Knight of Shadows

Picking up the Jewel of Judgment, I crossed the room and stepped out into the hall. I checked Benedict's door. Locked. I looked down the north-south hallway and walked back to the stairway and checked around in that area. There was no one in sight. I strode up to my own place then and stood listening for a time outside each of my doors. No sounds from within. The only alternatives I could think of were Gerard's rooms, back down the side corridor, and Brand's, which lay behind my own. I had thought of knocking out a wall-in keeping with the recent spirit of remodeling and redecorating Random had gotten into - adding Brand's rooms to my own, for a very good-size apartment. The rumor that his were haunted, though, and the wailings I sometimes heard through the walls late at night dissuaded me.

I took a quick walk then, knocking on and finally trying both Brand's and Gerard's doors. No response, and both were locked. Odder and odder.

Frakir had given a quick pulse when I'd touched Brand's door, and while I'd gone on alert for several moments, nothing untoward had approached. I was about to dismiss it as a disturbing reaction to the remnants of eldritch spells I had occasionally seen drifting about the vicinity when I noticed that the Jewel of Judgment was pulsing.

I raised the chain and stared into the gem. Yes, an image had taken form. I beheld the hallway around the corner, my two doors, and intervening artwork on the wall in plain view. The doorway to the left - the one that let upon my bedroom - seemed to be outlined in red and pulsing. Did that mean I was supposed to avoid it or rush in there? That's the trouble with mystical advice.

I walked back and turned the corner again. This time the gem - perhaps having felt my query and decided some editing was in order - showed me approaching and opening the door it was indicating. Of course, of the two, that door was locked…

I fumbled for my key, reflecting that I could not even rush in with a drawn blade, having just disposed of Grayswandir. I did have a couple of tricky spells hung, though. Maybe one of them would save me if the going got too rough. Maybe not, too.

I turned the key and flung the door open.

«Merle!» she shrieked, and I saw that it was Coral. She stood beside my bed, where her putative sister the ty'iga was reclined. She quickly moved one hand behind her back. «You, uh, surprised me.»

«Vice versa,» I replied, for which there is an equivalent in Thari. «What's up, lady?»

«I came back to tell you that I located my father and gave him a soothing story about that Corridor of Mirrors you told me about. Is there really such a place here?»

«Yes. You won't find it in any guides, though. It comes and goes. So, he's mollified?»

«Uh-huh. But now he's wondering where Nayda is.»

«This gets trickier.»

«Yes.»

She was blushing, and she did not meet my eyes readily. She seemed aware, too, that I was noting her discomfort.

«I told him that perhaps Nayda was exploring, as I'd been,» she went on, «and that I'd ask after her.»

«Mm-hm.»

I shifted my gaze to Nayda. Coral immediately moved forward and brushed against me. She placed a hand on my shoulder, drew me toward her.

«I thought you were going to sleep,» she said.

«Yes, I was. Did, too. I was running some errands just now.»

«I don't understand,» she said.

«Time lines,» I explained. «I economized. I'm rested.»

«Fascinating,» she said, brushing my lips with her own. «I'm glad that you're rested.»

«Coral,» I said, embracing her briefly, «you don't have to bullshit me. You know I was dead tired when you left. You had no reason to believe that I'd be anything but comatose if you returned this soon.»

I caught hold of her left wrist behind her back and drew her hand around to the front, raising it between us. She was surprisingly strong. And I made no effort to pry open her hand, for I could see between the fingers what it was that she held. It was one of the metal balls Mandor often used to create impromptu spells. I released her hand. She did not draw away from me, but rather, «I can explain,» she said, finally meeting my gaze and holding it.

«I wish you would,» I said. «In fact, I wish you'd done it a bit sooner.»

«Maybe the story you heard about her being dead and her body the host for a demon is true,» she said. «But she's been good to me recently. She's finally become the sister I'd always wished she'd been. Then you brought me back here and I saw her like that, not knowing what you really planned to do with her-»

«I want you to know that I wouldn't hurt her, Coral,» I interrupted. «I owe her-it - for favors past. When I was young and naive on the shadow Earth, she probably saved my neck, several times. You have no reason to fear for her here.»