She nodded.

"How much is bullshit and how much is true?" I asked.

"I don't know, but I don't think any of the others do either--not forsure."

"Thanks. I'll take all the reassurances I can get. What now?"

"If you will take hold of the other's arm, it will make the transporteasier."

"What transport?"

"You may not leave this hall on your own motion. You will be takendirect to the killing ground."

"By you, love?"

"I've no choice in the matter."

I nodded. I took hold of Luke's arm.

"What do you think?" I asked him.

"I think we should go," he said, "offering no resistance--and when wefind out who's behind this, we take him apart with hot irons."

"I like the way you think," I said. "Deirdre, show us the way."

"I've bad feelings about this one, Corwin."

"If, as you said, we've no choice in the matter, what difference doesit make? Lead on, lady. Lead on."

She took my hand. The world began to spin around us.

Somebody owed me a chicken and a bottle of wine. I would collect.

I awoke lying in what seemed a glade under a moonlit sky. I kept myeyes half-lidded and did not move. No sense in giving away my wakefulness.

Very slowly, I moved my eyes. Deirdre was nowhere in sight. Myrightside peripheral vision informed me that there might be a bonfire inthat direction, with some folks seated around it.

I rolled my eyes to the left and got a glimpse of Luke. No one elseseemed to be nearby.

"You awake?" I whispered.

"Yeah," he replied.

"No one near," I said, rising, "except maybe for a few around a fireoff to the right. We might be able to find a way out and take it--Trumps,Shadowalk--and thus break the ritual. Or we might be trapped."

Luke put a finger into his mouth, removed it, and raised it, as iftesting the wind.