Chapter 050: Coup d'Etat
"Stand
up and fight, for you know we are right,
We
must strike at the lies they have spread
Like
disease through our minds.
Soon
we'll have power, every soldier will rest,
And
we'll spread out our kindness to all
Who
our love now deserve.
Some
of you are going to die,
Martyrs
of course to the freedom that I shall provide."
The
Knife - Genesis
Something was up. It took me a while to realise what it was that made me
so edgy, busy as I was drawing my maps, but finally I figured it out: things
were too quiet. The usual hurly-burly of demons, servants and guards hurrying to
and fro on their respective errants and duties had died down some while ago,
leaving an ominous silence in its wake. At the junction of corridors where I was
currrently working I took a good look around me. There was simply nobody to be
seen in any of the corridors, not even as much as a single scale. The calm
before the storm? Probably, but what kind of a storm would it be?
I had just turned back to my work, since there
didn't seem to be many other things I could do in my current `condition', when I
heard the sound of running footsteps behind me. I had just enough time to get
out of the way before I was run down in all haste, but as soon as the other
person recognized me he stopped. It was Adrian, looking hurried and mightily
upset. He also seemed rather surprised to find me there.
"Dorian," he said, "what are you
doing here?"
"What do you think I'm doing?" I said
with a smile. "I'm drawing a map of the palace." I held up my sketchy
handiwork for his approval. He looked at them and frowned.
"Look," he said, "there are more
important things right now. I just got word that the armies of the conservative
faction are marching on the palace and I've got to warn some people. Do you know
anyone?"
"Anyone who?" I asked innocently.
"Anyone in the Royal Guard," he snapped
impatiently. I drew a very pensive face, as if to say that that question would
require a lot of thought for me to come up with an answer. Inwardly, however, my
thoughts were racing along a quite different set of tracks. So that was the
storm that was brewing! Adrian was right of course, a lot of people would have
to be warned, but what could I do? Well, what could I do but just maintain my
present illusion and wait for a opportune moment to catch everybody off-guard
and hopefully make a difference somehow?
Adrian was getting more and more impatient with me,
but he also seemed to realise that I was not entirely myself. "Just come
with me, will you?" he said urgently. "If you don't have anything
better to do, you'd better come along."
"No, no, no," I said, "I'm rather
busy here, you know. If I go now, I'll have to start all over again."
"But you've already got parts of it mapped,
haven't you?" Adrian asked in desperation.
"Yes, but I still have to measure certain
parts to be sure," I insisted. "It's a very precise operation I'll
have you know!"
"Forget this stupid bloody map of yours!"
Adrian shouted. "There are much more important things than your map."
"No, no, no," I said soothingly, slightly
amused by so much naivete. How could he not see that my map was the most
important thing of all?
"There are!" he shouted again.
"What in the Unicorn's name are you playing at?"
"No," I said thoughtfully, "I don't
think I know anyone who's a member of the Royal Guard."
"Dorian? Dorian, Dorian, look at me, will you?
Just look at me. What's wrong with you?"
"Nothing!" Sweet smile, as ever.
"Did anything of importance happen since I
last saw you?" I again turned pensive, then smiled again.
"I'm drawing this map," I replied
pleasantly. Oh, I was really getting on his nerves here.
"Why don't you just come with me?" he
sighed. "Only for a moment, and I promise I'll take you back to this
junction afterwards, so you can finish your map."
"Where are we going?"
"Oh, we're just going for a walk. A really
fast walk. We simply have to warn somebody, and then we'll head back here."
"Make sure you can find your way back," I
said.
"Yes, I'll make sure! No, will you please
hurry up?"
I frowned as if in doubt. Then I dug in my pocket
and produced a piece of chalk with which I drew a large cross on the wall.
"That's to make sure we'll get back to the right junction," I said. I
hesitated for a second or two before adding a large capital D. "That's to
indicate that it's my mark," I explained to the ever-more impatient Adrian.
Finally I drew a large capital A beside the D. "That's because you are here
with me," I said with a smile. That was the point where his patience just
ran out: he grabbed me and started dragging me along through the corridors. At
first I had some problems matching his speed, but as soon as he noticed this he
slowed down sufficiently for me to keep up with him.
"Isn't this nice?" he asked. "A bit
of exercise will do you good." Easy for him to say! He looked as if he did
this sort of thing every day, while I was panting and struggling to keep up.
Once I got into the rhythm, however, things got a little bit easier, and after a
while I felt as if I could keep up this pace for quite some time, if need be.
And so we ran on. Corridor after corridor, junction
after junction, Shadow opening after Shadow opening. Somehow Adrian seemed to
know exactly where he was going, which even at a normal pace would have been
quite remarkable. However, I sensed some magic hanging around him, although I
neither had the time nor inclination to find out what kind of spell it was. I
was much too busy making sure that I didn't cut myself on the razor-sharp Shadow
edges to worry about such details.
Finally we reached what turned out to be the
headquarters of the Royal Guard. Adrian quickly arranged a meeting with Yuran
Talister, the commanding officer, whom he told the whole story of the
conservative armies marching on the royal palace, carrying banners with the
crown and seven stars emblem, the traditional revolutionary sign. Yuran of
course wanted to know where these armies had been sighted, but unfortunately
Adrian could only tell him that they were really close by. Fiona knew where they
were, he said, but she couldn't be contacted right now. Yuran explained to him
that due to the current state of the surrounding Shadows it was somewhat unclear
where all the Shadow openings leading to and from the palace actually were.
However, he would start to organize his men and just see where he might be able
to stop the rebellion in progress. From all the reports coming in about fighting
in the palace itself it was clear that he would not have to look hard to find
the enemy.
His mission accomplished Adrian was clearly in
doubt about whom he should go and warn next. He was still dragging me along,
making sure that I wouldn't get out of his sight. Touching, isn't it, a cousin
taking care of you like that?
"What about Ornach?" Adrian mused out
loud.
"Ornach?" I remarked. "Oh, I know
him. He's okay."
"Where can I find him?" he asked
urgently.
"He's taken up residence in the palace
library. I don't know how to get there from here, though." My cousin the
king wasn't about to be stopped by any such details. He quickly asked one of the
guards how to get there, but since simply explaining the route proved nearly
impossible, we drafted one of them as a guide.
And we were off once again. Running, running,
running, through the corridor, up the stairs and three times round the column to
open up the Shadow path. Oh, damn, that didn't work. Never mind, there's another
opening around the corner. Hurry, hurry, hurry.
Suddenly our way was barred by a tall figure clad
entirely in shining white armour. As soon as he saw this knight Adrian started
cursing loudly. Apparently he had met this man before, if man it were, for there
was simply no way to tell.
"What do you want?" Adrian demanded. The
knight replied by drawing his awfully big broadsword and assuming an aggressive
posture. Adrian cursed again. "You already had your chance to kill me once
before and you didn't, so I repeat: what do you want from me?" The knight
still kept his silence, though. Our guide shot an inquisitive glance at Adrian.
"We met before," he explained. "He managed to wound me, but as I
already said he refrained from killing me."
"He's some kind of rival of yours, is
he?" the guard said. "Do you have many enemies around here?"
"Ha, you can say that again!"
"It could be some form of unregistered
vendetta," the guard ventured. "It is considered to be dishonourable
to kill one's opponent in the first battle in cases like that."
"Oh great," Adrian sighed, "just
what I needed." He turned back to the white knight. "Look, I don't
have time for this right now, so step aside and let through." The knight
was unimpressed, so finally Adrian simply gave up and drew his own sword. I
cautiously took a step backwards, as did the guard, and quite right too, for the
two opponents immediately started weaving such a deadly web of flashing blades
that even a fly wouldn't have been able to pass through unharmed. It had been
quite some time since I had last seen such a display of swordmanship and in
keeping with my current image I started applauding at every well-executed
thrust, slash or parry. The combatants didn't pay me any attention, though; I
could see that Adrian needed every ounce of concentration he could muster to
keep the white knight at bay, for his opponent was clearly the better of the
two.
Totally engrossed as I was in the display in front
of me, I was surprised to hear the clash of arms suddenly echoing from behind me
as well. As I turned around I saw a group of about fifteen soldiers bearing the
insignia of the crown with the seven stars appoach us through the corridor. When
they had come near enough their leader called out in a loud voice: "Lord
Dorian of Amber, Lord Adrian of Amber, I have orders to take you both into
custody." Of course Adrian simply ignored the man for fear of slipping up
in his battle.
"Who are you?" I asked pleasantly.
"Our orders come directly from the new regent
of the Courts of Chaos, Jaill Helgram," the captain of the rebels said
smugly. "If you will just step this way, please?"
I glanced at the guard standing beside me, who at
the moment looked less than pleased to be here. I could understand that; there
was not much that one man could do against a band of fifteen, unless that one
man happened to be someone like Benedict or Corwin. Okay, so there was not much
help to be had there. I looked behind me at the spectacle, just in time to see
Adrian execute an absolutely brilliant move and become somewhat distracted
again, until a polite cough from the rebel captain reminded me that there were
other things that I should concern myself with.
"Oh, well, alright, lead the way," I
said. The captain smiled and quickly assigned two of his men to accompany me. He
apparently felt that two would be more than enough to guard me and that he
needed all the men he could get to subdue my more war-like cousin. The two
guards who led me away also seemed rather glad that the didn't have to take up
arms against Adrian, and they were less than attentive when it came to me. They
hadn't even searched me for weapons, nor had they taken the trouble to relieve
me of my Trumps, which all in all suited me just fine. Perhaps there was some
way to take advantage of this, if only the right opportunity wouyld present
itself.
And then suddenly it did. We rounded a corner, when
all of a sudden I sensed something in front of me. Immediately a figure sprang
up from behind a column, sword in hand. It was Mask. The two guards didn't
hesitate, but drew their own swords and rushed at my mysterious relative. I
watched the battle commence, but it took only a few moments for me to realise
that Mask was not going to make it. He was good, yes, better than I was even,
but there seemed to be something wrong with him. Sometimes he just seemed to
slip into slow-motion, and this would undoubtedly prove to be his undoing.
What to do, what to do? I could of course try to
help Mask, but I didn't have a weapon on me, and besides why should I? He was
probably just an agent for the Pattern and as far as I knew there was just as
much danger for me from that side as there was from the side of the conservative
rebellion. No, better to take advantage of the moment by slipping away while I
still could. I searched in my pockets till I found the little piece of crystal
that Taureth had given me; a safer means of communication than the Trumps a the
moment. After concentrating for a couple of seconds the crystal started
pulsating and I began to feel the first indications of a contact. It felt much
like what a Trump contact usually feels like, only without all the visual info.
"Hi," I said mentally, "I'm in a
spot of bother down here. Can you bring me through?"
"Of course," Taureth replied, but the new
developments in Mask's fight drew my attention and kept me from immediately
stepping through. Fascinated I watched Mask beat the blade of one of the guards
aside with a flashy manoeuvre and immediately run the man through with his
sword, leaving such an opening, however, that the next thrust from the second
guard struck home. Instead of blood rushing out from his wounds as it should
have, a bright blue nimbus sprang up around his whole body. The second guard had
expected his oppponent to succumb to such a deadly wound, and when Mask didn't
do so he was quite surprised. Subsequently he momentarily
forgot to shield himself from Mask's next attack, a mistake he did not
live to regret for very long. Mask sagged down beside the two dead guards,
surrounded by the blue glow, but still moving and twitching a little bit.
I couldn't leave him there like that, of course,
also because I was much too curious to find out who it was. I said to Taureth
that I would contact him again in a moment and ran over and knelt down beside
the mystery man. Now that I was this close to me I was sure that he was indeed a
Patternghost, although I got the feeling that there was more at work in him.
There was still a lot of Pattern energy inside him, but he seemed to have a
surprising degree of free will, much more than was usual for a Patternghost, or
at least so I had been told. The Pattern energy and the Patternghost's own
identity appeared to be at odds with one another, with neither of them gaining
the upper hand, while the whole system's energy supply was rather quickly
draining away through his wounds.
When I removed the black face-mask I got quite an
unpleasant surprise: it was Caine's face that coolly looked up at me. The all
too familiar features made me hesitate a moment; should I help him or should I
simply help him out of his misery. Caine's ghost slowly reached out and grabbed
my arm, an urgent inquiring expression on his face. It took a lot out of him,
but slowly he drew my arm towards his face, until finally I got an inkling of
what he wanted me to do. It was something which Fiona had only hinted at and
which the first time had slipped by me completely, but this situation suddenly
made all of the pieces click together. Patternghosts were normally totally
supported by the Pattern itself and were, therefore, under its complete control.
There was one way, however, to lessen the Pattern's influence and make the ghost
somewhat more independent, that much I had gathered from Fiona's vague
descriptions, but the way to do it only now became apparent to me. Blood. The
ghost needed to drink blood, presumably of an Amberite in the case of a
Patternghost, to survive.
Great! Just what I needed! First Caine had wanted
to bleed my daughter dry for his purposes and now he was going to feed off of
me. My first impulse was indeed to draw my arm away from him, but I managed to
suppress it. First of all, this was not the real Caine, but his Patternghost. As
far as I understood it all Patternghosts were projections of Amberites from data
recorded while they had walked the Pattern, so it could be that this ghost of
Caine was entirely innocent of the whole Diana/Deirdre situation. Okay, it was
still Caine and given a similar situation he might act in much the same way, but
I wasn't going to punish anyone for crimes they had not (yet) committed.
Secondly, seeing as how things were here in the Courts at the moment we might
just need his help to get things moving in the right direction again. And
finally, saving his life, as disgusting as the prospect was to me, would
certainly greatly oblige him to me, and that might just prove essential in the
long run.
These were all just rationalisations, I know, but
there was some deeper reason why I was inclined to help him. No, I didn't like
Caine, and sometimes I really wanted to be able to pay him back for what he had
done to me and Diana. I always realised, though, that such a thing would be
nearly impossible, for I would have to find some way of revenge that would
either make it very hard for Caine to retaliate, since that would only help to
escalate our conflict, or that would leave everyone entirely in the dark as to
who was behind it all. No, although I sometimes really thirsted for it, revenge
was not an option: it would only lead to more bloodshed, until one or both of us
were dead. Killing Caine's Patternghost also wasn't much by way of revenge,
since the real Caine would probably never even know of it. Perhaps, however, by
sparing his ghost I might be able to get a bit closer to him, to get to
understand him a bit better, so that in the end I might be able to come up with
a way to defuse the situation between us. I'm simply not a violent man and
keeping up my hatred really takes a lot out of me. I'd rather live in peace if I
had the choice...
I reached down and grabbed one of the blades that
the guards had been carrying. Carefully I drew the sharp edge across my wrist,
making sure that I didn't cut myself too deep, and as the blood started welling
up from the gash I thrust my arm at Caine's mouth. Eagerly he began to drink,
and as he did I saw him gain strength. He drank and drank until finally he
pushed my arm away with a sigh. He was still very weak and the wound he had
gotten from the guard's weapon was far from healed, but he was going live, if at
least that term applies to Patternghosts. As I studied him closely I could see
that my donation had helped to strengthen his individuality even more, reducing
the Pattern energy to a fraction of what it originally must have been. Good.
I retrieved the piece of crystal from my pocket and
contacted Taureth again, asking him whether it was possible for him to bring two
people through instead of one. He assured me that that should be no problem and
a moment later I stood in front of him, the body of Caine in my arms. Taureth
wasn't alone in his room: Samal was there as well, and after a few moments I
noticed someone else lying on a bed in the corner, who I managed to identify as
Boadice's boyfriend Gran. I promptly introduced Caine to them and explained
about his Patternghost nature, so that Taureth would not immediately start
practising his Logrus healing techniques on him. I also told them about the coup
in progress and about Adrian's probable arrest at the hands of Jaill Helgram,
self-proclaimed regent of the Courts.
Most of this wasn't news to the two brothers; Samal
had already gotten the feeling that something was wrong when he had heard that
Murlas had been escorted to the Helgram suite by several armed guards and when
he hadn't been able to reach any of the other Amberites. He had right away gone
to find his brother and together draw up some plan of action. Taureth,
meanwhile, had found out that most of the Amberites had indeed been arrested by
the conservative rebels. He had confirmed accounts of Adrian, Alexander and
Murlas being confined to some cell somewhere, as well as a still very weak
Sereva who had been dragged from the infirmary where she had been recovering
from her recent miscarriage (miscarriage? Apparently I had missed something
there - poor Adrian). There was also a rumour going around that Bleys had been
captured too, but that had not yet been substantiated. There was no word of
either Fiona or Delwin, and of Boadice there was no sign of life either,
although Taureth and Samal were aware of the mission Ornach had given her to
find the Trump of their sister Malketh, which had been sighted in the art galery
of the Ways of Sawall. Taureth had been the one to deliver Gran from his
imprisonment by the conservatives in accordance with some deal Ornach had made
with the House Escalwyn; he had used some onorthodox methods and apparently not
without success.
Another important thing was that Taureth had
noticed that the Logrus had somehow regained something of its former power. He
didn't know as yet how this had happened and was more than eager to find out and
perhaps help the process further along. With the coup in full progress it might
be possible for us to get to the cave of the Logrus unnoticed, but on the other
hand it might also serve as some distraction to hide any attempts we might try
at springing either my fellow Amberites or Ornach, who had also been imprisoned,
from their jail. Taureth was more interested in repairing the Logrus or setting
Ornach free than in releasing the Amberites, while Samal felt that Ornach should
be more than capable of dealing with his own problems; Samal was more convinced
of the merit of delivering the Amberites, which wasn't too surprising
considering his relationship with Murlas. Now that I had joined them, however,
they were rather eager to hear my opinions which would serve as some kind of
deciding vote.
While they briefed me on all our problems I first
tended to Caine, making sure that he didn't bleed to death. After that I looked
in on Gran, who had been wounded but who still managed a brave smile for my
benefit. I could tell he was rather worried about Boadice, though, especially
since there was no word about her whatsoever.
"Okay," I said, after tending to all the
wounded, "I think I mostly agree with Samal that Ornach will probably be
able to take care of himself. I think repairing the Logrus has a greater
priority and some of my kin might be able to help us there. Do you think their
cell will be guarded against Trump calls?"
"It's very probable," Taureth replied.
"I fear that the conservatives are the ones who have the most control over
the Logrus right now, and they will most likely be able to apply that power to
shielding their prison against Pattern Trumps, which are still the only ones in
working order. However, we might be able to break through the barrier if we
apply a lot of Pattern energy from a small distance."
"That's not really an option, I think," I
said. "One thing worries me, though: if we manage to repair the Logrus,
won't the conservatives become much more powerful?"
"Yes, they will," Taureth explained,
"but so will the opposition. The Logrus power won't be theirs exclusively
any longer, things will move more towards a balance. After that we can free my
father and I'm fairly sure that he will be able to help us get rid of that new
regent of theirs." Of course he would, but then I guess we would be saddled
with a new regent, namely Ornach himself. However, I wasn't too sure that was
such a bad thing. After all I was a lot closer to him and his family than to the
House Helgram.
"Suppose I try to Trump anyone in the
cell," I ventured, "do you think the conservatives will notice?"
"They might," Taureth sighed. "It all depends on whether their security is a static or dynamic thing. The first won't trigger any special alarms, but the second will, and it can only be by-passed with a lot of trouble. I could go and have a quick look at the barrier, but it will take some time. About half an hour, I think." I thought for a moment, then nodded to him. It would certainly help if we would be able to release my relatives without too much trouble, and an extra half hour wouldn't be too much trouble, I figured. In any case, it would be better to go into this thing as prepared as possible or the three of us might end up sharing the same cell as my cousins...