I felt something fall upon me.
Sorry, boss. I hit around his knee, By the time I reached his throat he was already on fire, Frakir said.
All's well that ends well, I replied. You weren't singed, were you?
Didn't even feel the heat.
“Sorry I hit you with that piece of ice,” Jurt said. “I was aiming at Borel.”
I moved away from the plain of hands, heading toward the trail.
“Indirectly it helped,” I said, but I didn't feel like thanking him. How could I know where he'd really been, aiming? I glanced back once, and several of the hands Jurt had kicked were giving us the finger.
Why had I been wearing Grayswandir? Would another weapon have affected a Logrus-ghost as strongly? Had it really been my father, then, who had brought me here? And had he felt I might need the extra edge his weapon could provide? I wanted to think so, to believe that he had been more than a Pattern-ghost. And if he was, I wondered at his part in the entire affair. What might he know about all this? And which side might he be on?
The winds died down as we moved along the trail, and the only arms we saw extended above the ice bore torches which brightened our way for a great distance-to the foot of the far escarpment, actually. Nothing untoward occurred as we crossed that frozen place.
“From what you've told me and what I've seen,” Jurt said, “I get the impression it's the Pattern that's sponsoring this trip and the Logrus that's trying to punch your ticket.”
Just then the ice cracked in a numnber of places. Fracture lines rushed toward us from several directions, both sides. They slowed, however, as they neared our trail, causing me to notice for the first time that it had risen above the general level of the plain. We now occupied something of a causeway, and the ice shattered itself harmlessly along its sides.
“Like that,” Jurt observed with a gesture. “How'd you get into this mess anyway?”
“It all started on April thirtieth,” I began.
VII
Some of the arms seemed to be waving good-bye to us as we commenced our climb after reaching the wall. Jurt thumbed his nose at them.
“Can you blame me for wanting to escape this place?” he asked.
“Not in the least,” I replied.
“If that transfusion you gave me really placed me beyond control of the Logrus, then I might dwell here for some indefinite period of time.”
“Sounds possible.”
“That's why you must realize I threw the ice at Borel, not you. Besides the fact that you're smarter than he was and might be able to find a way out of here, he was a creature of the Logrus, too, and wouldn't have had enough fire if the need arose.”
“That had occurred to me also,” I said, withholding a possible out I'd guessed at, to keep myself indispensable. “But what are you getting at?”
“I'm trying to say that I'll give you any kind of help you need, just so you don't leave me behind when you go. I know we never got along before, but I'm willing to put that aside if you are.”
“I always was,” I said. “You were the one who started all our fights and kept me in trouble.”
He smiled.
“I never did, and I won't do it again,” he said. “Yeah, okay, you're right. I didn't like you, and maybe I still don't. But I won t mess you up when we need each other this way.”
“The way I see it, you need me a hell of a lot more than I need you.”
“I can't argue with that, and I can't make you trust me,” he said. “Wish I could.” We climbed a little more before he continued, and I fancied the air had already grown a trifle warmer. Then, “But look at it this way,” he finally continued, “I resemble your brother Jurt, and I come close to representing something he once was-close, but not a perfect fit. I began diverging from his model beginning with our race. My circumstances are uniquely my own, and I've been thinking steadily since I gained my autonomy. The real Jurt knows things I do not and has powers I don't possess. But I have his memories up through his taking the Logrus, and I'm the second greatest authority there is on the way he thinks. Now, if he's become such a threat as you've indicated, you might find me more than a little useful when it comes to second-guessing him.”
“You have a point,” I acknowledged. “Unless, of course, the two of you were to throw in together.”
He shook his head.
“He wouldn't trust me,” he said, “and I wouldn't trust him. We'd both know better. A matter of introspection See what I mean?”
“It means neither one of you is trustworthy.” His brow furrowed; then he nodded.
“Yeah, I guess so,” he said.
“So why should I trust you?”
“Right now because you've got me by the balls. Later on because I'll be so damn useful.”
After several more minutes ascending, I told him; “The thing that bothers me the most about you is that its was not all that long ago that Jurt took the Logrus. You are not an older, milder version of my least favorite relative. You are a very recent model. As for your divergence from the original, I can't see this short while as making that much difference.”
He shrugged.
“What can I say that I haven't said already?” he asked. “Let's just deal in terms of power and self interest then.”
I smiled. We both knew that that was the way it was anyway The conversation helped pass the time, though. A thought came to me as we climbed.
“Do you think you could walk through Shadow?” I asked him.
“I don't know,” he answered after a time. “My last memory from before I came to this place was of completing the Logrus. I guess the recording was completed at that time, too. So I have no recollection of Suhuy instructing me in shadow-walking, no memory of trying it. I'd guess I could do it, wouldn't you think?”
I paused to catch my breath.
“It's such an arcane matter that I don't even feel qualified to speculate on it. I thought maybe you'd come equipped with ready-made answers for things like that-some sort of preternatural awareness of your limits and abilities.”
“Afraid not. Unless you'd call a hunch preternatural.”
“I suppose I would if you were right often enough.”
“Shit. It's too soon to tell.”
“Shit. You're right.”
Soon we'd climbed above the line of haze from which the flakes seemed to fall. A little farther, and the winds died to breezes. Farther still, and these subsided to nothing. The rim was in sight by then, and shortly thereafter we achieved it.
I turned and looked back down. All I could see was a bit of glitter through the mist. In the other direction our trail ran on in a zigzag fashion, here and there looking like a series of Morse dashes-regular interruptions, possibly rock formations. We followed it to the right until it turned left.
I reserved some attention for Jurt, looking for signs of recognition at any feature of the terrain. A talk is only words, and he was still some version of the Jurt I'd grown up with. And if he became responsible for my falling into any sort of trap, I was going to pass Grayswandir through his personal space as soon as I became aware of it.
Flicker...
Formation to the left, cavelike, as if the hole in the rock opened into another reality. An oddly shaped car driving up a steep city street...
“Wlhat..?” Jurt began.
“I still don't know their significance. A whole mess of sequences like this were with me earlier, though. In fact, at first I thought you were one of them.”
“Looks real enough to walk into.”
“Maybe it is.”
“It might be our way out of here.”
“Somehow that just seems a little too easy.”
“Well, let's give it a try,”
“Go ahead,” I told him.
We departed the trail, advanced upon the reality window, and kept going. In a moment he was on the side walk next to the street up which the car was passing. He turned and waved. I saw his mouth working, but no words came to me.