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AMBER
Boadice’s diary,
Session 92
Played on the 30th of August, 1999
Written by Jopie Schekkerman, based on a campaign by Astrid Tops.
ime in Ornach ways had been speeded up to give me time to prepare; prepare to take on Flora and get about a million neglected ducks in a row. First there was the army. Bleys was working hard and troops were arriving every day. ‘Every day’ for us, that was. Ornach sulked and kept away from the troops. He wasn’t all that pleased with his fast time ways; he had slowed them down because he found the King Finding Procedure extremely boring. But if he wanted his daughter’s trump back I had to fight Flora for the Keep of the Four Worlds, so he let me have my way. When I asked him why he turned the speed down in the first place (I thought he needed the time to search out the lost trumps of his children) he told me he had people working on it and when they found something, he would be the first to know.
So, the variable time-speed of Ornach Ways that so inconvenienced me in the first place was now working to my advantage. I trained the army but I also spent a lot of time in Chaos form, exercising in it and getting used to it. I practised on land, under water and in the air. Fighting on the wing is hard, by the way. I got hurt. There were a number of winged guard demons in Ornach Ways who were more than happy to teach the little lady a thing or two, and they did not pull their punches. They taught me the hard way that when you make a mistake in mid air, you pay for it first when you make it, second while you’re falling, struggling to right yourself and pulling muscles you did not know you had, and finally when you hit the ground. No fun.
Fighting under water was easier. My razor edges I could use as fins and if I kept my wings close to my body I was pretty fast. With a breath-under-water spell fighting was rather straightforward, without one it was mostly a matter of endurance.
My recuperation time I spent studying shadow math with Taureth. And guess what? He was having a love affair with Diana! Isn’t that cute? At first I thought that was why my little cousin spent all her time here in Ornach Ways but that could not be true; Dorian sent her here after she stabbed Caine in the back. But she wasn’t here to escape Caine’s wrath because soon after she’d arrived, Caine came to Ornach Ways and the two of them were perfectly cordial to each other. Perhaps she was here to keep an eye on the research Taureth was doing for Dorian? Maybe, but there was no way to tell. I reminded myself I had to keep my nose out of other people’s business. Difficult, but there you are.
But even though I wished Taureth and Diana all the happiness in the world I wondered if I had to intervene. Taureth was not a normal Chaosite; he was the son of an Archai. The longer I thought about the pair of them the less I liked it. My working theory was that Archai compared to Amberites the way we do to shadow people, and we all know how those relationships work out. My mother was abandoned and spent her life alone and I didn’t think Diana’s mother was having a fulfilling relationship with Dorian either. Nobody ever mentioned Alex’s and Adrian’s mother. Damn… Maybe I had to tell Diana about Archai but Taureth and she seemed so happy. And if I did, she would tell Taureth what I said and he would tell Ornach and then the cat was out of the bag. Did Taureth know what he was? But if I didn’t tell them, Diana could get hurt. I decided to tell my second cousin what I knew about Archai as soon as I could do so safely. The poor girl... On the other hand, she was happy and relatively safe where she was; not many people get that. She would be all right as long as she didn’t get pregnant.
. . . _ . . .
Still, in that dark place at the back of my mind another plan had germinated. The seed was sown by my talk with Murlas, not by something he said but something I was thinking after we had our conversation. What would happen after Ornach either defeated the Enemy or had been defeated by them? Whatever happened, chances were slim he would stay in this reality. And when he left, what would happen to Ornach Ways? What will happen to the House and its allied Minor Houses? Some opportunistic Chaos houses would snap them up, that’s what would happen. And wouldn’t it be nice if some of it found its way into my greedy little paws? Or, maybe most of it? I would need a seat in the Major Council to keep the allied Minor Houses so I probably could not keep them all, but what about the rest? Ornach Ways was a big, old, venerable piece of prime real estate with plenty of land that bordered on the Abyss. Sure, all those grey stone blocks, gothic arches and dark windy corners were not exactly to my taste. It did not even have the grace of true gothic architecture. Escallwyn ways were much nicer. But Ornach Ways had an atmosphere all of its own and you could feel its history down in your bones. I wanted these Ways for myself, and the land, and everything that went with it. Hell, just the library was a treasure in itself. So I started to sink my hooks into the Ways.
How did I do that? The foundations of my work were already in place: I was Ornach’s secretary. In the organisation that made the Ways a living entity and not a block of stone I was already number two. A thorough knowledge of how the Ways worked and of all the people who worked and lived in it was what I needed, and that I could get. I settled disputes, solved problems and did favours, winning trust on the way. To Ornach it looked like I was taking my job seriously and was shifting a lot of work. It is something I do well; running an organisation was one of my hobbies before I found Amber. And if for some reason people who were loyal to me ended up in key positions, that was all a matter of competency, wasn’t it? Really it was.
That part was easy. The servants were hired only months ago when Ornach reclaimed his Ways out of Chaos. Most I had interviewed myself. They were clearly -and out of the ages old tradition of their class- loyal to the head of their House and not to me, and they would report to Ornach if they thought what I did was bad for the House or its head, but that did not matter. I might never harm Ornach; I was planning for an eventuality after he was dead or gone.
I could go anywhere I liked within the ways except for a couple of places. Ornach’s private chambers and Taureth’s laboratory were of course out of bounds. No-one else was allowed into my studio either. But Taureth’s laboratory was also Diana’s guest room, wasn’t that strange? She rarely slept in the suite I had arranged for her. Interesting? Yes, her spending her days and also her nights in Taureth’s lab was another piece of a puzzle that was clearly none of my business. But still interesting of course.
Samal also had a piece of Ways where no-one, not even the cleaning staff was allowed to enter. Since Ornach disinherited him those shadows had been closed off. The cleaners were more than happy with this. They told me that occasionally, Samal had allowed them in to clean up “a very bad mess Miss, I don’t like to talk about it if you don’t mind”. I avoided those rooms.
There was something else I needed if I wanted Ornach’s real estate: a number of trumps of the place. These were fun to do because I used them to practise making ‘hidden trumps’: trumps whose picture shows something else than their actual destination. To the unenlightened the cards looked like a series of self-portraits. The library was myself with a book, the court behind the main gate was me on horseback, the hidden stairs behind the servants’ quarters was me with pen and clipboard and the trump to the food cellars was me with a cup of tea and a biscuit. The fifth trump was a double trap for the unwary. It depicted me in a paint stained white shirt, wiping my hands on a turpentine rag. When activated, it transported the thief to the shadow where waste disposal demons lived, and those creatures were vile! The atmosphere in their den could knock a strong man out in seconds; I needed at least five spells to survive there long enough to draw the trump. If someone stole my trumps, I reasoned the last one they would want to see was me so with the double-trap trump in the deck Ornach Ways would be pretty safe.
Traps, prisons… Painting them made me think of Yaslin. My poor sister still languished in an Escallwyn prison. It was a comfortable prison, I had seen to that but by now the walls would be closing in on her. I felt owed it to her to keep her informed on what her friends in Sherwyn were up to so I wrote her another letter. It turned out to be a bitter letter, informing her of the death of King Adrian the first. ‘He gave his life to undo the corruption in his pattern’, I wrote. ‘You can’t ask that of an elected representative. He died, do you hear me? Adrian is dead.’ I mopped the tears from my desk with blotting paper and described how a guy named Justin was helping out in Sherwyn. The kingdom had changed for the better. She would like that. When the letter was finished I trumped it to Escallwyn ways. Frewar would see that she got it.
. . . _ . . .
After greed, duty. Before I could take on Flora I had to have another talk with Taureth about the Powers she could use. I brought my homework along: a five page summary of some dead guy’s ‘theory of Infinity’ and my take on some calculations he had me do. Taureth put them on his ‘in’ tray and I sat down. How, exactly, could I break Flora’s trump barrier, if such a thing was possible?
“I think you can break the barrier,” Taureth said. He put his tools aside and poured himself a cup of coffee. “But only if you can get close to her. A bigger problem will be stopping her from simply rebuilding the barrier when she has a moment.”
Maybe I could keep her away from her power sources? Taureth advised against it. He said it would be easier to knock her unconscious. Flora had probably constructed the trump barrier around the Keep of the Four Worlds herself. She would have a simple device to keep it functioning when she was asleep or not paying attention. I could find the device, and my aunt, by following the line of power that led from the Fount to her. Taureth could teach me a spell that made the power line visible. Warming to the subject, Taureth explained how people who have advanced training in Pattern or Logrus can make a lens out of their Power and look through it. This would work better or at least longer than the spell he was going to teach me but obviously, I wasn’t adept enough yet. I listened politely but a lecture on what I couldn’t do was not my idea of a productive time.
Mentally, I summed up the people I knew who were good with Power. Fiona of course, she knew everything but I would not dare bother her with my insignificant little problems. Dorian perhaps, Fiona always spoke highly of him. Strangely enough Murlas also had the reputation of having a huge talent for the Powers. But Murlas did not seem to do much in that direction, except maybe with his shape shifting. Brand was supposed to be good but he was dead. Bleys was said to be good too but I suspected my uncle daddy encouraged unsubstantiated rumours if they made him look good. He would never admit to being less than brilliant at anything. Merlin used to be a prodigious talent, Unicorn rest his soul.
On the other side of the Universe: the Thilzy family had a couple of good Logrus masters. But they were busy, with Sarana being nominated in the king finding procedure, and let’s not forget the murders and general unrest in the Courts. The house Locklan -Logrus masters extraordinaire- was likewise engaged. Mandor Sawall was a sorcerer and Logrus master of renown but he disappeared just before Merlin’s death and had not been heard of since. That left Dworkin, Suhuy and Dara. That was rather worrying when I thought about it. The list of Power experts who could defend our reality against the Enemy from Outside was painfully short. O, and Galoran! He would be a perfect ally: active, sane and approachable. If only I was on better terms with Galoria. But for myself, there was no-one who could help me except Dorian. He was all right but I didn’t like his heavy-handed approach. What if he damaged another set of shadows and Li-Tin Three was among them?
I guessed I was on my own against Florimel. And she could have anything: Pattern artefacts, extraordinary magic skills, maybe dragons as her servants. Her use of Nexus alone was surprising and inconvenient and she could have learned any number of things from the Enemy. Carefully, I asked Taureth for some more lessons in general Power use but he said he was very busy with something else. I asked what that was.
“Research,” Taureth said and wouldn’t tell me anything else except that it was urgent. He could speak with me occasionally but that was all he had time for.
“I am trying to rescue your sister, remember?” I said, annoyed at his secrecy. Taureth just nodded and sipped his coffee, honest and grave.
“Yes, I know.”
I sighed and Taureth got back to the problem at hand.
“You can break her link to the power but that will only be a temporary solution. You can also continue to shield her from it but that will be difficult because you don’t know how strong she is. Unless you have a clear advantage I would advise against it. A direct psyche battle is the way to go against shadow sorcerers but Flora has Pattern and Nexus too, and Nexus is perfectly suited for circumventing all kinds of barriers—“ Taureth smiled while he talked, “--you can do so much with it, and it’s practically unblockable. So what I’m saying is that you can take Flora’s barrier down for a while but she can easily put it back up. Unless you take her down of course. She’s probably the only one who can tap into the Fount’s power and keep the trump barrier powered. By the way, I read up on the Fount of the Four Worlds; don’t you need an initiation before you’re allowed to use it?”
I said I thought so, but wasn’t Nexus just the thing get around that sort of requirement?
“No no no!” Taureth said, waving his hands and almost spilling coffee, “It’s impossible to tap into the Fount’s power unless you’re initiated in its power.”
“That’s odd,” I said, ideas unfolding in my mind about possible alliances between Jasra and Flora, or possibly Brand and Flora before Patternfall. Random would want to know about this!
“It’s is an interesting point.”
I remembered Bleys’ lecture. He had said something like: “You can either go after Flora or break the siege of the Keep. Not both, you have to set your priorities.” It looked like he was wrong. I did not have to choose, to do the one I would need to do the other. Flora was the barrier. I would need to bring more people; skilled warriors to help me fight her. An honest one-on-one duel is good for those who can expect to win. Rhiane told me about Flora’s black clad warriors and they were bad.
Taureth had almost finished his coffee so I decided to wrap it up.
“What do you think Flora uses to make the trumpbarrier, some sort of Pattern artefact, a sorcerous construct?”
“I think it will be a combination of those. She would be the medium. The power creates the barrier and she will have an artefact to keep it in place while she’s asleep. It will be a simple item; all it has to do is cache power and delay the output.”
“Like a dam in a river,” I said.
Unfortunately destroying that item would not be enough to break the spell. Artefacts like that were common enough; any well-stocked magic shop in Chaos carried amulets that could be used for the purpose. They were a little less common in Amber. To find Flora and her amulet I would need to use the spell we talked about earlier.
I thanked Taureth for his time and left. Now I knew as much about the Powers I faced as I could. Not that it made me happy... I still had a lot to do.
. . . _ . . .
That evening at redsky I got a trumpcall from Gran.
“Ah, beloved! “ I said gaily, “how are things with you?”
I sobered up when I felt my lover’s feelings leak through the trumpcontact. Something was wrong; he was so, so sad! Gran took a deep breath and said:
“I don’t know how to tell you this. My… father has been murdered.”
I felt like I had been punched in the stomach. Thron Escallwyn had been a bit reserved but he was always very kind to me. We could have been great friends if only circumstances allowed it, I felt. Now we would never get the chance. Gran knew how I felt. Sometimes we have very intense trump contacts.
“The murderer…?”
“It was very bloody… We don’t know how he got in. The Ways are very well defended, you know that.”
They had better be; I had designed their defences. So I had failed. It was my fault Thron was dead. It must have been that serial killer who had been prowling the Courts.
“The alarm went off, the guards rushed to the scene but it was too late.”
I told Gran time in Ornachways was running extremely fast and he trumped through to me. We were alone in my studio so no-one could see me cry. After a moment, I checked my hidden daggers, just in case. If Thron was murdered right in the middle of his very own, very well-defended Ways, no one was safe. Gran and I held each other for a little longer. Gran was upset but at the same time grimly determined.
“I don’t even have the time to properly mourn him,” he said softly. “I can’t, there’s too much going on.” He sighed and let go of me.
“But there’s one thing I swore I would do, and I’m going to do it now.”
He got down on one knee.
“Boadice, will you marry me?”
Oops.
“Politics be damned, I’ll have you for mine.”
This was very passionate and very romantic, but…
“I can’t let you do this to yourself,” I stammered, hauling him to his feet. “I can’t let you do this to yourself. In a month you’ll be sorry.”
Thron had always been opposed to his heir marrying an Amberite. He had said that it would tip an already progressive house way beyond what was prudent; it would made Escallwyn seem dangerously extremist and damage its position in the Courts. I disagreed but he did have a point, back then. He had also been wrong, of course. If Thron had let me marry his son would have had a live daughter in law and a healthy grandchild. But that was water under the bridge. Right now, I could not marry Gran.
“I won’t,” Gran said. “You know how I feel about you.”
“And I know how you feel about—“
“I have always obeyed my father,” Gran interrupted, “and I have been reluctant to commit but not anymore. I am the head of my House and I make my own decisions.”
“And you will always choose what is best for the House.”
“Yes, I will. And I have. And I believe you are part of that.”
Yes, that might be true. At this moment, I might be just what a weakened Escallwyn needed. But… The fact was that Gran was not good for me. He had strung me along, betrayed me with Trisha, and altogether taken me for granted. He needed to start thinking of my needs, not only what was good and convenient for him. Besides, I needed time to myself.
“I will, in the background, always keep working for the good of House Escallwyn,” I promised. There was still little Elanor to consider, my darling green goddaughter. Gran sighed and I told him his child was mine too. Softly, Gran said:
“Don’t you love me anymore?”
Tearfully I assured him that I did, forever.
“Then marry me! What do we care, let’s just do it!”
“It will be bad for you!”
“We wanted to all those years. No, it isn’t bad for me. I’ve had it up to here with people persuading me and arguing into the night, telling me not to do it. I’m sick of it! Boadice, I’ve got to do what I think is right and this is the only way to salvage what is left. It will be a battle but I believe in it, in us. And I want you by my side.”
“Ask me again in a month, Amber time,” I said. This was too sudden, clichéd as it may sound. Gran was silent for a moment.
“Is there someone else?”
“No. But you did break my heart and you should remember that.”
“I was doing my duty and went along with my father’s decision.”
“And now you are bearing the consequences. I can’t marry you now. I just can’t.”
Gran bowed his head.
“I see…”
“But I will still be there for the Escallwyns.”
“Just think about it,” Gran said, looking into my eyes. “Give me a chance to make it up to you. I know I made mistakes… And I don’t know either how you can ever forgive me.”
“Time heals all wounds,” I said matter of factly. And time was what I wanted. “But I have been busy for the house, and—“
I described my plan for the Pardai Hendrakes; that the rumour would start to do the rounds that they had been the ones who murdered Trisha. Gran shouldn’t ask me how. A little later, someone would leak the information about a fictitious weak spot in the Escallwyn defences. If the Pardai Hendrakes took the bait we could gather a few heads. I had good reason to believe they would go for it: it had been the Pardai Hendrakes who tried to kill Frewar at the Fixing of the Logrus. Gran liked the idea.
“We should take the risk. We’ve been much too slow to act. Too quiet and scared and reluctant. My father wished it so but I did not agree. And I think we should take action now. It seems so disrespectful, he only just died. But the House must come first.”
“And because the House comes first,” I said, getting my point in, “you should not marry me right away. It’s not what the House needs right now.”
“It would be nice if I knew you still wanted me,” Gran murmured. He held my hands tightly. How much easier would it be if I could lie to him...
“I don’t know if I still want that.”
Gran let go of my hands. After a moment, he took them up again from where I had let them fall.
“What can I do, what can I say to make you… to make things right again between us?”
I sighed.
“Be a good friend for a couple of months.”
Another moment of silence passed and I could not suppress the urge to meddle in Escallwyn politics. If Gran could not marry me, someone else could do his bit to strengthen the family.
“Ehm, about Frewar… It’s time he got married too. He’s been slacking off for much too long. We should wait until after the king finding procedure but then we’ll have to find him a bride.”
This had not been the right word at the right time. If I wasn’t his wife, Gran would not let me tell him how to run his house.
“We’ll talk about that later. We should work at our own problems first. It’s been very difficult for everyone. For instance: what’s your status in our house? If you don’t want to marry me you’re no longer my fiancée.”
Yeah, I thought, now it’s a problem, and before your father died it wasn’t. But I did want to be engaged to Gran and told him so. But Gran said an engagement was a promise of marriage, nothing less. I said we couldn’t get married even if I accepted his proposal right now. For starters; we would need Bleys’s approval.
“That might be so, but I want to know from you if you want to marry me. I want you to say yes.”
“I can’t, not now.”
Gran pleaded that I didn’t love him and I shouted:
“Why can’t you try to understand!”
We made a great deal of noise, just like old times.
“No, I don’t understand,” Gran said.
“You broke my heart!” I said, “Then you crushed the pieces and kicked the dust into a corner. What do you want me to do: take you back without another thought? It’s not that simple! It’s not that you re-married Trisha, you were just doing your duty. But you cheated on me with her when things were still good between us! When you yourself were—“
“It meant nothing!”
“So infidelity means nothing to you. Right! It’s nice to know where I stand!”
We were having a nice old-fashioned fight, only shorter because this time because Gran sighed and went quiet.
“I see. I understand. But still I want you to think about what I said. Maybe we shouldn’t see each other for, say, a month. That’d be enough time for you to make up your mind. And at the end of the month I want to hear a yes or a no.”
“We can’t not see each other for a month,” I sputtered. “There’s too much that has to be taken care of, by both of us together. But at the end of the month, Amber time, we shall speak about this again.”
Gran sighed. “Boadice, I can’t go on like this. I HAVE to know where I stand with you. You have always been a good friend to the House but I don’t think I can hold on to our friendship if you tell me no. How should I interpret that?”
“But I did not say no.”
“You didn’t say yes, it’s the same thing.”
“It is not!
Gran said that maybe we needed time apart.
“I don’t want us to be apart,” I sobbed, aware that I was crying false tears to soften Gran up. “I’m going to do something dangerous and frightening and I’m afraid I might die. So take—“
“Then marry me before you… do whatever you’re going to do.”
I gave Gran a big kiss on his mouth to stop him from talking and proceeded to seduce him. We drowned our problems in passion.
Afterwards, Gran got up in silence, having grasped that there was nothing more to say. He kissed me and left, back to his endangered house. I did not watch him go.
In my bed I thought about what he wanted and what he said, and the more I thought about it the angrier I got. After stringing me along for ages, he demanded clarity. After what he did to me! Talk about double standards. Double standards like those that allowed him to be jealous like hell and still cheat on me with his ex. That would have to change before I married him. If I ever did. How… damn him!
I felt the need to air my feelings and I had to see my uncle-daddy anyway so I took a shower and went looking for Bleys.
. . . _ . . .
I found my uncle father in our second-largest army camp, inspecting the mess hall. He wore a dark red uniform with lots of gold frogging. When Bleys saw the mood I was in he proposed we took a walk through the camp. There would be privacy in the crowd.
“You won’t believe what Gran just said to me!” I exclaimed while we walked the muddy paths between the tents. With grief I reported the death of Thron Escallwyn and with anger Gran’s proposal of marriage.
“Well,” Bleys said. “It’s about time.”
He meant the proposal, not Thron’s death.
“First he strings me along,” I fumed, “and when it’s convenient he, he…”
“So you dumped him,” said my father.
“No…”
“Then what?”
“I kept him dangling. Well, I—“
“Okay, okay,” Bleys interrupted, “politically it’s nice but I think it’s a bit… dishonourable to do that to the poor boy. He finally lays his heart on the table and asks you to marry him despite all conventions and you don’t say yes or no but string him along.”
“Yes,” I said angrily. “But he held me off too! I think I will accept him eventually, but on my own terms. He was always like… He was so jealous, and then—“
I wanted to tell Bleys how much Gran hurt me when he cheated on me with Trisha, and again when he married her but it was too humiliating.
“I won’t go into that. But if we were married things would get worse.”
“Or they would get better. Really, I’ve seen it happen the other way around. People who’re terribly afraid to lose their lover loosen up when they’re married and stuck with each other. And things are even easier here in the Courts.”
I should have told my uncle daddy I had refused Gran because of his double standards and his disregard for my feelings. Perhaps then he would not have brushed my arguments aside. But admitting my fidelity while I had been cheated on was, again, too humiliating.
“First I want to change some things at home.” I said. “That way, if I get married over here, I won’t be bound by Amber’s laws on marriage.”
In our homeland, a woman and all she owns become her husband’s property on the day of their wedding. These were, of course, Oberon’s laws. I asked:
“But, would you mind, if…?”
Bleys sighed.
“He is such a… a…” My father tried to find a way to describe Gran. “Such a rabbit.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Gran. I mean, he’s a nice boy, but… Can’t you do any better?”
“I have a thing for nerds,” I mumbled. I still regretted not sleeping with Estefan. I should have seduced him when I had the chance, if only to even the score between Gran and me.
“Apparently. Yes, maybe you are Delwin’s daughter.”
“Why thank you.”
That hurt! Whenever I showed a side of myself Bleys didn’t like, he took it as proof that I wasn’t his.
“That indecisive look of yours looks a bit Delwiny to me.”
“I’m not indecisive!” I protested. “I know exactly what I want. And I don’t intend to—“
“But you don’t take a decision!“
He didn’t understand!
“Anyway, I don’t intend to stay faithful afterwards.” I mumbled.
“Then what are you doing it for? Tell my why you want to marry him. If you don’t want to, then don’t do it! In shadow you can have anyone you want, you can have… Well, you’ll probably do well enough in the Courts too.”
“Thank you,” I said again, trying even harder to sound sarcastic. “Nevertheless, try to see it from my point of view.”
Bleys screwed up his face and pretended to try.
“Hmmmmm. No. So he re-marries his ex. He doesn’t marry you. You don’t like that. Dump him and leave. That seems like an okay thing to do. Why are you still hanging out with the loser?”
“Because I love him?”
Bleys threw up his hands.
“What does love have to do with anything?! We’re talking about marriage here. If you love him you jump into the sack with him. And love wears off after a while. It may take a century but eventually, it always does.”
“Sure,” I said, surly. Not my kind of love.
“How long have you known him?” Bleys asked.
“Three years, maybe four?”
That was not counting the years we were apart, with Gran suffering from his shape shifting curse and me lost in shadow. In shadow Pieck we had lived together for a couple of years.
“Ah, see? That’s not long enough by far, believe me. Make it thirty and you’ll tire of him soon enough.”
“But by then I’ll be married to him and I’ll still have the position.”
“Why would you? For the status? Come on! What do you want to be, the wife of the head of a scruffy Major House with two or three members left?”
In fact the Escallwyn family had four members, not counting Elanor: Gran, Frewar, Illea and grandpa Escallwyn. It’s just that the latter two were ineligible for any positions in the Courts, Illea because of her (or his) past indiscretions and grandpa because of his age.
“But I thought you just said I should marry him?”
“IF you really want to. But I don’t get the impression you really want it at all. All I hear from you are half-baked arguments like ‘I love him’ and ‘it’s a nice position’.
“You’re not much of a help, dad,” I sulked. Bleys does not bring out the best in me.
“No, I’m the only one around here who gives you any decent advice. You should tell him ‘no’ in no uncertain terms. It’s the only thing to do. Let the Escallwyns stew in their own juices, there’s plenty here and in shadow to keep you busy.”
“But if I said ‘yes’, would you support me?”
We paused by a corral and leaned on the fence, watching the horses. A breeze played with the horses’s manes and cooled my face.
“Only if you’re absolutely sure. And not that half-hearted ‘it might be nice, bla bla bla…’ No. Not if you’re like that.”
I smiled.
“Good. Then I know where I stand.”
“And if I don’t get the impression you’re one hundred thousand percent behind it I won’t give my consent. So you make sure you convince me when the time is there, when you want to go through with it.”
I bowed my head and smiled some more. He had said ‘when you want to go through with it’, not if.
“I will.”
We walked on and Bleys collected a roll of maps from one of our officers. After that, we went back to the tent.
“I’ve got something else,” I said, “Something that really should stay secret. Do you have a shadow that’s at least as fast as the Ways here?”
Bleys took a trump case from a pocket, rifled through the deck, produced another case and searched that too. I didn’t know he had that many trumps. I stood on my toes to get a peek but Bleys wouldn’t let me.
“Another time” he promised and studied a card. “Hmm, yes, this one will do.”
He activated the trump and took me through.
I lost my balance when I stepped through the rainbow shine. This shadow had no floor or ground and the effect was rather like missing the last step of a flight of stairs. Bleys steadied me and I landed rather forcefully with my butt on a chair. It was a spindly thing, just a seat and a back of white wire twisted in the shape of a flower. Before us floated a white opaque tabletop, also without legs. Bleys had acquired a chair opposite mine and was gesturing to a four feet high pepper pot. It was silver and had buttons and little lights around the top. The pepper pot bleeped at him and produced a couple of drinks from its belly. I held on to the tabletop and then to the chair. We were floating above a purple abyss and I was afraid I was going to loose my shoes. Oddly enough I wasn’t afraid I was going to fall. Perhaps having a winged chaos form cured me of vertigo.
“There’s something I want you to know,” I said, and told Bleys Malachie’s story: Ornach was an Archai, a powerful being from outside our own reality. The Enemy from outside was after him because Ornach did something bad.
Bleys for once listened without interrupting. When I was done, he nodded.
“Yes, interesting. Malachie, did you say?”
I nodded too.
“The name sounds familiar. I heard it somewhere before, Overshadow perhaps?”
I confirmed that.
“Well, it was either him or someone pretending to be him.”
Bleys nodded and ‘ah ahmm’d, said he understood and started frowning.
“Hmm. Ornach. Always Ornach. And you work for the guy.”
I nodded and tasted my drink. It was blue, very sweet, and it had a straw and a purple flower in it. Perhaps the flower was white; the light here was odd.
“Do you think that’s a good job for you? Look, you’ve got to do what you please but you can easily get stuck in the middle and get crushed. It all sounds very dramatic but maybe Ornach and the Enemy only want to kill each other and leave the rest of us alone. If that was the case, I would take care I wasn’t around.”
That was so sweet! Like Delwin, Bleys wanted me safe in Amber.
“Maybe a couple of people should make sure they do just that,” I said, “people who by necessity keep close to the fire.”
“Feh!” Bleys leaned back in his chair and made a dismissive gesture. “I think Dorian showed them they can’t mess with us. I don’t think they’ll send another army anytime soon.”
I thought my uncle daddy was much too optimistic.
“Me being close to Ornach has already proved useful. I get to make sure Flora doesn’t get the Keep of the Four Worlds.”
“I don’t know… I think it’s dangerous.”
“Look,” I said, getting angry. “If I quit now, what reason do I have to stay involved? Should I go to Amber and ask Random to give me something to do?”
“Random would love to put you to good use, you know that.”
“But would I be more effective than I am now?”
“I don’t know. What do you want? It would be safer.”
“Safer!” I spat.
“I know, that’s not a good argument. But, in this case… Just think it over. There’s sure to come a time when you reconsider and safety looks like an attractive option.”
I was sure there was, but not now and not soon. We finished our drinks and I went back to Ornach Ways, angry.
That anger soon melted away. Bleys was only concerned for my safety and that was kind of him. I was glad I told him about the Archai. Soon it would be common knowledge and now I had been the one who told him first. Maybe some time soon I should let Ornach know that I knew. The information was slowly getting out, thereby depreciating in value. About Gran, Bleys had said no more than ‘you can do what you want, when you make up your mind I’ll stand behind you’. Granted, he wanted me to be certain I was making the right decision but that was only to be expected. I would not marry Gran until I was absolutely sure I wanted to.
Gran…
When I thought of what he said that morning I got angry all over again. ‘That meant nothing’, indeed! Damn him. Even Murlas can ask Samal if he minds him marrying what’s-her-name, they understand and take care of each other. And Gran… He knew I did not like Trisha and he knew I feared her hold on him. After the way he treated me if he only suspected I liked another man, and the care I took not to hurt him, he cheated on me! And with the woman he knew I hated!
I shrugged my shoulders and sorted out my feelings. It wasn’t the cheating itself that angered me. It was probably only once, and Trisha and Gran had a history together. She would have known which buttons to push. I was angry that he cheated on me after all of his jealousy. That’s what hurt the most. Also, it had given Trisha some sort of a victory over me. Why couldn’t I have killed the bitch myself?
That he re-married her (in a way) and that he now asked me to marry me to support his beleaguered house wasn’t the problem either. He was doing his duty and I could respect that. In fact, when I asked one of Ornach’s advisors, he said that marriage to a member of the Amber royal family would be just the thing to give the House Escallwyn enough ‘cachet’ to ensure the recovery of its place in the Major Council.
When Thron was killed, the house Escallwyn not only lost its head: because Thron died during the king finding procedure the house also lost its place in the Major Council. It did not matter that he died by the hands of a serial murderer and not from a knife in the back by a political rival, the seat was lost either way. When the new King was crowned Escallwyn would have to compete with other ambitious minor houses for the empty seats in the Council.
And still; Gran had seemed very sincere when he asked for my hand. A part of me admired how he was handling the situation, but this time he would have to learn to stand on his own two legs. Gran needed to grow a backbone. Once he had one, we would see about that wedding. I knew he could change. Just after I recovered from filling in for Bihaye (I was being a Djinny so Bihaye had a body to inhabit), the Major Council lifted Gran’s banishment and he had been re-instated as the heir of his house. This had been good for him: it had made him stronger and more decisive. Responsibility had suited him.
Now I thought if it: his new-found strength had disappeared after his father made him re-marry Trisha. Damn him! I was sad Thron had died but I thought he and the rest of the family had systematically undermined Gran's self-confidence to make him biddable and do what they thought was best for the House. I could be wrong but maybe I was on to something. Well, as the head of Escallwyn Gran had a chance to figure out who he was and what he could do. And if he didn’t make it, if his house lost its place in the Major Council, if he didn’t rise to the occasion or if he felt it necessary to marry someone else… I would be sad but I promised myself I could put him out of my mind.
Only, I couldn’t…
You see, I would still be friends with Frewar, and I didn’t have that many friends to put it mildly. And then there was Elanor. That girl was mine as much as she was Gran and Trisha’s. And when there’s a child involved you can’t cut ties as easily anymore. Thirdly, he had my sister in custody. I needed to be able to see Yaslin and Gran needed to get to know his daughter. And, and and… Well, Bleys might think I could have anyone I wanted but let’s face it; immortal lovers who shared my interests and whom I could trust were vanishingly rare. I did not want a shadow man, I wanted a real partner. That meant I had only Chaosites left to choose from and among those, who did even come close to me in status? Except for the king you can’t do better than the heir –or the head- of a Major House. And for all his faults Gran was a good man and we had a lot in common.
But still, Gran didn’t support me the way I had supported him. After all I had done for him and his house he never really returned the favour. I saved Thron’s life, Gran’s too and I even saved Frewar’s life twice. Gran would not only have to learn to fend for himself, he would have to start treating me with some respect.
Not by marrying me, not yet. I disagreed with Bleys: Gran would not loosen up if we got married right now. As we were, he would expect me to accept his indiscretions but be jealous if I did the same. Maybe some time apart was indeed what we needed. Was that what I wanted?
I wanted… I wanted attention! I wanted the sweet side of love: flirting and kissing and men falling over themselves to return a handkerchief I dropped. I wanted to be courted. I wanted dragons slain in my honour and expensive gifts and serenades in the moonlight. I wanted to have some fun!
Gran should just buck up and prove himself worthy of me. So there. And if he demanded clarity, that’s what I would give him. I was going to set him a quest. If he fulfilled it he could start planning the engagement party. I smiled to myself. I knew exactly what to ask of him. And it wouldn’t be getting his seat in the Council back. My quest would be both easier and more difficult.
. . . _ . . .
But longing for fun and getting it were two very different things. With all my work and the state the Courts were in, moonlight serenades were not on the agenda. Before I set out with the army there were things I had to discuss with Ornach. For example: if I used Pattern to travel to the Keep of the Four Worlds, Flora would know she was facing an Amberite. So maybe my employer could do something with Logrus, perhaps?
“You want a black road, all the way there?” Ornach asked.
Apparently Amber would not be pleased with a black road that reached that far into their half of the universe.
“Or a trump gate,” I said. “A Logrus trump gate, a large one.”
“Flora will feel that coming from several shadows over. Weren’t you planning a surprise attack?”
“As much a surprise as possible,” I said, “But if I trumped in with Pattern she would feel it too.”
We talked it over. A trump gate right on top of Flora’s army was impossible: too small to get enough troops through and too easily disturbed, especially with Nexus. A hellride from Ygg to the Keep would mean maximum surprise but it would take too long. A general rule for leading armies through shadow is that the faster you try to go, the more soldiers you loose. We had enough soldiers to attack Flora with some chance of success but not so many that we could afford to lose any great number travelling. So no hellriding.
It would be better if someone hellrode to a point several shadows away from the Keep, opened a trump gate and led the army through. From there I would need to lead it, shadow walking, to the Keep of the Four Worlds. Bleys and I agreed that this was our best option but Flora would have left scouts –magical or otherwise- in the shadows surrounding the Keep. It was too bad that in practice shadow is less infinite than it is in theory. The infinity of Shadow does not mean that every shadow has an unlimited number of neighbours. Things didn’t work like that and if they did, I lacked the skill to find those infinite neighbours, or tell the ones I found apart. After some discussion we settled on a spot three shadows away from the Keep. Flora might spy us out but that depended on how busy she was. A lot also depended on another question: was she a Pattern Adept or, like most of us, used it but never studied it. And did she put down any traps? I hoped she hadn’t but had a couple of plans in case she had.
It took some time to reach him because of the fast time flow in Ornach Ways but when I got the power flowing, Dorian took the contact.
“Hi Dorian,” I said when I felt his presence. The contact cleared and we were able to see each other. Dorian was neatly dressed in his usual grey and blue, his brown hair in a ponytail.
He smiled at me.
“It’s Boadice,” Dorian said to an unknown companion.
“I wanted to ask you something,” I said, “but trump contacts aren’t secure, so could you come to me?” Dorian did not look keen so I added: “Time is flowing very fast where I am so you won’t miss much.”
“Where is that?” he asked.
“Ornachways.”
“Okay…” Dorian glanced aside and I saw Alexander.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can. There’s something that requires my attention. I will be back as soon as possible.”
By now I was able to see Dorian’s background. There was no mistaking the blue, pink and gilt décor of Galoria Castle. Alexander looked out of place in his trim black suit.
“How soon is as soon as possible?” Alex was asking Dorian. “We’re—“
“As soon as possible,” Dorian repeated. “I think we need another one and I think I know someone who can help us out.”
Alexander again asked for an indication of time.
“I can’t say,” Dorian said. “It won’t be longer than half an hour. I hope.”
The contact had intensified and I could see Galoran, Myrthe, and –a shock— Adrian! But that could not be; Adrian was dead. This had to be Justin.
Dorian held out his hand and I let him come through to my suite in Ornachways. I had tea and scones ready on a side table but I only indicated its presence because my guest was in a hurry. Dorian glanced at the table, then looked at me. I was still battered from my exercises and did not look my best: scratches and bruises from practising fight-in-flight with the demons, my eyebrows were scorched from my failed trump experiments and in my hair some traces of desert camouflage paint still hung on for dear life.
“I’m going to do battle with Flora sometime soon,” I said to Dorian. My cousin raised his eyebrows but said nothing. “You know what the Keep of the Four Worlds is?”
Dorian said he didn’t.
“It is a kind of primal plane with its own power source. If she conquers the castle on top of the power source we’ll never get her out of there. I have other reasons to fight her too, this one’s good enough by itself. Nevertheless, would you help me stop Flora? I believe you still have a bone to pick with her.”
Dorian only nodded and ‘hmm hmmm’ed.
“And when do you intend to undertake that action?” he asked.
“Within nine hours Amber time. Within a couple of days here.”
In fact nine hours Amber time were rather more than a couple of days here but I couldn’t be sure so I erred on the safe side.
“I am involved in a situation concerning Galoria,” Dorian said, “and it’s rather serious. The Enemy is attempting to import another army in its vicinity.”
“The Enemy with a capital E?” I asked, to be sure. Dorian confirmed it.
“And they need me there. We intend to at least hold the Enemy in place for a while and I can’t say how long it will take.”
“That’s too bad but you’re right. Stopping the Enemy takes precedent over defeating Flora.”
“I think…” Dorian said, “…how about this: I’ll trump you as soon as I can and then we’ll see what I can do for you.”
I said that was fine.
“If there’s something I can do for you, for the lot of you…?”
I meant to imply that I could be useful to Galoria as well as Dorian. No, I did not mind helping out a country that had convicted me on false charges. The cause was worthy and besides, Monias was out of the picture.
“I don’t know,” Dorian said. “I think Galoria would welcome any offer of help but you seem to have your own problems.”
“That’s true,” I said. “Still, the Keep of the Four Worlds would be a good beachhead for the Enemy, should they fail in Galoria. So your work is important, but you must understand mine is too.”
Dorian nodded.
“I want to tell you, the points where the Enemy manifests in this reality take the shape of crystal towers. We encountered two so far and the second is in a shadow very close to Galoria. So if Flora has one of those… priority moves up a notch.”
“Okay,” I said. “And what do you do against a tower like that?”
“Hopefully: destroy it before it is finished. The damned things are very strong.”
“And how should I do that? What with?”
“With whatever you’ve got. We haven’t any experience with it yet. We’re very much in the ‘trial and error’ stage.”
That was bad news. I wished Dorian would sit down and have some tea so I could too.
“I’ll keep you informed,” I said. “I’m not very welcome in Galoria but I offer my services in case of an emergency.”
“I will certainly mention it,” Dorian said. “After all, Galoria has a new ruler.”
“Myrthe,” I nodded, remembering her marriage to Alexander. They divorced only days later. How I would love to hear Myrthe’s side of that story.
“Please tell them I would like that very much. And thank you.”
We glanced at the untouched tea table again.
“You’re welcome to stay but I heard you promise you’d be back soon…”
“I did,” Dorian said. “And I have to make a detour before returning.”
“A detour?” I asked, fishing for more information.
“Yes, I have to stop by in Amber.”
“Hm. Anything going on in Amber that I should know about?”
“No,” Dorian said. “I have to pick someone up whom I hope can help over there.”
He took a card from his case and trumped away, leaving me to wonder whom he could have meant. Dorian can be a bit of a tease, information wise.
A couple of days passed and I filled them with study, house politics and training Bleys’ army. Then Dorian trumped me again.
“Good cousin!” I greeted him. “Are you coming through?”
“No,” Dorian said. “I told them you offered to help and they think your aid would be a valuable asset. Have you got time?”
I reminded myself to watch my words, Flora could be listening in.
“Aye. I’m quite busy with what I mentioned earlier. I’ll trump you as soon as I’m ready.”
Then Dorian surprised me. He proposed Alexander would help me instead, Alex could spare the time while the more power-oriented members of their alliance set up some kind of construct. I had to think about this.
“Maybe, yes… But Alex and I… We don’t get along. On the other hand, co-operation on the battlefield is not the same as talking politics.”
Secretly, I loved the idea. Alexander was a stiff, ill-mannered bastard but he was also a great general. I saw him in action once. The ideas he put forward for Fiona’s army when the Logrus was damaged were brilliant. Alexander could shadow walk the army from our trump gate to the Keep, and if he led it into battle I would have my hands free to deal with Flora.
But he would steal my limelight. A pity, but no matter. The glory would have been nice but let’s face it, with Alexander at my side the chances of success were so much bigger.
I agreed. I would help Galoria if Alexander would help me. But how much of my time would Galoria need?
“A couple of hours at least. It’s hard to say. It is a plan… that will be tested in the field.”
I caught him in his rooms, packing for a journey. In a few words I explained what Dorian and Galoria were going to do, and how Alexander might help me fight Flora.
“If you intend to go with Alexander,” said Bleys, “you should let him do most of the fighting. He’s good at that. But if you want to do it yourself, I’m not stopping you.”
I shrugged. Bleys and I both knew that no help meant no trump gate, and that meant it would take me days to get the army in place. There wasn’t much of a choice.
“You’ll have to decide for yourself whether you want to lead the army or not,” Bleys said, carefully folding silk shorts and putting them into a backpack. “It depends. If you look at this as an exercise to improve your warfare skills, you’d learn more if you did it yourself.”
“That’s true,” I admitted. “Training would be nice. But I need results.”
“If you want results you should use Alexander.”
Bleys checked a leather case with grooming implements and a small mirror and put them on top of the shorts. “He’s good. Just be careful and be specific when you deal with him, won’t you?”
“What for?”
Bleys squinted at a scratch on a leather strap.
“Make sure you have an unambiguous understanding with Alexander, okay? Let’s just say that he’s got a reputation in that area. He tends to leave room for interpretation. Like every member of this Family.”
I had to admit I hadn’t noticed. Perhaps his general annoyance factor drowned out other slights.
“Don’t get me wrong,” said Bleys, “I don’t mind Alexander leading my troops. It only means that I get more of them back afterwards. Your training is important but so is your goal. Listen honey,” he turned to me, “I want to help but I can’t. Random said it was urgent.”
Bleys smiled charmingly. “I’m sure you’ll do fine. You’re resourceful, you can do it.”
With those words of encouragement my uncle father left.
I stood there for a while. These compliments might just be the nicest thing he ever said to me. Smiling, I went looking for Ornach to ask if he minded having Alexander over.
. . . _ . . .
When I could not find Ornach in his usual haunts I asked one of the sub-secretaries. She had disturbing news: the next meeting of the Great Council had been announced and Ornach was away to attend. That had completely slipped my mind! I had plans to damage Murlas’s reputation so he and the Conservative Party would lose votes, but now I couldn’t.
That reminded me I had promised Murlas I would tell him what I was planning with Flora as soon as I told Random. Now Dorian knew about the Keep of the Four Worlds, I needed to make sure Random knew too, and quickly so the king would not be the last to know. So I wrote a report, copied it and trumped them through to my king and my cousin within the hour.
With Ornach gone I didn’t need his permission to bring Alexander over, so I trumped Alex in and we started planning our attack. Flora had tailored her army to a siege, with lots of infantry and a little cavalry for support. Those were the good troops. She had added a couple of ballista’s and a hand full of siege towers, some ships on the sea-side of the keep --no more than necessary to close off Jasra’s line of supply--, some flying stuff to patrol above the lava fields and a couple of fleet-footed or mounted scouts. With the information Rinaldo and I gathered, Bleys, Ornach and I had estimated that Flora had between 15.000 and 20.000 man in the field. I had seen no women in her army.
My army was far more divers than hers. Jasra had about 800 men defending the Keep. They lacked provisions so I didn’t know how much longer they could hold out. Bleys brought in about 20.000 men, a ragtag bunch of professional soldiers from all over shadow. I added 3.000 impromptu fighters myself. They were, I regret to say, no more than armed and trained peasants from some shadow I found. Bleys’s troops were better but they were hopelessly diverse: I’m talking about amazons, elves, bat-men, minotaurs and knights in shining armour.
You know that feeling you get when you see someone be absolutely brilliant at something you thought you were good at? That feeling when you realise that no, you’re not all that wonderful after all? There’s a word for it, something with an H.
Humbling, that’s it! Not a word I’m used to, believe me. And the next-worst thing was that although Alexander’s plans were obviously better than mine, he wasn’t rubbing it in. He looked at my drawings, at my map of the area around the Keep of the Four Words and quietly suggested a better way to set up the attack.
Bleys had been right by the way. Alexander had promised to help me lead the battle unless some other emergency came up. I personally think a promise is a promise but in this case it might be better not to push. Instead, I made Bleys’ best General Alex’s second in command in case he had to leave before we engaged Flora’s army. But if he skipped out on us in the middle of the battle, emergency or not, I swore I to myself I would have his cullions on crackers.
And that was what I had to set against Flora’s crack troops. Unicorn help us.
. . . _ . . .
To be continued…
