“Would I lie to you?” he asked.

“Yes!” He had lied to me constantly since he had swept back into my life.

He sighed. “Very well. Ask your questions, my boy. I will answer as best I can. I owe you that. I owe you both that.”

Chapter 32

For a second, I could not believe he'd finally given in. I almost expected to look around and see King Uthor's hell-creatures bearing down on us from all sides, Fate seemed so determined to keep me in ignorance. But it really was just the three of us here, sitting before the campfire, on a remote world far from home.

I licked my lips. “All right. Was that a unicorn I saw?”

“That was no unicorn,” Dworkin said. “That was your mother.”

“My—mother?” I felt my heart skip. Suddenly, everything began to make sense. My life in Ilerium—it had all been a lie. He had brought me there to keep me out of harm's way. The woman who had raised me as her own… she must have been paid. That's why Dworkin had taken care of her all those years. My mother—my real mother—had to be a shape-shifter… some lady of Chaos. But why not tell me the truth?

He let out his breath with an explosive sigh.

“Yes… I brought you here several times, long ago, so she could see you. You are her child… heir to all she represents.”

“The Pattern…” I whispered.

“Yes,” my father said simply.

Suddenly it all came clear. My mother couldn't be a lady of Chaos. She had to come from somewhere else… and she must incorporate the Pattern into her being the way the people of Chaos incorporated the Logrus. That explained all Dad's secrecy. If anyone had known about me, about my true heritage, I probably would have been assassinated years ago. He had kept my true mother a secret to protect me.

“Where is she from?” I asked.

“I am not really sure,” he said. “She found me, here, in this place.”

I didn't know what to say or do. A thousand conflicting emotions ran through me. But mostly I felt relief. The largest part of the puzzle had come into place, and I thought all the other pieces would fall into position with a little more effort.

Aber stared at both of us. “A unicorn? What are you talking about?” he demanded.

I ignored him. “And the Jewel of Judgment?” I asked my father.

“It is a part of her… just as it is a part of the Logrus, and much else in the universe. I needed it to create the Great Pattern.”

“Then you have the Jewel?” Aber demanded.

“Of course,” he said.

My brother stood. “I want it,” he said, and he held out his hand. “Give it to me.”

“No,” I said. I stood and put myself between them. We didn't have time for arguments now. “You're not returning it to King Uthor.”

“It's for the good of everyone,” he said. He peered around me at our father. “You stole it, Dad. It's weakened Chaos. It's going to cost King Uthor his throne… and the lives of Freda and all your other children. Not to mention me. Hand it over, and I'll make sure you're spared.”

I stared at him. “You sound like you mean it,” I said.

“I do.”

“But how can you offer a bargain like that? You're not the King—”

Our father struggled to his feet. “He's one one of them!”

“Yes,” Aber told him.

I stared blankly at him. “One of what?”

“King Uthor's men,” Dad said from behind me. I heard the whisper of his sword leaving its scabbard. “A spy, in the king's pay, prying into my affairs! Traitor!”

“You're the traitor,” Aber retorted. “You've fooled Oberon with this nonsense about his mother and a Pattern, but you haven't fooled me. You're playing with forces beyond your understanding. I've tried to shield you—to protect you all—but I can't do it any longer.”

“How long have you worked for King Uthor?” I asked.

“Since the party at Aunt Lanara's house,” he told me. “One of his ministers pulled me aside and warned me what would happen if I didn't help. We would all—Freda, Dad, you, me, everyone in our family—be arrested, tried, and executed for treason. By helping them, I've made sure our family will continue. Now, give me the Jewel. I'll return it. It's not too late!”

Dworkin threw back his head and howled with laughter.

“What is it?” I demanded.

“I put it the one place no one will never get it!” he said. “Around the neck of the unicorn!”

Aber looked horrified. “You couldn't—”

“I did.” He pointed his sword at Aber and advanced on him. “I ought to kill you here and now.”

“No!” I held Dad back. “He meant well“

“Me, a traitor!” Dworkin raged. He glared at my brother. “You are the only traitor here, Aber! A traitor to your own father!”

“It's your own fault!” I snapped. “If he knew what you planned, he might understand—”

“We do not have time for this!” He tried to push around me.

I blocked his way. “Then make time, Dad.”

“I won't be branded a traitor back home!” Aber snapped.

“Damnable children!”

He tried to cuff me out of his way, but I caught his wrist. Not this time. He grunted, and I saw his neck muscles cord. My feet began to slide across the grass.

Two could play at that game. Setting my feet, I gritted my teeth and held him. Then, with a surge of my muscles, I threw him back ten feet. He staggered and came up panting, giving me an odd look.

“You are strong here,” he said.

“Stronger than you.”

“Maybe—”

Behind me, I heard Aber say, “Don't fight him, Oberon. I can take care of myself!”

I glanced over my shoulder. Aber folded his hands, and when he unfolded them, a ball of darkness writhed there.

“You would not dare—” our father began.

Aber said, “I didn't come here to fight. I came here to help—but if you try to hurt me, I will defend myself!”

The darkness began to grow larger. He cast it onto the ground between us, and it began to swell, consuming the earth, becoming a pit.

Dworkin took a few quick steps back. I did, too. I didn't like the look of that darkness. Aber stared down at it, mumbling words too fast and faint for me to catch. Could this be what he had called Primal Chaos?

“Saddle the horses,” Dad said to me quietly, our disagreement seemingly forgotten. “I know the way now.”

“What about Aber?” I asked as I heaved the saddle onto his gelding's back and began to tighten the cinch.

“Leave him. He dares not follow us.”

“I will follow!” Aber shouted. “If you won't save our family, I have to try!”

The pit, I saw with growing horror, had become a yawning chasm, consuming everything it touched: our bedrolls, our campfire, our packs. We all stood on the edge of an abyss now.

“Then you are a fool,” our father called to him.

He swung up onto his mount and turned its head away from our camp. I hesitated, gave a last look back at Aber, and did the same.

I had to give my brother credit. He had showed more spirit in the last five minutes than I ever would have expected.

We headed steadily away from the clearing for the next hour, following a trail I could not see. Again Dad shifted through the Shadows, bringing us to a world where day had already broken.

Then, as we rode, the air took on a strange, crystalline quality. Every branch on every tree stood out with a vividness of color and a sharpness of texture I had never seen before. No wind stirred; no insects chirped; no birds sang. Even the air itself seemed different-pure and energizing. I had never experienced anything like it.

When we finally left the wood and rode out across a grassy plain, I gaped at the sun directly ahead of us. It was half again as big as the sun in Ilerium, and it shone with a rich golden hue that sent a glow through everything it touched.

To our left lay an ocean, though it lay perfectly still, without the slightest wave to mar its surface. Nor did I see any sign offish or water-fowl. Rays of sunlight touched the ocean and cast its shallows a brilliant blue-green color, deepening to azure farther from shore. I could have sat there and watched it for hours.