Notes Taken by Samantha and Alastair Beadle.
Caitlin, Jihx, Whippoorwill and Godofos reach the Amber Castle Command Centre at the same time, all arriving before Gerard. Godofos thinks having a Trump of this place would be quite useful; however, such things are forbidden, without permission. Caitlin seems to have reached a new understanding of the Pattern, and how to use it to manipulate probability, even within Amber itself...
The Centre is a hive of activity, with military people in a variety of uniforms going urgently about their business. Whippoorwill snags a passing lieutenant and asks for a briefing.
"A fleet of ships has appeared out of shadow," says the lieutenant. "They are sailing towards Amber now."
Beyond that, no further news is available. The lieutenant bustles off to talk to some more people.
Gerard bursts in. The staff stands and salute. Gerard demands to know what is going on, and receives the same brief from the lieutenant. However, the lieutenant does seem to have some more information now.
The lieutenant tells us that, at its reported speed, the fleet will be in Amber within the hour. This generates a good deal of concern, as a much earlier warning would normally to be expected. Apparently the fleet was reported by a fast boat from a picket ship just along one of the sea-going shadow paths out of Amber. It is unknown how the fleet (if it was using the shadow paths) was able to get so close to Amber without being spotted by one of the picket ships further out. It is also unclear how they came to be able to get so close to the picket ship without being seen. They are already within Amber's 'shadow'.
Gerard decides to move the Command Centre to the docks as Amber prepares to respond to the incoming fleet. He pulls a Trump from his deck and concentrates on it; this proves to be a Trump of the dockside.
All of us, plus a great many of the Command Centre's staff, are Trumped through to the military area of Amber's docks. The docks are lined with ships, and a great many sailors are rushing to and fro.
A discussion of how long Amber has before the incoming fleet arrives results in Caitlin deciding that a change in wind direction is in order. She concentrates for a while and suddenly the wind changes from a southerly (parallel to the coast) to a westerly (coming off the land), that is much more in favour of the fleet of Amber and against the unknown fleet.
The available Amber Fleet seems to consists of about two hundred ships, though there are thousands more spread across the shadows of the Golden Circle. The ships in Amber are now being mobilised on Gerard's command. They are all clipper-like ships, with wooden or silvery metal hulls; their sails are green with a white Unicorn symbol woven into the fabric. They are armed with ballistae and rams, and all seem to be carrying marines.
It is decided that we should spread ourselves between the ships of the fleet rather than being concentrated in one place, and so each of us chooses our own ship.
Gerard, of course, boards the flagship, the HMS Unicorns Flight, which has long ago had the damage it took during the attack of Finndo's airships in 12 PPF repaired.
Whippoorwill boards the ship that looks as if it is most ready to sail, the frigate HMS Circumspect. He tells the Captain to set sail as soon as possible and signal the Admiral that they are going ahead to scout out the approaching fleet.
Caitlin boards the larger ship of the line the HMS Dragon, which is one of the escorts of the HMS Unicorns Flight. This has a large lizard like head on the prow.
Godofos boards the frigate the HMS Beaver. He leaves the crew to deal with sailing the ship and sits down to draw a Trump of just above the masthead, intending to use it to bring his Trump jet through when the conditions of shadow allow.
Jihx boards the HMS Shark, another frigate, but one which is attached to a more remote part of the fleet.
The HMS Circumspect and the HMS Shark are amongst the first ships to leave port, sailing out of the southern opening through the harbour wall. The remains of the Colossus of Oberon are visible at the central harbour entrance.
The HMS Dragon follows shortly after, followed by most of the rest of the fleet, with the HMS Beaver amongst the stragglers.
Outside the harbour, the fleet forms up into its designated units in remarkably good time. Within twenty minutes it has formed up, and takes maximum advantage of the remarkably co-operative wind to sail eastwards at speed. It is still the morning in Amber, the sun about forty-five degrees above the horizon in the direction from which the fleet is approaching.
Before the fleet can leave the 'shadow' of Amber sails begin to appear on the horizon.
We examine the approaching ships through telescopes. The ships appear to be rather odd. They seem to be of a clipper-like design (not unlike the ships of Amber) but have an organic appearance, as if they were made of living flesh. They are a pinky-grey in colour with translucent sails containing visible veins and arteries. Their raised poop decks seem to be formed from large coiled shells, not unlike vast nautilus shells, into which doors and windows have been cut.
As the entire approaching fleet appears over the horizon it shows itself to have around three hundred ships, of size and makeup similar to the Amber fleet, just with half as many again in terms of numbers.
Interrogating signals are sent by flag to the approaching ships. They do not respond. It is concluded from this that we must attack them at once.
As the range closes more details can be seen. Each approaching ship is flying the flag of the Courts of Chaos, and in addition to this seems to be using other flags to indicate unit and organisational details.
At this point a thought occurs to Godofos. He Trumps Vialle and when she takes the call asks her to check the location where the Black Road was seen entering Amber in the Tir-Na Nog'th visions we saw, in case another attack is coming in along that route. Vialle agrees to send troops to investigate, and to call him back when they report in.
He then Trumps Gerard and when he takes the call tells him what he has been doing. Gerard agrees that this is a good idea.
Once this is done, he shuffles through his Trump deck and tries the Trumps of the Elder Amberites, in case any of them should be leading this attack. He tries the Trumps of Benedict, Bleys, Brand, Caine, Corwin, Deirdre, Dworkin, Eric (who is dead), Finndo (also dead), Fiona, Florimel, Julian, Llewella and Random. No response is received from any of them, so he concludes that they cannot be on the ships.
Caitlin suddenly manipulates probability to control the wind again, and becalms both fleets about two miles apart.
She contact the others, admits to her power over the weather (a quite impressive power within the Amber 'shadow') and asks for ideas. Gerard comments that he thought only the Jewel of Judgement could manipulate the weather in Amber as Caitlin now can. A localised storm is requested, centred on the Chaos fleet, to break them up.
This sounds like a plan, so Caitlin leaves the Trump link and goes off to concentrate on this difficult task.
As the skies darken and clouds move in at unnatural speeds a message is sent out from the HMS Dragon for the fleet to reduce sail in preparation for harsh weather.
However the ships of Chaos seem to observe this. It can now also be seen that they are still moving forwards, despite the lack of wind.
A crack of lightning signals from overhead the start of the storm. Rain begins to fall, the wind picks up into gusts and squalls, and the swell rises. The fleet of Chaos also reduces sail, but its speed towards us does not reduce.
A waterspout appears on the horizon and roars its was towards the fleet of Chaos. As it reaches the edge of the fleet several ships are crushed and swept underwater. The waterspout jinks erratically through the fleet, which scatters before its path. A more ships are sunk, and some are overturned by the wind and waves surrounding the waterspout. These overturned ships can be seen to have large waving cilia on their undersides that they apparently use as propulsion.
At this point the HMS Unicorns Flight signals 'Attack' and the fleet of Amber advances on the fleet of Chaos.
Caitlin calls Gerard on the Trumps and when he takes the call converses with him regarding what she should do next.
Gerard requests lightning strikes on the enemy vessels.
Caitlin nods and breaks the Trump link.
She attempts to summon lightning but finds that the effort required to do that and maintain the waterspout is too great, so she stops maintaining the waterspout to concentrate on lightning. The waterspout loses cohesion and its lower half falls thunderously into the sea, taking a couple more Chaos ships with it, as the upper half retreat back into the clouds. Then the sky is split open by multiple lightning strikes. These rain down on the Chaos ships, but the Amber fleet is miraculously spared.
Rather belatedly Jihx remembers Queen Moire and Trumps her.
When she takes the call, he gives her the news. She seems quite surprised, but takes it all in her stride and agrees to assist however she can. She grips the Eye Of Peace, which begins to glow visibly. Jihx knows that she can use it to control the seas around Rebma. She also says she will attempt to contact Connor and Nemain and see if they are willing to assist; if they are she will contact Jihx again and pass them through.
Jihx agrees with all of this, and the Trump link is broken.
Elsewhere in the fleet, the HMS Beaver finds herself in the lead of the advancing Amber fleet. Godofos is in his armour on deck, backed up by a squad of marines.
As they approach their selected target among the enemy fleet they notice that the fleet is manned by fish-men, entirely hairless humanoids with faintly scaled blue-green skins, large dark eyes, gill slits down the sides of their rib-cages, webbed, clawed hands and large fins folded against the sides of their calves and forearms. They are armed with spears, javelins, short swords and crossbows.
"What do you reckon boys, shall we talk to them?" Godofos asks the marines.
"No Sir!" reply his crew. This is backed up by several puns from the marines. "They've had their chips!" "Lets give them a battering!"
The HMS Beaver has chosen an as yet undamaged ship, slightly larger than herself, boiling with fish-people.
She ploughs into the side of the Chaotic vessel, which starts bleeding heavily into the water as the ram goes in.
Godofos leaps aboard, not immediately followed by the marines who are using grappling hooks. He lands among the fish-people and immediately lays about him, slashing at them with his sword.
Two fish-people are immediately filleted and fall over with mortal wounds. The others on deck move in to tackle(!) him. The fish-people seem to be quite dangerous, on the level of Amber Castle guards, but seem to be significantly inferior to members of the Royal Family of Amber.
As they close in, Godofos leaps around to avoid the spears, landing on fish-people and taking a few glancing blows which are deflected by his armour.
Finally the grappling hooks land and the marines haul the two ships side-by-side before leaping across to join the fray. As Godofos continues to leap and slash around the deck a few crossbow bolts twang off his armour.
It seems, however, that other ships across the fleet are having a more difficult time against the fish-people...
Godofos then notices several fish-people leaping off the ship into the water on the far side of the Chaos ship from the HMS Beaver.
He attempts to relay a warning of this to the Captain of the HMS Beaver that the enemy may be coming around to counter-board the HMS Beaver. However, his messengers (along with various others of the marines) do seem to be having trouble staying alive long enough to relay this message...
On the HMS Shark, Jihx is standing on the prow, ready to use the momentum of the initial impact to aid his leap onto the enemy ship.
The HMS shark impacts with a Chaos ship, its ram ripping into it and causing blood to bloom out into the water. Jihx uses his own momentum to leap off the rigging and lands on the far side of the enemy deck. He starts laying into the fish-people when he too notices some of them jumping over the side away from the HMS Shark.
On the HMS Circumspect, Whippoorwill decides that ramming appears to be the way forward. Even some Amber ships have been effectively rammed.
Whippoorwill decides to assist an Amber ship that has picked on a larger Chaos vessel. The HMS Circumspect moves in and rams on the other side, crushing several fish-people in the water between the HMS Circumspect and the Chaos ship as they do so.
Whippoorwill then boards the large Chaos vessel with the marines.
He heads for the main mast, takes a large whaling harpoon-like spear from one of the marines and plunges it into the living deck at the foot of the mast, driving it as deep as he can (which is quite deep, given his strength). The ship quivers as he does this and the spear does not seem to penetrate through to a lower deck, as if the ship is solid in this position. Blood fountains out of the wound as Whippoorwill pulls the spear free.
He jumps back onto the HMS Circumspect and decides to Trump Caitlin with this information.
Elsewhere, Caitlin's lightning appears to be having a dramatic effect on the living ships, disabling them and leaving them drifting.
She feels a Trump contact coming on, and accepts it. It is Whippoorwill. He tells her about his spearing of the ship, and then drops the Trump link.
Whippoorwill decides to pass this information on to Godofos next.
Godofos also feels the Trump call coming on, and accepts it even though he does not have a chance to check his Trump deck to see who it actually is. This significantly distracts him from fighting for his life, as he currently is.
The message is brief and Godofos gets knocked about by the fish-people as he talks to Whippoorwill, though his armour does absorb most of the damage. In return, he passes a message back to Whippoorwill about the fish-people leaping into the sea, and their possible intentions. Then they drop the Trump link.
Godofos decides to attempt to de-mast the Chaos ship, and head for the mainmast. He clears some space and then charges the mast with his body. The mast takes a significant dent but seems to have a hard centre under its leathery skin. He attacks it with his sword instead, cutting deeply into it. Blood begins to flow out.
Jihx returns to the HMS Shark and looks over the side. He does indeed find fish-people climbing on board out of the sea. He shouts a warning to the crew and attacks them.
On the HMS Dragon, Caitlin climbs the mainmast to the crows' nest for a better view of the battle.
From this vantage she picks out targets for her lightning strikes. She notices that, despite her lack of concentration, the sea remains quite rough although the storm overhead is dissipating.
She decides to concentrate on Amber's natural sea predators and make it likely that sharks and minor sea monsters will appear, attracted by all the blood in the water. She notices a few triangular fins cutting through the water towards the two fleets.
As she does this, Caitlin can see that the Amber fleet is gaining a slight edge, despite being outnumbered. The sea is also getting rougher, with whirlpools developing near some of the Chaos ships - and all nothing to do with her. She senses the Eye Of Peace behind this phenomena.
She concentrates on making the sea creatures of Amber have a taste for fish-people and living Chaotic ships rather than Amber humans.
On the HMS Circumspect, Whippoorwill goes to arrange for signals to be sent to the fleet indicating 'beware, hostiles in the water'. As he does so there is a shout of "Beware, borders from the sea!" from the Captain, and fish-people swarm over the side of the HMS Circumspect.
Whippoorwill and the crew join to fight them off.
On the Chaos ship, Godofos cuts his way through to what seems to be a major artery feeding the sails and is covered in a shower of bright red blood. The spars from this mast start to sag.
Godofos moves on to attack the fish-people with renewed vigour, but slips over of the bloody deck.
The fish-people take advantage of his fall and a metal net is thrown over him. He struggles free, but metal barbs inside the net cut into him even through his armour.
Godofos has taken multiple minor injuries by now and is starting to be affected by them. He decides to head back to the HMS Beaver, which is quite a long way from him across the deck of the Chaos ship. He begins to fight his way back across the deck.
Jihx is still fending off borders on the HMS Shark, and with the assistance of the crew manages to stop them from gaining a foothold on the deck.
After some time they give up on their boarding attempt and fall back into the water, where they have to defend themselves against the sharks. Unfortunately the fish-people seem to be well adapted for swimming and cope well with the sharks, although they are having to use their weapons to defend themselves.
Caitlin attempts to control the currents in the sea, but finds that they are out of her control at the moment. However, they are acting against the ships of Chaos, so that is probably all right.
She concentrates instead on her sharks, and more and more appear around the two fleets.
Whippoorwill notices that the Chaos ship he is on does not appear to be sinking and also that it does not have any access to lower decks, just to the shell-like superstructure at the stern of the vessel.
Caitlin can now see that half of the enemy fleet have been engaged by the Amber fleet, while a quarter are being dragged down by whirlpools or drifting following lightning strikes. The final quarter of the fleet, seventy ships or so, are fleeing the scene.
The Chaos ship Whippoorwill is on has stopped bleeding profusely from its wound. Whippoorwill looks around for a commands, and spots the Chaos Captain on the poop of the ship. He shoots him with a crossbow. The Captain falls.
Caitlin decides to create a storm in the distance to attack the fleeing element of the Chaotic fleet, among which is what appears to be the main command group.
On Whippoorwill's ship the fish-people appear to be disheartened by the loss of their Captain and start to break. Most dive off the side of the ship and disappear beneath the surface.
They are not seen to reappear again, but then they do have gills...
Godofos makes it back to the group of sixty or so surviving marines at the place where they boarded from the HMS Beaver.
As he does so, he notices that the HMS Beaver seems to have been largely overrun by fish-people. The Captain is lying dead over the railing with a spear sticking out of his chest. Only two small groups of Amber crew remain on the deck, one of about twenty sailors and one or about ten, each one surrounded by fish-people and fighting a desperate rear-guard action.
Godofos Trumps Gerard for assistance.
Unfortunately, when he takes the call Gerard says that he cannot send help, as he is directing the battle. However, he does offer to evacuate Godofos and the remaining crew, and mentions that they have some fish-people prisoners.
Godofos turns down Gerard's offer, drops the Trump link, and leads the marines back onto the deck of the HMS Beaver. They begin to fight their way over to the surrounded sailors.
By the time they reach the first group of sailors Godofos is limping from his injuries, but they drive off the fish-men and move the sailors into the centre of the group of marines. Then they fight their way over to the second group.
By the time he and the marines reach the second group only two crewmen are remaining in it and he is down to around fifty marines, but he has all of the survivors together in a single group.
So Godofos Trumps Gerard again and this time when Gerard takes the call, passes through the survivors. Godofos himself falls through the Trump link last, half a dozen Chaos javelins clanging from his armour as he does so.
Jihx successfully repels the borders from HMS Shark and leaps back on to the Chaos ship. Swinging through the sinew-like rigging he heads for the poop deck and attacks the ship's officers.
The Captain and officers are more competent fighters than their crew, but even so are soon cut down.
Jihx notices that the ship does not have a wheel as such; instead, it seems to be controlled by sailors manipulating a cluster of what look like branches which are growing from the centre of the poop deck. He attacks these, too, slicing them off, and receives a quiver from the ship as he does so. He then turns to attack the remaining fish-people crew.
By now a storm has gathered ahead of the fleeing Chaos ships, and Caitlin, despite being very tired by now, directs a single massive bolt of lightning at the lead retreating ship. This hits it dead on, and the ship shudders and starts to list badly.
Satisfied with this, she starts to attack the escort ships in the same manner, calling down another bolt of lightning on one of them. It breaks in two and starts to sink as the lightning bolt hits, but then Caitlin has to sink to the floor of the crow's nest in exhaustion and let the weather return to its natural state.
Whippoorwill decides that the fight on 'his' Chaos ship is now going rapidly his way, with fish-people leaving for the sea at a high rate.
He charges the remaining fish-people crewmen, causing them to break and abandon the ship altogether. Then Whippoorwill heads for the nautilus shell-like superstructure at the back of the ship and kicks a door down. Inside all the rooms are empty of people and there are no passages leading downwards.
He returns to the deck, retrieves the grappling hooks and heads back to the HMS Circumspect, where he invites the captain to attack another vessel.
Godofos picks himself up from the deck of the HMS Unicorns Flight. He obtains a crossbow and a large supply of bolts, then takes the Trump that he made of the crows nest of the HMS Beaver and when the link open up steps through it.
He begins to fire down from the crow's nest at the fish-people on the deck of the HMS Beaver.
This tactic works spectacularly as he can pick targets with ease, is a difficult target himself and is in an easily defended position. Godofos has to Trump for replacement crossbow bolts several times before the fish-people decide to abandon the HMS Beaver as a lost cause.
They cut the grappling hooks from their own ship and sail away. Their ship is still gouting blood from its main mast and clearly has a degraded level of performance. Godofos continues to fire at them as they leave until the HMS Beaver starts to list dramatically and sink.
Then Godofos Trumps Whippoorwill, and when he takes the call goes through and joins him.
Jihx, having won the battle at the HMS Shark, climbs up to the crow's nest to get a view of the battle. Seeing the group of fleeing ships off in the distance he shouts down to the Captain to disengage and pursue the fleeing fleet.
This he does. As they pass other ships not wholly engaged they signal 'Hot pursuit' with their flags and are joined by a few vessels, including the HMS Circumspect with Whippoorwill and Godofos on board, the HMS Dragon with Caitlin, and eight or nine other vessels.
We notice that the fleeing Chaotic ships have paused to pick up survivors from Caitlin's last attack.
Whippoorwill thinks ahead to see what shadows the fleet is about to pass into. He remembers that the shadows along this shadow path lead to Diega, a shadow of rolling silvery-yellow sand dunes by a blue-black sea, whose capital city is built around and into a collection of gigantic huge sharp curved teeth protruding from the sand by the shore. It is a magical shadow with low technology, surrounded by similar shadows. He passes this information on to Godofos, stating that low technology does not suit his powers and abilities. Damn.
Caitlin Trumps Jihx, and when he takes the call, asks him for his plan.
Jihx states that he thinks it worth risking eleven ships against seventy - if we can get to a shadow further from Amber where our Pattern powers will give us even more of an edge. Besides, we can always Trump out if it all goes wrong...
Caitlin agrees and Trumps Gerard to pass on the news, which she does when he takes the call. Gerard wishes us good luck.
Then she Trump Jihx again and when he takes the call tells him that as she is so tired she is going to Trump to shadow Vitesse to rest, then return.
Jihx agrees that this is a good idea, and agrees to call her when they engage the enemy or anything else significant happens.
Caitlin pulls out her Trump of Vitesse and concentrates upon it. When the link opens up, she steps through into the courtyard of the auberge there. She is greeted by the innkeeper and shown to a comfortable room where she eats, drinks and then rests.
Godofos has a similar idea of going to somewhere fast-time to rest and recuperate. Whippoorwill suggests a shadow a Trump of which Godofos created for himself a while ago - a super-high technology and magic hospital, outside of which the shadow ends. This sounds like a good idea, and Godofos Trumps there immediately.
The hospital staff greet him, and he is taken away to be treated, and rest...
On the ships of the Amber Navy, after less than half an hour we observe the Chaos fleet make its first shadow shift along the shadow path out from Amber, and disappear.
We follow as quickly as we can. The HMS Shark is in the lead, with the HMS Circumspect about a mile behind.
Two more shadow shifts along the shadow path and some hours later, Jihx feels that his Pattern powers are working more or less as they should in shadow. He calls upon the power of the Pattern and summons his hawk in oversized form to come and land in the crows' nest of the HMS Shark.
In Vitesse, Caitlin wakes feeling well rested. She dreamt of being in Tir-Na Nog'th during her sleep, and wakes up feeling 'slightly different', though not unwell.
She enjoys a hearty breakfast, and then Trumps Gerard.
When he takes the call, he tells her that things are going well and he expects to have the remaining Chaotic fleet under control in a couple of hours. They have taken some more prisoners.
She then Trumps Jihx, and when he takes the call goes through to him.
He tells her that he plans to sortie out to the Chaos ships to see what he can do against them. At about this point his white hawk arrives and perches on the crows' nest.
Jihx climbs the mainmast, mounts his hawk and heads off up into the air towards the enemy ships. En route he Trumps Whippoorwill to tell him what he plans.
Whippoorwill takes the call, and suggests caution. He says that he will keep an eye on him through his telescope.
Godofos, rested and mended in the hospital, enjoys breakfast, then Trumps to his armoury in Ahnel to tool up. He collects rocket launchers and limpet mines, and checks on a surprise weapon that his people have been working on in secret. This proves to be just what he wants - a small, very fast laser-armed racing hovercraft.
With all of this equipment collected, he Trumps Whippoorwill.
On hawk-back, Jihx climbs high into the air to a position forty-five degrees above and several hundred metres behind the trailing ship. Arrows and ballista bolts fire up at him; only the ballista bolts have sufficient range but the hawk is quite fast in its own right, and dodges them easily.
Jihx takes aim at the base of the mainmast of the trailing ship with his sword and blasts it his sword's purple energy beam.
Godofos passes his armoury through to Whippoorwill, who is quite impressed by all this. Followed by the hovercraft, which also impresses Whippoorwill, and himself.
He then lowers the hovercraft onto the water, climbs down into it, starts its Trump-powered motor and bounces off across the waves towards the Chaos ships at high speed.
As he does so he sees Jihx's energy blast spear down from the sky at the trailing ship. The blast hits its target and cauterises a large hole through the deck. Fluid fills the space and deck and the mainmast starts to topple. The ship starts to fall behind the main flotilla.
Jihx spots Godofos and his hovercraft skipping across the water towards the fleet at high speed, although does not know that that is what it is. He then selects his next target.
Caitlin and Whippoorwill are watching all this from the HMS Shark and the HMS Circumspect respectively.
Jihx shoots at a second ship in the same manner as before, and with the same deadly effect.
However, his third bolt is somehow reversed in mid-flight and comes shooting back towards him, faster than he can dodge! The bolt hits, blasting his white hawk to pieces, cutting through Jihx's armour and searing a nasty hole in his flesh.
Whippoorwill, Godofos and Caitlin, seeing this, all start to individually Trump Jihx, who is barely conscious and falling towards the sea.
Caitlin, with the most powerful mind, wins the race and pulls the unresisting Jihx through to the crows' nest of the HMS Shark.
Godofos and Whippoorwill also get through shortly afterwards.
Whippoorwill also comes through to the crows' nest, and takes Jihx through to the hospital shadow.
Godofos, having dropped the Trump link when he saw that Jihx was in good hands, continues his charge towards the Chaos ships.
When he gets within a kilometre of them, to one side of their direction of travel, he fires the steerable Trump-powered laser cannon his hovercraft mounts on its nose at the nearest ship. The (inevitably purple) laser beam slices into the flesh of the ship at the waterline. The ship slows and begins to change course, or drift.
Godofos turns his laser to another ship with similar effects.
On the third attack, however, the laser flashes back at him. The beam passes though the laser cannon and disintegrates the front of his hovercraft. The hovercraft noses into the water and Godofos tumbles into the sea.
Caitlin starts to Trump Godofos, who is also digging out a Trump of his own from his deck. Caitlin wins the Trump race again and he takes the call. She pulls Godofos through to the crow's nest of the HMS Shark.
Godofos promptly uses his Trump card of the hovercraft's Trump power source and pulls it free from the sinking hovercraft. It proves to be a cylinder perhaps eighteen inches long and twelve inches in diameter, with various connectors dotted over each end.
Caitlin notices that the ships are now passing through increasingly magical shadows, of similar speed and technology levels to Amber.
Whippoorwill decides that pursuit is still a good idea, but obviously direct attack is not working well.
He discusses what to do with Caitlin and Godofos via the Trumps.
During this discussion Vialle Trumps Godofos. He identifies the caller and accepts the call.
She tells him that there are no signs of invasion along the route of the old Black Road, but that they are keeping watch in case of any trouble. Godofos passes on news of the pursuit to Vialle. They thank each other for the news, and the Trump link is dropped.
Further discussions on plans bring up more ideas of how to stop them, including more bad weather blowing the ships onto a shore somewhere.
Then Caitlin notices that something is happening to the shadow we are in. Something has happened, as if a mind was moving into the shadow. She tells the rest of us about this.
Then the Chaos fleet ahead of us seems to race away into the distance, without actually moving. It is as if the shadow between the two fleets is being hugely stretched. This is like nothing any of us have seen before. Caitlin is powerless to influence the weather to pursue them, because it seems that they are now very far away. Then shadow snaps back into place with the Chaotic fleet vanishes from sight, and Caitlin feels the mind slipping back out of the shadow.
And the eleven ships of the Amber Navy are alone on the sea...