Frakir? I inquired.
There came no answer from that quarter either.
Lose your voice, lady?
She pulsed twice. I stroked her.
As the door opened before me, I was certain that the Pattern had grown brighter. The observation was quickly pushed aside, however. A dark-haired woman stood at the Pattern’s center, her back to me, her arms upraised. I almost shouted the name I thought she might answer to, but she was gone before my vocal mechanism responded. I slumped against the wall.
“I really feel used,” I said aloud. “You’ve run my ass ragged, you placed my life in jeopardy more than once, you got me to perform to satisfy your metaphysical voyeurism, then you kicked me out after you got the last thing you wanted-a slightly brighter glow. I guess that gods or powers or whatever the hell you are don’t have to say ‘Thank you’ or ‘I’m sorry’ or ‘Go to hell’ when they’ve finished using someone. And obviously you feel no need to justify yourself to me. Well, I’m not a baby carriage. I resent being pushed around by you and the Logrus in whatever game you’re playing. How’d you like it if I opened a vein and bled all over you?”
Immediately there was a great coalescence of energy at my side of the Pattern. With a heavy whooshing sound a tower of blue flame built itself before me, widened, assumed genderless features of an enormous inhuman beauty. I had to shade my eyes against it.
“You do not understand,” came a voice modulated of the roaring of flames.
“I know. That’s why I’m here.”
“Your efforts are not unappreciated.”
“Glad to hear it.”
“There was no other way to conduct matters.”
“Well, were they conducted to your satisfaction?”
“They were.”
“Then you are welcome, I guess.”
“You are insolent, Merlin.”
“The way I feel right now I’ve nothing to lose. I’m just too damned tired to care what you do to me. So I came down here to tell you that I think you owe me a big one. That’s all.”
I turned my back on it then.
“Not even Oberon dared address me so,” it said.
I shrugged and took a step toward the door. When I set my foot down, I was back in my apartment.
I shrugged again, then went and splashed water in my face.
“You still okay, Dad?”
There was a ring around the bowl. It rose into the air and followed me about the room.
“I’m all right,” I acknowledged. “How about yourself?”
“Fine. It ignored me completely.”
“Do you know what it’s up to?” I asked.
“It seems to be dueling with the Logrus for control of Shadow. And it just won a round. Whatever happened seems to have strengthened it. You were involved, right?”
“Right.”
“Where were you after you left the cave I’d put you in?”
“You know of a land that lies between the shadows?”
“Between? No. That doesn’t make sense.”
“Well, that’s where I was.”
“How’d you get there?”
“I don’t know. With considerable difficulty, I’d guess. Are Mandor and Jasra all right?”
“The last time I looked they were.”
“How about Luke?”
“I’d no reason to seek him out. Do you want me to?”
“Not just now. Right now I want you to go upstairs and look in on the royal suite. I want to know whether it is, at the moment, occupied. And if so, by whom. I also want you to check the fireplace in the bedroom. See whether loose stone which was removed from an area to the right of it has been replaced or is still lying upon the hearth.”
He vanished, and I paced. I was afraid to sit down or to lie down. I’d a feeling that I’d go to sleep instantly if I did and that I’d be difficult to awaken. But Ghost spun back into existence before I chalked up much mileage.
“The Queen, Vialle, is present,” he said, “in her studio, the loose stone has been replaced, and there is a dwarf in the hall knocking on doors.”
“Damn,” I said. “Then they know it’s missing. A dwarf ?”
“A dwarf.”
I sighed.
“I guess I’d better walk on upstairs, return the Jewel, and try to explain what happened. If Vialle likes my story, she might just forget to mention it to Random.”