Страница 18 из 40
Random was immediately ordered to surrender his blade, and he shrugged and handed it over. Then two men came and stood on either side of him and a third at his back, and we continued on down the stair.
I lost all sense of time in that watery place, but I feel that we walked for somewhere between a quarter of an hour and half an hour before we reached our destination.
The golden gates of Rebma stood before us. We passed through them. We entered the city.
Everything was to be seen through a green haze. There were buildings, all of them fragile and most of them high, grouped in patterns and standing in colors that entered my eyes and tore through my mind, seeking after remembrance. They failed, the sole result of their digging being the now familiar ache that accompanies the half recalled, the unrecalled. I had walked these streets before, however, that I knew, or ones very much like them.
Random had not said a single word since he had been taken into custody. Deirdre's only conversation had been to inquire after our sister Llewella. She had been informed that Liewella was in Rebma.
I examined our escort. They were men with green hair, purple hair, and black hair, and all of them had eyes of green, save for one fellow whose were of a hazel color. All wore only scaled trunks and cloaks, cross-braces on their breasts, and short swords depending from sea-shell belts. All were pretty much lacking in body hair.
None of them spoke to me, though some stared and some glared, I was allowed to keep my weapon.
Inside the city, we were conducted up a wide avenue, lighted by pillar flames set at even closer intervals than on Faiella-bionin, and people stared out at us from behind octagonal, tinted windows, and bright-bellied fishes swam by. There came a cool current, like a breeze, as we turned a corner; and after a few steps, a warm one, like a wind.
We were taken to the palace in the center of the city, and I knew it as my hand knew the glove in my belt. It was an image of the palace of Amber, obscured only by the green and confused by the many strangely placed mirrors which had been set within its walls, inside and out. A woman sat upon the throne in the glassite room I almost recalled, and her hair was green, though streaked with silver, and her eyes were round as moons of jade and her brows rose like the wings of olive gulls. Her mouth was small, her chin was small; her cheeks were high and wide and rounded. A circlet of white gold crossed her brow and there was a crystal necklace about her neck. At its tip there flashed a sapphire between her sweet bare breasts, whose nipples were also a pale green. She wore scaled trunks of blue and a silver belt, and she held a scepter of pink coral in her right hand and had a ring upon every finger, and each ring had a stone of a different blue within it. She did not smile as she spoke:
"What seek you here, outcasts of Amber?" she asked, and her voice was a lisping, soft, flowing thing.
Deirdre spoke in reply, saying: "We flee the wrath of the prince who sits in the true city-Eric! To be frank, we wish to work his downfall. If he is loved here, we are lost, and we have delivered ourselves into the hands of our enemies. But I feel he is not loved here. So we come asking aid, gentle Moire-"
"I will not give you troops to assault Amber." she replied. "As you know, the chaos would be reflected within my own realm."
"That is not what we would have of you, dear Moire," Deirdre continued, "but only a small thing, to be achieved at no pain or cost to yourself or your subjects."
"Name it! For as you know, Eric is almost as disliked here as this recreant who stands at your left hand," and with this she gestured at my brother, who stared at her in frank and insolent appraisal, a small smile playing about the corners of his lips.
If he was going to pay-whatever the price-for whatever he had done, I could see that he would pay it like a true prince of Amber-as our three dead brothers had done ages ago, I suddenly recalled. He would pay it, mocking them the while, laughing though his mouth was filled with the blood of his body, and as he died he would pronounce an irrevocable curse which would come to pass. I, too, had this power, I suddenly knew, and I would use it if circumstances required its use.
"The thing I would ask," she said, "is for my brother Corwin, who is also brother to the Lady LIewella, who dwells here with you. I believe that he has never given you offense... ."
"That is true. But why does he not speak for himself?"
"That is a part of the problem, Lady. He ca
"Continue," said the woman on the throne, regarding me through the shadows of her lashes on her eyes.
"In a place in this building," she said, "there is a room where few would go. In that room," she continued, "upon the floor, traced in fiery outline, there lies a duplicate of the thing we call the
Pattern. Only a son or daughter of Amber's late liege may walk this Pattern and live; and it gives to such a person a power over Shadow." Here Moire blinked several times, and I speculated as to the number of her subjects she had sent upon that path, to gain some control of this power for Rebma. Of course, she had failed. "To walk the Pattern," Deirdre went on, "should, we feel, restore to Corwin his memory of himself as a prince of Amber. He ca
Moire turned her gaze upon my sister, swept it over Random, returned it to me.
"Is Corwin willing to essay this thing?" she asked.
I bowed.
"Willing, m'lady," I said, and she smiled then.
"Very well, you have my permission. I can guarantee you no guarantees of safety beyond my realm, however."
"As to that, your majesty," said Deirdre, "we expect no boons, but will take care of it ourselves upon our departure."
"Save for Random," she said, "who will be quite safe."
"What mean you?" asked Deirdre, for Random would not. of course, speak for himself under the circumstances.
"Surely you recall, she said, "that one time Prince Random came into my realm as a friend, and did thereafter depart in haste with my daughter Morganthe."
"I have heard this said. Lady Moire, but I am not aware of the truth or the baseness of the tale."
"It is true," said Moire, "and a month thereafter was she returned to me. Her suicide came some months after the birth of her son Martin. What have you to say to that, Prince Random?"
"Nothing," said Random.
"When Martin came of age," said Moire, "because he was of the blood of Amber, he determined to walk the Pattern. He is the only one of my people to have succeeded. Thereafter, he walked in Shadow and I have not seen him since. What have you to say to that, Lord Random?"
"Nothing," Random replied.
"Therefore, I will punish thee," Moire continued. "You shall marry the woman of my choice and remain with her in my realm for a year's time, or you will forfeit your life. What say you to that, Random?"
Random said nothing, but he nodded abruptly.
She stuck her scepter upon the arm of her turquoise throne.
"Very well," she said. "So be it"
And so it was.
We repaired to the chambers she had granted us, there to refresh ourselves. Subsequently she appeared at the door of my own,
"Hail, Moire," I said.
"Lord Corwin of Amber," she told me, "often have I wished to meet thee."
"And I thee," I lied.
"Your exploits are legend."
"Thank you, but I barely recall the high points."