Trumps of Doom

"Merlin," he said, "I don't have time now, but I just wanted to let you know that I don't consider our conversation concluded. I want to get together with you again later this afternoon or this evening-as soon as I'm free. So don't go ru

I nodded.

"One quick question," I said, as he began turning back toward the others.

"Shoot," he said.

"Are there any Amberites currently in residence on the shadow Earth I just departed-agents of any sort?"

He shook his head.

"I don't have any, and I don't believe any of the others do just now. I have a number of contacts there in different places, but they're all natives-like Bill."

His eyes narrowed.

"Something new come up?" he asked then.

I nodded again.

"Serious?"

"Possibly."

"I wish I had the time to hear it, but it'll just have to keep till we talk later."

"I understand."

"I'Il send for you," he said, and he returned to his companions.

That shot down the only explanation I could think of for Meg Devlin. It also foreclosed the possibility of my taking off to see her as soon as I could leave the gathering.

I consoled myself with another plate of food. After a time, Flora entered the hall, studied all the knots of humanity, then made her way among them to settle beside me on the window seat.

"No way of talking to Random right now without an audience," she said.

"You're right," I replied. "May I get you something to eat or drink?"

"Not now. Maybe you can help. You're a sorcerer."

I didn't like that opening, but I asked, "What's the problem?"

"I went to Bleys' rooms, to see whether he wanted to come down and join us. He's gone."

"Wasn't his door locked? Most people do that around here."

"Yes, from the inside. So he must have trumped out. I broke in when he didn't answer, since there'd been one attempt on his life already."

"And what would you want of a sorcerer?"

"Can you trace him?"

"Trumps don't leave tracks," I said. "But even if I could, I'm not so sure that I would. He knows what he's doing, and he obviously wants to be left alone."

"But what if he's involved? He and Caine had been on opposite sides in the past."

"If he's mixed up in something dangerous to the rest of us you should be happy to see him go."

"So you can't help-or won't?"

I nodded.

"Both, I guess. Any decision to seek him out should really come from Random, don't you think?"

"Maybe."

"I'd suggest keeping it to yourself till you can talk to Random. No use stirring up fruitless speculations among the others. Or I' ll tell him, if you' d like. I' m going to be talking with him a bit later."

"What about?"

Ouch.

"Not sure," I said. "It's something he wants to tell me, or ask me."

She studied me carefully.

"We haven't really had our own little talk yet," she said then.

"Looks like we're having it now."

"Okay. May I hear about your problems in one of my favorite shadows?"

"Why not?" I said, and I launched into a synopsis of the damned thing again. I felt that this would be the final time, though. Once Flora knew it I was confident it would make the rounds.

She had no information bearing upon my case that she cared to share. We chatted for a while then-local gossip-and she finally decided to get something to eat. She departed in the direction of the food and did not return.

I talked with a few of the others, too-about Caine, about my father. I did not hear anything that I did not already know. I was introduced to a number of people I had not met before. I memorized a mess of names and relationships since I had nothing better to do.

When things finally broke up, I kept an eye on Random and contrived to depart at about the same time he did.

"Later," he said as we passed, and he went off with a couple of guys he'd been talking with.

So I went back to my rooms and stretched out on the bed. When things are brewing you take your rest whenever you can.

After a time I shpt, and I dreamed . . .

I was walking in the formal garden behind the palace. Someone else was with me, but I did not know who it was. This did not seem to matter. I heard a familiar howling. Suddenly, there were growling noises near at hand. The first time I looked about I saw nothing. But then, abruptly, they were there-three huge, doglike creatures similar to the one I had slain in Julia's apartment. They were racing toward me across the garden. The howling continued, but they were not its authors. They restricted themselves to growling and slavering as they came on. Just as suddenly, I realized that this was a dream and that I had dreamt it several times before only to lose track of it upon awakening. The knowledge that it was a dream, however, in no ,way detracted from the feeling of menace as they rushed toward me. All three of them were surrounded by a kind of light-pale, distorting. Looking past them, through their haloes, I did not see the garden but caught glimpses of a forest. When they drew near and sprang to attack it was as if they had encountered a glass wall. They fell back, rose and dashed toward me once more only to be blocked again. They leaped and growled and whined and tried again. It was as if I stood beneath a bell jar or within a magic circle, though. They could not get at me. Then the howling came louder, came nearer and they turned their attention away from me.

"Wow !" Random said. "I should charge you something for pulling you out of a nightmare."

. . . And I was awake and lying on my bed and there was darkness beyond my window-and I realized that Random had called me via my Trump and tuned in on my dream when he'd made contact.

I yawned and thought him my answer,

"Thanks."

"Finish waking up and let's have our talk," he said.

"Yes. Where are you?"

"Downstairs. The little sitting room off the main hall to the south. Drinking coffee. We've got it to ourselves."

"See you in five."

"Check." Random faded. I sat up, swung my feet over the side of the bed, and rose. I crossed the room to the window and flung it wide. I inhaled the crisp evening air of autumn. Spring on the shadow Earth, fall here in Amber-my two favorite seasons. I should be heartened, uplifted. Instead a trick of the night, the tag-end of the dream-it seemed for a moment that I heard the final note of the howling. I shuddered and closed the window. Our dreams are too much with us.

I hiked down to the designated room and took a seat on one of its sofas. Random let me get through half a cup of coffee before he said, "Tell me about the Ghostwheel."

"It's a kind of para-physical surveillance device and library."

Random put down his cup and cocked his head to one side.

"Could you be more specific?" he said.

"Well, my work with computers led me to speculate that basic data-processing principles could: be employed with interesting results in a place where computer mechanics themselves would not operate," I began. "In other words, I had to locate a shadow environment where the operations would remain pretty much invariant but where the physical construct, all of the peripherals, the programming techniques and the energy inputs would be of a different nature."

"Uh, Merlin," Random said. "You've lost me already."

"I designed and built a piece of data-processing equipment in a shadow where no ordinary computer could function," I replied, "because I used different materials, a radically different design, a different power source. I also chose a place where different physical laws apply, so that it could operate along different lines. I was then able to write programs for it which would not have operated on the shadow Earth where I'd been living. In doing so, I believe that I created a unique artifact. I called it the Ghostwheel because of certain aspects of its appearance."