The Courts Of Chaos

Random was a small distance ahead of me and Fiona was with him, as were Lords Chantris and Feldane. All, save Fiona, held weapons as if ready to use them, but they stood perfectly still. They were staring toward the edge of things - a shelf of rock slightly above their level and perhaps fifteen meters distant - the place where the abyss began.

Brand stood in that place, and he was holding Deirdre before him. She was unhelmed, her hair blowing wild, and he had a dagger at her throat. It appeared that he had already cut her slightly. I dropped back.

I heard Random say softly, «Is there nothing more you can do, Fi?»

«I can hold him here,» she said, «and at this range, I can slow his efforts at weather control. But that is all. He's got some attunement with it and I do not. He also has proximity going for him. Anything else I might try, he can counter.»

Random gnawed his lower lip.

«Put down your weapons,» Brand called out. «Do it now, or Deirdre's dead.»

«Kill her,» Random said, «and you lose the only thing that's keeping you alive. Do it, and I'll show you where I'II put my weapon.»

Brand muttered something under his breath. Then: «Okay. - I will start by mutilating her.»

Random spat.

«Come on!» he said. «She can regenerate as well as the rest of us. Find a threat that means something, or shut up and fight it out!»

Brand was still. I thought it better not to reveal my presence. There must be something I could do. I ventured another look, mentally photographing the terrain before I dropped back. There were some rocks way off to the left, but they did not extend far enough. I saw no way that I might sneak up on him.

«I think we are going to have to rush him and chance it,» I heard Random say. «I don't see anything else. Do you?»

Before anyone answered him, a strange thing occurred. The day began to grow brighter.

I looked all about me for the source of the illumination, then sought it overhead.

The clouds were still there, the crazy sky doing its tricks beyond them. The brightness was in the clouds, however. They had paled and were now glowing, as if they masked a sun. Even as I watched, there was a perceptible brightening.

«What is he up to now?» Chantris asked.

«Nothing that I can tell,» Fiona said. «I do not believe it is his doing.»

«Whose then?» There was no answer that I could overhear.

I watched the clouds grow brighter. The largest and brightest of them seemed to swirl then, as if stirred. Forms tossed within it, settled. An outline began to take shape.

Below me, on the field, the sounds of battle lessened. The storm itself was muted as the vision grew. Something was definitely forming in the bright place above our heads - the lines of an enormous face.

«I do not know, I tell you,» I heard Fiona say in response to something mumbled.

Before it finished taking form, I realized that it was my father's face in the sky. Neat trick, that. And I had no idea what it represented either.

The face moved, as if he were regarding us all. There were lines of strain there, and something of concern to his expression. The brightness grew a little further. His lips moved.

When his voice came down to me it was somehow at an ordinary conversational level, rather than the vast booming I had expected:

«I send you this message,» he said, «before undertaking the repair of the Pattern. By the time you receive it, I will already have succeeded or failed. It will precede the wave of Chaos which must accompany my endeavor. I have reason to believe the effort will prove fatal to me.»

His eyes seemed to sweep across the field.

«Rejoice or mourn, as you would,» he went on, «for this is either the beginning or the end. I will send the Jewel of Judgment to Corwin as soon as I have finished with it. I have charged him to bear it to the place of conflict. All of your efforts there will be as nothing if the wave of Chaos cannot be averted. But with the Jewel, in that place, Corwin should be able to preserve you until it passes.»

I heard Brand's laugh. He sounded quite mad now.

«With my passing,» the voice continued, «the problem of the succession will be upon you. I had wishes in this regard, but I see now that these were futile. Therefore, I have no choice but to leave this on the horn of the Unicorn.

«My children, I cannot say that I am entirely pleased with you, but I suppose this works both ways. Let it be. I leave you with my blessing, which is more than a formality. I go now to walk the Pattern. Good-bye.»

Then his face began to fade and the brightness drained out of the cloudbank. A little while, and it was gone. A stillness lay upon the field.

«… and, as you can see,» I heard Brand saying, «Corwin does not have the Jewel. Throw down your weapons and get the hell out of here. Or keep them and get out. I do not care. Leave me alone. I have things to do.»

«Brand,» Fiona said, «can you do what he wanted of Corwin? Can you use it to make that thing miss us?»

«I could if I would,» he said. «Yes, I could turn it aside.»