Zelazny, Roger - Amber 01 - Nine Princes In Amber

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I squeezed my eyes shut, and opened them, three times.

The room grew steady.

Where the hell was I?

Then the fogs were slowly broken, and some of that which is called

memory returned to me. I recalled nights and nurses and needles.

Every time things would begin to clear a bit, someone would come in and

jab me with something. That's how it had been. Yes. Now, though, I was

feeling halfway decent. They'd have to stop.

Wouldn't they?

The thought came to assail me:

Maybe not

Some natural skepticism as to the purity of all human motives came

and sat upon my chest. I'd been over-narcotized, I suddenly knew. No

real reason for it, from the way I felt, and no reason for them to stop

now, if they'd been paid to keep it up. So play it cool and stay dopey,

said a voice which was my worst, if wiser, self. So I did.

A nurse poked her head in the door about ten minutes later, and I

was, of course, still sacking Z's. She went away.

By then, I'd reconstructed a bit of what had occurred.

I had been in some sort of accident, I remembered vaguely. What

had happened after that was still a blur; and as to what had happened

before, I had no inkling whatsoever. But I had first been in a hospital

and then brought to this place, I remembered. Why? I didn't know.

However, my legs felt pretty good. Good enough to hold me up,

though I didn't know how much time had lapsed since their breaking--

and I knew they'd been broken.

So I sat up. It took me a real effort, as my muscles were very tired.

It was dark outside and a handful of stars were standing naked beyond

It had been an accident involving an auto, I recalled. One helluva

one....

Then the door opened, letting in light, and through slits beneath my

eyelashes I saw a nurse with a hypo in her hand.

She approached my bedside, a hippy broad with dark hair and big

arms.

Just as she neared, I sat up.

"Good evening," I said.

"Why--good evening," she replied.

"When do I check out?" I asked.

"I'll have to ask Doctor."

"Do so," I said.

"Please roll up your sleeve."

"No thanks."

"I have to give you an injection"

"No you don't. I don't need it"

"I'm afraid that's for Doctor to say."

"Then send him around and let him say it. But in the meantime, I will

not permit it."

"I'm afraid I have my orders."

"So did Eichmann, and look what happened to him," and I shook my

head slowly.

"Very well," she said. "I'll have to report this...."

"Please do," I said, "and while you're at it, tell him I've decided to

check out in the morning."

"That's impossible. You can't even walk--and there were internal

injuries...."

I d gone over a cliff in my car, and into a lake, I suddenly

remembered. And that was all I remembered.

I was...

I strained and began to sweat again.

I didn't know

who

I was.

But to occupy myself, I sat up and stripped away all my bandages. I

seemed all right underneath them, and it seemed the right thing to do.

I broke the cast on my right leg, using a metal strut I'd removed from

the head of the bed. I had a sudden feeling that I had to get out in a

hurry, that there was something I had to do.

I tested my right leg. It was okay.

I shattered the cast on my left leg, got up, and went to the closet.

No clothes there.

Then I heard the footsteps. I returned to my bed and covered over

the broken casts and the discarded bandages.

The door swung inward once again.

Then there was light all around me, and there was a beefy guy in a

white jacket standing with his hand on the wall switch.

"What's this I hear about you giving the nurse a hard time?" he

asked, and there was no more feigning sleep.

"I don't know," I said. "What is it?"

That troubled him for a second or two, said the frown, then, "It's

time for your shot."

"Are you an M.D.?" I asked.

"No, but I'm authorized to give you a shot."

"And I refuse it," I said, "as I've a legal right to do. What's it to

you?"

So I knew the time had come to act.

"Where are my clothes?" I said.

"____ ____!" He repeated

"Then I guess I'll have to take yours. Give them to me."

It became boring with the third repetition, so I threw the

bedclothes over his head and clobbered him with the metal strut.

Within two minutes, I'd say, I was garbed all in white, the color of

Moby Dick and vanilla ice cream. Ugly.

I shoved him into the closet and looked out the lattice window. I

saw the Old Moon with the New Moon in her arms, hovering above a row

of poplars. The grass was silvery and sparkled. The night was

bargaining weakly with the sun. Nothing to show, for me, where this

place was located. I seemed to be on the third floor of the building

though, and there was a cast square of light off to my left and low,

seeming to indicate a first floor window with someone awake behind it.

So I left the room and considered the hallway. Off to the left, it

ended against a wall with a latticed window, and there were four more

doors, two on either side. Probably they let upon more rooms like my

own. I went and looked out the window and saw more grounds, more

trees, more night, nothing new. Turning, I headed in the other

direction.

Doors, doors, doors, no lights from under any of them, the only

sounds my footsteps from the too big borrowed shoes.

Laughing Boy's wristwatch told me it was five forty-four. The metal

strut was inside my belt, under the white orderly jacket, and it rubbed

against my hip bone as I walked. There was a ceiling fixture about

every twenty feet, casting about forty watts of light.

going over some sort of ledger. This was no wardroom. He looked up at

me with burning eyes all wide and lips swelling toward a yell they didn't

reach, perhaps because of my determined expression. He stood,

quickly.

I shut the door behind me, advanced, and said:

"Good morning. You're in trouble."

People must always be curious as to trouble, because after the

three seconds it took me to cross the room, his words were:

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," I said, "that you're about to suffer a lawsuit for holding

me incommunicado, and another one for malpractice, for your

indiscriminate use of narcotics. I'm already suffering withdrawal

symptoms and might do something violent...."

He stood up.

"Get out of here," he said.

I saw a pack of cigarettes on his desk. I helped myself and said,

"Sit down and shut up. We've got things to talk about."

He sat down, but he didn't shut up:

"You're breaking several regulations," he said.

"So we'll let a court decide who's liable," I replied. "I want my

clothes and my personal effects. I'm checking out."

"You're in no condition--"

"Nobody asked you. Pony up this minute, or answer to the law."

He reached toward a button on his desk, but I slapped his hand

away.

"Now!" I repeated. "You should have pressed that when I came in.

It's too late now."

footing my bill at this place?

"Very well," he sighed, and his tiny, sandy mustaches sagged as low

as they could.

He opened a drawer, put his hand inside, and I was wary.

I knocked it down before he had the safety catch off: a .32

automatic, very neat; Colt. I snapped the catch myself when I

retrieved it from the desktop; and I pointed it and said: "You will

answer my questions. Obviously you consider me dangerous. You may be

right."

He smiled weakly, lit a cigarette himself, which was a mistake, if he

intended to indicate aplomb. His hands shook.

"All right, Corey--if it will make you happy," he said, "your sister

checked you in"

"?" thought I.

"Which sister?" I asked.

"Evelyn," he said.

No bells. So, "That's ridiculous. I haven't seen Evelyn in years," I

said. "She didn't even know I was in this part of the country."

He shrugged.

"Nevertheless..."

"Where's she staying now? I want to call her," I said.

"I don't have her address handy."

"Get it."

He rose, crossed to a filing cabinet, opened it, riffled, withdrew a

card.

places. Frankly, I can t see how you re managing to stay on your feet.

It's only been two weeks--"

"I always heal fast," I said. "Now, about the money...."

"What money?"

"The out-of-court settlement for my malpractice complaint, and the

other one."

"Don't be ridiculous!"

"Who's being ridiculous? I'll settle for a thousand, cash, right now."

"I won't even discuss such a thing."

"Well, you'd better consider it--and win or lose, think about the

name it will give this place if I manage enough pretrial publicity. I'll

certainly get in touch with the AMA, the newspapers. the--"

"Blackmail," he said, "and I'll have nothing to do with it."

"Pay now, or pay later, after a court order," I said. "I don't care.

But it'll be cheaper this way."

If he came across, I'd know my guesses were right and there was

something crooked involved.

He glared at me, I don't know how long.

Finally, "I haven't got a thousand here," he said.

"Name a compromise figure," I said.

After another pause, "It's larceny."

"Not if it's cash-and-carry, Charlie. So, call it."

"I might have five hundred in my safe."

"Get it."

He told me, after inspecting the contents of a small wall safe, there

was four-thirty, and I didn't want to leave fingerprints on the safe,

it was called Greenwood Private Hospital.

I snubbed out my cigarette, picked up another, and removed

perhaps two hundred pounds from my feet by resting in a brown

upholstered chair beside his bookcase.

"We wait here and you'll see me to the door," I said.

I never heard another word out of him.

Chapter 2

It was about eight o'clock when the cab deposited me on a random

corner in the nearest town. I paid off the driver and walked for around

twenty minutes. Then I stopped in a diner, found a booth and had juice,

a couple of eggs, toast, bacon and three cups of coffee. The bacon was

too greasy.

After giving breakfast a good hour, I started walking, found a

clothing store, and waited till its nine-thirty opening.

I bought a pair of slacks, three sport shirts, a belt, some

underwear, and a pair of shoes that fit. I also picked up a

handkerchief, a wallet, and pocket comb.

Then I found a Greyhound station and boarded a bus for New York.

No one tried to stop me. No one seemed to be looking for me.

Sitting there, watching the countryside all autumn-colored and

tickled by brisk winds beneath a bright, cold sky, I reviewed

everything I knew about myself and my circumstances.

I had been registered at Greenwood as Carl Corey by my sister

Evelyn Flaumel. This had been subsequent to an auto accident some

fifteen or so days past, in which I had suffered broken bones which no

he would receive his due, whoever he was, this one. I felt a strong

desire to kill, to destroy whoever had been responsible, and I knew

that it was not the first time in my life that I had felt this thing, and I

knew, too, that I had followed through on it in the past. More than

once.

I stared out the window, watching the dead leaves fall.

When I hit the Big City, the first thing I did was to get a shave and

haircut in the nearest clip joint, and the second was to change my shirt

and undershirt in the men's room, because I can't stand hair down my

back. The .32 automatic, belonging to the nameless individual at

Greenwood, was in my right-hand jacket pocket. I suppose that if

Greenwood or my sister wanted me picked up in a hurry, a Sullivan

violation would come in handy. But I decided to hang onto it. They'd

have to find me first, and I wanted a reason. I ate a quick lunch, rode

subways and buses for an hour, then got a cab to take me out to the

Westchester address of Evelyn, my nominal sister and hopeful jogger

of memories.

Before I arrived, I'd already decided on the tack I'd take.

So, when the door to the huge old place opened in response to my

knock, after about a thirty-second wait, I knew what I was going to

say. I had thought about it as I'd walked up the long, winding, white

gravel driveway, between the dark oaks and the bright maples, leaves

crunching beneath my feet, and the wind cold on my fresh-scraped

neck within the raised collar of my jacket. The smell of my hair tonic

mingled with a musty odor from the ropes of ivy that crowded all over

the walls of that old, brick place. There was no sense of familiarity. I

didn't think I had ever been here before.

I entered a hallway, the floor a mosaic of tiny salmon and turquoise

tiles, the wall mahogany, a trough of big-leafed green things occupying

a room divider to my left. From overhead, a cube of glass and enamel

threw down a yellow light.

The gal departed, and I sought around me for something familiar.

Nothing.

So I waited.

Presently, the maid returned, smiled, nodded, and said, "Please

follow me. She will see you in the library."

I followed, up three stairs and down a corridor past two closed

doors, The third one to my left was open, and the maid indicated I

should enter it. I did so, then paused on the threshold.

Like all libraries, it was full of books. It also held three paintings,

two indicating quiet landscapes and one a peaceful seascape. The floor

was heavily carpeted in green. There was a big globe beside the big

desk with Africa facing me and a wall-to-wall window behind it, eight

stepladders of glass. But none of these was the reason I'd paused.

The woman behind the desk wore a wide-collared, V-necked dress of

blue-green, had long hair and low bangs, all of a cross between sunset

clouds and the outer edge of a candle flame in an otherwise dark room,

and natural, I somehow knew, and her eyes behind glasses I didn't

think she needed were as blue as Lake Erie at three o'clock on a

cloudless summer afternoon; and the color of her compressed smile

matched her hair. But none of these was the reason I'd paused.

I knew her, from somewhere, though I couldn't say where.

I advanced, holding my own smile.

"Hello," I said.

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Isqueezedmyeyesshut,andopenedthem,threetimes.Theroomgrewsteady.WherethehellwasI?Thenthefogswereslowlybroken,andsomeofthatwhichiscalledmemoryreturnedtome.Irecallednightsandnursesandneedles.Everytimethingswouldbegintoclearabit,someonewouldcomeinandjabmewithsomething.That'showithadbeen.Yes.Now,though,I...

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