Chapter 078: Sea Ride On Amber, Mark II

"Though you learn by the things that you did and have gone before you

And you trust that you won't make the same mistake

By the time that you realise anything you're only half through

It's the fool who wins, for you it's just too late"

All That is Real - Magnum

     The next morning we assembled for breakfast in Melusine's room. By some unspoken mutual agreement neither of us mentioned what had happened between us the night before, and fortunately we didn't have to, for Fabian had sufficiently recovered from our flight to be able to start asking some questions. His hair was still quite long, but he was now clean-shaven and the resemblance with Brand was stronger than ever, just as Melusine had said. I had some difficulty in keeping from staring at him. When he demanded some explanations as to the why and wherefore of our situation, however, I exchanged a brief glance with Melusine which seemed to annoy him somewhat. Apparently, he felt that she and I had been running this show long enough without giving him a say in the matter.

    "Come on," he said to Melusine, "you at least ought to know a bit more."

    "You should be content to be out of there," she muttered in reply.

    "Well, thank you very much." The sarcasm was clear. "And what are you going to do with me now? Are you simply going to take me home to Twilldain?"

    "Are you sure that's where you want to go?" she countered.

    "Why not? Twilldain is my House, after all."

    Melusine shrugged and looked at me. For a few moments I wrestled with the decision that faced me, unsure either way what the outcome might be. Then I ventured: "There is some uncertainty..."

    "What do you mean?"

    "You bear a strong resemblance to somebody else...," I began, but before I could continue he interrupted me with a frown.

    "I've had that happen to me before," he said. "A few people have told me that I look quite a lot like Prince Brand, or something like that."

    "You do," I said after another exchanged glance with Melusine.

    "Well, everyone knows that I'm not him. I'm Fabian of the House Twilldain." There didn't seem to be any doubt in his assertion, but perhaps his confidence only served to hide his deeper uncertainties.

    "I would very much like to believe you," I sighed, "if it were not for the fact that those dreams that you told me about seem to fit the events in the life of our Reality's Prince Brand in a suspiciously close fashion."

    "Ah, so that is why you were so interested in my tales." Anger, annoyance, suspicion, but also a little fascination strove for dominance over his expression. "Very nice," he spat, "and where, if I may ask, is that Prince Brand of yours now? If I were to believe my dreams, I don't think that things ended happily for him, or did they?"

    "No, you're right there. The last that was seen of him was when he fell into the Abyss."

    "And that's it? He never resurfaced?"

    "Not to my knowledge. However, we've learned since then that the Abyss itself extends through at least several and possibly all Realities, and that it is a possible way of travelling from one Reality to another."

    "So, when you heard my story, you concluded that I must your missing Prince Brand."

    "Not right away, but after a while the suspicion began to creep up on me, yes."

    He looked away and pondered all I had told him. "No," he said suddenly, "I can't believe it. Theoretically it could be true, I know, but I really don't think so. Why would people tell me that I'm Fabian of Twilldain if I'm not? If your suspicions were true, I would have been either a nameless stranger, or people would simply have believed me to be this Reality's Prince Brand." He had a point, but still... The similarities between his story and what had happened to Brand were too great to be simply ignored.

    "I can't explain why they call you Fabian of Twilldain," I conceded. "Perhaps you're really him after all. But you were looking for an explanation to your dreams..."

    "And this goes a long way towards it, I know. Only, I want all the pieces to fit together," he grumbled in frustration, "and they just won't. What happens to you when you travel to another Reality? Are there any changes?"

    "I have to admit that I'm not all that experienced where it comes to Reality travel, but I do know that some Realities may be harmful to people from certain other ones. However, as you can see I have relatively few problems functioning in this Reality, except for the fact that I cannot use my Pattern abilities like I'm able to do back home." This gave him an idea.

    "If I were able to use the Pattern in your Reality, it would be a clear indication that you're right, wouldn't it? Yet there is also a possibilty that something very bad will happen to me as soon as I set foot in your Reality."

    "I'm afraid I can't offer you any guarantees," I sighed.

    "Well, it's all academical anyway," Melusine cut in, "because we've no immediate way of getting home. But I guess the choice is up to you, Fabian: either you go back to the Courts, or you come with us to see whether you're really Brand."

    "I don't know. I would like to have some certainty. I guess that's most important to me. If I come with you and it turns out that I'm not your Brand after all, how am I going to get home again?" He directed his question to the both of us, but I immediately acquiesced to Melusine. She was the residing Nexus expert. She merely shrugged, though.

    "I guess someone will have to bring you back. The gates are not open to everyone."

    "How long are we going to stay here anyway?" I asked.

    "We seem to have a slight problem," she sighed. "When I went out to buy us some new clothes and stuff yesterday, I also had a look at the local Nexus gate, and it simply won't be opened. Either someone has found a way to close it to the likes of me, or something has happened to upset the entire Nexus system." Which would be a real problem. I recalled that the gate near our prison had also failed to open and cursed inwardly. "There were some rumours earlier," she continued with a hint of hesitation, "of some corruption that had affected some of the Nexus tunnels, but I don't know any of the details. There's one thing we might try: we could travel to this Reality's Amber and locate the gate that's closest to it. If something has corrupted part of the system, the Pattern's influence might have shielded that particular gate just enough to keep it operable. I'm not sure whether the Logrus would have a similar effect."

    Well, it was not much of a chance, with too many mights and coulds for comfort, but it seemed to be the only one we had. Unless, of course, you would count jumping into the Abyss as a viable alternative, and I was neither desperate nor crazy enough to consider that option. I looked at Fabian who appeared lost in thought. The wail of sirens could faintly be heard in the distance, but there seemed to be less gunshots during the day than at night. I guessed this was a relatively safe place to hide out for just a little bit longer. Even if our pursuers could track us to this Shadow, they would have a hell of a time locating us in this city. And although we were a bit rested, it wouldn't hurt to wait a bit longer if we were to essay the long and arduous journey to Amber.

    "Okay," I said, "I suggest we stay here for one more day. This will give Fabian the time to make up his mind about whether or not he will come with us, and perhaps you could try the local Nexus gate one more time to see whether anything has changed. If that way is still closed to us, we must find a way of getting to Amber safely."

    Melusine nodded stiffly and after a moment's hesitation Fabian did so too. When we had finished our breakfast, both of them expressed a wish to venture out and explore a bit of the city. I declined and offered to stay put, so that they could easily find me if need be. We agreed to meet back here at dusk, and Melusine promised to take care of provisions for dinner. There was still enough left from our morning meal to sustain me through the day, so there was really no need for me to go out. I spent most of the day asleep, gathering strength for an undoubtedly long trek through Shadow. During the few hours that I was awake, I became rather restless, though, and I started flicking through the channels on the television till I found one that appeared entirely devoted to animated cartoons; although I had some difficulty understanding some of their premises, their colourful antics kept me moderately entertained and their nervous tension somehow seemed to echo with something from inside me.

    Peculiarly, that strangely tense feeling I'd had once or twice before had returned once again. I still didn't know what it was or where it came from, but during the next couple of days it wore off again and it didn't return for some time. That one day, it made me rather restless, though. At one point I took out my Trump deck and shuffled through the cards, stopping to regard some of the Trumps a bit closer. On a whim I shuffled and laid out a tarot spread, but apart from a vague sense of dread and some hints of battle and danger I couldn't divulge any clear message from it.

    The others both returned well before nightfall; even though they didn't say so, I sensed they too felt unsafe in this extremely violent Shadow. Melusine told us with a characteristic impatient frown that the Nexus gate had once again failed to open to her bidding. It would seem that that way was permanently closed to us. Fabian had some interesting tidings, however: he had done some checking and had found that although there weren't any regular trade routes between this place and Amber, there was currently a fleet of about fifteen ships in the harbour that would be sailing a good way in the general direction of Amber. These weren't passenger liners, of course, but he suggested that we might try to sign on as crew till such time as we would choose to disembark and continue our journey by some other means. Naturally, this carried the implication that he would be travelling with us, but though his alternative sounded promising I was not without my suspicions.

    "How far are we from Amber anyway?" I asked Melusine.

    "Quite far. Just about halfway between Amber and Chaos, actually. What kind of fleet is this exactly?" she demanded from Fabian.

    "Some kind of supply convoy," he said with a shrug. "They're not from this place, originally, they're just passing through."

    "Do you happen to know who is in command?" I asked, a feeling of foreboding closing in on me.

    "No, but we can find out, if you think it's important."

    "Please, do so." The chance that it was in fact one of this Reality's Amberites was too great to be discounted, and I didn't know whether we would want to travel right under their noses, especially where Fabian was concerned. However, the name of the commander that he returned with (after he had first eaten his dinner) was that of one captain Witteman, a name that I was totally unfamiliar with and that also didn't sound like any alias an Amberite might use. Although I couldn't dispell my misgivings completely, this supply fleet sounded like the perfect opportunity for a quick journey through Shadow. The alternative would be the slow and no doubt strenuous hike on foot, depending solely on Melusine's trinket, which would probably be more likely to draw attention from other Shadow travellers. Melusine couldn't think of any serious objections either, so we decided to try our luck and sign on, making sure that we all ended up together on one ship. You never knew what might happen, and I didn't particularly relish the thought of getting separated.

    We had one more day before the fleet would leave port, but we didn't do anything special, save for Fabian having his hair cut and dyeing it black at my insistence. His resemblance to Brand was just too strong to take any chances. However, his make-over didn't help all that much, for with black hair he looked a lot more like Corwin. Short of shaving him bald there didn't seem to be much we could do to make him look less conspicuous, so we figured that he would just have to remain out of sight as much as possible.

    Early the next day we reported for duty at our assigned ship, the Gouden Gans, and an hour or so later the fleet hauled anchor and set sail. Right away I was happy that we had chosen to sign on, for life on sea was a welcome change from my days in prison or our recent headlong flight through Shadow. Sure, there was plenty of hard work, but the crew was a large one, hailing from various places, yet working side by side with a generally jovial air. Although I had not personally spent too much time on such large sailing ships, I had enough experience with smaller types of craft to pick up on the necessary skills with due ease and speed. Melusine, too, had little trouble finding her place; the crew was already a mixed one, with nearly a third of them women, so she didn't draw any special attention. Like me, she ended up doing a lot of deck and rigging work, relying a lot on her relatively greater physical strength. It seemed to me that during our voyage she became a bit more relaxed, as if she was shedding her personal worries or at least postponing them till such time when they would become more imminent again. Now and again we would work together and sometimes we would talk a little, just simple friendly talk. However, I kept just a bit of a distance between us, wary of infringing on her like I had done that night, and I believe she sensed and appreciated my forebearance.

    We saw less of Fabian than of each other, since he had ended up working as a cook's mate below decks. Only in our spare time the three of us sometimes got together and talked a little; during these occasions I often ended up regaling Fabian with more general stories of Amber, of which he now and then seemed to recall some specific aspects. A very few times my talk became more personal, as I would reminisce for instance about my children, but my uncertainty about how much time was passing back home and the accompanying sense of dread and despair made me quickly skip such subjects. I took to spending some more time with the other members of our crew, those who knew and cared little about Amber and to whom the name Dorian was one like any other. It was all too easy to lose myself in anonymity like that, but of course it could only last so long.

    We travelled the high seas for a couple of days, picking our way through various Shadow paths under variously shaded suns and skies, and nothing out of the ordinary occurred, until the tenth day since we had left the harbour. It was just past noon when we passed through to another Shadow and found ourselves suddenly near an archipelago around which the sea was dotted with a sheerly countless number of battle ships. Most of them flew a flag bearing a silver rose on a black field, but there were also a number of black flags with the by now familiar silver moon. Apparently, our supply convoy had reached its destination.

    Our immediate job was indeed to distribute our cargo to the various ships closest to us. They had been manouevred in that position earlier on; ours was but one of many supply fleets, and one of the last at that. It didn't take too much trouble to find out that this huge armada was indeed under the command of Prince Corwin and his sister Princess Deirdre, and that they would be sailing towards their home, Amber. Unfortunately, this Shadow was as far as our own convoy would go. If we wanted to get any nearer to Amber, we would either have to join the battle fleet or disembark and start walking. We were still a long way off from our destination, though, and Melusine assured me that the Nexus gate that was closest to Amber lay somewhere in the vicinity of Rebma, so we would have to get pretty close. Considering the whole situation combined with what I remembered from our own Reality's history, we didn't seem to have much of a choice, for a journey across land would most likely lead us straight into the arms of another army. We briefly talked it over amongst ourselves, but in the end we couldn't do anything but sign on as regular sailors on one of the warships, taking care to choose one under Corwin's command and staying well away from the flag ship. With our luck, any of Deirdre's men would almost certainly recognize us, but we might be safe among Corwin's crew. Of course, we had to keep Fabian well out of sight, but fortunately relatively few of the crew remarked upon the resemblance with their commander, whom they appeared to regard as some kind of god, and they all passed it off as a lucky fluke, making Fabian into some kind of mascot or lucky charm.

    As soon as the last ships of the armada had been supplied and the last of the convoys had left, a magical projection appeared in the air above the entire fleet, confirming my fears and suspicions. It was Corwin, giving a rather long-winded yet inspiring speech, urging his men on to their great and righteous purpose: the battle against the usurper Eric, who currently ruled in Amber. With the support of his lovely sister, the Princess Deirdre, he would rout the opposition and reclaim the throne of Amber, which was rightfully his. Well, actually all of this was a good deal longer and more stirring, but this was what it boiled down to.

    I thought back to our version of these events: our Corwin had not had Deirdre's support, but Bleys had been at his side, commanding the army over land, and some rumours among the crew confirmed that this was the case over here as well. I wasn't entirely sure, but I didn't think the fleet had managed to reach our Amber, although Corwin and Bleys's ascent along the steps of the Kolvir was the stuff of legends. Had there not been a battle at sea? I didn't remember clearly, but I believed there had indeed been one. Even though things might occur very differently in this Reality, I couldn't shake a feeling of apprehension, and during the next few days this feeling only grew stronger and stronger. Where the voyage with the supply fleet had been nice and uneventful, the armada seemed to be running into one problem after the other, each of them taking their toll in sunken ships. Five were lost in a storm, another five were plundered by pirates, three collided with a sudden spread of icebergs, and so on and so forth. Slowly but surely the fleet was being whittled down to opposeable proportions.

    During one of our increasingly fewer moments together I relayed to Melusine and Fabian what I knew about this episode in Amber's history, some of which had come back to me now that I was caught up in these self-same events. Naturally, they were less than amused, even though I explained that things might reach a different conclusion here because of Deirdre's involvement.

    "What was Corwin's downfall back in our Reality?" Melusine wanted to know.

    "I believed it involved Caine," I said. "I'm not sure, but they might have made some kind of deal, which Caine later came back on, blocking Corwin's passage and destroying his fleet in a huge battle. I don't know all the particulars, but this is what I have gathered from the talk among our relatives."

    "I wonder whether this Corwin has made a similar kind of deal with Caine," she mused.

    "I don't know," I sighed, "and I can't think of any way to find out. As far as I can see we seem to be completely caught up in the course of events. The only thing we can do is try to stay alive and hope for the best." Neither she nor Fabian seemed to like my answer very much, but then neither of them could make any other helpful suggestions. We were stuck, there were no other words for it.

    Yet, perhaps the crew were right in thinking Fabian to be some kind of mascot, for somehow our ship managed to sail through all the various disasters and remain relatively unscathed. That is, until the time when the storm hit. Now, there had been a few storms before, but this really was the big one, lasting for at least several days. It was tough. We had to work night an day to keep our barge afloat, with little time for food and no time for rest. But even our best efforts couldn't keep the ship intact against such a natural force, and we lost quite a few crew members too. Sometime during the second night, while we trying to secure the rigging, the fellow next to me was torn from the main mast by a powerful blast of wind, and I could only barely hold on myself. He had been a quiet man, yet a strong and faithful worker. He was one of the many. I did not even know his name.

    Slowly we sailed on through our watery hell, ships sinking left and right, until we finally reached the end. In the light of the setting sun, but a few Shadows from our final destination, I surveyed the fleet and estimated that nearly half of its original number of ships had been lost. I wondered whether Corwin had been prepared for such losses when he had first set out. I wondered whether this Corwin would fare any better than ours had done. Four years in a prison cell with your eyes burned out was not exactly a holiday. I couldn't warn him, though, not without him requiring some further explanation. There was no choice but to let history run its course.

    After only one night to recover from the ordeal of the storm, our next challenge appeared on the horizon. It started with a few dots, then a few more, then more and more, till they grew into sails and ultimately turned into a fleet of warships at least as big as ours. They flew a green flag sporting a white unicorn in a slighty different stance than the one on the Amber banner in our Reality, along with some depicting a dagger on a black and green field, probably Caine's personal colours. I cursed. We were very close to Amber, I reckoned, probably somewhere in or close to the Golden Circle, but we were still a long way from Rebma and it seemed nearly impossible to slip away right in the middle of this fleet. We would have to fight along with all the others.

    If there were any communications between the commanders of the two fleets, I was not aware of them. With a grim expression our captain ordered arms to be passed out to the entire crew. Wearily I made ready for battle, taking some care to stay close to both Fabian and Melusine. Should there be a chance of slipping away unseen, however unlikely, we might consider taking it, or in the not so unlikely case that our ship would be boarded and captured we might at least get away together.

    Steadily the fleets drew closer together, like two swarms of hostile insects ready to sting one another to death. Then the vanguards met and the battle began. How to describe such a thing? Words do not suffice to tell of such violence, such carnage, such heroics, such destruction. It was the stuff of songs and legends, which would perhaps never be written.

    Although ours was one of the larger ships in the fleet, we did not really get involved in the real fighting until much later, as if we were being kept in reserve. Now and then the captain would steer us towards nearby friendly ships in need in order to offer assistance, but for most part of the first stage of the battle I had a chance to observe the proceedings from the rigging. In a way it was an educational experience to see two such great tacticians at work. Both the flagships were there in the front lines, capturing and sinking opposing ships left and right, yet studiously staying out of each other's reach, as if they were not ready for that particular confrontation. There seemed to be little pattern in the battle thus far, except for a kind of war of attrition, weeding out the lesser ships to make the whole affair more manageable. It was only later when skill and experience really would start to count.

    The battle had been raging for some time at least, when I saw that Corwin's flagship had taken more damage than it could handle. Signs flashed to and fro, and before I knew it we were setting course towards it. As soon as we came alongside, the remainder of Corwin's crew, his standard, and the great admiral himself transferred onto our ship, and his former flagship was set aflame and left to float or sink. Great! Suddenly the entire battle seemed to be focused on our ship. Fortunately, everyone was too caught up in things to take any notice of us, and Corwin himself was way too busy fighting and giving orders from the bridge to spot Fabian's all too familiar face.

    Now we got to see some real fighting, for Corwin steered us where the battle was thickest. What can I say? It was hell, with people dying left and right, and after every enemy ship that was conquered there was another one ready to take us on. Still, we survived somehow. Now and then we stopped to pick up some new replacement crew from friendly ships that were lost, but all in all we inflicted more losses than we sustained on board of our flagship. It may simply have been the presence of Corwin himself, but it may have been that the three of us made some difference too. Although we took great pains not to draw too much attention, our greater Amberite strength and our superior skill did not go entirely unnoticed.

    Some of Caine's ships were equipped with small ballistas that would occasionally fire some boulders into the fray, even though in this chaotic swirl they sometimes had as much chance of hitting one of their own ships as one of ours. The damage that could be done to our ships in this way was substantial, though, since a lucky shot might breach the hull below the waterline, yet most of them were aimed to destroy the masts and rigging. However, the crew had to watch out as well, for these shots seemed to be coming out of nowhere and they could easily end a person's life in a flash. I had managed to dodge most of these shots, when suddenly a shout from Melusine alerted me to another one that seemed to be aimed straight at me. There was no time to dodge, and in a reflex I struck at the rock with my left hand, severely hurting my knuckles in the process, but deflecting it just enough for me to remain otherwise unscathed. A quick glance told me that at least a few of the crew had witnessed my impossible feat, but there was nothing to be done about it now. I could only hope they would quickly forget about it till the three of us were long gone.

    Meanwhile the battle still seemed quite evenly balanced. I seemed to remember that in our Reality Corwin had had much more difficulty in his fight against Caine, so presumably Deirdre's help did make quite a difference this time around. Corwin's expression seemed fixed in a permanent triumphant grin, which undoubtedly helped to unsettle the enemy mariners that got to face him.

    We had just beaten off two enemy ships in succession and were caught in a lull between those and the next fight, when I suddenly saw Corwin totter and fall back against the railing. I couldn't see his expression all that clearly from where I was standing, but he seemed to be under a lot of mental strain, as if someone were attacking his mind, perhaps through a Trump contact. The captain of the ship and Corwin's commanders tried to talk to him, but I could see that they neither could get through to him nor knew what to do to help him. Soon we had to face the next enemy ship, and with Corwin out of the picture the commanders could do little but fight the good fight and keep the enemy as much as possible away from their fallen leader. Quickly I climbed into the rigging in order to get a clearer view of the entire battle, and I immediately saw that Caine's ships were regrouping into new attack formations, as if he knew when to take advantage of Corwin's momentary lapse. This clearly had to be a concerted attack.

    I thought but for a few moments before I started climbing, dodging, and weaving my way towards the bridge. For better or worse we had thrown our lots in with Corwin and Deirdre, so I had to do what I could to keep him from losing this battle. As soon as we were off to the Nexus gate they could do whatever they wanted to, but until then we had to survive and our best chances of that were if Corwin was alive and well.

    Fortunately, we were just being entered by the next enemy crew, and in the chaos that followed I had little trouble in reaching the fallen figure of Corwin that lay slumped against the railing. His eyes were unfocused, seeing nothing of the carnage around him, and heavy drops of sweat were streaming down from his forehead. Now that I was close, I figured that he must be locked in a Trump duel, one that must have been engaged by his opponent, whoever that might be. Cautiously, hesitantly, I reached out and gripped his shoulder, steadying myself for whatever battle there might be raging inside. Two great minds were there, locked in battle, harnessing each other in ice and mental lightning: Corwin and his brother Eric. I should have known, their rivalry was legend. So focused they were on one another that neither of them appeared to be aware of my presence. I halted momentarily. They seemed evenly matched, but Eric had taken the upper hand because of his Trump attack, which had taken Corwin completely by surprise. Although Corwin was not beaten yet, he desperately needed something to turn the tide and quickly too, for while he was caught up like this Caine would take his chance to decimate the fleet. Well, I had come this far, I might as well go all the way. With all my psychic power I suddenly lashed out, a pure and crackling bolt of power aimed straight at Eric.

    The attack took both of them completely by surprise, but while Eric was frantically wondering where it had come from, Corwin did not hesitate at all. He drew on his mental reserves and hit back at his brother with all his might, forcing him entirely into a defensive position, until the only thing that Eric could do to save himself was to terminate the contact. Relieved, but also rather weary and confused, Corwin began to resurface, blinking his eyes to get a closer look at his unexpeced saviour. However, I was not about to wait around for him to thank me. Stealthily I slipped away again, quickly mingling with the combatants to escape from view. Behind me I heard Corwin call out once, then a short curse when he realised that I had got away.

    He had better things to do than to worry about the mystery that was me. Seeing that their leader was back on his feet again, the commanders immediately started giving him reports on the new situation, and for a while he was entirely caught up in countering Caine's new tactics. After that we had to come to the aid of Deirdre's flagship which had got locked in battle with two enemy ships at the same time. Together we beat them both and left them to burn as a warning to the others.

    After a while it became clear that the brief advantage that Caine had gained during Corwin and Eric's Trump battle had been negated and that we once again seemed to be evenly matched. Both fleets had lost a lot of ships, and if we had continued like this the victor would only have been left with a handful of vessels. Apparently, Caine was not ready to have the Amber fleet sustain such losses, for he switched tactics again, drawing more and more away from direct encounters, while at the same time trying to force our fleet in a direction away from Amber. This appeared to be working too, and when the two fleets finally disengaged, Corwin had little choice but to direct his fleet towards land. Another sea battle, closer to Amber, would be to his disadvantage, for in that case Caine would undoubtedly get support from the likes of Gerard or Julian. The only thing for it was to strike land and hope to join up with the main army under Bleys's command.

    We finally dropped anchor in a natural bay not far away from the Garnath valley. The order came to stay on board till the next morning, so that we could rest and tend to our wounded before facing the possible dangers that awaited us on land. Like Melusine and Fabian I had sustained but few injuries, just a couple of scrapes and bruises. While we ate our meal together, Melusine suggested that this might be a good time to take our leave from the fleet and try to find our own destination, and I had to concur. We could easily swim ashore from here, and later, in the army on land, there would be too many eyes watching us to make our escape. So, after most of the crew had fallen asleep, the three of us crept back on deck and over the railing, to let ourselves sink slowly into the cold ocean water. An unfortunate splash drew the lookouts' attention, though, and soon an alarm was raised, but by then we were too far away for pursuit, and our former crew mates seemed too weary and unwilling to go after us. And so it was that around midnight Fabian, Melusine, and I set foot on the shore halfway between the valley of Garnath and Arden forest, ready for our final lap to the gate back home. I could only marvel that we had got this far.

Previous Chapter

Next Chapter

Back to the index