I took off the Jewel of Judgment and hung it on a spur of the boulder.
Then I moved off about ten paces.
“Hi, Dad.”
The Ghostwheel was a golden Frisbee, come sailing out of the west.
“Good morning, Ghost.”
“Why are you abandoning that device? It’s one of the most powerful tools I’ve ever seen.”
“I’m not abandoning it, but I’m about to summon the Sign of the Logrus, and I don’t think they’d get on too well. I’m even a little leery over how the Logrus will take to me with this higher-order Pattern attunement I’m wearing.”
“Perhaps I’d better move along and check back with you later.”
“Stick around,” I said. “Maybe you can bail me out if this turns into a problem.”
I summoned the Sign of the Logrus then, and it came and hovered before me, and nothing happened. I shifted a part of my awareness into the jewel, there on the side of the boulder, and through it I was able to perceive the Logrus from another perspective. Eerie. Also painless.
I centered myself within my own skull once again, extended my arms into the Logrus limbs, reached….In less than a minute I had a plate of buttermilk pancakes, a side order of sausages, a cup of coffee, and a glass of orange juice.
“I could have gotten them for you faster than that,” Ghost remarked.
“I’m sure you could have,” I said. “I was just testing systems.”
As I ate, I tried to sort my priorities. When I finished, I sent the dishes back where they had come from, retrieved the Jewel, hung it about my neck, and stood.
“Okay, Ghost. Time to head back to Amber,” I said.
He expanded and opened and sank, so that I stood before a golden arch.
I stepped forward-
and back into my apartment.
“Thanks,” I said.
“De nada, Dad. Listen, I’ve a question: When you summoned breakfast, did you notice anything at all unusual in the way the Logrus Sign behaved?”
“How do you mean that?” I asked as I moved to wash my hands.
“Let’s start with physical sensations. Did it seem…sticky?”
“That’s an odd way to put it,” I said. “But as a matter of fact, it did seem to take slightly longer than usual to disengage. Why do you ask?”
“A peculiar notion has just occurred to me. Can you do Pattern magic?”
“Yeah, but I’m better at the Logrus variety.”
“You might want to try them both and compare them if you get a chance.”
“ Why?”
“I’m actually starting to get hunches. I’ll tell you as soon as I’ve checked this one out.”
Ghostwheel was gone.
“Shit,” I said, and I washed my face.
I looked out the window, and a handful of snowflakes blew by. I fetched a key from my desk drawer. There were a couple of things I wanted to get out of the way immediately.
I stepped into the corridor. I had not gone more than a few paces before I heard the sound. I halted and listened. Then I continued, past the stairway, the sound growing steadily in volume as I advanced. By the time I reached the long corridor which ran past the library I knew that Random was back because I didn’t know of anyone else around here who could drum like that-or would dare to use the King’s drums if he could.
I continued on past the half opened door to the corner, where I turned right. My first impulse had been to enter, give him back the Jewel of Judgment, and try to explain what had happened. Then I recalled Flora’s advice that anything honest, straightforward, and above-board would always get you in trouble here. While I hated to give her credit for having enunciated a general rule, I could see that in this particular instance it would certainly tie me up with a lot of explaining when then were other things I wanted to be about-and, for that matter, it might also get me ordered not to do some of them.
I continued to the far entrance to the dining room, where I checked quickly and determined the place to be deserted. Good. Inside and to the right, as I recalled; there was a sliding panel which would get me into a hollow section of wall beside the library, furnished with pegs or a ladder that would take me up to a hidden entrance to the library’s balcony. It could also take me down through the spiral stair’s shaft and into the caverns below, if memory served. I hoped I never had reason to check that part out, but I was sufficiently into family tradition these days that I wanted to do a little spying, as several muttered exchanges as I’d passed the opened door led me to believe that Random was not alone in there. If knowledge really is power, then I needed all I could get my hands on, as I’d felt especially vulnerable for some time now.