He smiled faintly as he nodded, seating himself across from me. Birdsongs I could not identify sounded from the trees. A gentle breeze caused leaves to rustle.
“What are you up to these days?” I asked him as I poured a cup of coffee and broke a roll.
“Observing the scene, mainly,” he replied.
“Political scene?”
“As always. Though my recent experience in Amber has led me to regard it as part of an even larger picture.”
I nodded.
“And your investigations with Fiona?”
“Those, too,” he answered. “These are shaping up into very unusual times.”
“I’ve noticed.”
“It seems almost as if the Pattern-Logrus conflict were making itself manifest in mundane affairs, as well as on the cosmic scale.”
“I feel that way, too. But then I’m prejudiced. I got caught up in the cosmic part early, and without a scorecard. I’ve been run all over the place and manipulated every which way recently-to the point where all of my affairs seemed part of their bigger picture. I don’t like it a bit, and if I had some way to make them back off I’d use it.”
“Hm,” he said. “And what if your whole life were a study in manipulation?”
“I wouldn’t feel good about it,” I said. “I guess I’d feel just the way I do now, only perhaps more intensely.”
He gestured and an amazing omelet appeared before me, followed, moments later, by a side dish of fried potatoes, mixed with what appeared to be green chilies and onions.
“All of this is hypothetical,” I said as I began eating, “isn’t it?”
There followed a long pause as he took his first mouthful, then, “I think not,” he said.
“I think the Powers have been moving madly for a long while now,” he went on, “and we’re finally nearing endgame.”
“What makes you privy to these matters?”
“It began with a careful consideration of events,” he said. “Then followed the formulation and testing of hypotheses.”
“Spare me a lecture on the use of the scientific method in theology and human politics,” I said.
“You asked.”
“True. Go ahead.”
“Do you not feel it somewhat odd that Swayvill expired just when he did, when so many things are coming to fruition simultaneously, after having hung on for so long?”
“He had to go sometime,” I said, “and all the recent stresses probably proved too much.”
“Timing,” Mandor said. “Strategic placement. Timing.”
“For what?”
“To place you on the throne of Chaos, of course,” he replied.
IV
Sometimes you hear an unlikely thing and that’s all it is. Other times, you hear something improbable and it strikes an echo. There is an immediate feeling of having known it, or known something very like it, all along, and just not having bothered to pick it up and examine it. By rights, I should have choked at Mandor’s pronouncement, then snorted something such as “Preposterous!” Yet, I’d a peculiar feeling about this business-whether his conclusion was right or wrong-as if there were something more than conjecture involved, as if there just might be some overall plan moving me toward the circle of power in the Courts.
I took a long, slow drink of coffee. Then, “Really?” I said.
I felt myself smiling as he sought my eyes, studied my face.
“Are you consciously party to the effort?”
I raised my coffee cup again. I had been about to say, “No, of course not. This is the first I’ve heard of the notion.” Then I recalled my father’s telling me how he had duped Aunt Flora into giving him vital information his amnesia had washed away. It was not the cleverness with which he had done it that had impressed me so much as the fact that his mistrust of relatives transcended consciousness, existed as a pure existential reflex. Not having been through all the family rivalries Corwin had, I lacked responses of such intensity. And Mandor and I had always gotten along particularly well, even though he was a few centuries older and had very different tastes in some areas. But, suddenly, discussing such a high-stakes matter as we were, that small voice Corwin referred to as his worse-if-wiser self suggested, “Why not? You could use the practice, kid,” and as I lowered the cup again I decided to try it out, just to see how it felt, for a few minutes.