"I've got a funny feeling..." he said.
"So do I."
"... that we may be too late."
We kept pulverizing and spreading, pulverizing and spreading....
I felt the tingle of a familiar presence. I straightened and waited. Contact came moments later.
"Corwin!"
"Here, Gerard."
"What'd you say?" said Bill.
I raised my hand to silence him and gave my attention to Gerard. He stood in shadow at the bright beginning of the Pattern, leaning upon his great blade.
"You were right," he said. "Brand did show up here, just a moment ago. I am not sure how he got in. He stepped out of the shadows off to the left, there." He gestured. "He looked at me for a moment, then turned around and walked back. He did not answer when I hailed him. So I turned up the lantern, but he was nowhere in sight. He just disappeared. What do you want me to do now?"
"Was he wearing the jewel of Judgment?"
"I could not tell. I only had sight of him for a moment, in this bad light."
"Are they watching the Pattern in Rebma now?"
"Yes. Llewella's alerted them."
"Good. Stay on guard, then. I will be in touch again."
"All right. Corwin-about what happened earlier..."
"Forget it."
"Thanks. That Ganelon is one tough fellow."
"Indeed," I said. "Stay awake."
His image faded as I released the contact, but a strange thing happened then. The sense of contact, the path, remained with me, objectless, open, like a switched on radio not tuned to anything. Bill was looking at me peculiarly.
"Carl, what is happening?"
"I don't know. Wait a minute."
Suddenly, there was contact again, though not with Gerard. She must have been trying to reach me while my attention was diverted.
"Corwin, it is important..."
"Go ahead, Fi."
"You will not find what you are looking for there. Brand has it."
"I was beginning to suspect as much."
"We have to stop him. I do not know how much you know-"
"Neither do I any more," I said, "but I have the Pattern in Amber and the one in Rebma under guard. Gerard just told me that Brand appeared at the one in Amber, but was scared off."
She nodded her small, fine-featured face. Her red tresses were unusually disarrayed. She looked tired.
"I am aware of this," she said. "I have him under surveillance. But you have forgotten another possibility."
"No," I said. "According to my calculations, Tir-na Nog'th should not be attainable yet-"
"That is not what I was referring to. He is headed for the primal Pattern itself."
"To attune the Jewel?"
"The first time through," she said.
"To walk it, he would have to pass through the damaged area. I gather that is more than a little difficult."
"So you do know about it," she said. "Good. That saves time. The dark area would not trouble him the way it would another of us. He has come to terms with that darkness. We must stop him, now."
"Do you know any short cuts to that place?"
"Yes. Come to me. I will take you there."
"Just a minute. I want Drum with me."
"What for?"
"No telling. That is why I want him."
"Very well. Then bring me through. We can as easily depart from there as from here."
I extended my hand. In a moment, I held hers. She stepped forward.
"Lord!" said Bill, drawing back. "You were giving me doubts about your sanity, Carl. Now it's mine I wonder about. She-she's on one of the cards, too, isn't she?"
"Yes. Bill, this is my sister Fiona. Fiona, this is Bill Roth, a very good friend."
Fi extended her hand and smiled, and I left them there while I went back to fetch Drum. A few minutes later, I led him forth.
"Bill," I said, "I am sorry to have wasted your time. My brother has the thing. We are going after him now. Thanks for helping me."
I shook his hand.
He said, "Corwin." I smiled.
"Yes, that is my name."
"We have been talking, your sister and I. Not much I could learn in a few minutes, but I know it is dangerous. So good luck. I still want the whole story one day."
"Thanks," I said. "I will try to see that you get it."
I mounted, leaned down, and drew Fiona up before me.
"Good night, Mr. Roth," she said. Then, to me, "Start riding, slowly, across the field."
I did.
"Brand says you are the one who stabbed him," I said, as soon as we had gone far enough to feel alone.
"That's right."
"Why?"
"To avoid all this."
"I talked with him for a long while. He claimed it was originally you, Bleys, and himself, together in a scheme to seize power."
"That is correct."
"He told me he had approached Caine, trying to win him to your side, but that Caine would have none of it, that Caine had passed the word along to Eric and Julian. And this led to their forming their own group, to block your way to the throne."
"That is basically correct. Caine had ambitions of his own-long-term ones-but ambitions nevertheless. He was in no position to pursue them, however. So he decided that if his lot was to be a lesser one, he would rather serve it under Eric than under Bleys. I can see his point, too."
"He also claimed that the three of you had a deal going with the powers at the end of the black road, in the Courts of Chaos."
"Yes," she said, "we did."
"You use the past tense."
"For myself and for Bleys, yes."
"That is not the way Brand tells it."
"He wouldn't."
"He said you and Bleys wanted to continue exploiting that alliance, but that he had had a change of heart. Because of this, he claims you turned on him and imprisoned him in that tower."
"Why didn't we just kill him?"
"I give up. Tell me."
"He was too dangerous to be allowed his freedom, but we could not kill him either because he held something vital."
"What?"
"With Dworkin gone. Brand was the only one who knew how to undo the damage he had done to the primal Pattern."
"You had a long time to get that information out of him."
"He possesses unbelievable resources."
"Then why did you stab him?"
"I repeat, to avoid all this. If it became a question of his freedom or his death, it were better he died. We would have to take our chances on figuring the method of repairing the Pattern."
"This being the case, why did you consent to cooperate in bringing him back?"
"First, I was not co-operating, I was trying to impede the attempt. But there were too many trying too hard. You got through to him in spite of me. Second, I had to be on hand to try to kill him in the event you succeeded. Too bad things worked out the way they did."
"You say that you and Bleys had second thoughts about the alliance, but that Brand did not?"
"Yes."
"How did your second thoughts affect your desire for the throne?"
"We thought we could manage it without any additional outside help."
"I see."
"Do you believe me?"
"I'm afraid that I am beginning to."
"Turn here."
I entered a cleft in a hillside. The way was narrow and very dark, with only a small band of stars above us. Fiona had been manipulating Shadow while we had talked, leading us from Ed's field downward, into a misty, moorlike place, then up again, to a clear and rocky trail among mountains. Now, as we moved through the dark defile, I felt her working with Shadow again. The air was cool but not cold. The blackness to our left and our right was absolute, giving the illusion of enormous depths, rather than nearby rock cloaked in shadow. This impression was reinforced, I suddenly realized, by the fact that Drum's hoofbeats were not producing any echoes, aftersounds, overtones.