“Any way we can forget the whole thing and start over again, be friends?”
“Never.”
“Didn’t think so.”
“She always cared more about you than me, and now you’re going to have the throne.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I don’t want it.”
“Your desires have nothing to do with the matter.”
“I won’t have it:”
“Yes, you will-unless I kill you first.”
“Don’t be stupid. It’s not worth this.”
“One day soon, when you least expect it, you will turn and see me. It will be too late.”
The mirror grew entirely black.
“Jurt!”
Nothing. Aggravating, having to put up with him in dream as well as waking.
I turned my head toward a fire-framed minor several paces ahead and to my left, knowing-somehow-it was next on my route. I moved toward it.
She was smiling.
“And there you have it,” she said.
“Aunty, what’s going on?”
“It seems to be the sort of conflict generally referred to as ‘irreducible,’ “ Fiona replied.
“That’s not the sort of answer I need.”
“Too much is afoot to give you a better one.”
“And you’re a part of it?”
“A very small one. Not one who can do you much good just now.”
“What am I to do?”
“Learn your options and choose the best one.”
“Best for whom? Best for what?”
“Only you can say.”
“Can you give me a hint?”
“Could you have walked Corwin’s Pattern that day I took you to it?”
“Yes.”
“I thought so. It was drawn under unusual circumstances. It can never be duplicated. Our Pattern would never have permitted its construction had it not been damaged itself and too weak to prevent its coming into being.”
“So?”
“Our Pattern is trying to absorb it, incorporate it. If it succeeds, it will be as disastrous as it would have been were the Pattern of Amber destroyed at the time of the war. The balance with Chaos will be totally upset.”
“Isn’t Chaos strong enough to prevent this? I’d thought they were equally potent.”
“They were until you repaired the Shadow Pattern and Amber’s was able to absorb it. This increased its strength beyond that of Chaos. Now it is able to reach for your father’s against the power of the Logrus.”
“I don’t understand what is to be done.”
“Neither do I, yet. But I charge you to remember what I have said. When the time comes you must make a decision. I’ve no idea what it will involve, but it will be very important.”
“She’s right,” came a voice from behind my back. Turning, I saw my father within a shining black frame, a silver rose set at its top.
“Corwin!” I heard Fiona say. “Where are you?”
“In a place where there is no light,” he said.
“I thought you somehow in Amber, Father, with Deirdre,” I said.
“The ghosts play at being ghosts,” he answered. “I have not much time, for my strength is low. I can tell you only this: Trust not the Pattern, nor the Logrus either, nor any of their spawn, till this matter be settled.”
He began to fade.
“How can I help you?” I asked.
The words “… in the Courts” came to me before he vanished.
I turned again.
“Fi, what did he mean by that?” I asked her.
She was frowning.
“I get the impression that the answer lies somewhere in the Courts,” she replied slowly.
“Where? Where should I look?”
She shook her head and began to turn away.
“Who would know best?” she said.
Then she, too, was gone.
Voices were still calling to me, from behind, from ahead. There was weeping and laughter, and my name being repeated. I rushed ahead.
“Whatever happens,” Bill Roth said, “if you need a good lawyer, I’ll handle it-even in Chaos.”
And then there was Dworkin, squinting at me from out of a tiny mirror with a twisted frame.
“Nothing to be alarmed about,” he remarked, “but all sorts of imponderables are hovering about you.”
“What am I to do?” I cried.
“You must become something greater than yourself.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Escape the cage that is your life.”
“What cage?”
He was gone.
I ran, and their words rang around me.