“No, she's just sleeping. She's under a spell.”
“Why don't you release her? She doesn't look like much of a danger.”
“I don't think she is now. Just the opposite, in fact,” I said. “And we will release her, soon. My brother Mandor will have to undo it, though. It's his spell.”
“Mandor? I don't really know much about you-or your family-do I?”
“Nope,”,I said, “and vice versa. Listen, I don't even know what day it is.” I crossed the room and peered out the window. There was daylight. It was cloudy though, and I couldn't guess the time. “There's something you should do right away Go see your father and let him know you're all right. Tell him you got lost in the caverns or took a wrong turn into the Corridor Mirrors and wound up on some other plane of existece or something. Anything. To avoid a diplomatic incident. Okay?”
She finished her drink and nodded. Then she looked at me and blushed and looked away.
“We'll get together again before I leave, won't we?”
I reached out and patted her shoulder, not really knowing what my feelings were. Then I realized that wouldn't do, and I stepped forward and embraced her.
“You know it,” I said as I stroked her hair.
“Thanks for showing me around town.”
“We'll have to do it again,” I told her, “as soon as the pace slackens.”
“Uh-huh.”
We walked to the door.
“I want to see you soon,” she said.
“I'm fading fast,” I told her, as I opened it. “I've ba through hell and back.”
She touched my cheek.
“Poor Merlin,” she said. “Sleep tight.”
I gulped the rest of my wine and withdrew my Trumps. I wanted to do just what she said, but certain unavoidables came first. I riffled my way to the Ghostwheel's card, removed it, and regarded it.
Almost immediately, following the faintest drop in temperature and the barest formation of desire on my part, Ghostwheel appeared before me-a red circle turning in the middle of the air.
“Uh, hello, Dad,” it stated. “I was wondering where you'd gotten to. When I checked back at the cave, you were gone, and none of my shadow-indexing procedures could turn you up. It never even occurred to me that you might simply have come home. I-”
“Lacer,” I said. “I'm in a hurry. Get me down to the chamber of the Pattern fast.”
“There's something I'd better tell you first.”
“What?”
“That force that followed you to the Keep-the one I hid you from in the cave..?”
“Yes.”
“It was the Pattern itself that was seeking you.”
“I guessed that,” I said, “later. We've had our encounter and sort of come to terms for now. Get me down there right away. It's important.”
“Sir, I am afraid of that thing.”
“Then take me as close as you dare and step aside. I have to check something out.”
“Very well. Come this way.”
I took a step forward. Ghost rose into the air, rotated ninety degrees toward me, and dropped quickly, passing my head, shoulders, torso and vanishing beneath my feet. The lights went out as he did so, and I called up my Logrus vision immediately. It showed me that I stood in the passageway outside the big door to the chamber of the Pattern.
“Ghost?” I said softly.
There was no reply.
I moved forward, turned the comer, advanced to the door, and leaned upon it. It was still unlocked, and it yielded to my pushing. Frakir pulsed once upon my wrist.
Frakir? I inquired.
There came no answer from that quarter either.
Lose your voice, lady?
She pulsed twice. I stroked her.
As the door opened before me, I was certain that the Pattern had grown brighter. The observation was quickly pushed aside, however. A dark-haired woman stood at the Pattern's center, her back to me, her arms upraised. I almost shouted the name I thought she might answer to, but she was gone before my vocal mechanism responded. I slumped against the wall.
“I really feel used,” I said aloud. “You've run my ass ragged, you placed my life in jeopardy more than once, you got me to perform to satisfy your metaphysical voyeurism, then you kicked me out after you got the last thing you wanted-a slightly brighter glow. I guess that gods or powers or whatever the hell you are don't have to say `Thank you' or `I'm sorry' or 'Go to hell' when they've finished using someone. And obviously you feel no need to justify yourself to me. Well, I'm not a baby carriage. I resent being pushed around by you and the Logrus in whatever game you're playing. How'd you like it if I opened a vein and bled all over you?”
Immediately there was a great coalescence of energy at my side of the Pattern. With a heavy whooshing sound a tower of blue flame built itself before me, widened, assumed genderless features of an enormous inhuman beauty. I had to shade my eyes against it.
“You do not understand,” came a voice modulated of the roaring of flames.
“I know. That's why I'm here.”
“Your efforts are not unappreciated.”
“Glad to hear it.”
“There was no other way to conduct matters.”
“Well, were they conducted to your satisfaction?”
“They were.”
“Then you are welcome, I guess.”
“You are insolent, Merlin.”
“The way I feel right now I've nothing to lose. I'm just too damned tired to care what you do to me. So I came down here to tell you that I think you owe me a big one. That's all.”
I turned my back on it then.
“Not even Oberon dared address me so,” it said.
I shrugged and took a step toward the door. When I set my foot down, I was back in my apartment.
I shrugged again, then went and splashed water in my face.
“You still okay, Dad?”
There was a ring around the bowl. It rose into the air and followed me about the room.
“I'm all right,” I acknowledged. “How about yourself ?”
“Fine. It ignored me completely.”
“Do you know what it's up to?” I asked.
“It seems to be dueling with the Logrus for control of Shadow. And it just won a round. Whatever happened seems to have strengthened it. You were involved, right?”
“Right.”
“Where were you after you left the cave I'd put you in?”
“You know of a land that lies between the shadows?”
“Between? No. That doesn't make sense.”
“Well, that's where I was.”
“How'd you get there?”
“I don't know. With considerable difflculty, I'd guess. Are Mandor and Jasra atl right?”
“The last time I looked they were.”
“How about Luke?”
“I'd no reason to seek him out. Do you want me to?”
“Not just now. Right now I want you to go upstairs and look in on the royal suite. I want to know whether it is, at the moment, occupied. And if so, by whom. I also want you to check the fireplace in the bedroom. See whether loose stone which was removed from an area to the right of it has been replaced or is still lying upon the hearth.”
He vanished, and I paced. I was afraid to sit down or to lie down. I'd a feeling that I'd go to sleep instantly if I did and that I'd be difficult to awaken. But Ghost spun back into existence before I chalked up much mileage.
“The Queen, Vialle, is present,” he said, “in her studio, the loose stone has been replaced, and there is a dwarf in the hall knocking on doors.”
“Damn,” I said. “Then they know it's missing. A dwarf ?”
“A dwarf.”
I sighed.
“I guess I'd better walk on upstairs, return the Jewel, and try to explain what happened. If Vialle likes my story, she might just forget to mention it to Random.”
“I'll transfer you up there.”
“No, that would not be too politic. Or polite either. I'd better go knock on the door and get admitted properly this time.”
“How do people know when to knock and when to go on in?”
“In general, if it's closed, you knock on it.”
“As the dwarf is doing?”