Winds That Will Be — Aedan's Journal
"Speak the Devil's Name and He Shall Appear"
Aedan's Journal. Session 11-11-00.
© 2000 Todd Worrell
In the morning, Corwin and I ambled down to the Great Temple of the Unicorn. It was a majestic collection of white marble, sprawled amid a huge lawn only half filled with tombstones, gardens, and walking paths. Martin had asked Corwin to check in at the Temple, but he really wasn't too eager, so we spent most of the morning wandering the grounds.
It was a nice spread, but a bit, well, sanitary as graveyards go. There weren't any crumbling mausoleums or spindly trees. Everything was green or white, with the only variation being well-ordered flowers planted in neat rows.
Corwin didn't notice. He was wrapped up in his own thoughts. We walked in silence for quite a while before he stopped and tapped his lips with his forefinger thoughtfully.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Martin," he said. I waited. "I wonder how well he'll do as King."
"He seems to be doing fairly well as Regent," I said, "but you would know better than I."
"Mmm," he mmmed.
"You've been a great help to him, I'm sure."
"I have a duty," he said and resumed walking. He turned down a path that led back to the Temple.
"Would someone else be a better King?" I asked.
"Until Martin has been King and failed, no one else can make a legitimate claim."
"Oh."
So we met with the church people. A delegation from Kashfa was on its way. The leading candidate for the top job was Kashfan. He would be in Amber in a day or three. After two hours of what are usually called "pleasantries," but which should be called "boring-tries," we were excused. Corwin wanted to poke around in the main hall of the church. He muttered a magic word or two and we left.
Corwin wasn't in a better mood on the way back. He had promised the church officials that he would return after the next full moon for a reconsecration ceremony. From the way he described it, it involved standing around looking solemn for most of a day listening to a litany of religious babble.
But the meeting had prompted Corwin to some sort of a decision—or maybe it was the walk in the cemetery. He said that he had resolved to do something, but he wouldn't tell me what.
We rode back to the castle and had a late lunch together. Corwin ate hurriedly and had the staff prepare him some dry food for traveling. He said goodbye as I was finishing off my second roasted hen. He was odd, my closest uncle. Like Caine, he was secretive out of habit. He seemed fond of me, but it was difficult to be sure. Emotions weren't something he readily admitted having—at least, not when he was sober.
* * *
I spent a few hours creating and racking spells. When I had a good assortment set in my mind, it was suppertime. I wasn't hungry yet, but I knew that if I went to bed without eating my stomach would wake me complaining in the middle of the night.
So I decided to work up an appetite. The Captain of the Guards would be coming off shift right about now. I wondered if Finn would want to spar for a while.
I found him at the guard station near the armory. He was more than willing to break out the wooden swords and attempt to give me a new set of bruises, or "give me something to remember him by."
As it turned out, I gave him a few too. I thought that Finn was just tired but he said I was getting better. A group of kitchen maids had stopped on their way out the gate to watch us and they let out a collective giggle when Finn took his shirt off. He was perhaps the most eligible bachelor in the guard, and his muscles nearly rivaled Raj's. I stripped off my padded jerkin and dunked my head in the large water trough. I would have a bath drawn later and wash away the rest of the day's dirt, but now I was hungry.
Stew and bread were all that remained, which was fine with me. I ate in the breakfast nook off the pantry where I had spent many a morning discussing recent events. Flora found me just as I was finishing off my second bowl. She sat down across from me.
She had been looking for me to ask me about my spooky powers. Apparently Giselle had described my unique talents and at some point my aunt had observed me using them.
"Your magic is rather…raw." Flora tilted her head just so.
"So I've been told," I pushed my chair back and stretched out my legs. "In fact, your daughter shouted that at me when we first met."
"She's very tactful," Flora smirked. "Like her mother."
We laughed. She expressed an interest in observing my sorcery when we had the time. I didn't know when that would be, but I offered to assist her in her efforts to de-stonify Finnvarra's court. She said that when she was ready, she would gladly welcome my assistance.
We spoke of little things for another hour. The night stretched out before me with that sweet sense of anticipation that only a waiting warm bed can give. Flora knew the names of the birds that hopped around the western gardens. She could tell by the smell of the wind whether it would rain soon. And she told me that I needed a bath.
* * *
I slept late. By the time I got up and bathed, lunch was being served. Gregory and Gabriel had already eaten, but they stayed to talk. Giselle and I sat across the table from each other and mumbled between mouthfuls. Well, I mumbled. Giselle ate next to nothing because her mouth was too busy.
The woman can talk. She asked about a hundred questions about my mother. Since my last real memory of Deirdre was when I was just a little kid, I couldn't answer most of her queries. However, I could tell her of my experiences in Tir.
So I did. This brought up the fact that Brand had given me Deirdre's necklace. Everyone wanted to see it. Since I always keep it with me, I obliged. I pulled off my left boot and set it on the table. While Giselle was commenting on how little Flora would have approved of footwear on the dining table, I unclasped the silver necklace from around my ankle and held it forth.
Gregory and Gabriel passed it back and forth with little effect, but when Giselle took it in her hand, she changed. Her spritely green sundress disappeared and was replaced by black, spiky leather armor. On her head she wore an ugly iron crown. When she gave me the necklace back, her old look reappeared. Gregory said something about "faery glamour" and Giselle didn't deny it.
"Have you seen Corwin?" Giselle abruptly changed the subject. With Gabriel, it would have been obvious that he was trying to avoid answering the question; with Giselle it was just her way of talking.
"No," I answered. "Why do you ask?"
"He killed Dara," Giselle bit into a piece of jellified toast.
"What?" Gregory was the first to express his shock. We all waited impatiently while Giselle chewed her food.
"According to Chaos rumor," Flora's daughter had her mother's typical, untrustworthy sources. "The theory being that he objected to her influence on his son."
Uh-oh. Maybe I should have sounded him out about his feelings toward Merlin a bit before telling him that his boy was King of the Other Side. I had spent a few hours with Corwin the day before and he hadn't mentioned anything of the sort, although it wasn't the sort of thing he was likely to do. Like most of my family, he tended to absorb information rather than give it out.
While I was thinking, Gregory had started to tell how he had found Bleys, the Unicorn, and Brand all at roughly the same time. Apparently he and Gabriel had set out through Shadow after Bleys. Instead, they found the Unicorn leading a horse upon which a motionless soldier was tied. Gabriel, being the half-wit that he is, immediately trumped his father through. Brand drew Werewindle and attacked the Unicorn. Raj promptly knocked Brand into unconsciousness. Oh yes, Gregory forgot to mention that Raj was there too. That became important because the Unicorn changed into a beautiful naked woman with pale skin, long white hair, and piercing blue eyes that she turned on Raj. Raj grunted, lifted her in his arms, and fled through Shadow.
Gregory and Gabriel didn't follow. Instead, they examined the dead soldier on the horse. He was wearing red and orange with a peculiar flame badge on his tabard that was instantly recognizable as Bleys's device.
Speak the Devil's name and he shall appear. No sooner had my cousins gone through the dead fellow's pockets than uncle redhead himself was standing behind them.
"So, I hear you were looking for me," Bleys said. He eyed the prone form of Brand and began what had to be a fascinatingly interesting conversation. However, Gregory's recounting of it was extremely boring. He told us the bare facts:
- Bleys took Werewindle from where it lay near his brother's body. Brand trumped out while apparently still unconscious.
Nothing useful was in the dead guy's pockets, so perhaps Magni had already been there.Gabriel theorized that the pale naked woman was the Fey Realms' equivalent of Amber's Unicorn. Bleys explained that he had been running from the Beast, as he called it, for many years. Bleys admitted that the soldier on the horse was his lieutenant. He took the reins of the horse and walked away. Gregory and Gabriel did nothing to stop him.
Giselle finished her lunch and declared that she had to report to Martin. I thought about it and decided that I should check in with him as well, so we went together. Along the way, she continued to educate me about the Fey Realms.
The division between the Seelie and the Unseelie was apparently rather fluid. Fey could be on either side, or both. With Finnvarra currently a lump of granite, the elves had divided into at least three groups. Ailill, who had unwittingly given me my wonderful horse, was supposedly an Unseelie type, but also Giselle's former lover. He had a great deal of influence among the dark fey. A fellow named Eoghain was nominally head of the Unseelie Court, such as it was. Giselle's brother Lugh had taken charge of the remains of Finnvarra's court and was claiming to be ruler of all of the Fey. However, his claims weren't exactly being honored. It seemed like a real mess to me.
"So I sent Mandor," Giselle said, "in his guise as The Dagda, to support Lugh—"
"Wait," I interrupted her. "You 'sent' Mandor somewhere?"
"Yes."
"You have some control over him?"
"No."
"But," I pointed out, "He does what you ask?"
"Not necessarily," she said.
"Well," I exhaled. "Thanks for clearing that up."
Thankfully, we arrived at Random's office doors. Yeah, I suppose it wasn't Random's office anymore, but that's how I thought of it then and still do. The guards told us that Martin was speaking with someone and would probably be available in five minutes.
We went down the hallway twenty steps to the little alcove that overlooks the shady garden. I stood in the window and looked down. It was overcast, but the little clumps of greenery seemed to be doing just fine. It wasn't as if their world had radically changed overnight.
"Will you hold this for a second?" I turned around. Giselle was holding the ugly iron crown out toward me. I took it. It was heavier than I had thought it would be.
"What exactly is this?" I asked.
"It's the Crown of Faerie."
"The Crown…?"
"The one and only," she answered.
I looked at it, and then I looked at it with my sorcerer's lens. It was full of sparkly energy, moonlight, and wisps of star's breath. Power makes its own rules, its own laws, its own etiquette, Caine had said.
"May I put it on?" I smiled innocently.
"If I thought it was a good idea, I'd say yes, but—"
"Okay." I placed the Crown of Faerie on my head. Giselle gasped, then put her knuckles in her mouth. I was amazed at the fact that she could fit all ten of her knuckles in her mouth at once. Then again, given how much she talked, it shouldn't have surprised me.
Oh, and nothing happened. The crown fit my head fine, although I'm not an expert on sizing these things. But it didn't slip down over my eyes or perch back on my skull. It just weighed down on me.
When I took it off, it tingled again. I held it out to Giselle. For once, she was speechless. Sure, she still had both hands in her mouth, but if she really had something to say that would only have slowed her down.
"Thanks," I handed the crown back to her and went back downstairs.
Magni was sitting in the little dining room where I had eaten lunch. Gregory and Gabriel were still there, and the three of them were busy making a list. When I arrived, they stopped.
"What's your take on Chaos?" Magni asked me.
"There were lots of them," I answered.
"Unh," He grunted. "And what did you think of Osric's realm?" This was directed at Gregory.
"It seemed like he was preparing for war."
We waited while Magni made notes.
"Anything else?" He asked.
"There is a large batch of Unseelie in Arden at the moment," Gregory replied. "As soon as I can get Giselle there, we'll try to convince them to go elsewhere."
"Okay, okay." Magni held up his notes and studied them for a moment. "Here's what I got so far: Gregory takes care of Arden; Giselle fixes the Fey; Aedan goes back to Chaos; and Gabriel tries to keep Brand from torturing us all before he kills us. Sound good?"
"That leaves Osric to you," I told him.
"Damn!" Magni grimaced.
"I would think that you wouldn't be so upset at that," I said. "You seemed to get along very well with him. Plus, he has your taste in armor." I pointed at Magni's red lacquer vambrace, practically identical to the one Osric wore.
"Yeah, I can handle Osric." Magni admitted. "I'll just go to the Keep of the Four Worlds and speak with Brand first."
The Keep! That was where Magni had taken Trick.
"Did you bring my horse back?" I asked him.
"Ahh…no. It's in the Keep."
"What you mean is, it's irradiated and glowing in the dark," Gregory's attempt at humor was ill placed. I liked my horse.
"Actually, now that you mention it," Magni said. "I gave it to Gabriel."
We all looked at my youngest cousin. His eyes widened.
"Uh…I…uh," Gabriel stammered.
"Aw shit," I said.
* * *
I asked the staff and his personal servants, but Corwin was nowhere to be found. He wasn't answering his Trump either. It didn't look like I would be able to ask him about Giselle's Chaos rumors anytime soon.
As I was shuffling through my deck, I saw Caine's card. I wondered how his errand had gone. What could have been so pressing that he would have had the balls to ask Corwin to loan him Grayswandir?
He responded immediately, tumbling to a bloody heap at my feet. I let go of his hand and knelt to examine him. I yelled for a servant. Since we were just down the hall from Random's office, one came immediately. I sent her for Gerard.
The sources of all the blood were two sword wounds, one on the lower abdomen and one on the left forearm. I cast a healing spell on my uncle, but it had little effect. I asked Caine who had done this to him and he held out his Trump deck. The top card was Bleys. Then Caine blacked out completely. I staunched the wounds as best I could before people flooded in. Gerard stitched Caine up, and then I helped him carry Caine to a couch. Gerard, Caine, and the entire couch disappeared in a rainbow blur.
Martin was there, along with half a dozen servants, Magni, and Searlas. Martin asked Searlas why he was there and Magni defended him. That was when I noticed that Magni was shuffling through Caine's trump deck. I thrust my hand out.
"Magni…" I warned him.
"Don't worry about it," he continued to peruse the cards. I loosened my sword in its scabbard.
"Give…them…to…me."
He did, and yes, I would have stabbed him. He had no right to be so cavalier about my uncle's condition. To have stolen Caine's deck from his unconscious body as Gerard and I were trying to keep him from dying—it made my fists clench to think about it.
Before I let myself do what I wanted to Magni, I left. I walked as quickly as I could to the Infirmary. Gerard wasn't allowing anyone to see his patient, so I left word with the servants that I was to be notified if there was any change in Caine's condition. From the looks on their faces as I told them that, I must still have looked extremely angry.
I felt the heat in my face as I climbed the tower stairs. It was raining lightly as I stepped onto the top of the Kolvir tower. Cool water on my face felt good, but I refused to let go of my anger. I decided I needed to direct it at someone. I looked through Caine's trumps. Nothing new caught my eye, but I found my hand lingering over one card.
I concentrated for a long time. He answered.
"Who?" Always a man of minimal conversation.
"It is Aedan," I saw Benedict's face framed by the roof of a tent. He was seated at a long wooden table. A lantern burned in the background.
"If you are calling on behalf of Martin," Benedict said icily, "tell him if he keeps sending his dogs to fetch me I will keep sending them back whipped."
"I am not calling on his behalf," I tried, but Benedict was in no mood to listen.
"If he is ready, so am I." Benedict's head turned and I felt the contact dissolve. But just as he faded away, I felt something that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. It was a familiar, uncomfortable feeling, but I couldn't quite place it.
Benedict disappeared and I was holding a cold card in my hand. Then I knew the sensation. It was the same painful feeling I had known in the Courts of Chaos. It was the presence of the Logrus.
* * *
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