“Oberon?” a weak voice called.
I hurried forward and knelt beside the man.
“I'm here,” I said softly. “Who are you?”
“It's me,” he said in a weak voice. “Conner…”
Chapter 14
“Conner!” I rolled him over, but couldn't see his features clearly in the darkness. And that stench!
“Help me…” he whispered. “Water…”
I hesitated, knowing I couldn't carry him inside in this condition. Too many people would ask too many questions. Where could I get him cleaned up the fastest? Another Shadow?
No—even better. This inn had a series of fountains in the middle of the flower gardens. I had noticed a series of interlocking pools from my suite earlier. If I could clean Conner up there, he wouldn't smell so bad when I brought him back up to my room.
I threw his arm over my shoulder, but he was too weak to stand and walk, even with help. Finally I picked him up and carried him. He couldn't have weighed more than ninety pounds—he had been reduced to little more than skin and bones. King Uthor or Thellops or Lord Zon had been starving him for months.
As I trotted down the pebble path with my burden, I passed men and women seated on secluded benches among the roses, kissing gently and groping not-so-gently, but I paid them little heed. They were too wrapped up in their own business to notice us.
When I reached the first pool, pale shapes of fish drifted ghostlike beneath the surface, passing among the dark silhouettes of lily-pads. In the center, a marble statue of a nymph on a pedestal poured an endless stream of water from an amphora.
I sat Conner on the low wall around the fountain, and he leaned down to the water and drank greedily for a long time. Then he sat back, gasping. After a minute, he drank again. I waited patiently. He needed time to gather his strength.
At last he sat up and looked at me.
“Where are we?” he asked in a rough voice.
“It's just a Shadow,” I said. “I don't know its name. Dad, Blaise, Freda, and Aber are all inside the inn—that big building over there.” I pointed. “I'll take you in as soon as you're cleaned up a bit.”
He licked his lips. “You wouldn't happen to have any food, would you? Maybe some bread or cheese—”
“Sorry, afraid not. I didn't want to leave you here while I went back to the kitchens. If you want, though, I can run back—”
He didn't wait for me to finish, but reached out and pulled what looked like half a leg of lamb from mid-air. Of course he had used the Logrus. The meat steamed, obviously fresh from someone's dinner table. From the smell, it had been basted with mint jelly, too.
He bit into it eagerly, chewing and swallowing in great gulps. I didn't blame him for not waiting; I would have done the same thing in his place.
I sat beside him and watched him eat. When he finally finished, he drank again, more slowly this time, then washed his hands and face.
“Better?” I asked. His strength seemed to be returning. Along with his table manners.
“Yes, thanks. Who else did you say was here?”
I told him.
“That's it?” He stared at me incredulously.
I nodded. “And now you.”
“All the others? What about Titus?”
“Are you strong enough to walk?” I asked, changing the subject. I didn't want to tell him the bad news about Titus yet. He had been very close to his twin.
“I… almost.” He sighed then shook his head. After another short rest, he managed to stand and wade waist-deep into the pool, where he kicked off his rags, dunked his whole body under the water, and began splashing and scrubbing his body. When he finally emerged five minutes later, he didn't stink nearly as badly. Then he used the Logrus to find clean clothes and put them on, heedless of the occasional passers-by who gave us strange looks and a wide berth.
“What happened to you after Dad, Aber, and I left the Beyond?” I asked him.
He pulled on his pants slowly. “Uthor's men… it was a long time ago.” He gave a shudder. “Titus and I went to stay with our uncle, but they arrested us anyway. That was the last I saw of my brother. In the dungeons under the palace, King Uthor had me tortured for a while, but I didn't know anything about you or the Pattern. Not really. Finally, I couldn't take it. I confessed to everything they asked. I remembered saying I helped cause the storms and plotted with Dad to overthrow the king. That made them happy. I signed a lot of papers, admitting my guilt, and after that they threw me into a cell and forgot about me. I lived off rats and mice, mostly.”
“Horrible!” I murmured. “What about the Logrus? Couldn't you use it to call someone?”
“Spells block it in the dungeons.”
“Oh.” That made sense, since prisoners would certainly try to use it to escape. “And then…?” I prompted.
“Then an old man came for me—”
“Suhuy?” I asked.
“I didn't know his name.” Shrugging on his shirt, he tried to button it with shaking hands. I stepped forward and helped. “He said he was bringing me to you. He pointed his staff at me. The next thing I knew, I was lying face down on the ground at your feet.”
“Interesting,” I said thoughtfully. As much as I appreciated the safe return of my brother, I needed to know more about this mysterious Suhuy and his motives. Why did he want to meet me and make a good impression? How could rescuing Conner possibly be of benefit to him… unless he knew of our coming fight with Uthor and expected Uthor to lose. My thoughts about the powers of the Pattern being greater than those of the Logrus returned. Might I have hit on the truth by accident? I would have to talk to Dad about it. Maybe, between us, we could figure it out.
“Do you know if any other family members are still being held by Uthor?” I asked.
“Mattus, I think.”
“Mattus and Titus were both executed, according to Aber.”
“No! Are you sure?”
“He saw their heads stuck on the palace gates.”
Conner sat alongside the pool and began struggling to pull on his boots. Twice he almost fell backward into the water. In other circumstances it might have been comical. In other circumstances I would have laughed.
He said, “Someone told me King Uthor had arrested Freda—but that can't be true. You said she's here.”
“We rescued her from Thellops. He was using her to spy on us.”
Conner rose. He produced a swordbelt using the Logrus and buckled it on. Then he faced the inn and took a deep breath.
“Ready,” he announced.
“For what?”
“Dinner!” He grinned feebly.
The others were still seated at our round table. When Conner and I walked in, I found the lights had been turned down; more dancers swayed on the floor now, and the band played a fast if discordant tune.
It took everyone a moment to realize I hadn't returned alone. Then another moment to realize the unkempt stranger was actually the long-lost Conner.
“I found him outside, looking for us,” I said. “He escaped from Uthor's dungeon… with a little help from a friend.”
After much back-slapping and hugging and not a little crying from Freda, we dragged over another chair and ordered more food. While Conner tucked into a couple of thick steaks, I pulled Dad to one side and told him about what had really happened.
“Suhuy…” he murmured. “I know him. He was Thellops's apprentice. He would have become Keeper of the Logrus a thousand years or more from now, when Thellops died… he must consider that sudden promotion a favor and be seeking to pay you back for it. He would not want to be indebted to any of us.”
“He was talking about a game…”
“Oh?”
I repeated Suhuy's comments about upsetting the gameboard. Dad chuckled, then shrugged.