Where to start? The Courts of Chaos? Doctors there (did they have doctors in Chaos?) might be able to help him. Unfortunately, we would undoubtedly be arrested if not killed on sight.
I supposed I could carry him to other Shadows looking for help…
Then I felt a flicker of mental contact. Someone was trying to reach me through a Trump. Aber? Freda? I would take whatever help I could get.
Opening my thoughts, I found myself gazing at my half-sister Blaise, but uncertainly, as though through a hazy, flickering tunnel. I saw part of a bed over her left shoulder. Her private chambers? I noted a smudge of dirt across her right cheek, and her normally elegantly coiffed hair now hung in disarray. I had never seen her looking this bad before.
“Oberon!” she gasped.
“What's wrong?” I gave a bitter smile. That might easily become our family greeting.
“You are alive!” She smiled in relief.
“I could say the same thing about you. How are you? What's going on there?”
She smoothed her low-cut gown. Its shimmering green material, which accentuated her stunning figure, looked as though she'd slept in it for many days in a row.
“I have been better. Where are you now? Safe?”
“Yes,” I said. “I'm in a Shadow with Dad.”
“Good. I had given you both up for dead.” She glanced almost casually over her shoulder. I heard a distant pounding noise and the clash of steel on steel. Swordplay?
“What's going on there?” I said sharply. “Where are Freda and Aber?”
“I'm about to be arrested by King Uthor's men,” she said with calmly measured tones. “I don't know what happened to the others. I haven't seen Freda in two weeks, and I haven't seen Aber in a month. Are you going to bring me through or not?”
A loud banging noise, metal striking on wood, carried to my ears. She glanced over her shoulder again. The door behind her suddenly splintered.
“Where are you?” I asked.
“In the Courts,” she said. “Visiting Aunt Tana and Uncle Snoddar.” I had never heard of them. At my puzzled look, she went on: “They are all that's left of my mother's family. Unfortunately, things are not going well. Uncle is dead, and I think Aunt Tana just fled to the Beyond without me. I heard her carriage racing outside. Now, if you don't mind—”
“Does Uthor have anyone else?” I asked.
She nodded, eyes growing wide. “He ordered our whole family arrested. They already have Titus and, oh, I don't know how many others!”
“And I'm your last hope for rescue,” I said with a sigh. It figured I'd be the last one she'd call.
“Who else but the family champion?” She smiled almost desperately. Behind her, the door snapped in two; the top half sagged off its hinges. “Don't make me beg. Bring me through like a good brother.”
Why not? I had nothing against her. In fact, my original low estimates of her had proved quite wrong. She had more of steel than lace in her blood, a true daughter of our father.
“All right,” I said.
She swallowed visibly. “And, if you wouldn't mind hurrying u—”
I reached out to her. “Come on!”
She seized my hand with bone-crushing force, and I pulled her through to join me on the mountaintop. The bedroom scene behind her disappeared just as the first of Uthor's snake-faced troops came through the door.
Blaise gave a cry and collapsed into my arms. A jolt of alarm went through me. Had she taken a knife or crossbow bolt to the back?
Gently, I eased her onto the grass, searching for any sign of a wound. I couldn't find so much as a scratch. And yet she lay there gasping.
“Are you injured?” I asked.
“No…” she whispered. “I just feel… very strange… it hurts… all over… very sleepy now…”
Mental alarms went off. The same thing had happened to me the first time I entered the Beyond, the part of Chaos where Dad had his lands and keep. I had not been prepared for it, and I lay unconscious for most of three whole days as a result.
Her head fell back and her eyes closed. She snored softly.
“Oh, no you don't!” I cried. I shook her until her eyes opened Wearily. “Stay awake!”
“Wha—why—?” she murmured blearily.
“This Shadow is affecting you,” I said. “Fight it. Talk to me, sing to me, curse at me—anything! Just stay awake.”
Her brow furrowed. “But I've been in a thousand Shadows before—”
“Not like these,” I said. “Dad redrew the Pattern that's casting them. It's all different now, but subtly. Can't you feel it?”
“Different?” Her eyes widened. “How? Where is this Pattern?”
“Uh-uh.” I shook my head, smiling. “It's best if you don't know. Safer for you, too. Uthor would kill to find out.”
She sighed. “Everyone's already trying to kill me… what can one more secret hurt?”
“Not everyone.”
“Need to sleep…” she whispered, head sagging toward her chest.
“No! No sleeping! On your feet! Now!”
I lifted her easily, and she slipped one arm around my waist for support. For a second she looked up at my face. Then, seemingly against her will, her eyes closed and her chin slowly lowered again.
“Blaise!” I shouted.
“I'm awake!”
Her eyes blinked fast several times, then closed. She couldn't help it, I knew.
No more fooling around—this time I slapped her as hard as I could, leaving a scarlet handprint across her left cheek.
Her eyes flew open. A wolfish snarl came over her usually smooth features, and she twisted away from me.
“How dare you!” she snapped. She punched my chest hard enough to stagger me back a foot. Like everyone in my family, she had a temper to reckon with. And fists of steel.
I had the strangest feeling I might have gone too far. I had never seen her so furious. Still, it was too late to back down now, though not too late to apologize.
“I'm sorry,” I said quickly. I rubbed at my chest. “Keep in mind, though, that I was only trying to keep you awake and alive!”
“That's not good enough! Never touch me!”
She caught my hand. Her grip tightened painfully.
“That hurts!” I said, trying to keep my own temper. “Let go. We shouldn't be fighting among ourselves.”
“I've killed men for less than that,” she said. Her voice had a dangerous edge.
“I'm sure you have.” I smiled my most charming smile, which had been known to melt the heart of the iciest widow back in Ilerium. “It was the only thing I could think of to wake you up. I won't do it again if you don't go to sleep, okay? It's important.”
“Explain it to me.” Yawning, she let go of my hand. At least she managed to keep her eyes open this time.
“The same thing happened to me in the Beyond—I slept for three whole days. Dad and Aber finally got me up and wouldn't let me go to sleep. Dad was afraid I might never wake if they left me alone. I don't want that to happen to you.”
“Where is Dad? You said he was here.”
“Down the mountain.” I jerked my head toward him. “He's sick, too.”
“Everyone in Chaos is looking for him. He has to go back. Is he asleep?”
“No, tied up.”
“What!”
“It couldn't be helped.” I shrugged. “He isn't well. Not sleepy, really, but… kind of crazy.”
“Crazy?” She stared at me. “What do you mean? What's wrong with him? If you did something—”
“No, no, nothing like that.” I hesitated. “Maybe you'd better see for yourself. I think it might have something to do with the Pattern. It's obviously affected you. Maybe it's affecting him, too.”
“Show me.”
I escorted her down the slope, one hand on her elbow to keep her steady. When we reached our father, she gave a mew of unhappiness and bent to untie him.
I held her back. “Don't. It isn't safe to let him go. He tried to kill me.”
“He's hurt—”
“He'll live. I was just about to find him a doctor. I don't suppose you know anything about medicine…?”
“A little.” She knelt beside him, pressing one hand to his forehead. Then, with the hem of her gown, she wiped a line of drool from his chin.
“He's been badly beaten,” she said. “Who attacked him? King Uthor's men?”
“I'm afraid it was me.” It came out apologetic. “I didn't have a choice, though. He was trying to kill me.”
“Why?”
“I don't know.” Shrugging helplessly, I knelt beside her. “He was acting crazy. He attacked me with a sword when I turned my back, and if he had been a little stronger, he would have killed me. He's a better swordsman than I am.”
Her eyes narrowed, studying my face intently. “What did you do to him? He never does anything without good reason. Did you say or do something to make him mad? Did you threaten him in some way?”
“No, I didn't do anything. I found him unconscious and was trying to help.”
She touched the red handprint on her cheek. “Like you helped me?”
“No. I shook him, but…” I shrugged.
“Hmm.” She fumbled with the bindings on his wrists. “Help me get these off. Maybe—”
“Don't do that!” I pulled her hands back. “I told you, he's dangerous. He fought like a demon. Next time, he might get lucky and kill me—or both of us!”
“You have to let him loose. He's the only one who can save us.”
“Save us?” I stared at her, puzzled. “Save us how?”
“He caused the Shadows,” she said urgently. “Everyone in Chaos is talking about it. If he gets rid of them, maybe the king will let us go home agai—”
I drew back. “Impossible.”
“Why? Don't you want to go home?”
“This is home. I need the Shadows like you need the Logrus.” I thought back to the unicorn and the Pattern, and suddenly the half-formed suspicions in the back of my mind came out: “Besides, the Pattern can't be destroyed. It isn't Dad's creation.”
She stared at me. “Of course it is! Everyone knows he made it!”
“He drew it, but it existed long before him. It's in me… and it's in other places, too.” I thought of the ruby hanging around the unicorn's neck. “There are forces at work which I don't understand yet. I think they used Dad to create the Pattern. If he hadn't done it, they would have found someone else… me, probably.”
“So it was inevitable?” she said, gaze distant. “Is that what you're saying?”
“I think so. Yes.”
“But why did it have to be my family?” Her voice rose in a wail. “Why must we suffer for it? I just want to go home!”
“Look around!” I said, taking her hand and pulling her to her feet. I took in the whole of this virgin world with a sweep of my arm. “Here is a kingdom ripe for the taking. I'm going to build a city here. If you're not happy, there are more Shadows than you can possibly visit in your lifetime. Anything you can dream up exists somewhere out there. You just have to find it. You want to be a queen, or a goddess? Go ahead! You want jewels or riches? Take them! It's your right. You are a creature of the Pattern, just as Dad is… like I am. It's in you, too, at least partly. It's in all of us. I can feel its presence. You might as well enjoy your true heritage.”
“No!” she cried. “That's not what I want! I didn't realize how much I missed the Courts until I went home!”
“The Pattern is in your blood!” I said emphatically. “Look within yourself. Can't you feel it?”
“No!” she cried.
More gently, I said, “The Pattern is here to stay whether we want it or not. If that means you can't go back to the Courts of Chaos—well, we'll make our own version here. Call them… the Courts of Dworkin.”
“Don't make fun of me.”
“I'm not,” I said. She just needed time to get used to the idea of living in Shadows for the rest of her life.
“Chaos is beautiful… a tide of unending change… music made flesh—and the powers we command there…”
“Used to command.”
“You don't understand,” she said bitterly.
“You're right,” I said, letting a hard note creep into my voice. “I don't understand. I hated every minute of my time in Chaos. The only way you'll get me back there is if I'm dead!”
“That's why you tied Dad up, isn't it?” she demanded, turning on me suddenly. “He wanted to destroy the Shadows, and you wouldn't let him—”
I actually laughed at her.
“Stop that!” she cried. “It's not funny!”
“Don't be a fool, Blaise. Everything I've told you is true. You can see it, if you'll let yourself. Dad has gone crazy in a dangerous way. He can't help us now. We have to help him.”
“He must have had a good reason to kill you. You did something to him, or he knew you were a danger to Chaos, or—”
I sighed. She didn't want to listen to reason.
“No,” I said slowly and calmly. “As I told you, it wasn't like that. I found him lying unconscious in the middle of the Pattern. He kept saying the same strange thing over and over… 'Thellops.' Does it mean anything to you?”
She looked startled. “Thellops?”
“Yes.” I saw the recognition in her eyes. “You know what it is, don't you?”
“It's not a what, it's a who.” She licked her lips. “Thellops guards the Logrus.”