SIGN OF CHAOS by Roger Zelazny

boot, ready to strike instantly should it spring into an attack.   Nothing.   It felt limp, lifeless.   I used my foot to turn it over, and the head rolled back in the direction of the cave-mouth.   In the light that then fell upon it I beheld a half-decayed human face.   My nose had already been informing me that this state was no mere illusion.   I advanced upon the other one and turned him, also.   He, too, bore the appearance of a decomposing corpse.   While the first one clutched a dagger in his right hand, the second was weaponless.   Then I noted another dagger-on the floor, near the live man’s feet.   I raised my eyes to him.   This made no sense whatsoever.   I’d have judged the two figures upon the floor to have been dead for several days, at least, and I had no idea as to what the standing man had been up to.
    “Uh...   Mind telling me what’s going on?’ I inquired.
    “Damn you, Merlin!” he snarled, and I recognized the voice.
    I moved in a slow arc, stepping over the fallen ones.   Coral stayed near to my side, moving in a similar fashion.   He turned his head to follow our progress, and when the light finally fell upon his face, I saw that Jurt was glaring at me out of his one good eye-a patch covered the other-and I saw, too, that about half -of his hair was missing, the exposed scalp covered with welts or scars, his half-regrown ear-stub plainly visible.   From this side I could also see that a bandana suitable for covering most of this damage had slipped down around his neck.   Blood was dripping from his left hand, and I suddenly realized that his little finger was missing.
    “What happened to you?” I asked.
    “One of the zombies hit my hand with his dagger as he fell,” he said, “when you expelled the spirits that animated them.”
    My spell to evict a possessing spirit...   They had been within range of it...
    “Coral,” I asked, “are you all right?”
    “Yes,” she replied.   “But I don’t understand...”
    “Later,” I told her.
    I did not ask him about his head, as I recalled my struggle with the one-eyed werewolf in the wood to the east of Amber-the beast whose head I had forced into the campfire.   I had suspected for some time that it had been Jurt in a shape-shifted form, even before Mandor had offered sufficient information to confirm it.
    “Jurt,” I began, “I have been the occasion of many of your ills, but you must realize that you brought them on yourself.   If you would not attack me, I would have no need to defend myself-“
    There came a clicking, grinding sound.   It took me several seconds to realize that it was a gnashing of teeth.   “My adoption by your father meant nothing to me,” I said, “beyond the fact that he honored me by it.   I was not even aware until recently that it had occurred.”
    “You lie!” he hissed.   “You tricked him some way, to get ahead of us in the succession.”
    “You’ve got to be kidding,” I said.   “We’re all so far down on the list that it doesn’t matter.”
    “Not for the Crown, you fool! For the House! Our father isn’t all that well!”
    “I’m sorry to hear that,” I said.   “But I’d never even thought of it that way.   And Mandor’s ahead of all of us, anyhow.   “
    “And now you’re second.”
    “Not by choice.   Come on! I’ll never see the title.   You know that! “
    He drew himself upright, and when he moved I became aware of a faint prismatic nimbus that had been clinging to his outline.
    “That isn’t the real reason,” I continued.   “You’ve never liked me, but you’re not after me because of the succession.   You’re hiding something now.   It’s got to be something else, for all this activity on your pan.   By the way, you did send the Fire Angel, didn’t you?”
    “It found you that fast?” he said.   “I wasn’t even sure I could count on that.   I guess it was worth the price after all.   But...   What