When his voice came down to me it was somehow at an ordinary conversational level, rather than the vast booming I had expected:
“I send you this message,” he said, “before undertaking the repair of the Pattern. By the time you receive it, I will already have succeeded or failed. It will precede the wave of Chaos which must accompany my endeavor. I have reason to believe the effort will prove fatal to me.”
His eyes seemed to sweep across the field.
“Rejoice or mourn, as you would,” he went on, “for this is either the beginning or the end. I will send the Jewel of Judgment to Corwin as soon as I have finished with it. I have charged him to bear it to the place of conflict. All of your efforts there will be as nothing if the wave of Chaos cannot be averted. But with the Jewel, in that place, Corwin should be able to preserve you until it passes.”
I heard Brand’s laugh. He sounded quite mad now.
“With my passing,” the voice continued, “the problem of the succession will be upon you. I had wishes in this regard, but I see now that these were futile. Therefore, I have no choice but to leave this on the horn of the Unicorn.
“My children, I cannot say that I am entirely pleased with you, but I suppose this works both ways. Let it be. I leave you with my blessing, which is more than a formality. I go now to walk the Pattern. Good-bye.”
Then his face began to fade and the brightness drained out of the cloudbank. A little while, and it was gone. A stillness lay upon the field.
“. . . and, as you can see,” I heard Brand saying, “Corwin does not have the Jewel. Throw down your weapons and get the hell out of here. Or keep them and get out. I do not care. Leave me alone. I have things to do.”
“Brand,” Fiona said, “can you do what he wanted of Corwin? Can you use it to make that thing miss us?”
“I could if I would,” he said. “Yes, I could turn it aside.”
“You will be a hero if you do,” she said gently. “You will earn our gratitude. All past wrongs will be forgiven. Forgiven and forgotten. We-“
He began to laugh wildly.
“You forgive me?” he said. “You, who left me in that tower, who put the knife into my side? Thank you, sister. It is very kind of you to offer to forgive me, but excuse me if I decline.”
“All right,” Random said, “what do you want? An apology? Riches and treasure? An important appointment? All of these? They are yours. But this is a stupid game you are playing. Let us end it and go home, pretend it was all a bad dream.”
“Yes, let us end it,” Brand replied. “You do that by throwing down your weapons first. Then Fiona releases me from her spell, you all do an about-face and march north. You do it or I kill Deirdre.”
“Then I think you had better go ahead and kill her and be ready to fight it out with me,” he said, “because she will be dead in a little while anyway, if we let you have your way. All of us will.”
I heard Brand’s chuckle.
“Do you honestly think I am going to let you die? I need you-as many of you as I can save. Hopefully Deirdre, too. You are the only ones who can appreciate my triumph. I will preserve you through the holocaust that is about to begin.”
“I do not believe you,” Random said.
“Then take a moment and think about it. You know me well enough to know that I will want to rub your noses in it. I want you as witnesses to what I do. In this sense, I require your presence in my new world. Now, get out of here.”
“You will have everything you want plus our gratitude,” Fiona began, “if you will just-“
“Go!”
I knew that I could delay no longer. I had to make my move. I also knew that I could not reach him in time. I had no choice but to try using the Jewel as a weapon against him.