Recorded for Posterity by Iain Walker.
"Haven't you been trying to ban private firework displays?" Damien asks Tristan as the fiery thing rises into the sky (not that fireworks actually work in Amber, of course). Then, to Tamarind, "You and Beltaine used to go up to Tir-Na Nog'th a lot; did you do a Trump of the steps?"
Tamarind did - he gives the Trump to Altair, who concentrates on it. Tamarind pulls out Evander's Trump and tries to jam it.
Tristan gets a sword from the display case in Random's office. Damien gets a crossbow. Ibrahim gets Eric's Pattern sword back from Random.
Gerard punches the wall across the doorway. He has no effect.
Tristan begins to bring the Pattern to mind with the intention of using it to rid the doorway of magic. He steps away from people making Trump calls.
Ibrahim watches the figure on the peak of Kolvir. He says we should alert the guards by the Pattern Room - if something bad happens, that's probably safest. "Good idea," says Random. He pulls out his Trump of the guardroom outside the Pattern Room.
Up above, the fiery thing seems to have reached the sun. Nothing has happened yet.
Altair makes Trump contact with the steps on Kolvir, and says she can see whoever it is; it's not Evander, but someone she doesn't recognise. Damien goes through the link, saying, as he goes, "Someone look after her" - indicating the Chief Inspector.
"Of course," says Caine.
Gerard steps back to get a run-up at the wall across the doorway.
Over by the door, Tristan radiates Pattern energy about himself, taking in the wall in the doorway. He can sense that the magic is concentrated on part of the floor. Then the wall vanishes.
Gerard halts his run-up, just in time.
There is a one-inch cube of pale gold stone in the doorway (like the stone of the castle itself). Tristan keeps radiating Pattern energy at it, just in case it'll revert to a wall if he doesn't.
Alarm bells are still ringing outside. Guards run into the room, but there is no sign of the two who were outside the door when everyone came in, or of Random's secretary.
By the window, Ibrahim notes that the sun has become slightly brighter.
The guards say they've found the missing guards and the secretary in a storeroom. Ah ha!
Gerard Trumps Julian.
Damien arrives on top of Kolvir. The figure is thirty yards away, a tall man, with reddish skin and bright read hair, wearing military style dark purple clothing. He is looking at the sky. Damien shoots him with the crossbow. The man turns at the 'twang', and just dodges the bolt, taking a graze on one arm. Damien leaps for him, sword out. The man draws his sword too, and a dagger in his other hand.
Altair tells the others what's going on. Tamarind (feeling he's having no luck with his Trump jamming) and Ibrahim join the Trump link.
Damien, going all-offensive, no defensive, feints and lunges at the man, catching him on the arm. He stabs Damien in the guts. Damien slashes him across the throat; the sword doesn't penetrate as much as Damien feels it should. The man stabs Damien in the guts again with the dagger in his off hand, lifting him of his feet. That hurts! Damien runs him through the side.
Tamarind and Ibrahim tumble through the Trump link.
Ibrahim throws his khopesh sword as a scythe, spinning to cut the man's feet off. Tamarind charges.
The man looks Damien in the eye. "You should surrender, all of you," he growls. Damien twists the sword in him. He winces. The dagger on which Damien is hanging hurts like hell.
Tristan sets down the stone cube to one side of the anteroom outside Random's office - somewhere safe. When he steps back so the Pattern no longer affects it, it grows into a wall again, filling that space. He suggests that Caine Trump Flora.
Caine does so.
The spinning khopesh slices into the man's leg, not as much as it should.
"The Council for Victory will have you all," says the man. Damien jiggles the sword inside him, and he twists the knife in Damien's guts; briefly, everything goes grey for Damien.
Tamarind goes for the mans sword arm. He parries, his arm bending impossibly.
"The Council for Victory will have Amber. You will submit," he says.
In Amber, Random is Trumping. Gerard is talking to Julian, also via the Trump.
From a guard, Tristan discovers that he and Ibrahim had ordered manoeuvres in the castle gardens. He orders them cancelled, then with Caine Trumps to the gardens. Before he goes Tristan orders six guards to guard Isobel.
Random says that Caleb is not responding. He tries Margot's Trump.
Tamarind can feel that the man is in a Trump link (receiving, rather than making a call). He backs off, grabs Evander's Trump and blocks it like hell.
Ibrahim tries to cut the man's dagger arm (holding up Damien) with Eric's Pattern sword. He succeeds in chopping his forearm off instead, the Pattern blade slicing right through with little resistance. Damien slumps, still holding the sword, which grates around in the man's rib cage. He hisses in pain. This should be doing massive damage to the chap's innards.
By now the light is noticeably brighter, the shadows more sharply defined.
Tamarind shouts, "He's in a Trump link."
Ibrahim hits him on the head with the hilt of the Pattern sword, and the man collapses like a deflating balloon. The Trump contact disappears as if someone has gone through it. Evander's Trump is no longer active.
Damien lies on the ground bleeding massively. "Damn, he was good," he says. Tamarind shouts to Altair for help. Ibrahim gathers up the bag of skin, his arm (which seems to be solid flesh and blood, bleeding slightly) and the man's sword and dagger from where they dropped.
Gerard and Altair come through. Altair helps Tamarind Trump Evander.
In the gardens there are war games going on. Tristan calls Guthrun Norwulf (the Captain of the Castle Guard) over and orders a halt, and orders the guards to see to the castle defences. He warns against shapeshifters impersonating himself, Damien, Tamarind and Ibrahim. Tristan has also apparently ordered a review of the Amber defences. He decides to change all Amber's defensive plans.
Tristan suggests to Caine sending a 'we mean it this time' message to Benedict. Caine will go - he notes that he has a Trump of Benedict's house on Avalon. He Trumps off. Tristan arranges to have a 'he is coming message' about Benedict sent out, just to worry the enemy, whoever they are.
Damien casts a healing spell at Power Word strength on himself as he puts a compress on the hideous wound. The others on the top of Kolvir are trying to force a Trump contact on Evander.
They feel the link beginning to slowly open. Then it snaps open, as if the recipient has given up fighting it. And there is Evander, sitting in a chair with a wall behind him. Tamarind goes for his mind and tries to hold him. So does everyone else. "Hello, what do you ... urk," says Evander, as he is mind-locked.
Ibrahim grabs Evander through the link and pulls him through. It takes Tamarind, Gerard and Altair together to hold Evander's mind, though it's clear Altair is going most of the work. Gerard punches Evander. He's out like a light.
Tamarind explains that Evander was in the link to 'Mr Skin'. But he seemed surprised. Was the link being diverted? Damien suggests that perhaps he doesn't know it's him.
Ibrahim, looking out from the top of Kolvir, notices that ships coming in from out to sea seem to give out some way from shore - there are no new ones approaching over the horizon.
Gerard peers through a telescope, and says there's nothing unusual about the ships themselves.
Tristan is Trumping Tamarind. Tamarind takes the call and everyone on top of Kolvir joins Tristan in the gardens. Tristan hands out red armbands so the guards can tell who is an impostor and who isn't.
Ibrahim suggests that to survive we're going to need to go underground or maybe evacuate Amber.
Tristan Trumps Random and asks him to use the Jewel of Judgement to cover Amber with cloud. He also brings Random up to date. Random agrees to use the Jewel. Medics are summoned for Damien. While he waits, Damien lays out 'Mr Skin's' skin and searches it (and the clothes it's wearing).
Tamarind senses Evander's Trumps - inside him in his chest. He orders Evander taken to the infirmary and the Trumps surgically removed.
Damien finds nothing in 'Mr Skin's' pockets. The clothes are ordinary. The sword and dagger are very generic. There are no distinguishing marks or features. And the skin looks the same inside as outside. But there was flesh and blood inside earlier, so he's still out there. Damien tells Tristan that 'Mr Skin' was a bit better than him.
Damien, Evander and 'Mr Skin' are carted off to the infirmary. Tamarind comes with them.
Tamarind asks Damien for the Stone of Talking to Brand. Damien gives it to him. They stop in the corridor. Tamarind concentrates on the stone. After a while he feels the coldness of the stone spread through him, and Damien sees a black aura form around him. Eventually Tamarind feels something like a black tunnel extending away from him towards something far, far off, and contact is made. Brands mental voice comes as if from far away. Tamarind asks him about his children. He says Beltaine is his only child, and he has no son named Evander. Tamarind tells Brand that the castle is under attack, and he'll contact him again when they are ready to unite him and Deirdre with some new bodies.
Plans are laid to defend Amber.
Damien notes that the needle tracks on his arms are in excess of those of the IV drips he was hooked up to in the hospital. He asks Tamarind to look at his arms. He has excess marks too. Damien also suggests someone checks with Random that the Pattern room is guarded, and someone also Trump Llewella to ask her to guard the Rebma Pattern. Damien tries to do this latter, but doesn't have the strength. Tamarind says to wait until Evander is dealt with and then we'll do it.
They reach the infirmary. The Trumps are cut out of Evander, extracted by Tamarind. In the deck there are none of the Chaos Trumps that we know Evander has.
Tamarind orders Evander moved to the far end of the infirmary. "I wasn't planning on doing anything to him," says Damien muzzily.
Tamarind wants Evander placed in a Trump-proof cell if any are ready. Damien notes that the shape-shifting inhibiting poison used to attack Telgadi might be useful. The infirmary doctor says Caine has it. "Well, we all know who scuppered the talks," says Damien, deliriously.
Tristan Trumps Caine, who is on the driveway of Benedict's house in Avalon. "Any progress?" he asks.
"No, useless bastard says he can't help," replies Caine.
Tristan says Caine should alert the Golden Circle shadows.
Caine says that if he didn't know better he'd say that Benedict was drunk.
They sign off on the Trump link.
Tristan goes to the griffin stables in the castle tower top, mounts a griffin and plummets down gaining gliding speed, swooping away from Amber until he has gone far enough to shift shadow (not far, for Tristan) and let the griffin actually fly. He heads for shadow Diega, which has a sea route into Amber.
Ibrahim is re-deploying troops. He sends out scouting parties and searchers for impostors. He checks his senior staff for the same, does all sorts of usual stuff, and establishes a command HQ. He also sends a message to Jeheira via Tora, his eagle.
In the infirmary, surgeons operate on Damien after pumping him full of opium, the best anaesthetic that will work in Amber. "Get me something to drink," says Damien.
Outside, Random has covered Amber with dark clouds (using the Jewel) to give us some cover from the still-brightening sun.
Tamarind, by Damien's bed, Trumps Llewella. She's in Rebma. "Concentrate on not dying," he tells Damien as Damien dictates a message regarding family blood and protecting her Pattern. She takes the call from the Rebman throne. She accepts the message, and says she will double the guard on Rebma's Pattern.
Then Tamarind Trumps Random, and tells him about the blood too. Random has already tripled the guard. He says (in response to a question from Damien) that the is still no contact with the Primal Pattern, and it's still unreachable.
Tamarind goes through to Random. He wants to check out the Courts of Chaos, and needs the Trump to get there. He also notes that Evander was not the person (not the Evander?) in the Trump link, but his Trump was active. He wonders whether a secondary personality is present. Random agrees - lock him in a Trump proof cell.
Tristan arrives in shadow Diega, a Mediterranean/Spanish-type place. He can see ships blockading the shadow path. He flies up through the clouds to where Castle Corvallin is, lands, calls out the guard, breaks out the big rocks, and bombards the blockading ships from above.
Unfortunately the rocks are magically deflected from the ships, so he has Corvallin come down to sea level and ram. The ship's defences are less effective against a flying castle, and a number are stomped. From sea level he notices that the sails of the ships are midnight purple with a 'triple yin-yang' design on them, in gold:
He Trumps Gerard to inform him of this. Gerard takes the call, but is in the middle of a battle with the same type of ships - he already knows. He says he's out by shadow Caledrax. Tristan says he'll join him once he's looked after Deiga.
Ships scatter under Corvallin's assault. Tristan can tell that the deflecting field seems to be an enchantment, not an active spell. He uses the Pattern the becalm the ships, then tips a ship over with Corvallin. It rolls over, but still seem to be in one piece. Corvallin comes down on top of another.
Tristan uses the Pattern to summon a large pod of pissed off whales of his desire. They attack the ships too, sinking some.
Tamarind checks the Trumps. Llewella's and Caine's are active.
Damien is sewn up. It'll be quite a long time before he's back on his feet here - he needs to get into shadow to do some healing magic. He Trumps Tamarind (he just about has the strength to do so), brings him through and tells him he needs to go to somewhere magical for an hour.
Fortunately, Tamarind has a Trump of such a place - a fast-time shadow. He uses it, and passes Damien through to a villa by a lake. The place is deserted, but tidy and fully stocked with food and drink. Damien pours himself a drink and begins casting a healing spell on himself.
In Diega, the few un-destroyed ships try and flee from Tristan. He comes alongside in Corvallin and offers a truce. The captain won't surrender, saying that they work for the Council for Victory (CFV).
Tristan asks what the Council want. Amber. Why? The captain doesn't know. The Council are their gods.
Tristan uses the Pattern to make them run aground on a hidden reef, then flies off in Corvallin to join Gerard. The remaining whales follow.
Ibrahim is getting some reports back by now. It's getting hotter, despite the clouds. Some warehouses in the harbour and city are on fire. Ibrahim reinforces the city watch then talks to the chief steward. He asks about what 'he' has been doing in the last two days while we were being impersonated. The steward says that nothing unusual happened. Ibrahim wants a run-down of our activities during the two days. Then he goes to report to the king.
Damien finishes healing himself, and is now whole, but tired. He Trumps Tamarind.
Tamarind is Trumping people to see what is going on.
He starts with Tristan, going through to him for security purposes. Tristan brings him up to date regarding the blockade and says he'll try tracking the next lot of blockading ships through shadow.
Tamarind Trumps on to Gerard. He offers to take Tristan, but Tristan refuses. Gerard's ship is in the middle of the aftermath of a battle at sea.
Tristan meanwhile decides it would be quicker to go through to Gerard by Trump and then find his castle in shadow. He Trumps Tamarind, and goes through, bringing his griffin, which can't fly in this non-magical shadow. When asked, he can't detect any new shadow paths here. The attackers must have used existing ones. He finds some local fishermen, and asks them. They say the fleet came from thataway.
Tamarind Trumps on to Julian, and upon going through brings him up to date. Julian says there has been no traffic through on the land shadow paths in the past few hours. Tamarind wants to check them. He also tells Julian about Brand, Deirdre, Fiona and the land of the dead. Julian perks up (a little) when Fiona's recovery is mentioned.
Tamarind also says it would be useful if Bleys came back. There is talk regarding Benedict, and Tristan's fake 'he's on his way' message.
At this point, Damien's Trumping of Tamarind happens. Tamarind takes the call, and Damien comes through. "Uncle Julian, and how are you this fine sunny day," he says brightly.
"Damien," says Julian, deadpan.
Tamarind brings Damien up to date.
Damien elects to go back to Amber to try and track down our missing cousins and find out what 'we've' been doing in the past two days.
Ibrahim reports back to Random. He thinks we're being cut off so the sun can do its work and is worried that he and Tristan were substituted for. He wants to set up a fall-back position in shadow - if the CFV want to occupy Amber then they can presumably turn off the sun effect - so the only way to save the populace may be temporarily abandon Amber...
Damien Trumps back to Amber. He gets a repeating crossbow with dum-dum bolts from the armoury, and then Trumps Caine.
Ibrahim receives a message from Jaheira - she's coming.
Tristan heads off 'thataway' and follows the shadow paths there until they end. This is in a shadow which is slower than Amber, and non-magical.
Damien gets through to Caine. He is in a tavern. Damien asks him for the anti-shapeshifter poison. He pats his pockets theatrically. "Haven't needed this in ten years," say says, passing a vial through the link. "Which shapeshifter are you planning on assassinating?"
"The ones who look like me, Tristan, Tamarind and Ibrahim," says Damien. "Obliged to you."
Caine raises his flagon, and the link drops.
Jaheira arrives at the castle and Ibrahim tells her that her ranch may be needed as a staging point for evacuating Amber. He warns her that he has lost his Trump of her.
She leaves again. Once she's gone Ibrahim Trumps Julian and offers cavalry reinforcements. He goes through the link after passing through a squadron of cavalry.
Tristan Trumps Tamarind. He wants Tamarind to look for Trump Traces in this shadow. Tamarind comes through, but can't find any in the immediate area. Tristan looks at the shadow. It is barren, with no inhabitants and few natural resources. Really nothing special.
Gerard has some prisoners who are being interrogated. He'll sail off to check the nearest land.
Tamarind and Tristan decide to go back to Julian.
Tamarind notes whose Trumps are active - Random's, Caine's and Bleys'.
In Amber, Damien interrogates Esmée's servants. They say she went off two days ago to help with preparations for the jubilee. She was going to check the wine cellar. They didn't think to tell anyone that she was missing. Doh!
He checks her social diary. She had plans for those missing two days, including a visit to the theatre and an appointment with Flora.
Damien goes down to the cellars and checks with the guards there. They saw Esmée come this way. He checks with the cellar attendants. They say she arrived, but headed for the deeper cellars, where the old and rare vintages are. He gets them to show him the last place they saw her, and asks for all those on duty that day - he wants to know who else was in the cellar.
One of the attendants thinks Prince Ibrahim came in a while after Esmée. This would have been slightly before we disappeared.
Damien looks for Esmée's tracks.
Tristan Trumps Julian. He and Tamarind join him and Ibrahim. Tamarind notices Caine's Trump is not active, but Random's and Bleys' still are. This is told to Julian and Ibrahim.
Julian says there is an ambush ahead, just beyond the edge of Arden. His hawk has spotted the ambushers. Ibrahim's Tora has been sent up too.
Damien finds Esmée's tracks in the dust, the footprints of the attendants, and a man's footprints. As he goes deeper he finds other signs of wine bottles being examined. Then broken glass and a dried puddle of wine. Someone seems to have fallen and been dragged off.
The drag marks don't go very far before vanishing. The man's tracks disappear too. Damien checks with an attendant, who says that neither Esmée nor Ibrahim left. Damien Trumps off to the arrival courtyard.
Tamarind Trumps Damien. He has things he wants to say, but not over the Trump link. Damien has likewise, but needs to check things first. He says he'll call Tamarind back.
At the edge of Arden, Tristan decides that the two thousand ambushers are standing on a petroleum field, and fires off a fire arrow. A massive fiery explosion rises into the sky, and they burn, saving a battle. Even Julian seems impressed.
Tamarind notes that Bleys and Random's Trumps are no longer active. They both went inactive at about the same time. The last one he knew to be active was Random's, but he can't scan all his cards simultaneously, only in sequence.
Ibrahim decides to stay with Julian. Tamarind and Tristan decide to return to Amber. Tristan pulls out Random's Trump.
In the arrival courtyard, Damien talks to the captain in charge. He is told that Tristan Trumped in about eight hours after Esmée was taken. A bit late, but still after we disappeared.
He goes to Ibrahim's office, finds the report on our activities over the two days we were missing, and reads it. After Esmée's disappearance, Ibrahim returned via the castle gates some five hours later. Neither Ibrahim nor Tamarind were seen in the castle in that period. Damien goes to Trump Tristan, but is Trumped by Tamarind first.
Tristan gets through to Random and is told that Bleys was indeed in contact.
Tristan, Tamarind and Ibrahim Trump through to Damien in Ibrahim's office. Damien summarises the findings of Ibrahim's report. Ibrahim agrees to send someone to backtrack his route that day. The others are sent to find out what Caleb and Margot's recent movements were.
Tamarind wants to take the Stone of Brand to Beltaine's quarters. Damien suggests that if Esmée, Margot or Caleb are in the Land of the Dead, Brand sends them back, then hands over the Stone. Tamarind leaves. Everyone else goes to Random's office. Flora is there.
Damien reports Esmée's abduction. "What did Bleys want?" he demands, then realising he was a bit abrupt, "Your Majesty."
"He was pleased to receive the message," says Random, "and he's looking forward to coming back for the centenary. He's offered to help."
Damien inquires after the price of this help. None was specified. Bleys just wants to come back.
What's happening to the sun, inquires Tristan? Random says something has been added to it. Tristan concentrates and tries to sense more about whatever it is. He gets the feeling it is some kind of Real thing, not dissimilar to the reality of the Agrazal, or Beltaine's Soulstones.
Tamarind reaches Beltaine's quarters. The guards there (her rooms are permanently guarded, to keep away gawkers as much as anything) say Tristan came by yesterday. He tries moving his hand with the Stone in it through the barrier. It doesn't help.
Then he uses the Stone and contacts Brand. As before there is the sense of cold, and talking to Brand down a long dark tunnel. Brand says he can only sense Tamarind, and can't help Beltaine from here. Tamarind asks him to keep an eye open for Esmée, Margot and Caleb in the Land of the Dead, and tells Brand about the shapeshifter on Mount Kolvir. Brand agrees that it is possible to embed oneself in another person as people suspect may have been done to Evander.
Lastly Brand says he (and Deirdre) would prefer their own bodies if possible, but otherwise ones as real as possible. Some discussion ensues about how real a body would do, and where to get one. Tamarind wants to be clear on this, since we may need to bring them back sooner rather than later.
Tristan thinks it's worth contacting Gerard to see how he's doing.
We discuss the enemy's tactics. There's been no assault as yet, so they must be intending a long haul.
Tristan Trumps Gerard. Everyone joins the link. Gerard shows us the remains of a vast camp, on a barren shore with a good big harbour. It looks like there were millions here, says Gerard. Tristan mutters about penal colonies. Damien asks Tristan how close an eye he's been keeping on his own penal colonies. "Er..." he says. People went missing.
Tristan asks Gerard if there are any traces of Martian War Machines, velociraptors or plagues in the camp. There are. Then some of those here were definitely his escapees.
Gerard says that the prisoners say they are from the shadow of Chever, and serve the Gods of Victory:
The gods called on the people of Chever for a Holy War against Amber. Gerard says that, as individuals, the Cheverians are as powerful as shadowites from Golden Circle shadows near Amber.
Damien suggest that Tristan go through to check for immediate shadow paths - if people were brought in on a regular basis, some disturbance must remain. Tristan goes through (the Trump link goes down) and looks around. He can tell that Pattern initiates have been here, making the place more real by their presence. Also, magic has been used here.
Tristan suggests to Gerard that we need to shake Benedict up to get him to come and assist. He uses the Pattern to summon a Dara-lookalike of his desire. One of Gerard's sailors comes up to report to him, and she looks just like Dara. Gerard is dubious about the idea, and so is the sailor. But for want of a better plan... They decide to put the idea on hold for now.
The rest of us have re-established the link to Gerard. Tristan is passed back though. Random says he doesn't think provoking Benedict is a good idea. "Of course," says Damien in exasperation, "who needs Benedict? Bleys is on his way."
"That's very true, Damien," says Tristan in all seriousness.
Outside Beltaine's quarters, Tamarind has Trumped Caine, and is talking to him, bringing him up to date and asking about obtaining some real bodies looking like Brand and Deirdre. Caine lends him a Trump of a relevant shadow of Amber; the picture on the card is of a corridor in Castle Amber which Tamarind recognises, but subtly different - some doors are in the wrong places.
Caine says that some blockades seem more effective than others. He thinks we have interrupted their plans before they were wholly ready. The contact ends.
Tristan Trumps Caine, and asks him to come through. He does.
Random Trumps Llewella and asks her to some too, but she won't - "affairs of state," she claims. Random is not too impressed.
Ibrahim Trumps Tamarind, and he comes through.
Tristan asks Random if Bleys mentioned Fiona. No, says Random. Damien says that she'd be more useful than Bleys. Perhaps we should try to make a group Trump contact with her?
We decide to try a group Trump contact with Esmée instead. Tristan will keep an eye on our surroundings; Damien will go through if she needs help.
They try. It's hard to make contact - there is a lot of resistance. It takes a quarter of an hour to get through - Tamarind thinks there is a barrier, and says so. But eventually contact is made.
Esmée seems to be walking down a hallway in a castle, behind Julian. She looks very unhappy, and is heavily pregnant. Her hair is dark, not strawberry blonde, her eyes are blue, not violet, and there are subtle differences in her face, so that overall she looks a lot more like Julian than people are used to her being. But we don't seem to have a physical contact.
When she hesitates as the Trump contact forms, Julian tugs, and we see that he is leading her by a thin silver chain around one wrist.
"What happened to you?" asks Flora.
"What powers does the chain hold?" asks Tamarind.
"None, I don't know. Nothing seems to work here," says Esmée silently over the Trump link.
"Help us strength the contact so we can reach you," says Damien. To the others, "Push harder." He reaches out but his hand and Esmée's pass through each other.
As Esmée continues walking, it can be seen that this looks like Castle Arden.
Julian turns and slaps Esmée across the face, hard. "Stop dawdling and come on," he barks. She stumbles into a wall and is dragged off. "Help me," she begs over the Trump link, "This is hell."
Tamarind thinks there's something missing - not a barrier but something about her or her location.
Tristan pulls from the link to Esmée and Trumps Julian. He's in Forest Arden. Tristan brings him through.
Ibrahim wonders if this is all in Esmée's mind.
Julian and Tristan join the Trump link. Esmée's eyes widen. "Daughter, what is this place?" he says.
"I don't know! Get me out of here!" she says desperately.
Damien studies her surroundings.
Caine says he can feel that someone is watching this link. Watching all around the end of the link. When he points this out, Tamarind can feel this too, though no one else can. Caine says he's never seen anything like it.
Random shows Tristan how to get to the Jewel of Judgement - it's in the safe in his office. Tristan drops out of the link and gets it, then gives it to Random. He concentrates on the Jewel. Power flows into the link. Esmée looks hopeful, but doubtful, too.
Damien suggests that he go through, engage Julian, get him to let go of the chain at which point the others grab her then Trump him. But he'd like to have a look for Margot and Caleb, too, if he gets the chance.
Caine can't direct power from the Jewel to help firm up the link (Random's doing this isn't working anyway), but can help fry whoever's watching. This is duly done. Random allows Caine to redirect the power. There's a roar of pain down the Trump link - a feminine roar.
The Julian wherever Esmée is turns and grabs Esmée by the throat. Ibrahim swings Eric's Pattern blade to cut Esmée's chain, but as it swings through where the Trump image would be, there's a flare of Trump energy, and the link goes down.
Damien has a plan - walk the Pattern and use it to go there - he has a good enough impression for this by now. Tristan and Julian volunteer to come too. We're not sure if it will work. Damien doesn't care. Tristan notes the additional benefit of restoring our memories of how we came to the land of the dead.
The others will attempt to Trump Margot as they go through to Esmée, partly as a distraction for the power holding Esmée, partly to try and rescue her.
We all use the Trump of the guardroom outside the Pattern room, and go through. "Who goes first?" asks Tristan. We don't want to fight any duels over this.
"I will," says Damien.
Julian nods. "I know you have some feeling for her," he says.
"Yes, I do," says Damien.
Damien steps onto the Pattern and starts walking. Tristan follows. Then Julian.
Damien gets a flashback - Bleys looking down at him in his crib. He didn't see that last time he walked the Pattern. "Bastard," he mutters. Towards the second veil he sees his arrival in Amber.
Tristan is getting flashbacks of his childhood in Amber, and his elopement with Isobel. He's finding the Pattern much easier to walk than the other, first, time he did so.
Damien approaches the Final Veil. He remembers the expeditions, the day Nitocris returned the velociraptor, the inn he stayed in before waking in the land of the dead. Awaking to awareness of an intruder; a flicker of magic; being unable to move; a figure, dimly lit, in a military-style uniform - the man from Kolvir. Spikes like ice-picks emerge from his palms; he pushes them into Damien's head; agonising pain. Then he reaches the centre of the Pattern and collapses to his knees.
Tristan reaches the Final Veil. He recalls a blinding pain, then waking in the land of the dead. Damn. He arrives beside Damien.
What Julian recalls, none can say. He's not even staggering when he joins Damien and Tristan. But is that the hint of a tear in the corner of his eye?
Outside and down the passage away from the Pattern (and its Trump-negating effects) the others are winding up a group Trump link to Margot. A guard is at the door to the Pattern room to relay messages. It takes a bit longer without Damien and Tristan - about twenty minutes - so Damien, Tristan and Julian get to stand in the middle of the Pattern for a bit longer than they'd hoped.
But the link to Margot forms. She seems to be in a dirty alley in a polluted high-tech city. She is dressed as a whore. There are needle tracks in her arms. She looks gaunt and hopeless. Close by there is a pimp who looks like Damien, only seedier, and evil-looking.
The watching presence can be felt there, too.
"How long have you been there?" asks Ibrahim.
Margot doesn't know - months. She says she wasn't sure Amber was real, that it wasn't some kind of dream.
The three in the centre of the Pattern concentrate on their sense of the place where Esmée was. And off they plink.
To observers, they just fall over...
A guard relays this to the group Trumping Margot.
Random, with Caine's help, blasts power at the watching presence. Power flows down the link, which wavers.
They still have no joy in making physical contact with Margot.
Tamarind reaches out to Margot mentally. He feels his mind (or his soul?) coming loose from his body, and starting to move down the Trump link. Ibrahim senses his body beginning to slump. But Tamarind has her hand. Caine reaches out mentally and grabs Tamarind. A force is pulling Margot back, with Tamarind caught between it and Caine.
"Only I am real; nothing else exists," Tamarind tells Margot. "This is your chance to get back at these people."
The pain between the force pulling Margot back and Caine holding him is tearing Tamarind apart. There is another pulse of power from the Jewel, and Tamarind tumbles back into his body, pulling Margot with him. Her disembodied spirit, at least...
Margot's spirit hovers there; everyone can sense it. Caine notes that she's dissipating.
Ibrahim volunteers to be a host for her. Caine reaches out to the spirit and Ibrahim, touching both. Ibrahim feels something moving inside him, then Caine says he's done it. Tamarind talks to Ibrahim, trying to re-assure Margot. Random pumps power in from the Jewel.
Ibrahim feels a presence in his mind.
Caine says he thinks this is the best we can do for now.
Meanwhile...
Damien, Tristan and Julian are tumbling through nothingness; they can only see each other. They hear a familiar feminine roaring and see a monochrome high tech city off to one side. Tristan tries to shift shadow, but can't; nothing happens.
A prison, or perhaps it's a ship, becomes visible in the distance. Castle Arden appears, tumbling up towards us (or we tumble down towards it). We pass right through the walls of the place. To appear in a bedroom lit by lanterns. A crib in one corner holds a baby. The fake Julian is having sex with Esmée on the bed; she's crying.
As soon as they appear, Damien goes for the fake Julian with his sword as he leaps up. Tristan and the real Julian draw their sword too.
Real Julian stabs naked Julian marginally before Damien does. Then Tristan does the same. Naked Julian (with a sword through his head) laughs. He tears the sword from his head, out of Damien's hand, and snaps the blade with his bare hands.
Tristan takes advantage of this distraction to grab Esmée and jump out of the window. As he lands on the ground one storey below, Julian in armour is already there in front of him.
Damien shoots naked Julian with Wilkes (his pistol). He takes the bullet between the eyes, and laughs again. "Do you think now that you can escape?!" he booms. "You are in my realm now, and that makes you mine."
He punches real Julian across the room and into a wall. Damien hauls him to his feet and pushes him towards the window while he goes for a sword hanging on the wall.
Naked Julian is suddenly by the window and smashes real Julian back across the room into the crib. The baby starts screaming.
Tristan, outside, can sense that the only real things here are Damien, Julian, Esmée, himself, the presence all around them and something in the prison/ship. He asks to be able to talk to the Council for Victory.
The Julian outside runs him through and lifts him up on the sword. Tristan says this isn't real. It hurts like it is, though. "I wouldn't expect the bravest of the Amberites to fear pain," says Julian.
"Bring your masters along anyway," says Tristan.
Fake Julian smiles, and suddenly there is a pack of storm hounds there. Tristan dismissively twists the sword to rip his own stomach out, and falls from the sword to the ground.
The storm hounds fall on him, mauling him to pieces. But he doesn't die.
Inside, Damien has got the sword from the wall. He hauls real Julian to his feet again, opens the bedroom door, and sees another armoured Julian out there, sword drawn. Damien shuts the door and goes for naked Julian. He grabs the sword from Damien's hand and smiles. "I'm afraid you are in my realm now, playing by my rules," he says.
Damien folds his arms. Naked Julian runs him through, then cuts his head off. He remains conscious as his head hits the floor. Real Julian tries to defend himself, but naked Julian cuts his head off too. As this happens he can hear screams from outside and the growling of storm hounds.
Naked Julian - now armoured - picks up Damien and Julian's heads by the hair and takes them outside. A candelabra thing is there, with spikes for the candles, and fake Julian puts the two living, conscious heads on them. Then he calls off the storm hounds and picks up what's left of Tristan - a head with a bit of spinal column dangling below - and sticks him on a spike beside Damien and real Julian...
As he concentrates on radiating Pattern energy about himself (stopping Trumps and magic) Tristan can feel that this shadow does not feel too strange. It is very fast, magic works here, and it is not particularly real.
In Amber, Ibrahim is trying to reassure the disembodied Margot, who is now resident inside him. She says she was in Arden, then in that place. She bursts into tears. Caine tries Trumping her, and gets through. He appears to show compassion for her plight. Ibrahim tries to comfort her.
Tamarind says someone who is still up to it should walk the Pattern and retrieve the bodies of Damien, Julian and Tristan. He looks at Flora, who's about the only one capable. She nods, goes and walks the Pattern (taking off her high-heeled shoes first), picks up all three unconscious bodies, and teleports back to the edge. She looks a bit tired after doing this.
The three bodies are put on stretchers.
Caine Trumps everyone up to the arrival courtyard. The three comatose bodies are taken off to the infirmary.
Tamarind shows Caine the Trumps found on Evander. They're his, he says (he drew them, that is). Evander did swear loyalty, so they are part of the standard deck he got then. Caine is interested that the Chaos Trumps are not there.
Guards are sent to check on Evander in his cell.
A report is given to Ibrahim on the tracking back of his double. It reveals that he rode out of one of the poorer areas in the centre of the city (between the castle and the edge of the plateau), fairly near the castle.
Tamarind suggests resting up in his fast-time shadow. He Trumps there to do this. Ibrahim (and hence Margot) come too.
They rest. But Margot can't sleep - she wants to talk. So Ibrahim talks with her. She tells him (slowly and haltingly) what happened to her - her waking up on a bus, arriving in that city as a penniless runaway, and falling into the life they saw. She cries some more. Eventually she falls asleep.
Caine Trumps the three of them after they've been asleep for only a while. He's on a balcony looking out over the city - behind him the stars of Amber can be seen falling from the sky, all moving off towards the south...
Margot's Diary for This Session.