Recorded for Posterity by Iain Walker.
Damien, Julian and Tristan's bodies are all wheeled off to the Infirmary.
Gerard checks on Evander, in the cells.
Ibrtahim checks reports on his doubles movements.
Altair, out in shadow, is assisting her father in re-arranging the dispositions of Amber's fleets. And keeping her mother away from Gerard.
Tamarind, Ibrahim and (by default) Margot rest in Tamarind's fast time shadow. Then Caine Trumps them both out of a sound sleep. Behind him the stars of Amber are falling.
"Are they landing?" asks Tamarind.
"No," says Caine, "they seem to be heading south." He turns so that they can see the rest of the sky via the Trump link. Nothing else has changed, as far as Caine can tell. He says Rebma, the Lighthouse at Cabra, and a lot of beach are to the south of Amber.
Ibrahim and Tamarind discuss Hell with Caine.
Tamarind wonders if they (the CfV) need time to personalise it.
Ibrahim wonders why Esmée, Margot and Caleb were chosen when they had us too. Also, is what happens purely in the mind of the individual who creates it? If so, could we introduce something to disrupt it?
Caine says he'll contact Altair, and then follow the stars to see where they're going. He drops the Trump contact.
Ibrahim tells Tamarind we need Fiona. And thus, by default, Bleys...
Out in shadow, Altair is Trumped by Caine. He indicates the stars then brings her up to date on events. In an hour or so they'll be trying another Trump rescue, and her help is needed. She comes through to Amber, then goes off and gets cleaned up ready for the rescue attempt.
In 'Hell' ersatz Julian kicks Damien about, asking the same question, about how they recovered from the brain death which had been inflicted on them. Damien's bleeding internally and externally, most of his bones feel broken and various parts of his anatomy are smashed.
"You still haven't worked it out, have you?" says Damien. "This is why you're going to lose."
"Elucidate," says ersatz Julian. "Explain to we lesser mortals."
"Since you don't realise, it's hardly worth my while, is it?" retorts Damien.
"I suppose not," says 'Julian'. He picks Damien up and hangs his on the meat hook again. Ouch. Then he walks off. 'I knew he'd get bored first,' thinks Damien triumphantly, 'I win this round.'
Tamarind wakes up in his fast time shadow. It's bright and sunny. At his command his lute plays in the corner. Ibrahim (and Margot) are still asleep.
He checks for Trump activity. Caine's Trump is the only one which is currently active.
Tamarind does a Trump reading: 'Who or what is/are the Council For Victory?' he asks.
Ibrahim wakes (as does Margot). Margot asks him to go over to a window, where she drinks in the sight of the landscape outside. After a half hour of this, Ibrahim goes 'harrumph,' mentally, bringing Margot out of her reverie.
He does his ablutions and gets dressed. Both he and Margot are embarrassed by all this.
Altair, changed and abluted, orders rum or brandy. Drink is provided. She knocks some back, then goes to the Blue Sitting Room (the appointed meeting place), taking the drink with her.
Tamarind finishes laying out his Trump reading. It seems the CfV is something to do with the Family with Evander closely involved and the old sketch of the 'scary man' (from Beltaine's vision in Tir-Na Nog'th) central; Evander's Trump is more peripheral. There is a sense that it's not just the Family, but also something else. This part of the reading is jumbled, like Trump readings on Chaosites, Corwin, Merlin and other missing people. Amber as a whole appears in opposition to the CfV. Somehow Tamarind has laid Evander's Trump and the old sketch of Telemachus (also from Beltaine's vision) in the same position, even though Tamarind was making sure he was only laying out one card at a time. Benedict appears in a very peripheral sense, neither supporting nor opposing. Llewella appears in a similar peripheral sense, opposite Benedict.
Tamarind sketches the outcome of his reading for future reference. Ibrahim (and Margot) turn up. They talk about rescue attempts. Ibrahim says he has no mental-type spells hung.
They Trump to Amber. As he prepares to Trump through, Tamarind senses that Caine's Trump is active again.
Altair arrives in the Blue Sitting Room. It's blue, and quite plush, with sofas and a view over an internal courtyard. And a drinks cabinet. Caine is also there, sitting out of sight of the door and peering at his Trumps. Altair glimpses pictures of various people she doesn't recognise, before Caine shuffles them away.
Tamarind and Ibrahim arrive in the Arrival Courtyard. It's before dawn; the sky is starting to lighten but already it's pretty warm. Tamarind asks for a report on Evander. One will be sent to him.
They go to the Blue Sitting Room. Caine asks after Margot. Margot says (via Ibrahim) that she's all right.
Tamarind shows people his Trump reading. Caine says he's seen odd effects in Trump readings before, like the superposition of Evander and Telemachus in the reading. Caine wonders if the 'jumbled' area could be the Courts of Chaos.
Tamarind tells Altair about the link between Evander and 'Mr Scary'. He thinks Evander is possessed or a conduit for him, and wonders if there is a parallel between the situation with Ibrahim and Margot. If he Trumps Margot, does Ibrahim's Trump become active?
We decide to try this experiment. Tamarind Trumps Margot while Altair and Caine look at the Trumps.
The link opens up. Tamarind sees Ibrahim rather than any image of Margot (as if he was Trumping Ibrahim). Ibrahim feels a faint tickle like a very weak Trump call coming in.
Altair and Caine can sense that Margot's Trump is active and Ibrahim's is very slightly active. Altair asks Caine to block Ibrahim's Trump to see if it affects Margot's. He does this. Altair senses that Ibrahim's Trump is no longer active while Tamarind feels the link to Margot weaken slightly.
So it appears that Ibrahim is a small but not essential part of any mental link to Margot.
We then find that Margot can make Trump contact through Ibrahim's eyes. This makes Ibrahim's Trump slightly active, as before.
Altair (who Margot is Trumping) takes the call and sees Ibrahim (again as if he was Trumping her) with a ghostly overlay of Margot visible over/around him. To Tamarind, who joins the link, it looks like Betaine's description of Telemachus in Tir-Na Nog'th, with the ghostly 'Mr Scary' superimposed.
We discuss Possession via the Trumps.
Tamarind wants to see if a Trump link to Margot can reach Ibrahim physically. He tries this, and can indeed make physical contact with Ibrahim.
Altair wonders is Margot is at risk of being pulled out of Ibrahim if he is in the Trump link during the next rescue attempt. But she also wonders is Margot could, perhaps, make a difference to the link, Psyche-wise.
When asked where she was before being in 'Hell', the last thing Margot recalls is being in a hunting lodge in Arden.
Tamarind wonders if, by examining Tristan's body, they could tell whether he is using the Pattern where he is.
Ibrahim wonders about using magic to bring the physical and mental aspects of a Pattern imprint together (reuniting the initiate's body and mind). He recalls that Damien has a spell to put a spirit into a body.
A servant knocks at the door. He has a report on Evander for Tamarind. Apparently Evander is still unconscious in his cell.
We decide to meet in half an hour in the Infirmary.
Ibrahim goes off to look for Damien's magic notes. He also sends a note to the King regarding plans for evacuating Amber, and suggesting fobbing them off on Flora.
Then he gets his horse from the stables and rides down towards The Amber Museum of Arts and Antiquities.
Tamarind goes to the Infirmary to experiment on Tristan's body. Altair and Caine come to watch.
The three mindless bodies - Julian, Damien and Tristan - have been put into hospital gowns and hooked up to IVs.
Tamarind explains to Altair that we seem to have been farmed for our blood while we were in the land of the dead. He then examines Tristan.
There is a faint hint of active Pattern about him, and no signs of the same from Damien or Julian. He tells the others that Tristan is using the Pattern, and that this could inhibit a Trump rescue. But perhaps they could use some kind of Pattern resonance effect to contact him. Perhaps. If anyone here knew how to do that.
Meanwhile, on the meat-hook...
Ersatz Julian returns after a long time. He says that if Damien changes his mind then he can come down off the meat-hook. "It's not doing me any harm," says Damien.
"Let's try a change of tack," says Ersatz Julian. He lifts Damien off the hook.
Medical orderlies with a gurney turn up and cart the broken Damien off to an operating theatre. Dr Julian starts vivisecting him.
Back in Amber...
Ibrahim reaches The Amber Museum of Arts and Antiquities. He is let in by Josephus, Damien's night-watchman, who has one arm of amorphous red stuff, and gets the key to Damien's library.
He searches the library and finds the details of his Nitocris-reviving spell. Margot seems scared being a place associated with Damien, but is trying to keep her fear from distracting Ibrahim.
In the castle the others get ready for a mass Trumping attempt. Random and Flora are alerted and join Tamarind, Altair and Caine in the Infirmary.
Tamarind asks Random if he can use the Jewel of Judgement to see what Tristan is doing with the Pattern. Random sends a servant off for coffee, then does so. He says that, yes, Tristan is using the Pattern.
They wonder who to rescue first. Tamarind thinks Damien will be annoyed if they don't rescue Esmée first, and wonders if we could put Esmée in Isobel's body? Random is against the idea, thinking it would inspire stupidity in Tristan. Fair point.
They decide to contact Damien first.
A trolley loaded with coffee and pastries arrives. Random fortifies himself with them.
Ibrahim finishes in the museum, and Trumps Tamarind.
Before they start, Tamarind is Trumped by Ibrahim. Ibrahim comes through, leaving his horse to make its own way back.
They try to Trump Damien. Margot participates, even though she is afraid. Ibrahim doesn't (just in case they need someone who's not in a Trump link), but does hold the Trump card for Margot. Caine, Random, Flora, Altair, Tamarind, and Margot concentrate on Damien's Trump.
By this point, several excruciating days have passed for Damien. Ersatz Julian took his time, but he's been vivisected into a set of disconnected organs floating in a tank.
Ersatz Julian stands before the tank. He asks if there's anything Damien wants to say? Has he had any second thoughts?
"I've had one or two thoughts, but nothing to do with you," says Damien, "So don't worry."
Ersatz Julian pours a bucket of piranhas into the tank and wanders off. Even more excruciating.
In Amber, after twenty minutes we still haven't got through to Damien.
"Put your back into it, Caine!" says Altair.
It seems harder now than when Margot was rescued - defences bolstered? Random thinks there is interference from the Pattern. They try wheeling Tristan's body away, but the general opinion is that it's more likely to be him at the other end rather than here. No-one knows what to do about it.
Tamarind and Altair wonder if they (well, Random) could use the Jewel to affect or block Tristan's Pattern emanations using his body, here. Or use some kind of Pattern resonance to communicate with him.
Ibrahim says Fiona might help.
Random says he doesn't know how to use the Jewel to do anything like the things described.
Tamarind suggests cutting Tristan open and putting the Jewel in the wound (!).
A voice from behind them all suggests that that would be a really bad idea. Everyone turns. It's Bleys, and Fiona. She looks thin, pale and weak, and is leaning on a walking stick. They think that Amberite blood would be bad for the Jewel, and bad for all of reality, too.
Tamarind shows them a sketch of 'Mr Scary'. Neither of them recognise him.
Bleys says he liked the resonance idea to communicate using the Jewel, but Random won't let him or Fiona near it, for some reason. Fiona, her voice weak and sounding like it hasn't been used in a long time, suggests something like the resonance effect Oberon used on the Black Road to contact Dara.
Tamarind checks that Damien's weapons are not within his reach; they're not, having been put in a chest at the foot of the bed (along with his clothes).
Random, possibly sarcastically, welcomes Bleys and, more sincerely, Fiona back to Amber.
"Let's try it," says Fiona.
Ibrahim and Caine stay out of the link 'in case Damien throws a wobbly upon seeing Bleys'. Nothing to do with having Bleys at a disadvantage. Oh no.
"First, we need to contact Tristan," says Fiona.
Bleys is bumptious.
Random tries to modulate Tristan's Pattern energies. The Jewel glows red. Bleys and Fiona also radiate Pattern energy about themselves. Bleys tells Tamarind and Altair to concentrate on the Pattern too. Tristan's body seems to be noticeably resonating from all the Pattern energy flying about.
Bleys has an idea. There's a 'push' from him and the level of resonance drops. They send two pulsing messages in the resonance, alternating between the two:
This goes on for a while. People begin to feel the exertion. Fiona steps back, looking exhausted. The levels of energy drop. The others stop too.
Altair hands round drinks.
"And you are?" says Bleys, turning to Altair.
Altair introduces herself.
"And you must be Tamarind," he says. To Tamarind. He holds out his hand.
Tamarind is polite to Bleys, but implies something like 'I was expecting someone taller'.
When asked, Fiona says the power was going somewhere. Tamarind says he felt a faint emanation from Tristan beforehand. Fiona says she can't sense it now.
So they Trump Tristan, while they still can.
In 'Hell', after a few days in the tank Damien's piranha-nibbled bits are fished out with nets and slowly and crudely re-assembled.
When he is mostly re-assembled Ersatz Julian takes him to a door and throws him through. It's utterly black inside - no sensory input at all - as if his body is gone.
"Peace at last," says Damien.
In Amber, the others (with the exception of Ibrahim and Margot, who sit it out), do a group Trumping of Tristan. Random draws power from the Jewel to assist.
Fifteen minutes of hard work later, the link opens up, and they reach Tristan, who is also in sensory deprivation.
"You got the message," says Tamarind.
"Yes. About bloody time," replies Tristan.
They try to recover Tristan by the same trick as before. Tamarind edges his spirit down the link towards Tristan, reaches him, and they have a disembodied Tristan. It felt almost as if the watching presence was kicking him out, rather than trying to hold on to him. As Tristan comes up the link, Caine does something. It appears as if his mind is 'budding' small packets of psychic energy which go flying off down the Trump link to the presence.
Fiona and Bleys interestedly watch Tristan's hovering, dissipating spirit. Caine quickly sticks him back in his body. Tristan's body, that is.
Tristan takes a deep breath in, tenses, and slowly relaxes. "They tried to torture me, but it was all an illusion, so I ignored it," he says.
He doesn't know where the others are, and says they were all decapitated.
Bleys steps forward. "Good to see you again Tristan," he says.
"Bleys!" says Tristan delightedly.
"Let's get Damien," suggests Tamarind.
Tristan says they were inside a person in a very fast, not very real, quite magical shadow. He could sense at least one other Pattern initiate in the vicinity, a few magical items, and a few Trumps.
Tamarind asks Caine about the things he sent off down the Trump link. "Something which may be useful at a later date," he says.
They get on with the next group Trump. Ibrahim, Margot and Tristan don't take part this time.
Another fifteen minutes later...
Damien is humming to himself (not that he can hear or feel it) when he feels a Trump contact. He decides it's the right time, so opens up to it. "You've had time to get the others out?" he asks. Apparently they only have two. Damien is not too impressed.
Tamarind asks him if he's achieving anything there. Damien says it gave him time to think.
As Altair reaches for Damien, the presence seems less inclined to let him go than Tristan. Altair feels herself slipping down the link - she tells someone to grab her ankles (mentally speaking).
Damien feels himself being pulled in two directions. He gives the presence a contemptuous kick. It makes no difference, but the others do pull him out. Snap - he flies up the link (as Caine sends more budded-off psychic things down the link) and finds himself in mid-air, beginning to come apart.
Caine reaches out and plonks him in his body - quite a strange sensation.
Altair moves to stand between Damien and Bleys.
The air rushes into Damien's lungs. He's in a body again. He opens his eyes and sees the hospital gown, IV drip, bed and the rest. "Not again," he says. He sits up and looks around.
"Fiona, how lovely to see you again," he says.
"Hello son," says Bleys.
"I take it we're not ready to go after Esmée," says Damien sourly, ignoring Bleys.
Random zips to Damien's bedside, although it looks like he's only walking (just very fast). "HelloDamienareyoureadytogoafterEsméeyet?" he blurts at speed. Oh dear. Looks like he's been using the Jewel too much. Random realises what has just happened and quickly drops the Jewel. Damien grabs it.
Random zips to a chair and falls into it, blabbering about how Corwin warned him about this.
Damien asks when we'll be ready for the next attempt. Quite a lot of people are tired now - Tamarind and Fiona particularly. Tamarind suggests using his fast time shadow to rest up. An hour or so Amber time in that case.
We note that it'll be dawn soon. Damien asks if we have cloud cover. "No," says Random. "Give me the Jewel."
Damien hesitates, but hands it over. "I'll regret this in the morning," says Random.
"It is the morning," replies Damien.
Random concentrates and dark clouds cover the sky. Even so, the sun is still very bright through them as it begins to rise.
"Take it away," says Random, tossing Caine the Jewel. Caine grabs it.
Random declares Flora his regent in his absence and everyone except her, Damien, Caine and Ibrahim (and therefore Margot) go to Tamarind's fast time shadow.
Upon arrival there Bleys and Random take bottles outside and go and talk. Everyone else goes to sleep.
Flora asks Damien how he is. Caine loiters in the vicinity. "Fine, apart from feeling slightly disconnected," says Damien, wriggling his fingers, "and the fact that you still haven't rescued Esmée."
"It's six hours since you walked the Pattern," says Flora. "Your bodies fell over when you went. But we did manage to rescue Margot's mind."
"Where is she?"
"In Ibrahim."
"Doubling up," observes Damien. "Good."
"What happened to you," asks Flora.
"Nothing much," says Damien. "I found they're worried, and can't improvise."
He explains their questions about our escape from the hospitals, what he would have told them, and why he didn't.
Caine hands him a large brandy.
Ibrahim and Flora explain the rest of it.
Ibrahim shows Damien the paper he got from the library.
Damien wants to know if anything has been done about following the trail of the fake Ibrahim. Not really. He suggests house-to-house searches of the area.
"I'm sure you're pleased to see dear old dad," interjects Caine.
"Don't worry, he won't be staying," retorts Damien.
"That depends on how he does in this current crisis, surely?"
"I don't see the relevance of that."
"Stop baiting Damien, the poor boy needs his rest," Flora berates Caine.
Margot asks Ibrahim to ask Damien for an account of what happened to him. Damien gives a brief and rather vague account of events. He doesn't mention the tortures, just alludes to what was happening to Esmée, and mentions that the child was Julian's. This news does not make Margot any happier.
Flora sends a note to Vialle, and says we should all get some rest, apart from Ibrahim (who isn't tired) who should continue his review of the defences. Caine says he also has things to review.
Damien tells Margot that he's glad we got her back, at least. Ibrahim feels her cringe inside him, then be ashamed at her cringe. She has no message in reply. Ibrahim leaves, telling her as he goes not to blame herself for her reactions.
The moment everyone else is gone, Damien gets up, wobbles, gets dressed, and goes to his rooms.
He sends a message to his anti-Bleys agents in the city. "Bleys is back, but this is a bad time to initiate the contingency plans discussed. Keep the lid on things," it says.
Then he checks his spells (some need maintenance) and goes to bed, leaving instructions to be woken when the others get back or in three hours, whichever is the soonest.
In Tamrind's fast time shadow, Tamarind wakes up and wanders about the villa. He finds Bleys in the kitchen, making breakfast. It smells very good.
Tamarind asks is he and Random have come to an accommodation.
Bleys says Random is happy for him to stay for the time being, and that this crisis will form a loyalty test for him. Random has no problems with Fiona, but then she never betrayed her oath of loyalty...
Tamarind asks him if Fiona told him how she returned.
"Yes, I have much to thank you all for," he replies.
Tamarind says he may have to thank Damien, who thought Bleys was the one who sent us there to get her.
Bleys says that even if he had known of the land of the dead, which he didn't, he would probably have asked for volunteers, or maybe even done it himself.
Tamarind asks him if he knows of Evan. Bleys says no.
Tamarind says that he will judge Bleys as he finds him, but warns him that Damien may be a problem.
They discuss the situation. Bleys says he is not sure how to deal with the thing in the sun. They also discuss Tristan.
Random wanders in. Bleys serves him breakfast.
Tamarind tells Random about his plan to get bodies for Brand and Deirdre, and they discuss the return of Brand. Random will allow it, although he is not convinced about Brand's intentions.
Tamarind wants to do it soon, since :
Random agrees that this seems like a good way to go.
Tamarind will go and get some bodies. Random tells him not to bring them to Amber yet.
Altair wakes up and follows the breakfast smells to the kitchen. She's grumpy the from lack of caffeine in her system.
Bleys alludes to Damien's reaction to his presence. Altair seems more sympathetic to Damien's position than his. Random admits that few - if any - of the elders seem to have mastered this parenting lark.
When asked, Bleys says he hasn't seen Benedict for a while.
In Amber, Ibrahim works on defence plans. Damien sleeps.
Tamarind dons his crystal armour, picks up a crystal spear, grabs his lute, and uses Caine's Trump of the shadow of Amber. He waits for a moment for a servant to go out of sight in the corridor the Trump goes to, then steps through. He begins to shift shadow to find comatose bodies of Deirdre and Brand. As he shifts the corridors become dustier and filled with cobwebs and outside huge black thorn bushes surround the castle and fill its courtyards, with occasional huge thorns poking in through broken windows. It's shadow Sleeping Beauty, essentially. He finds sleeping servants, all mindless, and heads for Deirdre's quarters. He finds a mindless Deirdre slumped over a spinning wheel, and dumps her mindless body in a slow, empty and boring shadow of which he has a Trump.
He goes and finds a Brand, similarly mindless in the middle of a magical ritual, and shoves him into the empty shadow too.
While he's here he also looks for bodies for Esmée, Margot and Caleb, and finds them all. None of them, by their clothes and rooms, seems to have personalities like the originals - the Esmée is wearing biker leathers with short-cropped white-blonde hair; the Margot is wearing a long floaty pastel-coloured gown (pre-Raphaelite Margot, as she is described); the Caleb has ink-stained fingers and seems to be the author of a number of military treatises. He pops them through into the empty shadow too.
At Tamarind's, Altair swims in the lake, then Trumps to Amber. She looks for Damien and Ibrahim, and finds the latter. He's almost finished the new defence plans. When he has done he takes Margot off to see Arden.
Altair goes off in search of more coffee, and Damien.
Damien sleeps. Altair sits in his sitting room and drinks the coffee she brought while plinking away at the grand piano there (she thinks she's being quiet, but the acoustics are arranged so as to carry the sound of the piano all over Damien's suite of rooms).
Her god-awful playing wakes Damien. He asks a servant who's playing, and is told it's Princess Altair. "Why wasn't I woken up before she started?" he demands.
"She said she'd wake you up," says the servant nervously.
Damien orders his usual, and gets dressed.
He drinks the usual, wibbles a bit (as is normal with the usual), and goes to the sitting room. "You can stop now; I'm awake," he says.
He explains the acoustics of the rooms, and asks if we're ready. "Soon," says Altair.
Ibrahim rides like the wind towards Arden. Margot's spirits lift somewhat to see Arden again.
He is Trumped by Tamarind, who finds him not in the castle. Tamarind comes through and says that he's been collecting bodies, including one for Margot so she can be moved into a 'more congenial container'. Ibrahim takes umbrage at being called a non-congenial container. Tamarind leaves them and Trumps off to Amber.
Upon arrival, Tamarind has a Guard fetch powerful sedatives, and their antidotes.
Random, Bleys and Fiona all Trump to Amber soon after. Tamarind meets them. They say they left Tristan behind, still asleep.
Altair Trumps Tristan and senses that he is asleep. She doesn't push and lets him sleep on.
Caine gives Tamarind the drugs and antidotes he wanted, and Tamarind Trumps off to his slow time shadow.
In Arden, Margot thinks they should head back, but Ibrahim says they'll be Trumped if needed, so they stay.
Altair is Trumped by Random. He says we're ready to start again. She Trumps Tristan again, this time with some force. Tristan wakes and takes the call. "The King really, really needs your services," she tells him. He leaps up, throws his clothes on, and is brought through to Amber.
While Tristan has coffee, Damien shows Altair how to play the piano properly (the Kleine Nachtmusik and the Hammerklavier). She looks bored. Tristan finishes his coffee, and they go. As they do so Damien discretely locks the piano.
Out in Arden, Ibrahim is Trumped by Random and told they're ready to go. Ibrahim Trumps to the Arrival Courtyard rather than bring his horse through to the Infirmary.
Tamarind drugs the bodies of the 'Caleb', 'Esmée' and 'Margot' and is then Trumped by Random. He passes the shadow bodies through and goes through himself.
Damien concentrates on the Stone of Talking to Brand.
He feels the cold seeping into him, down to his bones. Altair and Tristan see him turn monochrome and become shrouded by darkness. The cold and blackness build. He feels something like a tunnel extending away from him into darkness, and after a while hears Brands voice, coming as if from a great distance. "Hello?"
Damien warns him that he and Deirdre may have to make do with shadow bodies. Brand says Tamarind has already told him. Damien tells him the Fiona is well, and Bleys is back, then asks him if the individual who held him in her mind rings any bells.
Not personally, but Brand does recall rumours of such powers in Chaos. One of the Families there. Damien asks for more details.
Brand thinks they could steal people's souls, and put them back if they had a mind to. That's about it.
Damien asks if a large number of Chaosites turned up in the land of the dead ten years ago. Brand doesn't think do (although they would probably have arrived far away).
Damien says he'd better go.
Brand suddenly remembers that Kwandril was the name of the family. The Soul Eaters. He wishes Damien good luck.
"Thank you," says Damien, "we'll be in touch."
He drops the link. Warmth gradually seeps back into him.
Now we head for the Infirmary. Damien tells Tristan and Altair what Brand said. They arrive. Pretty much the whole currently available family is assembled there.
Damien looks at the bodies. "Shadows?" he asks.
"After a fashion," says Tamarind. He says they are suitably vacant.
Ibrahim suggests we try and transfer Margot first. Caine (and Margot) concur.
Damien asks Fiona (ignoring Bleys) if she knows of Kwandril. She doesn't, just recognising the name from the faintest of rumours. She says Brand was always the one poking his nose into such rumours.
To the group in general Damien suggests that we're dealing with Benedict's Chaos descendants. People think this not unreasonable. There is an irrelevant discussion about Benedict.
At Margot's request (via Ibrahim) a servant is sent to get a coat for Margot's shadow body (to cover the floaty dress).
Ibrahim and Margot exchange mental farewells.
Caine takes Ibrahim's hand in one of his, and the hand of the shadow Margot in his other. He does his trick, and Ibrahim feels her leaving him. The Margot on the bed takes a sudden deep breath. Her eyes open. Tamarind, who had reached for his antidote, looks puzzled. Caine just grins and nods.
Margot sits up and looks around. She stares at Ibrahim for a bit.
"How are you?" asks Damien.
She cringes away form him, and almost falls off the bed.
Tamarind repeats the question, and she says she feels ... strange, not quite there. It's better than ... not having a body at all, though. Caine says this sense of disconnection should pass as she settles into this body.
Margot's voice is very hesitant (completely different to her manner of speech before). But she wants to stay and help rather than go and rest.
"Who next?" asks Tamarind.
"Esmée," says Damien. Margot agrees. Damien points out that Julian is in a better position to cope than Esmée anyway.
We all concentrate on Esmée's Trump, in more than one group. Damien avoids Bleys; Margot avoids Damien.
Eventually we get through. We see Esmée in a courtyard in Castle Arden, sitting on a bench under a tree. She has dark hair and blue eyes as before. She looks pregnant again. A child of about six months is sat on the bench beside her. We get the impression of swords clashing and a thud from out of sight.
"Reach out for us mentally," says Tamarind.
"It didn't work last time," she says. We manage to convince her to go for it anyway. Damien, and others, reach for her. Damien feels someone (Tamarind) 'grabbing his ankles', mentally.
Caine again 'buds off' psychic things which fly off down the Trump link.
As Esmée begins to move down the link, the child seems to jump up and cling to her, trying to pull her back.
"Can someone do something about the brat?" grits Damien.
Tamarind tries to mentally crowbar it away.
It glares at Tamarind and leaps for him. He tries to hold it off, but it bursts like a bubble. It feels, to Tamarind, as if he has absorbed something...
Damien pulls Esmée out, and is pulled back from sliding off down the link. The Trump link goes down. Caine takes Esmée's spirit and slides it into her new body.
Tamarind begins to concentrate on his own Trump as he attempts to remove whatever he absorbed from the 'child'.
Damien gets the antidote to the sedative from Tamarind's pocket and administers it to the comatose Esmée.
Caine, Fiona, Bleys and Tristan examine Tamarind. They occasionally comment, giving bits of advice. Tamarind is psychically scraping the stuff of the child-thing off his psyche, mushing it all together prior to expelling it. He wants to capture it, in fact.
Fortunately, Fiona has a handy dodecahedral crystal for trapping spirits. Tamarind expels the child-thing into it. He keeps up his Trump defence for a while longer - Fiona advises a few more minutes of it 'just to be sure'.
A minute or two after Damien administers the antidote, Esmée wakes up. Like Margot, she takes a deep breath, then sits up and looks around. "Welcome back," says Damien. She sees him, throws her arms around him, and bursts into tears. Damien hugs her back as she cries.
Fiona tells Tamarind she thinks he's clean.
Margot edges around so she can pat Esmée on the shoulder without coming too close to Damien. This she does.
The others suggest trying for Julian next, but Damien points out that Caleb has been there longer, so they decide to try for him first.
Tamarind wants a plan in case of more 'evil babies' and related psychic contaminants. Tristan says he'll just radiate Pattern energy at them.
Eventually (it takes a bit longer this time; people are getting tired, and there are less of them) they get through to Caleb. The 'prison' turns out to be a particularly brutal military academy or school. A psychotic-looking sergeant-major is viciously berating him in the middle of a cold and rainy sports field.
"Don't react - we're getting you out," says Tamarind.
"Get me out of here. Man - it's hell," begs Caleb
Tamarind tells him the drill - reach out mentally.
"No talking," screams the sergeant-major and punches Caleb brutally in the stomach.
This hurts, but it doesn't stop Caleb doing as instructed. He reaches out and is reeled back in. As he comes out Caine buds off more little psychic things which fly off down the link, then puts Caleb into the body provided.
"That was easy," says Bleys.
"Too easy," says Caine.
"Is there any sense that we're not getting them all back?" asks Damien.
Caine shakes his head. "Just being paranoid."
Damien revives Caleb. As before, deep breaths then opening of eyes.
"That was horrible, man," says Caleb, with more feeling than most people have ever heard him put into any sentence ever before. He and Caine are too manly to hug, but Caine welcomes him back. Caleb sobs quietly for a bit. Caine pats him awkwardly on the shoulder.
Esmée stops crying. Margot steps back.
Julian is to be recovered next. Esmée shivers when his name is mentioned. "You don't have to be here," says Tamarind.
"Shall I take you to your room?" offers Damien. She nods.
As Damien leads her out Esmée notices her hair (very short) and clothes (biker leathers). "I'll tell you later," says Damien.
"I'm glad you're back, Esmée," says Margot hesitantly, looking happier the further Damien goes away from her.
Those who remain (even more tired now), Trump Julian. Again they eventually make contact.
Julian appears to be about twelve, and in what looks like a alcove somewhere in Castle Amber. A voice which sounds like Corwin's can be heard from outside - "Come out Julian, we're not going to hurt you."
"Yeah, come on, we only want to play," says a voice which sounds like Eric's. Julian is hiding from them.
Tamarind talks to Julian, convinces him they're here to get him out, and reaches for him. At this point Corwin and Eric, looking like teenagers (perhaps in their facial expressions more than anything else), find him and drag him out of his hiding place. They drag him off down the corridor and throw him down a handy flight of stairs.
Tamarind pulls him out, and as before Caine sticks him in a body after sending more 'psychic buds' down the Trump link.
Julian takes a deep breath and wakes in his body (once the antidote is injected). His self-discipline instantly snaps into place.
Margot hugs him. He looks surprised.
"Did you discover anything there?" asks Tamarind.
"No," grates Julian.
"Damien has determined that a Chaos family called Kwandril are responsible," explains Tamarind. "The Soul Eaters."
"Then we should hunt them down and exterminate them," grates Julian.
Tristan explains boringly how we can be sure that we're not all in an illusory prison while merely thinking we're free.
What next?
Tristan says he can lead us to the shadow where they were held - he got a good enough impression of the place for that.
They wonder where they could find out more about the family Kwandril.
Random says some of the prisoners in Chaos who weren't in the Courts itself when it exploded may be wandering about and could be questioned. This is set in motion.
Damien takes Esmée to her rooms.
"Are you sure this is outside?" she asks.
"Yes," he replies.
"How can you tell?"
"It obeyed certain rules which do not apply out here," he explains.
Esmée is not convinced.
Damien explains about the impossible events, disjointed time, and other features he noticed inside the Soul Eater. He admits he was in a position to notice these things - he knew it was unreal from the start.
Esmée stops at the first mirror in her rooms and examines herself. Damien explains about the shadow bodies. She concentrates and finds that her shapeshifting power still seems to work as she grows her hair out to its normal length, then shortens it back to the close-cropped style of the shadow body.
She goes and changes out of the biker leathers while Damien waits.
Back in the Infirmary the others discuss matters. They wonder why Margot, Caleb and Esmée were selected. Margot says, rather tremulously, that they never asked her anything. Tamarind asks Caleb if there were any antagonistic Family figures in his set-up. He says not, and shivers.
Damien and Esmée arrive back, Damien having collected a repeating crossbow en route. Esmée hides behind him when she sees Julian. Margot hides behind Julian when she sees Damien.
They wonder about how the Council for Victory knew about Altair. Only a handful of people knew about her - Gerard (of course), Random (to whom she has sworn loyalty) and Caine. Someone notes that she has a Pattern imprint.
Damien asks to see the sketch of Tamarind's Trump reading. He explains the link between Mr Scary and Caine and Julian, and notes that it was their children who were subjected to Hell. They were obviously researched in detail, unlike the treatment meted out on the rest of us who went in there.
Altair asks Caine if he has ever offended Kwandril. Caine coughs and Random gives him a hard stare. "We all know you scuppered the peace talks," he says.
Ibrahim wonders if there were signs of any other unknown parties being involved.
Caine receives a Trump call. Tamarind can't tell who's Trumping him (whoever is doing the Trumping isn't in Tamarind's deck).
Damien notes that the 'possession' of Evander may be more physical than mental. The others describe the experiments they did on Trumping Margot and the resemblance of the effect they saw to Beltaine's vision of 'Mr Scary' over Telemachus in Tir-na Nog'th. Tamarind recalls that Beltaine said Evander's mind seemed to lack complexity. It seems Evander is a mask, an artificial personality. A personality that doesn't know it's only a front.
It is concluded that they only have one Kwandril there (as everyone was inside the same presence). Tristan definitely thinks so. Damien asks Tristan if he'd recognise the place where it was. Tristan says that, as he said while Damien was out of the room, yes, he can take us there.
Damien suggests going there and rescuing Esmée, Margot and Caleb's bodies.
Tristan's opinion is that the place seems to be nearer to Chaos than Amber. Fiona says that it is only on the Chaos side of Ygg that really fast time shadows (like the one they were held) can be found. Damien suggests that we start out from Chaos. Ibrahim wants to call in at Rosa on the way, to check things are all right there.
We discuss what happened to the blood taken from us. Presumably, says Damien, if Corwin's Pattern had been wiped out we would have noticed. Fiona and Random agree that this is so.
"Shapeshifters," mutters Damien. People wonder if the blood has been pumped into powerful Chaosites to allow them to (for example) walk the Pattern.
Caine says the stars are falling into the sea over Rebma. Ibrahim wonders if we can charge them with Grand Theft Astra. "Tristan hasn't outlawed it yet," says Random.
"I'm working on it now," says Tristan.
Random Trumps Llewella. Caine holds Llewella's Trump casually. Damien explains to Altair that he won't get involved with this - He and Llewella had a misunderstanding.
Random gets through and asks Llewella what's going on ("can we help or can you tell us anything about it?").
Once the call is over he says she says she knows what's happening, but not how or why. Caine says she was hiding something.
Tamarind wonders if Rebma has an equivalent to the Jewel of Judgement. Random says it does not. Tamarind then wonders if Llewella has any children. Not that anyone knows about. He wonders if Llewella is being blackmailed.
We decide to talk to 'Evander', then go to the shadow where people's minds were imprisoned.
Damien wants to hang spells first. Tamarind takes him, Esmée and Margot through to his fast time shadow.
Upon arriving Tamarind asks Damien for the Stone of Contacting Brand - Random wants it to consult with Brand. Damien hands it over, then asks if there's something people aren't telling him? About Margot? Tamarind tells him what happened to her, and mentions Caleb's nightmare too - the military school.
Damien tells him they'll Trump back when they're ready. "Thank you," he says.
Tamarind Trumps back to Ibrahim.
Altair asks Caine if he has any Trumps of her. By coincidence, he has. He hands over six, and Altair hands them out to people. She introduces herself to Caleb, who decides to call her 'Al'.
She asks Tristan what happened to him in the Soul Eater. Tristan tells her, and laughs it off.
Random says he has Affairs of State to attend to, and leaves.
Altair insinuates that Fiona is not up to interrogating Evander, so of course Fiona instantly volunteers. Likewise Bleys.
Ibrahim asks if Fiona or Bleys knew of Brands children. They both say no, apart from Bleys having heard of Beltaine, but even her only since she turned up in Amber.
Ibrahim asks Bleys if he and Random have ironed things out - he's not sure he should allow Bleys to speak to Evander at this time. Bleys says that this crisis will be a test of his loyalty, and that years in exile have taught him that his place is in Amber - he's learnt his lesson, he claims, and won't be a bad boy any more.
Tristan nods approvingly at this, then goes off.
"Well, as long as you're on parole," says Ibrahim.
Altair is still dubious about Bleys, and says so, but then she seems to suspect all the elders of everything and anything...
At this point Tamarind Trumps through to Ibrahim. He finds Random not there, so Trumps him and goes through, getting a Trump of Altair before he does so. Upon arriving in Random's office he gives Random the Stone, and instructions on its use. He is reluctant to leave Random alone to contact Brand, for Random's sake if Brand tries any funny business.
Random uses the Stone rather than continue to work his way through his piled-up in-tray.
In Tamarind's fast time shadow Damien catches up with Esmée and Margot. They're in a bedroom, talking (he can hear then through the door). He knocks on the door. "Come in," says Esmée from inside.
He opens the door. Margot is not looking at him.
He offers to hang some spells for Esmée, but she has no spell rack ring, and as this body has no Pattern imprint can't find it again in shadow. Damn.
Damien suggests he pass Esmée his ring as and when appropriate and he'll hang protective spells for all three of them. Then he tells Margot that Tamarind told him what happened to her, and that he can't keep avoiding her during this crisis.
She says, still without looking at him, that she understands - she knows it wasn't the real Damien in her head, but...
"I understand," says Damien. He backs out and goes to hang spells in the next room.
Ibrahim, Altair, Bleys and Fiona go down to the cells. A guard on the door into the cells hides his 'NO TO BLEYS' lapel badge.
They are taken to Evander's cell. There are two guards outside, a corridor, then another two guards at the door of the cell itself. Altair can feel a Trump power, or more an anti-Trump effect, around the cell. She studies it.
The guards unlock the door, the four go in, and the guards re-lock the door behind them. The cell is a 10' by 10' by 10' cube, lit by oil lamps (Ibrahim is paranoid about his shapeshifting up the oil supply tubes, but it turns out they have independent sealed tanks) with a table, a chair, a bunk, and a toilet hole in one corner.
Evander is lying comatose on the bunk. Fiona studies him for a bit, then does something involving the Pattern.
Meanwhile, Random is getting in touch with Brand. As with the others he becomes cold and surrounded by a black aura. Tamarind watches. Random's body language is cautious as the silent, mental conversation begins. The conversation continues and then ends. The black aura fades from around Random. He gives the stone back to Tamarind.
"Interesting," says Random. "Brand gives the impression of being a changed man," he notes. He tells Tamarind that he has agreed to let Brand come back with Deirdre. He will be on parole, like Bleys, and also on condition that he tells us everything about the Land of the Dead.
Random says he'll leave the resurrection schedule in Tamarind's hands. Tamarind decides to do it now. Random says to sort out the details with Brand, and don't do it alone.
Damien hangs spells.
In the cells, Fiona says that Evander's personality is simple, almost certainly a construct. It is possible there is or was a real Telemachus it was based on. But this is just a front, and behind it is something else. The inner personality is not quiescent but doesn't seem able to do anything with Evander unconscious.
They plan to wake Evander. More manacles are ordered before this is done. When they arrive he is secured to the bed.
Altair administers smelling salts. He coughs, but doesn't come round.
Fiona uses a Power Word to wake him. His eyes open and he looks around. "Ibrahim, what am I doing here?" he asks plaintively.
"Good question," says Ibrahim. He and Altair confuse Evander with metaphysics.
Evander doesn't know what they're talking about.
Altair tells him he's possessed. Fiona says she'll take a look now. Ibrahim introduces Evander to Fiona and Bleys.
Fiona says the thing inside him is active, watching. Altair asks is he's carrying another spirit around. Fiona says he is.
Altair goes into the corner of the cell and Trumps Evander. The card seems to work inside the cell. She peers, trying to see the other spirit, but can't. She can only sense Evander's mind.
She asks Fiona to try and provoke the hidden psyche. Fiona uses another Power Word and Altair senses pain, but not Evander's, though Evander twitches reflexively. "What was that?!" he asks, alarmed.
Fiona tries another Word and the thing twitches again.
Ibrahim and Altair leave Bleys and Fiona alone in the cell with Evander (still locked in) and go off. Ibrahim briefly considers having them sealed in and throwing away the key...
Outside, Ibrahim Trumps Random to check that Bleys really is on parole - he is - and offers to enforce the parole.
Altair asks about Evander's parentage. They think the body is probably that of a descendant of Benedict.
Then the two of them Trump up to the Arrival Courtyard and head for Ibrahim's study. The thick clouds overhead are boiling away. It very hot. Very. Ibrahim, being a Son of the Desert, might quite like it though, if it wasn't for the humidity.
Tamarind Trumps to his fast time shadow. He hears Damien chanting and Esmée and Margot talking.
He uses the Stone. After the cold and the darkness he reaches Brand. He asks what to do now he has bodies. "You'd better write all this down," says Brand.
He describes what to do:
It takes about an hour to get all this down. Tamarind is utterly cold by the time they are done and the link goes down.
He is sufficiently cold and tired that he decides there is no time to do it before the raid on the Kwandril shadow, so he goes to bed instead.
In Amber, Ibrahim collects a bag of rings from his office and Trumps Tristan. When he gets through he tells Tristan he's off to hang spells, then we can go. Tristan says he will borrow the super-Trump of the Abyss from Random.
Then Ibrahim concentrates on Tamarind's Trump.
In his sleep, Tamarind feels a Trump call coming on, and is woken up. Despite this he brings Ibrahim through.
Ibrahim tells Tamarind that Evander's mind is definitely a construct, and that Bleys and Fiona are on the case. They otherwise bring each other up to date.
Ibrahim goes off to hang spells.
Tamarind checks on Margot and Esmée. It appears they've been talking and otherwise doing sister stuff, for the first time ever as far as Tamarind knows. Esmée asks him if he has any spare spell racks. Tamarind says no, but suggests that Ibrahim might. Esmée goes off to interrupt him.
Margot uses Tamarind's Trump to return to Amber and acquire armour and weapons. As she concentrates Tamarind notes that she appears very worried about this expedition, so he wonders out loud if we would need someone to hang back in order to be Trumped to if things go horribly wrong.
Esmée goes to Ibrahim (he hasn't done too much work yet). He has no spare spell rack, unfortunately. He can lend her a sword, though. Esmée looks not entirely enthusiastic. He has a brainwave - he knows where he can find a spell rack. Eric must have had one somewhere.
He Trumps back to Amber to find it. Eric and Isobel are being looked after in a sitting room near the Infirmary. Eric is drooling on a ring which Ibrahim knows is a spell rack. Ibrahim 'borrows' it, then Trumps back to Esmée and gives it to her. She thanks him.
They both go off to rack spells.
In Amber, Altair walks down corridors. She finds a cathedral organ in a small Unicorn chapel and makes it go 'honk' for a bit. Then she Trumps Caine.
He takes the call, and seems to be on the tiger-striped beach by the cairn at the top of Faiella-Bionin, the staircase down to Rebma. She wants to know Caine's connection to Kwandril. He says he hasn't offended them any more than any other family of Chaos. He killed a lot of people in the battle by the Abyss.
It is possible that he and Julian may have had some small involvement in events ten years ago, but other than that...
She asks about the Agrazal. Caine describes it, and tells her about the visit of Morred Telgadi, the Chaos Ambassador.
Altair drops the Trump link. As the link closes she notices Caine heading for the sea. She has a drink and waits for the rest of us.
The rest of us finish hanging spells.
Tamarind is Trumped by Margot and she comes through. She's in armour and carrying weapons all clearly taken from the Castle Armoury. She has also helped herself to Trump decks for herself and Esmée.
Everyone at Tamarind's assembles, and they Trump Tristan. He's in Random's office. They all go through. Random tells us that evacuation plans are in place, and the evacuation will begin this afternoon. Ibrahim Trumps Altair and she joins everyone else. It's even hotter.
She gives Damien, Tristan and Esmée Trumps of herself.
Ibrahim hands out rings from the bag he collected earlier. He explains that they will allow the wearers a local (i.e. in the same shadow) network of mental communication. However, he warns that each ring can only link to one other ring at a time. They allow both mental speech, and also for a wearer to 'broadcast' what they see without their having to concentrate on doing so.
Random designates us 'Task Force Find The Council For Victory And Kick Their Arses'. Caleb and possibly Bleys will join us, he adds. "Doesn't the King want to keep Bleys where he can keep an eye on him?" asks Damien.
"Trump us if you need him," says Random.
"We won't," says Damien.
Caleb wanders in without knocking. He's wearing armour too.
Damien borrows some of Random's sealing wax. Tamarind borrows a crossbow from the display cabinet.
Then Random pulls out the super-Trump. Tamarind gives Random the Stone, plus the Trump of him fast time shadow. Random Trumps everyone through to the edge of the Abyss, staying behind himself. "Good luck," he says.
We're by the Abyss, outside one of the iron fortresses. We go in. The guards say there is nothing to report. Tamarind wants them to see if there are any prisoners of family Kwandril. The guards aren't sure. Caleb volunteers to stay and find out, then Trump to us.
We turn away from the fort as Castle Corvallin hoves into view. We climb in up the ramp, and off we go.
Tristan warns that this may take hours, maybe a couple of days.
We all go to the top of the keep where Corvallin herself is there in her mirror. We greet her.
Tristan shifts shadow at vast speed. The skies flicker overhead.
Ibrahim hangs more spells and starts enchanting a new spell rack for Esmée. The difficulty of both these things is increased a great deal by the speed of their motion through shadow, but it is possible.
Damien tells the others that he isn't taking any prisoners. Altair and (a bit reluctantly) Ibrahim tend to agree. Tamarind has doubts and would certainly like to capture the Soul Eater. Damien tells him that if he can come up with a plan he'll listen. Tamarind begins a Trump of the presence in the mind-realm (presumably the Soul Eater); it has to be a full Trump as the speed they are shadow shifting will quickly destroy a sketch. He estimates this will be a slow job due to the apparent strength of the Presence's mind...
We zoom through shadow.
Esmée hangs more spells. Damien offers to hang a couple of his spells for her, but she politely refuses - she's rusty, she says, and wants to stick to what she knows best.
After a while Caleb Trumps through to Tamarind. He says they haven't found any Kwandrils but some prisoners are being interrogated about them. They'll Trump Random and tell him. Then he can contact us. Can't he? Tamarind is not so sure - there are no super-Trumps of anyone here...
Caleb and Altair slouch about the place.
We travel on...
Ibrahim asks Margot if she wants to practise some swordplay. She is nervous, but does.
They go to a practise courtyard in Corvallin. The sword shakes in her hand as they get ready. Ibrahim asks how she feels about this. "Scared."
He does some therapeutic stuff, encouraging her to talk. She does. Then they try again.
She is all right until they start sparring again, when her hand starts its shaking again. Margot seems unable to fight at her full strength, and anything more than very defensively. After a while Ibrahim accidentally lands a hard blow on her and she lets out a horrible keening scream of rage and pain, and goes for him all out, almost mindlessly. All out offensive - she's trying to kill him, although whether Margot is currently all there is open to debate.
Ibrahim goes fully defensive and backs around the courtyard. Unfortunately, Margot is slightly faster and much stronger than him so Ibrahim gets quite battered as time goes on.
Alerted by Corvallin, Tristan turns up, but is warned away by Ibrahim.
Eventually Ibrahim is so pressed that he has to get out Eric's Pattern sword to parry Margot, otherwise he'll be badly hurt. He chops off her practise sword then continues trying to hold her off until her rage fades.
This takes about an hour, by which time Ibrahim is a mass of bruises. Gradually her face clears, and she smiles a nasty smile, going from full offensive to semi-defensive.
"Margot?"
"Ibrahim."
"Are you still trying to kill me?"
"No."
They are basically sparring properly now. She is still stronger and slightly faster than him.
After another hour or so she stops, still smiling. "That's much better," she says, heartfelt. "I could never do that in ... that place. I was weak. Like a shadow dweller."
Ibrahim suggests she spar with someone else when she has her real body back. He casts the best healing spell he can manage (given their speed of shadow shifting) on himself to fix his bruised and battered body.
Margot decides to have a drink. Ibrahim joins her. Likewise Tristan. Margot gets very drunk and eventually falls over. She's never done that before as far as anyone knows.
Esmée is summoned to wheel her off to bed. She is surprised at Margot's behaviour too.
Margot spars with Ibrahim again the next day, now fully in control of herself. But when he tries a surprise attack to test her reflexes she is fast enough but he sees a stab of fear in her eyes.
After nearly two days we arrive in a dark, stormy shadow with islands like inverted mountain peaks floating in the air with no ground visible below. Some have forests of black trees on top of them. It's raining.
Tristan rests for an hour then begins to fine tune the shadow properties to get to the right place.
Dwellings begin to become visible on the islands, primitive at first, then more high-tech. The rain becomes vile, polluted, and black. It stings a little.
"We're here," says Tristan.
Ahead of Corvallin is a Manhattan-like city on a floating island, linked to a couple of others, slightly lower down, by what look like huge rope bridges. Tamarind makes it highly improbable, impossible even, that anyone will notice us out here.
Damien goes and poisons his hollow-point crossbow bolts and his sword Dashwood with the anti-shapeshifter poison he got from Caine. He seals the cavities in the bolts with Random's sealing wax. Then he tests the magic of shadow.
Tristan stares at the city. Damien, coming back in, suggests that it's likely a helicopter will fly over and land. And they don't radio anyone. Or have a communications failure.
Tristan agrees.
A helicopter flies over, then comes in to land. It seems to be having engine problems of some kind. We grab the two cops who are flying it.
Ibrahim asks what this place it.
"Don't you know?" says a cop, incredulously.
"This is Chershan," he says. "Lord Sharrock rules here."
Damien asks about people named Hania, Prava and Aximia. The cops say they are (alleged) crime lords, who live ... in an address which is meaningless to the group. Damien has them point it out on an electronic street map in the helicopter.
Tamarind decides to check them out on the police database (also in the helicopter). All three are listed. They are suspected of being crime lords, but have never been convicted. Their (alleged) charge sheets are vast. Apparently every now and again some crusading young politician or cop will try and take them down, but these people often suffer 'tragic accidents'. There are pictures of them:
Lord Sharrock (when checked) doesn't looks familiar. He is an ugly, thuggish fellow, muscular, with a shaven head. He doesn't look like a nice person.
Everyone in the city seems to wear black a lot.
The cops (when asked) point out a skyscraper in the city, one of the biggest, as the headquarters of AHP Holdings, the front company for the alleged crime lords.
We drugs the cops and raid their helicopter for spare uniforms.
Damien suggests that some of us go in at ground level as cops wanting to question people, while the rest go in via the roof.
Ibrahim suggests people check their rings to make sure we can co-ordinate things. They seem to be working perfectly.
Damien suggests that the party going in at the top works its way down, and the others work their way. If we find anything a designated person in each group will Trump the others through. Otherwise we meet in the middle. Unless we find evidence that we need to look underground, in which case the upper group will go through to the lower.
"It's a plan," says Tristan. "Let's do it..."