Blood of Amber Read Online Free PDF Page B

roses on the night table,” Flora told me, “and a couple of mixed displays on the dresser.   You know, no one’s ever sent me flowers this way.   It’s a rather intriguing introduction.   Are you sure they were for you?”
    I growled something anatomical or theological and gathered rosebuds.
    Later, as we sat in the kitchen drinking coffee and musing, Flora remarked, “This thing’s kind of spooky.”
    “Yes”.
    “Maybe you ought to discuss it with Fi after you’ve talked with Random.”
    “Maybe.”
    “Speaking of whom, shouldn’t you be calling Random?”
    “Maybe.”
    “What do you mean, ‘maybe’? He’s got to be warned.”
    “True.   But I’ve a feeling that being safe won’t get any questions answered for me.”
    “What do you have in mind, Merle?”
    “Do you have a car?”
    “Yes, I just got it a few days back.   Why?”
    I withdrew the button and the stones from my pocket, spread them on the table and regarded them again.   “It just occurred to me while we were picking up flowers where I might have seen another of these.”
    “Yes?”
    “There is a memory I must have been blocking, because it was very distressing: Julia’s appearance when I found her.   I seem to recall now that she had on a pendant with a blue stone.   Maybe it’s just coincidence, but “
    She nodded.   “Could be.   But even so, the police probably have it now.”
    “Oh, I don’t want the thing.   But it reminds me that I didn’t really get to look over her apartment as well as I might have if I hadn’t had to leave in a hurry.   I want to see it again before I go back to Amber.   I’m still puzzled as to how that—creature-got in.”
    “What if the place has been cleaned out? Or rented again?”
    I shrugged.   “Only one way to find out.”
    “Okay, I’ll drive you there.”
    A few minutes later we were in her car and I was giving her directions.
    It was perhaps a twenty-minute drive beneath a sunny late-afternoon sky, stray clouds passing.   I spent much of the time making certain preparations with Logrus forces, and I was ready by the time we reached the proper area.
    “Turn here and go around the block,” I said, gesturing.   “I’ll show you where to park if there’s a place.”
    There was, close to the spot where I’d parked on that day.
    When we were stopped beside the curb she glanced at me.   “Now what? Do we just go up to the place and knock?”
    “I’m going to make us invisible,” I told her, “and I’m going to keep us that way till we’re inside.   You’ll have to stay close to me in order for us to see each other, though.”
    She nodded.
    “Dworkin did it for me once,” she said, “when I was a child.   Spied on a lot of people then.” She chuckled.   “I’d forgotten.”
    I put the finishing touches to the elaborate spell and laid it upon us, the world growing dimmer beyond the windshield as I did.   It was as if I regarded our surroundings through gray sunglasses as we slipped out the passenger side of the car.   We walked slowly up to the corner and turned right.
    “Is this a hard spell to learn?” she asked me.   “It seems a very handy one to know.”
    “Unfortunately, yes,” I said.   “Its biggest drawback is that you can’t just do it at a moment’s notice if you don’t have it hanging ready-and I didn’t.   So, starting from scratch, it takes about twenty minutes to build.”
    We turned up the walk to the big old house.
    “Which floor?” she asked me.
    “Top.”
    We climbed to the front door and found it locked.   No doubt they were more particular about such matters these days.
    “Break it?” Flora whispered.
    “Too noisy,” I answered.
    I placed my left hand upon the doorknob and gave Frakir a silent command.   She unwound two turnings of her coil from about my wrist, coming into view as she moved across the lock plate and slithered into the keyhole.   There followed a tightening, a stiffening and several rigid