Blood of Amber by Roger Zelazny Page B

foiled.”
    “You don’t think I’d be safe back in the palace?”
    “Perhaps,” she said.   “But your whereabouts may be known locally.   Come with me and this won’t be the case.”
    “I’ll be gone and Random will learn from one of the guards that I was heading for Death Alley.   This will cause considerable consternation and a huge brouhaha.”
    “You can reach him by Trump tomorrow and tell him that you’re in the country-if you have your cards with you.”
    “True.   How did you know where to find me this evening? You can’t persuade me that we met by coincidence.”
    “No, we followed you.   We were in the place across the way from Bill’s.”
    “You anticipated tonight’s happenings?”
    “I saw the possibility.   If I’d known everything, of course I’d have prevented it.”
    “What’s going on? What do you know about all of this, and what’s your part in it?”
    She laughed, and I realized it was the first time I had ever heard her do it.   It was not the cold, mocking thing I would have guessed at from Caine’s lady.
    “I want to sail while the tide is high,” she said, “and you want a story that will take all night.   Which will it be, Merlin? Security or satisfaction?”
    “I’d like both, but I’ll take them in order.”
    “Okay,” she said, then turned to the smaller of the two men, the one I had hit.   “Jarl, go home.   In the morning, tell my father that I decided to go back to Arbor House.   Tell him it was a nice night and I wanted to sail, so I took the boat.   Don’t mention Merlin.”
    The man touched his cap to her.   “Very good, m’lady.” He turned and headed back along the way we had come.
    “Come on,” she said to me then, and she and the big fellow-whose name I later learned was Drew led me down among the piers to where a long sleek sailboat was tied up.   “Do much sailing?” she asked me.
    “Used to,” I said.
    “Good enough.   You can give us a hand.”
    Which I did.   We didn’t talk much except for business while we were getting unbuttoned and rigged and casting off.   Drew steered and we worked the sails.   Later, we were able to take turns for long spells.   The wind wasn’t tricky.   In fact, it was just about perfect.   We slid away, rounded the breakwater and made it out without any problems.   Having stowed our cloaks, I saw that she wore dark trousers and a heavy shirt.   Very practical, as if she’d planned for something like this ahead of time.   The belt she stowed bore a real, full-length blade, not some jeweled dagger.   And just from watching the way she moved, I’d a feeling she might be able to use the thing pretty well.   Also, she reminded me of someone I couldn’t quite place.   It was more a matter of mannerisms of gesture and voice than it was of appearance.   Not that it mattered.   I had more important things to think about as soon as we settled into routine and I had a few moments to stare across the dark waters and do some quick reviewing.
    I was familiar with the general facts of her life, and I had encountered her a number of times at social gatherings.   I knew she knew that I was Corwin’s son and that I had been born and raised in the Courts of Chaos, being half of that bloodline which was linked anciently with Amber’s own.   In our conversation the last time we met, it became apparent that she was aware that I had been off in Shadow for some years, going native and trying to pick up something of an education.   Presumably, Uncle Caine had not wanted her ignorant of family matters-which led me to wonder how deeply their relationship might have run.   I’d heard that they had been together for several years.   So I wondered exactly how much she knew about me.   I felt relatively safe with her, but I had to decide how much I was willing to tell her in exchange for the information she obviously possessed concerning those who were after me locally.   This, because I had a