Blood of Amber (29 page)

I lowered the point of my weapon, directing it toward the eye.
 
What the hell.
 
Every creature I know of tries to protect its eyes.

“Banzai!” I cried, as I lunged.
 
The conversation seemed to have stagnated, and I was anxious to get on to other matters.

It rose instantly and with great power and speed rushed toward me, avoiding my thrust.
 
It was a large, black, lop-eared wolf, and it slipped past a frantic slash I managed and went straight for my throat.

My left forearm came up automatically and I thrust it forward into the open jaws.
 
At the same time, I brought the hilt of my blade across and slammed it against the side of its head.
 
At this, the clamping force of the bite loosened even as I was home over backward, but the grip remained, penetrating shirt and flesh.
 
And I was turning and pulling before I hit the ground, wanting to land on top, knowing I wouldn’t.

I landed on my left side, attempting to continue the roll, and added another belt of the pommel to the side of the beast’s skull.
 
It was then that fortune favored me, for a change, when I realized that we lay near the lip of my firs pit and were still turning in that direction.
 
I dropped my weapon and sought its throat with my right hand.
 
It was heavily muscled, and there was no chance of crushing the windpipe in time.
 
But that was not what I was after.

My hand went up high and back beneath the lower jaw, where I commenced squeezing with all my strength.
 
I scrabbled with my feet until I found purchase and then pushed with my legs as well as my arms.
 
Our movement continued the short distance necessary to push its snarling head back into the fire.

For a moment nothing happened save the steady trickle of blood from my forearm into its mouth and out again.
 
The grip of its jaws was still strong and painful.

Seconds later, my arm was released as the fur of its neck and head caught fire and it struggled to draw away from the flames.
 
I was thrust aside as it rose and pulled free, an ear-piercing howl rising from its throat.
 
I rolled to my knees and raised my hands, but it did not come at me again.
 
Instead, it rushed past me into the woods in the opposite direction from which it had come.

I snatched up my blade and took off after it.
 
No time to pause and pull on my boots; I was able to shapeshift the soles of my feet a bit to toughen them against the litter and irregularity of the forest floor.
 
My adversary was still in sight, for its head still smoldered; though I might have been able to follow just from the howling, which was almost continuous.
 
And strangely, the tone and character of the howls was changing, sounding more and more like human cries and less like the complaint of a wolf.
 
Strangely, too, the beast was fleeing with something less than the speed and guile I would have expected from one of its kind.
 
I heard it crashing through the shrubbery and running into trees.
 
On several of these latter occasions, it even emitted sounds that seemed to bear the pattern of human cursing.
 
So I was able to stay closer to it than I had any reason to expect, even gaining on it somewhat after the first few minutes.

Then, suddenly, I realized its apparent destination.I saw again that pale light I had noted earlier-brighter now and its source larger, as we moved toward it.
 
Roughly rectangular in shape, I judged it as being eight or nine feet in height, perhaps five in width.
 
I forgot about hacking the wolf by ear and headed for the light.
 
That had to be its goal, and I wanted to reach it first.

I ran on.
 
The wolf was ahead of me and to my left.
 
Its hair had ceased to blaze now, though it still snarled and yipped as it rushed along.
 
Before us, the light grew brighter still, and I was able to see into it-through it and distinguish some of its features for the first time.
 
I saw a hillside with a low stone building upon it, approached by a flagged walkway and a series of stone steps-framed like a picture within the rectangle-hazy at first, but coming clearer with each step.
 
It was a cloudy afternoon within the picture, and the thing stood about twenty meters away now, in the midst of a clearing.

I realized as I saw the beast burst into the clearing that I was not going to be able to reach the place in time to snatch up the thing I knew must lie nearby.
 
Still, I thought I might have a chance of catching the creature and halting its passage.

But it put on additional speed once it was in the clear.
 
I could see the scene toward which it was headed more clearly than anything else in the vicinity.
 
I shouted to distract it, but that did not work.
 
My final burst of speed was not good enough.
 
Then, on the ground, near the threshold, I saw what I was looking for.
 
Too late.
 
Even as I watched, the beast lowered its head and caught up in its teeth a flat rectangular object, without even breaking stride.

I halted and turned away as it plunged ahead, dropping my blade as I dove, rolling, continuing to roll.

I felt the force of the silent explosion, followed by the implosion and the small series of shock waves.
 
I lay there thinking nasty thoughts until the turmoil had ceased; then I rose and retrieved my weapon.

The night was normal about me once again.
 
Starlight.The wind in the pines.
 
There was no need for me to turn, though I did, to know that the thing toward which I had been racing but moments before was now gone, without leaving any sign that it had been there, bright doorway to another place.

I hiked back to my camp and spent a while talking to Smoke, calming him.
 
I donned my boots and cloak then, kicked dirt over the embers in my pit, and led the horse back to the road.

I mounted there and we moved on up the road toward Amber for the better part of an hour, before I settled upon a new campsite under a bonewhite piece of moon.

The rest of my night was untroubled.
 
I was awakened by increased light and morning bird calls through the pines.
 
I took care of Smoke, breakfasted quickly on the remains of my rations, put myself in the best order I could and was on my way within half an hour.

It was a cool morning, with banks of cumulus far off to my left, clear skies overhead.
 
I did not hurry.
 
My main reason for riding back rather than trumping home was to learn a little more of what this area near Amber was like, and the other was to gain a bit of solitude for thinking.
 
With Jasra a prisoner, Luke in sick bay and Ghostwheel occupied it seemed that any major threats to Amber or myself were in abeyance, and a small breathing spell could be justified.
 
I felt that I was actually near to a point where I could handle everything personally with regard to Luke and Jasra, as soon as I’d worked out a few more details.
 
And I was certain I could deal with Ghost after that, as I’d found our most recent conversation somewhat encouraging.

That was the big stuff.
 
I could worry about loose ends later.
 
A two-bit wizard like Sharu Garrul was only a pain when considered in conjunction with everything else that was troubling me.
 
Dueling with him would be no problem when I had a bit of leisure-though I had to admit I was puzzled as to why he should be interested in me at all.

Then there was the matter of the entity which had for a time been Vinta.
 
While I saw no real threat in it, there was certainly a mystery which affected my peace of mind, and which seemed ultimately to have something to do with my security.
 
This, too, was a matter to be dealt with when that bit of leisure finally came along.

And Luke’s offer to reveal a piece of information vital to Amber’s security, once Jasra was rescued, troubled me.
 
Because I believed him, and I believed he’d keep his word.
 
I had a hunch, though, that he wouldn’t be giving it away unless it was too late to do much about it.
 
Guesswork was, of course, futile; there was no way of knowing what preparations would be appropriate.
 
Was the offer itself, no matter how authentic, also a bit of psychological warfare? Luke had always been more subtle than his bluff exterior seemed to indicate.
 
It had taken me a long time to learn that, and I wasn’t about to forget it now.

I felt I could discount the business of the blue stones for the moment, and I planned soon to be rid of all traces of their vibes.
 
No problem there, other than a mental string around the finger for extra wariness, just in case -and I was already in that frame of mind, had been for some time.

That left the business of last night’s wolf to be fitted into the bigger picture.

Obviously, it had been no normal beast, and its intent had been apparent enough.
 
Other matters concerning its visit were less than clear, however.
 
Who or what was it? Was it a principal or an agent? And, if the latter, who had sent it? And finally, finally, why?

Its clumsiness indicated to me-since I had tried that sort of business myself in the past-that it was a shapeshifted human rather than a true wolf magically gifted with speech.
 
Most people who daydream of transforming themselves into some vicious beast and going about tearing people’s throats out, dismembering them, disfiguring them and perhaps devouring them tend mainly to dwell upon how much fun it would be and generally neglect the practicalities of the situation.
 
When you find yourself a quadruped, with a completely different center of gravity and a novel array of sensory input, it is not all that easy to get around for a time with any measure of grace.
 
One is generally far more vulnerable than one’s appearance would lead others to believe.
 
And certainly one is nowhere near as lethal and efficient as the real thing with a lifetime of practice behind it.
 
No.
 
I’ve always tended to think of it more as a terrorist tactic than anything else.

Be that how it may, the manner of the beast’s coming and going was actually the main cause of my trepidation concerning the entire affair.
 
It had employed a Trump Gate, which is not a thing one does lightly-or at all, for that matter, if it can be avoided.
 
It is a flashy and spectacular thing f; - to make Trump contact with some distant place and then pour tons of power into the objectification of such a gateway as a form possessed for a time of an independent existence.
 
It is exceedingly profligate of energy and effort-even a hellrun is much easier-to create one which will stand for even fifteen minutes.
 
It can drain most of your resources for a long while.
 
Yet this was what had occurred.
 
The reason behind it did not trouble me, as much as the fact that it had happened at all.
 
For the only people capable of the feat were genuine initiates of the Trumps.
 
It couldn’t be done by someone who just happened to come into possession of a card.

Which narrowed the field considerably.

I tried to picture the werebeast about its errand.
 
First, it would have to locate me and-

Of course.
 
I suddenly recalled the dead dogs in the grove near Arbor House and the large doglike tracks in the vicinity.
 
The thing had spotted me sometime before, then, and had been watching, waiting.
 
It had followed me when I set out yesterday evening, and when I made my camp it made its move.
 
It set up-or was set up with-the Trump Gate, for a retreat that would brook no pursuit.
 
Then it came to kill me.
 
And I had no way of telling whether it involved Sharu Garrul, Luke’s secret, the blue stones or the body-switching entity’s mission.
 
For now it would simply have to dangle as yet another loose end, while I concentrated on basics.

I overtook and passed a line of wagons headed for Amber.
 
A few horsec men went by me headed in the other direction.
 
No one I knew, though everyone waved.
 
The clouds continued to mount to my left, but nothing resembling a storm took shape.
 
The day remained cool and sunny.
 
The road dipped and rose again, several times, though overall it rose more than it dipped.
 
I stopped at a large, busy inn for lunch, had a quick, filling meal and did not linger.
 
The road improved steadily after that, and it was not long before I caught distant glimpses of Amber atop Kolvir, sparkling in the noonday light.

Traffic grew heavier as the sun advanced through the heavens.
 
I continued to make plans and indulge in whatever speculations came to mind as I rode on into afternoon.
 
My uphill way took several turnings as the route passed through the heights, but Amber remained in sight most of the time.