“Your sister was very ill awhile back, wasn’t she?”
“Yes,” she replied.
I took a big swallow.
“She was near death. At that time her body was possessed by a ty’iga spirit-a kind of demon-as Nayda no longer had any use for it.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I understand that she actually died.”
Coral stared into my eyes. She didn’t find whatever she sought, and she took a drink instead.
“I’d known something was wrong,” she said. “She hasn’t really been herself since the illness.”
“She became nasty? Sneaky?”
“No, a lot nicer. Nayda was always a bitch.”
“You didn’t get along?”
“Not till recently. She’s not in any pain, is she?”
“No, she’s just sleeping. She’s under a spell.”
“Why don’t you release her? She doesn’t look like much of a danger.”
“I don’t think she is now. Just the opposite, in fact,” I said. “And we will release her, soon. My brother Mandor will have to undo it, though. It’s his spell.”
“Mandor? I don’t really know much about you-or your family-do I?”
“Nope,” I said, “and vice versa. Listen, I don’t even know what day it is.” I crossed the room and peered out the window. There was daylight. It was cloudy though, and I couldn’t guess the time. “There’s something you should do right away. Go see your father and let him know you’re all right. Tell him you got lost in the caverns or took a wrong turn into the Corridor Mirrors and wound up on some other plane of existence or something. Anything. To avoid a diplomatic incident. Okay?”
She finished her drink and nodded. Then she looked at me and blushed and looked away.
“We’ll get together again before I leave, won’t we?”
I reached out and patted her shoulder, not really knowing what my feelings were. Then I realized that wouldn’t do, and I stepped forward and embraced her.
“You know it,” I said as I stroked her hair.
“Thanks for showing me around town.”
“We’ll have to do it again,” I told her, “as soon as the pace slackens.”
“Uh-huh.”
We walked to the door.
“I want to see you soon,” she said.
“I’m fading fast,” I told her, as I opened it. “I’ve been through hell and back.”
She touched my cheek.
“Poor Merlin,” she said. “Sleep tight.”
I gulped the rest of my wine and withdrew my Trumps. I wanted to do just what she said, but certain unavoidables came first. I riffled my way to the Ghostwheel’s card, removed it, and regarded it.
Almost immediately, following the faintest drop in temperature and the barest formation of desire on my part, Ghostwheel appeared before me-a red circle turning in the middle of the air.
“Uh, hello, Dad,” it stated. “I was wondering where you’d gotten to. When I checked back at the cave, you were gone, and none of my shadow-indexing procedures could turn you up. It never even occurred to me that you might simply have come home. I-“
“Later,” I said. “I’m in a hurry. Get me down to the chamber of the Pattern fast.”
“There’s something I’d better tell you first.”
“What?”
“That force that followed you to the Keep-the one I hid you from in the cave…?”
“Yes.”
“It was the Pattern itself that was seeking you.”
“I guessed that,” I said, “later. We’ve had our encounter and sort of come to terms for now. Get me down there right away. It’s important.”
“Sir, I am afraid of that thing.”
“Then take me as close as you dare and step aside. I have to check something out.”
“Very well. Come this way.”
I took a step forward. Ghost rose into the air, rotated ninety degrees toward me, and dropped quickly, passing my head, shoulders, torso and vanishing beneath my feet. The lights went out as he did so, and I called up my Logrus vision immediately. It showed me that I stood in the passageway outside the big door to the chamber of the Pattern.
“Ghost?” I said softly.
There was no reply.
I moved forward, turned the comer, advanced to the door, and leaned upon it. It was still unlocked, and it yielded to my pushing. Frakir pulsed once upon my wrist.