Chapter 064: Death At The Party
"Garden
party held today
Invites call the debs to play
Social climbers polish ladders
Wayward sons again have fathers"
Garden
Party - Marillion
It was about a week before Lady Emall Grice's big party when Caine
finally made an appearance in Ornach Ways. I reasoned that he must have had some
things to take care of first, and since he didn't offer an explanation I didn't
bother asking for one. As it was, I was happy enough that he had come at all,
hoping that his insights into the Curse could give Taureth's studies a boost. As
I had arranged with Taureth, Caine got a guest suite in the Ways like the one I
and Diana had, and no one seemed to bother very much about him being there: if
Ornach was at all interested in his son's guests, he managed to hide it very
well indeed, and at my insistence Taureth had persuaded the recently returned
Samal to keep well away from our quarters. I had heard that Murlas had
accompanied his lover back to the Courts, yet he had chosen not to stay at
Ornach Ways, but at the residence of his mother's family, the House Ysarn.
Apparenty he was trying to ingratiate himself with them to attain some more
official form of acknowledgement or something, or so it was rumoured. They at
least seemed to be tolerating his presence for the time being, although Lady
Tirga, the Head of the House, was said to have quite a strong dislike for her
illustrious nephew.
The only person
to whom Caine's arrival came as a surprise was Boadice, of course, and her
curiosity nearly went critical at not knowing why he was there. I managed to
evade all of her questions and although Caine was quite polite and charming
towards her, I don't believe she learned anything from him either. Privately,
however, Caine expressed some annoyance at my over-curious cousin's presence at
the Ways, to which I concurred whole-heartedly, but I didn't think that any
elaborate scheme of trying to get rid of her would be worth all the bother.
Besides, Boadice wasn't entirely stupid and she knew when to stop fishing for
answers that weren't forthcoming (even though she often managed to press on well
past this point).
Fortunately, her
work for Ornach and her relationship with Gran kept Boadice quite busy enough;
the rumours of an impending marriage with her boyfriend grew ever more frequent,
as did the ones giving the reasons for them still not having tied the knot yet.
The most important one among the latter had to do with the rather precarious
status of the House Escallwyn: apart from Gran and his brother Frewar the only
other living member of the House was their father. In the current stormy
political climate this was a rather perilous state of affairs for a Major House,
so Gran's father Thron would probably insist on a quick marriage and an even
quicker pregnancy, which knowing my cousin would probably not be to her liking.
Still, she would have to make up her mind quickly if she want to keep Gran for
herself, for there were plenty of willing and fruitful young Chaos ladies ready
to take her place. And I knew, for I had been introduced to most of them by Lady
Grice.
Boadice's
presence was fortunate in a way, for she agreed to do me a little favour by
copying out Taureth's Trump of Ygg as a Pattern Trump for me. I actually asked
for and received three copies, one of which I gave to Diana, keeping the third
one as a spare. It's not that Logrus Trumps cannot be used by Amberites, but the
Logrus energy inside is rather annoying and I found that using Taureth's Trump
tended to give me a slight headache as well as boosting the Curse a bit. As per
our agreement Boa kept the original Trump for her own use. I regarded the job as
only a little bit of repayment for the various problems she had got me into in
the past, but I doubted that she thought of it in exactly the same way.
Apart from
lending his expertise to the Curse research Caine very much went his own way in
the Courts, and I guess that suited him best. He appeared to have many contacts
over here, and there were several things that he felt he needed to look into in
more detail. One of these had something to do with Ornach, that much I gathered,
and after a while he appeared to have come to some sort of satisfactory
conclusion, but what it was remained unclear to me. One of the things I did
discuss with him in private was the question of whether or not to tell Diana and
Taureth the entire story such as he had told it to me. Caine agreed, albeit a
bit reluctantly, that Taureth should know all the details for his studies, but
the matter of Diana he left completely open to me in a typically Caine-ish
fashion, saying that I as her father should decide whether or not she ought to
know about it. I felt a bit annoyed at this, but I guess he was right;
ultimately I decided that we shouldn't keep it a secret from her, but I would
wait for an opportune moment to tell her. Such things have to be handled with
care. Before such an opportunity had a chance to present itself, however, the
day of the big party arrived, with all its consequences.
Just about at
the same time when Caine made his first appearance everyone who was anyone
received a personal invitation from Lady Grice for the ultimate party she was
throwing, which was to be a Gentra masked ball. Any kind of costume was alright,
as long the wearer maintained a human form and his or her identity remained
concealed. The thing about the human form was probably a courtesy towards the
many Amberites who would undoubtedly be attending. There was no special
occassion involved except for her continuing wish to revive the Courts' social
tradition. I said that everyone was invited, but apart from Lady Grice herself
nobody really knew the entire guest list. Considering, though, that both Diana,
Taureth and I had got individual invitations and also keeping Lady Grice's
thoroughness in mind, I figured that no one would have been left out.
The week before
the party was mostly taken up by all kinds of preparations, and I spent a lot of
the time agonizing over what kind of costume I was going to wear. Finally, I
decided upon a classical Shadow Earth outfit: the brightly multi- coloured
diamond motif of a Venetian Harlekino, complete with a white mask and a
three-cornered hat. It seemed fitting in a way, and its overly cheerful design
would probably be enough to confuse others as to my identity.
I was rather
surprised when Taureth came to ask my permission to accompany Diana to the ball.
I saw no reason to deny him, knowing that with him my daughter would be in good
hands, but it made me wonder a bit about whether he was merely being polite or
whether he had some other motive. This request fitted his old-fashioned
upbringing of course, and he and Diana had been spending a lot of time together
lately, thus getting to know one another a lot better. Could it be that there
was something beautiful growing between them? I guessed that I ought to keep an
eye on them, just in case, but immediately berated myself for being too
cautious. Diana and Taureth were both adults and him approaching me in such a
formal manner was indication enough that he would conduct himself with properly
decorum. And if it was truly love blossoming between them, who was I to stand in
its way?
Although, as I
said, we had been invited separately, the three of us decided at least to arrive
at the party together. This had the added advantage that we would know each
other's costumes and would be able to find one another in case of any emergency.
Not that I hoped there would be any, but I had been told that these really big
Chaosian parties were not entirely without risk, since they usually provided
excellent opportunities for trysts, secret negotiations, and of course
assassinations. Still, as I saw no reason to expect any harm to come my way, I
refrained from bearing any kind of weapon that night, save for the customary and
easily concealed deck of Trumps. A sword wouldn't have be appropriate for a
Harlekino anyway.
Taureth had
opted for the sort of classical costume that was usual for these affairs:
loose-fitting trousers, shirt, and coat or cloak, with a simple face mask and
possibly some kind of hat. All these clothes were tailored just so they would
allow free and easy movement, yet disguise their wearer as much as possible, and
most outfits were done in a scheme of two or three distinctive colours. Taureth
was dressed in dark moss green and gold, while Diana's dress was black, blue and
silver. She had braided her hair in a long plait, something she didn't usually
do, and as an extra eye-catcher she had chosen a mask with the features of a
cat, complete with a set of silver whiskers. She would not be the only one with
some sort of animal mask, I was to find, but I don't think I saw a more striking
image during that whole evening (although I know this could just be a bit of
fatherly pride).
In the course of
the various social events leading up to this ultimate party I had on several
occassions set foot in Grice Ways, but none of those earlier visits could have
prepared me for the spectacle that awaited us there on this particular evening.
Lady Grice had had a veritable army of Logrus masters and Shadow decorators
giving her domain a make-over and the result was nothing short of fantastic. The
main entrance to the Ways had been expanded into one enormous hall, which
appeared to be a spatial loop, creating a sort of an infinite dance floor.
Chaotic decorations abounded everywhere, which gave the already quite packed
hall an even more crowded impression. Fortunately, there were a number of
smaller Shadow rooms accessible from the main hall by various Ways, as well as a
few selected environments that existed as bubble Shadows within the main room.
These were slowly floating around at varying heights above the floor, and I
found that somehow the gravity in these Shadows could be manipulated allowing
one to drift from one to the other. The bubble Shadows had all been constructed
around a certain theme, for instance that of the basic elements: there was a
water bubble complete with a sunken city and the remains of mighty ships, an air
bubble that was mainly used for three dimensional dancing, and so on, and so
forth. Upon arrival every guest was provided with the necessary magical spells
that would allow them for instance to breathe underwater or withstand the
scorching heat of the fire bubble. Thus there was no need for shape shifting,
although each guest was of course permitted to supply his own spells if they so
wished.
As for the crowd, well, it's hard to describe. I
had experienced other similarly carnivalesque festivities in Shadow, on Earth
and Telgan for instance, but these were mere shadows compared to this. It was as
if the entire Courts had en masse decided to drop all sense of decorum and use
their disguises as an excuse to do all the things they normally wouldn't dream
of. Now set this entire scene against the background of one of Dali's weirdest
dreams and you're getting close. There were entertainers of every variety:
magicians, jugglers, acrobats, singers, poets, dancers, you name it and it was
there. As a special touch to this pure Gentra occassion the serving demons had
all been given the appearance of small child-like angels, flying around over the
crowd with trays of drinks and hors d'oeuvres. Just looking at this entire
tableau would have been enough to enjoy oneself tremendously, if any had been
allowed to limit themselves to such a passive stance, that is.
Pretty soon
after we had arrived, we drifted our separate ways, but during the evening I now
and again caught some glimpses of Taureth or Diana or both. Not that I was
really on the look out for them, but apart from Lady Grice, who as the hostess
wore no mask, they were the only two individuals that I could put names to. I
guess I could have had some fun trying to figure out some of the identities of
the people around me, but somehow I couldn't really be bothered. As long as I
enjoyed myself, I didn't really mind who my partners were.
There was one
precaution I realised I had to take, though, and I spent a while observing the
crowd with my empowered vision. There, that man in black and silver leading the
purple and white clad lady across the dance floor, he was one. And there was a
man in silver and white, walking by himself. That lady in the peacock outfit who
stuck close to her partner in muted green and browns was one too. As was the
gentleman in grey and black, and that other in completely in black robes even
had two separate imprints. That had to be dear cousin Adrian, the King of
Sherwyn himself. Yes, I had to find out who to avoid having, shall we say more
intimate encounters with; I was already involved in too many fucked-up relations
in my branch of the Family tree as it was, thank you very much, and I didn't
need any more.
As I was
concentrating on discovering all of my relatives who were present at the party,
my attention was suddenly drawn by a youngish man in a silver and indigo costume
waltzing by. There appeared to be something odd and reminiscent of power both
around his right arm and his head. I didn't have time to figure out what it was,
though, for he was gone before I knew it. While I was still pondering this
little mystery, the overwhelming stench of the Logrus suddenly blotted out all
of my senses, and I immediately dropped my Pattern in disgust. It was that man
in black and purple, no doubt about it; one heavy Logrus user if ever there was.
So I ate, I
drank, I danced, and I made merry. As luck would have it one of the ladies
apparently had had a sufficient knowledge of Shadow Earth customs herself and
had come in the guise of a Columbine, the traditional partner of the Harlekino.
Well, of course this was meant to be, so we danced and flirted a bit. I couldn't
tell whether I had ever met her before, and frankly I didn't really care, as
long as we enjoyed ourselves. I knew, however, that she didn't have the blood of
Amber and I also couldn't detect any strong scent of Logrus around her.
At one point she
decided to teach me the finer art of dancing in one of the low gravity air
bubbles, and right away she dragged me over there for a first lesson. It took a
little bit of getting used to, but it wasn't as hard as it looked; it was a bit
like choreographed swimming in air really.
The music was
drawing to a close when a soft ting resounded through the bubble. My Columbine
drifted a bit closer to me and I noticed how all the other couples did the same.
Then suddenly in the blink of an eye the bubble divided into a lot of separate
little bubbles, one for each couple, and they all sped off into different
directions, giving everyone a sudden and in most cases welcome bit of privacy. I
caught Columbine's hand and gathered her in my arms for a kiss, but as I did so
I caught a glimpse of something odd out of the corner of my eye and I turned my
head to get a better view. There was a couple that had been not too far away
from us, a lady in black and white dancing with a man in ochre and blue, and it
was in their bubble that I had seen a sudden flash of something. They were
speeding away in another direction, but before they disappeared from sight I
could clearly make out a third colour against the white of the woman's dress: a
deep and dark bloody red.
Even though I
should have known better, I simply had to find out what had happened to the
woman, so as soon as our bubble came to a halt I started backtracking to where I
thought the other bubble had gone to. My Columbine was a bit petulant at first
at not having received her kiss, but curiosity got the better of her too, so she
needed little convincing to accompany me. I wanted her to be there at my side,
since having extra witnesses is always helpful in such cases. After a few
minutes we discovered a solitary bubble floating around in a dark corner with
clearly only one occupant. Inside I saw that it was indeed the same woman in
black and white that I had noticed before; she had been stabbed with a dagger or
a short sword, and the killer must have had a lot of experience with this sort
of thing, for his single stroke had been enough to seal her fate.
I made sure not
to disturb the murder scene and signalled one of the angelic servants over to
alert Lady Grice. Only a few moments later she arrived at the scene, greeting me
with a smile and a nod, but frowning when she took in all that had happened. Of
course she knew who I was, since all of the guests had been asked to list their
costumes beforehand, which also meant that she knew who the murdered woman was;
she checked the body and confirmed the lady's identity for herself by removing
the mask. I had seen the face before; the last time the lady had been in the
company of my cousin Alexander. After first having lost the official name of
their House, the former Hendrakes would now have to look for a new leader as
well. Lady Belissa Minobee Hendrake was no more.
Lady Emall
questioned me extensively as to what had happened, and I told her all I had
witnessed. When I mentioned the man in ochre and blue, she frowned and shook her
head, saying that nobody she knew of was supposed to be dressed in those
colours. A disguise on top of the regular costume; this had more and more the
air of a professional killing. I didn't really know whether I wanted to be
caught up in this, but since I was the primary witness I felt that I could
hardly refuse to help out our hostess.
Something had
been nagging at me from the moment when I had entered the bubble, and I finally
started concentrating on it to determine what it was. Hmm, it appeared to be a
trail of some sort of power, although it wasn't strong enough for me to
determine which one. Without really saying anything to the ladies I slowly
started following the trail, which a little while later led me to small pile of
clothes, unsurprisingly ochre and blue in colour. Lady Emall questioned some of
the nearby servants and one of them said he had seen the person who had left the
clothes there, but he maintained that it had not been a man but a woman. The
costume she had worn underneath had been green and black, he said. Lady Emall
frowned deeply and asked for a few details concerning the cut and make of the
dress, all of which the little Cupid confirmed. Her countenance was grim as she
turned back to us and spoke that one name: Tirga of Ysarn. Oh dear, a Family
matter after all.
I felt that it
was up to Lady Emall to decide what should be done about this matter, but when
she suggested confronting Tirga directly with the evidence, I asked her whether
a testimony from a mere servant would be enough to implicate a head of a Major
House in a murder case. She saw my point, but worried that Tirga would use this
opportunity to strike again later the same evening, and she didn't want to lose
any more of her guests. Something had to be done to stop her, but what? I
noticed that the power trail didn't stop at the discarded pile of clothes, but
ran on back into the main hall. I explained about this to Lady Emall and
suggested that I'd try and follow the trail even further; hopefully it would
lead us to Tirga, and then we would really have a piece of incriminating
evidence.
The only problem
was that, just as before, I didn't want to go after her alone. I would need
someone I could trust in this matter, and somehow I had the feeling that it had
better be one of my own relatives. All the Chaosians were far too much involved
in their local politics, and I didn't want to take anyone along only to find
when push came to shove that they had secretly been allied to Tirga all along.
Which also meant that dear brother Murlas was right out; yes, I knew he had had
words with auntie Tirga, but he had been trying too hard to be accepted into
House Ysarn lately to be trusted in this. No, I figured I'd better try to
contact Alexander first, since he at least could be trusted to be eager to find
out who had murdered Belissa. Unfortunately, I couldn't get through to him, no
matter how hard I tried. Of course I had no idea whether he was in the Courts at
all at that moment, but still it was damned awkward. Limiting my choice for
backup to those who I was sure were present left me with Boadice, Diana, Adrian
and Caine. After a few deliberations I decided to try for Adrian. I was quite
certain he was here and hoped that he would be willing to help. Also, I figured
that he was least likely to have some kind of agenda concerning either Tirga or
Belissa. That was as far as I knew of course. Luckily the King of Sherwyn was
taking calls.
"Could you
come over to my side for a minute?" I asked. "I could use your
assistance here."
"Alright," he said with a shrug and clasped my outstretched
hand. "What's up?"
"There's just been a murder."
"Ouch, nasty," he said.
"Yes. The victim is Lady Belissa Hendrake." As I said this I
caught a sudden flash of surprise from him, which he quickly suppressed. I
realised that he had not been that surprised to hear that someone had been
murdered, and wondered who else would be biting the dust this night. Perhaps I
had been wrong to ask him for assistance, but now that he was here I could hardy
send him away again without a very good excuse. I would be keeping my eye on
him, though.
"The assassin has left a trail," I continued, "and at this
moment all the evidence points towards Lady Tirga Ysarn." Ambivalent
feelings in him upon hearing that name. Hmm...
"So now what do you want to do?" he asked. "Simply
confront her with what you've found? Or don't you have enough yet for such an
action?"
"All we have for now is a testimony from one of the servants and
that won't do. There is, however, a faint power trail that may lead us to the
killer. Of course, Lady Grice and I would appreciate any form of assistance
you're willing to lend in this case." Adrian thought for a moment, then
nodded slowly.
"I must
admit that I had not really counted on any violent confrontations during this
evening," he said and drew aside his long black cloak to reveal a good
sized dagger. Well, at least he had come better prepared than I had. Lady Emall
had one of the servants surreptitiously bring us a couple of swords so we
wouldn't have to face the assassin empty-handedly. While we waited for the
weapons to arrive, I took my Columbine off to one side and told her there was no
need for her to be part of this. She gladly agreed to go back to the party and
hopefully forget all of this horrid business. I asked her to keep the news of
Belissa's murder a secret for now, but even though she promised she would do so,
I knew that rumours were undoubtedly already flying; this kind of news is very
hard to suppress as any politician can tell you.
So Adrian and I
set off to find the elusive Tirga. Lady Emall, meanwhile, would return to the
party to reassure anyone who might have got word of what had happened. I still
had her Trump, so I could easily contact her once we had found something, which
was a kind of reassurance for us. Following the trail was a slow process,
especially since it led out into the main hall right through the part where the
crowd was thickest. Still, with King Adrian's broad shoulders and overall
daunting appearance keeping the mob at bay I was able to follow the path to the
big water bubble, the one with the ship wrecks and sunken city. Entering this
Shadow reminded me of the one time I had visited the city of Rebma; at first
it's always a bit creepy to realise that you're suddenly breathing water, but
once you get used to it you hardly notice it at all. The same goes for all
movement underwater, you automatically start compensating for it and we
Amberites are all fairly good swimmers anyway.
Our way led us
straight through the ruins of the underwater city, and we kept well on our
guard, for there were many nooks and crannies in which a would-be assassin could
find a place to hide. Fortunately, this didn't prove to be the case: there
appeared to be quite a number of spots occupied, but these were all taken up by
couples whose motto most likely was `make love, not war'. Quite distracting, of
course, and I had to do my very best to stay focused on the power trail. Perhaps
I ought to return here once this whole investigating business was over. First
things first, though...
Slowly we
followed the trail out of the bubble again, only to find suddenly that I had
lost it. Adrian's impatient mutterings were gradually getting on my nerves, but
despite the distractions I managed to retrace the path the bubble had floated,
and indeed, a couple of metres back the power trail reappeared, this time
leading through one of the ways out of the main hall. On the other side we found
ourselves outside in a sort of a volcanic rock garden. For a change the Chaosian
sky was pitch black, leaving us only with the dim glow from some of the lava
pools from which at certain points brief fiery pillars flared up. I noticed with
a slight feeling of unease that this garden was actually situated on the very
rim of the Abyss, as was usual for most of the more prestigious Ways in the
Courts. Great! Visit Chaos, see the sights, witness a murder. All in a day's
work.
Cautiously we
ventured further into the garden, dodging fire, flames, and flares, and looking
for anything out of the ordinary. It was quite hard to keep concentrating on the
trail with the distorting influence of the Abyss nearby, so we had to depend
entirely on our eyes, ears, and other senses. When we had got quite a bit away
from the way, we turned a corner and suddenly saw two figures out on the rim, a
man and a woman, apparently locked in combat. They were so intent on one another
that they entirely failed to notice us as we crept closer. The woman, I saw, had
removed her mask, and from close up I could indeed identify her as Lady Tirga,
but the man still wore his disguise and all I could make out were his colours:
black and grey.
Well, it seemed
that we had found our quarry, but now what? I shuffled out Lady Emall's Trump to
notify her of what was going on. Meanwhile, I glimpsed Adian drawing his sword
and creeping even closer to the combatants. I didn't know what he was planning
to do, but as long as he was between me and the two dangerous people with the
swords I figured I had no cause to complain.
As soon as I got
through to Lady Emall and described the scene, she clasped my hand and appeared
beside me to take it all in for herself.
"Do you have any idea who the other guy might be?" I asked her.
She frowned and started shaking her head, but then hesitated.
"Black and grey...," she muttered. "Prince Caine is
wearing black and grey. But I can't say for certain whether it is truly
him."
Oh, great! You
find out the identity of your true father and the next thing you know is he's
battling some homicidal maniac on the edge of the biggest hole in existence. I
quickly began concentrating on finding out whether the masked man had Amber
blood or not, and with a sense of relief I concluded that he didn't. That is, I
was fairly sure he didn't. The Abyss was still screwing up my powered senses of
course, so I couldn't be a hundred percent certain, but I really didn't think
that it was Caine. I noticed that the power trail we had been following led
straight towards Tirga and the mystery man, but it was impossible to tell who of
those two was the source. Halfway between us and them Adrian turned back and
shrugged questioningly, asking for some indication on how to proceed.
"I'm fairly sure it isn't Caine," I said to Lady Emall.
"Peculiar," she said. "But then who...?"
"I don't know," I sighed. "What do you want us to
do?"
"I am not sure," she mumbled and started moving forward. Adrian
saw her coming and waited for her to reach his spot, while I followed her at a
few paces distance.
Suddenly a blue-ish flare sprang up behind us and blazed a trail
past me towards the people on the rim, missing me by less than a metre and very
lightly scorching my hair in the process. Some kind of fireball... It struck
both the combatants, enveloping them in an eerie blue glow. I watched both of
them teeter on the edge for a moment, before they dropped as if in slow motion
into the Abyss. Who...?
I scanned the
garden for the one who had fired that spell. It had been bursting with Logrus
energy I had felt when it passed me so closely, but that only narrowed the field
of suspects to all those who had walked the damned thing. There! A silhouette of
someone running off. No way of catching him in time before he would reach the
party and could disappear in the crowd. Damn!
I turned back to
the others and saw that while I had been lucky, Lady Emall had not. The fireball
had seared most of her right arm, and as I rushed to her side I saw that she was
in considerable pain. Her shape shifting was already kicking in, however,
forming a new protective layer of skin over the burnt part. Not that it was
exactly a picknick, though, but it seemed she would be alright. Adrian on the
other hand appeared unharmed; knowing his reflexes, he probably had been able to
get out of harm's way just in the nick of time. He returned from checking out
the view from the rim and shook his head. Well, if they had survived the
fireball, they would have a hell of a job getting back to our reality.
The first thing
I did was go through my Trumps and try to contact Caine. I had been fairly sure,
but it wouldn't hurt to be entirely certain. To my relief I immediately got
through to him, however, as if he had been ready to react to any kind of call. I
was glad to see that I had been right, but then I noticed that he was, shall we
say, busy assuaging the needs of the Curse. Oops.
"Just
checking," I mumbled and broke contact. He would undoubtedly get back to me
as soon as his hands were free, but it wasn't all that urgent. There would be
time. For now I was relieved that we wouldn't have to stage any blood rituals; I
had had enough of those for a lifetime.