"Roger Zelazny - Amber 05 - The Courts of Chaos" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zelazny Roger)

them. She turned it in the light. It was our father's signet ring that she
held.
"Where did you get that?" Random asked.
"Where else?"
Benedict stepped toward her and held out his hand. She gave it to him. He
scrutinized it.
"It is his," he said. "It has the little markings on the back that I've
seen before. Why do you have it?"
"First, to convince you that I am acting properly when I convey his
orders," she said.
"How is it that you even know him?" I asked.
"I met him during his - difficulties - some time back," she told us. "In
fact, you might say that I helped to deliver him from them. This was after I
had met Martin, and I was inclined to be more sympathetic toward Amber. But
then, your father is also a charming and persuasive man. I decided that I
could not simply stand by and see him remain prisoner to my kin."
"Do you know how he was captured in the first place?"
She shook her head.
"I only know that Brand effected his presence in a shadow far enough from
Amber that he could be taken there. I believe it involved a fake quest for a
nonexistent magical tool which might heal the Pattern. He realizes now that
only the Jewel can do it."
"Your helping him to get away... How did this affect your relations with
your own people?"
"Not too damned well," she said. "I am temporarily without a home."
"And you want one here?"
She smiled again.
"It depends on how things turn out. If my people have their way, I would
as soon go back - or stay with what shadows remain."
I withdrew a Trump, glanced at it.
"What of Merlin? Where is he now?"
"They have him," she said. "I fear he may be their man now. He knows his
parentage, but they have had charge of his education for a long while. I do
not know whether he could be gotten away."
I raised the Trump, stared at it.
"No good," she said. "It will not function between here and there."
I recalled how difficult Trump communication had been when I had been to
the fringes of that place. I tried anyway. The card grew cold in my hand and
I reached out. There was the faintest flicker of a responding presence. I
tried harder.
"Merlin, this is Corwin," I said. "Do you hear me?"
I seemed to hear a reply. It seemed to be, "I cannot - " And then there
was nothing. The card lost its coldness.
"Did you reach him?" she asked.
"I am not sure," I said. "But I think so. Just for a moment."
"Better than I thought," she said. "Either conditions are good or your
minds are very similar."
"When you began waving Dad's signet around you spoke of orders," Random
said. "What orders? And why is he sending them through you?"
"It is a matter of timing."