Guns Of Avalon

I chuckled, sipped my drink.

“It would be tricky,” I said. “Of course I like the idea. But I am not too certain that you could ever enjoy his trust. It would seem too obvious a ploy on my part.”

“Damn politics! That is not what I meant! Soldiering is all that I know, and I love Avalon!”

“I believe you. But would he?”

“With only one arm he will be needing a good man about. He could—”

I began to laugh and restrained myself quickly, for the sound of laughter seems to carry for a good distance. Also, Ganelon's feelings were involved.

“I am sorry,” I said. “Excuse me, please. You do not understand. You do not really understand who it was we talked with in the tent that night. He may have seemed an ordinary man to you-a handicapped one, at that. But this is not so. I fear Benedict. He is unlike any other being in Shadow or reality. He is the Master of Arms for Amber. Can you conceive of a mille

Ganelon was silent for a long while, and I took another drink, for my throat had become dry.

“I did not realize this, of course,” he said then. “I will be happy if he just lets me come back to Avalon.”

“That much he will do. I know.”

“Dara told me she had a message from him today. He has decided to cut short his stay in the field. He will probably be returning tomorrow.”

“Damn!” I said, standing. “We will have to move soon, then. I hope Doyle has that stuff ready. We must go to him in the morning and expedite matters. I want to be away from here before Benedict gets back!”

“You have the pretties then?”

“Yes.”

“May I see them?”

I undid the sack at my belt and passed it to him. He opened it and withdrew several stones, holding them in the palm of his left hand and turning them slowly with his fingertips.

“They do not look like much,” he said, “from what I can see of them in this light. Wait! There's a glimmer! No...”

“They are in the rough, of course. You are holding a fortune in your hands.”

“Amazing,” he said, dropping them back in the sack and refastening it. “It was so easy for you.”

“It was not all that easy.”

“Still, to gather a fortune so quickly seems somehow unfair.”

He passed it back.

“I will see that you are provided with a fortune when our labors are done,” I said. “That should prove some compensation, should Benedict not offer you a position.”

“Now that I know who he is, I am more determined than ever to work for him one day.”

“We will see what can be done.”

“Yes. Thank you, Corwin. How shall we work our departure?”

“I want you to go and get some rest, for I will roust you out of bed early. Star and Firedrake will take unkindly to the notion of draft duty, I fear, but we will then borrow one of Benedict's wagons and head into town. Before this, I will try to arrange a good smoke screen here for our orderly withdrawal. We will then hurry Doyle the jeweler about his task, obtain our cargo, and depart into Shadow as quickly as possible. The greater our head start, the more difficult it will be for Benedict to track us. If I can get half a day's lead into Shadow, it will be practically impossible for him.”

“Why should he be so eager to come after us in the first place?”

“He does not trust me worth a damn-and justly so. He is waiting for me to make my move. He knows there is something I need here, but he does not know what. He wants to find out, so that he can seal off another threat to Amber. As soon as he realizes we have gone for good, he will know that we have it and he will come looking.”

Ganelon yawned, stretched, finished his drink.

“Yes,” he said then. “We'd best rest now, to be in condition for the hurrying. Now that you have told me more about Benedict, I am less surprised by the other thing I meant to tell you-though no less discomfited.” “That being... ?”

He rose to his feet, picked up the decanter carefully, then pointed down the path.

“If you continue on in that direction,” he said, “passing the hedge that marks the end of this bower and entering the woods that lie below-and then go on for another two hundred paces or so-you will come to a place where there is a little grove of saplings off to the left, standing in a sudden declivity perhaps four feet lower than the level of the trail itself. Down in it, stamped down and strewn over with leaves and twigs, there is a fresh grave. I found it while taking the air earlier, when I paused to relieve myself down there.”

“How do you know it is a grave?”

He chuckled.

“When holes have bodies in them that is how they are generally called. It was quite shallow, and I poked around a bit with a stick. There are four bodies in there-three men and a woman.”

“How recently dead?”

“Very. A few days. I'd judge.”

“You left it as you found it?”

“I'm not a fool, Corwin.”

“Sorry. But this troubles me considerably, because I don't understand it at all.”

“Obviously they gave Benedict some trouble and he returned the favor.”

“Perhaps. What were they like? How did they die?”

“Nothing special about them. They were in their middle years, and their throats had been cut-save for one fellow who got it in the guts.”

“Strange. Yes, it is good that we are leaving soon. We have enough problems of our own without getting involved in the local ones.”

“Agreed. So let us be off to bed.”

“You go ahead. I am not quite ready yet.”

“Take your own advice and get some rest,” he said, turning back toward the manor. “Don't sit up and worry.”

“I won't.”

“Good night, then.”

“See you in the morning.”

I watched him return along the path. He was right, of course, but I was not yet ready to surrender my consciousness. I went over my plans again, to be certain there was nothing I was overlooking, finished my drink and set the glass on the bench. I rose then and strolled, trailing wisps of tobacco smoke about me. There was a bit of moonlight from over my shoulder and dawn was still a few hours' distant, as I reckoned it. I was firm in my resolve to spend the rest of the night out of doors, and I thought to find me a good place to sack out.

Of course, I eventually wandered down the path and into the grove of saplings. A little poking around showed me that there had been some recent digging, but I was in no mood to exhume bodies by moonlight and was perfectly willing to take Ganelon's word as to what he had found there. I am not even certain why I went there. Morbid streak, I guess. I did decide against sleeping in the vicinity, though.

I made my way into the northwest corner of the garden, finding an area that was out of line of sight from the manor. There were high hedgerows and the grass was long, soft, and sweet-smelling. I spead my cloak, sat down upon it, and pulled off my boots. I put my feet down into the cool grass and sighed.

Not too much longer, I decided. Shadows to diamonds to guns to Amber. I was on my way. A year ago I had been rotting in a cell, crossing and recrossing the line between sanity and madness so many times that I had all but rubbed it out. Now I was free, strong, sighted, and had a plan. Now I was a threat seeking fulfillment once again, a deadlier threat than I had been previously. This time I did not have my fortunes tied up with the plans of another. Now I was responsible for my own success or failure.