«Going somewhere, dear boy?» she asked.
«I hope so,» I said.
She smiled crookedly and pursed her lips.
«I've decided you were a bad influence on my son,» she said. «He lost his edge when he became friends with you.»
«Sorry about that,» I said.
«…Which may make him unfit to rule.»
«Unfit or unwilling?» I asked.
«Whichever, it will be your fault.»
«He's a big boy now, Jasra. He makes his own decisions.»
«I fear you've taught him to make the wrong ones.»
«He's his own man, lady. Don't blame me if he does things you don't like.»
«And if Kashfa crumbles because you've softened him?»
«I decline the nomination,» I said, taking a step forward. It was good that I was moving, for her hand shot out, nails raking at my face, barely missing. She threw expletives after me as I walked away. Fortunately, they were drowned amid the cries of the others.
«Merlin?»
Turning to my right again I beheld the face of Nayda within a silver mirror, its surface and curled frame of a single piece.
«Nayda! What are you down on me for?»
«Nothing,» the ty'iga lady replied. «I'm just passing through, and I need directions.»
«You don't hate me? How refreshing!»
«Hate you? Don't be silly. I could never do that.»
«Everyone else in this gallery seems irritated with me.
«It's only a dream, Merlin. You're real, I'm real, and I don't know about the others.»
«I'm sorry my mother put you under that spell to protect me - all those years ago. Are you really free of it now? If you're not, perhaps I can-»
«I'm free of it.»
«I'm sorry you had so much trouble fulfilling its terms - not knowing whether it was Luke or me you were supposed to be guarding. Who'd have known there'd be two Amberites in the same neighborhood in Berkeley?»
«I'm not sorry.»
«What do you mean?»
«I came for directions. I want to know how I can find Luke.»
«Why, in Kashfa. He was just crowned king the other day. What do you need him for?»
«Hadn't you guessed?»
«No.»
«I'm in love with him. Always was. Now that I'm free of the geas and have a body of my own, I want him to know that I was Gail - and how I feel. Thanks, Merlin. Good-bye.»
«Wait! «
«Yes?»
«I never said thanks for your protecting me all those years-even if it was only a compulsion for you, even if it got to be a big bother for me. Thanks, and good luck.»
She smiled and faded away. I reached out and touched the mirror.
«Luck,» I thought I heard her say.
Strange. It was a dream. Still - I couldn't awaken, and: it felt real. I
«You made it back to the Courts in time for all the scheming, I see» - this from a mirror three paces ahead, black-bound and narrow.
I moved to it. My brother Jurt glared out at me.
«What do you want?» I asked.
His face was an angry parody of my own.
«I want you never to have been,» he said. «Failing that, I'd like to see you dead.»
«What's your third choice?» I asked.
«Your confinement to a private hell, I guess.»
«Why?»
«You stand between me and everything I want.»
«I'll be glad to step aside. Tell me how.»
«There's no way you can or will, on your own.»
«So you hate me?»
«Yes.»
«I thought your bath in the Fountain destroyed your emotions.»
«I didn't get the full treatment, and it only made them stronger.»
«Any way we can forget the whole thing and start over again, be friends?»
«Never.»
«Didn't think so.»
«She always cared more about you than me, and now you're going to have the throne.»
«Don't be ridiculous. I don't want it.»
«Your desires have nothing to do with the matter.»
«I won't have it:»
«Yes, you will - unless I kill you first.»
«Don't be stupid. It's not worth this.»
«One day soon, when you least expect it, you will turn and see me. It will be too late.»
The mirror grew entirely black.
«Jurt!»
Nothing. Aggravating, having to put up with him in dream as well as waking.
I turned my head toward a fire-framed minor several paces ahead and to my left, knowing - somehow - it was next on my route. I moved toward it.
She was smiling.
«And there you have it,» she said.
«Aunty, what's going on?»
«It seems to be the sort of conflict generally referred to as `irreducible,'» Fiona replied.
«That's not the sort of answer I need.»
«Too much is afoot to give you a better one.»
«And you're a part of it?»
«A very small one. Not one who can do you much good just now.»
«What am I to do?»
«Learn your options and choose the best one.»
«Best for whom? Best for what?»
«Only you can say.»
«Can you give me a hint?»
«Could you have walked Corwin's Pattern that day I took you to it?»
«Yes.»
«I thought so. It was drawn under unusual circumstances. It can never be duplicated. Our Pattern would never have permitted its construction had it not been damaged itself and too weak to prevent its coming into being.»
«So?»
«Our Pattern is trying to absorb it, incorporate it. If it succeeds, it will be as disastrous as it would have been were the Pattern of Amber destroyed at the time of the war. The balance with Chaos will be totally upset.»
