Brand had still been in Amber when I had departed. I lay stretched out on my bed, smoking and thinking. I closed up shop with that hand and went home. 'Not bad,' I said, 'but I can't spare any more brothers at the moment. Drawing back the drapes, he stared out for a time. He got to his feet, stepped over the room's other occupant, and made his way to the window. I wanted to be an irresponsible nonentity and just enjoy myself. That can get either boring or difficult fairly quickly, depending on how responsible you want to be. This time, I was not looking for a place where I would be especially important.

It was a long ride - I will not bore you with the details - and it was pretty far from Amber, as such things go. He had called me, and it was quite possible that I would be cutting his throat by letting anyone back in Amber in on the fact that he had gotten the message out.

So I suppressed my impulse to yell for reinforcements. And there I was, staring at the Jack of Diamonds again, with the guy across from me not knowing whether to be mad at my long distraction or concerned that I might be having some sort of sick spell. Some sort of watch-thing, it seemed - too bright for me to make out its outline, to guess its proper size. And I remembered the presence coiled about the base of that tower. Brand there in some sort of tower - a small point of stability in that flowing scene. Rocks that glided like sailboats across the land. It was far from Amber, somewhere where the shadows go mad. Then I saw the landscape - over his shoulder, out a window, over a battlement, I can't be sure. The Jack of Diamonds began talking to me. 'Plenty of noble Amberites around with possible motives. Finding out where he was seemed of first importance. I did not ask him how he was managing it without my Trump.

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