“Yes?”
“Well... he was-somewhat-aware-of the possibility.”
She paused and rearranged her gloves on the seat beside her.
“Uh-huh,” I said. “Just what did he tell you?”
“That it might be the real you,” she said. “He told me there had been-an accident.”
“Really?”
“Well, no,” she admitted. “Not an accident. He said there had been a fight and he had injured you. He thought you were going to die, and he did not want the blame. So he transported you off into Shadow and left you there, in that place. After a long while, he decided that you must be dead, that it was finally all over between you. My news naturally disturbed him. So he swore me to secrecy and sent me back to keep you under surveillance. I had a good excuse for being there, as I had already told everyone how much I liked the place.”
“You didn't promise to keep silent for nothing. Flora. What did he give you?”
“He gave me his word that should he ever come into power here in Amber, I would not be forgotten.”
“A little risky,” I said. “After all, that would still leave you with something on him-knowledge of the whereabouts of a rival claimant, and of his part in putting him there.”
“True. But things sort of balanced out, and I would have to admit having become an accomplice in order to talk about it.”
I nodded.
“Tight, but not impossible,” I agreed. “But did you think he would let me continue living if he ever did get a chance at the throne?”
“That was never discussed. Never.”
“It must have crossed your mind, though.”
“Yes, later,” she said, “and I decided that he would probably do nothing. After all, it was beginning to seem likely that you had been deprived of your memory. There was no reason to do anything to you so long as you were harmless.”
“So you stayed on to watch me, to see that I remained harmless?”
“Yes.”
“What would you have done had I shown signs of recovering my memory?”
She looked at me, then looked away.
“I would have reported it to Eric.”
“And what would he have done then?”
“I don't know.”
I laughed a little, and she blushed. I could not remember the last time I had seen Flora blush.
“I will not belabor the obvious,” I said. “All right, you stayed on, you watched me. What next? What happened?”
“Nothing special. You just went on leading your life and I went on keeping track of it.”
“All of the others knew where you were?”
“Yes. I'd make no secret of my whereabouts. In fact, all of them came around to visit me at one time or another.”
“That includes Random?”
She curled her lip.
“Yes, several times,” she said.
“Why the sneer?”
“It is too late to start pretending I like him,” she said. “You know. I just don't like the people he associates with-assorted criminals, jazz musicians... I had to show him family courtesy when he was visiting my shadow, but he put a big strain on my nerves, bringing those people around at all hours-jam sessions, poker parties. The place usually reeked for weeks afterward and I was always glad to see him go. Sorry. I know you like him, but you wanted the truth.”
“He offended your delicate sensibilities. Okay. I now direct your attention to the brief time when I was your guest. Random joined us rather abruptly. Pursuing him were half a dozen nasty fellows whom we dispatched in your living room.”
“I recall the event quite vividly.”
“Do you recall the guys responsible-the creatures we had to deal with?”
“Yes.”
“Sufficiently well to recognize one if you ever saw another?”
“I think so.”
“Good. Had you ever seen one before?”
“No.”
“Since?”
“No.”
“Had you ever heard them described anywhere?”
“Not that I can remember. Why?”
I shook my head.
“Not yet. This is my inquisition, remember? Now I want you to think back for a time before that evening. Back to the event that put me in Greenwood. Maybe even a little earlier. What happened, and how did you find out about it? What were the circumstances? What was your part in things?”
“Yes,” she said. “I knew you would ask me that sooner or later. What happened was that Eric contacted me the day after it occurred-from Amber, via my Trump.”
She glanced at me again, obviously to see how I was taking it, to study my reactions. I remained expressionless.
“He told me you had been in a bad accident the previous evening, and that you were hospitalized. He told me to have you transferred to a private place, one where I could have more say as to the course of your treatment.”
“In other words, he wanted me to stay a vegetable.”
“He wanted them to keep you sedated.”
“Did he or did he not admit to being responsible for the accident?”
“He did not say that he had had someone shoot out your tire, but he did know that that was what had happened. How else could he have known? When I learned later that he was planning to take the throne, I assumed that he had finally decided it was best to remove you entirely. When the attempt failed, it seemed logical that he would do the next most effective thing: see that you were kept out of the way until after the coronation.”
“I was not aware that the tire had been shot out,” I said.
Her face changed. She recovered.
“You told me that you knew it was not an accident-that someone had tried to kill you. I assumed you were aware of the specifics.”
I was treading on slightly mucky ground again for the first time in a long while. I still had a bit of amnesia, and I had decided I probably always would. My memories of the few days prior to the accident were still spotty. The Pattern had restored the lost memories of my entire life up until then, but the trauma appeared to have destroyed recollection of some of the events immediately preceding it. Not an uncommon occurrence. Organic damage rather than simple functional distress, most likely. I was happy enough to have all the rest back, so those did not seem especially lamentable. As to the accident itself, and my feelings that it had been more than an accident, I did recall the gunshots. There had been two of them. I might even have glimpsed the figure with the rifle-fleetingly, too late. Or maybe that was pure fantasy. It seemed that I had, though. I had had something like that in mind when I had headed out for Westchester. Even at this late time. though, when I held the power in Amber, I was loath to admit this single deficiency. I had faked my way with Flora before with a lot less to go on. I decided to stick with a winning combination.