Snicker-snack. The limb fell to the ground and I moved in.
I swung three blows which passed all the way through its head from different angles before I was able to sever it. It kept making clicking noises, though, and the torso kept pitching and scrabbling about on the remaining limbs.
I don't know how many times I struck after that. I just kept at it until the creature was literally diced. Luke had begun shouting “Old!” each time that I struck. I was perspiring somewhat by then, and I noticed that heat waves or something seemed to be causing my view of the distant flowers to ripple in a disturbing fashion. I felt foresighted as all hell, though-the Vorpal Sword I'd appropriated back in the bar had proved a fine weapon. I j, swung it through a high arc, which I'd noted seemed to cleanse it entirely, and then I began folding it back into its original compact form. It was as soft as flower,petals, and it still gave off a faint dusty glow...
“Bravo!” said a familiar voice, and I fumed until I saw the smile followed by the Cat, who was tapping his paws lightly together. “Callooh! Callay!” he added. “Well done, beamish boy!”
The background wavering grew stronger, and the sky darkened. I heard Luke say “Hey!” and when I glanced back I saw him getting to his feet, moving forward. When I looked again I could see the bar forming at the Cat's back, and I caught a glimpse of the brass rail. My head began to swim.
“There's normally a deposit on the Vorpal Sword,” the '' Cat was saying. “But since you're returning it intact—”
Luke was beside me. I could hear music again, and he was humming along with it. Now it was the clearing, with its butchered Fire Angel, that seemed the superimposition, as the bar increased in solidity, taking on nuances of color and shading.
But the place seemed somehow smaller-the tables closer together, the music softer, the mural more compressed and its artist out of sight. Even the Caterpillar and his mushroom had retreated to a shadowy nook, and both seemed shrunken, the blue smoke less dense. I took this as a vaguely good sign, for if our presence there were a result of Luke's state of mind then perhaps the fixation was losing its hold on him.
“Luke?” I said.
He moved up to the bar beside me.
“Yeah?” he answered.
“You know you're on a trip, don't you?”
“I don't... I'm not sure what you mean,” he said.
`'When Mask had you prisoner I think he slipped you some acid,” I said. “Is that possible?”
“Who's Mask?” he asked me.
“The new head honcho at the Keep.”
“Oh, you mean Sharu Garrul,” he said. “I do remember that he had on a blue mask.”
I saw no reason to go into an explanation as to why Mask wasn't Sharu. He'd probably forget, anyway. I just nodded and said, “The boss.”
“Well... yes, I guess he could have given me something,” he replied. “You mean that all this..?” He gestured toward the room at large.
I nodded.
“Sure, it's real,” I said. “But we can transport ourselves into hallucinations. They're all real somewhere. Acid'll do it.”
“I'll be damned,” he said.
“I gave you some stuff to bring you down,” I told him. “But it may take a while.”
He licked his lips and glanced about.
“Well, there's no hurry,” he said. Then he smiled as a distant screaming began and the demons started in doing nasty things to the burning woman off in the mural. “I kind of like it here.”
I placed the folded weapon back upon the bartop. Luke rapped on the surface beside it and called for another round of brews. I backed away, shaking my head.
. “I've got to go now,” I told him. “Someone's still after me, and he just came close.”
“Animals don't count,” Luke said.
“The one I just chopped up does,” I answered. “It was sent.”
I looked at the broken doors, wondering what might come through them next. Fire Angels have been known to hunt in pairs.
“But I've got to talk to you...,” I continued.
“Not now,” he said, turning away.
“You know it's important.”
“I can't think right,” he answered.
I supposed that had to be true, and there was no sense trying to drag him back to Amber or anywhere else. He'd J just fade away and show up here again. His head would have to clear and his fixation dissipate before we could discuss mutual problems.
“You remember that your mother is a prisoner in Amber?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Call me when you've got your head together. We have to talk.”
“I will.”
“I turned away and walked out the doors and into a bank of fog. In the distance I heard Luke begin singing again, some mournful ballad. Fog is almost as bad as complete darkness when it comes to shadow-shifting. If you can't see any referents while you're moving, there is no way to use the ability, that allows you to slip away. On the other hand, I just wanted to be alone for a time to think,
Y now my head was clear. If I couldn't see anybody in this stuff, nobody could see me either. And there were no sounds other than my own footfalls on a cobbled surface.
So what had I achieved? When I was awakened from a brief nap to attend Luke's unusual sending to Amber, I'd been dead tired following extraordinary exertions. I was transported into his presence, learned that he was tripping, fed him something I hoped would bring him off it sooner, hacked up a Fire Angel, and left Luke back where he had started.
I'd gotten two things out of it, I mused, as I strolled through the cottony mist: I'd stalemated Luke in any designs he might still have upon Amber. He was now aware that his mother was our prisoner, and I couldn't see him bringing any direct action against us under the circumstances. Aside from the technical problems involved in transporting Luke and keeping him in one place, this was the reason I was willing to leave him as I just had. I'm sure Random would have preferred him unconscious in a cell in the basement, but I was certain he would settle for a defanged Luke at large; especially so, when it was likely that Luke would be getting in touch with us sooner or later regarding Jasra. I was willing to let him come down and come around in his own good time. I had problems of my own in the waiting room, like Ghostwheel, Mask, Vinta... and the new specter which had just taken a number and a seat.
Maybe it had been Jasra who had been using the homing power of the blue stones to send assassins after me. She had the ability as well as a motive. It could also have been Mask, though, who I'd judge had the abilityand who seemed to have a motive, though I didn't understand it. Jasra was out of the way now, however; and while I intended to have things out with Mask eventually, I believed that I had succeeded in detuning myself from the blue stones. I also believed that I might have scared Mask somewhat in our recent encounter at the Keep. Whatever, it was extremely unlikely that Mask or Jasra, whatever their powers, would have had access to a trained Fire Angel. No, there's only one place Fire Angels come from, and shadow-sorcerers aren't on the customer fist.
A puff of wind parted the fog for a moment and I caught sight of dark buildings. Good. I shifted. The fog moved again almost immediately, and they were not buildings but dark rock formations. Another parting and a piece of dawn or evening sky came into view, a foam of bright stars spilled across it. Before too long a wind whipped the fog away and I saw that I walked in a high rocky place, the heavens a blaze of starry light bright enough to read by. I followed a dark trail leading off to the edge of the world...
The whole business with Luke, Jasra, Dalt, and Mask was somehow of a piece-completely understandable in some places and clouded in others. Given some time and legwork it would all hang together. Luke and Jasra seemed to be nullified now. Mask, an enigma of sorts; seemed to have it in for me personally but did not appear to represent any particular threat to Amber. Dalt, on the other hand, did, with his fancy new weaponry-but Random was aware of this situation and Benedict was back in town. So I was confident that everything possible was being done to deal with this.