Zelazny, Roger - Amber 03 Sign of the Unicorn

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Damn.

And again, damn. Of troubles I considered myself amply possessed.

But those who have do seem to get. Some spiritual form of com-

pound interest, I suppose.

There were a few idlers beside the fountain at the far end of the

garden. Also, a couple of guards were passing among the bushes

near the trail. The guards saw me coming, held a brief discussion,

and looked the other way. Prudent.

Me, back less than a week. Most things, still unresolved. The court

of Amber, full of suspicion and unrest. This, now: a death to further

jeopardize the brief, unhappy prereign of Corwin I: me.

Time now to do something I should have done right away. But there

had been so many things to do, from the very first. It was not as if I

had been nodding, as I saw it. I had assigned priorities and acted

on them. Now, though...

I crossed the garden, out of the shade and into the slanting sun-

light. I swung up the wide, curving stair. A guard snapped to atten-

tion as I entered the palace. I made for the rear stairway, then up to

the second floor. Then the third.

From the right, my brother Random stepped out of his suite and

into the hallway.

"Corwin!" he said, studying my face. "What's the matter? I saw you

from the balcony and--"

"Inside," I said, gesturing with my eyes. "We are going to have a pri-

vate conference. Now."

He hesitated, regarding my burden.

"Let's make it two rooms up," he said. "Okay? Vialle's in here."

"All right."

He led the way, opened the door. I entered the small sitting room,

sought a likely spot, dropped the body.

Random stared at the bundle.

"What am I supposed to do?" he asked.

"That was where I first saw anyone like this," I said. "They were af-

ter you, though. I never did find out why."

"That's right," he said. "I never got a chance to tell you about it. We

weren't together all that long. Strange... Where did this one come

from?"

I hesitated, torn between pushing him from his story and telling

him mine. Mine won out because it was mine and very immediate.

I sighed and sank into a chair.

"We've just lost us another brother," I said. "Caine is dead. I got

there a bit too late. That thing--person--did it. I wanted it alive, for

obvious reasons. But it put up quite a fight. I didn't have much of a

choice."

He whistled softly, seated himself in the chair opposite me.

"I see," he said very softly.

I studied his face. Was that the faintest of smiles waiting in the

wings to enter and meet my own? Quite possibly.

"No," I said flatly. "If it were otherwise, I would have arranged for a

lot less doubt as to my innocence. I'm telling you what really hap-

pened."

"All right," he said. "Where is Caine?"

"Under a layer of sod, near the Grove of the Unicorn."

"That looks suspicious right there," he said. "Or will. To the others."

I nodded.

"I know. I had to hide the body and cover it in the meantime,

though. I couldn't just bring him back and start parrying questions.

Not when there were important facts waiting for me, in your head."

"Okay," he said. "I don't know how important they are, but they're

yours. But don't leave me hanging, huh? How did this thing hap-

pen?"

"It was right after lunch," I said. "I had eaten down at the harbor

with Gerard. Afterward, Benedict brought me topside through his

Trump. Back in my rooms, I found a note which apparently had

and rode on down."

"Did you tell anyone where you were going?"

"Not a soul. I did decide to give the horse a workout, though, so I

rode along at a pretty good clip. I didn't see it happen, but I saw

him lying there as I came into the wood. His throat had been cut,

and there was a disturbance off in the bushes some distance away.

I rode the guy down, jumped him, fought with him, had to kill him.

We didn't engage in any conversation while this was going on."

"You're sure you got the right guy?"

"As sure as you can be under such circumstances. His trail went

back to Caine. He had fresh blood on his garments."

"Might have been his own."

"Look again. No wounds. I broke his neck. Of course I remembered

where I had seen his like before, so I brought him right to you. Be-

fore you tell me about it, though, there was one more thing--just for

a clincher." I withdrew the second note, passed it over. "The crea-

ture had this on its person. I presume it had removed it from

Caine."

Random read it, nodded, and handed it back.

"From you, to Caine, asking to be met there. Yes, I see. Needless to

say..."

"Needless to say," I finished. "And it does look a bit like my writing--

at first glance, anyway."

"I wonder what would have happened if you had gotten there first?"

"Probably nothing," I said. "Alive and looking bad--that seems how

they wanted me. The trick was to get us there in the proper order,

and I didn't hurry quite enough to miss what was bound to follow."

He nodded.

"Granting the tight scheduling," he said, "it had to be someone on

the scene, here in the palace. Any ideas?"

I chuckled and reached for a cigarette. I lit it and chuckled again.

"I'm just back. You have been here all along," I said. "Which one

I sighed.

"Who's next?"

"I don't know. I just don't know."

"Okay. How do you read the reactions to this?"

"You're screwed, Corwin. Everyone is going to think you did it, no

matter what you say."

I nodded at the corpse. Random shook his head.

"That could easily be some poor clod you dug up out of Shadow to

take the blame."

"I know," I said. "Funny, coming back to Amber as I did, I arrived at

an ideal time for positioning myself advantageously."

"A perfect time," Random agreed. "You didn't even have to kill Eric

to get what you wanted. That was a stroke of luck."

"Yes. Still, it is no secret that that is what I came to do, and it is

only a matter of time before my troops-foreign, specially armed, and

quartered here-are going to start provoking some very bad feelings.

Only the presence of an external threat has saved me from that so

far. And then there are the things I am suspected of having done

before my return-like murdering Benedict's retainers. Now this..."

"Yes," Random said, "I saw it coming as soon as you told me. When

you and Bleys attacked years ago, Gerard deployed part of the fleet

so that it was out of your way. Caine, on the other hand, engaged

you with his vessels and scuttled you. Now that he is gone, I imag-

ine you will put Gerard in command of the entire fleet."

"Who else? He is the only man for the job."

"Nevertheless..."

"Nevertheless. Admitted. If I were going to kill anyone person to

strengthen my position, Caine would be the logical choice. That's

the real, damning truth."

"How do you propose handling this?"

"Tell everyone what happened and try to discover who was behind

it. Have you any better suggestions?"

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摘要：

Damn.Andagain,damn.OftroublesIconsideredmyselfamplypossessed.Butthosewhohavedoseemtoget.Somespiritualformofcom-poundinterest,Isuppose.Therewereafewidlersbesidethefountainatthefarendofthegarden.Also,acoupleofguardswerepassingamongthebushesnearthetrail.Theguardssawmecoming,heldabriefdiscussion,andlook...

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Zelazny, Roger - Amber 03 Sign of the Unicorn

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