Again that wind.
Yours is a dual heritage, combined with great power.
«I never wanted either of you for an enemy,» I stated.
Not good enough, came the reply.
«Then destroy me now.»
The game is already in progress.
«Then let's get on with it,» I answered.
We are not pleased with your attitude.
«Vice versa,» I answered.
The thunderclap that followed left me unconscious.
The reason I felt I could afford total honesty was a strong hunch that players for this game might be hard to come by.
I woke sprawled across the pile of greaves, cuirasses, gauntlets, helms, and other good things of a similar nature, all of them possessed of corners or protuberances, most of which were jabbing into me. I became aware of this only by degrees, for I had gone numb in lots of important places.
Hi, Merlin.
Frakir, I responded. Have I been out for long?
I don't know. I just came around myself.
I didn't know a piece of rope could be knocked out.
Neither did I. It never happened to me before.
Let me amend my question then: Any idea how long we've been out?
Fairly long, I feel. Get me a glimpse out the doorway, and I may be able to give you a better idea.
I pushed myself slowly to my feet, could not remain standing, dropped. I crawled to the entranceway, noting in passing that nothing on the heap seemed to be missing. The floor was indeed cracked. There really was a dead dwarf to the rear of the chamber.
I looked outside, beheld a bright sky, black points disposed within it.
Well? I asked after a time.
If I figure right, it should be morning soon. Always brightest before the dawn, eh?
Something like that.
My legs burned as their circulation was restored. I pushed myself upright, stood leaning against the wall.
Any new instructions?
Not yet. I've a feeling they're due with the dawn.
I staggered to the nearest bench, collapsed upon it.
If anything comes in now, all I've got to hit it with is an odd assortment of spells. Sleeping on armor leaves a few kinks. Almost as bad as sleeping in it.
Throw me at the enemy and the least I can do is buy you time.
Thanks.
How far back does your memory go?
To when I was a little kid, I guess. Why?
I recall sensations from when I was first enhanced, back in the Logrus. But everything up until we got here is kind of dreamlike. I just sort of used to react to life.
A lot of people are that way, too.
Really? I couldn't think, or communicate this way before.
True.
Do you think it will last?
What do you mean?
Might this just be a temporary condition? Might I just have been enhanced to deal with the special circumstances in this place?
I don't know, Frakir, I answered, massaging my left calf. I suppose its possible. Are you getting attached to the state?
Yes. Silly of me, I guess. How can I care about something I won't miss when it's gone?
Good question, and I don't know the answer. Maybe you would have achieved this state anyway eventually.
I don't think so. But I don't know for certain.
You afraid to regress?
Yes.
Tell you what. When we find a way out of here, you stay behind.
I couldn't do that.
Why not? You've come in handy on occasion, but I can take care of myself. Now you're sentient you should have a life of your own.
But I'm a freak.
Aren't we all? I just want you to know I understand, and it's okay with me.
She pulsed once and shut up.
I wished I weren't afraid to drink the water.
I sat there for perhaps the better part of an hour, going over everything that had happened to me recently, looking for patterns, clues.
I can sort of hear you thinking, Frakir said suddenly, and I can offer you something in one area.
Oh? What might that be?
The one who brought you bere
The thing that looked like my father?
Yes.
What of him?
He was different from your other two visitors. He was human. They weren't.
You mean it might actually have been Corwin?
I never met him, so I can't say. He wasn't one of those constructs, though.
Do you know what they were?
No. I only know one peculiar thing about them, and I don't understand it at all.
I leaned Forward and rubbed my temples. I took several deep breaths. My throat was very dry, and my muscles ached.
Go ahead. I'm waiting.
I don't quite know how to explain it, Frakir said. But back in my presentient days you inconsiderately wore me about your wrist when you walked the Pattern.
I recall. I had a scar for a long time after, from your reaction to it.
Things of Chaos and things of Order do not mix well. But I survived. And the experience is recorded within me. Now the Dworkin and the Oberon figures that visited you back at the cave-
Yes?
Beneath their apparent humanity they were pulsing energy fields within geometrical constructs.
Sounds sort of like computer animation.
Maybe it is something like that. I couldn't say.
And my father wasn't one of these?
Nope. But that wasn't what I war getting at. I recognized the source.
I was suddenly alert.
What do you mean?
The swirls - the geometrical constructs on which the figure were based - they reproduced sections of the Pattern at Amber.
You must be mistaken.
No. What I lacked in sentience I made up in memory. Both figures were three-dimensional twistings of Pattern segments.
