You got blood all over me, boss.
“Could have been fire,” I observed.
l got singed a little, too, back at the stones.
“Sorry about that. Figure out what's going on yet?”
No new instructions, if that's what you mean. But I've been thinking, now I know how to do it, and this place gets more and more fascinating. This whole business of Pattern ghosts, for instance. If the Pattern can't penetrate here directly, it can at least employ agents. Wouldn't you think the Logrus might have some way of doing the same?
“I suppose it's possible.”
I get the impression there's some sort of duel going on between them here, on the underside of reality, between shadows. What if this place came first? Before Shadow, even? What if they're been fighting here since the very beginning, in some strange metaphysical way?
“What if they have?”
That could almost make Shadow an afterthought, a by prod uct of the tension between the poles.
“I'm afraid you've lost me, Frakir.”
What if Amber and the Courts of Chaos were created only to provide agents for this conflict?
“And what if this idea were placed within you by the Logrus during your recent enhancement?”
Why?
“Another way to make me think that the conflict is more important than the people. Another pressure to make me choose a side.”
I don't feel manipulated.
“As you pointed out, you're to new to this thinking business. And that's a pretty damned abstract line of thought for you to be following this early in the game.”
Is it?
“Take my word for it.”
What does that leave us with?
“Unwelcome attention from On High.”
Better watch your language if this is their war zone.
“A pox on both their houses. For some reason I don't understand, they need me for this game. They'll put up with lt.”
From somewhere up ahead I heard a roll of thunder.
See what I mean?
“It's a bluff,” I replied.
Whose?
“The Pattern's, I believe. Its ghosts seem in charge of reality in this sector.”
You know, we could be wrong on all of this. Just shooting in the dark.
“I also feel shot at out of the dark. That's why I refuse to play by anybody else's rules.”
Have you got a plan?
“Hang loose. And if I say 'kill,' do it. Let's get to where we're going.”
I began to run again, leaving the fog, leaving the ghosts to play at being ghosts in their ghost city. Bright road through dark country, me running, reverse shadow. shifting, as the land tried to change me. And there ahead a flare and more thunder, virtual street scene flashing into and out of existence beside me.
And then it was as if I raced myself, dark figure darting along a bright way-till I realized it was indeed, somehow, a mirror effect. The movements of the figure to my right which paralleled my own mimicked mine; fleeting scenes to my left were imaged to the other's right.
What's going on, Merle?
“Don't know,” I said. “But I'm not in the mood for symbolism, allegory, and assorted metaphorical crap. If it's supposed to mean that life is a race with yourself, then it sucks-unless they're real platitudinizing Powers that are running this show. Then I guess it would be in character. What do you think?”
I think you might still be in danger of being struck by lightning,
The lightning did not follow, but my reflection did. The imaging effect continued for much longer than any of the previous beside-the-road sequences I'd witnessed. I was about to dismiss it, to ignore it completely, when my reflection put on a burst of speed and shot ahead of me,
Uh-oh,
“Yeah,” I agreed, stepping up my own pace to close the gap with and match the stride of that dark other.
We were parallel for no more than a few meters after I caught up. Then it began to pull ahead again. I stepped up my pace and caught up once more. Then, on an impulse I sucked air, bore down, and moved ahead.
My double noted it after a time, moved faster, began to gain. I pushed harder, held my lead. What the hell were we racing for anyway?
I looked ahead. In the distance I could see an area where the trail widened. There appeared to be a tape stretched across it at that point. Okay. Whatever the significance, I decided to go for it.
I held my lead for perhaps a hundred meters before my shadow began to gain on me again. I leaned into it and was able to hold that shortened distance for a time. Then it moved again, coming up on me at a pace I suspected might be hard to hold the rest of the way to the tape. Still, it was not the sort of thing one waited around to find out. I poured it on. I ran all out.
The son of a bitch gained on me, kept gaining, caught me, drew ahead, faltered for an instant. I was back beside it in that instant. But the thing did not flag again. It held the terrible pace at which we were now moving, and I had no intention of stopping unless my heart exploded.
We ran on, damn near side by side. I didn't know whether I had a finishing spurt in me or not. I couldn't tell whether I was slightly ahead, just abreast, or slightly to the rear of the other. We pounded our parallel gleaming trails toward the line of brightness when abruptly the sensation of a glass interface vanished. The two narrowseeming trails became one wide one. The other's arms and legs were moving differently from my own.
We drew closer and closer together as we entered the final stretch-close enough, finally, for recognition. It was not an image of myself that I was running against, for its hair streamed back and I saw that its left ear was missing.
I found a final burst of speed. So did the other. We were awfully close together when we came to the tape. I think that I hit it first, but I could not be certain.
We went on through and collapsed, gasping. I rolled quickly, to keep him under surveillance, but he just lay there, panting. I rested my right hand on the hilt of my weapon and listened to the sound of my blood in my ears.
When I'd caught my breath somewhat, I remarked, “Didn't know you could run a race like that, Jurt.”
He gave a brief laugh.
“There're a lot of things you don't know about me, brother.”
“I'm sure,” I said.
Then he wiped his brow with the back of his hand, and I noted that the finger he'd lost in the caves of Kolvir was back in place. Either this was the Jurt of a different time line or—
“So how's Julia?” I asked him. “Is she going to be alt right?”
“Julia?” he said. “Who's that?”
“Sorry,” I said. “You're the wrong Jurt.”
“Now what else does that mean?” he asked, propping himself on an elbow and glaring at me with his good eye.
“The real Jurt was never anywhere near the Pattern of Amber-”
“I am the real Jurt!”
“You've got all your fingers. He lost one very recently. I was there.”
He looked away suddenly
“You must be a Logrus-ghost,” I continued. “It must pull the same stunt the Pattern does-recording those who make it through it.”
“Is that... what happened?” he asked. “I couldn't quite recall... why I was here-except to race with you.”
“I'll bet your most recent memories before this place involve negotiating the Logrus.”
He looked back. He nodded.
“You're right. What does it all mean?” he asked.
“I'm not sure,” I said. “But I've got some ideas about it. This place is a kind of eternal underside to Shadow. It's damn near off limits for both the Pattern and the Logrus. But both can apparently penetrate here by means of their ghosts-artificial constructs from the recordings they made of us back when we passed through them-”
“You mean that all I am is some sort of recording?” He looked as if he were about to cry. “Everything seemed so glorious just a little while ago. I'd made it through the Logrus. All of Shadow lay at my feet.” He massaged his temples. Then, “You!” he spat. “I was somehow brought here because of you-to compete with you, to show you up in this race.”