«The lady is injured, Your Highness,» Mandor said. Random passed a hand across his face. Then he looked upward.
«If there's an easy way to get her to my quarters, Vialle is very skilled in certain areas of medicine,» he said in a softer voice. «So am I, for that matter.»
«Just where is that, Your Highness?»
Random leaned to his side and pointed upward. «Looks as if you won't need the door to get in, but I can't tell whether there's enough stairway left to get up there or where you might cross to it if there is.»
«I'll make it,» Mandor said, and two more of the balls came rushing to him and set themselves into eccentric orbits about him and Coral. Shortly thereafter they were levitated and drifted slowly toward the opening Random had indicated.
«I'll be along shortly,» Random called after them. He looked as if he were about to add something, but then regarded the devastation, lowered his head, and turned away. I did the same thing.
Dworkin was offering me another dose of the green medicine, and I took it. Some sort of trank, it seemed, in addition to whatever else it did.
«I have to go to her,» I told him. «I like that lady, and I want to be sure she's all right.
«I can certainly send you there,» Dworkin said, «though I cannot think of anything you could do for her which will not be done well by others. Perhaps the time were more profitably spent in pursuit of that errant construct of yours the Ghostwheel. It must be persuaded to return the Jewel of Judgment.»
«Very well,» I acknowledged. «But I want to see Coral first.»
«Your appearance could cause considerable delay,» he said, «because of explanations which may be required of you.»
«I don't care,» I told him.
«All right. A moment then.»
He moved away and took down what appeared to be a sheathed wand from the wall, where it had hung suspended from a peg. He hung the sheath upon his belt, then crossed to a small cabinet and removed a flat leather-bound case from one of its drawers. It rattled with a faint metallic sound as he slipped it into a pocket. A small jewelry box vanished up a sleeve without any sound.
«Come this way,» he told me, approaching and taking my hand.
He turned me and led me toward the room's darkest corner, where I had not noted that a tall, curiously framed mirror hung. It exhibited an odd reflective capacity in that it showed us and the room behind us with perfect clarity from a distance, but the closer we approached to its surface, the more indistinct all of its images became. I could see what was coming, coming. But I still tensed as Dworkin, a pace in advance of me by then, stepped through its foggy surface and jerked me after him.
I stumbled and regained my footing, coming to myself in the good half of the blasted royal suite in front of a decorative mirror. I reached back quickly and tapped it with my fingertips, but its surface remain solid. The short, stooped figure of Dworkin stood before me, and he still had hold of my right hand. Looking past that profile, which in some ways caricatured my own, I saw that the bed had been moved eastward, away from the broken corner and a large opening formerly occupied by a section of flooring. Random and Vialle stood on the near side of the bed, their backs to us. They were studying Coral, who was stretched out upon the counterpane and appeared to be unconscious. Mandor, seated in a heavy chair at they bed's foot, observing operations, was the first to notice our presence, which he acknowledged with a nod.
«How… is she?» I asked.
«Concussion,» Mandor replied, «and damage to the right eye.»
Random turned. Whatever he was about to say to me died on his lips when he realized who stood beside me.
«Dworkin!» he said. «It's been so long. I didn't know whether you were still alive. Are you… all right?»
The dwarf chuckled.
«I read your meaning, and I'm rational,» he replied. «I would like to examine the lady now.»
«Of course,» Random answered, moving aside.
«Merlin,» Dworkin said; «see whether you can locate that Ghostwheel device of yours, and ask it to return the artifact it borrowed.»
«I understand,» I said, reaching for my Trumps.
Moments later I was reaching, reaching…
«I felt your intent several moments ago, Dad.»
«Well, do you have the Jewel or don't you?»
«Yes, I just finished with it.»
«'Finished'?»
«Finished utilizing it.»
«In what fashion did you… utilize it?»
«As I understood from you that passing one's awareness through it would give some protection against the Pattern, I wondered whether it might work for an ideally synthesized being such as myself.»
«That's a nice term, 'ideally synthesized. ' Where'd it come from?»
«I coined it myself when seeking the most appropriate designation.»
«I've a hunch it'll reject you.»
«It didn't.»
«Oh. You actually got all the way through the thing?»
«I did.»
«What effect did it have upon you?»
«That's a hard thing to assess. My perceptions are altered. It's difficult to explain…It's subtle, whatever it is.»
«Fascinating. Can you move yoar awareness into the stone from a distance now?»
«Yes.»
«When all of our present troubles have passed, I'm going to want to test you again.»
«I'm curious myself to know what's changed.»
«In the meantime, there is a need for the Jewel here.»
«Coming through.»
The air shimmered before me.
Ghostwheel appeared as a silver circlet, the Jewel of Judgment at its center. I cupped my hand and collected it. I took it to Dworkin, who did not even glance at me as he received it. I looked down at Coral's face and looked away quickly, wishing I hadn't.
I moved back near Ghost.
«Where's Nayda?» I asked.
«I'm not sure,» he replied. «She asked me to leave her - there near the crystal cave - after I took the Jewel away from her.»
«What was she doing?»
«Crying.»
«Why?»
«I suppose because both of her missions in life have been frustrated. She was charged to guard you unless some wild chance brought her the opportunity of obtaining the Jewel, in which instance she was released from the first directive. This actually occurred; only I deprived her of the stone. Now she is bound to neither course.»
«You'd think she'd be happy to be free at last. She wasn't on either job as a matter of choice. She can go back to doing whatever carefree demons do beyond the Rimwall.»
«Not exactly, Dad.»
«What do you mean?»
«She seems to be stuck in that body. Apparently she can't simply abandon it the way she could others she's used. It has something to do with there being no primary occupant.»
«Oh. I suppose she could, uh, terminate and get loose that way.»
«I suggested that, but she's not sure it would work that way. It might just kill her along with the body, now that she's bound to it the way she is.»
