Chapter 054: Homecoming
"Modus
operandi
Contrary
motives - modus vivendi
Hands
tied - estranged allegiance
Trained
in psychosis
Drowned
in plutocracy, come see, comme ca, come"
Counterpoint
- Twelfth Night
"Im afraid I've got some bad news," I said. "Merlin is
dead. He was murdered in the middle of the Logrus, and his blood damaged it
severely."
"Grave news indeed," Gerard replied, as
his smile disappeared from his face. "It helps to explain quite a few
things, however," he added. "We were of course quick to realise that
something must have been wrong, with all the Shadows suddenly being closed off
from one another and everything, and we did indeed suspect that something had
happened to the Logrus." I nodded and took another sip from my wine.
Although I was neither familiar with the brand nor with its strange spherical
bottle, it was excellent stuff, a rival to Bayle's Best in every way. I would
have to ask Gerard for its place of origin one time, but not now; there were
still far more serious things to discuss.
As a matter of fact I was eager to continue on my way to Amber and fill
Random in on everything, but Family ettiquette required that I talk to Gerard
first. I had tried to Trump to Amber, and when that had failed to Random, but
Gerard's had been the first card that had worked for me. He was on his flagship
directing the fleet through manoeuvres in one of the Golden Circle Shadows,
which lay at a fair distance from Amber. This must be the reason the contact had
worked at all, I guessed, and in any case I was glad that he had brought me
through, away from the Courts at last. If Gerard was surprised to hear that that
was where I had been all this time he didn't show it, but the news of Merlin's
death clearly upset him. I found myself cringing a little while recounting it;
the reality of it had dwindled away while I had been in the Courts, its
consequences more important than the fact itself. Now, however, I had time to
consider it more closely and to mourn him properly, I guess. My cousin who would
be king...
I continued my story with the attempted coup by the conservative Houses,
the near and by now probably total civil war, and Jaill Helgram's efforts to
take matters into his own hands. The name was familiar to my uncle, but these
Courts politics were not the most immediate thing on his mind. Instead he wanted
to know who of the Family had been with me in the Courts, asking for Rhiane
specifically. I said that there had been some others, but that Rhiane had not
been among them. Gerard looked a bit worried when he heard this, although he did
his best to hide it from me.
"We tried to contact as many of our relatives as we could when the
barriers suddenly went up," he said, "but some people didn't respond
and we didn't know where everyone had gone to." There was a tone of annoyed
determination to his voice, as if he felt that everyone's whereabouts should be
known in Amber at all time, especially after this little fracas.
"Well, nobody really expected something like this to happen," I
said calmly. "There were a lot of us in the Courts, though: Murlas, Adrian,
Alexander, Boadice, Bleys, and Fiona. Oh, and Corwin, Caine, and Deirdre dropped
in just after the Logrus had been repaired."
"They had said that they would try to reach the Courts through some
still existing Shadowpaths," Gerard said. "There are still two others
unaccounted for, however: we haven't been able to reach Martin in a while, nor
have we heard from Melusine." Hmm, good chance that those two were off
together somewhere. "Charles and Elayne are safely at home in Amber, and
Diana is somewhere in the Golden Circle." I was glad to hear this. Although
I had not had too much time to worry about my eldest daughter, busy as I had
been worrying about myself, she had never been far from my mind altogether.
"There is something else you ought to know," I said and I told
him about the appearance of Ornach. I was pleasantly surprised to find that
unlike Caine and my mother Gerard was not outright dismissive of this part of
the story. Not that he accepted it without reserve - frankly I had not expected
him to - but at least he put up the appearance of some willingness to believe my
tale. I told him about Ornach's seven children and that he was still looking for
most of them, and of course I included Ornach's clear negative feelings towards
Dworkin. Gerard asked some questions about Ornach's story and that of his
children, and concluded that it must have been an awful long time ago. With a
grave expression he said that I'd better go and tell all this to Random as soon
as possible. Eager as I was to go, I still had one question for him: Rhiane? He
looked pained, but he couldn't tell me anything save for the fact that she had
been missing since this whole thing began and that he had no idea where she
might be. Strange. I guessed that she would avoid running into danger, but
still. Perhaps I should look into it as soon as everything else was taken care
of.
I finished my wine and bid goodbye to Gerard, getting out my cards for
the last part of the journey home. This time Random responded right away to my
call and he was more than eager to bring me through. The King was in his study,
apparently keeping himself busy with the unavoidable paperwork, but he was
anxious to get down to business immediately. It would seem that mine was the
first testimony of the events in Chaos he was to receive.
"Okay, take a seat," he said, "and
tell me, what was it precisely?"
Once again I began my story. Merlin's death drew the appropriate grave
response, news of the damaged Logrus was met with a nod, and Jaill Helgram and
the conservative revolution didn't cause any surprises. However, when I let slip
that I had been the one who had restored the Logrus to its former glory, Random
stopped me and with a frown he asked me to repeat what I had just said. So I
did, a bit bashfully, and also mentioned the apple that the Serpent had given
me, which had made it all possible.
"You ran into the Serpent?" Random asked incredulously, to
which I could only nod. "No wonder the place is a mess," he remarked
and muttered something under his breath about the last time It had come to
Amber. I shrugged. The Serpent had not been the only Power moving about freely
in the Courts.
Just like Gerard before him Random wanted to know who of the Family had
been there in the Courts, so I gave him the whole list and even made sure to
mention Delwin this time. Random found it very interesting to hear that his long
lost brother had reappeared and asked whether I had spoken to him. I had to
disappoint him, for aside from the relatively short Family meeting I had not
seen him at all. Still, the information that Delwin had been present at that
meeting was enough to raise Random's eyebrows another inch or two.
Ornach and his children didn't raise any comment from him, but I could
see that he didn't disregard them at all and was only reserving judgement till
he knew more about the matter. Well, there was a chance that he might get to
meet the man himself soon enough; I didn't think that Ornach would be content to
be just another also-ran in Courts politics.
"Another thing you need to know," I said, "has to do with
the Logrus and how it was damaged. It is clear that the act itself had been
coordinated with the conservative forces in the Courts to coincide with their
coup, but there was another party that profitted more from the affair than It
should have, namely the Pattern. It was very quick to react to the Logrus's
mishap, quicker than any of the other Powers. Also, It took direct possession of
Fiona for a while and tried Its best to keep the Logrus from being repaired. If
I hadn't put on an act myself to stay out of Its clutches, the Logrus might
still be in shambles right now."
"Hmm," Random said. "Well, we've known for some time that
the Powers like to meddle and that they cannot do so directly, but need the help
of their agents to reach their goals. During the Patternfall War and before that
they seemed to be content to stay in the background and use unknowing agents,
but lately this seems to have changed. I know that Merlin ran into some trouble
with the Pattern a while ago and so did Rinaldo. I even heard that at a certain
point they negotiated with It face to face, so to speak. I can't say what Its
current attitude will be, now that Its plans seem to have failed, but no doubt
It wont stop interfering that easily."
Hmm, I hadn't known that about Merlin and Rinaldo, and I didn't like it.
Merlin had defied the Pattern and now he was dead. Coincidence? I don't think
so. The Serpent's words came back to me: I had cried that I was on no one's side
but my own and It had answered me that this was exactly what he had said and
that now his blood was killing It. Who else could this he be but Merlin, his
blood adding crimson and Pattern to the Logrus? Apparently it wasn't only the
Pattern he had defied. But what about me? Where did I stand right now? With
either of the Powers or alone? Scary as it was, I found myself turning towards
the latter and more dangerous option. Alone then, no Major Powers, but how about
allies? It wouldn't hurt, I felt, to have a little talk with Rinaldo and get his
side of the story. Perhaps he had found a way to cope with independence.
All of this passed through my head in the span of a mere few seconds, and
I was ready to pick up my conversation with Random where we had left it.
"If the Pattern did indeed have a hand in Merlin's murder," I asked,
"then who was Its agent?"
"You tell me," Random said. "Who
were present at his death?"
"I don't know, actually. I know that Adrian
and Boadice found his body in the Logrus, and they told me that Suhuy and Dara
were there as well, both as mad as a hatter."
"Dara..." He smirked. "She has
walked the Pattern, so she certainly qualifies. Still, I think it's strange, her
being his mother and all. Not that Family ties would stop one of us in such a
case, but I thought that Merlin was really the apple of Dara's eye. She had
seemed awfully keen to get him on the throne. Then again, he may have been too
independent for his own good." I shook my head. Hardly reason to kill
somebody in my book, but I feared Random was right: for too many of my relatives
it would be reason enough.
"Talking about mothers and such," I said, "you were aware
of the fact that Sereva Baccaran had been pregnant with Adrian's child, weren't
you?"
"Yes," he said with a frown, "we
suspected as much. But from your words I gather that...?"
"Miscarriage," I said with a grim nod.
"Any idea how it happened?" I shook my
head. "Do you think Adrian knows?"
"I can't say," I said, although this
wasn't entirely true. I did suspect that Adrian knew what had happened, but as
long as he didn't divulge that information freely I felt I should respect his
privacy. To steer us away from the subject I mentioned the now defunct
possibility of Adrian's child becoming the next king of Chaos.
"Ah yes, the Parill Option," Random said. I was surprised that
he knew this obscure rule by name, but realised that it would be an area for him
to read up on, with Vialle's pregnancy and everything. "What is the
political situation in the Courts like at the moment?" he asked. "Is
Jaill Helgram still in control?"
"I'm not sure. He may be. I don't really
expect him to relinquish power that easily. He even disbanded the Minor and
Major Councils."
"A smart move, if he's able to keep his
position."
"I don't think he was counting on the Logrus
being repaired that quickly, though."
"So that might work to his disadvantage. Interesting. Perhaps he
will have to reinstate the Councils to keep control. Who knows." He
shrugged, but somehow I felt that he wasn't taking this matter that lightly.
"Tell me," he said, "what's the position of Amber been like in
this conflict."
"Well, since the people in the Courts regarded
the lot of us a some kind of Major House or something, our `Family policy' was
mainly decided by Bleys and Fiona. However, on the whole everyone was too
engrossed in their own problems to further Amber's goals. I was too busy dodging
the Pattern to pay close attention to what everyone else was doing, so I can't
tell you all that much. Adrian somehow lost his unborn child, Boadice ended up
working for Ornach, Alexander has his ties with the Hendrakes or what's left of
them, and frankly I have no idea what Murlas has been up to.
"There was one incident that would be interesting to you, I think,
which entails Bleys. At one point Jaill Helgram had locked some of the others
together in a cell with a shape shifting spy. The spy was discovered and killed,
although I must say that I don't know the precise circumstances, since I wasn't
there at the time. Bleys either was blamed for the murder, or he took the blame
on himself, that's where the story's a bit unclear. Anyway, there was a trial
and Bleys was found guilty and sentenced to death. Fortunately he managed to
escape, but he is now a wanted man."
When I had finished Random frowned and asked me to wait a moment while he
contacted someone. A few seconds later he brought Benedict through on a Trump
contact and I could begin the whole story all over again. Benedict had a
complete different angle on the matter, of course; he was much more interested
in the military details, such as Fiona's demon army. Quickly it became clear
that the real matter we were debating here was the question whether Amber would
be sending an intervention force to the Courts or not. For this my uncles needed
just about every scrap of information I could dredge up (save from the stuff I
wanted to keep private of course), and when a few minutes later Julian was also
invited to join the discussion I could once again start at the beginning and go
over everything once more. I talked and talked, explained, clarified,
conjectured, guessed, and meanwhile messengers came and went, and Trump calls
were made to other relatives. Gerard was among those of course, for he was the
war council's Trump link to the Courts, direct Trump contact still being out of
the question. War council? Well, it was more of a pre-war council, for the final
decision to intervene or not still had to be made. It was not something that
could be settled lightly.
While I was present only because of the possible information I could
supply, I got a good chance to observe my uncles at work and see what their
opinions were. Surprisingly enough Benedict appeared to represent the voice of
caution. Amber would intervene if it was necessary, sure, but for him this
necessity had to be clearly present before he would act. Of course we were the
victors of the last war and as such we shouldn't allow Amber to be overrun by
Chaosites, but at this moment there was only a civil war in the Courts, which
was strictly speaking an internal affair. The matter of Bleys's conviction was
regrettable, but in itself it did not constitute enough reason to send Amber's
army off to the other side of the universe. If the sentence had been carried
out, things would have been different of course.
Julian was all for Amber becoming involved in the struggle, saying that
we must above all not show weakness. The troops were more than ready, in his
opinion, so there were no troubles on that account. The Courts wouldn't be the
easiest place to conduct a battle, granted, but it would be to Amber's own
advantage if the region were stable once again. On no account should we allow
Jaill Helgram to seize power, and Ornach was also rather suspect, he felt. I
noticed that the others were a bit wary of Ornach too, and I guess I couldn't
blame them; it's always safer to view a new and previously unknown player as an
opponent. Despite Julian's conviction that sending in the troops would be for
the best, he insisted that we shouldn't send them on account of Bleys's death
sentence. Bleys was old and wise enough to fend for himself, he added with that
completely neutral expression of his that is his trademark.
Meanwhile time was dragging on and I was getting restless. I asked
whether they still had need of me, only to hear that they would like to keep me
close at hand, just in case something came up that I might know more about. I
protested, saying that I really needed to take care of my children first, and
after some arguments to and fro they relented on the condition that I would
return as quickly as possible. Happily I left Random's study for the sitting
room next door, where I went and concentrated on finding entrance to the pocket
Shadow. Now that its main power source had been switched to Logrus, it wasn't
all that pleasant for me to be in there, but apart from that I was glad to find
that there had been no difficulties. The children were all doing fine and the
time flow had only speeded up a little bit when Taureth had restructured their
home, so for them only a little time had passed since I had last seen them. It
was clear that Taureth was really a master when it came to this kind of building
stuff, yet for all his expertise I didn't think it a good idea to leave the kids
inside, especially since it had become harder for me to change the settings. I
had Anna and the kids gather some of their essential belongings before I guided
them out of the pocket into castle Amber. It wasn't ideal, but with most people
gone and the main troubles still being in the Courts I guessed it would do.
Perhaps I would construct some new pocket Shadow for them one day, perhaps not.
When I had made sure that the kids had been provided with a large room
which they would share, I once again left them under Anna's care and returned to
the war room, just in time to hear Random's final decision. We would not yet
become involved, he said, but Julian and Benedict were to have the troops ready
to move in at a moment's notice. His rationale was that whatever happened Amber
could not continue to control the Courts in its entirety; the Chaosites had to
be allowed to settle their own problems. However, should a definite threat to
Amber arise, we would be ready to act.
Reactions to Random's verdict were mixed, of course, though Benedict and
Julian are both very good at hiding their true feelings. For myself I felt that
it was probably for the best. If we were to intervene to early in the game we
might well cause the opposite parties to band together against us Amberites, and
then we would have a full-scaled war on our hands. No, careful observation and
alertness was best for the moment.
I managed to catch Benedict before he slipped out again and asked him if
he had any news from Shadow Cardane. He told me that he had not been there when
the barriers between the Shadows had gone up, but the last few reports he'd seen
didn't bode well. Their own civil war was still raging through the whole Shadow,
and the diplomatic question of non-intervention had not yet been settled
satisfactorily. After all, the Tarsh demons did originate from the Courts and as
such they could be seen as an intervention force. Still, Random had not wanted
to become too embroiled in the conflict and it would appear that not much had
helped to change that yet. Hmm, perhaps I should try to convince him that
helping the rebel Cardane was the only logical thing to do, now that the Courts
were too caught up in their own struggle. Not that I really wanted to become
involved in a war, but Wylde could use all the help she could get, and if Amber
didn't take a clear position now, it would have to do so later on when my six
Cardane children would be old enough to pick up the fight for their homeland
themselves. Forcing the issue now might help to avoid an even nastier situation
developing later on.