Where is everyone?
Quinn fed Kirkeleon (who did not allow his mealtimes to go by
unnoticed) and carefully kept his fingers out of the way. After, while the little fellow
snoozed in the middle of Quinn's bed, he had some special weapons fabricated and put on a
chartered train to Arden. He Trumped Julian to let him know that Flora had let Sand listen
in to the meeting and Amber's rough battle plans. Sander agreed to go to Aramyst with him, (I'd better. And if I
have company she can't cut me a new asshole.) Quinn wanted to reassure Daelyn about
Amber's intentions, teach her mages (hoping she had some that could do more than card
tricks) a couple of anti-Mori and anti-zombi spells and see about installing the
Chandeliers By Quinn. Theseus needed a mount for his part as one of Julian's lieutenants.
He drew a Trump of an especially fine one, then realized, with some shock, that he had
just created one via Trump. Suddenly tired, he reviewed just exactly what he'd
done to fix the process in his memory. Megan showered, dressed lightly and returned to the buffet. Most of
the elders were gone but the food was still plentiful. Vaughn admired her appetite, then
invited her to come with him to the fleet. Edward and Breann, standing atop the fortress where the Baron seemed
to be keeping Breann's niece Lora, argued over what to do. Breann felt that Lora was in
the outer circle, not the central tower, but that was as much as the Pattern could do in
this place. No windows, just arrow slits. No explosives. No way to disguise themselves as
zombis, not at close range. Edward suggested Trumping Lora from close range. Breann pulled
out both of her Lora Trumps, one by Theseus and one she'd found in her hand when she awoke
the day before, after dreaming of Lora. She gave the old one to Edward and convinced him,
despite his misgivings, to use it in concert with her. They began. Breann's Trump activated immediately, then Edward's --
and a rope of energy flared between them and dragged them through the contact in spite of
Breann's too-late Trump Disrupt. They found themselves in a big circular vaulted stone
room. Three ranks of zombies, each thirteen zombies long, stood with their backs to them.
Beyond was a circle of twelve huge, old, white-maned valkauri on man-high pillars, looking
inward. In the center was Lora on an altar, two tables and the chanting, gesturing Baron.
They did not like their chances against that many zombies in the confined chamber. At
Breann's urging, Edward tried the Trump again. It did not connect him to Lora but let him
see the altar as if from the ceiling. One valkaur crumbled into dust, sending a wave of
visible power into the next. Edward saw that one table held a bunch of sacrificed doves.
The other table held an array of Trumps on velvet, dotted lines of blood connecting them
in some odd pattern. Trumps of the whole royal family of Amber. Including Edward.
Edward started chanting. Breann took the Trump away. Still chanting. She punched him out,
neatly catching his sword as it fell. Edward was dazed only a moment. They filled each
other in as the eighth valkaur died, indicating that they had little time left. Edward tried the Trump again, carefully, and used a Power Word to
push on the tablecloth beneath the Trumps and the glowing blood, which went flying but
stopped and hung still in mid-air on bloody lines of energy. The Baron looked up at
Edward's point of view. Now, now, said the Baron mind-to-mind. Breann popped up
and sent a lightning bolt at the Baron, followed by a thrown dagger. Neither penetrated
the valkauri circle. Edward blacked out. The Baron smiled at Breann. "Very
nice," he said approvingly. She blacked out. Sander and Quinn walked up the stairs to the main entry to Aramyst's
Imperial Palace. Vaughn and Megan Trumped to his ship. Edward inspected his troops at the edge of Arden. Megan walked among her acolytes in the Great Temple of the Unicorn,
which nearly filled the old Grove, her sharp eyes and ears missing nothing. Theseus contemplated his advanced Trump theories and research in his
labs near the Pattern Room and the dungeons of Castle Amber. Quinn, also in Castle Amber, awoke in the arms and bed of one of the
Castle maids. He suppressed a groan, wondering what horrors the day (as opposed to the
night) would bring. Queen Breann, up in the royal suites, awoke thinking much the same
thing except that the nights were just as bad. Ander watched his fleet sailing out of harbor behind him in his
wake, off to smash the Amberites with a feeling of pleasurable anticipation. Mother would
be so pleased. Sander noticed that Quinn was gone and looked around. No Quinn. And
the city, Aramyst City, was half in ruins. It looked as if it had sustained a long siege.
Maybe more than one. What the hell? The countryside beyond was a dusty, smoking wasteland.
Oh Shit! He was passed inside by alert guards to Empress Daelyn's suites. Honey,
I'm home, he thought. His wife was in the outer room which had been converted in his
short absence to a planning room. Lots of tables and maps and unit counters. He recognized
several of the men around her as officers he had himself commanded in his various kamikaze
missions, but older-looking, tired, with wounds old and new, missing parts here and there.
Only one of her council members was present. Daelyn was dressed in splint mail. All looked
at him with surprise, respect and relief. (!!) "Lord Lysander! We are glad you were able to make it through
safely. Do you have any news from Queen Breann?" ??? "What are the plans for this new offensive?" Sander blinked once more, then rattled off the plan as presented by
Deirdre at the meeting in Aretia. Daelyn kept interrupting, mostly to question the names. "So Julian is coming through Arden--" "Julian? Where is Edward?" "Somewhere in Ys." "He's already in Ys? We expected some kind of sneak attack
but..." "The Regent will be leading at sea--" "Regent? You mean Queen." Sander frowned. They seemed to be getting ahead of things. "Where is Lord Quinn going to be during the
event?" "He'll be doing his usual kind of thing." "You must be tired, sir. A guest suite is prepared for you,
food and a bath. Please rest." Sander nodded numbly, then brightened up. Guest suite, woo hoo!
They had never treated him this nice before. He passed Caine in the hall, dressed like a
toned-down upscale version of Sander. Weird. Edward led his 250 fanatic warriors down the last remaining corridor
through enemy-controlled lands to Aramyst. He mused on the irony of the noble Lysander
being the son of Gerard (that a deep family secret), result of one of the Monster's
innumerable rapes. The Monster was hobbled for a time now, since Vaughn blew his legs off
in a sea battle. Edwards eyes never left off looking for enemies in the trees. Good
thing the Mori aren't involved this time, he thought. [Various Secret Things are in the works involving High Priestess
Megan, Queen Breann, Paladin Edward, etc., secret from the Log maker. Where's the justice
in that?] Quinn was in the lead ship, as usual, an unenhanced ship (save for
the special cargo he had seen to himself) with an inferior crew and twenty more like it.
Quite unlike the cream of the fleet that carried Vaughn and his battle group. All the army
and navy knew that the Queen and, even more, Vaughn, were trying to get Quinn the Traitor
killed without alienating his father. In this case he was to hold of Ander's fleet from
the Baron's outermost staging port while Edward and others attacked by land. A Trump call, weak and dilatory nagged at Quinn. He cocked both
barrels of his shotgun and pointed it at the air before him, then accepted the unknowable
call. Ander. Who hated him just as much as Vaughn did, hated him for bedding and
betraying his mother the paragon, the perfect -- Deirdre. Ander kept the contact far to
weak for Quinn to attack him mentally. Ander smiled cruelly. "I know you're coming and we have
prepared a welcome." Quinn grinned back crookedly. "You always did throw a good
party." The smile widened. "Not as good as your mother, of course." He
tried to strengthen the contact but it dwindled to nothing. Theseus, monitoring lightly as usual, tried to trace the call and
failed. A zombi fleet attacked Quinn's fleet. Outside of cannon range Quinn
started using his prepared artillery: 600lb bags of alum, thirty of them. He could
teleport up to three at a time without great strain (using his permanently hung
teleport/apport monster; a fine spell but slow, taking almost a minute to cast with its
huge number of lynchpins) to a mile above an enemy ship, then use Pattern to increase the
odds of a hit. He hit the first, spreading a cloud of dessicant over the ship of moist
zombies, incapacitating or killing them. He missed two, hit five... Twenty ships dead with
five misses. He had the five remaining bags brought up to the poop deck. Vaughn Trumped Quinn, who refrained from using the shotgun. Then
Vaughn Trumped through his six-ship squadron with the special Trumps sails. Vaughn's elite
squad smashed the remainder of the zombi fleet. Edward received the call to attack. He called out to his troops,
"For Amber, the Unicorn and the Queen!" Theseus Trumped Quinn to interrogate him concern Trump contact with
the enemy, using his advanced methods to prevent Quinn from resisting the call or
attacking over the link. Quinn was truthful as the carefully watched usually are. Theseus
saw over Quinn's shoulder Ander's Trump fleet shimmering into existence and cursed,
"Oh shit!" Quinn rolled automatically pointing the shotgun and saw the enemy
fleet. Half of Ander's Trump-capable ships swept down on Vaughn's and Quinn's fleet.
Theseus saw this a hopeless and put forward his ultimate effort, Trumping Vaughn's
specials to Amber harbor. Queen Breann, Caine at her side, watched from Castle Amber's
parapets as Vaughn's squadron Trumped in to the harbor. Minutes later Miriel dragged the
semiconscious Theseus up to the parapet and sat down breathing hard. Theseus recovered
enough to brief them. They decided to join Edward's troops with the Church reinforcements.
Miriel created a Trump Gate and fainted as the last of them went through. Quinn and 'his' fleet ran ahead of Ander's wonderships. He swept the
deck ship closest behind him with the Acid Vortex and sent it's remnants on to the next.
No sorcerer tried to oppose him. Had they come without wizards? An enemy ship blew on of
his away with very accurate fire. Quinn hit its sails sideways with a widened Wind-Hammer
(intended for valkauri originally) and heeled it over, throwing crewmen overboard or
rattling them around inside. No one tried to stop him. He decided to stick around and do
some damage. First he hung all three Defensive Shields, the Scuba spell and the Flight
spell, just in case. Edward noted (undismayed) that things were going from bad to worse.
New forces assailed them --Gerard's, by their colors by land and half of Ander's Trumpable
fleet by sea. He killed a valkaur with a deft thrust through an eye. Nearby Breann
exploded another demon's head with a lightning bolt, further burning her poor, crippled
hand. She fried another then raised a wind to sweep two more into Gerard's troops. Edward
saw that he had to get the Queen to safety. Something caught his eye; he looked up: little
white specks appeared far above them, dropping from a dirigible. Quinn saw his ship's second mate, standing twenty feet away, stiffen
and a rainbow shimmer begin. He shot the man too late: Ander stepped through --almost.
Ander staggered and concentrated as the Trump shimmer twisted and pulled at him,
while his nose, mouth and eyes started bleeding. The Trump effects stopped, Ander fell to
his knees and Quinn levitated backwards, started to point the gun and then started the
words and gestures of the Kinetic Cannon, pointing at Ander and the alum bags behind him.
Where is
everyone?
Edward and Queen Breann watched the developing disaster. Gerard's troops poured in from inland, two of Ander's ships docked and disgorged more men and Amber's forces were sorely outnumbered. Plus a dirigible dropped paratroops from on high, though the valkauri demons seemed to think they were enemies and therefore, possibly allies.
Edward addressed his Queen, "Your majesty, you must get to safety."
"Should I send troops to a battle I will not fight in?"
"They fight for you."
"With me."
Impatiently, "Your majesty, you must Trump to safety!"
"No!"
That might have ended it, had Edward not seen Gerard's own banner hove into view in the distance. Amber's Knight did his duty and knocked her out from behind, grabbed one of his trusted men and sent the two of them through his Trump of the Great Hall in Castle Amber. Then he steeled himself for his last battle.
Aboard Quinn's ship the Leopard Rampant, Quinn levitating backwards, cast his Kinetic Cannon spell (wide beam) at Ander, who shook off his momentary exposure to hard vacuum (courtesy of Theseus' Trump trap) and dodged. A sizeable portion of the upper aft deck rained away in splinters. Ander (aparently) had a spell of protection on him and evaded most of the blast, but still went over the railing...
...intentionally: he held himself out of the water by thrusting his spear through the ship's hull. (Horizontally. A vertical cut would have let him slide all the way down to the sea as the spear slit the hull. Ander had a very good spear.)
Quinn, oblivious, flew up to the crow's nest and worked through the half-minute casting of his ever-renewed variable teleport spell. Ander splashed some seawater on his face (onto bleeding eyes, ears, mouth; ouch) to revive himself and climbed back up in time to see three big anvils disappear from the hold through the spacial hole Quinn had created. Ander ran to the mast and severed it with his naginata; it fell, but Quinn was still levitating.
Quinn reflected for a moment that Ander was as hard to kill as he himself was.
Quinn evaded damage while Ander absorbed it and kept on going. Quinn shot straight up, pulling three gees and ran into a lightning bolt from one of Ander's ships, which blasted away one of the three defensive spells he had on. He had really hoped that, as it had seemed up until then, the enemy had no wizards among them -- apparently they not only had wizards, they had smart wizards.
Ander threw his naginata at Quinn; the second (and third!) defensive spell deflected it and died. Quinn targeted the horizon and employed his very fast Escape Teleport to be there. Ander caught his weapon as it descended and easily overawed the third-rate crew of the Leopard Rampant. He dove into the sea and swam towards his nearest ship in time to enjoy the unusual experience of having two 600 pound anvils hit the sea nearby, dropped from fifty miles up and guided by Quinn's control of probability. Quinn launched the next three anvils as Ander climbed on deck. His wizardly ally told him, via a mental contact, that Quinn was out of range and suggested they leave. Ander insisted they join the battle at Deiga.
"I need the taste of someone else's blood to wash out the taste of mine."
Quinn sank one ship and severely damaged another before they could Trump away.
Queen Breann came to in darkness and confusing movement, her hands bound behind her. After a time she identified the darkness as being caused by a sack over her upper body and the movement as that of being draped over a cantering horse. Over cobblestones, by the noise. They had not removed her weapons, though.
Quinn flew to the nearest coast and stopped to think. He decided that Breann had voided her side of the oath of fealty by abandoning him to die. He considered his options. After a time he found a horse and rode off in search of Brigid, whom he thought of as the Queen of Swords, a sometimes business partner of the Baron and the greatest warrior and general in Creation.
Fighting his way through the Baron's zombies, Edward heard Gerard bellowing his name. Edward! Edward! Amber's White Knight started cutting his way towards the Black Prince. Theseus tried to Trump him away to safety, but Edward fought him off.
Ander reached Diega and led his troops in an undiscriminating slaughter of everything in their path.
Sander hit the ground and ditched his paraglider. His men, recruited from the toughest and craziest ex-army Rules Football League players of a dozen shadows, landed around him and laid into the enemy with Lucerne hammers. His messengers were off to find Theseus with Sander's spotty information on what had been done to them, and he was off to capture his father Gerard without killing him.
Edward spotted him and recognized Sander's colors on his men; he set his own men to cheering Lysander!
This was a first for Sander.
Carrying his Trump sword and his many-formed gadget as a Big Maul, and wearing his Buddy Lee shirt under his armor for luck, he homed in on his father's bellows.
High Priestess Megan did secret things.
Breann thrashed free, the horse reared and she fell poorly. Something popped in her shoulder. She pulled the sack off of her head with her feet, ignoring the pain, and saw that she was on the Garnath road out of Amber. She Weakened her bonds with a Power Word and broke them as her captor, a soldier in Edward's colors, wheeled his horse back to her. Breann leapt upward and landed a flying kick against the saddle horn while Weakening the saddle-straps; her foe fell off while she landed (barely) on his mount's back, facing backwards.
Lucky for him, he broke his neck on the cobblestones.
She rode back towards Castle Amber, not sulking... because she was the Queen.
Theseus woke to Miriel's ministrations, his head fuzzy and tender. As she tried to make him comfortable he saw that a line of light illuminated the dust from over her shoulder to his chest. He rolled and jumped off the parapet as the chaise lounge was blown to splinters behind him. He managed to trump in mid-air to the Great Hall and paused to pant and wipe his brow. Then noticed that his hand was... quite bloody... and fainted.
Breann Trumped Bleys.
"My Queen!" Bleys struck a pose -- he really did look great.
"Bring me to your sector of the battle."
"Yes, my Queen! The battle is not going very well," he said, pulling her through.
Breann noticed a flash of reflected light off one of the port fortress' towers and shoved Bleys away, too late. A bullet struck him down. His blood matched his uniform's color exactly. She picked him up with her good arm and used her injured one to hold a Trump. She carried him into the Great Hall and tripped over Theseus' unconscious body, dropping Bleys. Fiona answered her calls for help.
Theseus came to for a moment going up the stairs. Well shit on me.
Lysander and his chosen men closed with Gerard. Eight men tried to hit Gerard through gaps in his armor with curare-soaked blowgun darts. Four more went in with the hammers. It seemed darker around Gerard, and he looked even bigger than Sander remembered. Edward approached from the other side, determined to beat the man who had nearly been his death seven times before.
Vaughn answered Breann's calls a moment later and helped get the wounded men to the infirmary. Fiona revived Theseus but took advantage of the situation to be overly familiar. Breann tried again to Trump Edward.
Edward blocked the Trump call and concentrated on Gerard. Gerard in turn nearly ignored Sander, whom, in this reality, he had never met. Sander swung the maul at Gerard's knee much faster than Gerard had thought he could. Gerard jumped but was hit in the ankles and fell heavily. Edward charged in and got smashed back thirty feet by the Black Prince's mace, blacking out at the first impact but coming to in time to feel the ground hit him. He rolled and got back up despite the suspicion that his breastbone had been cracked.
Gerard rounded on Sander as Sander's men piled on. Gerard grabbed four men and crushed them to the ground, evading Sander's leap at his head. Soldier's bones popped like a hundred twigs. Gerard swatted the man clinging to the front of his helmet away. One man remained on Gerard's back, punching ineffectually.
Sander ran at his father and his (very savvy) minion dropped off Gerard, kneeling on the ground at his back as Gerard braced himself for a charge.
For a normal charge, not for his son's.
Gerard went down on his back and Sander landed on top, hitting him with the maul and the sword's knuckle guard as hard and fast as he could. Gerard took several blows before blocking and counter-punching. Sander flew seven feet up and eight back. Gerard stood without noticing Edward at his back. Sander kicked his Gadget -- a hard soccer ball now -- at Gerard's head; Gerard ducked and Edward was hit in the head and staggered. Gerard noticed Edward and swatted him, spinning him completely around. Sander lunged in and cut at the back of Gerard's left knee, attempting to hamstring him. Edward moved to skewer Gerard with Greyswandir [hey, he thinks it's Greyswandir] and Sander tackled him (Edward, not Gerard).
Edward, flat on his back, assumed that it was a missed lunge at Gerard. Sander turned back to Gerard.
Gerard gave Sander a puzzled look and shouted for his men. Edward tried to get up. Failed. Tried again and made it, just barely. Gerard rose up on one solid leg and one wobbly one and Sander moved in to take him down for good. Gerard blocked the sword with his mace and managed to grab Sander by the throat. Sander started blacking out and kicked Gerard in his wounded knee. Gerard's and Sander's men smashed into each other and Edward was swept away from the other two. He tried to find them again but couldn't.
Quinn hellrode for some time, trying to stay in fast-time shadows whenever possible. Resting his third horse and himself in a forest clearing he heard the leaves rustle just a little too much. Before he could do anything a voice called out to him quietly, "I wouldn't move, Lord Quinn." He didn't. More rustling, closer. Whack. Darkness.
He awoke sitting in a folding camp chair, seated opposite Brigid in a tent. She was beautiful, seemed to be much taller than her modest height, had amazing presence and was.... pregnant. About four or five months he guessed. He hoped his face showed nothing.
The Queen of Swords' face was impassive. "Lord Quinn. Make yourself comfortable. I'm sorry for the inconvenience."
Quinn nodded, winced. "I hadn't realized I was so close to your camp. I didn't mean to barge in."
"Is there anything I can do for you Lord Quinn?"
Quinn smiled, "Actually, I was wondering if you were interested in hiring a good combat sorcerer."
Sander's messenger found Theseus in the Castle Amber infirmary. Miriel held the scroll open for Theseus to read. There was an explanation of what was going on and a diagram of the Trump spread the Baron had used. [No, I don't have any idea how Sander got that information] Theseus sent Miriel to fetch his Trumps from his rooms -- Sander's was one of those he had never memorized. He got it and tried to Trump Sander, but the man was unconscious. He tried to picture Edward's image -- strange that it was hard -- and got, instead, one of some shifty-looking man with a pistol... figure it out later. He Trumped Deirdre.
She answered, "Yes Lord Duke?"
"Deirdre, this is Theseus. I would like to offer you the throne..."
Fiona sat down next to Breann in the sitting room nearest the infirmary. She examined Breann's blackened, shriveled hand, abused by poorly-controlled spell casting. She looked Breann in the eyes, "There's a better way of doing this. Would you like me to show you how?"
Breann saw Bleys die on the operating table. He did not regain consciousness.
Sander's men got him up and moving again. Fortunately the enemy were more set on pursuing Edward's units than his. He was told that Gerard's men carried him off the field alive.
Quinn offered to work for Brigid.
"I'll take that under advisement," she said, "in the meantime you are my honored guest. Allow yourself to be shown to your quarters. There will be a gathering this evening after the customs of my people. You are invited to attend."
Edward received a Trump call from Queen Breann. She informed him that his father Bleys had died of wounds suffered in the battle. She tried to convey her sympathy and concern for his emotional state. Edward took everything she said as some sort of well-deserved criticism of his abilities, his judgement, or himself in general. Frustrating for both of them.
Ander's forces threw themselves wholeheartedly into the sack of Deiga.
Queen Daelyn Trumped Sander while he was still spitting grass and solicitously offered him and his troops a place to rest and recover. Somewhat dazed by both fighting Gerard and courtesy from Daelyn, he accepted. His men were happy to march off to the prospect of R&R -- and Aramystan girls.
Quinn was led around the gathering by Rancorreal, one of Brigid's lieutenants and very reluctant to demean himself by associating with an outsider. Quinn split his attention between observing the Mori and annoying his guide with friendliness. Clothing was sometimes military, sometimes formal gowns, or robes. The dances were part waltz, part tai chi exercises and beautiful. Rancorreal introduced Quinn to too many people, especially when they mostly looked enough alike to be cousins. All of them looked at Quinn like he was some sort of exotic pet. Eventually one caught his attention, a white haired woman named Naomi, introduced to him as one of Brigid's most valuable aides. They started talking, flirting, dancing. Neither noticed when Rancorreal slipped away.
Quinn and Naomi talked, joked, danced in increasing mutual absorption. He remembered talking to Brigid at some point. She was smirking at him. Quinn and Naomi ended up spending the night and the next day together, mostly in her quarters.
Brigid decided to hire Quinn and gave him his first mission: support the Mori troops working with Gerard's forces in a raid on one of the Amber fleet's support facilities. He said, "Yes, Majesty," and went off to hang appropriate spells. Naomi's post was with Brigid, though she was vague on just what she did. Not a bodyguard, though she was quite a good warrior.
Quinn's was already feeling that he had made a mistake. The Mori were, by and large, hardened racists. Brigid was rushing him into an attack on his relatives and in support of the relative he despised the most. Aside from Naomi, whom he found himself thinking about a lot, the situation stank. Then he found out what Naomi's very honorable, much respected but off-putting job was: food taster. And Brigid's food tasters did not tend to last very long. Even her former job, assassin, had a better longevity rate.
Sander was healed up within a couple of days and back to planning with Daelyn. Despite his troubles with Original Daelyn he was starting to really enjoy New Daelyn's company. Caine Trumped him to request his attendance at Bleys' funeral, the first Sander had heard of his uncle's death.
Edward made the preparations for his father Bleys' state funeral and avoided the Queen as much as possible. He learned that Bleys had died taking a bullet for Queen Breann. He found out about the botched abduction of the queen. He examined the body: not one of his men. And the gear was genuine but pieced together from several kits. Later, he noticed that Breann was spending a lot of time with Fiona on Court business. Fiona and Court business? Really?
High Priestess Megan did secret things in the Great Temple. She learned details of the battle, and Sander's new troops and their current location.
Fiona was training Breann to do sorcery properly. One of Breann's greatest problems was an inability to relax. Massaging Breann's shoulders, Fiona decided to help Breann relax the way she did, and kissed her. Breann ran screaming away. When she calmed down she realized that she suddenly felt the difference that tension made by contrast.
Theseus created a Shadow to hide in, via Trump. He went there to ponder.
The funeral for Bleys started well enough. Megan gave a fine speech. When Edward's turn came he faltered, unable to find the words and feeling like a failure while everyone else simply recognized his overwhelming grief. Then a mounted messenger crashed the funeral to tell them that Gerard's and Brigid's were attacking Shadow Skerry, destroying as much as possible. Skerry was quite close to Amber and one of the Amber's best places to recruit wizards. The ceremony was rushed to completion. Theseus giving a rousing, manipulative speech. Sander rounded up some ships from Aramyst (Daelyn's councilors argued against it but she overruled them; Sander marveled) and sailed to Skerry. Vaughn took the fleet out. Breann questioned Sander closely about his plan for the battle. As Sander's plan consisted of getting there and fighting, Breann was not satisfied. She was suspicious of Sander after reading the letter he had sent to Theseus about alternate timelines and all.
Quinn, dressed like the Mori and aboard a ship approaching Skerry, contemplated his odds on resigning after the battle and convincing Naomi to come along. Poor. Still, he'd taken the precaution of readying a spell, heavily masked, to probe the Twilight effect and try to work up spells of detection and blocking against it.
High Priestess Megan provided troops to guard Castle Amber and the City. They seemed to be awfully well-rehearsed at it.
Queen Breann, in a ship at the rear of her fleet, managed to hang more than five spells (her previous record) in her dagger. After each one she took a breather on deck (staring at Edward a lot), relaxed and went back to hang another. Seven!
Forty miles off the Cabra coast a man slipped off a boat and began to swim towards Amber.
Sander tried to Trump Benedict and couldn't make contact, though the card was cool. He tried again with Daelyn's help -- and Theseus redirected the contact to him.
"What are you doing?!" yelled Sander, seriously pissed off.
Theseus slapped him through the contact. "Just give me a name!"
"Benedict."
Theseus let the contact go and searched his own deck. There he was, 'Benedict' according to Sander. An adult, though he knew that had died in childhood, beaten to death by Oberon for some piddling mistake. He could put names to two of the other cards now, by resemblance to Benedict: Osric and Finndo. One remained, a supremely beautiful, kind-looking woman with Morian features. Benedict was dead, here. He looked at the other three cards and decided to try the pretty one. Brigid could have identified her.
Artanis.
Theseus tried to contact the unknown, supernaturally beautiful woman in the Trump he did not remember making. Some presence investigated him with a feather-light touch and left. He tried again and failed.
Quinn watched the approaching Amberite fleet and executed his big trick. He levitated his prepared three hundred pound steel disk with the sharpened edges, aimed at the flagship and pushed with everything he had. This amounted to about eight gees continuous acceleration for a few seconds. He blacked out for a moment and never saw it hit the ship at 1300 mph. Should have used a smaller disk.
Edward, standing on the deck of the Unicorn, heard a cracking noise coming from the island ahead, a ruler-straight white line heading for the ship and a blur. The ship shuddered, almost as if it had hit a reef. Breann rushed up to the deck and passed Edward running in the opposite direction. There was an eight foot gash in the keel a few yards above the waterline in front and a widening hole running out the back exiting in a very large hole. All the masts had been cut. One immediately heeled over in the wind. Theseus Trumped in. Breann thought some Trump trick was involved but was wrong. It took most of an hour to get things back under control. Nearly sixty of the crew were dead. Directed the flag and the Queen moved to the Hand of Oberon.
Breann had four scouts teleported to the first island, where the attack had come from. She did not allow Theseus to go with them. Then she had Theseus Trump Fiona and order her to join them.
Fiona was amazed. "She wants me in battle?"
"No," Theseus replied sarcastically, "she just wants you to entertain the troops."
Shaking her head, "I shouldn't have kissed her."
The Amber fleet moved in and split up into three groups. Edward took the center, Theseus the east and Vaughn the west.
Ander swam for what seemed like an eternity. Periodically he floated on his back and sipped water or ate food from his waterproof supplies. On the second day he saw the fleet set out and knew that Gerard was doing his job. He swam into Oisen-mouth. The job was harder now, swimming against the current. He eventually reached his destination and left the river, still on schedule. After a few hours' sleep, he made his way past half-assed Church patrols in Garnath to the inland, nearly vertical side of Kolvir, arriving after dark. He began climbing in the morning. He had only one bit of excitement, when the Castle guards and the ground patrol hallooed to each other at noon; he hid in a crack, holding himself in a hellish position for twenty minutes. He rested a bit after that before resuming. Doubts assailed him. He shoved them down with the ease of long practice. He reached his goal: the Royal suite's balcony. That involved a grappling hook and a wild jump to the dangling rope -- he made it. Ander broke the lock on the French door and entered confidently. He knew his sister; she could not stay away from a battle, and that was a major point of Gerard's exercise. And he was right, she was gone. (Well, he knew her now. He'd miscalculated a bit when he'd decided to make her a woman at age fifteen, and she'd fled to Amber and his enemies.)
Ander had one hour left before he met with Vaughn. He tore down one of Breann's drapes, cut a marconi arc in it and attached ropes, then tore down a decorative shield and laid both on the balcony. [ooc I, the logwriter, doubt that anybody but Scott has any idea where he was going with this. Or what a 'marconi arc' cut is.] Next Ander made his way stealthily to the library where he looked for things while waiting on Vaughn.
High Priestess Megan's spies told her of the damage to the Unicorn.
Sander arrived with his three ships and his fearless troops. Guerilla war their specialty. He joined up with Edward, hunting for Gerard. Skirmishes began to escalate.
Quinn surveyed things from a high vantage point above Theseus' troops and the Mori. Rather than helping the Mori, his 'allies', he spied on them through a heavily stealthed magickal probe, trying to get hints on how to detect, stop or disrupt the Twilight power. It looked like some kind of Gating.
Theseus' troops encountered the Mori and began to die alarmingly fast.
Sander and Edward agreed on a plan to lure Gerard out into the open. Edward would let his men be 'suckered' out of the last standing village, leading Gerard's men into Sander's ambush. Meanwhile, Vaughn and Fiona reported contact on the third island.
Ander couldn't miss Vaughn's entrance -- blown through a door by a big explosion. Vaughn got up slowly and started climbing the stairs to join Ander on the second level.
"You're early, Vaughn."
Vaughn reached the top of the stairs. "Did you do that? Not very amusing."
"No."
"Oh, well."
"What happened."
"Explosion."
"Something usually precedes such things."
"You know, I don't think this will work. I can't see you any more. And the explosion thing," Vaughn swung a heavy chair at Ander and missed as Ander dodged.
"That Breann is willing to blow up part of her castle, it proves my point."
Vaughn pursued Ander with the chair. Ander heard servants shouting outside the library. Another missed swing. Ander caught Vaughn off balance and threw him over the rail. Vaughn's flailing hand took Ander's backpack with him as he fell, landing on a table and demolishing it. Ander slipped down the stairs and over to the entrance to the stairs leading down to the dungeons. And the Pattern.
Breann accepted Castle Steward Scudamore's panicked Trump call. The Castle was under attack. She went through to him into smoke and ruin. A bomb -- a gunpowder bomb, smelling like their own mix -- had exploded just outside the library. They found Vaughn and the backpack. Breann could see that he had been thrown from the upper level by someone very strong.
Sander and Edward found Gerard, or he found them. Gerard hit Sander, hard, and missed a beat when Sander didn't fly away or even go down. Edward hit Gerard from the side, knocking him down and landing on top. Gerard grabbed Edward by the heavy steel gorget and started to crumple it. Edward kicked him in the head.
Ander walked the Pattern and had it take him to Theseus. More precisely, eight feet above Theseus. Ander ran his naginata through Theseus vertically.
Quinn was watching Theseus from the slope, readying a lightning bolt, when Ander dropped in. What a great excuse. He hit Ander with the bolt.
Ander being Ander, he got up, smoldering, and ran into the trees, weaving only a little bit. He hurt.
Breann searched the library. Signs of a struggle. Loose papers, pen and ink at one of the desks. Someone had been doing some copying. She went to the infirmary in a very bad mood to question Vaughn about what was he doing in the Castle. Vaughn claimed he'd been informed that Ander was there, stealing books. Informed by whom? A spy. Who? Vaughn wouldn't name one, despite a pistol whipping. He handed Breann one of his broken teeth before passing out.
Sander found that he didn't need to stop Edward from killing Gerard. The two of them could barely keep the big man in check. Sander took a hefty mace hit trying to grab Gerard and throttle him. Gerard retreated, more worried about Grayswandir in Edward's hand than anything Sander was doing. Sander timed things right and slid in to grab Gerard's ankle. Gerard was unimpressed, "Puppies chewing on my socks.." Sander punched Gerard's left knee out sideways. Gerard fell.
Quinn blew Theseus' men out of the immediate area with a Windhammer spell, then teleported down to loot Theseus' body of Trumps. Nothing but a standard family deck. And a letter. He read it:
Deirdre:
if you read this letter I am dead, and likely so are several others.
Think. How many others will fall before you gain your objective?
How easy would it be for a third party to sweep in after the
dust had settled and take Amber?
Think. What are the Baron's true intentions?
Theseus
Breann went through the backpack -- Ander's backpack -- carefully while Fiona treated Vaughn's injuries. It looked like Ander had been after old guides to the shadow paths around Shadow Aramyst.
She started to have trouble focusing her eyes, was suddenly tired. "Fiona, why am I getting drowsy?" Fiona was drooping too. Breann staggered out into the hallway and shot out the windows at the end, then puked violently for several minutes. As soon as she could she looked in on the infirmary. Fiona, Vaughn and Random were convulsing hard and drooling blood. Servants and guards approached cautiously. Breann croaked at Scudamore and to pull them out. The first ones in fell down convulsing almost at once.
Gerard's grip loosened on Edward as his leg collapsed. Edward and Sander beat Gerard into unconsciousness. It took a while.
Breann was pretty sure everyone in the infirmary was dead. The looked dead. She and the castle staff retreated and opened every possible window and door to let the poison out. She decided that Ander was responsible for all of it, probably aimed at her. OK, then, say it had worked. Breann summoned Scudamore and arranged to fake her own death. She 'collapsed' and was taken to her rooms. Scudamore summoned her regular physician, Breann gave the man his orders. She 'died'. Shortly after, Scudamore informed her that Miriel's corpse had been found with Ander's dagger in it.
Sitting in her rooms, listening to the yelling and keening outside, she worried that Ander's daughter Lora, whom Breann had always liked, had helped with the assassination. Later that day she let Julian in on the secret of her survival. He had another piece of the puzzle to tell. He thought he'd felt someone walk the Pattern a while after the explosion.
Quinn used his invisibility spell and his flight spell, then Trumped to Castle Amber's gates. He flew in a window and tried Theseus' room by shoving a luckless servant in alone. The man started to shriek and disappeared in a rainbow haze. Same thing with the next servant. He gave up on Theseus' rooms and investigated the confusion, skimming along the ceiling. He got to the infirmary as the gas was clearing out. Fiona, very nearly his only friend, was dead. There were no traces of magick in the room. The gas remnants were thickest outside the far door. He retreated to a third floor closet before the invisibility wore off and cast a spell to find strychnine gas outside of the castle, spreading the probe out in a spiral... Nowhere in the City. He left just after Miriel's name was added to the dead. His daughter dead as well.
Secret Things all around.
Quinn told Brigid everything he'd seen in Castle Amber, though not what he'd felt. He also gave her the letter.
Breann teased Gerard in his cell.
Quinn dreamed. A supernaturally beautiful woman in diaphanous robes showed him a vision of another Amber, where Amber was not a pit of vicious dogs and he was an honored part of it. Where he was a master of great powers and happy with his lot. Stiff, though. His guide, who, he sensed, cared for him in some unfamiliar way, and who, strangely, did not arouse his usual lust, looked deep into his eyes. THIS IS THE TRUE WORLD. FIND THESEUS. TELL HIM YOU KNOW THIS. He awoke unable to doubt the message. Theseus' -- dead Theseus' -- Trump was cool. Not Miriel's or Fiona's.
Where is everyone?
Breann confronted Gerard in his cell, trusting to the heavy shackles and bolts in the granite to keep her safe.
"I always knew you were my mother's bitch, but now you're Ander's too," she sneered, waving a forged letter in his face, then letting him read it. "We knew when. We knew where. They practically tied you up and handed you to us."
Gerard ground his teeth. "What do you want?" he growled.
Breann looked up at him contemptuously. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised you didn't know anything. You weren't important enough to take along." She shook her head. "Who are you really angry at? Me, or my mother and Ander?" She nailed the paper up where he could see it and left.
Edward's trip home aboard the Hand of Oberon was a test of his stoicism. Despite assorted sprains and broken bones he only showed concern when he learned that there had been an attack on Castle Amber. He immediately Trumped there and was met by Scudamore lest he hear that the Queen was dead (she'd faked her death) and kill himself out of misplaced guilt. Scudamore escorted him to Breann. She broke the news of the assassinations to him, tried to reassure him and finally sent him to be attended to by her personal physician.
Sander sat in the most comfortable chair in Aramyst Palace with the Empress Daelyn herself attending him, fetching him cool drinks... On the one hand, heaven, on the other, very strange.
"How are you feeling now?" Daelyn asked. Sander sighed happily. Daelyn continued, "I have an idea how you and your men can relax. Are you game?"
Sander choked on his beer. "Uh, yeah."
"Meet me down at the entrance in twenty minutes."
Twenty minutes later Daelyn appeared dressed in the festival outfit Sander had first seen her wearing in the Real World. Heh, heh. She led them into a carriage, smiling a small, provocotive smile. They arrived in town at a huge building decked for a festival party, hundreds of lights and torches, decorations. The crowd was in festive costume aside from Sander's troops who wore what bits of non-armor clothing they had brought on campaign. Daelyn led Sander up to the dais to stand beside her as she gave a short speech expressing gratitude to Prince Sander and the Mighty Magpies for their work in capturing the Black Prince.
The party began in earnest. Mountains of food, lakes of booze, dancing, singing, etc. Daelyn downed a big glass of mead and took the center of the dance floor, gesturing for Sander to join her as the music began. Sander joined her smiling hugely because, this time, he knew this dance. Daelyn glued herself to him, he danced like a pro, and he debated the merits of being a gentleman vs. trying to break his old record.
Quinn woke up determined -- no, compelled -- to contact Theseus. Someone clapped outside his door as he pulled out Theseus' Trump. It was a messenger requesting his attendance on Queen Brigid. Quinn put the call off and went directly to his new boss. Brigid complimented him on his performance in the battle despite his personal distaste for their allies, indirectly saying that he had passed a necessary test. Also, their former employers -- Deirdre, Ander and Gerard, not the Baron -- had invited them to a gathering, specifically requesting Quinn's presence. Smiling at Quinn's expression, Brigid said that she personally guaranteed his safety. Quinn allowed that it should be interesting, even amusing.
Back in his rooms, Quinn executed an illusion masking Trump activity and called Theseus. Theseus was not happy to be contacted by his loyalty-challenged cousin but loosened up when Quinn described his vision of the Real World. Theseus listed who he thought had been affected by the working, including Benedict who somehow was not dead. Theseus had two ideas on how to break the effect were, One, die, or, Two, get everyone to raise Trump Defense at once. Both preferred Two. Quinn, way out of his depth, said he'd help any way he could. Theseus, still a bit suspicious, asked that Quinn stay this course, please.
"Lord Edward!" called one of his own sergeants, interrupting Edward's doze, "Pardon me for interrupting but one of the guards has informed me that the Queen is interrogating Gerard with the cell door open!"
"Help me up!" Standing, Edward whipped out his Trump deck and handed the sergeant his (Edward's) card. "Run down the stairs as fast as you can and Trump me once you're there!" A remarkably short time later, Edward stepped through -- and his world pivoted, rippled with a huge rush of power -- into the hall outside Gerard's cell. Gerard seemed to be telling the Queen about traitors inside Amber. Simultaneously he was floating in the air above the Baron's altar.
Theseus Trumped Caine. "Pull up Trump Defense on yourself."
"Why?"
"Trust me, just do it." Caine, ever accommodating, did. His Trump 'signature' purified, becoming completely the man he was, here.
"So? I tried it and nothing happened."
Theseus had already moved on to Julian. "And remember, if anyone tries to break through, it will be Ander!" Julian complied and Theseus tried to break through a couple of times, just to make Julian try really hard.
Edward Prime watched the Baron exit the room. Lora was on the altar. Breann stood tranced across the room. A dozen or so Trumps floated in the air, lines of energy connecting them, while half a dozen others littered the floor, bloodied and ripped. Edward, back in his body, batted at the floating Trumps but they resumed their fixed positions. He shook Lora but could not wake her. He used a Word on her to dispel magick -- an Edward Secundus trick, that...
Edward Secundus staggered towards his Queen. She stood in the doorway to Gerard's cell. Breann notice him and told him he could watch but not interfere. Gerard said that High Priestess Megan had been feeding information to his faction.
Megan, shapeshifted into a guard's form [??] nearby, heard this and armored herself up. The strychnine-gasser form, while effective, was physically draining and rather slow. Claws, too. Big ones.
Theseus and Miriel tried to force a contact through to Deirdre and suddenly succeeded as her crosslink to Edward broke. Theseus pointed a crossbow through the contact.
Edward Prime turned to zapping floating Trumps with Magick Negation. Four fell. Four remained in the air with links to broken Trumps on the floor, and three more interconnected.
Sander started seeing double. NOT NOW!
Megan ran a poisoned spike all the way through Edward.
"My Queen..." Edward choked.
Breann whirled, drawing pistol and sword, and ran forward but couldn't get a shot at Megan without hitting Edward. Edward's sergeant charged Megan from the side.
Quinn, sailing through Twilight on Brigid's ship, was discussing the basics of that power with her when his vision started fading in and out, to some palace's steps. "Does it always fade in and out like that?"
"What do you mean?" Brigid asked.
Megan tore the sergeant's throat out but Edward managed to draw Greyswandir. Edward the human shield still blocked Breann's line of fire.
"It.. Won't... Drop!" Theseus cursed. He picked up Breann's card.
"My Queen," Edward forced out, blood running from his mouth, as he got his feet on the ground, "I love you. BLESS YOU." He threw himself off the spike, ripping out half his vitals in the process.
Megan staggered back in a hail of bullets and four consecutive lightning bolts. And three Ice Bolts. Gerard yelled in his cell.
^^^
Seven Trumps hit the floor by the altar. Breann blinked and saw that the zombies were turning to attack her. Edward swept up all the Trumps, threw Lora over his shoulder and pulled out Breann's Trump, since eighty feet and a score of zombies separated them. Contact. Edward yelled, "My -- Breann!" and pulled her through to him. The Amber Trump worked.
Megan and Vaughn stepped through the contact to Vaughn's ship. He collapsed and couldn't be awakened. The fleet faded away for a moment. Not all the ships reappeared.
Theseus stepped through to Julian. Julian staggered, then checked his armor and weapons. Whistled for Morgenstern, who huffed back. Julian let out a huge sigh of relief.
Quinn stood very still next to Sander on the steps of Aramyst Palace.
Daelyn appeared at a third floor balcony and shouted down to Sander, "What just happened?"
Sander started dancing a victory dance. "Yes! Yes!"
Quinn tapped Sander's arm and said, low, "Now's your chance. Go to her. Comfort her."
Sander said, "Yeah," and was gone.
Breann and Edward, in Castle Amber, along with half the population of the City looked at the bright, white light hanging over the town. At the center of the light was a figure with wings and shining hair.
Where is everyone?
Where is everyone?
Amber: staring up at the bright white light over the city like everyone else, Edward saw a stern, gigantic warrior angel with terrible white light flaring from its eyes...
: Breann saw a gigantic, white-haired, androgynous, figure wielding a spear, somehow Benedict-like, despite the black antiflame in its eye sockets...
: Theseus, just Trumping in, saw an impossibly complex polyhedron, glowing white and rotating in too many dimensions, frightening...
: Megan, in the bay, saw a creature mixing features of the Unicorn and the Leviathan...
it pivoted to face the Castle and looked at each of them at the same time. It reached out an arm/spear/tentacle/shaft of light to touch them... all frozen in awe or fear... and green light bloomed out of its chest/center and consumed it. Far away, Quinn (and others) shivered without knowing why.
Things resumed their course. Breann wanted her Trump of Lora back from Edward. Edward wanted to tick her off with delays. The Castle courtyard was full of Royals -- Caine, Breann, Edward carrying the unconscious Lora, Theseus, Miriel, Deirdre, Gerard and Flora. The last three were particularly dazed. Bleys and Fiona lay comatose on the ground. So did quite a few Castle guards and servants. Deirdre snapped out of her daze when she saw Edward and Lora.
"Edward! What are you doing?"
"My -- your Grace--" Edward stammered, then saw his father on the flagstones, "Dad!" He hurried over to see, then turned to Breann. "Take her!" He handed Lora over to her aunt and knelt to examine his father. No blood or bruises. Pupils the same size. Edward lifted Bleys up and carried him inside.
Megan examined Vaughn's unconscious body. His pulse was slow but steady and his other vital signs were not worrisome. Sailors reported a large number of similar cases among the crew, especially in the lower decks. And all the masts were cut. She Trumped Deirdre to report. The Regent was surrounded with shouting, gesturing servants, guards and royals. She told Megan to call her again in two minutes. Megan Trumped her again in three. Deirdre took Vaughn through to the crowded infirmary and told Megan to send the crew to the admiralty using the ship's Trump.
Breann carried Lora up the stairs to the infirmary in a careful run, leading the pack. She put her niece in the best bed and examined her. Cuts on the arms inside the elbows and on the sides of the neck, not quite at the arteries.
Theseus took charge in the courtyard, calling in more guards, rearranging servants' duties, calling for stretchers for the comatose mortals.
Edward bypassed the rapidly jamming infirmary and took Bleys to his rooms. Pale. Steady pulse. Comatose. He wafted an open bottle of the Really Good Wine by Bleys' nose. Nothing. He didn't want to go to the infirmary and deal with Breann. He tried to Trump Bleys. The card cooled but nothing more. Patted him, cautiously. (He'd been very impressed how fast and strong his father was.) Well, poop!
Edward examined his new Trumps while waiting for an inspiration. Untouched: Lora. Bloodstained but usable: Breann, Deirdre, himself, Gerard, Julian, Flora, Miriel, Delwin (he'd be very careful with that one) and some woman he almost recognized. Unusable: Megan, Ander, Quinn, Theseus and Caine. Plus six unrecognizable and unusable.
Daelyn, Sander found out, remembered everything. While they talked the only really annoying Aramystan noble to survive in the other timeline, Daelyn's top ambassador, interrupted, knocking at the door.
Sander hated this guy. "Let me."
"Nooh."
"Ah, yes, my Queen... Lord Consort. My Queen we have something of a problem. A unit of troops looking for Lord Lysander..."
"Those would be the Magpies," Daelyn interrupted.
"Ah, yes, my Queen."
Daelyn glanced at Sander out of the corner of her eye. "Put them up in the empty First Royal Guards barracks. And assign Jonnson from the kitchen staff to be their cook. In fact, he'll be permanently attached to them."
Jonnson was the ambassador's favorite cook. Sander made faces at him from behind Daelyn.
"But, but..."
"Lord Ambassador, I want you to see to it personally."
Daelyn turned to Sander with an innocent expression on her face.
Quinn left a note for Queen Daelyn.
Your Imperial majesty. I have sent a
shipment of special
defensive devices from the railhead. If you would select
a group of mages, I have some spells to teach for point
defense against the Mori.
Quinn
He Trumped to Amber in time to see the Vision, which looked to him something like his mother Artanis, only androgynous and much more impressive. Scary. Through the Lens, as the thing faded, he saw a novel mix of Pattern -- Amber- Pattern -- and something new.
The infirmary held most of the family, milling about, on pallets or, like Gerard, leaning on the walls and staring bleakly into space. Quinn told him that Sander was fine and in Aramyst. Gerard knew this (Sander had Trumped him) and barely reacted. Quinn sat on Fiona's bed, put a hand on her head and attempted to make psychic contact. Lightly, more, strongly... nothing. He couldn't find her at all, like Julian when he was in a coma after being machine-gunned. Quinn rested a bit then moved over to Random. Gerard, sleep walking, agreed to hold Random down as a precaution. Quinn didn't want to bounce off the ceiling. Random was closer. Unwakable, but Quinn tried to leave a message, Come home to Amber.
Theseus, explaining matters to Scudamore the Steward. Miriel distracted them by standing nearby and waiting patiently. Scudamore slipped away.
"So, Fiona's unconscious but I note that you are conspicuous in your absence. I don't mean to pry, but I was under the impression that you'd be hovering over her, fluffing her pillows."
"At one time I would have. The change is not due to you."
"If you want to talk, I'll listen."
Breann dragged her mother into the hall. Secret things were said.
Deirdre assigned Quinn the task of working out who had been crossed with whom in the Baron's Event. Especially her cross. Breann explained that she thought it had been done with a family deck. She'd seen it from across a large room, during a fight. Edward had been closer and might have seen more. Quinn said some mixes were fairly obvious -- him and Bleys, Fiona and Megan -- so they had somewhere to start. Deirdre looked around and saw that neither Edward nor Bleys was in the infirmary. She led Quinn off to Edward's rooms.
Megan met with Ander and found out that he intended to send some of the fleet back to Shadow Verinau for repairs. Next she Trumped Caine.
He was boarding his own ship, the La Rue. "Yes, Megan? How is your ship? Your Trump is swaying."
Megan briefed him.
"We're still trying to discover what happened. I believe that the offensive will be postponed for a bit, so if you want to leave your ships and tend to your mother there will be no problem."
"Mom?!"
"She's unconscious."
"No one told me that!"
"I can give you a shortcut.." Caine began, holding out his hand.
Megan cut the contact and Trumped through to the Great Hall. She worked through the crowd to sit by her mother and check her over. She tried to contact her by Trump to no avail.
Sander and Daelyn were still talking. Sander was ardent but restrained out of concern for her. Daelyn appreciated this newfound sensitivity. They shared coffee and hot chocolate and cuddled in a big comfortable chair. Less than an hour later she was all over him.
The knock on the door shocked him into quick action, sweeping the old and new Trumps -- most of them originally Lora's, most likely -- into separate pockets. He opened the door to Deirdre and Quinn. "My, my, my -- what can I do for my dear family?"
Deirdre began, "Edward, you were carrying Bleys."
"Yes. I knew the infirmary would be crowded so I brought him here."
She nodded, "We believe his condition is connected to the events on the 'other side'. Many other people were affected as well. Breann said she and you saw something of a ceremony the Baron performed."
"Did you get a count of the Trumps involved?" Quinn asked.
"No. It was very confusing. Zombies, valkauri, fighting and so on. Perhaps two dozen or so cards."
Quinn explained about wanting to discover the cross-connections. He mentioned his own view, that nobody was responsible for their other selves' deeds since they had been molded into mixes of the worst or weakest traits of two (or more) people each. Edward liked that idea.
Quinn checked Bleys out psychically, with Edward's and Deirdre's permission. He was even farther gone than Fiona. Edward said he'd transfer Bleys to the infirmary.
As they were leaving, Deirdre paused, "By the way, I'll need those Trumps of Breann's that she lent you."
"Very well, since it's you." He handed them over. They left his rooms.
Edward spread all his Trumps out on a table and tried to remember the connections. He found he recalled quite a bit.
Theseus' efforts were noticed. Caine Trumped him to discuss what to do about large numbers of comatose merchant sailors.
Megan, furious and trying to control it (two inches taller than usual), cornered Deirdre. "You could at least of had the courtesy to tell me that my mother was among the injured."
Deirdre, blindsided, almost stuttered, "I, uh... I'm sorry. I thought you knew."
"How could I?!"
"I'm sorry. I... I.."
"What are you doing about it?"
"We are still trying to understand what happened. It seems to be connected to dying on the other side."
Megan's eyes widened a bit. She looked around at the bodies in the infirmary. Oh shit.
Where is everyone?
Where is everyone?
Ander Trumped through to Deirdre. Both quietly furious, they talked over the altered-ego experience. Deirdre told him that the Baron was the prime suspect and that it seemed to be unlikely that he could do it again soon, if ever. She went along with his statement that he'd attack Ys in twenty days, with the fleet back up to strength. They switched to personal matters.
Deirdre looked Ander over carefully as they walked to the infirmary. "I'm concerned how you are feeling."
"I might say the same about you."
"I was luckier than some. I didn't actually go after any family members myself."
Ander looked at his mother from the corner of his eyes. "As troubling as I find things you seem to be holding up well."
Deirdre took Ander's arm and stopped dead. She started to speak, then looked both ways down the hall. They were alone. She spoke just above a whisper. "I'm completely panicked but I can't tell anyone. I'd like nothing better than to curl up in my room for a few days. But I can't do that either." She composed her face and resumed walking. Ander wiped the surprise off his face and caught up to her.
Quinn, Megan, Flora and some others were still in the infirmary. Quinn carefully mind-probed Lora and found that she was merely exhausted. He hesitated, then decided that her father, grandmother and aunt needed to talk to her more than she needed to sleep, and woke her. Lora looked around groggily, then tensed up. Deirdre and Ander walked in the door.
Quinn talked to Lora calmly, backing his words up with a little psychic push. "You're in Castle Amber, in the infirmary. Breann and Edward got you out."
Lora relaxed, then saw her father. "Hi, Dad."
"You're OK?"
"Uh, yeah."
Ander gestured for Quinn to move away from Lora. Quinn stood, then moved close to Ander.
"She's not nearly as bad as Fiona or Bleys." Quinn looked straight at Ander. "That wasn't us, or was only the worst parts of us and other people."
They shook hands. Ander said, "Sorry."
"Hey, there's nothing to be sorry for. I wouldn't join Brigid, so it wasn't me and it wasn't you."
Quinn went to check on Vaughn.
Ander noticed Megan watching Fiona's unresponsive face. "How's your mom doing?"
Megan answered casually. "Comatose. Up for some hockey some time?"
After a stunned second, Ander recognized deep denial.
Breann entered the infirmary and went straight to Lora, nodding to Deirdre sitting on the edge of the bed. "Are you OK?"
"No, the question is are you OK? You made it out OK? It was weird, I could see what everyone else was doing. I was afraid for you." Lora was very earnest. Deirdre looked quizzical.
Quinn finished with Vaughn, who wasn't in nearly as deep a coma as Fiona. Why? He noticed Megan and got up to talk with her. They discussed the detection of shapeshifters. Quinn was worried that, with Fiona out of commission, Osric or Brand would take the opportunity to walk the Pattern, bringing them up to full power. And if they found Fiona helpless... Megan hadn't heard of Fiona's capture and rescue, so he filled her in on that, adding that Anax had claimed that Brand, Osric and 'others' had combined efforts to accomplish the capture. Quinn thought that they had been justly afraid to enter the castle with Fiona there. Vengeful. Quinn suggested that Fiona and the other coma cases be moved somewhere safe. Deirdre, who'd been listening, agreed that the family manpower was too low to protect them constantly. Nobody else had a safe hospital handy, so they settled on Aretia. Megan went to the kennels to study Stumpy, the lone survivor of the shifter-hounds.
On the way out, Megan channeled Evil Meg -- compartmentalized shifter-style into her own room in Megan's head -- and examined the Castle surfaces for scrying devices such as her alter ego had employed.
Theseus, possibly the one least affected by the Baron's working, took charge of things in the town. The people were panicked over the 'wasting plague' which had struck so many down. Added on top of that was a grisly ritual murder, the victim discovered in a city tavern.
Ander Trumped Theseus and went through to help. Not that there was much they could do but make the comatose people comfortable. Ander examined the murder victim. The scene, a male victim spread over a bed with his chest carved in arcane symbols, reminded him of one of the scenes in his dreams, in the Tir. He shared the memory with Theseus while denying several times any culpability in the dream-girl's -- Theseus recognized her as Osric's daughter Lushaira -- death. There were similarities. The symbols were different though. Both Theseus and Ander tried to work out what the symbols meant.
Ander accepted a Trump contact -- Victor.
"What the hell was that with the dominatrix Queen of Pain thing?! Was that a dream or what? The kids are freaked! Sandy didn't have the, uh, dream, but the kids are freaking her out too."
Ander focused on Victor and immediately thought that a murder investigation needed a cop. "Are they OK?"
"Uh, yes."
"Come through."
"Um, OK." Victor turned away from the card to yell, "Honey, I gotta go pull Ander's ass out of the deep fat fry again."
Ander pulled Victor through and sent him up to the murder site. Next he cornered the tavern's owner, known to the constables as 'connected', and combined bribes and threats to have the man contact the city's crime boss and arrange a meet. Ander was very irritated when he learned that it could take days. He got it across that anything but soon and close would have very bad consequences for anyone making delays.
Deirdre cajoled, lied and persuaded Breann to sign the long-delayed paperwork naming Breann as one of her heirs.
Theseus and Victor took fingerprints from the dead man's room, though no files existed to compare them to. The man had died by thrusting his own thumbs through his eyes into his brain. Victor judged that the carving of symbols had come later. Theseus suggested that the vision of the light-thing above the city had drove the man mad. He rooted in the dead man's eye sockets to find the color of the crushed eyes.
Victor looked at Theseus curiously, "Are we doing the autopsy now?"
"No, I needed the eye color." Theseus was already sketching rapidly.
"Why? Oh, for a likeness."
The chief constable came up and reported to Theseus that more than half of his force was comatose. Theseus gave the man instructions and reassurance.
Quinn Trumped his mother, Artanis the Queen of Dreams, to thank her for her efforts to help his alter-ego. He gave her a rough precis of the situation. She agreed to help by looking out for Vaughn's and Fiona's dream-selves. He asked her about Brigid: had Brigid kept her word in her dealings with Artanis? Absolutely. Quinn told her he wanted to look into negotiating a peace with Brigid, since all-out war between the Mori and Amber would ruin both. He wanted a Trump of Brigid and Artanis agreed to have one made. Next he brought up the notion of negotiating with Brigid to Deirdre who promised to consider it.
Sander and his wife Daelyn were hesitating between dressing and undressing, with a lot of kissing and giggling, when he got a Trump call. Deirdre. He resisted it for a quarter hour.
Breann, signing away in Deirdre's study, was aware of her mother staring at a Trump for a long time, muttering occasionally. Eventually, Deirdre was answered. Sander, I'd appreciate it if you and your wife would come through. We need you for a sort of surprise. Pause. Meet me in the western study.
Ander Trumped Quinn, asked after Megan's whereabouts, and told him about the murder. Quinn went through immediately. Ander asked Quinn if he could do anything for the victims. Quinn said he hadn't tried to help a mortal yet but would give it a try after checking the murder scene. Ander directed him upstairs. Theseus and Victor heard Quinn coming and yelled at him to keep him out of the room, where the two were searching every inch on hands and knees. Quinn Lensed the site through the door but found no magic residue. No magic at all, in fact. It had been wiped clean. Quinn passed that on and asked them to let him try a tracing spell on anything suspect they found.
Quinn returned to the street and located two coma victims who lacked relatives. He took them with him to Aretia where he attempted to Edit them back to consciousness. Denizens of Amber were difficult to change that way but Aretia was far away and the center of his own power...
Meanwhile, Ander Trumped Deirdre, looking for Megan, and was convinced to go through to her and sign paperwork. He met Breann there, signing away, and she learned that he had not, as their mother had implied, already signed. Breann glared. Deirdre smiled.
Megan was told by Deirdre that Ander was looking for her.
Ander and Breann discussed ways and means of killing the Baron of Ys. Along the way, Breann explained how Lora had been used the Baron's big spell, at least to judge by what she and Edward had seen. Ander asked if Quinn or Theseus knew of Lora's ordeal. Breann didn't know.
Sander and Daelyn Trumped in with four Mighty Magpie bodyguards. Deirdre had Daelyn and the Magpies sign as witness to Sander's and Theseus' knighting. Neither man was happy about kneeling before a sword-wielding Deirdre but survived the ordeal unscathed. Each got dukedoms with no attached responsibilities as well. Next thing, Deirdre had all the men witness her giving Daelyn Amber's official thanks and the first draft of the best trade treaty that any Golden Circle realm had ever got out of Amber. Deirdre let them know that the assault had been rescheduled for twenty days hence.
Deirdre whispered something to Daelyn that got a smile -- and Sander's suspicion. Daelyn told Sander afterward that she thought the knighting was 'cute'.
Megan and Ander continued to miss each other. She reported to Deirdre that she thought she had mastered the form -- she now had cute curly 'horns' -- but she needed another shapeshifter to practice on. Deirdre thought she could come up with someone.
Where is everyone?