“Supposing I simply trump out of here to some distant shadow?”
“I will be obliged to follow you.”
“In this form, or another?”
She looked away. She poked at her food.
“You’ve already admitted that you can be other persons. You locate me in some arcane fashion, then you take possession of someone in my vicinity.”
She took a drink of coffee.
“Perhaps something prevents you from saying it;’ I continued, “but that’s the case. I know it.”
She nodded once, curtly, and resumed eating.
“Supposing I did trump out right now;’ I said, “and you followed after in your peculiar fashion.” I thought back to my telephone conversations with Meg Devlin and Mrs.Hansen. “Then the real Vinta Bayle would wake up in her own body with a gap in her memory, right?”
“Yes,” she answered softly.
“And that would leave Luke here in the company of a woman who would be happy to destroy him if she had any inkling who he really is.”
She smiled faintly. “Just so,” she said.
We ate in silence for a time. She had attempted to foreclose all my choices, to force me to trump back to Amber and take Luke with me. I do not like being manipulated or coerced. My reflexive attempt to do something other than what is desired of me then feels forced also.
I refilled our coffee cups when I had finished eating. I regarded a collection of dog portraits that hung on the wall across from me. I sipped and savored. I did not speak because I could think of nothing further to say.
Finally, she did. “So what are you going to do?” she asked me.
I finished my coffee and rose. “I am going to take Luke his stick,” I said.
I pushed my chair back into place and headed for the corner of the room where I had leaned the stick.
“And then?” she said. “What will you do?”
I glanced back at her as I hefted the staff. She sat very erect, her hands palms down on the table. The Nemesis look overlay her features once again, and I could almost feel electricity in the air.
“Whatever I must,” I replied, and I headed for the door.
I increased my pace as soon as I was out of sight. When I hit the stairs and saw that she was not following, I took the steps two at a time. On the way up, I withdrew my cards and located the proper one.
When I entered the room I saw that Luke was resting, his back against the bed’s pillows. His breakfast tray was on the smaller chair, beside the bed. I dropped the latch on the door.
“What’s the matter, man? We under attack or something?” Luke asked.
“Start getting up,” I said.
I picked up his weapon then and crossed to the bed. I gave him a hand sitting up, thrust the staff and the blade at him.
“My hand has been forced,” I said, “and I’m not about to turn you over to Random.”
“That’s a comfort,” he observed.
“But we have to clear out-now.”
“That’s all right by me.”
He leaned on the staff, got slowly to his feet. I heard a noise in the hall, but it was already too late. I’d raised the card and was concentrating. There came a pounding on the door.
“You’re up to something and I think it’s the wrong thing,” Vinta called out.
I did not reply. The vision was already coming clear.
The doorframe splintered from the force of a tremendous kick, and the latch was torn loose. There was a look of apprehension on Luke’s face as I reached out and took hold of his arm.
“Come on,” I said.
Vinta burst into the room as I led Luke forward, her eyes flashing, her hands extended, reaching. Her cry of “Fool!” seemed to change into a wail as she was washed by the spectrum, rippled and faded.
We stood in a patch of grass, and Luke let out a deep breath he had been holding.
“You believe in cutting things close, buddy-boy,” he remarked, and then he looked around and recognized the place.