern back home. What’s to be learned from that?”

I studied her face for some display of emotion, but my relatives tend to have too much control for such simple self-betrayal.

“As I understand it,” she said, “Brand was able to trump in when Corwin was at the middle.”

“That’s the way I understand it, too.”

“…So, when you reach the center, I can come in on a Trump.”

“I suppose so. Then there will be two of us standing at the middle of the Pattern.”

“…And from there we will be in a position to go someplace we could not reach from any other point in existence.”

“That being?” I asked.

“The primal Pattern which lies behind it.”

“You’re sure there is one?”

“There must be. It is in the nature of such a construct to be scribed at a more basic level of reality as well as the mundane.”

“And our purpose in traveling to that place?”

“That is where its secrets dwell; where its deepest magics might be learned.”

“I see,” I told her. “Then what?”

“Why, there we might learn how to undo the trouble the thing is causing,” she answered.

“That’s all?”

Her eyes narrowed.

“We will learn whatever we can, of course. Power is power, and represents a threat until it is understood.”

I nodded slowly.

“But right now there are a number of powers that are more pressing in the threat department,” I said. “That Pattern is going to have to wait its turn.”

“Even if it may represent the forces you need to deal with your other problems?” she asked.

“Even so,” I said. “It might turn into a lengthy enterprise, and I don’t believe I have the time for that.”

“But you don’t know that for certain.”

“True. But once I set foot on it, there’s no turning back.”

I did not add that I’d no intention of taking her to the primal Pattern, then leaving her there on her own. After all, she had tried her hand at king-making once. And if Brand had made it to the throne of Amber in those days, she would have been standing right behind him, no matter what she had to say about it now. I think she was about to ask me to deliver her to the primal Pattern then but realized that I’d already considered it and rejected it. Not wanting to lose face by asking and being refused, she returned to her original argument.

“I suggest you make time now,” she said, “if you do not wish to see worlds torn up about you.”

“I didn’t believe you the first time you told me that,” I answered, “and I don’t believe you now. I still think the increased Shadow-storm activity is probably an adjustment to the damage and repair of the original Pattern. I also think that if we mess around with a new Pattern we don’t know anything about, we stand a chance of making things worse, not better — ”

“I don’t want to mess around with it,” she said. “I want to study — ”

The Sign of the Logrus flashed between us suddenly. She must have seen it or felt it somehow, too, because she drew back at the same instant I did.

I turned my head with sure knowledge as to what I would see.

Mandor had mounted the battlementlike wall of stone. He stood as still as if he were a part of it, his arm, upraised. I suppressed my first impulse, which was to shout to him to stop. He knew what he was doing. And I was certain that he would not pay me the slightest heed, anyway.

I advanced to the notch in which he had taken his position, and I looked past him at the swirling thing on the cracked plain far below. Through the image of the Logrus, I felt the dark, awful rush of power that Suhuy had revealed to me in his final lesson. Mandor was calling upon it now and pouring it into the Shadow-storm. Did he not realize that the force of Chaos he was unleashing must spread until it had run a terrible course? Could he not see that if the storm were indeed a manifestation of Chaos then he was turning it into a truly monstrous thing?

It grew larger. Its roaring increased in volume. It became frightening to watch it.

From behind me, I heard Fiona gasp.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” I called to him.

“We’ll know in about a minute,” he replied, lowering his arms.

The Sign of the Logrus winked out before me.

We watched the damned thing spin for some time, bigger and noisier.

Finally, “What have you proved?” I asked him.

“That you have no patience,” he answered.

There was nothing particularly instructive to the phenomenon, but I continued to watch it anyway.

Abruptly, the sound became a stutter. The dark apparition jerked about’ suddenly, shaking off bits of accumulated debris as it contracted. Soon it was restored to its former size, and it hit its earlier pitch and the sound grew steady once more.

“How did you do that?” I asked him.

“I didn’t,” he said. “It adjusted itself.”

“It shouldn’t have,” Fiona stated.

“Exactly,” he replied.

“You’ve lost me,” I said.

“It should have gone roaring right on, stronger than ever, after he’d augmented it that way,” Fiona said. “But whatever is controlling it had other plans. So it was readjusted.”

“…And it is a Chaos phenomenon,” Mandor continued. “You could see that in the way it drew upon Chaos when I provided the means. But that pushed it past some limit, and there was a correction. Someone is playing with the primal forces themselves out there. Who or what or why, I cannot say. But I think it’s strong testimony that the Pattern isn’t involved. Not with Chaos games. So Merlin is probably correct. I think that this business has its origin elsewhere.”

“All right,” Fiona conceded. “All right. What does that leave us with?”

“A mystery,” he said. “But hardly, I think, an imminent threat.”

A faint firefly of an idea flitted through my mind. It could easily be dead wrong, though that was not the reason I decided against sharing it. It led into an area of thought I could not explore in an instant, and I don’t like giving away pieces of things like that.

Fiona was glaring at me now, but I maintained a bland expression. Abruptly then, seeing that her cause was fruitless, she decided to change the subject:

“You said that you left Luke under somewhat unusual circumstances. Just where is he now?”

The last thing I wanted to do was to get her really mad at me. But I couldn’t see turning her loose on Luke in his present condition. For all I knew, she might actually be up to killing him, just as a form of life insurance. And I did not want Luke dead. I’d a feeling he might be undergoing something of a change of attitude, and I wanted to give him every break I could. We still owed each other a few, even though it was hard keeping score; and there is something to be said for old times’ sake Considering what I’d judged his condition to be when I’d left him, it was going to be a while before he was in decent shape again. And then I had a number of things I wanted to talk to him about.

“Sorry,” I said. “He’s my province at the moment.”

“I believe I have some interest in the matter,” she replied levelly.

“Of course,” I said, “but I feel that mine is greater and that we may get in each other’s ways.”

“I can judge these things for myself,” she said.

“Okay,” I told her. “He’s on an acid trip. Any information you’d get out of him might be colorful, but it would also be highly disappointing.”

“How did this happen?” she asked.

“A wizard named Mask apparently slipped him some chemicals when he had him prisoner.”

“Where was this? I’ve never heard of Mask.”

“A place called the Keep of the Four Worlds,” I told her.

“It’s been a long time since I heard the Keep mentioned,” she said. “A sorcerer named Sharu Garrul used to hold it.”

“He’s a coatrack now,” I stated.

“What?”

“Long story; but Mask has the place these days.”

She stared at me, and I could tell she was just realizing that there was a lot she didn’t know in the way of recent developments. I’d judge she was deciding which of several obvious questions to ask next when I decided to beat her to the punch while she was still off balance.

“So how’s Bleys?” I asked.

“He’s much improved. I treated him myself and he’s recovering quickly.”

I was about to ask her where he was, which I knew she would refuse to answer, and hopefully we would both smile when she saw what I was driving at: no address for Bleys, no address for Luke; we keep our secrets and stay friends.

“Hello!” I heard Mandor say, and we both turned in the direction he was facing — back out through the notch.

The dark tornado-form had collapsed to half its former size, and even as we watched, it continued to diminish. It fell steadily in upon itself, shrinking and shrinking, and in about a half minute it was gone, completely.

I could not suppress a smile, but Fiona did not even notice. She was looking at Mandor.

“Do you think it was because of what you did?” she asked him.

“I have no way of knowing,” he replied, “but it may well be.”

“But does it tell you anything?” she said.

“Perhaps whoever was responsible did not like having me tinker with his experiment.”

“You really believe there’s an intelligence behind it?”

“Yes.”

“Someone from the Courts?”

“It seems more likely than someone from your end of the world.”

“I suppose so…” she agreed. “Have you any guesses as to the person’s identity?”

He smiled.

“I understand,” she said quickly. “Your business is your business. But a general threat is everybody’s business. That’s what I was really getting at.”

“True,” he acknowledged. “This is why I propose investigating it. I’m at loose ends at the moment. It might be amusing.”

“It is awkward asking you to communicate your findings to me,” she said, “when I do not know what interests might be involved.”

“I appreciate your position,” he replied, “but to the best of my knowledge the treaty provisions still hold and no one in the Courts is promoting any special designs against Amber. In fact… If you like, we might pursue the matter together, at least part of the way.”

“I’ve got the time,” she said.

“I don’t,” I injected quickly. “I’ve some pressing business to attend to.”

Mandor shifted his attention to me.

“About my offer…” he said.

“I can’t,” I told him.

“Very well. Our conversation is not concluded, however. I’ll be in touch later.”

“Okay.”

Fiona looked my way then, also.

“You will keep me posted on Luke’s recovery, and his intentions,” she stated.

“Of course.”

“Good day, then.”

Mandor gave me a small half salute and I returned it.

I began walking then, and as soon as I was out of sight I began shifting.

I found my way to a rocky slope, where I halted and withdrew my Trump for Amber. I raised it, focused my awareness, and transported myself as soon as I felt my way through. I was hoping the main hall would be empty, but at this point I didn’t really care that much.

I came through near Jasra, who was holding an extra cloak over her outstretched left arm. I ducked out the doorway to my left into an empty corridor and made my way to the back stair. Several times I heard voices and I detoured to avoid the speakers. I was able to make it to my rooms without being discovered.

The only rest I had had in what seemed an age and a half had been a fifteen-minute nap before Luke’s spaced-out sorcerous faculty had caused him to summon me to the Looking Glass Bar via a hallucinatory Trump. When? For all I knew, it could have been yesterday — which had been a very full day before that incident.

I barred the door and staggered to the bed, flinging myself down upon it without even removing my boots. Sure, there were all sorts of things I should be doing, but I was in no condition for any of them. I’d returned home because I still felt safest in Amber; despite the fact that Luke had reached me here once.

Someone with a high-powered subconscious might have had a brilliantly revelatory dream following as much crap as I’d been through recently, and then have awakened with a wonderful series of insights and answers detailing appropriate courses of action. I didn’t. I woke once, in a small panic, not knowing where I was. But I opened my eyes and satisfied myself on that count, then went back to sleep. Later — much later, it seemed — I returned by degrees, like some piece of flotsam being pushed higher and higher onto a beach by wave following wave, until finally I was there. I saw no reason for going any further until I realized that my feet hurt. Then I sat up and pulled my boots off, which might have been one of the six greatest pleasures in my life. I removed my socks in a hurry then and threw them into the corner of the room. Why doesn’t anyone else in my line of work seem to get sore feet? I filled the basin and soaked them for a time, then resolved to go barefoot for the next few hours.

Finally I rose, stripped, cleaned up, and put on a pair of Levi’s and a purple flannel shirt of which I am fond. The hell with swords, daggers, and cloaks for a time. I opened the shutters and looked outside. It was dark. Because of clouds, I couldn’t even guess from the stars whether it might be early evening, late night, or almost morning.

It was very quiet in the hall, and there were no sounds as I made my way down the back stair. The kitchen was deserted also, the big fires banked and smoldering low. I didn’t want to stir things up beyond hanging a pot of water to warm for tea while I located some bread and fruit preserves. I turned up a jug of something like grapefruit juice, too, in one of the walk-in ice boxes.

As I sat warming my feet and working my way through the loaf, I began to feel uneasy. I was sipping my tea before I realized what it was. There seemed a great necessity that I be doing something, yet I had no idea what. Now I had something of a breather, and it felt strange. So I decided to start thinking again.

By the time I’d finished eating, I had a few small plans. The first thing I did was to make my way to the main hall, where I removed all of the hats and cloaks from Jasra and swept her off her feet. Later, as I was bearing her stiff form along the upstairs hallway in the direction of my room, a door opened partway and a bleary-eyed Droppa watched me go by.

“Hey, I’ll take two!” he tailed after me. “Reminds me of any first wife,” he added then, and closed the door.

Once I had her installed in my quarters, I drew up a chair and seated myself before her. Garishly clad as part of a savage joke, her hard sort of beauty was not really diminished. She had placed me in extreme peril on one occasion, and I had no desire to free her at a time like this for a possible repeat performance. But the spell that held her claimed my attention for more than one reason and I wanted to understand it fully.

Carefully then, I began exploring the construct which held her. It was not overcomplicated, but I could see that tracing all of its byways was going to take a while. All right. I wasn’t about to stop now. I pushed on ahead into the spell, taking mental notes as I went.

I was busy for hours. After I had solved the spell, I decided to hang some more of my own, times being what they were. The castle came awake about me as I worked. I labored steadily as the day progressed, until everything was in place and I was satisfied with my work. I was also famished.

I moved Jasra off into a corner, pulled on my boots, departed my quarters, and headed for the stair. In that it seemed about lunchtime I checked out the several dining rooms in which the family generally ate. But all of them were deserted and none of them were set up for a meal yet to come. Nor did any of them show signs of a meal having recently been dispatched.

I suppose it was possible my time sense was still skewed and I was much too late or too early; but it did seem that it had been daylight long enough to bring me into the vicinity of the proper hour. Nobody, however, seemed to be eating, so something had to be wrong with this assumption…

Then I heard it — the faint click of cutlery upon plate. I headed in the apparent direction of the sound. Obviously, the meal was taking place in a less frequented setting than usual. I turned right, then left. Yes, they had decided to set up in a drawing room. No matter.

I entered the room, where Llewella was seated with Random’s wife, Vialle, on the red divan, dinner laid on a low table before them. Michael, who worked in the kitchen, stood nearby behind a cart loaded with dishes. I cleared my throat.

“Merlin,” Vialle announced with a sensitivity that always gives me a small chill — she being completely blind. “How pleasant!”

“Hello,” Llewella said. “Come and join us. We’re anxious to hear what you’ve been doing.”

I drew a chair up to the far side of the table and seated myself. Michael came over and laid a fresh setting before me. I thought about it quickly. Anything Vialle heard would doubtless get back to Random. So I gave them a somewhat edited version of recent events — leaving out all references to Mandor, Fiona, and anything having to do with the Courts. It made for a considerably shorter story and let me get to my food sooner.

“Everybody’s been so busy lately,” Llewella remarked when I’d finished talking. “It almost makes me feel guilty.”

I studied the delicate green of her more-than-olive complexion; her full lips, her large catlike eyes.

“But not quite,” she added.

“Where are they all, anyway?” I asked.

“Gerard,” she said, “is down seeing to harbor fortifications, and Julian is in command of the army, which has now been equipped with some firearms and is set to defend the approaches to Kolvir.”.

“You mean Dalt has something in the field already? Coming this way?”

She shook her head. “No, it was a precautionary measure,” she replied, “because of that message from Luke. Dalt’s force had not actually been sighted.”

“Does anyone even know where he is?” I asked…

“Not yet,” she answered, “but we’re expecting some intelligence on that soon.” She shrugged. Then, “Perhaps Julian already has it,” she added.

“Why is Julian in command?” I asked between nibbles. “I’d have thought Benedict would take charge of something like this.”

Llewella looked away, glancing at Vialle, who seemed to feel the shifting of focus.

“Benedict and a small force of his men have escorted Random to Kashfa,” Vialle said, softly.

“Kashfa?” I said: “Why would he want to do that? In fact, Dalt usually hangs out around Kashfa. The area could be dangerous right now.”

She smiled faintly.

“That is why he wanted Benedict and his guard for escort,” she said. “They may even be the intelligence-gathering expedition themselves, though that’s not their reason for going right now.”

“I don’t understand,” I said, “why the trip should be necessary at all.”

She took a sip of water.

“A sudden political upheaval,” she replied: “Some general had taken over in the absence of the queen and the crown prince. The general was just assassinated recently, and Random has succeeded in obtaining agreement for placing his own candidate — an older nobleman on the throne.”

“How’d he do that?”

“Everyone with an interest in the matter was even more interested in seeing Kashfa admitted to the Golden Circle of privileged trade status.”

“So Random bought them off to see his own man in charge,” I observed. “Don’t these Golden Circle treaties usually give us the right to move troops through a client kingdom’s territory with very little in the way of preliminaries?”

“Yes,” she said.

I suddenly recalled that tough-looking emissary of the Crown I’d met at Bloody Bill’s, who had paid his tab in Kashfan currency. I decided I did not really want to know how close in point of time that was to the assassination that had made this recent arrangement possible. What struck me with more immediate force was the picture that now emerged: It looked as if Random had just blocked Jasra and Luke from recovering their usurped throne — which, to be fair, I guess Jasra had usurped herself, years ago. With all that usurping going on, the equities of the thing were more than a little hazy to me. But if Random’s ethics were no better than those which had gone before, they were certainly no worse. It looked now, though, as if any attempt on the part of Luke to regain his mother’s throne would be met by a monarch who possessed a defense alliance with Amber. I suddenly felt willing to bet that the terms of the defense provisions of the alliance included Amber’s assistance in internal troubles as well as help against outside aggressors.

Fascinating. It sounded as if Random were going to an awful lot of trouble to isolate Luke from his power base and any semblance of legitimacy as a head of state. I supposed the next step could be to get him outlawed as a pretender and a dangerous revolutionary, and to put a price on his head. Was Random overreacting? Luke didn’t seem all that dangerous now, especially with his mother in our custody. On the other hand, I didn’t really know how far Random intended to go: Was he just foreclosing all of the threatening options, or was he actually out to get Luke? The latter possibility bothered me in that Luke seemed on halfway good behavior at the moment and possibly in the throes of reconsidering his position. I did not want to see him needlessly thrown to the wolves as a result of overkill on Random’s part.

So, “I suppose this has a lot to do with Luke,” I said to Vialle.

She was silent for a moment, then replied, “It was Dalt that he seemed concerned about.”

I shrugged mentally. It seemed that it would come down to the same thing in Random’s mind, since he would see Dalt as the military force Luke would turn to to recover the throne. So I said, “Oh,” and went on eating.

There were no new facts to be had beyond this, and nothing to clarify Random’s thinking any further, so we lapsed into small talk while I considered my position once again. It still came down to a feeling that urgent action was necessary and uncertainty as to what form it should take. My course was determined in an unexpected fashion sometime during dessert.

A courtier named Randel — tall, thin, dark, and generally smiling — came into the room. I knew something was up because he was not smiling and he was moving faster than usual. He swept us with his gaze, fixed upon Vialle, advanced quickly and cleared his throat.

“M’lady Majesty…?” he began.

Vialle turned her head slightly in his direction:

“Yes, Randel?” she said. “What is it?”

“The delegation from Begma has just arrived,” he answered, “and I find myself without instructions as to the nature of their welcome and any special arrangements that would be suitable.”

“Oh dear,” Vialle said, laying aside her fork. “They weren’t due until the day after tomorrow, when Random will be back. He’s the one they’ll be wanting to complain to. What have you done with them?”

“I seated them in the Yellow Room,” he replied, “and told them I would go and announce their arrival.”

She nodded.

“How many of them are there?”

“The prime minister, Orkuz,” he said, “his secretary, Nayda — who is also his daughter — and another daughter, Coral. There are also four servants — two men and two women.”

“Go and inform the household staff, and be sure that appropriate quarters are made ready for them,” she directed, “and alert the kitchen. They may not have had lunch.”

“Very good, Your Highness,” he said, beginning to back away.

“…Then report to me in the Yellow Room, to let me know it’s been done,” she continued, “and I’ll give you additional instructions at that time.”

“Consider it done,” he replied, and he hurried off.

“Merlin, Llewella,” Vialle said, beginning to rise, “come help me entertain them while arrangements are being made.”

I gulped my last bite of dessert and got to my feet. I did not really feel like talking to a diplomat and his party, but I was handy and it was one of life’s little duties.

“Uh… What are they here for, anyway?” I asked.

“Some sort of protest over what we’ve been doing in Kashfa,” she replied. “They’ve never been friendly with Kashfa, but I’m not sure now whether they’re here to protest Kashfa’s possible admission to the Golden Circle or whether they’re upset about our interfering in Kashfa’s domestic affairs. It could be they’re afraid they’ll lose business with such a close neighbor suddenly enjoying the same preferred trade status they have. Or it may be they had different plans for Kashfa’s throne and we just foreclosed them. Maybe both. Whatever… We can’t tell them anything we don’t know.”

“I just wanted to know what subjects to avoid,” I said.

“All of the above,” she answered.

“I was wondering the same thing myself,” Llewella said. “I was also wondering, though, whether they might have any useful information on Dalt. Their intelligence service must keep a close eye on doings in and about Kashfa.”

“Don’t pursue that topic,” Vialle said, moving toward the door. “If they let something slip or want to give something away, fine. Bring it home. But don’t show them you’d like to know.”

Vialle took my arm and I guided her out, heading toward the Yellow Room. Llewella produced a small mirror from somewhere and inspected her features. Obviously pleased, she put it away, then remarked, “Lucky you showed up, Merlin. An extra smiling face is always useful at times like this.”

“Why don’t I feel lucky?” I said.

We made our way to the room where the prime minister and his daughters waited. Their servants had already retired to the kitchen for refreshments. The official party was still hungry, which says something about protocol, especially since it seemed to take a long while before some trays of provender could be attractively assembled. Orkuz was of medium stature and stocky, his black hair tastefully streaked, the lines on his broad face seeming to indicate that he did a lot more frowning than smiling — a practice in which he indulged most of the while that afternoon. Nayda’s was a more pleasingly sculpted version of his face, and though she showed the same tendency toward corpulence, it was held firmly in check at an attractive level of roundedness. Also, she smiled a lot and she had pretty teeth. Coral, on the other hand, was taller than either her father or sister, slender, her hair a reddish brown. When she smiled it seemed less official. Also, there was something vaguely familiar about her. I wondered whether I had met her at some boring reception years before. If I had, though, I felt I might have remembered.

After we had been introduced and wine had been poured, Orkuz made a brief comment to Vialle about “recent distressing news” concerning Kashfa. Llewella and I quickly moved to her side for moral support, but she simply said that such matters would have to be dealt with fully upon Random’s return, and that for the moment she wished merely to see to their comfort. He was completely agreeable to this, even to the point of smiling. I had the impression he just wanted the purpose of his visit on the record immediately. Llewella quickly turned the conversation to the matter of his journey, and he graciously allowed the subject to be changed. Politicians are wonderfully programmed.

I learned later that the Begman ambassador wasn’t even aware of his arrival, which would seem to indicate that Orkuz had come so quickly he had preceded any notification to their embassy. And he hadn’t even bothered dropping in there, but had come straight to the palace and had a message sent over. I learned this a little later, when he asked to have the message delivered. Feeling somewhat supernumerary to Llewella’s and Vialle’s graceful cascades of neutral talk, I dropped back a pace to plan my escape. I was not at all interested in whatever game was being set up.

Coral backed off also and sighed. Then she glanced at me and smiled, surveyed the room quickly and came closer.

“I’ve always wanted to visit Amber,” she said then.

“Is it the way you imagined it?” I asked.

“Oh, yes. So far. Of course, I haven’t seen that much of it yet…

I nodded, and we withdrew a little farther from the others.

“Have I met you somewhere before?” I asked.

“I don’t think so,” she said. “I haven’t traveled that much, and I don’t believe you’ve been out our way. Have you?”

“No, though I’ve grown curious about it recently.”

“I do know something of your background, though,” she went on, “just from general gossip. I know you’re from the Courts of Chaos; and I know you went to school on that Shadow world you Amberites seem to visit so frequently. I’ve often wondered what it was like.”

I took the bait and I began telling her about school and my job, about a few places I’d visited and things I’d enjoyed doing. We made our way to a sofa across the room as I spoke, and we got more comfortable. Orkuz, Nayda, Llewella, and Vialle didn’t seem to miss us, and if I had to be here I found talking with Coral more enjoyable, than listening to them. Not to monopolize things, though, I asked her about herself.

She began telling me of a girlhood spent in and around Begma, of her fondness for the outdoors — of horses and of boating on the many lakes and rivers in that region — of books she had read, and of relatively innocent dabblings in magic. A member of the household staff came in just as she was getting around to a description of some interesting rites performed by members of the local farming community to insure the fertility of the crops, and she approached Vialle and told her something. Several more staff members were in view outside the doorway. Vialle then said something to Orkuz and Nayda, who nodded and moved toward the entrance. Llewella departed the group and came our way.

“Coral,” she said, “your suite is ready. One of the staff will show you where it is. Perhaps you’d like to freshen up or rest after your journey.”

We got to our feet.

“I’m not really tired,” Coral said, looking at me rather than Llewella, a hint of a smile at the corners of her mouth.

What the hell. I suddenly realized I had been enjoying her company, so, “If you’d care to change into something simpler,” I said, “I’ll be glad to show you a bit of the town. Or the palace.”

It became a full smile worth seeing.

“I’d much rather do that,” she said.

“Then I’ll meet you back here in about half an hour,” I told her.

I saw her out, and accompanied her and the others as far as the foot of the big stairway. In that I still had on my Levi’s and purple shirt, I wondered whether I should change into something more in keeping with local fashion. The hell with it, I decided then. We were just going to be knocking around. I’d simply add my swordbelt and weapons, a cloak, and my best boots. Might trim my beard, though, since I had a little time. And maybe a quick manicure…

“Uh, Merlin…”

It was Llewella, her hand on my elbow, steering me toward an alcove. I allowed myself to be steered.

Then, “Yes?” I said. “What’s up?”

“Hm…” she said. “Kind of cute, isn’t she?”

“I suppose so,” I replied.

“You got the hots for her?”

“Jeez, Llewella! I don’t know, I just met the lady.”

“…And made a date with her.”

“Come on! I deserve a break today. I enjoyed talking with her. I’d like to show her around a bit. I think we’d have a good time. What’s wrong wish that?”

“Nothing,” she answered, “so long as you keep things in perspective.”

“What perspective did you have in mind?”

“It strikes me as faintly curious,” she said, “that Orkuz brought along his two good-looking daughters.”

“Nayda is his secretary,” I said, “and Coral’s wanted to see the place for some time.”

“Uh-huh, and it would be a very good thing for Begma if one of them just happened to latch onto a member of the family.”

“Llewella, you’re too damned suspicious,” I said.

“It comes of having lived a long time.”

“Well, I hope to live a long time myself, and I hope it doesn’t make me look for an ulterior motive in every human act.”

She smiled. “Of course. Forget I said anything,” she told me, knowing I wouldn’t. “Have a good time.” I growled politely and headed for my room.