“Actually, our brother Despil is next after me. Jurt said that Despil would probably step aside for him, but I think that was wishful thinking. I’m not at all sure he would. Anyhow, Jurt says now that he isn’t interested.”
“Ha! I think he’s just taking a different approach. You whipped him too many times, and he’s trying to get in good with you. Hope that spikard can protect your back.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I’d like to believe him. He spent a lot of time making sure that it wouldn’t be easy, though.”
“Supposing you all decline. Who’s next?”
“I’m not certain,” I said, “but I think it would go to Hendrake then.”
“Damn,” Luke said. “It’s as twisted a place as Amber, isn’t it?”
“Neither one’s twisted, exactly. Just a little complicated, till you’ve learned the ropes.”
“What say I just listen, and you fill me in on everything that you haven’t so far?”
“Good idea.”
So I talked for a long while, breaking to summon food and water. We halted twice during that time, causing me to realize just how tired I had become. And briefing Luke reminded me yet again that I should be telling all of this to Random. But if I got in touch and tried it I was certain he would order me back to Amber. And I couldn’t disobey a direct order from the king, even if I was almost his opposite number.
“We’re getting nearer,” Nayda announced somewhat later, and I noted that our roadway had widened even more, almost to the point she’d described. I drew a jolt of energy into my system, digested it, and kept going.
Shortly thereafter, she remarked, “Much nearer.”
“Like just around the corner?” Luke asked.
“Could be,” she answered. “I can’t be more precise, the condition she’s in.”
But a little later, we heard distant shouts.
Luke drew rein.
“Something about a tower,” he said.
She nodded.
“Were they heading for it, holing up in it, or defending themselves there?”
“All of the above,” she said. “I understand now. Her captors were pursued, headed for a place of refuge, reached it, are there now.”
“How come you’re suddenly that precise?”
She gave me a quick look that I took as a request for an explanation other than ty’iga powers.
“I was using the spikard,” I offered, “trying to see whether I could give her a clearer vision.”
“Good,” Luke said. “Can you boost it even more, so we can see what we’re up against?”
“I can try,” I said, narrowing my eyes at her in inquiry. She responded with a very slight nod.
I wasn’t certain how to go about it, so I just fed her energy in the way of that jolt I’d given myself a while back.
“Yes,” she said after a few moments, “Coral and her captors-six of them, I believe-have taken refuge in a tower near here. They are under attack.”
“How large is the party of attackers?” Luke asked.
“Small,” she said. “Quite small. I can’t give you a number.”
“Let’s go and see,” Luke said, and he led the way,: Dalt behind him.
“Three or four,” Nayda whispered to me, “but they’re Pattern ghosts. That’s probably all it can maintain this far from home, on a Black Road.”
“Ouch,” I said. “This makes it tricky.”
“How so?”
“It means I have relatives on both sides.”
“It also looks as if Amber’s ghosts and the Court’s demons are only agents, and that it’s really a confrontation between the Logrus and the Pattern.”
“Damn! Of course!” I said. “It could easily escalate into another of those. I’m going to have to warn Luke what we’re riding into.”
“You can’t! Not without telling him what I am!”
“I’ll tell him I learned it myself-that I had a sudden insight into a new spell.”
“But what then? Which side are you on? What do we do?”
“Neither,” I said. “We’re on our own, and against both of them.”
“You’re crazy! There’s no place you can hide, Merle! The Powers divide the universe between them!”
“Luke! “ I cried. “I just probed ahead, learned the attackers are Pattern ghosts!”
“You don’t say?” he called back. “Think we should be taking their side? It’s probably better for the Pattern to take her back than for the Courts to get her, wouldn’t you think?”