Chapter 053: Talks
"I
can imagine the moment
Breaking
out through the silence
All
the things that we both might say
And
the heart it will not be denied
'Till
we're both on the same side
All
the barriers blown away"
Come
Talk to Me - Peter Gabriel
With an expression of annoyance Fiona moved to the side of the fallen
Boadice and checked her condition. I caught some snatches of muttered curses,
which even grew in number and volume when she examined Boa's head. Before any of
us could react she picked up our cousin's unconscious body from the floor and
disappeared in a swirl of rainbow colours. Well, so much for them. I guess I
would see Fiona later on. I hoped I would, anyway, for there were a few things
we had to discuss.
Alexander met my gaze and shrugged, immediately followed by a friendly
nod. He seemed to be rather pleased that Fi had departed, although I wasn't too
sure why he should feel that way.
"My compliments are in order, I think," he said when he had
come closer. I smiled.
"I would say that I owe you some thanks."
That brought a smile to his face. We seemed to be getting off on a good start at
least.
"You should not really hold what happened
against Boadice too much," he said. "She was under someone else's
control for a while and may not actually have meant to do any of the things
she's done." His expression turned a bit pensive and even slightly worried.
"I fear that my actions may have given Fiona cause to be rather upset with
me, though."
"Hmm," I mused, "when you said that
Boadice was not herself, did you mean someone had a hold over her, or was it
something?"
"Oh, it's easily explained," he said. "You see, Fiona was
busy raising an army of demons with the intention of taking the Courts by force.
For this she needed a few commanders, so Boadice and I were recruited. However,
Fiona insisted upon us swearing an oath of loyalty to her, and when Boa objected
to this, she simply did something to her mind to change it. I somehow managed to
avoid this by swearing fealty to her only for the duration of her military
campaign. When she teleported us here and ordered us to stop you, I figured that
that wasn't part of the deal, so I did what I had to do. Considering the whole
situation, though, I fear that Fiona may see it as an act of treason on my
part." Interesting story, especially that part about the demon army. I got
the feeling that our actions to repair the Logrus had been just in the nick of
time, before the Pattern's machinations could have plunged the Courts into a
bloody civil war. I wondered, however, what Fi had actually done to Boa's mind.
It must not have been pretty, considering her curses just now. Would she be able
to undo it, though?
"I'm not sure," I said to Alexander, "but I think the
situation has changed sufficiently during the last few minutes to assuage any
fears you may have. You were aware that Fiona was under direct control of the
Pattern Itself, weren't you?"
"I had some suspicions, yes," he said with a smile. "The
repair of the Logrus has been completed?"
"I think so."
"You're not sure?" We glanced over at
Samal and Taureth who appeared to be busy testing whether our mission had indeed
been successful. There seemed to be no cause for alarm as far as we could tell.
"By the way," Alexander said, turning back to me, "at the
moment when Fiona recruited me for her little army, Bleys, Murlas, Adrian and
Sereva were together in a prison cell, Bleys's condition being pretty bad."
"Yes, I know about their imprisonment," I
said with a wry grin. "Before we decided to come here, the three of us
tried to deliver them from their captivity. However, as luck would have it our
attempt failed miserably."
"Hmm, this must have been after they let me
out of there," Alex reasoned. "I was a prisoner as well, you see,
until Jaill Helgram decided that that accomodation didn't suit my status as
ambassador for Galoria."
"I wonder what has happened to them in the
meantime," I said.
"It's a pity I don't have my Trumps on
me," Alex said, "otherwise we might have tried to contact them."
"Somehow I don't think that would work, what
with us being so close to the Logrus and all."
"Fiona managed to Trump out, didn't she?" That much was true,
but as he said it I could see that he realised who we were talking about here.
Our dear aunt still had more tricks up her sleeve than all of our generation put
together. "I must confess that I worry a bit about Bleys, now that the
status of the Logrus has changed once again. He was in a rather bad shape when I
last saw him, and Jaill was one of the few people who had any form of control
over the Logrus in its weakened state." He had a point there. Anyway, with
the Logrus back on line we might have a better shot at freeing our relatives, if
that should prove to be still necessary.
I managed to catch the eye of Taureth and Samal, who had apparently
brought their tests to a satisfying conclusion. Behind them the Logrus was a
shifting, swirling mass, an ever-changing giant labyrinth. I walked up to them
with Alexander, and introduced them to one another. From the two brothers'
reactions I gathered that they had already heard some things about my infamous
cousin.
"Are we all finished here?" I asked them.
"Yes," Samal said, "unless you want
to take a shot at walking the Logrus. No?" He smiled at my horrified
expression. Me? Walking that bloody nightmare over there? No way! I had had just
about enough to do with it for an entire lifetime.
"I think we'd better leave here," I said. "Alexander just
raised the point of our relatives who might still be imprisoned. It might be a
good idea to find out what's happened to them and see whether they still need
our help." They nodded their agreement and we quickly walked out of the
cave, through a stratch of passages that led us to the still smoking ruins of
the cathedral. It was a good thing to leave that maze-thing behind me; I could
feel its power feeding the Curse all the time.
Once we were outside Taureth stifled a curse. He explained that the
Shadows in the Courts are generally connected by means of certain passages known
as ways. The recent upheaval caused by the Logrus's restoration had effectively
destroyed all the existing ways, so we would have to travel the hard way so to
speak. He would be able to lead us to our goal, shifting with his Logrus, but it
would be a much slower process than usual. Question was where we were going
anyway? I had discovered that my proximity to the Logrus had effectively
short-circuited all of my Trumps for the time being, but I knew they would be
alright once we got a certain distance between us and the Squiggle. How Fi had
managed to Trump away from the cave itself remained a mystery to me, though.
Anyway, since my Trumps weren't working and Alexander didn't have his, we
decided to try and find a Logrus Trump artist who might be able to help us in
some way. The House Baccaran seemed a good choice, since someone over there
ought to be able to produce a working Trump of Sereva. While we were slowly
shifting through Shadow, I noticed several people bearing the insignia of two
diagonal lines crossed by what appeared to be a icon of a bolt of lightning.
They appeared to be busy working on re-establishing the pathways between the
various Shadows. Taureth referred to them as members of the Shadow Master guild
and explained that this was their regular job. They only had never had so much
to do at the same time, he thought.
We hadn't got far from the cathedral, when I suddenly felt the stirrings
of a Trump contact. A bit surprised I accepted, figuring that the danger from
the side of the Pattern was minimal at this point. It turned out to be Murlas. I
greeted him cautiously, but he seemed pleased to see me.
"Dorian," he said, "I'm glad to see
you are still a free man."
"Likewise, I'm sure," I said. "How
are things on your end?"
"I have just been released from my
confinement," he replied. "Would it be too much of a trouble to bring
me through?"
"Of course not," I said, extending my
hand. As he stepped through I caught a better glance of his previous
surroundings: it appeared to be some kind of courtroom, with a group of people
conferring in the background. One of them seemed to be Jaill Helgram himself.
The first thing Murlas did when he had come through to my side was throw
his arms around Samal's neck and hug him enthusiastically. Taureth regarded the
touching little scene calmly, but Alexander had a harder time at disguising his
surprise and wonder. I put on an amazed expression as well, although that wasn't
too difficult, for this had to be the first time I had seen Murlas show this
much emotion. That bond between him and Samal had to be really, really strong, I
guessed, and I worried about him finding out about what had passed between me
and his lover. Let's just hope he never would.
Murlas soon reverted to his old cool and collected self, and gave the
other two a neutral greeting.
"You said that you had just been
released," I said to him. "What about the others?"
"They have also been released," he said.
"What about Bleys?" Alexander wanted to
know. "Was he still unconscious?"
"No, he has regained consciousness and is free
as well. What exactly has been going on outside our prison cell? I noticed that
the Logrus seems to be working once again."
"Yes," Alexander said, "Dorian has managed to repair
it." I shot him a quick worried look; I didn't think that this was
something that everyone needed to know, and at the moment we were still standing
in a rather public place. Alex caught my glance, and I could only hope that he
caught my drift as well. "Boadice had some design on shortening Dorian's
lifespan," he continued, "but that may only have been Fiona's
influence over her." Well, that was one way of putting things.
"By the way," Murlas said to me, "you are alright I
see." Oops! Last time he'd seen me, I had still been playing the fool.
"I'll explain about that later," I said,
"in private." He nodded. Hmm, if he had still thought me to be insane,
why had he Trumped me instead of one of the others? Why did I suddenly get the
feeling that my cousin was once again involved in a much deeper game?
"I think it would be a good idea to continue
this entire conversation in a more private place," Taureth remarked.
"Am I correct in understanding that there's no one else left in that cell?
Your cousin Adrian is alright too?"
"Yes," Murlas replied, "he has
joined his future in-laws, accompanied by Sereva."
"And Bleys?" Taureth asked.
"He escaped," Murlas said. "We were
released and Bleys escaped." There seemed to be something odd about his
tone of voice as he said this, but I couldn't put my finger on it.
"So what do we do now?" I asked in
general. "Or rather, where do we go?"
"What about Ornach?" Alexander asked.
"As far as I know he is still being held
prisoner," Murlas said.
"Well," Samal, "I think that dad will get out pretty
fast... Unless they have put him back in his old spot of course. If they have
locked him in a similar cell as yours, I'm sure he will be free in no time.
Still, it wouldn't hurt to go and look for him, I guess." He turned to
Taureth with a smile on his face. "Brother, if you would take the time to
draw us a Trump of him, it would make things much easier." Taureth nodded
his agreement, but Alexander looked doubtful.
"I'm not sure we should take that much time before trying to reach
him," he said. "This is the moment when we might be able to catch them
off guard, and they are sure to be more alert later on."
"Oh, we can just as easily free him
later," Murlas remarked. "Do we have any other immediate problems,
however, aside from this matter of the succession?"
"How about the make-up of the Major Council?" Alex said.
"Oh, yes, that is true," Murlas responded
in an almost blase tone. "You were involved with one of those Houses, were
you not?" He was clearly baiting Alex, but for some reason Alex chose to
ignore it.
"I don't know whether you you've heard about it or not," he
said, "but Fiona had also gathered quite an army of demons. I have seen her
plans for the attack, and it was clear to me that even if she didn't get support
from anyone else, she would still have a fairly good chance of coming out
victorious out of any conflict." Hmm, that sounded pretty serious. I was
all but completely sure that she wasn't under the direct influence of the
Pattern anymore, but that didn't mean that she would just disband this army. She
might just use it to further her own aims, or even worse, someone else may have
taken control over it while she was busy trying to stop us.
Meanwhile Alexander had explained to Murlas about the Pattern's nefarious
plot, and Taureth had been busy with one of the walls. Suddenly a door appeared
and he urged us through it, muttering something about privacy. On the other side
there was a greenishly tinted hall with no other apparent exits or entrances.
Some further Logrus wriggling on Taureth's part also got us a couple of easy
chairs. When we had sat down, Alexander started explaining all about Fiona's
battle plans to us, while Taureth began sketching a Trump of his father.
Although I did get some of things Alex was telling us, I found that a large part
if not most of it went straight over my head. My only consolation was that
Murlas managed to look even more puzzled than me. Ah well, it was something to
while away the time that Taureth needed to finish his job.
Alexander was somewhere halfway through his story, when he suddenly felt
a Trump contact coming on. He quickly positioned himself in such a way that none
of us would be visible to the one who was contacting him, and then accepted the
call. He visibly became a bit tense when he saw who it was. Fortunately, he
spoke loud enough for us to follow his side of the conversation completely.
"Well, what can I do for you, Adrian?" he began, then fell
silent for a moment, listening to his brother's reply. "As far as I know
Murlas and Bleys are in safety," he continued. "Dorian is free as
well, Boadice was under Fiona's control and has been slightly wounded, and Fiona
herself was being controlled by the Pattern, but that seems to have been put to
right." Hmm, he certainly had a way of mangling the truth, so to speak,
saying that Boadice had been only slightly wounded and being so vague about
Murlas and me. I patiently waited what else he would say to his brother, but got
ready to intervene if things got too absurd.
"Well, I believe that both Dorian and Murlas are in the vicinity of
the palace," Alexander said cheerfully. At my side Murlas heaved a sigh.
"Will you just stop that?" he said to
Alex. We could be fairly sure that Adrian had noticed that as well.
"I would prefer it if you would call me back
in a minute or so," Alex replied to his brother's question, "for some
of the people here might want to come through to your side." Apparently
Adrian agreed to this, because the contact was severed soon after that.
Alexander quickly explained that Adrian was indeed with his in-laws, and asked
us what we wanted to do.
"Let him come to us," was Murlas'
opinion. "I do not think that there is any reason for us to go to the
Baccarans, is there?" I silently nodded my agreement.
"Oh, it's no problem," Samal said. "We can always fetch
some more stuff to get comfortable."
"I think that as long as we do not have any
concrete plans of what we are going to do, we should not go anywhere else,"
Murlas added.
"So do we want to let Adrian come to us?"
Alex asked.
"Why not?" Murlas bounced back. Alexander
wasn't convinced right away, though.
"What do you think, Dorian?" he asked.
"Oh, let him come to us if he wants to,"
I said. "I don't think we have much reason to go to the Baccarans right
now." He nodded.
Almost immediately after this Alex got another Trump call, but from
the sudden surprise that registered on his face I gathered that it wasn't his
dear brother calling this time around.
"Oh, hello," he said, then after a moment: "Did I just
hear you say please?... Oh, really? No, I think that there are other things of
greater importance right now. I think it would be better if I would give that
Trump of myself to someone else who is a little more trustworthy and who might
be of more use to me. As for that Trump of Bleys, since he is also up and about,
and considering the current military situation, I think it would be better if I
held on to that one for a little while yet." No, this definitely wasn't
Adrian, that much was clear, but who else could be contacting Alex. I glanced
over at Murlas, but he just shrugged; he didn't seem to have a clue either. I
didn't have to puzzle over it too long, though, since the next thing Alexander
said helped to elucidate things somewhat: "No, Boadice, I think you'd
better explain the matter of that attack to Dorian... Why, I only stopped you
from murdering him, didn't I? It's not my fault that you had to try to stab me
in the back as well... Well, of course I trust you even less after this thing,
what would you expect?"
In a way it was funny to hear only one half of a conversation like this,
especially knowing the person on the other end. Somehow they managed to return
to the earlier topic of lost Trumps and returning them to their original owner,
which made for some more quarreling. After a while Alex relented a little bit
and returned Bleys's Trump to Boa, but he was quite adamant about keeping his
own. Their battle of words just dragged on and on, and I had nearly stopped
listening altogether, when I suddenly heard Alex ask who Malketh was. Well, that
go all of our attention. At Samal's insistence Alexander got Boadice to agree to
calling him back after a few minutes, and when he had broken contact he
explained that he had at one point picked up black and white Trump that Boa had
dropped. Not knowing its function he had tried it and had ended up in some other
place from which he had found a way back only moments later. Fiona had taken the
Trump away from him, so at the moment either she had it or she had given it back
to Boa. Alex wasn't too sure about being able to stand up to Boadice in a mental
duel, but as we had already seen he was more than a match for her with a sword,
so it was agreed that he should try to persuade her to come through to us. Of
course I didn't feel entirely happy about that, but I guess I would be safe
enough. And besides, Boa didn't have any reason to want to see me dead, did she?
Or did she?
Boadice wasn't the first one to join us, however, for Adrian managed to
call his brother again before she could. He had just stepped through, though,
when she made her call. It took some persuasion on Alexander's part, but he
managed to convince her to come to him and discuss terms for the surrender of
his Trump. Needless to say she was quite surprised when she found all of us
there at the other end of the Trump. There was no apparent enmity in her, in
fact she seemed oddly calm and even a little bit friendly. Strange. It was as if
she didn't quite recall what had happened. Either that, or she did remember and
thought it of minor or no importance. I didn't know, but it seemed better to
keep my distance.
I noticed that Alexander had started working with the Nexus, trying to
forge something around Boa, and of course she felt it too. When she asked him
what he was doing he was very evasive, however, and it was only when Murlas
asked him to put a stop to it that he did. I got the feeling that there was
something about Alexander that made him only take certain of his relatives
seriously; the other ones he either ignored or he toyed with them. Murlas
clearly belonged to the first group, while Adrian and Boa were in the second. As
for myself, well, I wasn't sure of what his attitude towards me had been before,
but it seemed that my actions near the Logrus had firmly planted me in group
one. I just hoped that he wouldn't start to rely on my help and judgement too
much, as his brother had before; while I feel a certain obligation to help my
friends and relatives (in that order), I am first and foremost a private person
with mainly private problems. And there always seem to be a lot of those.
As I was pondering Alexander's disposition towards me and the others, he
grew rather pensive, and after standing a moment lost in thought he turned to
Taureth and joined him in the corner where he was still working on the Trump of
his father. They started talking in hushed tones, an air of grave seriousness
around them.
Adrian asked whether anyone had a full working set of Trumps on them, and
it turned out that Murlas had one. It reminded me of the Trump of Boadice which
I had lend to Gran, so very cautiously I approached Boa and broached the subject
to her. She seemed mildly surprised by my distant and cautious manner, but she
promised to tell Gran and see that the card was returned to me; now that the
Logrus was back on line he could easily make new ones of his own again.
Boa suddenly remembered the reason for her coming here in the first
place, her missing Trump of Alexander, and went to pester our cousin once again.
However, Samal intercepted her and asked her about the Trump of his dear sister
Malketh. Boadice confirmed having the Trump, but she was reluctant in giving it
back to anyone else than Ornach, the one who had commanded her to fetch it in
the first place. Samal didn't like this and he warned her that it might be more
prudent to give him the Trump; after all, Malketh was his sister. He added that
there were many things that might happen to Boa before she got to Ornach, and
that all in all it would be safer if the Trump were in his possession. Boa still
rejected his opinions, but not too strongly, and when he decided that if she
wouldn't let go of the Trump, she'd better stay there until Ornach was found,
she didn't object. Samal then tried to get Alexander to talk about what the
Trump was like on the inside, but he didn't get more than just the basic info.
Alex seemed very distracted and insisted on continuing his conversation with
Taureth before going into other matters. They talked for a few minutes more,
until finally Alex turned away and sat down in another corner of the room,
looking very moody and definitely not wanting to be disturbed. Somehow I didn't
give him much time before Boa would once again start pestering him about her
Trump, but for the moment it seemed to have slipped her mind. I decided to keep
her away from him for a bit longer, even if it meant having to talk to her
myself. Still, I owed Alex that much at least, and I wanted to find out what her
current state of mind was really like.
"So how are you, Boa?" I asked quietly.
"Alright, I think," she said. "My
shape shifting abilities appear to have finally kicked in too. I'll live."
"And how about your mind?" I insisted.
"That's okay too, I guess..." She sounded
very hesitant, though, as if she really wasn't all that sure about anything that
had happened.
"Have you seen Fiona by any chance?" I
asked.
"Yes, I did actually," she said. "In
the Amber wing, I believe. She was with Bleys at the time. Oh, that reminds
me." She turned to Adrian and Murlas. "Bleys wanted a word with you
two." Adrian looked slightly worried, but Murlas' expression didn't betray
any sign of emotion.
"It is no surprise," he said.
"Do you have any idea what it is about?"
Boa inquired, but Murlas just avoided answering her question altogether.
"What shape was he in?" he asked in
return.
"Oh, he didn't look all too well, but I don't
know the details. You could of course try to Trump him. Speaking about Trumps,
Alexander!" And she was off again. At least it seemed that she was her
usual self in that regard, impetuous and nagging as ever.
While Boa went to make life difficult for Alex, I sidled over to his
brother's side and quietly offered my condolences on the loss of his child.
Although he didn't care to be reminded of the fact, he appeared to appreciate my
concern and he said that he would tell me about it later, in private, and
preferably with a large supply of Bayle's within reach. Come to think of it, it
had been quite some time since the two of us had sat down and really talked, and
I felt that I would probably appreciate having such a conversation once again.
Adrian excused himself, saying that he wanted to try and reach some people, and
he withdrew himself into one of the few remaining private corners.
Meanwhile Boadice had tried to reason with Alexander at just about every
pitch and volume that her voice was capable of, but she simply didn't get any
response from him: he just said there with a vacant, almost catatonic expression
on his face, as if he didn't even know that she was there.
"Guys," Boa finally called out to the rest of us, "I think
there's something wrong with Alexander."
"Actually, there is," Murlas said.
"It is nothing to worry about, however. It just seems as if he is not
really himself at certain times. It is something that seems to have been going
around lately." He looked directly at me, but I ignored him, pretending to
be more interested in Alexander's predicament. Well, no, not pretending really,
for I was genuinely concerned about him. I hadn't noticed anything odd about him
before, but then I had only seen so much of him and only during the last hour or
so.
"From what I have seen so far, I'd say that he's suffering from some
sort of multiple personality disorder," Boa said pensively.
"That covers it nicely, yes," Murlas
said.
"But what might have caused it?" she
asked.
"I do not have clue," Murlas said,
"you would have to ask him. It does not pose any serious threat,
however."
"But he doesn't react to anything I say,"
she said. She once again started calling out his name, placing her hand on his
shoulder and shaking him a bit. "Poor Alexander," she said when he
still didn't respond. "Mad as a hatter."
"That is not such an unusual condition
either," Murlas said, once again looking at me.
"It isn't among Amberites, I hope?" She noticed Murlas' gaze
and I could see the realisation sinking in. "Dorian, how do you feel?"
she asked quietly, in much the same tone that I had used earlier when inquiring
after her health. That's irony for you.
"I'm alright," I said calmly, studiously
ignoring Murlas' gaze. Boa regarded me for a few moments, then she apparently
decided to believe me.
"Ah," she said, "maybe we can all go
home now. That is, the ones of us that have any control over their own
lives." Hmm, did this mean that all of us would be staying here then? And
did she really still believe in that illusion of control? She ought to know
better by now.
Boadice turned back to Alexander and since she couldn't get her way by
simply reasoning with him, she decided simply to try and take her Trump from
him. As soon as she touched Alex's breast pocket, however, his hand shot out and
caught her wrist in a vise-like grip. Boa cried out in surprise and pain, and
started berating him again, but he just ignored her. When she asked him to let
go of her arm, though, he did, and finally, after a few more minutes of Boa's
cursing and pleading he gave her back the Trump. Good thing too, for she was
really beginning to get on my nerves.
Meanwhile Adrian had apparently managed to get through to the person he
wanted to talk to, and suddenly three people appeared beside him in a rainbow
swirl: Corwin, Deirdre and Caine. Great! Just the people I wanted to see right
now. And of course Adrian hadn't bothered to consult any of us about bringing
them through either. My only consolation was that Murlas felt just about as
happy at the three of them appearing as I did, but that wasn't all that much of
a help.
"Uncle Caine," Boadice called, "what's happened to Fiona's
army?" Oh dear, putting her foot in it right away. I had been wondering
what had become of the Patternghost, and now I had my answer.
"Fiona's army?" Caine asked with an
innocent smile.
"Of demons," Boa added.
"Oh, it's probably still around," Caine
said casually.
"You mean they haven't gone haywire now that
the Logrus has been repaired?" Caine frowned slightly, undoubtedly
realising that there was a lot that he did not kow about the situation over
here. I tried to catch his eye, but my mother decided to intervene.
"What are you talking about?" she demanded, then turned to me.
"Son, is everything alright? You look pale. And what has happened over
here?" Right. I managed to stall a bit by first introducing the three
newcomers to Taureth and Samal and vice versa, but Deirdre was really insistent
in wanting to know what was going on. Caine nodded his agreement and with his
arms sternly crossed he looked at Murlas, who in turn looked at me as if I was
the one who would do all the talking. Well, I didn't have much choice, did I? I
started by telling them of Merlin's death and the damage done to the Logrus,
followed by the attempts at a coup by Jaill Helgram.
"Jaill Helgram!?!" the three of them cried in indignant unison.
I nodded, and continued by stating that the Logrus had been repaired, and that
we had been busy trying to decide what we would do next and waiting for a chance
to bring Ornach, the father of these two gentlemen, through to us. Of course
they wanted me to explain who Ornach was, so I told them that he had assisted
Dworkin in stealing the Jewel of Judgement.
"That's what he claims he did?" Caine said.
"Well, I've heard the story from other people
as well," I said, "amongst whom a certain Nisse, Suhuy's
predecessor."
"We'll get to the bottom of this,"
Deirdre said firmly. "Anyone can say such things. You shouldn't always
believe everything people tell you, son. These people here in Chaos have many
reasons to make up stories that put Amber in an unfavourable light." Sigh.
Sure, mom. Anything you say, mom. I managed to restrain myself, though. Let them
remain sceptical if they wanted to, they would soon learn the truth.
"You'll soon find out for yourselves when you
get to meet him," I said. At least they had been warned.
"Ornach...," Deirdre said, then she shrugged. "We'll see.
But if I understand correctly there's a revolution going on here." We
nodded. "And you are involved in this?" Again we nodded.
"We were here when it happened," I said.
"We couldn't get back to Amber, so we became involved."
"And did any one of you manage to become king
in the meantime?" she asked. I laughed.
"Fiona had some ambitions at becoming queen
herself," Alexander said, "and she had raised an army to back her
up."
"Fiona? Fiona?!!?" Deirdre apparently
couldn't believe her ears.
"She had a reasonable chance of winning
too," Alex added imperturbably. "Until the Logrus was repaired that
is."
"That's why I asked you about the army," Boadice piped up,
looking at Caine, who looked rather surprised. This time I managed to catch his
eye, and a few moments later the two of us were standing in a quiet corner.
Unfortunately, Boadice decided to ignore our clear demand for privacy and
intruded upon us, saying loudly that she too wanted to hear any explanation that
I might have to offer. Caine gave her a glacial look and I said that she would
hear it only if she really needed to know. That rebuffed her alright, and when
she had left us in peace I quickly explained to Caine about his Patternghost,
which might still be walking around here, and that he must have been the one
that Boa had seen with Fiona's demon army.
"She doesn't know this?" Caine asked. I shook my head.
"Interesting. Don't destroy her delusion, will you?" I shrugged and
nodded. Inwardly I smiled at the fact that he simply accepted my freely offered
information, without either a word of thanks or suspicion. Did he really think
me that incapable of deceit?
While I had informed Caine of his double, Adrian had been talking to his
father. Corwin looked very distraught at hearing about the loss of both his son
and future grandchild, and after an empathic pat on the back from Adrian he
Trumped away, presumably to be alone somewhere. I couldn't say that I didn't
understand how he felt.
Of course we were all eager to here what things were like back in Amber,
but Deirdre assured us that everything had been relatively quiet. The only
noteworthy thing was that Vialle was about due to give birth to her child, which
surprised us at first. It turned out, however, that while we had only been in
the Courts for a mere two days, several months had passed back home. Deirdre
hoped that we would all be present at the birth, which made Adrian's spirits
drop again. It was too soon for him to be able to think about babies without
feeling the pain and loss.
It seemed that with the arrival with our Elders we would be breaking up
our little get together, so everyone who still had something to say to someone
else took their chance before it was too late. I decided that it would be better
for me to say something to Murlas about my faked insanity now, before he heard
about it from someone else.
"About that spell during which I wasn't quite myself," I began,
once the two of us had some privacy of sorts, "I might as well tell you, it
was all staged to delude and elude the Pattern. I was in real danger of falling
under Its direct control, much like Fiona had. I this regard, I might owe you an
apology for the time that I knocked you down when you tried to restrain me, but
since that was all simply part of my act at that particular moment I think that
I'll forego on it."
"An interesting story," Murlas said
coolly, and I figured it unwise to say anything else. Let him draw his own
conclusions.
Adrian seemed eager to say a few words to Murlas himself, so I let the
two of them alone. They talked quietly for a minute or two, then they turned to
Boadice.
"Boadice," Murlas said, loud enough for
everyone to hear "if you happen to see Bleys, will you thank him from us
for the way that he got us out of that rather difficult situation? There was a
slight problem when one of Jaill's relatives died in our cell. He had been
placed in there with us as a traitor, but we saw through his disguise."
"A shape shifter?" Boadice asked.
"Yes," Murlas said, "he had taken
the shape of Alexander, but we realised fairly early on that he was not the real
one. As I said, there was a slight mishap and he died, and after some debating
we decided that Bleys would take all of the blame for it." Oops, this
sounded serious. I noticed that Adrian's expression differed quite a bit from
Murlas': where Murlas was confident and optimistic, Adrian looked pained and in
doubt, especially when Bleys was mentioned. "There was a slight
complication, however," Murlas continued, "for Bleys was tried and
sentenced to death. Fortunately, he managed to get away before the sentence
could be acted upon."
"Wel, it's clear that Jaill Helgram cannot
possibly become the next king!" Boadice exclaimed. It was also clear that
she hadn't missed the signs from Adrian either. What had really happened, I
wondered, and would we ever hear about it. Perhaps I should ask Bleys for his
version of the truth.
"Dorian," Alexander said, coming up to me, "I had gathered
that you had become involved in some Minor Council business as well, hadn't you?
It might all become quite relevant again real soon." Yes, that was right,
Alexa. I had nearly forgotten all about her, what with the Logrus and
everything. She could probably do with my help right now. Only, I wasn't too
sure about staying in the Courts any longer. I dearly longed to return to Amber,
and what was more important, get my children out of their pocket Shadow and into
a safer environment. Now that it was powered solely by the Logrus I was a bit
leery about any strange side-effects that might occur. I had already had their
timeflow go haywire once before and I didn't want to see that repeated. No, I'd
better go to Amber and get them out there, but what about Alexa? What would
happen to her?
"I must say that I was surprised to see you there", Alex added
when I remained silent.
"Well, I was there as a companion for a young
lady," I explained. "She's the only remaining member of her House, and
I owed it to her to help her out." He nodded in understanding. "Will
you be staying in the Courts for now?" I asked.
"Yes, or at least till Belissa's fate has been
decided. Considering the recent developments I have good hopes that she will be
able to claim her seat in the Major Council once again."
"I have been thinking," I said, "but I believe it will be
better for me to return to Amber. Not just for my sake, but because I have
certain responsibilities towards my children. I'd like to ask you, though, if
you would be willing to go and see the young lady for me and tell her about me
having to leave. Her name is Alexa Grendyn."
"Hmm, can you give me anything that might
prove to her that you have sent me?"
"Well, somehow I think that you don't need
such a thing." I smiled wanly, thinking back to Alexa's trusting nature. I
just hoped that she would be abe to survive in this jungle.
"If I have any opportunity to go and see the
lady, I will," Alexander said with a serious expression.
"I would greatly appreciate it," I said.
"Perhaps it would be a good idea if we were to stay in touch, me in Amber
and you here in the Courts."
"That will not be too much of a problem if the
Trumps will all start working again." I nodded. At least something good had
come out of this situation after all. Of course I still didn't trust him
entirely, but there were very few people who could lay claim to that. After all,
he was still Family.
I went and explained to Taureth about my decision to go home. He too promised to stay in touch and to start working on some first experiments that might lead to a solution. The last thing to do before Trumping home was indicate to my mother that a private conversation might be in order. I guess that I owed her a more detailed version of some of the things that had been happening, although I wasn't too sure about how much I should disclose about Taureth and the possibility of the Curse being lifted. All in all it might be better to say nothing until the solution was really there, especially considering the amount of trust she put in Caine. Somehow I didn't want to involve him till it was really, really unavoidable.