Yes?
Beneath their apparent humanity they were pulsing energy fields within geometrical constructs.
Sounds sort of like computer animation.
Maybe it is something like that. I couldn’t say.
And my father wasn’t one of these?
Nope. But that wasn’t what I war getting at. I recognized the source.
I was suddenly alert.
What do you mean?
The swirls-the geometrical constructs on which the figure were based-they reproduced sections of the Pattern at Amber.
You must be mistaken.
No. What I lacked in sentience I made up in memory. Both figures were three-dimensional twistings of Pattern segments.
Why would the Pattern be creating simulacra to bug me?
I’m just a humble killing aid. Reasoning is not one of my strong points yet.
If the Unicorn and the Serpent are involved, I suppose the Pattern might be also.
We know that the Logrus is.
And it seemed to me that the Pattern demonstrated sentience the day Coral walked it. Say that’s true and add on the ability to manufacture constructs- Is this the place it wanted them to bring me? Or did Corwin transport me someplace else? And what does the Pattern want of me? And what does my father want of me?
I envy your ability to shrug, Frakir answered. Those are what I take it you call rhetorical questions?
I guess so.
Information of another sort is beginning to come to me, so I assume the night is ending.
I sprang to my feet.
Does that mean I can eat-and drink? I asked.
I believe so.
I moved quickly then.
While I am new to these things, I cannot help wondering whether it might be considered disrespectful to vault over an altar that way, Frakir commented.
The black flames flickered as I passed between them.
Hell, I don’t even know what it’s an altar to, I answered, and I’ve always thought of disrespect as something that had to be identity-specific.
The ground trembled slightly as I seized the jug and took a deep swallow.
Then, again, perhaps you have a point there, I said, choking.
I carried the jug and the loaf around the altar, past the stiffening dwarf and over to the bench which ran along the back wall. Seating myself, I commenced eating and drinking more slowly.
What comes next? I asked. You said that the information was flowing again.
You have kept vigil successfully, she said. Now you must select what you need from among the armor and weapons you watched, then pass through one of the three doorways in this wall.
Which one?
One is the door of Chaos, one the door of Order, and I know not the nature of the third.
Uh, how does one make an informed decision in these matters?
I think your way may be barred by all but the one you’re supposed to pass.
Then one does not really have a choice, does one?
I believe that the matter of the doorways may be predicated upon the choice one makes in the hardware department.
I finished the bread, washed it down with the rest of the water. I got to my feet then.
Well, I said, let’s see what they’ll do if I don’t make a choice. Too bad about the dwarf.
He knew what he was doing, what chances he was taking.
That’s more than I can say.
I approached the right-hand door since it was the nearest. It let into a bright corridor which grew brighter and brighter as it receded until sight of it was lost to me beyond a few paces’ distance. I kept walking. Damn near broke my nose, too. It was as if I’d encountered a wall of glass. It figures. I couldn’t’ t picture myself walking off into the light that way.
You’re actually getting more cynical as I watch, Frakir observed.I caught that thought.
Good.
I approached the middle one more carefully. It wore gray and seemed to let into a long corridor also. I could see down it perhaps a little farther than the first, though no features other than walls, roof, and floor presented themselves. I extended my arm and discovered that my way was not barred.
Seems to be the one, Frakir observed.