I didn’t answer him immediately. After all, I’d asked myself that question many times, and I’d had to wait for the answer, too.
“Yes,” I finally said. “I didn’t realize it till it was too late, though. Bad timing on my part.”
A little later I asked, “What about you?”
“I’m not going to make the same mistake you did,” he replied. “She’s what got me to thinking about all these things…”
“I understand. If she won’t see me, tell her that I said I’m sorry-about everything.”
There was no reply. I stood still for a time, hoping he’d catch up with me, but he didn’t.
Then, “Okay,” I called out. “Our duel’s ended, so far as I’m concerned.”
I began moving again. After a time, I came to an exit and I stepped through it.
He was standing outside, looking up at a massive porcelain face.
“Good,” he said.
I drew near.
“There’s more,” he said, still not looking at me.
“Oh?”
“I think they’re stacking the deck,” he stated.
“Who? How? What for?”
“Mom and the Logrus,” he told me. “To put you on the throne. Who’s the bride of the Jewel?”
“I guess that would be Coral. It seems I did hear Dara use that term at some point. Why?”
“I overheard her giving orders last cycle, to some of her Hendrake kin. She’s sending a special team to kidnap this woman and bring her here. I got the impression she’s intended as your queen.”
“That’s ridiculous,” I said. “She’s married to my friend Luke. She’s Queen of Kashfa-“
He shrugged.
“Just telling you what I heard,” he said. “It had to do with this balancing of forces thing.”
Indeed. I hadn’t thought of that possibility, but it made perfect sense. With Coral, the Courts would automatically obtain the Jewel of Judgment, or the Eye of the Serpent as it was known hereabout, and that balance would certainly be affected. A loss for Amber, a gain for the Courts. It could be sufficient to achieve what I wanted, the harmony that might postpone catastrophe indefinitely.
Too bad I couldn’t let it occur. The poor girl had been jerked around too much, because she happened to be in Amber at the wrong time, because she happened to take a liking to me. I can recall once feeling philosophical in the abstract and deciding, yes, it would be okay to sacrifice one innocent for the good of the many. That was back in college, and had something to do with principles. But Coral was my friend, my cousin, and technically my lover-though under a set of circumstances that should hardly count; and a quick check of my feelings, so as not to be caught up short again, indicated that I could fall in love with her. All of which meant that philosophy had lost yet another round in the real world.
“How long ago did she send these people off, Jurt?”
“I don’t know when they left-or even if they’ve left yet,” he replied. “And with the time differential, they could be gone and back already for that matter.”
“True,” I said, and, “Shit!”
He turned and looked at me.
“It’s important in all sorts of other ways, too, I suppose?” he said.
“It is to her, and she is to me,” I answered.
His expression changed to one of puzzlement.
“In that case,” he said, “why don’t you just let them bring her to you? If you have to take the throne, it will sweeten things. If you don’t, you’ll have her with you, anyhow.”
“Feelings are hard enough to keep secret, even around non-sorcerers,” I said. “She could be used as a hostage against my behavior.”
“Oh. I hate to say this pleases me. What I mean is … I’m pleased you care about someone else.”
I lowered my head. I wanted to reach out and touch him, but I didn’t.
Jurt made a little humming noise, as he sometimes had when pondering things as a kid. Then, “We’ve got to get her before they do, and move her to someplace safe,” he said. “Or take her away from them if they’ve already got her.”
“ ‘We’?”
He smiled, a rare event.