Chapter 048: Out Of Order
"If't
here soneth ingtha ti hat einthis world
Itsam
anwhod o'esn't kno whisownm ind
All
the sech ickensrunn ingroun
D'wit
h'thei rhead scutoff
How
doth ey sur vive?"
Out
Of Order - Poisoned Electrick Head
The darkness finally receded and like a picture slowly coming into focus
Alexa's concerned features appeared before my eyes. She was kneeling over me as
I was lying on the floor in my room.
"What has happened to you?" Alexa asked
worriedly. He eyes urgently sought mine, but my gaze just kept drifting over my
surroundings as if I had never seen them before.
"I don't know," I replied, raising myself
to a sitting position and looking around. The door was slightly ajar, but there
was not a trace of Suhuy anywhere. I wondered how long I had been out.
"What has happened?" I asked. "Where am I?"
"You're in your apartment in the palace,"
Alexa said. "I found you simply lying on the floor like this,
unconscious."
"You know," I said, striving to sound
cheerful, "I really don't remember a thing." Under Alexa's doubtful
gaze I poured myself a glass of water from the pitcher on the nightstand. Still,
she didn't press the issue.
"I came to ask you whether you still wanted to accompany me to the
meeting of the Minor Council," she said. "I know you promised earlier,
but if you're not feeling well..."
"Nonsense," I said firmly. "Of
course I'll come. Why, I feel fine! You know, I think I must have been rather
tired and simply decided to have a lie down. Yes, that has to be it." I
tried to sound as sincere as I could whilst maintaining an expression of such
perfect innocence that Alexa had no choice but to disbelieve me. Precisely what
I wanted of course. If I wanted this ploy to work I would have to start small
and then start acting ever weirder, until people got wind that something was
definitely wrong with me. Too much at once would probably see me locked up in
Nisse's old room or something, and while I might be safe there I wouldn't be
able to do anything. From the way that Alexa was trying to hide her concerned
frown from me I'd say that I was doing pretty well.
"Shall we go?" I said, giving her my sweetest smile. Her frown
deepened, but only for a second, and it was followed by the hint of a shrug. She
turned and led me through a string of corridors towards the Council chambers. We
walked in silence, but as we neared our destination Alexa was greeted by several
other Chaos nobles. I had decided to keep the silly smile on my face, and
apparently it had success. Nothing to make a politician more nervous and
suspicious than an innocent smile.
Seeing that other Council members also took their advisers and relatives
inside, I went in as well. The place was huge, but then it had to be since there
were around and about two hundred Minor Chaos Houses, each with a seat in the
Council. I sat down beside Alexa and let my gaze wander over the assembly,
beaming my beautific smile at one and all. A sea of unfamiliar or nearly
unfamiliar faces surrounded us, although there seemed to be quite a significant
number of empty spaces dotting the hall. Well, Chaos politics did have a
reputation of being a literal process of elimination. I was glad that I had
decided to come along, if only to make Alexa appear less vulnerable in the eyes
of everyone else here.
As I continued casually scanning the hall I got a shock when I suddenly
recognised Alexander sitting somewhere on the other end. The lady at his side
was Belissa Minobee Hendrake, or rather ex-Hendrake. I saw Alexander looking
back at me and trying to mask my surprise I waved at him enthusiastically, still
smiling my manic smile. He nodded at me, not unfriendly, but otherwise ignored
me. Alexa followed my gaze.
"It's my cousin," I said cheerfully. She nodded and explained
that the split of the House Hendrake had demoted both factions to the temporary
status of Minor House. Alexa also pointed out the other group of ex- Hendrakes,
led by a dour-faced individual called Pardai. Actually, one of the major points
on the agenda was the question which one of the two groups would lay claim to
the name Hendrake and the accompanying seat in the Major Council. The final
decision was of course left to the Major Council, but they tended to follow the
Minor Council's advice in such matters most of the time. Then again, nothing was
certain in these troubled times. If the succession remained undecided for quite
some time, there was a good chance that this whole procedure of deciding which
Minor House was to be promoted would be repeated a couple of times as some Major
Houses were removed in the overall effort to reach a consensus.
I managed to keep myself busy while the Council went over each point on
the agenda. The Council Hall had the most amazing and intricate murals that
seemed to move and squirm when one studied them closely. The perfect thing to
keep uninterested bodyguards busy. Only when the matter of the Hendrakes came up
did I prick up my ears, although I tried to be not too conspicuous about it. A
large part of the Council was much in favour of nominating at least one of the
two groups for the vacant position of Major House; the Hendrakes were considered
to be a very honourable house and they had a sufficient amount of goodwill among
the lesser Houses. The only thing that seemed to have to be settled was which
one of the two groups were the true Hendrakes.
However, much to my surprise there appeared to be a third faction within
the Council with a candidate of their own: the House Garyon. Apparently they
felt that the whole business of splitting the House Hendrake had effectively
made the name obsolete; the two groups ex-Hendrakes just had to start as new
individual Houses and before they could be allowed to enter the Major Council
they would have to prove their worth, as House Garyon had of course already
done. There followed a lot of discussion and debating, at the end of which the
score seemed to be Belissa's group in first place, Pardai's second, and the
Garyons third. Only about sixty percent of the assembly had made their minds up,
though, the other forty still being open to interesting offers and deals. Alexa
was among these forty percent; she had to be very careful if House Grendyn was
to survive. At the end of the meeting she casually asked me for my opinion.
"You want to know what I think?" I said with some surprise.
"I must confess that I don't really know much about all of this, but that
group of Alexander's clearly seem to be the true Hendrakes." I was still
smiling, of course. Alexa frowned for an instant before smiling as well.
"Well," she said, "with an Amberite
at my side I can hardly not choose to support the progressives, can I?" For
the first time since I had woken up the smile that I returned to her was
genuine.
After a few minor matters had been dealt with the Council moved towards a
recess. People needed a lot of time to shop around and make deals with the
different parties. I saw Alexander move through the crowd, talking and trying to
win converts for Belissa's cause. For myself, I decided to stick close to Alexa;
all these politicians made me a little bit nervous. One side effect of this was
that because of my reputation as an Amberite Alexa had relatively easy access to
the leaders of the three factions, which significantly speeded things up for
her. Alexa was rather straightforward in her dealings; she simply needed a
strong alliance with a Major House to keep House Grendyn alive. Her offer was
simple: support in return for a strong marriage partner. It pained me a little
to see her bargaining with her affections like that, but I realised that there
was no other way. I had already figured that I wasn't really in the position to
marry her myself, and I guess deep down I didn't really want to. I liked Alexa a
lot and I felt I had some obligation towards her because of the Taureth Trump
thing, but this didn't extend to marriage. With everything that had happened and
was still happening I wasn't all that eager to start looking for a new mate.
Single life was fine by me, and I even had some doubts sometimes about my six
young children. I feared that I had too little time to be a real daddy for them,
and I sometimes dreaded the moment when I had to let them leave from their small
protected world and subject them to all the dangers the universe had to offer,
like their Family. Single life would indeed have been easier.
It didn't take Alexa too long to convey her offer to the three parties,
and since she didn't have any real friends among the Council members she decided
to head back to her room. While I walked her back she said that she was trying
to arrange for another escort to these meetings so that I would not become too
tied up in things. I told her not to worry about it and do what she thought was
best for all concerned. Things would turn out well, I assured her with another
innocent smile. She gave me an odd look and I clearly felt her concern for my
state of mind. Good. The first pieces were in place.
Back in the Amber wing Alexa immediately retired to her room to think,
but my attention was drawn by a bloody heap of rags lying a little way off in
the corridor. As I walked closer I saw that it was a man clutching a drawing of
the corridor in his right hand. Although there was a lot of blood to complicate
an easy identification, I recognised the drawing as one of Boadice's Trump
sketches (I still had one of those of my own) and the man as her secretary and
bodyguard Mardoc.
For the benefit of any passing servants or guards who might be watching I
put my hands on my hips and shook my head wistfully, muttering something about
Boadice's carelessness in leaving her people lying around like this. The poor
guy was in a pretty bad shape, that much was clear, but fortunately I managed to
detect a pulse. I gingerly picked him up and carried him to my cousin's room.
She wasn't in, just as I had expected, so I put Mardoc on her bed and ripped
some of her curtains apart to bind his wounds. An eye for an eye, dear cousin.
It didn't take me long to figure out that Mardoc really needed some
professional help, though, so I stepped out into the corridor again to see if I
could find some servant to get some help. Damn, there was no one around, not
even a guard. Since I had no idea where the infirmary was, I just started
following the corridor, knowing that I would run into someone sooner or later.
As luck would have it the first people I encountered were Adrian and Murlas, who
were on their way back to their apartments. Adrian looked simply terrible, as if
he had been through hell and back at least three times in the space of only one
afternoon. Murlas on the other hand was quite pensive and seemed to be in a bit
of a hurry.
"Hi there," I said, once more adopting my all-purpose smile.
"Does one of you perhaps know where I can find a doctor in this
place?" That got a painful scowl from Adrian. He moved on without saying a
word, with the air of a man who had just sacrificed the last thing he had.
"You will find an infirmary a short way along
the corridor," Murlas said. "Why do you ask?" He had stopped
beside me and was giving me odd looks. Trust him to figure out this quickly that
there was something wrong with me.
"I've got Boadice's secretary Mardoc over there," I said
cheerfully, whilst jerking my thumb to indicate our cousin's chambers.
"He's been hurt pretty badly and he needs some medical care." From my
tone of voice you'd say that I was talking about a party or something.
"What is wrong with you?" Murlas asked
suspiciously.
"Wrong? With me? Why, nothing is wrong with
me. Fit as a fiddle I am. Whatever should be wrong with me?" I beamed at
him, radiating innocence. In reaction he took a step backwards and studied me
closely, trying to engage me in eye contact. Oh no, cousin, I couldn't let you
into my mind that easily.
"Don't do that, will you?" I said shaking my head and blinking
a couple of times. "It gives me a headache." Murlas frowned everso
slightly, then after a moment's hesitation he reached out and grabbed my hand,
forcing his mind onto mine. I had of course expected something like this to
happen, so I had woven a sort of mental illusion which I hoped would fool anyone
bold enough to enter my mind. If only Murlas would be taken in as well...
Although he had forced this contact on me, Murlas was very, very
cautious, and the lack of resistance from my side made him even more suspicious
than he already was. I sensed him at the edge of my mind, slowly trying to
discover what was wrong with me. He seemed relieved when he discovered that it
was really me, and I realised that he had been expecting to find a shape shifter
at work. The feeling of mental strain that reached him made him hold back,
though. My earlier impression of him being in a hurry seemed to be right and it
seemed to have something to do with Adrian and Sereva, although what it was
precisely I couldn't tell. Not without reaching out for his mind myself, and if
I did that the whole illusion would be ruined. No, I just waited for him to come
closer and see what was in the centre of my mind. He didn't come, though. For a
few seconds I felt him skirting around the perimeter, then he suddenly broke
contact. After blinking my eyes a couple of times I resumed my innocent smile.
Murlas was still holding my hand and his expression was that of a nurse trying
to coax along some difficult patient.
"I think you had better come with me, Dorian," he said in a
calm but firm tone of voice.
"But what about Mardoc?" I asked.
"Somebody has to see that he's okay, don't you think?"
"It will be taken care of," Murlas said
soothingly.
"No, no, no," I replied, "I have to
take care of that myself. Boadice isn't here, you know. I think she ought to
take some care in looking after her servants, leaving them lying around in the
corridor like that, blood everywhere. Such carelessness. And even with Trumps in
their hands! They're a rarity nowadays, Trumps are. They're very expensive, you
know."
"If you just come along to see Kathryn,
everything will be fine," Murlas said patiently. "She has a quite lot
of experience."
"Kathryn?" I asked. "Who's
Kathryn?"
"She's my girlfriend," he replied. His
girlfriend? I thought he had a fiancee at home called Sara. Oh well, never mind.
"But Mardoc...," I began.
"Kathryn can take care of him," he said
urgently. "Now hurry." We started moving in the direction of his
chambers, but before we got there a woman emerged from his room, who turned out
to be this mysterious Kathryn. She had very dark hair and dark eyes, and did in
fact remind me somewhat of the aforementioned Sara. However, this lady was
rather cool and sported a calculating, yet slightly amused smile. Her eyes could
easily pierce plated steel, though, or at least they made me feel that way. More
hawk than sparrow was my first impression, and I doubted whether I would
willingly have made her acquaintance if I had been sane. Seeing that I wasn't,
though, there didn't seem to be much choice.
Kathryn raised her eyebrows inquiringly and nodded in the direction of
Adrian's room. In response Murlas shook his head everso slightly and regarded me
with a half puzzled, half worried expression. I, of course, pretended not to
notice.
"There's something wrong with him,"
Murlas said, "and Boadice's secretary is apparently bleeding to death in
her room."
"So?" Kathryn asked.
"Well, tending to him will probably calm
Dorian down a little bit."
"Alright," she said and swept past us. We
followed her to Boadice's chamber where she studied Mardoc for a minute or two
before weaving some kind of healing spell that produced a pinkish glow around
his body. When the glow faded away he seemed to be much better, although Kathryn
said it would still be better for him to be transported to the infirmary. Murlas
said he would get one of his servants to take care of it, but for the moment he
was more concerned about me.
"Now that Mardoc is out of danger," he
said, "Dorian can come along with us for a nice little talk."
"Okay," I said, beaming a smile.
They led me to Kathryn's room, which was next to Murlas's. While I sat
down in a comfortable chair and cheerfully looked around me, Murlas ordered a
servant in Hendrake livery to bring Mardoc to his own room. After that he
quietly explained to Kathryn that there was something wrong with my mind and
that he wanted to find out what it was exactly. They sat down beside me and
agreed that Murlas would once again make contact, with Kathryn standing by to
assist if there were any problems. I just smiled, hoping that would make them
more nervous.
Tentatively Murlas entered my mental plain and started moving towards the
centre. As he got closer to the centre he could feel some madness seeping
through somewhere. Soon he caught sight of a mental image of a very rickety
structure, looking like some sort of dam that had apparently been erected in
haste. Behind it he could see a raging sea, a direct image of the effect I had
seen in Suhuy's mind when he had overpowered me earlier on. The hurling waves
broke against the dam which was clearly close to collapse. A little bit of this
water of insanity managed to break through the cracks and formed a small trickle
of a stream at the foot of the dam. This was of course nothing but a decoy; my
real self was hidden behind all of this, desperately hoping that Murlas would
not decide to break through the structure. The impression he should get was that
I was hopelessly trying to fight back a wave of madness that would certainly
engulf me and anyone else foolish enough to be in my mind if the dam should
break. The small stream of insanity should explain why I was behaving so oddly.
If all went well he should be sufficiently cautious and afraid to leave the
madness well alone.
As he realised what he was looking at, I sensed Murlas's intention to
help me. He considered strengthening the dam, but decided that he'd first better
find out what this sea of madness was or where it came from. He studied it from
different angles without coming too close, and I felt him wondering whether this
state was permanent or not. If I was fighting a losing battle, he should be the
one to help me he felt. Behind my barrier I smiled; that's my cousin. After
procrastinating a while he gently reached out and touched the dam at the point
where the madness was seeping through. Immediately I sent him an image of Suhuy
strangling me, but as if Murlas himself was in my own position. He shrank back
and I sensed that he had recognised the face. Good. Murlas thought for a few
seconds before deciding that he'd better
talk this over with Kathryn. The final thing he saw as he left was that at the
point where he had touched the dam the water was seeping through a bit quicker,
as if his touch had weakened the structure even more. The smile on my face grew
just a hint more rigid. Right, let him worry about that for a bit.
Murlas quickly told Kathryn what had happened, but while they were busy
discussing their next course of action I suddenly got up from my chair.
"I'm hungry!" I cried and started walking
towards the door.
"I will get you some food," Murlas said
quickly and tried to pull me back to my chair. I looked at him questioningly. He
gestured towards a tray with all kinds of delicate small snacks, very expensive
and very light. Apparently all of our rooms had been supplied with one of these
trays, only Boadice had finished my own supply when I had bound her wounds after
her victory over Trisha.
"No, I want some real food," I said
stubbornly, "not any of these kinds of frills." I once again made for
the door, but Murlas had moved to block my way. I saw him mouthing the word
`rope' to Kathryn, who just shook her head and remained where she was.
"Better watch out with cases like these," she said quietly to
Murlas. "I could check him out myself," she added pensively, "but
that might be risky."
I didn't wait for them to make up their minds and
started pushing Murlas out of my way, which went a lot easier than I had
expected.
"Kathryn!" he cried with a hint of panic
in his voice. She didn't react right away, but when I had nearly worked my way
past Murlas she stuck out her right foot in an effort to trip me up before I
could reach the door. I managed to avoid falling flat on my face by jumping
backwards just in time. I still wasn't closer to the door, however, and out of
the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of Murlas coming at me, clearly
determined to knock me out. I couldn't let that happen, of course, so instead of
waiting for him to strike I struck a blow myself, sending Murlas sprawling. He
really hadn't seen that one coming.
Before I could turn back to the exit, however, I felt a cool touch on my
neck. At the same time a mental probe shot into my mind with the brightness of a
star. My first thought was that Murlas's girlfriend was remarkably powerful for
someone I had never heard about before, much more powerful than either him or
me. Then I realised that there was something familiar about this person
rummaging around in my mind. Instead of a mental image of the dark-haired lady I
had seen seconds before I saw a blond-haired, smiling man with piercing blue
eyes. Samal! I was so surprised that I barely realised it when he pierced my
illusion and made contact with my true mind.
"Well, well," I heard him say, "you're not so crazy after
all, are you?" In reply I sent him all the information pertaining to the
Pattern's power trip and Suhuy's advice to me. There was nothing else I could
do, really: I was at his mercy both in the mental sense and in the way that he
could reveal my deception to the world. I simply had to trust him to have enough
reasons for helping me maintain the illusion, and I hoped that my intention of
trying to help bring the recovery of the Logrus about would be good enough.
"Intriguing," he said, but I sensed some hesitation in him. He
clearly realised what was at stake here, but there seemed to be a remarkably
strong bond between him and Murlas and he was wondering whether it would be wise
to let my cousin in on this. The thing that convinced him of my sincerity was
Taureth's involvement; he appeared to hold his elder brother in high regard. I
told him that I would leave it completely up to him whether or not to reveal the
truth to Murlas. While he was thinking, I was all too much aware of his presence
there in my mind. It was much too intimate for my comfort really. He was strong,
very strong, and there were things in his mind that were scary and fascinating
at the same time. I could understand why Nisse had called him a degenerate
pervert, especially when he noticed the pressence of the Curse. He couldn't
really see what it was, but I gathered that he at least realised what its effect
would be and it made him smile. I got the impression that he considered it to be
an interesting new toy for him to play with, if not now then later. Scary thing
was that part of me wanted him to be interested.
"I think I'm going to give you some room to play your role," he
said after a while. I heaved a sigh of relief; I didn't know what I would have
done if he had told everyone the truth about me, and I'd rather not think what
he could have done with my mind. "I'm not going to tell Murlas," he
said, "at least, not yet. The most important thing seems to be keeping you
out of that woman Fiona's clutches. It may be done, but I think it would involve
placing you under my Father's protection."
"Ornach?" I said. "Yes, perhaps that would be best. Maybe
Taureth might be able to arrange something."
"We'll see," he said. "I'll try to
convince Murlas to go along with it, although I'm not certain that he will. I'll
have to render you unconscious, though." I shrugged. If that was how it had
to be, that was how it had to be. There wasn't much that I could do to stop him
anyway.
Before he knocked me out I once again felt his bond with Murlas and
wondered at how strong it was. Close as they were, though, I realised that he
wouldn't let it stand in his way when it came to having his way with me.
"We'll talk again later," he said
smoothly. It was the last thing I heard before the blackness swallowed me whole.