Chapter 064: Death At The Party

 

"Garden party held today
Invites call the debs to play
Social climbers polish ladders
Wayward sons again have fathers"

Garden Party - Marillion

     It was about a week before Lady Emall Grice's big party when Caine finally made an appearance in Ornach Ways. I reasoned that he must have had some things to take care of first, and since he didn't offer an explanation I didn't bother asking for one. As it was, I was happy enough that he had come at all, hoping that his insights into the Curse could give Taureth's studies a boost. As I had arranged with Taureth, Caine got a guest suite in the Ways like the one I and Diana had, and no one seemed to bother very much about him being there: if Ornach was at all interested in his son's guests, he managed to hide it very well indeed, and at my insistence Taureth had persuaded the recently returned Samal to keep well away from our quarters. I had heard that Murlas had accompanied his lover back to the Courts, yet he had chosen not to stay at Ornach Ways, but at the residence of his mother's family, the House Ysarn. Apparenty he was trying to ingratiate himself with them to attain some more official form of acknowledgement or something, or so it was rumoured. They at least seemed to be tolerating his presence for the time being, although Lady Tirga, the Head of the House, was said to have quite a strong dislike for her illustrious nephew.

     The only person to whom Caine's arrival came as a surprise was Boadice, of course, and her curiosity nearly went critical at not knowing why he was there. I managed to evade all of her questions and although Caine was quite polite and charming towards her, I don't believe she learned anything from him either. Privately, however, Caine expressed some annoyance at my over-curious cousin's presence at the Ways, to which I concurred whole-heartedly, but I didn't think that any elaborate scheme of trying to get rid of her would be worth all the bother. Besides, Boadice wasn't entirely stupid and she knew when to stop fishing for answers that weren't forthcoming (even though she often managed to press on well past this point).

     Fortunately, her work for Ornach and her relationship with Gran kept Boadice quite busy enough; the rumours of an impending marriage with her boyfriend grew ever more frequent, as did the ones giving the reasons for them still not having tied the knot yet. The most important one among the latter had to do with the rather precarious status of the House Escallwyn: apart from Gran and his brother Frewar the only other living member of the House was their father. In the current stormy political climate this was a rather perilous state of affairs for a Major House, so Gran's father Thron would probably insist on a quick marriage and an even quicker pregnancy, which knowing my cousin would probably not be to her liking. Still, she would have to make up her mind quickly if she want to keep Gran for herself, for there were plenty of willing and fruitful young Chaos ladies ready to take her place. And I knew, for I had been introduced to most of them by Lady Grice.

     Boadice's presence was fortunate in a way, for she agreed to do me a little favour by copying out Taureth's Trump of Ygg as a Pattern Trump for me. I actually asked for and received three copies, one of which I gave to Diana, keeping the third one as a spare. It's not that Logrus Trumps cannot be used by Amberites, but the Logrus energy inside is rather annoying and I found that using Taureth's Trump tended to give me a slight headache as well as boosting the Curse a bit. As per our agreement Boa kept the original Trump for her own use. I regarded the job as only a little bit of repayment for the various problems she had got me into in the past, but I doubted that she thought of it in exactly the same way.

     Apart from lending his expertise to the Curse research Caine very much went his own way in the Courts, and I guess that suited him best. He appeared to have many contacts over here, and there were several things that he felt he needed to look into in more detail. One of these had something to do with Ornach, that much I gathered, and after a while he appeared to have come to some sort of satisfactory conclusion, but what it was remained unclear to me. One of the things I did discuss with him in private was the question of whether or not to tell Diana and Taureth the entire story such as he had told it to me. Caine agreed, albeit a bit reluctantly, that Taureth should know all the details for his studies, but the matter of Diana he left completely open to me in a typically Caine-ish fashion, saying that I as her father should decide whether or not she ought to know about it. I felt a bit annoyed at this, but I guess he was right; ultimately I decided that we shouldn't keep it a secret from her, but I would wait for an opportune moment to tell her. Such things have to be handled with care. Before such an opportunity had a chance to present itself, however, the day of the big party arrived, with all its consequences.

     Just about at the same time when Caine made his first appearance everyone who was anyone received a personal invitation from Lady Grice for the ultimate party she was throwing, which was to be a Gentra masked ball. Any kind of costume was alright, as long the wearer maintained a human form and his or her identity remained concealed. The thing about the human form was probably a courtesy towards the many Amberites who would undoubtedly be attending. There was no special occassion involved except for her continuing wish to revive the Courts' social tradition. I said that everyone was invited, but apart from Lady Grice herself nobody really knew the entire guest list. Considering, though, that both Diana, Taureth and I had got individual invitations and also keeping Lady Grice's thoroughness in mind, I figured that no one would have been left out.

     The week before the party was mostly taken up by all kinds of preparations, and I spent a lot of the time agonizing over what kind of costume I was going to wear. Finally, I decided upon a classical Shadow Earth outfit: the brightly multi- coloured diamond motif of a Venetian Harlekino, complete with a white mask and a three-cornered hat. It seemed fitting in a way, and its overly cheerful design would probably be enough to confuse others as to my identity.

     I was rather surprised when Taureth came to ask my permission to accompany Diana to the ball. I saw no reason to deny him, knowing that with him my daughter would be in good hands, but it made me wonder a bit about whether he was merely being polite or whether he had some other motive. This request fitted his old-fashioned upbringing of course, and he and Diana had been spending a lot of time together lately, thus getting to know one another a lot better. Could it be that there was something beautiful growing between them? I guessed that I ought to keep an eye on them, just in case, but immediately berated myself for being too cautious. Diana and Taureth were both adults and him approaching me in such a formal manner was indication enough that he would conduct himself with properly decorum. And if it was truly love blossoming between them, who was I to stand in its way?

     Although, as I said, we had been invited separately, the three of us decided at least to arrive at the party together. This had the added advantage that we would know each other's costumes and would be able to find one another in case of any emergency. Not that I hoped there would be any, but I had been told that these really big Chaosian parties were not entirely without risk, since they usually provided excellent opportunities for trysts, secret negotiations, and of course assassinations. Still, as I saw no reason to expect any harm to come my way, I refrained from bearing any kind of weapon that night, save for the customary and easily concealed deck of Trumps. A sword wouldn't have be appropriate for a Harlekino anyway.

     Taureth had opted for the sort of classical costume that was usual for these affairs: loose-fitting trousers, shirt, and coat or cloak, with a simple face mask and possibly some kind of hat. All these clothes were tailored just so they would allow free and easy movement, yet disguise their wearer as much as possible, and most outfits were done in a scheme of two or three distinctive colours. Taureth was dressed in dark moss green and gold, while Diana's dress was black, blue and silver. She had braided her hair in a long plait, something she didn't usually do, and as an extra eye-catcher she had chosen a mask with the features of a cat, complete with a set of silver whiskers. She would not be the only one with some sort of animal mask, I was to find, but I don't think I saw a more striking image during that whole evening (although I know this could just be a bit of fatherly pride).

     In the course of the various social events leading up to this ultimate party I had on several occassions set foot in Grice Ways, but none of those earlier visits could have prepared me for the spectacle that awaited us there on this particular evening. Lady Grice had had a veritable army of Logrus masters and Shadow decorators giving her domain a make-over and the result was nothing short of fantastic. The main entrance to the Ways had been expanded into one enormous hall, which appeared to be a spatial loop, creating a sort of an infinite dance floor. Chaotic decorations abounded everywhere, which gave the already quite packed hall an even more crowded impression. Fortunately, there were a number of smaller Shadow rooms accessible from the main hall by various Ways, as well as a few selected environments that existed as bubble Shadows within the main room. These were slowly floating around at varying heights above the floor, and I found that somehow the gravity in these Shadows could be manipulated allowing one to drift from one to the other. The bubble Shadows had all been constructed around a certain theme, for instance that of the basic elements: there was a water bubble complete with a sunken city and the remains of mighty ships, an air bubble that was mainly used for three dimensional dancing, and so on, and so forth. Upon arrival every guest was provided with the necessary magical spells that would allow them for instance to breathe underwater or withstand the scorching heat of the fire bubble. Thus there was no need for shape shifting, although each guest was of course permitted to supply his own spells if they so wished.

     As for the crowd, well, it's hard to describe. I had experienced other similarly carnivalesque festivities in Shadow, on Earth and Telgan for instance, but these were mere shadows compared to this. It was as if the entire Courts had en masse decided to drop all sense of decorum and use their disguises as an excuse to do all the things they normally wouldn't dream of. Now set this entire scene against the background of one of Dali's weirdest dreams and you're getting close. There were entertainers of every variety: magicians, jugglers, acrobats, singers, poets, dancers, you name it and it was there. As a special touch to this pure Gentra occassion the serving demons had all been given the appearance of small child-like angels, flying around over the crowd with trays of drinks and hors d'oeuvres. Just looking at this entire tableau would have been enough to enjoy oneself tremendously, if any had been allowed to limit themselves to such a passive stance, that is.

     Pretty soon after we had arrived, we drifted our separate ways, but during the evening I now and again caught some glimpses of Taureth or Diana or both. Not that I was really on the look out for them, but apart from Lady Grice, who as the hostess wore no mask, they were the only two individuals that I could put names to. I guess I could have had some fun trying to figure out some of the identities of the people around me, but somehow I couldn't really be bothered. As long as I enjoyed myself, I didn't really mind who my partners were.

     There was one precaution I realised I had to take, though, and I spent a while observing the crowd with my empowered vision. There, that man in black and silver leading the purple and white clad lady across the dance floor, he was one. And there was a man in silver and white, walking by himself. That lady in the peacock outfit who stuck close to her partner in muted green and browns was one too. As was the gentleman in grey and black, and that other in completely in black robes even had two separate imprints. That had to be dear cousin Adrian, the King of Sherwyn himself. Yes, I had to find out who to avoid having, shall we say more intimate encounters with; I was already involved in too many fucked-up relations in my branch of the Family tree as it was, thank you very much, and I didn't need any more.

     As I was concentrating on discovering all of my relatives who were present at the party, my attention was suddenly drawn by a youngish man in a silver and indigo costume waltzing by. There appeared to be something odd and reminiscent of power both around his right arm and his head. I didn't have time to figure out what it was, though, for he was gone before I knew it. While I was still pondering this little mystery, the overwhelming stench of the Logrus suddenly blotted out all of my senses, and I immediately dropped my Pattern in disgust. It was that man in black and purple, no doubt about it; one heavy Logrus user if ever there was.

     So I ate, I drank, I danced, and I made merry. As luck would have it one of the ladies apparently had had a sufficient knowledge of Shadow Earth customs herself and had come in the guise of a Columbine, the traditional partner of the Harlekino. Well, of course this was meant to be, so we danced and flirted a bit. I couldn't tell whether I had ever met her before, and frankly I didn't really care, as long as we enjoyed ourselves. I knew, however, that she didn't have the blood of Amber and I also couldn't detect any strong scent of Logrus around her.

     At one point she decided to teach me the finer art of dancing in one of the low gravity air bubbles, and right away she dragged me over there for a first lesson. It took a little bit of getting used to, but it wasn't as hard as it looked; it was a bit like choreographed swimming in air really.

     The music was drawing to a close when a soft ting resounded through the bubble. My Columbine drifted a bit closer to me and I noticed how all the other couples did the same. Then suddenly in the blink of an eye the bubble divided into a lot of separate little bubbles, one for each couple, and they all sped off into different directions, giving everyone a sudden and in most cases welcome bit of privacy. I caught Columbine's hand and gathered her in my arms for a kiss, but as I did so I caught a glimpse of something odd out of the corner of my eye and I turned my head to get a better view. There was a couple that had been not too far away from us, a lady in black and white dancing with a man in ochre and blue, and it was in their bubble that I had seen a sudden flash of something. They were speeding away in another direction, but before they disappeared from sight I could clearly make out a third colour against the white of the woman's dress: a deep and dark bloody red.

     Even though I should have known better, I simply had to find out what had happened to the woman, so as soon as our bubble came to a halt I started backtracking to where I thought the other bubble had gone to. My Columbine was a bit petulant at first at not having received her kiss, but curiosity got the better of her too, so she needed little convincing to accompany me. I wanted her to be there at my side, since having extra witnesses is always helpful in such cases. After a few minutes we discovered a solitary bubble floating around in a dark corner with clearly only one occupant. Inside I saw that it was indeed the same woman in black and white that I had noticed before; she had been stabbed with a dagger or a short sword, and the killer must have had a lot of experience with this sort of thing, for his single stroke had been enough to seal her fate.

     I made sure not to disturb the murder scene and signalled one of the angelic servants over to alert Lady Grice. Only a few moments later she arrived at the scene, greeting me with a smile and a nod, but frowning when she took in all that had happened. Of course she knew who I was, since all of the guests had been asked to list their costumes beforehand, which also meant that she knew who the murdered woman was; she checked the body and confirmed the lady's identity for herself by removing the mask. I had seen the face before; the last time the lady had been in the company of my cousin Alexander. After first having lost the official name of their House, the former Hendrakes would now have to look for a new leader as well. Lady Belissa Minobee Hendrake was no more.

     Lady Emall questioned me extensively as to what had happened, and I told her all I had witnessed. When I mentioned the man in ochre and blue, she frowned and shook her head, saying that nobody she knew of was supposed to be dressed in those colours. A disguise on top of the regular costume; this had more and more the air of a professional killing. I didn't really know whether I wanted to be caught up in this, but since I was the primary witness I felt that I could hardly refuse to help out our hostess.

     Something had been nagging at me from the moment when I had entered the bubble, and I finally started concentrating on it to determine what it was. Hmm, it appeared to be a trail of some sort of power, although it wasn't strong enough for me to determine which one. Without really saying anything to the ladies I slowly started following the trail, which a little while later led me to small pile of clothes, unsurprisingly ochre and blue in colour. Lady Emall questioned some of the nearby servants and one of them said he had seen the person who had left the clothes there, but he maintained that it had not been a man but a woman. The costume she had worn underneath had been green and black, he said. Lady Emall frowned deeply and asked for a few details concerning the cut and make of the dress, all of which the little Cupid confirmed. Her countenance was grim as she turned back to us and spoke that one name: Tirga of Ysarn. Oh dear, a Family matter after all.

     I felt that it was up to Lady Emall to decide what should be done about this matter, but when she suggested confronting Tirga directly with the evidence, I asked her whether a testimony from a mere servant would be enough to implicate a head of a Major House in a murder case. She saw my point, but worried that Tirga would use this opportunity to strike again later the same evening, and she didn't want to lose any more of her guests. Something had to be done to stop her, but what? I noticed that the power trail didn't stop at the discarded pile of clothes, but ran on back into the main hall. I explained about this to Lady Emall and suggested that I'd try and follow the trail even further; hopefully it would lead us to Tirga, and then we would really have a piece of incriminating evidence.

     The only problem was that, just as before, I didn't want to go after her alone. I would need someone I could trust in this matter, and somehow I had the feeling that it had better be one of my own relatives. All the Chaosians were far too much involved in their local politics, and I didn't want to take anyone along only to find when push came to shove that they had secretly been allied to Tirga all along. Which also meant that dear brother Murlas was right out; yes, I knew he had had words with auntie Tirga, but he had been trying too hard to be accepted into House Ysarn lately to be trusted in this. No, I figured I'd better try to contact Alexander first, since he at least could be trusted to be eager to find out who had murdered Belissa. Unfortunately, I couldn't get through to him, no matter how hard I tried. Of course I had no idea whether he was in the Courts at all at that moment, but still it was damned awkward. Limiting my choice for backup to those who I was sure were present left me with Boadice, Diana, Adrian and Caine. After a few deliberations I decided to try for Adrian. I was quite certain he was here and hoped that he would be willing to help. Also, I figured that he was least likely to have some kind of agenda concerning either Tirga or Belissa. That was as far as I knew of course. Luckily the King of Sherwyn was taking calls.

     "Could you come over to my side for a minute?" I asked. "I could use your assistance here."

     "Alright," he said with a shrug and clasped my outstretched hand. "What's up?"

     "There's just been a murder."

     "Ouch, nasty," he said.

     "Yes. The victim is Lady Belissa Hendrake." As I said this I caught a sudden flash of surprise from him, which he quickly suppressed. I realised that he had not been that surprised to hear that someone had been murdered, and wondered who else would be biting the dust this night. Perhaps I had been wrong to ask him for assistance, but now that he was here I could hardy send him away again without a very good excuse. I would be keeping my eye on him, though.

     "The assassin has left a trail," I continued, "and at this moment all the evidence points towards Lady Tirga Ysarn." Ambivalent feelings in him upon hearing that name. Hmm...

     "So now what do you want to do?" he asked. "Simply confront her with what you've found? Or don't you have enough yet for such an action?"

     "All we have for now is a testimony from one of the servants and that won't do. There is, however, a faint power trail that may lead us to the killer. Of course, Lady Grice and I would appreciate any form of assistance you're willing to lend in this case." Adrian thought for a moment, then nodded slowly.

     "I must admit that I had not really counted on any violent confrontations during this evening," he said and drew aside his long black cloak to reveal a good sized dagger. Well, at least he had come better prepared than I had. Lady Emall had one of the servants surreptitiously bring us a couple of swords so we wouldn't have to face the assassin empty-handedly. While we waited for the weapons to arrive, I took my Columbine off to one side and told her there was no need for her to be part of this. She gladly agreed to go back to the party and hopefully forget all of this horrid business. I asked her to keep the news of Belissa's murder a secret for now, but even though she promised she would do so, I knew that rumours were undoubtedly already flying; this kind of news is very hard to suppress as any politician can tell you.

     So Adrian and I set off to find the elusive Tirga. Lady Emall, meanwhile, would return to the party to reassure anyone who might have got word of what had happened. I still had her Trump, so I could easily contact her once we had found something, which was a kind of reassurance for us. Following the trail was a slow process, especially since it led out into the main hall right through the part where the crowd was thickest. Still, with King Adrian's broad shoulders and overall daunting appearance keeping the mob at bay I was able to follow the path to the big water bubble, the one with the ship wrecks and sunken city. Entering this Shadow reminded me of the one time I had visited the city of Rebma; at first it's always a bit creepy to realise that you're suddenly breathing water, but once you get used to it you hardly notice it at all. The same goes for all movement underwater, you automatically start compensating for it and we Amberites are all fairly good swimmers anyway.

     Our way led us straight through the ruins of the underwater city, and we kept well on our guard, for there were many nooks and crannies in which a would-be assassin could find a place to hide. Fortunately, this didn't prove to be the case: there appeared to be quite a number of spots occupied, but these were all taken up by couples whose motto most likely was `make love, not war'. Quite distracting, of course, and I had to do my very best to stay focused on the power trail. Perhaps I ought to return here once this whole investigating business was over. First things first, though...

     Slowly we followed the trail out of the bubble again, only to find suddenly that I had lost it. Adrian's impatient mutterings were gradually getting on my nerves, but despite the distractions I managed to retrace the path the bubble had floated, and indeed, a couple of metres back the power trail reappeared, this time leading through one of the ways out of the main hall. On the other side we found ourselves outside in a sort of a volcanic rock garden. For a change the Chaosian sky was pitch black, leaving us only with the dim glow from some of the lava pools from which at certain points brief fiery pillars flared up. I noticed with a slight feeling of unease that this garden was actually situated on the very rim of the Abyss, as was usual for most of the more prestigious Ways in the Courts. Great! Visit Chaos, see the sights, witness a murder. All in a day's work.

     Cautiously we ventured further into the garden, dodging fire, flames, and flares, and looking for anything out of the ordinary. It was quite hard to keep concentrating on the trail with the distorting influence of the Abyss nearby, so we had to depend entirely on our eyes, ears, and other senses. When we had got quite a bit away from the way, we turned a corner and suddenly saw two figures out on the rim, a man and a woman, apparently locked in combat. They were so intent on one another that they entirely failed to notice us as we crept closer. The woman, I saw, had removed her mask, and from close up I could indeed identify her as Lady Tirga, but the man still wore his disguise and all I could make out were his colours: black and grey.

     Well, it seemed that we had found our quarry, but now what? I shuffled out Lady Emall's Trump to notify her of what was going on. Meanwhile, I glimpsed Adian drawing his sword and creeping even closer to the combatants. I didn't know what he was planning to do, but as long as he was between me and the two dangerous people with the swords I figured I had no cause to complain.

     As soon as I got through to Lady Emall and described the scene, she clasped my hand and appeared beside me to take it all in for herself.

     "Do you have any idea who the other guy might be?" I asked her. She frowned and started shaking her head, but then hesitated.

     "Black and grey...," she muttered. "Prince Caine is wearing black and grey. But I can't say for certain whether it is truly him."

     Oh, great! You find out the identity of your true father and the next thing you know is he's battling some homicidal maniac on the edge of the biggest hole in existence. I quickly began concentrating on finding out whether the masked man had Amber blood or not, and with a sense of relief I concluded that he didn't. That is, I was fairly sure he didn't. The Abyss was still screwing up my powered senses of course, so I couldn't be a hundred percent certain, but I really didn't think that it was Caine. I noticed that the power trail we had been following led straight towards Tirga and the mystery man, but it was impossible to tell who of those two was the source. Halfway between us and them Adrian turned back and shrugged questioningly, asking for some indication on how to proceed.

     "I'm fairly sure it isn't Caine," I said to Lady Emall.

     "Peculiar," she said. "But then who...?"

     "I don't know," I sighed. "What do you want us to do?"

     "I am not sure," she mumbled and started moving forward. Adrian saw her coming and waited for her to reach his spot, while I followed her at a few paces distance.

     Suddenly a blue-ish flare sprang up behind us and blazed a trail past me towards the people on the rim, missing me by less than a metre and very lightly scorching my hair in the process. Some kind of fireball... It struck both the combatants, enveloping them in an eerie blue glow. I watched both of them teeter on the edge for a moment, before they dropped as if in slow motion into the Abyss. Who...?

     I scanned the garden for the one who had fired that spell. It had been bursting with Logrus energy I had felt when it passed me so closely, but that only narrowed the field of suspects to all those who had walked the damned thing. There! A silhouette of someone running off. No way of catching him in time before he would reach the party and could disappear in the crowd. Damn!

     I turned back to the others and saw that while I had been lucky, Lady Emall had not. The fireball had seared most of her right arm, and as I rushed to her side I saw that she was in considerable pain. Her shape shifting was already kicking in, however, forming a new protective layer of skin over the burnt part. Not that it was exactly a picknick, though, but it seemed she would be alright. Adrian on the other hand appeared unharmed; knowing his reflexes, he probably had been able to get out of harm's way just in the nick of time. He returned from checking out the view from the rim and shook his head. Well, if they had survived the fireball, they would have a hell of a job getting back to our reality.

     The first thing I did was go through my Trumps and try to contact Caine. I had been fairly sure, but it wouldn't hurt to be entirely certain. To my relief I immediately got through to him, however, as if he had been ready to react to any kind of call. I was glad to see that I had been right, but then I noticed that he was, shall we say, busy assuaging the needs of the Curse. Oops.

      "Just checking," I mumbled and broke contact. He would undoubtedly get back to me as soon as his hands were free, but it wasn't all that urgent. There would be time. For now I was relieved that we wouldn't have to stage any blood rituals; I had had enough of those for a lifetime.

 

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