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Back to the diary entry for 'A New Hand On The Wheel' (Part 1).
So. Charles and Yvonne are dead. Although I hoped it would not be so, I suspected that they might be gone, given how long it has been, there in Praxis, since I left.
But I had to know. For certain. One way or the other. Given my current Blood-Cursed state and short life expectancy, I had to know.
Finding their graves did not make me any happier. Finding that the monument raised to them there had been raised by their son, William, merely made me perplexed. They had no children. Other than, I suppose, myself.
So I indulged my curiosity. And it seems I am the cause of this son of theirs. I disappeared in Praxis. I did not stop to think what this would mean to them. That they would miss me. Would search for me. Oh no, I was far too eager to leave what I saw as the stifling atmosphere of Praxis for Amber and pastures new.
But search for me they did, though of course without success, so that, as far as Praxis is concerned, I am dead too. But still, it seems, they wanted a child. And thus they turned to experimental medicine to, despite their age, give them a child to replace me. William is his name. It is he who raised the monument to Charles and Yvonne. He is now in his forties. A successful lawyer, with a family. Children. A life.
A life which I did not feel any requirement to intrude upon, given the dire state of my own existence at present. I had no wish to infect this innocent with the doom that hangs about me, so I left Praxis again, back to more pressing, more real concerns.
To add to the general joy and excitement, Tony has returned to Amber. He is now the new Second Trade Attaché at the Chaos Embassy. So he is a potentially useful contact to (some of) us. A useful source of information, perhaps, as long as he gets nothing in return.
This possibility of his being of use is the only thing keeping him alive, really, given that killing him would be an act of war with Chaos...
It is such a pity that my opinions on Chaos do not seem to be widely held. Certainly Arran disagrees with me on the need for its utter destruction.
What little progress has been made regarding the murder of Random is either depressing or hopeful, depending on how one interprets the evidence found so far.
On the one hand, it seems that there are, rather worryingly, at least fifty shapechangers in Chaos with the knowledge to kill Random in the manner which was used. As I have done so many times before, this information makes me wonder how Amber ever won the war with Chaos. Arran's explanation of 'infighting' simply fails to convince.
In a possibly more encouraging development, it seems that perhaps the Random who died was not the real article, but some form of duplicate. Apparently the corpse has Random's DNA but a Jewel of Judgement-based Pattern imprint, which is not, it would seem, the same as that in Corwin - our only other extant Jewel of Judgement initiate. Although encouraging in that the real Random may still live, this still leaves the origin and purpose of the duplicate very much up in the air. Let alone what may have been done with the real Random!
And as both Random and Caine's Trumps are hot, that tends to imply that whatever happened to him may have happened to Caine, too. Certainly, if Caine is not dead then someone certainly had a damn good try at it, given the state in which we found his rooms.
But alas, so much of all this requires the use of powers, and not simple combat skills, that I, once again, feel a little redundant.
Random's funeral was depressing, even if the corpse may, in reality, be some form of duplicate. It was a solemn occasion, despite our being accompanied down to the Cathedral by jazz musicians. And again Martin largely ignored Vialle, seemingly as part of his current campaign of uncaring callousness towards her.
I do not think anyone expected the Unicorn herself to appear and pay her respects to Random, and to Vialle. I know I did not. I had never seen it before. So beautiful, even in the midst of all this, unearthly and shimmering. Unexpectedly, it ignored Martin. Didn't give him a second glance. I can understand its staying away from Swayvil as it did, but Martin? Random's appointed heir? Assuming, of course, that he was Random's heir and the will naming him as such not a forgery...
And who was the Unicorn looking at in the rear of the Cathedral? And why? Unfortunately there were far too many people there to see exactly who was so blessed...
The ease with which Swayvil turned off the Logrus alarms in the castle when he Trumped in whoever that harmless-looking (and of course, such appearances are never hugely deceptive) old man was also rather worrying. Even Benedict looked concerned.
Again, how did we win the war? And how have we avoided a Chaos revenge attack of sufficient strength to overwhelm all the Family in the time since? It would not, from all appearances, take more than a tiny fraction of Chaos to do so, after all.
I suppose we should, at least, take heart from Swayvil's action seemingly being not a hostile act, but rather a warning to Martin of whom he was slighting. Even Swayvil himself appeared puzzled at Martin's behaviour.
I know Martin and Random did not get on, but his current behaviour seems to extend well beyond what might be expected from that...
And then it was off to Random's wake.
I couldn't help myself. I simply had to act the bitch.
Giving Ella a hard time over Benedict's not having let her walk the Pattern. Her excuses for him were, to say the least, paper-thin, for reasons I have described before. Someone so blinded by filial love, however, could be a danger should events fall out that way, though I do think that I could, now, defeat her.
Telling Richard he could walk the Pattern too, which seemed to come as a surprise to him. Pointing out the large target that this has now inscribed upon his forehead.
Stirring up trouble by casting subtle doubts upon Martin's suitability as King to the various Golden Circle ambassadors (and I was not the only one doing so!). The only down side of this was discovering from them how much of an effect the destruction of K'del seems to have had across the Golden Circle. Something to do with its being so old and Real, it would seem. Bad weather, destabilisation of shadow paths and so on. Another portion of guilt for me to feel, with the only thing I could do to assuage it being to suggest that those affected consult with Fiona.
At least something is, thankfully, being done to rebuild the lives of the refugees of K'del. From talking to him, Sal's ... associate, Karl, is working towards looking after and re-housing them. All for the most noble and selfless reasons of course. In no regard is he simply trying to make them into a population of loyal followers...
I shall have to keep a discrete eye on Karl and his works, I think.
Tony's attempts to rebuild bridges with Llewella at the wake were ... frightening. He is so blind and, I would suspect, so very, very doomed. He wants Llewella to be the godmother of his son. At a ceremony to be held in Rebma. I almost feel pity for him over this. Almost.
Martin and Lyta are engaged to be married. How very ... sweet. Nothing like a Royal Wedding to boost one's popularity and distract the populace from other more serious things in these difficult times, now is there?
Also, Martin has not yet committed himself and Amber to the defensive pact his father signed with Parys. He is, apparently, 'in discussion with his advisors'. Not a good sign, and suspiciously like an excuse.
Also, the cats have left 'for a while' following the funeral. According to Arran they think bad things are coming, which they wish to avoid. I cannot say I really blame them, though letting us know a few more details regarding these bad things before they left would have been useful.
They were avoiding Martin too, most obviously at the funeral.
Having had enough of the wake and Martin's obvious networking and deal-making (which he only began after the Chaosites departed), Arran and I went off to practise a little breaking and entering on Caine's rooms. Purely in the interests of finding out why he has not been seen for some days, of course.
I should not really have been so surprised that we met Sal there, about similar business.
We were considering how to gain entry when Jay also arrived, again about the same business. Unlike us, however, he had the door key. It was, I have to admit, a more than stylish move on Jay's part! It turns out that he obtained the key by simply asking Julian for it, an option that none of the rest of us even considered. My respects to Jay for showing us how things should be done.
The putrid smell that met us when we opened the door was, however, much less encouraging. I had not realised that rooms in the Castle were so well sealed. There was a great deal of blood there (which later analysis showed was Caine's), so much that even in a week it had not all congealed. There was also a long and bloody dagger. However, there was not a body. From the evidence, the attack was a straight blow to the heart or a major artery while the victim was in bed. From the power residues, someone Pattern-teleported in and Trumped out.
Caine's Trump deck was still present. Unfortunately it was magically poisoned, the effects of which I only escaped thanks to Fiona...
I was surprised that Fiona, when we summoned her, seemed so nauseous. Given who she is, I would have expected her to possess a significantly stronger stomach than that. Of course, acting so weak and feeble would be a potentially useful act on her part.
Unfortunately, the arrival of Benedict and his sealing off of Caine's rooms put an end to any further investigation on our part. He seemed displeased at our disturbing of the crime scene, but in that case perhaps he should have been the one noticing that something was amiss, and investigating it, rather than us...
Of course, given the suspicions hanging around Benedict as regards his loyalty to Cymnea, one wonders how much actual investigating will be taking place now that he has taken charge of the scene. Another item upon which an eye should be kept, I feel.
As things stood then, we had a number of possible courses of action open to us. Unfortunately, however, we had no idea which of them we should pursue as our highest priority. It was a sign of our desperation that it was at this point that we decided to have Arran begin performing Trump readings to try and determine what we should do.
I can see now why we have never attempted a Trump reading before.
Obscure and long-winded hardly begins to describe the process. 'Waste of time' is another phrase one could use.
So, we basically ignored all the time and effort put into the readings and made our own minds up on how to proceed, beginning by consulting with Corwin.
I, at least, was surprised to discover that Sal has lots of children, a minimum of six in addition to Winton. It would appear that he is trying to - succeeding in! - breeding his own branch of the Family. Without, I suspect, his actually intending to, but the result - or issue, I suppose - is there regardless...
I cannot really decide whether I approve or disapprove. On the down side, well, it is Sal. Learn to take precautions, Sal, dammit! On a more positive note, we do need all the (loyal!) Amberites we can find to assist against Chaos. Hmmm. I suppose I shall, as with so many things, have to suspend judgement on this one for the time being.
Both sides are now ready for the off in the Parys-Chaos war. The Chaosites are apparently building a location protected by Logrus in the same way that Parys is protected by Corwin's Pattern. However, this is at least not the place inside the Primal Logrus Storm, or so we are told.
Apparently, so he says, Corwin could have turned off the alarms in Amber as Swayvil did. Worrying! At least he agreed to scan Martin with the Pattern for us in the hope of learning more of what is going on.
And now, according to Corwin, Martin has a stronger mind than he does, and a Logrus imprint. What does that portend? I do not know. I know too little of Martin to really be able to judge whether this could be him or not.
Although clearly not distraught at what had happened to him, Corwin also mentioned that Caine was loyal to both Amber and Random. And that Lyta, our impending Queen of Amber, in addition to being trained by Dara and (like so many others in the universe) possessing every power in the book, may also be of the blood of Amber. Joy. Constant unmitigated joy.
Tony, for once, did prove useful in getting us into the Primal Logrus storm. As Sal, Corwin and Merlin had got part-way through before, although not without cost, it was considered possible that we - or at least some of us - could get all the way through. So Tony called on House Sawall.
And lo and behold, Dara appeared. I must admit that she was not what I was expecting. Younger, perhaps. Quite different from, say, Mandor. She said she is a risk-taker where Mandor is not. And of course, like so many others, possessed of vast powers.
But together she and Khortez were able to open a path through the Primal Logrus storm and let us in to what lay inside.
I must admit I quite liked Jay's method of choosing whether to go in or not - tossing a coin then ignoring the result and going in anyway, with me following a little later.
To find a blasted plain, containing only a glossy black mirrored cube, ten feet on a side, built, it seemed, of folded shadow. Other than the overall environment, the place was quite pleasant, being cut off from the Pattern, and thus the blood curse, as it was. At least Cymnea or whoever built this place seems to have been confident enough in the power of the Primal Logrus storm surrounding it not to have bothered posting any guardians inside it.
Why did I allow Tony to live when he joined us?
First, sheer practicality. Even ignoring any of the potential political repercussions, while I could, no doubt, handle Tony alone, dealing with him while stopping the others from stopping me might well have been beyond my capabilities, and to be honest, them I need. Let alone
Secondly, he could be useful. He is a link to Chaos and as such his big mouth and tiny brain may perhaps be of as much use to we of Amber as he seems to be to everyone else, given the opportunity.
So I allowed him to stay. So long as he learns nothing of use from us in return.
His time will, after all, come, be it soon or late.
Likewise, why did I even go on our little jaunt to the Primal Logrus storm to recover Nicholas despite my expressed opposition to the whole idea? It was, I think, because at present doing something constructive is by far the most preferable course of action, certainly preferable to simply waiting...
And now here I am, keeping watch atop a cube of folded shadow while Sal, Tony and Jay explore inside. It was rather worrying that Sal's blood opened the cube. Was it him specifically? The line of Corwin? The line of Amber? Or something else altogether? I wonder what is inside.
OH MY DEAR SWEET UNICORN, NO!!!
Martin is Cymnea in disguise!! Or at least one of her loyal followers!
It all fits! Benedict's support. 'Martin's powerful mind and Logrus imprint which Corwin detected.
Even 'his' hostile - nay, even offensive - attitude to King Swayvil may be - almost certainly is part of a scheme to stir up all of Chaos against Amber and thus lead to our destruction!
Oh, Unicorn, now what!?!?
It all fits.
Only now we have not only allowed an enemy of Amber onto our throne, but also allowed them to walk the Pattern and attune to the Jewel of Judgement. Crap!
On to the diary entry for 'A New Hand On The Wheel' (Part 3).