My familiar bird circled, circled, descended to my outstretched arm. Those frightening eyes regarded me with a peculiar intelligence, but I did not spare them the attention I might have on another occasion. Instead, I sheathed Grayswandir and reached for the thing the bird bore. The Jewel of judgment.
I knew by this that Dad’s effort, whatever it had amounted to, was finished. The Pattern had either been repaired or botched. He was either alive or dead. Choose a couple from either column. The effects of his act would be spreading outward from Amber through Shadow now, like the ripples in the proverbial pond. I would learn more of them soon enough. In the meantime, I had my orders.
I drew the chain over my head and let the Jewel fall upon my breast. I remounted Star. My bloodbird emitted a short cry and rose into the air.
We moved again.
…Over a landscape where the sky whitened as the ground darkened. Then the land flared and the sky grew black. Then the reverse. And again… with each stride the effect shifted, and as we moved faster it built to a stroboscopic series of still-shots about us, gradually growing to a jerky animation, then the hyperactive quality of a silent film. Finally, all was a blur.
Points of light flashed past, like meteors or comets. I began to feel a throbbing sensation, as of a cosmic heartbeat. Everything began to turn about me, as though I had been caught up in a whirlwind.
Something was going wrong. I seemed to be losing control. Could it be that the effects of Dad’s doings had already reached the area of Shadow through which I passed? It seemed hardly likely. Still…
Star stumbled. I clung tightly as we went down, not wishing to be separated in Shadow. I struck my shoulder on a hard surface and lay there for a moment, stunned.
When the world came together about me again, I sat up and looked around.
A uniform twilight prevailed, but there were no stars. Instead, large rocks of various shapes and sizes drifted and hovered in the air. I got to my feet and looked all about.
It was possible, from what I could see of it, that the irregular stony surface on which I stood was itself but a mountain-sized boulder drifting with the others. Star rose and stood shivering at my side. An absolute silence contained us. The still air was cool. There was not another living thing in sight. I did not like this place. I would not have halted here of my own volition. I knelt to inspect Star’s legs. I wanted to leave as soon as possible, preferably mounted.
As I was about this, I heard a soft chuckle which might have come from a human throat.
I paused, resting my hand upon Grayswandir’s hilt and seeking the source of the sound. Nothing. Nowhere.
Yet I had heard it. I turned slowly, looking in every direction. No…
Then it came again. Only this time, I realized that it had its source overhead.
I scanned the floating rocks. Shadow-draped, it was difficult to distinguish — There!
Ten meters above the ground and thirty or so to my left, what appeared to be a human form stood atop a small island in the sky, regarding me. I considered it. Whatever it was, it seemed too far off to pose a threat. I was certain that I could be gone before it could reach me. I moved to mount Star.
“No good, Corwin,” called the voice I least wanted to hear just then. “You are locked here. There is no way you can depart without my leave.”
I smiled as I mounted, then drew Grayswandir.
“Let’s find out,” I said. “Come bar my way.”
“Very well,” he replied, and flames sprang from the bare rock, towering full circle about me, licking, sprawling, soundless.
Star went wild. I slammed Grayswandir back into the scabbard, whipped a corner of my cloak across Star’s eyes, spoke soothing words. As I did this, the circle enlarged, the fires receding toward the edges of the great rock on which we stood.
“Convinced?” came the voice. “This place is too small. Ride in any direction. Your mount will panic again before you can Shift into Shadow.”
“Good-bye, Brand,” I said, and I began to ride.
I rode in a large counterclockwise circle about the rocky surface, shielding Star’s right eye from the flames about the periphery of things. I heard Brand chuckle again, not realizing what I was doing.
A pair of large rocks… Good. I rode on by, continuing the course. Now a jagged hedge of stone to my left, a rise, a dip… A mess of shadow the fires cast, across my path… There. Down… Up. A touch of green to that patch of light… I could feel the shifting begin.
The fact that it is easier for us to take a straight course does not make it the only way. We all pursue it so much of the time, though, that we tend to forget that one can also make progress by going around in circles…
I could feel the shift more strongly as I neared the two large rocks again. Brand caught on about then, also.
“Hold it, Corwin!”
I threw him a finger and cut between the rocks, heading down into a narrow canyon speckled with points of yellow light. According to specifications.
I drew my cloak away from Star’s head and shook the reins. The canyon cut abruptly to the right. We followed it into a better-lighted avenue which widened and brightened as we went.
…Beneath a jutting overhang, sky of milk shading to pearl on its other side.
Riding deeper, faster, farther… A jagged cliff crowned the upper talus to my left, greening in twisted sign of shrubbery beneath a pink-vouched sky.
I rode until the greenery was bluery beneath a yellow sky, till the canyon rose to meet a lavender plain where orange rocks rolled as the ground was shaken beneath us in time with our hoofbeats. I crossed there under wheeling comets, coming to die shore of a blood-red sea in a place of heavy perfumes. I rode a large green sun and a small bronze one out of the sky as I paced that shore, while skeletal navies clashed and serpents of the deep circled their orange and blue-sailed vessels. The Jewel pulsed upon me and I drew strength from it. A wild wind came up and lofted us through a copper-clouded sky above a wailing chasm which seemed to extend forever, black-bottomed, spark-shot, fuming with heady scents…
At my back, the sound of thunder, ceaseless… Fine lines, like the craquelure of an old painting, abreast of us, advancing, everywhere… Cold, a fragrance — killing wind pursues…
Lines… The cracks widen, blackness flows to fill… Dark streaks race by, up, down, back upon themselves… The settling of a net, the labors of a giant, invisible spider, world-trapping…
Down, down and down… The ground again, wrinkled and leathery as a mummy’s neck… Soundless, our throbbing passage… Softer the thunder, falling the wind… Dad’s last gasp? Speed now and away…
A narrowing of lines, to the fineness of an etching, fading then in the three suns’ heat… And faster yet…
A rider, approaching… Hand to hilt in time to my own… Me. Myself coming back? Simultaneous, our salutes… Through one another, somehow, the air like a sheet of water that one dry instant… What Carroll mirror, what Rebma, Tir-na Nog’th effect… Yet far, far to my left, a black thing writhing… We pace the road… It leads me on…
White sky, white ground and no horizon… Sunless and cloudless the prospect… Only that thread of black, far off, and gleaming pyramids everywhere, massive, disconcerting…
We tire. I do not like this place… But we have outrun whatever process pursues. Draw rein.
I was tired, but I felt a strange vitality within me. It seemed as though it arose from within my breast… The Jewel. Of course. I made an effort to draw upon this power again. I felt it flow outward through my limbs, barely halting at my extremities. It was almost as if — Yes. I readied out and lay my will upon my blank and geometrical surroundings. They began to alter.