Chapter 051: The Best-Laid Plans

 

"Eh, little prison dwellers, take my advice:

Don't think you're figure skaters,

You might be the ice."

 

Prison Dwellers - Think Tree

 

     As it turned out we had to wait rather a bit longer than half an hour for Taureth to return, so long in fact that I began to grow a bit worried about him after a while. As it was I was already rather ill at ease, being in one room with both Caine - a Patternghost yes, but basically no different from the real one - and Samal. For a moment I wondered about starting a conversation with my uncle's double, but I found that I had simply no idea where to begin or what to say to him. Fortunately he lapsed into unconsciousness after only a short while, saving me the trouble of forcing a conversation that might just as easily be conducted later, under hopefully more relaxed circumstances.

     Which left me with the problem of Samal. Despite all the recent developments he didn't really seem to be worried at all, and our short reprieve had once again given him time to focus his attention to me. I admired the man's ability to stay cool and business-like during times of trouble, but why did he have to be so intrigued by me?

     Samal had sat down in a chair in a corner, and no matter what I was doing I was continually aware of his eyes rest lingering on me, no doubt underlined by that maddening smile of his. I tried occupying my time with various things, but there just wasn't all that much to do in the apartment. As I said before, Caine was flat out, and Gran wasn't all that far from following his example. To keep me busy I checked his wounds, which were already well taken care of, and when he asked me I went to fetch some water for him from the room next door. Anything to get away from that piercing gaze.

     While I was busy in that other room I must have let my guard down for a moment; either that or Samal had the skill of moving really quietly, for suddenly he was there, standing really close behind me and startling the hell out of me. Before I could turn or back away he pressed his body against mine, at the same time reaching out with his mind to the spot where the Curse lay hidden. Instantly a wave of passion flooded through me, nearly sweeping me off my feet. A low moan rose up from the centre of my being and escaped through my mouth, but by sheer power of will I managed to move away from him and his insidious influence over me. I swivelled round and regarded him from a safe distance, half scared and, it shame me to say, half longing for more. If this was what the Curse did to you at its worst, I began understand some of those things my mother had hinted at.

     "Don't...!" I gasped, still fighting to get my breath back. Samal didn't say anything, he just kept looking at me with those bright blue eyes, all the while smiling his dangerous smile. I can't say how much time passed with the two of us regarding each other like that - it may have been only a minute, or it may have been more - but finally he turned away and went back to the other room. I let myself fall into a chair and sat there for a while, shuddering, desperately trying to get a grip on myself. It was fortunate for me that the Logrus wasn't back to full power yet, or I think I might not have been able to repress the urges that Samal had evoked in me; it wasn't easy as things were, but I managed to bring myself back to some more or less relaxed state. After taking a drink of water myself, I was finally able to deliver Gran's long awaited order.

     Samal was ostentatiously busy with other things when I entered, but he didn't fool me for a moment. He didn't make any other moves, though; apparently he had decided that such games were not the most convenient thing under circumstances like these, which of course didn't mean that this was the end of it. Oh no, he was bound to come back to this, and if I was any judge of character, he would probably do it when I would least expect him to. For the moment I was happy with my temporary reprieve and spent the rest of the time chatting with Gran, till he too drifted off into a quiet sleep.

     Finally, after about an hour and a half, Taureth reappeared. He explained that he had had to be more careful than he had at first figured, for there seemed to be guards everywhere. However, the good news was that my cousins' cell was relatively lightly guarded: there were only two or three armed men and one person to keep an eye on the Logrus shield that surrounded the room. He thought that we would stand a good chance of delivering them if we were to try that; our other option, of course, was to head for the Logrus and see whether we might be able to repair it further.

     "Well, if that's the case, I think we may as well spring them from their jail, don't you?" Samal remarked. I nodded. It would be easier to make a difference in this conflict if our numbers were greater.

     "Okay," I said, "we'll try to get close without being seen, take out the guards, free my cousins, and then quickly head back. We'll be there and gone before they even notice it."

     "We have to be careful, though," Taureth warned, "for there are a great number of patrols running around. However, since the Logrus has still only partially been repaired, I may be able to use the flaw in the shield to pass on a message to those inside. It won't be easy, but if we get close enough I'm fairly sure it will work. That way they will be forewarned about our attempt to free them and they might be able to manage some kind of distraction to keep the guards busy. As far as I could make out your cousins Murlas, Alexander and Adrian are inside, as well as your uncle Bleys and Adrian's fiancee Sereva Baccaran. The question is who you think would be the best person to contact under these circumstances."

     "Wait a minute," I said. "Boadice wasn't one of the prisoners, you say?" He shook his head. "Then she's probably still out there somewhere. I think we should try to contact her first, since she may be able to help us with our task."

     A brief glance passed between the brothers and they nodded. I quickly shuffled through my deck till I found Boa's Trump. Although I didn't really like the idea of using any Amber Trumps at this time, it seemed that I didn't have a choice. It was the lesser of two evils, I guess. Try as I might, however, I couldn't get through to Boa and somehow that really bothered me. If she wasn't a prisoner of the conservatives, she ought to be in a position where she could take calls. I tried for a minute or two longer, but to no avail. Putting her Trump away, I turned back to the others, only to feel the pressure of a Trump call from someone else building in my mind. This made me even more edgy than I had been before. To what extent could the Pattern itself work through contacts like these? It might have noticed my attempts at reaching Boa and maybe it was now trying to get through to me, perhaps by way of Fiona. I decided that I simply couldn't run the risk of accepting the call, so I blocked it, and I kept blocking it, even when it came back a second time, even stronger than before. I managed to keep it out, though, and it didn't return for a third try. With a wary feeling I informed the others of the latest occurrences, and I added that we'd better start moving pretty soon, before someone were to discover us here.

     "Well, alright," Taureth said, "we have to do without her then. Have you made up your mind about who of the prisoners we should sent our message to?"

     "Murlas would be best, I guess," I said with a hint of reluctance. Taureth and Samal just shrugged as if they didn't really saw a problem there. For a moment I envied the strangely close bonds between people in their family; if only we could have that level of trust between Amberites.

     We quickly armed ourselves for our little expedition, me taking a sword, Taureth a sword and crossbow, and Samal conjuring up two lengths of heavy chain from somewhere. I remembered that his Trump had featured just such a piece of chain draped around a column, and from the way he swished them around I gathered that they were more than merely his personal symbols.  He grinned at me when he saw that I was watching his moves and I quickly turned away. He'd not let things rest between us, that much was sure.

     When Gran saw our preparations he made as if to get up from his bed and join us, but I quickly talked him out of it. In his current condition he was going to be too much of a bother, and besides he was much more concerned about Boadice than about the others: as soon as I made it clear to him that Boadice wasn't among the prisoners we were going to release he wanted to know why we were going in the first place. Finally I convinced him that staying there and minding Caine would be a task more suited for him, and that he might as well try and Trump Boadice now and again to see if she were alright. I even gave him my own Trump of her, since his own Trumps had been taken when he was first kidnapped. You'd think he would be grateful, wouldn't you? Not Gran! He wanted to know why I hadn't told him before that I had Boadice's Trump and when I told him that I hadn't been able to get through to her in the first place he said that she would undoubtedly answer his calls, upon which he immediately started concentrating. I raised my eyes in desperation, sighed, then shrugged and turned back to Taureth and Samal. We weren't going to wait till he had finished trying.

     We had only just left the room, stalking swiftly through the corridors, when I thought I heard a noise behind us. Samal's reactions were even quicker than mine, flicking his chains in the direction of our pursuant, only to snatch them back just in time. It was Boadice, or at least it seemed to be, black demonic shape and all. Why was I suddenly so suspicious? It was altogether a bit too well planned, her showing up like this, and I was beginning to smell a rat of megalomaniac proportions.

     "Ah, Dorian," she said, with barely a glance at Taureth or Samal, "you were trying to Trump me earlier on, right?" I regarded her coolly. How did she know that it had been me in the first place? "Gran just brought me through," she added. My eye fell on the sword she held in her hand wrapped in a piece of cloth; it could have been me, but the thing just seemed to be oozing menace. I felt Taureth and Samal's gazes on me as they decided to leave this matter of my cousin in my hands.

     "If you knew that it was me who was trying to reach you," I said calmly, "then why didn't you just accept the call?"

     "Because, if you had been taken prisoner, someone might have been forcing you to Trump someone else," she said, "while simultaneously another person with a very powerful mind would be trying to get through to me, so that your Trump would be active in my deck, but if I would have accepted..."

     "Wait a minute," I interrupted her. "What's this about my Trump being active in your deck?"

     "Yes," she said like a patient teacher trying to explain something to an ignorant pupil, "I have a way of identifying Trump calls with the cards in my own deck, only it is not foolproof. If I Trump you, I'm certain that it will be you on the other end. Oh, never mind! I'll explain it some other time..." She took out her Trump deck and started searching through it. "Oh shit," she said, "I don't have a Trump of myself anymore." She looked at me questioningly, but I shook my head. "No, that's right, you gave yours to Gran. Wait a minute, I'll be back."

     "Look," I said before she ran off again, "I don't really care what you're going to do, but we'll go off on our mission if you don't mind."

     "You don't need my help?" she asked, clearly hurt and a bit petulant.

     "I can't really be sure of you right now," I said, "and I'm not taking any chances." I gave her a final stare and then turned to go.

     "Alright," I heard her say, "I'll wish you lots of luck. I'll just go and see to Gran and Caine then, shall I? Yes, well..." I didn't need much to understand the true message in her voice, the insistent `why don't you trust me?' implied there. Well, I was sorry, but I couldn't really trust any Amberite, not now. Maybe I would be able to explain it all later on. Maybe not.

     We slipped through the corridors, dodging patrols that grew ever more numerous and slowly getting closer and closer to the cell where my cousins were being held. Eventually Taureth, who was more or less leading the mission at that point, since he knew the exact location of the cell, stopped in a relatively quiet part, saying that it was unwise to take us in any further without first sending the message to the people inside. With a slight nod he indicated a nearby corner from which we would be able to observe the guard station. Our message would inform Murlas of our presence outside and urge him to stage some kind of diversion on their side to draw the guards' attention. While Taureth started concentrating, Samal and I kept a close watch; it wouldn't do for us to be surprised by a  randomly passing group of Serpent guards. My eyes kept flicking from Taureth to the still empty corridor and back again. Seconds crawled by at a snail's pace and still nothing seemed to be happening until suddenly Samal gave a slight grunt, attracting my attention. He had been keeping an eye on the guards near the cell and when I silently rushed to his side I saw what had alarmed him: the guards appeared more alert than they had been before, but instead of their attention being focused on the prison itself in accordance with our plan, they seemed to be on the lookout for people on the outside. A moment later we heard the sound of running feet and the jingle of armour and saw several guards rushing to the cell from other directions.

     "Hmm," Samal whispered with a frown, "they have been warned. What did you say to him?" he hissed at Taureth.

     "Just as we agreed, to stage some kind of diversion," Taureth hissed back.

     "Yes, but not outside of the cell, surely!" Samal evidently had some trouble keeping his voice down.

     "Look," I interjected, "if there are going to be much more of those guards we'd better sound the retreat."

     "Yes," Taureth agreed, "we might stand a better chance at reaching the Logrus."

     "Damn," Samal muttered, "if only they weren't on their guard."

     "Ha," I said, "we're going to wait for that, are we?" I knew why he was so agitated, though: Murlas. He wanted to get him out of danger at whatever cost. Much as I admired that much loyalty, however, it wasn't the most practical thing to do. Meanwhile guards came still rushing to the cell from several directions, so we had no choice but to retreat before someone would notice us. Fortunately, speed and luck helped us get away. Once we were sure that we weren't being pursued, we halted again to review our options.

     "So, what next?" I asked. "Go back and try to come up with some new plan?"

     "We haven't got a lot of time," Taureth said. "We have to try to reach the Logrus or we won't be able to do anything. I can feel the traces of power, so I know which way we will have to go. Only question is whether we're going to do this alone or whether we try to get some help. I'm not sure about that Patterghost, but perhaps your cousin would prove useful after all?"

     "Well," I said, "she's an Amberite, so she might be useful. On the other hand, she is an Amberite, so she might be a liability." I could see his point, though: if we had been able to free my other cousins, we would at least have had a few people to divert everyone's attention away from the Logrus. I still wasn't too sure about admitting any other Amberite near the cave of the Logrus apart from myself; I knew that I had not been possessed by the Pattern yet, but I couldn't be sure of any of the others.

     "Would you be able to estimate the extent of the Pattern's hold over her?" Taureth asked, anticipating my thoughts. "Does she use it quite often?"

     "I only know that she uses Pattern to draw Trumps," I said, "for the rest she is as much an unknown to me as she is to you."

     "Did she use Pattern recently, that you know of?" Taureth insisted.

     "She made a couple of Trump sketches of the palace," I said.

     "Maybe we could use her in some other way," Samal suggested. "We might be able to get her to do some things for us while keeping her in the dark as to our real intentions. It might be useful to have someone draw all the attention away from our real objective."

     "It might work," I admitted reluctantly, "but we'd better start coming up with some pretty good story, cause one thing I know is that that girl is much too curious for her own good."

     "We could use that to our advantage by using it against her," Samal said. "All we have to do is get her to make a lot of noise, either consciously or not, so that all the guards will flock to her side. Do you think she would be willing to do this of her own accord?"

     "You want her to serve as live bait?" I asked in return, with a more than doubtful expression.

     "Yes, I guess I do." Samal's smile was a nasty as ever. "It's the way we get the most mileage out of her. We can't risk her coming with us, what with the Pattern and all. However, leaving her to her own devices might also be too risky, since we can't predict what she will do if unchecked." He frowned slightly. "After all, she knew of our plans for freeing the prisoners, and it is clear that someone out there betrayed us."

     "Hold it," I said, "I don't know much about her, but I do know that she is in Ornach's service, so I don't think that she would betray us that easily."

     "That could of course also be an option," Taureth remarked. "Making her search for Ornach, I mean. If she would try to release him, we could be sure that the Logrus would be left relatively unguarded. After all, I don't think they will be holding dad too close near the Logrus."

     "Alright," I said, "that seems like a good idea, but how do we sell this notion to her without her getting too suspicious." They both looked at me as if to say: "She's your cousin, so you think of something." I sighed.

     "It's just that you know her better than either of us," Samal said. "We can, of course, always not tell her anything and just get on with our own business." No, he was right, his plan was best. If I only knew what to say to her. Suddenly I started chuckling. Samal and Taureth looked at me curiously, so I quickly explained what was so funny.

     "It's all academic anyway," I said. "For a moment there I forgot that I don't have Boa's Trump anymore. If we want her to go along with our plans, we would have to go all the way back and talk to her."

     "No," Taureth said, "that would be too risky. Besides, she might even decide to follow us."

     "Alright," I said firmly, "then we don't talk to her, let's leave it at that. Knowing Boadice, it will be hard for her to stay inactive for a long time anyway."

     "All the same, it's a pity not to nudge her into the right direction, isn't it?" Samal observed. "Who knows, she might even get it into her head to look in on the Logrus herself. But alright, I see your point. Let's get going."

     The way was long and started to get stranger the further we went on. I might inadvertently have given the impression that the palace is made up of one Shadow; this simply isn't true, but due to the damage done to the Logrus everything had been fixed into place, and while there were some variations from room to room or from corridor to corridor, these differences weren't too great. After all, it had all at one time served the same function, and while the people in the Courts certainly had a quite extravagant taste, they could be very practical at times. Now that we were getting closer and closer to the Logrus itself, however, any practical considerations no longer applied.

     We managed to avoid any guards on our way, although we sometimes heard the clash of arms or the sound of people hurrying by, a few times even so close that we had to choose another route for a while. We were crossing through one of the physical openings between Shadows when I suddenly noticed something strange: smoke was drifting up from the sharp edges where the Shadow barrier had been smashed through, as if the wall itself were slowly smouldering away. When I alerted the other two, Taureth merely nodded.

     "This could mean that the Logrus is indeed growing stronger," he said. "We have to find a way to speed up the process." He frowned, looking a bit uncertain. "There's something not right, though," he muttered. "I can't explain..." Samal nodded, his expression mirroring that of his brother's.

     "You're right," he said, "I feel it too. Hmm..." I tried sensing around me as well, hoping to catch some whiff of what they were talking about, but I couldn't detect anything. Only now I realised how helpless I really was without my main tool, the Pattern, and I wondered whether I would be able to be of any help when it came to really restoring the Logrus. We'd see about that when it really came down to it, I guess.

     We continued for a while through Shadows that grew ever more bizarre, till Taureth suddenly stopped near a wall.

     "Can you feel that conduit over there?" he asked, crouching near the wall. This time I did sense something, although it wasn't entirely clear. From the feeling I got I was sure that it was Logrus energy, though. "It's a conduit of power from the Logrus to some place else," Taureth concluded. "I would say this is their main power supply for securing the prisoner's cells and all."

     "Hmm," I said, "it probably wouldn't be wise to mess with it, would it?"

     "No," Taureth agreed. "Cutting the power would only have a temporary effect, for it will quickly reconnect itself. Severing the conduit completely would require a permanent attendance, and I'm sure that even a momentary cut would draw a lot of attention. Also, I fear that after the previous fiasco in trying to get your relatives out a simple power cut won't be enough to guarantee their freedom. No, we'd better leave it alone. Still..." He looked wistful for a moment, then shrugged. "No, never mind, let's get on with things."

     We walked on through a Chaos mathematician's dream of unlikely patterns, and slowly but surely the scenery became less palace-like in nature. Instead we now wandered through what appeared to be old, dusty corridors and dark, ominous caves. As we moved on the bounderies between Shadows kept changing, gradually becoming less and less sharp and firm, until it seemed that there was an opaque film like a curtain separating every Shadow from the next. Things were slowly reverting to the old state of affairs, I'd say, and it wouldn't be long before the Shadow openings were as invisible to the naked eye as they had always been.

     As we crept closer I again started worrying over my role in the upcoming... Well, yes, what was it going to be? A magical operation? A conflict? I guessed it all depended on what was waiting for us there in the cave of the Logrus. In the best case the Logrus would simply have been repairing itself, which would mean that it would welcome all the help it could get. I didn't know whether I would be able to contribute to that process, but that was another matter. In a worst case scenario someone else, presumably the conservatives, had been busy patching things up, which would probably mean a fight would ensue between us and the guards that would undoubtedly also be present. Well, I had no doubts about being able to contribute there, even though I'm not nearly as skilled as cousin Adrian. I can hold my own, though, and from what I'd seen I figured that Samal was also more than able in that regard. Between the two of us we might be able to hold things off while Taureth could direct his attention to the Logrus and getting it fixed. Repaired that is. It was  excrutiatingly annoying that my role would be reduced to a simple armed guard, though. If only I would be able to use the Pattern in some constructive way. If only... Oh, damn!

     "Wait!" I said, my voice a bit louder than I had intended. Taureth and Samal stopped and turned their questioning faces to me.

     "Is there a problem?" Taureth wanted to know.

     "You're damn right there is a problem," I said agitatedly. "I nearly forgot all about it." I plunged my hand into the pocket of my shirt and slowly retrieved the object that had rested there, close to my heart. It was a small, glass paperweight. Inside there was a tiny miniature mansion standing beside a lake, and if you tilted or shook the thing the little fake snowflakes mimicked a snowstorm, swirling through the water around the tiny house. There were some other things inside as well, of course: Anna and my children. And the whole thing had been put together with Pattern...

     It didn't take long for Taureth to understand the problem. "Hmm," he said, "you're right, that could be a problem. Bringing this Shadow construct too close to the Logrus could result in it either being destroyed completely, or in it falling apart into its original components. Either way, things will be none too pleasant for its inhabitants." Samal turned an inquisitive eye on me, clearly missing out on most of the topic of our conversation.

     "My children are in there," I said tersely.

     "Ah, yes," he said with an amused smile, "I remember. Well, you'd better do something about it, don't you think?"

     "But what?" I said angrily. "I can't have them running around here in the Courts, certainly not when we're so close to the Logrus!"

     "There might be a way," Taureth mused, "but it will require some concentration from both of us. Look, this type of Shadow is subject to a certain amount of power decay, right? If you can let the Pattern power drain away a bit faster than usual, I will try to insert Logrus energy at the same time, hopefully stabilizing the Shadow. That way you can just let your children stay inside and they won't be harmed by being too close to the Logrus. Of course, you will have to take them to some other place as soon as this whole business is settled, for I don't know what kind of effect the Logrus energy will have on their home in the long run."

     I nodded to indicate that I understood the consequences and told him to go ahead. The whole operation took us about a quarter of an hour and a good deal of effort and sweat from the both of us. I just hoped that we might not come to regret having wasted this time, but under the circumstances it had been the only thing we could do. I was already suffering near heart attacks at the mere thought of Laura or Dennis running around loose in Chaos, let alone Tigger or the ever-curious Vilcon. One thing was certain: as soon as the Logrus was Its old self again I would be sending them home to Amber as quickly as I could. No doubt about it.

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