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Drinking with Adrian

    drian was the first to leave the Family council and I had to run to catch up with him. I finally caught him down the hall. He agreed to speak with me and we entered a deserted parlour. Adrian found a bottle and two glasses while I lit an oil lamp. I wondered if this was private enough.
“When someone walks in, we know that it isn’t,” Adrian said, and of course he was right.

We sat down and I asked:
“Could you tell me what’s the deal with Yaslin and Sherwyn?”
Adrian took a deep breath and poured himself a drink.
“Ehm, her boyfriend… came to Sherwyn,” he said, talking to his glass. “There is free commerce between Amber and Sherwyn; he must have used the shadow paths. I didn’t know he was there. My land is very unstable at the moment. All this instability goes toward darkness; the weather is darker but the atmosphere too. That’s just the way it is. It’s temporary but it will last a while longer. It means that the blood sacrifices have increased also, and there are more robberies, people stay indoors more. There is more crime, and violence. And apparently Yaslin’s boyfriend got caught up in some.”
Adrian hesitated, and finally remembered to pour me a drink too.

“And… well, something… went wrong, so I’ve been told, afterwards. I only heard about it after he was dead, and even later that he was Yaslin’s boyfriend. Then Yaslin came to visit him, didn’t find him and she accused me of all sorts of things. I tried to explain to her how things were with the land, the problems…”
“Such things happen,” I said. The gods know I lost plenty of loved ones to stupid chance. That is what happens when you love a shadow being. A chance arrow, a fall from a horse, even a hard winter or a little sickness can kill them.
“Such things happen,” Adrian agreed. “I can’t help it either but she thought it was my fault and the fault of kings and such. You know your sister better than I do. She left and I found out that her young man had come to Sherwyn for a reason. I’m not sure what that was, but it might have something to do with that group your sister is a member of.”
“I heard about them,” I said. “The Amber Democratic Movement.”
Adrian’s hair was a sheen of gold on his skull. He seemed glad to talk, eager to unburden. I was happy to oblige, I have always liked Adrian.

Adrian drank his drink, whiskey I saw, and I took a sip of mine. I don’t usually drink hard liquor but I guessed I could take it this time. The family dinner and the chocolate I had before had given me a lining to my stomach an elephant would envy. The drink went down nicely and warmed me through.
“Random told me about the Democratic movement,” I said. “And also that Treon was a spy for him.”
“I heard that too.”
“And when my sister heard of his death she went ballistic?”
“Yes. She left angry.”
“But what was her grudge against Monias?”

Adrian refilled our glasses. We had pulled our chairs closer and I put my elbows on the table. The lamp lit no more than the round tabletop and I felt warm and a bit tired, in a pleasant way. I took another swallow of whiskey.

“That’s story number two,” Adrian said. “By my father’s request and with help from Alexander, I had planned a meeting with Monias to make peace and form a united front against the Enemy from Outside.
I proposed it would be held in Sherwyn castle. We met in a secure room, only accessible from one place by a long hall, everything was well taken care of. But a group of masked people armed with crossbows managed to get to us anyway. I was only grazed but Monias got the full load. He went into… thingy, chaos something, he became a big blob. We immediately got Galoran over, but…”
“Exit Monias,” I supplied.
“Exit Monias. When the attackers fled, I followed. Their leader shouted something and I recognised Yaslin’s voice. Also, with this background, it had to be her.”

My gods, what had Yaslin done...? Not only had she almost killed Adrian, her assassination attempt had also ruined an attempt to make peace between warring nations. She should be so ashamed of herself! And she called herself a champion of the people!
That poison she had used also worried me. It is very, very difficult to poison an Amberite, and next to impossible to poison a shapeshifter. There was only one poison I knew of that could kill a shifter. The toxin does not attack the body itself but sends its victim into shapeshifting-overdrive. The body loses all coherency until it is no longer able to support consciousness, and then you die. It only works on shapeshifters, but even people who can shapeshift only a little -like me- can be targeted. It is a very rare venom and extremely hard to come by.

. . . _ . . .

“I have to admit,” said I, “Off the record and I won’t repeat this in a court of law, that it sounds a lot like my sister.”
“You will do anything to save your sister,” Adrian said, “and I will do anything to clear myself of blame. That means I will have to bring her to justice. I have to.”
I nodded.
“I understand you will protect your sister, but what she did is unacceptable, as unacceptable as what Flora is doing. It can’t be allowed. It can’t be, unless she has a big, compelling reason to do what she did, like was the case with Brand. And that is something that will have to come out in a trial.”
I sighed and rested my head on my hands. The whiskey was a comfort.
“Yes, and the death of her boyfriend won’t—“
“It won’t be enough.”
“It won’t be enough,” I agreed.
“And not enough of a reason for me… You can fill in what you want, it’s understandable but it isn’t…”
We both drank some more and stared at the tabletop.
“And I won’t ask you to go easy on Yaslin,” I said after a while. “But aside from that, I take, as far as is reasonable, responsibility for my sister.”
“I’m not holding you accountable,” Adrian protested, “I’m not going to blame you. I think she should answer for herself, not let you clean up after her…”
“It’s not all her fault,” I said and reached for the bottle.
“Okay, you heard Random said she is a born rebel and has problems with authority?”
Adrian nodded.
“The last time we spoke, she mentioned you, and also Treon, and she said: ‘Treon showed me this and that and Treon showed me this group and showed me that kings, that democracies I mean are so wonderful. So I suspect that her… fervent actions against Amber were spurred on by Treon, by the hold he had on her through her love.”
“I think that’s rather steep—“
I shook my head.
“If you speak out, you are accusing Amber. Or Random, I mean.”
“I can’t do so in public but it’s true. And if Treon was the one who reported on Yaslin…”

I noticed I was telling Adrian all my thoughts on the subject, but it felt so good to have someone listen, really listen to me for a change.
“But this has nothing to do with you, with the attack on Monias.”
“It does! She is rebelling. But I thought you said that Treon had infiltrated the organisation to keep an eye on her, not to be an instigator.”
“No. Yes, I mean. He could have kept Yaslin away, away from the rebel rousers. Easily.”
“But she would have to let herself be kept away.” Adrian chuckled. “And I guess it’s rather a family trait, not letting yourself being led I mean.” He grinned to me over his drink. I blinked and pouted.
“It is also a family trait to follow your heart more than your head.”

Adrian mumbled something and chuckled again. “I can’t say for sure but I think that’s a good one, for a trait. Like perseverance. But sometimes it’s just difficult! And she is even younger, in such… life years, or something. She seems rather younger than you.”
“Yes!” I agreed. “I am… pfft, almost a hundred by now. And she… approaching twenty-five? Rather a difference.”
I liked having made Adrian laugh. He seemed a little more relaxed than he had been during the Family council. He liked talking about his troubles too.

Adrian said he didn’t know.
“I was thinking in terms of experience. I didn’t know how old you were. You can stay naïve for a long time, you know. Age doesn’t matter.”
“Yes, no,” I shook my head. “I don’t think Yaslin could have spent a hundred years in shadow and stay naïve. Shadow is such fun! I mean…Fun, you know. But you’ve been there yourself.”
Adrian stared moodily into his glass, which was empty but for a sip. His cheerful mood had gone.

“You can stay naïve in shadow easily. God, I know.”
“Aahhh,” I said pityingly, and patted his hand. I drained my glass. This was good stuff.
“I mean,” Adrian went on, “I spent a long time in shadow, and there were lots of knights, dragons…”
I looked at him.
“Maidens in towers...” he mumbled.
Something in the way he said it suggested that the maidens stayed maidenish even after he rescued them.
“Before, I hadn’t seen any technical shadows either,” Adrian went on, “with Lush and so on.”

Yes, little Lush the ex-prostitute. Luscious, she was, young and vivacious. And Algo courted her much more efficiently than Adrian did, even if Adrian had taken her away from her dead-end life in Angel City.
“Yes, you mean Martin’s shadow. I heard strange tales about that. I’m not familiar with them either. But talking about shadows, remember that trump I made of that dining room of yours, in Sherwyn?”
Adrian nodded.
“Well I had it with me when Alexander pulled me into Galoria with his Nexus tractor beam. So now they have my trump deck and that trump too.”
Adrian nodded again, and pulled the corners of his mouth down while he topped up our drinks.

“I put a number of booby traps in my trumpdeck,” I said, “And I don’t know if Alex and his friends are brave enough to try the trumps but…”
In fact I hadn’t, booby-trapped my trumpdeck I mean, but this was only a little white lie and it would be useful if the story did the rounds.
“But, just in case, it might be a good idea to put a couple of traps down in that room. I remember where it was.”
Adrian said he remembered too.
“No, it’s good that you tell me. It’s a bad thing, but well.”
“No!” I exclaimed and slapped the table.
“And a trump of Yaslin!” Adrian added.
I sighed.
“Alexander has always had a full trumpdeck, it makes no difference. But still.”
“And you don’t have one anymore.”
“No,” I sighed. No trumps at all anymore.
“Inconvenient.”
I nodded.
“I would ask,” I said, “If I could borrow yours but I don’t think Yaslin takes calls.”
Adrian shook his head. “No, you don’t get my trump of Yaslin. Nothing personal.”
“So I didn’t ask.”
We drank some more.

“And then there’s the matter of Flora.”
“The matter of Flora. I hope we can fix it. I gave her a promise, and I have to keep my side of the deal, but I want to keep it as, as… as spare as possible.”
Adrian topped up his drink. I had a good idea:
“Wouldn’t it be nice if we could hand her over to Galoria as the murderess?”
“I can’t,” Adrian protested. “Really I can’t.”
“Wouldn’t it be nice if I could hand her over to Galoria as the murderess,” I chortled.
“That might be good for you too,” Adrian said. “But I don’t want to talk about that now. It’s not something I want to know.” He grinned and raised his voice. “It is not an option I want you to keep me informed about.”
“Hum, yes, okay. In that case I might not.”
“Why should you.”
“Indeed.”
Adrian looked comical and I stared at the ceiling in mock innocence. How could I, with all the work I still had to do, with my teensy little store of power stand against Flora’s centuries of malicious experience? But yet, at that moment, anything seemed possible.

“Did you make her pay taxes yet?”
“Not yet,” said Adrian, “but I will.”
“Good.”
“Good plan, though.”
“And possibly, for practicing a profession, she will need a licence?”
Adrian protested that that would be up to Sereva and that Sereva would not like it.
“It would be childish,” he said.
“C’m on. Just to annoy her.”
“It would be petty. Flora knows I disagree with what she does, she knew that before the… the recording in the gemstone.”
I nodded.

“So, how are things between you and Sereva?” I asked. Sereva was a high lady of Chaos who had tricked Adrian into taking her as his future wife by getting herself pregnant with his child. During the fixing of the Logrus and the resulting civil war, she lost the child and the engagement was broken off. But lately I had heard rumours that she had moved into Sherwyn’s palace and ruled from it like a queen.
“We are going to get married.”
I applauded with glee.
“Have you set a date yet?”
“No,” Adrian said. “Things keep coming up, lots of things.” He managed a chuckle that was bitter and cynical at the same time.
“Haven’t had the time.”
“I know how it is,” I said, suddenly morose again. “Buh.”
I took up my glass again.

“How is your—?“
“No. I don’t want to talk about it.”
I noticed I was pouting and pulled in my bottom lip. “You heard that he re-married Trisha?”
“Vague rumours.”
“Well, he has. The annulment of his marriage has been… annulled.”
“Not fun,” we said, both at the same time.
“I didn’t know that was possible.”
“It’s all his family’s fault,” I muttered. “And he’s having a baby with her too. I should trash the place but I’m too tired.”
“Can’t you let the child be born and take action then?”
“Yes, but then there’s… She’s the mother of his child and Gran won’t want her dead, and the kid will hate me for the rest of my life… I mean: ‘you murdered my mother!’ I can’t very well have a relationship with its father then, can I?”

“No-one needs to know.” Adrian smiled a wan smile. “As long as you make sure no-one finds out.”
I sighed and shook my head.
“No, I shouldn’t. I can’t. There’s no future…”
“It’s none of my business anyway,” Adrian said and I remember thinking that it was years since I had such a nice chat. I played a bit with the drops that we had spilled on the table, drawing swirls and circles and squares. Pretty whiskey.

. . . _ . . .

“So, what happened to your hair?” I asked. When I first met him he wore it long; curls down to the shoulder. Later he cut it shorter like you could see on his trump, but today it was no more than a short sheen of gold over an almost bald skull.
“We were on a mission and it had to go off.”
“Sad.”
We bickered in a friendly way about the whiskey, me saying that he drank too much and he insisting he didn’t. Arguing, we came back on the subject of Yaslin.
“I gotta do something,” I said. “It’s just that I have no faith in the justice of Galoria. You heard my story about Estefan.”
“So make sure the trial doesn’t take place in Galoria. That can be arranged. You should have people from all four poles of reality present.”
“And it should be held on neutral territory. Not in Galoria. And she is banished from Amber. I don’t know if Sherwyn…”
“No. Impossible.”
“Yeah. Sherwyn’s too closely involved. Then the Courts...?“

Adrian said that the Courts of Chaos were an option but I objected. Having it there would make the trial even more of a political issue. You can never trust the Major Houses to keep their noses out of a business that wasn’t theirs.
“You should keep control of the trial,” Adrian said. “You can’t do that in Galoria. Or so I heard.”
Because he seemed to want to hear it, I told Adrian the story of my Galorian adventure. He had a question but not one I would have expected:

“How did it feel to have Murlas in your mind?”
I shuddered.
“Oh gods.” I rubbed my eyes with my knuckles.
“It was hell, but somehow also therapeutic. I kicked him out and I’m rather proud of that. But don’t tell him; that it’s been good for me. I got his apology and I rather like it that way.”
“It was a rescue attempt, really, it was an accident. We were there to save you.”
I nodded and explained I had wanted to stay a prisoner because of Estefan. They shouldn’t have been playing with powers they didn’t understand, I chided.
“But I appreciate the gesture,” I said. “Maybe next time I will need rescuing. But I know Murlas rather well since the accident, I could draw you a great trump of him.” We poured and drank. “But Murlas didn’t suffer from the incident, and neither did I. It was just inconvenient, the timing, and Monias was staring down doctor Bowmore’s cleavage and there was nothing I could do. And I don’t like Monias very much anymore.”

“But you didn’t want him dead, did you?”
Oh right. Monias was dead. I had forgotten.
“No, of course not. But mostly because if he were, it would mean Alexander on the throne of Galoria.”
“And it would mean that Yaslin is not accused of manslaughter.”
I hadn’t looked at it that way. Even through the haze of alcohol, I could see Adrian was trying to tell me that Monias probably wasn’t entirely dead. If there was a chance he wasn’t --and you never know with immortals, especially when they are also shapeshifters-- Yaslin would be off the hook. That was a cheering thought. Unfortunately, it was immediately followed by an un-cheery one.

“But the way Deirdre reacts to what Brand did to her… She wants blood, she does. And that wasn’t even manslaughter. He pulled her into the Abyss but that could have been an accident, couldn’t it? And yes, it cost her years of her life but she didn’t die. And still she wants revenge.”
Adrian said “Yes”.
“If Monias survives I don’t think he will be very pleased, with Yaslin I mean. I’m afraid he will become her enemy.”
“And if Monias dies,” Adrian said, “Galorian will want to avenge his son’s death.”
“And if Galoran wants her dead, she’s gone.”
“So it’s either a powerful enemy or standing accused of murder.”
I rested my head on my arms.

“But can’t you draw a trump of her?”
I said I could but she would not take the call.
“You can draw it anyway.”
“I don’t have the time. Do you have a fast time shadow?”
Adrian said he didn’t, and that I should just make time.
“I have to make time to sleep,” I pouted. “I could ask Random for a fast time shadow. But I don’t care anymore. I brought him Llewella and he…”

Oh, Llewella. I remembered something about Llewella!
“By the way, I’m angry with you! You hit me on the head when I wanted to tell you and Murlas that we couldn’t take Llewella to this world, and you didn’t listen and I was left to deal with the mess!’
“It’s your fault!” Adrian said. “You should have just said so and not started a whole story. We were in a hurry, remember? All it would have taken were five words: ‘we can’t take her with us’, that would have been enough.”
We counted on our fingers.
“Okay, six words. But not an entire story.”
I grumbled into my glass but without much conviction.
“She can’t go. Three words.”
I nodded. Solid maths, that was. Why was I angry again? Oh yes: Random.

“So I bring Llewella to Random, and also Estefan, and he’s quite the whiz kid this Estefan, and Random should be pleased—“
“You should be careful what you say,” Adrian said, and somehow the conversation turned to atomic bombs. I knew what they were, I had learned about them from a computer game I played in the Flying Egg. Apparently, Adrian knew them too.
“You should learn to see things in perspective,” Adrian said. “Think about the consequences of your actions. Not everything is easy; you should take the time for things. Or not, and then it’s a conscious decision. Just do it. Do. Chose.”

I looked up at Adrian, trying to focus. He had been relaxed during our conversation but now he looked very sad again, and hurt.
“You are speaking from… personal experience?” I asked. Bombs, choices…
“It doesn’t work like that for me,” he said. “With me, new problems crop up all the time. Every time I make a plan, something comes up and I’ve got a new crisis on my hands. I’ve always got one. I’ve always got a crisis somewhere.”
“You, me and the rest of the world,” I said and I emptied my glass.
Adrian agreed and we were silent.

The silence lasted. I inspected my right forearm. Somehow, it had become drenched with liquor. When I looked up at Adrian, he looked worse than I had ever seen him. It had been a nice chat, but now it was over. Adrian opened the door for me like a real gentleman.

In the hall, we met Dorian and Murlas. They had been talking too, but now were finished. Adrian wanted to speak to Dorian and they left together, which left me alone with Murlas. Yukkie. I managed a charming smile. Murlas said something about going back but I wanted to go to my rooms. Murlas bowed, and I curtsied, and I made it to my rooms without falling over once.

. . . _ . . .

To be continued…

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