“Such as?”
“Bathing a person in it will, if he’s properly protected, do wonders for strength, stamina, and magical abilities. That part’s easy for a person with some training to learn. I’ve been through it myself. But old Sharu’s notes were in his lab, and there was something more in them – way of replacing part of the body with energy, really packing it in. Very dangerous. Easily fatal. But if it works you get something special, a kind of superman, a sort of living Trump.”
“I’ve heard that term before, Luke…”
“Probably,” he replied. “My father undertook the process, with himself as the subject-“
“That’s it!” I said. “Corwin claimed that Brand had become some sort of living Trump. Made it almost impossible to nail him.”
Luke gritted his teeth.
“Sorry,” I said. “But that’s where I heard about it. So that was the secret of Brand’s power… “
Luke nodded.
“I get the impression this Mask thinks he knows how it was done and is getting ready to try it on your brother.”
“Shit!” I observed. “That’s all I need. Jurt as a magical being or a natural force-or whatever the hell. This is serious. How much do you know about the process?”
“Oh, I know most of it, in theory. I wouldn’t mess with it, though. I think it takes away something of your humanity. You don’t much give a shit about other people or human values afterward. I think that’s part of what happened to my father.”
What could I say? Maybe that part was true and maybe it wasn’t. I was sure Luke wanted to believe in some external cause for his father’s treachery. I knew I’d never contradict him on it, even if I learned differently. And so I laughed.
“With Jurt,” I said, “there’d be no way of telling the difference.”
Luke smiled. Then, “You could get dead going up against a guy like that, along with a sorcerer, on their own turf.”
“What choice have I got?” I asked. “They’re after me. Better to move now. Jurt hasn’t had the treatment yet. Does it take long?”
“Well, there are fairly elaborate preliminaries, but the subject doesn’t have to be present for some of them. It all depends on how far along Mask is with the work.”
“I’d better move pretty fast then.”
“I won’t have you going in there alone,” he said. “It could be suicide. I know the place. I also have a small force of mercs bivouacked in Shadow and ready for action on short notice. If we can get them in, they can hold off the guards, maybe even take them out.”
“Will that fancy ammo work there?”
“No. We tried it when I pulled the glider attack. It’ll have to be hand to hand. Body armor and machetes, maybe. I’ll have to work it out.”
“We could use the Pattern to get in, but the troop can’t … and Trumps aren’t reliable for that place.”
“I know. I’ll have to work on that, too.”
“Then it would be you and me against Jurt and Mask. If I tell any of the others here, they’ll try to stop me till Random gets back, and that may be too late”.
He smiled. “You know, my mother would really be useful in there,” he said. “She knows more about the Fount than I do.”
“No!” I said. “She tried to kill me. “.
“Easy, man. Easy,” he said. “Hear me out.”
“Besides, she lost to Mask last time they met. That’s why she’s a coat rack.”
“All the more reason for her to be wary now. Anyway, it had to be trickery, not skill. She’s good. Mask must have surprised her. She’d be a real asset, Merle.”
“No! She wants all of us dead!”
“Details,” he explained. “After Caine, the rest of you are just symbolic enemies. Mask is a real one, who took something away from her and still has it. Given the choice, she’ll go after Mask.”
“And if we’re successful, she’ll turn on Amber afterward.”
“Not at all,” he said. “That’s the beauty of my plan.”
“I don’t want to hear about it. “
“Because you already know you’ll agree, right? I just figured a way to solve all your problems. Give her the Keep after it’s liberated, as a kind of peace offering, to forget her differences with you guys.”