“I remember,” I stated.
Dalt stared at the black lines in the air that faded, smokelike, between us. He actually smiled then, a little.
“Merlin,” he said, “son of Amber, Prince of Chaos, the man who dug my grave.”
“What’s this?” Luke asked.
“A little conversational gambit,” I replied. “You’ve a good memory, Dalt — for faces.”
He chuckled.
“Hard to forget something like a grave opening itself,” he said. “But I’ve no quarrel with you, Merlin.”
“Nor I you — now,” I said.
He grunted then and I grunted back and considered us introduced. I turned back toward Luke.
“Is the path itself giving you any trouble?” I asked.
“No,” he replied. “It’s nothing at all like those stories I’d heard about the Black Road. It looks a little bleak at times, but nothing’s really threatened us.” He glanced downward and chuckled. “Of course it’s only a few yards wide,” he added, “and this is the broadest it’s been, so far.”
“Still,” I said, opening my senses and studying its emanations with my Logrus sight, “I’d think something might have threatened.”
“I guess we’ve been lucky,” he said.
Again, Nayda laughed, and I felt foolish. The presence of a ty’iga would count as surely as my own in offsetting the dire effects of a Chaos roadway in the realm of Order.
“Guess you had a little luck coming,” I said.
“You’re going to need a horse, Merle,” he said then.
“I suppose you’re right,” I agreed.
I was afraid to use Logrus magic and call attention to my location. Still, I had already learned that the spikard could be used in a similar fashion, and I entered it with my will, extended, extended, made contact, summoned…
“It’ll be along any minute,” I said. “Did you say something about our gaining on them?”
“That’s what Nayda tells me,” he explained. “She has an amazing rapport with her sister — not to mention a high sensitivity to this pathway itself.
“Knows a lot about demons, too,” he added.
“Oh, are we likely to encounter any?” I asked her.
“It was demonformed warriors from the Courts who abducted Coral,” she said. “They seem headed toward a tower up ahead.”
“How far ahead?” I asked.
“Hard to say, since we’re cutting through Shadow,” she answered.
The trail, which consisted of blackened grasses and which produced the same effect on any tree or shrub that so much as overhung it, wound its way through a hilly area now; and as I stepped onto and off of it I noted that it seemed brighter and warmer each time I departed. It had reached this point now after having been virtually undetectable in the vicinity of Kashfa — an index of how far we were into the realm of the Logrus.
A little past the next bending of the trail, I heard a whinny from off to the right.
“Excuse me,” I said. “Delivery time,” and I departed the trail and entered a grove of oval-leafed trees.
Snorting and stamping sounds reached me from ahead, and I followed them down shaded ways.
“Wait up!” Luke called. “We shouldn’t separate.”
But the wood was fairly dense, not at all easy going for someone on horseback, so I hollered back, “Don’t worry!” and plunged ahead.
… And that, of course, was why he was there.
Fully saddled and bridled, his reins tangled in the dense foliage, he was cursing in horse-talk, shaking his head from side to side, pawing at the earth. I halted stared.
I may have given the impression that I would rather pull on a pair of Adidas and jog through Shadow than plunge through on the back of a beast driven half-mad by the changes going on about it. Or ride a bicycle. Or hop through on a pogo stick.
Nor would this impression be incorrect. It is not that I don’t know how to drive the things. It is just that I’d never been particularly fond of them. Admitted, I never had the use of one of those wonder horses, such as Julian’s Morgenstern, Dad’s Star, or Benedict’s Glemdenning, which stood to mortal horses in terms of life span, strength, and endurance as did Amberites to the inhabitants of most shadows.
I looked all about, but could detect no injured rider…
“Merlin!” I heard Luke call, but my attention was nearer at hand. I advanced slowly, not wanting to upset him further. “Are you all right?”
I had simply put in an order for a horse. Any old hay burner would have served, for purposes of keeping up with my companions.
I found myself looking at an absolutely lovely animal — black and orange — striped like a tiger. In this, he resembled Glemdenning with his red and black striping. In that I didn’t know where Benedict’s mount came from either, I was glad to let it be the place of magic.
I advanced slowly.
“Merle! Anything wrong?”
I didn’t want to shout back a reply and frighten the poor beast. I placed my hand gently upon his neck.
“It’s okay,” I said. “I like you. I’ll undo it and we’ll be friends, all right?”
I took my time untangling the reins, using my other hand to massage his neck and shoulders. When he was free he did not pull away, but seemed to study me.
“Come on,” I said, taking up the reins, “this way.”
I led him back the way I had come, talking the while. I realized by the time we emerged that I actually liked him. I met Luke about then, a blade in his hand.
“My God!” he said. “No wonder it took you so long! You stopped to paint it!”
“You like, huh?”
“You ever want to get rid of that one, I’ll make you a good offer.”
“I don’t think I’ll be getting rid of him,” I said.
“What’s his name?”
“Tiger,” I said without premeditation, and then I mounted.
We headed back to the trail, where even Dalt eyed my mount with something like pleasure. Nayda reached out and stroked the black and orange mane.
“Now we may be able to make it in time,” she said, “if we hurry.”
I mounted, and I guided Tiger over onto the trail. I anticipated all manner of reactions to the trail, as I recalled from my father’s story the possibly intimidating effects of the thing upon animals. It didn’t seem to bother him, though, and I released the breath I hadn’t realized I was holding.
“In time for what?” I asked as we found a formation — Luke in the lead, Dalt behind him and to the right, Nayda to the left of the trail, rear, me to her right and somewhat back.
“I cannot tell for certain,” she said, “because she is still sedated. However, I do know that she is no longer being moved; and I have the impression that her abductors have taken refuge in the tower, where the trail is much wider.”
“Hm,” I said. “You wouldn’t have happened to notice the rate of change in width per unit of distance traveled on this trail, would you?”
“I was in liberal arts,” she said, smiling. “Remember.”
She turned suddenly then, glancing in Luke’s direction. He was still an entire horse’s length ahead, eyes front — though he had looked back moments before.
“Damn you!” she said softly. “Being with you both this way gets me to thinking about school. Then I start talking that way —”
“In English,” I said.
“Did I say that in English?”
“Yes.”
“Shit! Help me if you catch me at it, will you?”
“Of course,” I said. “It seems to show you’d enjoyed it somewhat, despite its being a job Dara’d laid on you. And you’re probably the only ty’iga with a degree from Berkeley.”
“Yes, I enjoyed it — confused as I was over which of you was which. Those were the happiest days in my life, with you and Luke, back in school. For years I tried to learn your mothers’ names so I’d know who I was supposed to be protecting. You were both so cagey, though.”