Sign of chaos

«As I understand it,» she said, «Brand was able to trump in when Corwin was at the middle.»

«That's the way I understand it, too.»

«…So, when you reach. the center, I can come in on a Trump.»

«I suppose so. Then there will be two of us standing at the middle of the Pattern.»

«…And from there we will be in a position to go someplace we could not reach from any other point in existence.»

«That being?» I asked.

«The primal Pattern which lies behind it.»

«You're sure there is one?»

«There must be. It is in the nature of such a construct to be scribed at a more basic level of reality as well as the mundane.»

«And our purpose in traveling to that place?»

«That is where its secrets dwell; where its deepest magics might be learned.»

«I see,» I told her. «Then what?»

«Why, there we might learn how to undo the trouble the thing is causing,» she answered.

«That's all?»

Her eyes narrowed.

«We will learn whatever we can, of course. Power is power, and represents a threat until it is understood.»

I nodded slowly.

«But right now there are a number of powers that are more pressing in the threat department,» I said. «That Pattern is going to have to wait its turn.»

«Even if it may represent the forces you need to deal with your other problems?» she asked.

«Even so,» I said. «It might turn into a lengthy enterprise, and I don't believe I have the time for that.»

«But you don't know that for certain.»

«True. But once I set foot on it, there's no turning back.»

I did not add that I'd no intention of taking her to the primal Pattern, then leaving her there on her own. After all, she had tried her hand at king-making once. And if Brand had made it to the throne of Amber in those days, she would have been standing right behind him, no matter what she had to say about it now. I think she was about to ask me to deliver her to the primal Pattern then but realized that I'd already considered it and rejected it. Not wanting to lose face by asking and being refused, she returned to her original argument.

«I suggest you make time now,» she said, «if you do not wish to see worlds torn up about you.»

«I didn't believe you the first time you told me that,» I answered, «and I don't believe you now. I still think the increased shadow-storm activity is probably an adjustment to the damage and repair of the original Pattern. I also think that if we mess around with a new Pattern we don't know anything about, we stand a chance of making things worse, not better-»

«I don't want to mess around with it,» she said. «I want to study-»

The Sign of the Logrus flashed between us suddenly. She must have seen it or felt it somehow, too, because she drew back at the same instant I did.

I turned my head with sure knowledge as to what I would see.

Mandor had mounted the battlementlike wall of stone. He stood as still as if he were a part of it, his arm, upraised. I suppressed my first impulse, which was to shout to him to stop. He knew what he was doing. And I was certain that he would not pay me the slightest heed, anyway.

I advanced to the notch in which he had taken his position, and I looked past him at the swirling thing on the cracked plain far below. Through the image of the Logrus, I felt the dark, awful rush of power that Suhuy had revealed to me in his final lesson. Mandor was calling upon it now and pouring it into the shadow-storm. Did he not realize that the force of Chaos he was unleashing must spread until it had run a terrible course? Could he not see that if the storm were indeed a manifestation of Chaos then he was turning it into a truly monstrous thing?

It grew larger. Its roaring increased in volume. It became frightening to watch it.

From behind me, I heard Fiona gasp.

«I hope you know what you're doing,» I called to him.

«We'll know in about a minute,» he replied, lowering his arms.

The Sign of the Logrus winked out before me.

We watched the damned thing spin for some time, bigger and noisier.

Finally, «What have you proved?» I asked him.

«That you have no patience,» he answered.

There was nothing particularly instructive to the phenomenon, but I continued to watch it anyway:

Abruptly, the sound became a stutter. The dark apparition jerked about' suddenly, shaking off bits of accumulated debris as it contracted. Soon it was restored to its former size, and it hit its earlier pitch and the sound grew steady once more.

«How did you do that?» I asked him.

«I didn't,» he said. «It adjusted itself.»

«It shouldn't have,» Fiona stated.

«Exactly,» he replied.

«You've lost me,» I said.

«It should have gone roaring right on, stronger than ever, after he'd augmented it that way,» Fiona said. «But whatever is controlling it had other plans. So it was readjusted.»