“No. He was already dying when I got to him. Come with me now! Hurry! It is important!”
“Where to? What is the matter?”
“To the Pattern,” I said. “Why? I am not certain, but I know that it is important. Come on!”
We entered the palace, moving toward the nearest stairwell. There were two guards at its head, but they came to attention as we approached and did not attempt to interfere with our passage.
“I’m glad it’s true about your eyes,” Random said as we headed down. “Do you see all right?”
“Yes. I hear that you are still married.”
“Yes. I am.”
When we reached the ground floor, we hurried to the right. There had been another pair of guards at the foot of the stair, but they did not move to stop us.
“Yes,” he repeated, as we headed toward the center of the palace. “You are surprised, aren’t you?”
“Yes. I thought you were going to get the year over with and be done with it.”
“So did I,” he said. “But I fell in love with her. I really did.”
“Stranger things have happened.”
We crossed the marble dining hall and entered the long, narrow corridor that led far back through shadows and dust. I suppressed a shudder as I thought of my condition the last time I had come this way.
“She really cares for me,” he said. “Like nobody else ever has before.”
“I’m glad for you,” I said.
We reached the door that opened onto the platform hiding the long, spiral stairway down. It was open. We passed through and began the descent.
“I’m not,” he said, as we hurried around and around. “I didn’t want to fall in love. Not then. We’ve been prisoners the whole time, you know. How can she be proud of that?”
“That is over now,” I said. “You became a prisoner because you followed me and tried to kill Eric, didn’t you?”
“Yes. Then she joined me here.”
“I will not forget,” I said.
We rushed on. It was a great distance down, and there were only lanterns every forty feet or so. It was a huge, natural cavern. I wondered whether anyone knew how many tunnels and corridors it contained. I suddenly felt myself overwhelmed with pity for any poor wretches rotting in its dungeons, for whatever reasons. I resolved to release them all or find something better to do with them.
Long minutes passed. I could see the flickering of the torches and the lanterns below.
“There is a girl,” I said, “and her name is Dara. She told me she was Benedict’s great-granddaughter and gave me reason to believe it. I told her somewhat concerning Shadow, reality, and the Pattern. She does possess some power over Shadow, and she was anxious to walk the Pattern. When last I saw her, she was headed this way. Now Benedict swears she is not his. Suddenly I am fearful. I want to keep her from the Pattern. I want to question her.”
“Strange,” he said. “Very. I agree with you. Do you think she might be there now?”
“If she is not, then I feel she will be along soon.”
We finally reached the floor, and I began to race through the shadows toward the proper tunnel.
“Wait!” Random cried.
I halted and turned. It took me a moment to locate him, as he was back behind the stairs. I returned.
My question did not reach my lips. I saw that he knelt beside a large, bearded man.
“Dead,” he said. “A very thin blade. Good thrust Just recently.”
“Come on!”
We both ran to the tunnel and turned up it. Its seventh side passage was the one we wanted. I drew Grayswandir as we neared it, for that great, dark, metal-bound door was standing ajar.
I sprang through. Random was right behind me. The floor of that enormous room is black and looks to be smooth as glass, although it is not slippery. The Pattern burns upon it, within it, an intricate, shimmering maze of curved lines, perhaps a hundred and fifty yards long. We halted at its edge, staring.
Something was out there, walking it. I felt that old, tingling chill the thing always gives me as I watched. Was it Dara? It was difficult for me to make out the figure within the fountains of sparks that spewed constantly about it. Whoever it was had to be of the blood royal, for it was common knowledge that anyone else would be destroyed by the Pattern, and this individual had already made it past the Grand Curve and was negotiating the complicated series of arcs that led toward the Final Veil.