"Who are you?" he blurted instead.
"I am called Allegorus," the strangely authoritative man said impressively.
"I heard you only come out once every three hundred years," O'Leary countered uncertainly.
"Nonsense," Allegorus replied coolly. "It's just that it's been three centuries since I was last here."
"Oh," Lafayette replied, as if enlightened.
Behind him, there was a scuttling sound as Murg made a dash through the door.
"No matter," Allegorus said with a careless wave of a long-fingered hand. "We can round up that lot when needed. But as for this precious pair you've cornered here," he went on in a lower tone, "I fear, my boy, you've gotten in over your head there. Top brass, you know. Still, we'll find a way out. As for yourself, Lafayette, you're in deep trouble, lad. I don't know how you managed to get involved in all this, but I'm glad I managed to intercept you before the next temporal segment assumed complete actualization; this way, there's at least a chance ... if you'll lend me your complete cooperation, that is." Allegorus looked inquiringly, or perhaps hopefully, at O'Leary. "You will cooperate, won't you, lad?" He voiced the wish hesitantly, almost, O'Leary thought, as if he were worried he might be refused. Strange, what with Allegorus being the high cockalorum in these parts, and himself a mere intruder ...
"Perhaps," O'Leary said coolly. "Just what is the situation, as you see it?"
"Disaster, in the most literal sense," Allegorus replied promptly. "It appears an entropic disjunction has occurred," he went on grimly, his eyes fixed on Lafayette. "You're aware of what that could mean, I'm sure."
"Don't be so sure, Al," Lafayette countered breezily. "It sounds bad, but I never heard of it before." He paused, awaiting explanation. "But make it fast," he added. "I'm going to find Daphne. The poor kid's out there—" with a wave of his arm—"somewhere."
"All in good time, sir," Allegorus hastened to reassure him. "An E.D. is the most drastic sort of temporal anomaly—"
"I know about those," Lafayette cut in. "Central claimed I caused them whenever I focused my psychical energies—like the time I shifted myself to Artesia, and then when I turned that swill at the Ax and Dragon into Chateau Lafitte-Rothschilde, '29. At first I thought I was just sort of hallucinating, you know, my subconscious trying to bring my inner conflicts to my attention; but Nicodaeus straightened me out. He told me I was actually moving things around from one reality level to another. Pretty simple, once you understand it. But right now it seems I've gotten myself—and Daph, too—into another locus, and I didn't even change a daisy from white to pink! I don't get it. Maybe you know something about it: Maybe you were twiddling around with your psychical energies, and somehow loused everything up. How about it: Have you ever heard of Artesia? That's where this tower belongs, you know—it was built by Nicodaeus, or not built—but he fitted out this old garret as his lab." Lafayette looked around at the dim, cobwebby stone walls, the littered stone floor. "It used to be very impressive," he assured Allegorus. "But now it's been stripped, since Nicodaeus was recalled to Central."
The hooded man nodded. "But all this isn't helping us with the main problem," he pointed out. "I'm very familiar with dear old Artesia—spent some time there myself once, long ago." Allegorus sighed, lost in nostalgia.
"Then, let's do something!" Lafayette cried, "... if you're as powerful as Belarius and Frumpkin said."
"Ah, yes." Allegorus turned to study the two under discussion, still standing in their awkward poses.
"I see you took the precaution of stabilizing them with your Mark V," he said easily.
"Not my Mark V," Lafayette corrected. "I took that little gadget away from Frumpkin after he'd used it on me.
"Indeed? And how, might I inquire?" Allegorus returned, sounding dubious.
"He got a little careless, and I got a little lucky," Lafayette replied modestly.
"You did activate the 'hold' capability of the contact device, I trust," Allegorus said blandly. "Otherwise, of course, its sphere of effectiveness is less than three minutes."
"I didn't have time to read the owner's manual," Lafayette explained. "I just stuck it on them the same way Frumpkin stuck it to me—more or less."
"In that case—" Allegorus began with sudden urgency, turning toward the pair, too late. Already, Frumpkin was bending over the trunk—a portable command center, O'Leary now realized. Frumpkin raised his head, shot O'Leary a haughty look, and flipped switches even as Allegorus lunged with a yelclass="underline" "Get them!"
Lafayette charged. There was a deep-toned boom! and the light suddenly dimmed. For an instant, O'Leary seemed to catch a ghostly glimpse of the misty gray room, where Frumpkin was fading from view even as Daphne came into sight. O'Leary yelled "Daphne!" and lunged as the glimpse faded. O'Leary slammed against the wall, empty-handed, as his quarry—both men, plus their trunk—seemed to duck aside, slipping from his grasp. Allegorus was picking himself up, having fallen heavily as he missed his grab for Frumpkin. Lafayette gave him a hand, at the same time scanning the shadowy recesses of the big room for the two agile Primary agents, in vain.
He put a hand to his forehead, trying to orient himself. "I'm having visions," he muttered as Allegorus bent toward him solicitously. "Waking dreams, or something. He was there—'Frumpkin', Belarius called him—and Daphne, too. I know it's silly, but I think he knows more than he's telling about her." He stepped back from the wall and looked around the room.
"Where are they?" he muttered. "Let's get some light in here. I'll cover the door—unless they made it out the window; but they couldn't have moved that fast, even without their baggage."
"No need, my boy," Allegorus said in his deep voice, "they've well and truly flown. Too bad. Might have cleared this whole thing up on the spot." He shook his head regretfully. "Harm's done," he concluded. "No point in mourning. We must get busy at once."
"Sure," Lafayette said weakly. "Doing what?"
"Saving this entire manifold of loci from utter dissolution, for a start," Allegorus snapped. "Come, Lafayette, marshal your resources! This is your opportunity to display that dazzling ingenuity of which the Record speaks in such extravagant terms!"
"I'm wasting time," Lafayette cut him off. "I'm leaving here right now to look for Daphne. Sorry I don't have time for this E.D. of yours, but I've only got seventy-two hours. Ta." He headed for the door, ignoring Allegorus' urgent plea to wait. As he set foot on the landing, the stone slab cracked and shifted, affording him a glimpse, through a quickly widening gap, of open air yawning below. He noticed a dull rumbling sound; a stone block fell at his feet, slipped through the opening, and was gone. Dust and gravel were dribbling down around him; the entire Tower, he realized, was trembling, cracks appearing everywhere. More stones fell, went bounding down the steps, knocking off chips from the worn treads. Lafayette took a deep breath and followed, leaping down six steps at a bound as the walls fell about him. He arrived at the bottom in a cloud of dust and ricoshays, leaped clear of a heap of rubble, and was out the collapsing doorway and into sunshine.
Chapter Four
It was early morning, Lafayette realized as he stepped cautiously out onto the weed-choked vacant lot which had, back in Artesia, been the rose garden. All was silent. Lafayette went boldly across to the thicket where he had met Lord Trog and his minions. It was deserted now, only the gilt chair, now lying on its side, remaining as evidence of the hairy chieftain's visit. O'Leary set it upright and sat in it, remembering the long row of which it had once been a member, lining the mirrored grand hall.