He smiled crookedly.
“What do you know;’ he said. “A crystal cave.”
“From my own experience,” I said, “the time flow here should be about what you were asking for.”
He nodded and we began moving slowly toward the high blue hill. “Still plenty of rations,” I added, “and the sleeping bag should be where I left it.”
“It will serve,” he acknowledged.
He halted, panting, before we reached the foot. I saw his gaze drift toward a number of strewn bones off to our left. It would have been months since the pair who had removed the boulder had fallen there, long enough for scavengers to have done a thorough job. Luke shrugged, advanced a little, leaned against blue stone. He lowered himself slowly into a sitting position.
“Going to have to wait before I can climb,” he said, “even with you helping.”
“Sure,” I said. “We can finish our conversation. As I recall, you were going to make me an offer I couldn’t refuse. I was to bring you to a place like this, where you could recover fast vis-a-vis the time flow at the Keep. You, in turn, had a piece of information vital to the security of Amber.”
“Right;’ he agreed, “and you didn’t hear the rest of my story either. They go together.”
I hunkered across from him. “You told me that your mother had fled to the Keep, apparently gotten into trouble there and called to you for help.”
“Yes,” he acknowledged. “So I dropped the business with Ghostwheel and tried to help her. I got in touch with Dalt, and he agreed to come and attack the Keep.”
“It’s always good to know a band of mercenaries you can get hold of in a hurry,” I said.
He gave me a quick, strange look but I was able to maintain an innocent expression.
“So we led them through Shadow and we attacked the place,” he said then. “It had to be us that you saw when you were there.”
I nodded slowly. “It looked as if you made it over the wall. What went wrong?”
“I still don’t know,” he said. “We were doing all right. Their defense was crumbling and we were pushing right along, when suddenly Dalt turned on me. We’d been separated for a time; then he appeared again and attacked me. At first I thought he’d made a mistake-we were all grimy and bloody-and I shouted to him that it was me. But he just kept coming. That’s how he was able to do a job like this on me. For a while I didn’t want to strike back because I thought it was a misunderstanding and he’d realize his mistake in a few seconds.”
“Do you think he sold you out? Or that it was something he’d been planning for a long time? Some grudge?”
“I don’t like to think that.”
“Magic, then?”
“Maybe. I don’t know.”
A peculiar thought occurred to me. “Did he know you’d killed Caine?” I asked.
“No, I make it a point never to tell anybody everything I’m about.”
“You wouldn’t kid me, would you?”
He laughed, moved as if to clap me on the shoulder, winced and thought better of it.
“Why do you ask?” he said then.
“I don’t know. Just curious.”
“Sure,” he said. Then, “What say you give me a hand up and inside, so I can see what kind of supplies you’ve left me?”
“Why?” I got to my feet and helped him to his. We moved around to the right to the slope of easiest ascent, and I guided him slowly to the top.
Once we’d achieved the summit he leaned on his staff and stared down into the opening.
“No really easy way down in,” he said, “for me. At first I was thinking you could roll up a barrel from the larder, and I could get down to it and then down to the floor. But now I look at it, it’s an even bigger drop than I remembered. I’d tear something open, sure.”
“Mm-hm,” I said. “Hang on. I’ve got an idea.”
I fumed away from him and climbed back down. Then I made my way along the base of the blue rise to my right until I had rounded two shiny shoulders and was completely out of Luke’s line of sight.