Guns Of Avalon

«In other words, you have a private way into and out of Amber. What are you planning, Corwin?»

«What do you think?»

«The answer is obvious. But my feelings on the matter are mixed.»

«Care to tell me about them?»

He gestured toward a section of the black road that was visible from where we stood.

«That thing,» he said. «It runs to the foot of Kolvir now. A variety of menaces travel it to attack Amber. We defend, we are always victorious. But the attacks grow stronger and they come more frequently. Now would not be a good time for you to move, Corwin.»

«Or it might be the perfect time,» I said.

«For you then, but not necessarily for Amber.»

«How has Eric been handling the situation?»

«Adequately. As I said, we are always victorious.»

«I do not mean the attacks. I mean the entire problem - its cause.»

«I have traveled the black road myself, going a great distance along it.»

«And?»

«I was unable to go the entire distance. You know how the shadows grow wilder and stranger the farther you get from Amber?»

«Yes.»

«…Until the mind itself is twisted and turned toward madness?»

«Yes.»

«…And somewhere beyond this lie the Courts of Chaos. The road goes on, Corwin. I am convinced that it runs the entire distance.»

«Then it is as I feared,» I said.

«That is why, whether I sympathize with you or not, I do not recommend the present time for your efforts. The security of Amber must come before all else.»

«I see. Then there is nothing more to be said just now.»

«And your plans?»

«Since you do not know what they are, it is meaningless to tell you that they are unchanged. But they are unchanged.»

«I do not know whether to wish you luck, but I wish you well. I am glad that you have your sight back.» He clasped my hand. «I had best get on to Benedict now. I take it he is not badly hurt?»

«Not by me. I only hit him a few times. Do not forget to give him my message.»

«I won't.»

«And take him back to Avalon.»

«I will try.»

«Then good-by for now, Gerard.»

«Good-by, Corwin.»

He turned then and walked on down the road. I watched until he was out of sight before I returned to the wagon. Then I replaced his Trump in the deck and continued on my way to Antwerp.

CHAPTER 8

I stood on the hilltop and looked down at the house. There was shrubbery all about me, so I was not especially obtrusive.

I do not really know what I expected to see. A burned-out shell? A car in the driveway? A family scattered about the redwood patio furniture? Armed guards?

I saw that the roof could use some new slate, that the lawn had long ago returned to a natural condition. I was surprised that I could see only one broken window there in the rear.

So the place was supposed to look deserted. I wondered.

I spread my jacket on the ground and seated myself on it. I lit a cigarette. There were no other houses for quite a distance.

I had gotten close to seven hundred thousand dollars for the diamonds. It had taken me a week and a half to make the deal. From Antwerp we had traveled to Brussels, spending several evenings at a club on the Rue de Char et Pain before the man I wanted found me.

Arthur was quite puzzled by the arrangement. A slight, white-haired man with a neat mustache, ex-RAF officer, Oxonian, he had begun shaking his head after the first two minutes and kept interrupting me with questions about delivery. While he was no Sir Basil Zaharoff, he became genuinely concerned when a client's ideas sounded too half-baked. It troubled him if something went sour too soon after delivery. He seemed to think it reflected back on him in some way. For this reason, he was often more helpful than the others when it came to shipment. He was concerned about my plans for transportation because I did not seem to have any.

What one generally requires in an arrangement of this sort is an end-use certificate. What it is, basically, is a document affirming that country X has ordered the weapons in question. You need the thing in order to get an export permit from the manufacturer's country. This keeps them looking honest, even if the shipment should be reconsigned to country Y once it has crossed their border. The customary thing to do is to buy the assistance of an ambassadorial representative of country X - preferably one with relatives or friends connected with the Defense Department back home - in order to get the papers. They come high, and I believe Arthur had a list of all the going rates in his head.

«But how are you going to ship them?» he had kept asking. «How will you get them where you want them?»

«That,» I said, «will be my problem. Let me worry about it.» But he kept shaking his head.

«It is no good trying to cut corners that way, Colonel,» he said. (I had been a colonel to him since we had first met, some dozen years before. Why, I am not certain.) «No good at all. Try to save a few dollars that way and you might lose the whole shipment and wind up in real trouble. Now I can fix you up through one of these young African nations quite reasonably-»

«No. Just fix me up with the weapons.»