“lt's called the Jewel of Judgment,” I answered. “It is said to be older than the Pattern itself and to have been instrumental in its creation.”

“Why do you think you were led to it and obtained it with such ease?”

“I have no idea whatsoever,” I said. “If you get one before I do, I'll be glad to hear it.”

Soon we reached the place where the trail plunged into the greater darkness. We halted and regarded it.

“No signs posted,” I said, checking above and to either side of that entranceway .

Jurt gave me an odd look.

“You've always had a weird sense of humor, Merlin “ he said. “Who'd put up a sign in a place like this?”

“Someone else with a weird sense of humor,” I replied.

“Might as well go on,” he said, turning back toward the entrance.

A bright red exit sign had appeared above the opening. Jurt stared for a moment, then shook his head slowly. We entered.

We took our way down a wandering tunnel-a thing which puzzled me a bit. The artificial quality of most of the rest of this place had led me to expect a ruler-straight trail through a smooth-walled shaft, geometrically precise in all its features. Instead, it seemed as if we were traversing a series of natural caverns-stalactites, stalagmites, pillars, and pools displayed at either hand.

The Jewel cast a baleful light over any features I turned to scrutinize.

“Do you know how to use that stone?” Jurt asked me.

I thought back over my father's story

“When the time comes, I believe that I will,” I said, raising the Jewel and studying it for a moment, then letting it fall again. I was less concerned with it than with the route we were following.

I kept turning my head as we made our way from damp grotto to high cathedral chamber, along narrow passages, down stony waterfalls. There was something familiar here, though I couldn't put my finger on it.

“Anything about this place bring back memories?” I asked him.

“Not for me,” Jurt replied.

We kept going, at one point passing a side cave containing three human skeletons. These being, in their fashion, the first real signs of life I had seen since the onset of this journey, I remarked on it.

Jurt nodded slowly.

“I am beginning to wonder whether we are still walking between shadows,” he said, “or whether we might actually have departed that place and entered Shadow-perhaps when we came into these caves.”

“I could find out by trying to summon the Logrus,” I said, causing Frakir immediately to pulse sharply upon my wrist. “But considering the metaphysical politics of the situation, I'd rather not.”

“I was just going by the colors of all the minerals in the walls,” he said. “The place we left behind kind of favored monochrome. Not that I give a shit about the scenery. What I'm saying is that if we have, it's a kind of victory.”

I pointed at the ground.

“So long as that glowing, trail is there, we're not off the hook.”

“What if we simply walked away from it now?” he asked, turning to the right and taking a single step in that direction.

A stalactite vibrated and crashed to the ground before him. It missed him by about a foot. He was back beside me in an instant.

“Of course, it would be a real shame not to find out where we're headed,” he said.

“Quests are that way. It'd be bad form to miss the fun.”

We hiked on. Nothing allegorical happened around us. Our voices and our footfalls echoed. Water dripped in some of the danker grots. Minerals flashed. Our way seemed a gradual descent.

For how long we walked I could not tell. After a time stony chambers took on a generic appearance-as if we passed regularly through a teleportation device which rerouted us back through the same caves and corridors. This had the effect of blurring my sense of time. Repetitious actions have a lulling effect and—

Suddenly our trail debouched into a larger passage, turned left. Finally, some variation. Only this way, too, looked familiar. We followed our line of light through the darkness. After a time we went by a side passage to the left. Jurt glanced up it and hurried past.

“Any damned thing might be lurking around here,” observed.

“True,” I acknowledged. “But I wouldn't worry about it.”

“Why not?”

“I Think I'm beginning to understand.”

“Mind telling me what's going on?”

“It'd take too long. Just wait. We'll be finding out pretty soon.”

We went by another side passage. Similar, yet different. 0f course.

I increased my pace, anxious to learn the truth. Another sideway. I broke into a run...

Another...

Jurt pounded along beside me, the echoes falling about us. Up ahead. Soon.

Another turning.

And then I slowed, for the passage continued ahead but our trail didn't. It curved to the left, vanishing beneath a big metal-bound door. I reached out to my right to where the hook was supposed to be, located it, removed the key that hung there. I inserted it, turned it, withdrew it, rehung it.

I don't like thif place, boss, Frakir noted.

I know.

“Seems as if you know what you're doing,” Jurt remarked.

“Yep,” I said, then added, “Up to a point,” as I realized that this door opened outward rather than inward.

I caught hold of the large handle to the left and began to pull upon it.

“Mind telling me where we've wound up?” he asked.

The big door creaked, commenced a slow movement as I walked backward.

“These are amazingly like a section of caverns in Kolvir beneath Amber Castle,” I replied.

“Great,” he said. “And what's behind the door?”

“This is much like the entrance to the chamber which houses the Pattern in Amber.”

“Wonderful,” he said. “I'll probably go up in a puff of smoke if I set foot inside.”

“But it is not quite the same,” I continued. “We had Suhuy come and look at the Pattern itself before I walked it. He didn't suffer any ill effects from the proximity. “

“Our mother walked the Pattern.”

“Yes, that's true.”

“Frankly, I think anyone of proper consanguinity in the Courts could walk the Pattern-and vice versa for my relatives in Amber with the Logrus. Tradition has it we're all related from back somewhere in the dim and misty. “

“Okay I'll go in with you. There's room to move around inside without touching the thing, isn't there?”

“ Yes. I drew the door the rest of the way open, braced my shoulder against it, and stared. This was it. I saw that our glowing trail ended a few inches beyond the threshold.

I drew a deep breath and muttered some expletive as I let it go.

“What is it?” Jurt asked, trying to see past me.

“Not what I expected,” I told him.

I moved aside and let him have a look.

He stared for several seconds, then said, “I don't understand.”

“I am not certain that I do either,” I said, “but I intend to find out.”

I entered the chamber, and he followed me. This was not the Pattern that I knew. Or rather, it was and wasn't. It conformed to the same general configuration as the Pattern in Amber, only it was broken. There were several places where the lines had been erased, destroyed, removed in some fashion-or perhaps never properly executed in the first place. The ordinarily dark interline areas were bright, bluewhite, the lines themselves black. It was as if some essence had drained from the diagram to permeate the field. The lighted area seemd to ripple slowly as I viewed it.

And beyond all of this was the big difference: The Pattern in Amber did not contain a circle of fire at its center, a woman dead, unconscious, or under a spell within it.

And the woman, of course, had to be Coral. I knew that immediately, though I had to wait for more than a minute before I got a glimpse of her face beyond the flames.

The big door shut itself behind us while I stood staring. Jurt stood unmoving for a long time also before he said, “That Jewel is certainly busy at something. You should see your face in its light right now.”