good with you. Hope that spikard can protect your back.»
«I don't know,» I said. «I'd like to believe him. He spent a lot of time making sure that it wouldn't be easy, though.»
«Supposing you all decline. Who's next?»
«I'm not certain,» I said, «but I think it would go to Hendrake then.»
«Damn,» Luke said. «It's as twisted a place as Amber, isn't it?»
«Neither one's twisted, exactly. Just a little complicated, till you've learned the ropes.»
«What say I just listen, and you fill me in on everything that you haven't so far?»
«Good idea.»
So I talked for a long while, breaking to summon food and water. We halted twice during that time, causing me to realize just how tired I had become. And briefing Luke reminded me yet again that I should be telling all of this to Random. But if I got in touch and tried it I was certain he would order me back to Amber. And I couldn't disobey a direct order from the king, even if I was almost his opposite number.
«We're getting nearer,» Nayda announced somewhat later, and I noted that our roadway had widened even more, almost to the point she'd described. I drew a jolt of energy into my system, digested it, and kept going.
Shortly thereafter, she remarked, «Much nearer.»
«Like just around the corner?» Luke asked.
«Could be,» she answered. «I can't be more precise, the condition she's in.»
But a little later, we heard distant shouts.
Luke drew rein.
«Something about a tower,» he said.
She nodded.
«Were they heading for it, holing up in it, or defending themselves there?»
«All of the above,» she said. «I understand now. Her captors were pursued, headed for a place of refuge, reached it, are there now.»
«How come you're suddenly that precise?»
She gave me a quick look that I took as a request for an explanation other than ty' iga powers.
«I was using the spikard,» I offered, «trying to see whether I could give her a clearer vision.»
«Good,» Luke said. «Can you boost it even more, so we can see what we're up against?»
«I can try,» I said, narrowing my eyes at her in inquiry. She responded with a very slight nod.
I wasn't certain how to go about it, so I just fed her energy in the way of that jolt I'd given myself a while back.
«Yes,» she said after a few moments, «Coral and her captors - six of them, I believe - have taken refuge in a tower near here. They are under attack.»
«How large is the party of attackers?» Luke asked.
«Small,» she said. «Quite small. I can't give you a number.»
«Let's go and see,» Luke said, and he led the way,: Dalt behind him.
«Three or four,» Nayda whispered to me, «but they're Pattern ghosts. That's probably all it can maintain this far from home, on a Black Road.»
«Ouch,» I said. «This makes it tricky.»
«How so?»
«It means I have relatives on both sides.»
«It also looks as if Amber's ghosts and the Court's demons are only agents, and that it's really a confrontation between the Logrus and the Pattern.»
«Damn! Of course!» I said. «It could easily escalate into another of those. I'm going to have to warn Luke what we're riding into.»
«You can't! Not without telling him what I am!»
«I'll tell him I learned it myself - that I had a sudden insight into a new spell.»
«But what then? Which side are you on? What do we do?»
«Neither,» I said. «We're on our own, and against both of them.»
«You're crazy! There's no place you can hide, Merle! The Powers divide the universe between them!»
«Luke!» I cried. «I just probed ahead, learned the attackers are Pattern ghosts!»
«You don't say?» he called back. «Think we should be taking their side? It's probably better for the Pattern to take her back than for the Courts to get her, wouldn't you think?»
«She shouldn't be used that way,» I said. «Let's take her away from both of them.»
«I agree with your feelings,» he stated. «But what if we succeed? I don't really care to be struck by a meteor or transported to the bottom of the nearest ocean.»
«As near as I can tell, the spikard doesn't draw its power from the Pattern or the Logrus. Its sources are scattered through Shadow.»
«So? I'm sure it's not a match for either one, let alone both.»
«No, but I can use it to start an evasion course. They'll be getting in each other's way if they decide to pursue us.»
«But eventually they'd find us, wouldn't they?»
«Maybe, maybe not,» I said. «I have some ideas, but we're running out of time.»
«Dalt, did you hear all that?» Luke asked. «I did,» Dalt replied.
«If you want out, now's your chance.»
«And miss an opportunity to twist the Unicorn's tail?» he said. «Keep riding!»
We did, and the shouts grew louder as we raced ahead. There was a certain timeless feeling to it, though - with the muffled sounds and the dimness - as if we har always been riding here and always would be…
Then we rounded a bend and I saw the top of the tower in the distance, heard more shouts. We slowed as we came to the next turn, advancing more cautiously, working our way through a small stand of black saplings.
Finally, we halted, dismounted, worked our way forward on foot. We pushed aside the final screening branches and looked down a slight slope to a blackened, sandy plain beside a three-story gray tower with slit windows and a narrow entranceway. It took a while to sort out the tableau at its base.
There were two demonformed individuals standing to either side of the tower's entrance. They were armed and their attention seemed focused upon the contest taking place on the sands before them. Familiar figures stood at the far end of this impromptu arena and at either side: Benedict stroked his chin, expressionless; Eric hunkered and smiled; Caine juggled, 'flipped, palmed, and passed a dagger, reflexively, through some private routine, an expression of amused fascination on his face. From the tower's top, I suddenly noted, two horned demons leaned forward, their gazes as intent as those of Amber's Pattern ghosts.
At the circle's center Gerard faced a demonformed son of Hendrake, of his own height and greater girth. It looked to be Chinaway himself, who was said to have a collection of over two hundred skulls of those he'd dispatched. I preferred Gerard's collection of a thousand or so mugs, steins, and drinking horns, but your ghost will walk, you lover of trees, in an English lane, if you know what I mean.
Both were stripped to the waist, and from the scuffed up condition of the sands about them I guessed they had been at it for some time. Chinaway tried to trip Gerard just then, who caught his arm and head as he stepped behind him, and sent him cartwheeling away. The demon lord came up on his feet, however, and immediately advanced once again, arms extended, hands weaving a sinuous pattern before him. Gerard simply waited in a ready position. Chinaway stabbed taloned fingers toward Gerard's eyes and hooked a blow against his rib cage. Gerard caught hold of his shoulder, however, as Chinaway dropped and caught him about the thigh.
«Let's wait,» Dalt said softly. «I want to watch.» Luke and I both nodded as Gerard locked Chinaway's head and Chinaway wrapped his other arm about Gerard's waist. Then they simply stood there, muscles bulging beneath two hides, one pale and smooth, the other red and scaly. Their lungs worked like bellows.
«I assume the thing's been dragging out,» Luke whispered, «and they decided to settle it champion against champion.»
«Looks that way,» I said.
«Coral must be inside then, wouldn't you think?»
«Wait a minute.»
