I’m not sure. The way the Logrus threw information at me it just seems to surface at the appropriate time. I didn’t even know about this place till I saw the entrance.
I stretched and folded my arms. I leaned my back against the wall. I extended my legs and crossed them at the ankles.
Then we’re stuck here till something happens or you get inspired again?
Right.
Wake me when it’s over, I said, and I closed my eyes.
The wrist twitch that followed was almost painful.
Hey! You can’t do that! Frakir said. The whole idea is that you sit up all night and watch.
And a very half assed idea it is, I said. I refuse to play such a stupid game. If anything wants the stuff, I’ll give it a good price on it.
Go ahead and sleep if you want. But what if something comes along and decides you had better be taken out of the picture first?
To begin with, I replied, I don’t believe that anything could care about that pile of medieval junk, let alone lust after it – and in closing, it’s your job to warn me of danger.
Aye, aye, Captain. But this is a weird place. What if it limits my sensitivity some way?
You’re really reaching now, I said. I guess you’ll just have to improvise.
I dozed. I dreamed that I stood within a magic circle and various things tried to get at me. When they touched the barrier, though, they were transformed into stick figures, cartoon characters which rapidly faded. Except for Corwin of Amber, who smiled faintly and shook his head.
“Sooner or later you’ll have to step outside,” he said.
“Then let it be later,” I replied.
“And all your problems will still be there, right where you left them.”
I nodded.
“But I’ll be rested,” I answered.
“Then it’s a trade-off. Good luck.”
“Thanks.”
The dream fell apart into random images then. I seem to remember standing outside the circle a little later, trying to figure a way to get back in….
I wasn’t certain what woke me. It couldn’t have been a noise. But suddenly I was alert and rising, and the first thing I beheld was a dwarf with a mottled complexion, his hands clasped at his throat, lying unmoving in a twisted position near the armor pile.
“What’s going on?” I tried saying. But there was no reply.
I crossed and knelt beside the short big-shouldered guy. With my fingertips, I felt after a carotid pulse but couldn’ t locate one. At that moment, however, I felt a tickling sensation about my wrist, and Frakir-phasing into and out of visibility-made her way back into touch with me.
You took that guy out? I asked.
There came a soft pulsation then. Suicides don’t strangle themselves, she replied.
Why didn’t you alert me?
You needed your rest, and it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. Our empathy is too strong, though. Sorry I woke you.
I stretched.
How long was I asleep?
Several hours, I’d judge.
I feel kind of sorry about this, I said. That scrap heap isn’t worth somebody’s life,
It is now, Frakir answered.
True. Now that someone’s died for the stuff have you gotten the word as to what we do next?
Things are a little clearer, but not enough to act on. We must remain until morning for me to be certain.
Does the information you have include anything on whether there’s food or drink available in the neighborhood?
Yes. There’s supposed to be a jug of water behind the altar. Also a loaf of bread. But that’s for morning. You’re supposed to be fasting throughout the night.
That’s only if I take this whole business seriously, I said, turning toward the altar.
I took two steps, and the world started to come apart. The floor of the chapel trembled, and I heard my first sounds since my arrival; a deep growling, grating noise came from somewhere far beneath me. A horde of colors flashed through the air of this colorless place, half blinding me with their intensity. Then the colors fled, and the room divided itself. The whiteness grew intense in the vicinity of the archway by which I had entered. I had to raise my hand to shield my eyes against it. Across from this, a profound darkness occurred, masking the three doorways in that wall.