To Rule in Amber (2 page)

Putting Dad's card on the bottom of the deck, next to Aber's, I pulled out my sister Freda's Trump. I trusted her more than most of the family. She might be a mystic and have visions of the future, but she had always been honest about her scheming: she wanted to be in charge of the family.

As painted by Aber, Freda looked gorgeous and sexy, with her red hair up, accentuating her high cheekbones and pale skin. Her shimmering reddish-purple evening gown accentuated her dark eyes. She had a cat-with-bird-in-mouth expression, which I found somewhat intriguing.

As I stared down at her, the stars behind her began to twinkle, and I felt a stirring consciousness.

Good - the Trumps still worked. Then her picture moved, but oddly, with jerky movements. I couldn't quite see her face clearly. A veil seemed to hang between us.

"
Who… it?" she
asked. Words seemed
to be missing. "I… see-"

"It's me - Oberon," I said.

"
Who
?" she cried. " ...
again
!"

Before I could reply, the ground trembled underfoot. An earthquake? I leaned on my staff for support and tried not to lose my balance. The vibrations grew stronger. Pebbles on the ground began to hop and jiggle. Rocks slid, and when the ground gave a sharp convulsion, I almost fell.

Freda was saying: "
-swer…! Who is…
?"

"Not now," I said to Freda. I covered her card with my hand and abruptly lost contact. I would try again once the earthquake passed. Before I could lose my deck of Trumps, I shoved them back into their pouch.

A distant rumbling began at the very edge of my hearing and grew steadily louder. Not thunder - it reminded me of stampeding horses. But there were no horses here… were there?

I turned slowly, hunting for the source of the noise. There - coming up from the valley-raising a cloud of dust - it really
was
horses!

No, not horses…
unicorns
. Dozens of them, a hundred or more, all running at breakneck speed toward me. Their silvery-white coats flashed in the sunlight, shiny with sweat The horns on their heads bobbed up and down in rhythm to their strides. Their hooves blurred with the speed of their movement. I had never seen anything so magnificent before. What could they be doing here?

They swept across the land like a wildfire. Behind them came a tide of color: greens and browns and pinks and yellows, flowing across the mountains and valleys. Oceans of grass surged from the earth.

Trees sprang from the ground; first seedlings, then towering oaks and maples and pines and so many more. Bushes heavy with ripe berries sprang full-grown from the ground. Meadows - forests - green from trees and grass; pinks, yellows, and purples from flowers; reds and golds from ripening fruit -

The herd approached my position rapidly. The jarring force of their stampede made everything loose bounce across the landscape like so many children's toys. I staggered but, with the help of the staff, kept to my feet.

Still the unicorns rushed forward - hooves pounding like hammers on anvils, the sound of their passage growing to a deafening roar. A hundred yards away, and I saw the wild, fierce looks in their eyes. They ran with a mad abandon, savage, fierce, unstoppable.

Panicking suddenly, I looked around for cover but found none. If the whole herd ran me down, I'd never survive their hooves. Where could I go? What could I do? My thoughts raced through the possibilities.

Fifty yards -

I'd never get a Trump out in time, even if I could contact someone to save me.

Thirty yards
-

Taking a deep breath, I raised my staff and faced the unicorns. I could never hope to outrun them. What if I treated them like a real herd of horses?

Bellowing a war-cry, though they never could have heard me over their own deafening noise, I twirled my staff and stomped my feet. If I could spook the leaders enough to make them shy away -

Ten yards - five -

It wasn't going to work. I saw it now. Their nostrils flared. Their jaws snapped. Their eyes rolled wildly. They ran with no thought or reason; a terrible madness seemed to have come over them all.

I steeled myself. My heart hammered in my chest, but I set my feet and held my ground.

Three yards - one -

At the last instant, the lead unicorns veered aside, one to my left and one to my right, and the others followed right in their paths. Like a river flowing around an island, they separated just enough to avoid hitting me.

The rushing, pounding noise of their passage deafened me. The heat of their bodies washed across me in a burning wind. The cloud of dust raised by their hooves filled my eyes and mouth. Flecks of foamy sweat hit my face and arms.

Coughing and choking, half blind, I held as still as I could. They would pass me safely. I could live through it if I just kept still -

And then they were gone. The sudden silence and stillness was overwhelming.

But before I could relax, the ground underfoot seethed and churned. What now? I teetered, off balance. A moment later, thick blades of grass popped out under my boots, growing rapidly until it was waist high. I braced myself with my staff, trying desperately to keep my balance.

As my staff touched the ground, it ripped free from my hands and took root. Branches burst out along its length, several almost skewering me. Then a hideous, tortured face appeared in the center of the trunk. Two orbs flickered, then opened… showing familiar blue eyes… eyes I had looked on with admiration and respect a thousand times before.

Now, though, they glared down at me. I had seldom seen such hate and loathing. It wanted me dead.

"No…!" I whispered. My heart seemed to skip several beats. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't tear my gaze away. "No… !"

Those eyes - that face - belonged to King Elnar of Ilerium. King Elnar had died because I abandoned him, despite my oath to serve both king and country for all my life. He had died - murdered by hell-creatures - what now seemed a lifetime ago.

The wooden mouth opened. A groaning, moaning squeal of pain came out.

"Please," I begged. "Not this! Not again!"

I swallowed hard. The lump in my throat felt as large as my fist. I couldn't believe this was happening to me.

Elnar had been almost a father to me. I had worshipped him… done everything I could to be just like him. Of all the things that had befallen me - of all the horrors I had seen since leaving Ilerium - his death struck me the hardest.

After murdering him, hell-creatures had mounted his head on a pole outside of Kingstown. When I had returned there, the king's head spoke to me. Somehow, impossibly, magic kept it alive. It had called me vile names and shouted for hell-creatures to come and kill me.

That had been one of the worst moments of my life.

Of course, I knew deep inside that it hadn't really been King Elnar speaking - not truly - but the words still hurt like no others could have. I
knew
I had betrayed his trust. I
knew
I had deserted him in his time of greatest need. Because of me, he had died. Horribly.

No, I forced myself to think, not because of me. Because of the foul magics of the Courts of Chaos.

I took a deep breath, forcing down my shock and repulsion. Hell-creatures had created a grisly parody of what King Elnar had once been. The head on the pole had not been my liege and friend. Nor was this face in this tree King Elnar. It was an abomination, created by magic - an abomination to be loathed and destroyed.

And yet - it was King Elnar's face -

As I watched, those familiar blue eyes stared down at me. The wooden mouth parted, twisting into a half snarl.

"You!" it moaned at last, with Elnar's voice. "I know you! You are the one who did this to me!

Murderer!
Traitor
!"

I took a deep breath, then let it out explosively.

"You're wrong!" I said. The severed head on the pole in Ilerium had uttered pretty much those exact same words. "Think back to what really happened. Look inside yourself. You will see the truth."

"
Traitor
!" it cried. Its lips pulled back in a pained grimace. "
Murderer! Butcher
!"

I turned away. My eyes burned and my head pounded. I couldn't believe my luck. Why had the unicorns done this to me? Were they trying to punish me for some reason?

No, not the unicorns… the blame lay with Aber. Understanding came on me suddenly. I had returned to Juniper with the pole upon which King Elnar's head had been impaled. Aber had taken the pole. Later, at the Pattern, when I asked him for a staff, he had summoned one for me… and it was my bad luck that he had given me back the one which had held King Elnar's head.

The unicorns, with their life-giving magic, had somehow brought both the staff and King Elnar back to life, but joined together. It made a certain amount of sense. King Elnar's head had been growing
into
the pole, as I had discovered when I smashed his head to a pulp in Kingstown, what now seemed a lifetime ago.

"You deserve to die!" the face in the tree screamed. "No - death is too good for you!
Torture
! A thousand years of torture!"

I pressed my eyes shut and turned my face away. How much more of this could I take? Still King Elnar called down abuse. What could I do to stop him? What could I do to make it up to him?

"Enough!" I said. Drawing a deep breath, I whirled. My temper flared; I could not put up with his abuse any longer.

"Oh, the coward speaks!" he mocked. "Enough! Boo-hoo! Did I cry when you killed me?"

"I mean it!" I said. I drew my sword and took a step forward, raising my blade menacingly.

Would it be soft like human flesh, or hard like a tree? "Shut up, o -!"

"Or what? What are you going to do, kill me again?" It actually laughed at me. "You always were a fool. A fool and a traitor! Look how you respect your oaths of allegiance. Will you kill me by your own hand this time? Or will you leave that to the hell-creatures?"

I sucked in an angry breath and raised my sword.

"
Assassin
!" it shrieked. "
Assassin
!"

"I'm only going to say this once," I said in a dangerously quiet voice. I owed it to King Elnar's memory to try one last time to make peace with whatever part of him remained alive here. "Believe me, I could not have done anything more to help you. Had I stayed in Ilerium, we would both be dead now.

That is the truth."

"You
should
be dead!" it cried. "Thousands perished because of you!
Murderer! Traitor
!"

"
Enough
!" Rage swept through me.

Without a second's hesitation, I stabbed the face with the tip of my sword. Steel bit into its nose with the dull
thump
of metal hitting wood. It didn't penetrate far, but it seemed to hurt.

"
Assassin
!" the face howled, its voice rising in panic. Its eyes crossed almost comically as it tried to see the wound. "
Help me, someone! Help me! Save me from the assassin
!"

I jerked my sword free, leaving a long gash in the wood of its nose. Slowly, a sticky-looking black sap oozed out. It had the consistency of blood. And, like blood, it slowly beaded.

Still the tree cursed at me.

"Enough, I said!" My voice rose to a roar. If I couldn't out-fight or out-reason it, maybe I could out-shout it. "Be quiet, or I'll carve out your tongue!"

"You wouldn't dare!" it cried. "Oath-breaker! Liege-killer!
Murderer
!"

On and on it went.

I forced myself to take a deep, soothing breath. Clearly the hell-creatures had taken all of King Elnar's rational mind, leaving behind a creature that could only parrot human speech. Nothing remained of my old friend.

It was all too ridiculous. I couldn't allow hell-creatures to waste my time and energy. I would
not
fight a tree.

Shaking my head at the morbid humor of this whole situation, I turned away. I could easily waste all my time and energy trying to reason with this monstrosity. And maybe that's what the hell-creatures wanted. Maybe it was supposed to keep me busy until they could capture or kill me. Unfortunately for them, they were nowhere close. They would never find King Elnar again… never use him against me.

Clearly this
thing
wasn't my old liege. I didn't have to treat it with any special deference or respect. Nor would I fight with it. After all, what could I possibly accomplish by hitting a tree with a sword? Maybe I could claim "first sap" instead of "first blood" in our fight. Not that anyone would call striking an unarmed tree with a sword a fight…

Then the answer came to me suddenly.

I didn't have to do anything at all. If I wanted to win, all I had to do was walk away. If I abandoned it here, forever howling insults and cursing my name, it had no power over me.

Turning, I headed up the valley. And why not? With so
many
Shadows to choose from, I had no reason to ever come this way again. Let it scream. Let it curse my name. What did I care?

"Come back!" it yelled. "Coward! Simpering weakling!
Traitor
!"

I paused. Despite the soundness of my own advice, I discovered I couldn't just leave. I
did
care.

Maybe it was my oath to King Elnar. Maybe I owed something to his memory. Or maybe the hell-creatures had put a spell on the head, a compulsion to make me stay and argue with it against my own better judgment. Whatever the reason, I
needed
to make peace with the tree.

But how? Threats hadn't worked. Reason hadn't worked. What else remained?

"
Assassin
!" it continued to scream. "
Murderer
! Someone help me! Avenge my death!
To arms!

To arms
! He's getting away!"

What else? Perhaps… reality?

With a sigh, I took a deep breath and faced the tree again. What did I have to lose? Things couldn't get any worse, after all. King Elnar had already died. Hell-creatures had already cut off and ensorcelled his head. Maybe, if he truly understood what had happened to him…