“Soon,” I muttered, thinking of Deirdre.
“Soon . . .” Why not?
I watched the stormfront, flashing, masking, transforming. Yes, soon. With the Jewel gone along with Brand-
“Brand . . .” I said. “Who was it finally got him?”
“I claim that distinction,” said a familiar voice which I could not place.
I turned my head and stared. The man in green was seated on a rock. His bow and quiver lay beside him on the around. He flashed an evil smile in my direction. It was Caine.
“I’ll be damned,” I said, rubbing my jaw. “A funny thing happened to me on the way to your funeral.”
“Yes. I heard about it.” He laughed.
“You ever kill yourself, Corwin?”
“Not recently. How’d you manage it?”
“Walked to the proper shadow,” he said, “waylaid the Shadow of myself there. He provided the corpse.” He shuddered. “An eerie feeling, that. Not one I’d care to repeat.”
“But why?” I said. “Why fake your death and try to frame me for it?”
“I wanted to get to the root of the trouble in Amber,” he said, “and destroy it. I thought it best to go underground for that. What better way than by convincing everyone that I was dead? I finally succeeded, too, as you saw.”
He paused.
“I’m sorry about Deirdre, though. But I had no choice. It was our last chance. I did not really think he would take her with him.”
I looked away.
“I had no choice,” he repeated. “I hope you can see that.”
I nodded.
“But why did you try to make it look as if I had killed you?” I asked.
Just then Fiona approached with Bleys. I greeted them both and turned back to Caine for my answer. There were things I wanted to ask Bleys, too, but they could wait.
“Well?” I said.
“I wanted you out of the way,” he said. “I still thought you might be behind the whole thing. You or Brand. I had it narrowed down that far. I thought it might even be the two of you in it together-especially with him struggling to bring you back.”
“You have that wrong,” said Bleys. “Brand was trying to keep him away. He had learned that his memory was returning and-“
“I gather,” Caine replied, “but at the time it looked that way. So I wanted Corwin back in a dungeon while I searched for Brand. I lay low then and listened in on the Trumps to everything everyone said, hoping for a clue as to Brand’s whereabouts.”
“That’s what Dad meant,” I said.
“What?” Caine asked.
“He implied there was an eavesdropper on the Trumps.”
“I do not see how he could have known. I had learned to be completely passive about it. I had taught myself to deal them all out and touch all of them lightly at the same time, waiting for a stirring. When it came, I would shift my attention to the speakers. Taking you one at a time, I even found I could sometimes get into your minds when you were not using the Trumps yourselves-if you were sufficiently distracted and I allowed myself no reaction.”
“Yet he knew,” I said.
“It is entirely possible. Likely, even,” said Fiona, and Bleys nodded.
Random drew nearer.
“What did you mean when you asked about Corwin’s side?” he inquired. “How could you even know about it unless-“
Caine merely nodded. I saw Benedict and Julian together in the distance, addressing their troops. At Caine’s silent movement, I forgot them.
“You?” I croaked. “You stabbed me?”
“Have a drink, Corwin,” Random said, passing me his flask. It was a dilute wine. I gulped it. My thirst was immense, but I stopped after several good swigs.
“Tell me about it,” I said.
“All right. I owe you that,” he said. “When I learned from Julian’s mind that you had brought Brand back to Amber, I decided that an earlier guess had been correct-that you and Brand were in it together. That meant you both had to be destroyed. I used the Pattern to project myself into your chambers that night. There, I tried to kill you, but you moved too fast and you somehow managed to Trump out before I got a second chance.”