The courts of chaos Read Online Free PDF

placed his right hand on my shoulder. The jewel was pulsing. He looked into my eyes.
    “No man can have everything he wants the way that he wants it,” he said.
    And there was a distancing effect, as of the power of a Trump, only working in reverse. I heard voices, then about me I saw the room I had earlier departed. Benedict, Gerard, Random and Dara were still there. I felt Dad release my shoulder. Then he was gone and I was among them once again.
    “What is the story?” Random said. “We saw Dad sending you back. By the way, how did he do that?”
    “I do not know,” I said. “But he confirms what Dara has told us. He gave her the signet and the message.”
    “Why?” Gerard asked.
    “He wanted us to learn to trust her,” I said.
    Benedict rose to his feet.
    “Then I will go and do as I have been bid.”
    “He wants you to attack, then fall back,” Dara said. “After that, it will only be necessary to contain them.”
    “For how long?”
    “He said only that this will become apparent.”
    Benedict gave one of his rare smiles and nodded. He managed his card case with his one hand, removed the deck, thumbed out the special Trump I had given him for the Courts.
    “Good luck,” Random said.
    “Yes,” Gerard agreed.
    I added my wishes and watched him fade. When his rainbow afterimage had vanished I looked away and noticed that Dara was crying silently. I did not remark on it.
    “I, too, have orders now-of a sort,” I said. “I had best be moving.”
    “And I will get back to the sea,” said Gerard.
    “No,” I heard Dara say as I was moving toward the door.
    I halted.
    “You are to remain here, Gerard, and see to the safety of Amber herself. No attack will come by sea.”
    “But I thought Random was in charge of the local defense.”
    She shook her head.
    “Random is to join Julian in Arden.”
    “Are you sure?” Random asked.
    “I am certain.”
    “Good,” he said. “It is nice to know he at least thought of me. Sorry, Gerard. That’s the breaks.”
    Gerard simply looked puzzled.
    “I hope he knows what he is doing,” he said.
    “We have been through that already,” I told him. “Good-bye.”
    I heard a footfall as I left the room. Dara was beside me.
    “What now?” I asked her.
    “I thought I would walk with you, wherever you are going.”
    “I am just going up the hall to get some supplies. Then I am heading for the stables.”
    “I will go with you.”
    “I am riding alone.”
    “I could not accompany you, anyway. I still have to speak with your sisters.”
    “They’re included, huh?”
    “Yes.”
    We walked in silence for a time, then she said, “The whole business was not so cold-blooded as it seemed, Corwin.”
    We entered the supply room.
    “What business?”
    “You know what I mean.”
    “Oh. That. Well, good.”
    “I like you. It could be more than that one day, if you feel anything.”
    My pride handed me a snappy reply, but I bit it back. One learns a few things over the centuries. She had used me, true, but then it seemed she had not been entirely a free agent at the time. The worst that might be said, I suppose, was that Dad wanted me to want her. But I did not let my resentment on this interfere with what my own feelings really were, or could become.
    So, “I like you, too,” I said, and I looked at her. She seemed as if she needed to be kissed just then, so I did.
    “I had better get ready now.”
    She smiled and squeezed my arm. Then she was gone. I decided not to examine my feelings just then. I got some things together.
    I saddled Star and rode back up over the crest of Kolvir until I came to my tomb. Seated outside it, I smoked my pipe and watched the clouds. I felt I had had a very full day, and it was still early afternoon. Premonitions played tag in the grottoes of my mind, none of which I would have cared to take to lunch.
     

Chapter 3
     
    Contact came suddenly as I sat drowsing. I was on my feet in an instant. It was Dad.
    “Corwin, I have