Winds That Will Be — Aedan's Journal
"An Entirely Different Foul Mood"
Aedan's Journal. Pre-Game Session. 5-11-00 Part Two.
© 2000 Todd Worrell
I pushed back my chair, dropped my napkin onto my plate, stood and left the dining hall. Flora had specified the Oak Drawing Room as the gathering place for after-dinner conversation. Apparently she had some announcement or something.
Being the first person to arrive had its advantages. I grabbed a bottle of the finest brandy available, old Glenhaven, and looked about the room for a place to sequester it. The room stretched away from me. Windows looked out over the sea. At the near end was the Oak bar that gave the room its name. A few small tables and chairs were set up between the bar and the couches in the center of the room. They framed a small area in front of a large fireplace where a healthy blaze was burning. Hmmm. I tucked the bottle beneath a cushion on the long couch near the fireplace.
Julian was the first of the family to arrive after me. Dressed in long-sleeved white silk blouse and his customary scowl, he nonetheless couldn't bring himself to be away from his armor. He wore one white pauldron on his left shoulder. The servants huddled around him at the fireplace until he scowled further at them. They moved away.
Fiona and Brand came in next. Fiona looked slightly larger than usual in a puffed-up red brocade gown. Brand was overdressed in emerald tails and wielded a natty ivory cane topped by a large red ruby. He and his sister continued a rather animated and circular conversation we had all had the misfortune to overhear at dinner. Fiona not only listened to Brand's vacuous musings, she even encouraged him.
Random strolled in next. His personal servant offered his majesty a selection of rolled poison. If Random gave half as much attention to running the kingdom as he did to choosing an after-dinner cigar, Amber would be fine. While he was perusing the humidor, Corwin waddled in. He grabbed a couple bottles seemingly without even looking to see what they contained and wove his way to the long couch. Once there, he planted himself firmly across the length of the cushions and began to drink straight from the bottle.
Slowly, almost reluctantly, Gerard crossed the threshold. He glanced stonily around the room, then crossed to a window and stared through the panes.
Following on his heels came Gabriel. He looked around the room once as if sizing it up for a painting. How would he paint this scene? It was a poor tableau. Random was ineffectual or indecisive. Gerard was definitely brooding. Julian looked like he wanted to be brooding, but since it was taken he had settled on being sullen. Brand and Fiona were inane. Corwin was slothful and already halfway to drunk. As Gabriel approached me he was shaking his head sadly.
"I had hoped that the foul mood would remain in the dining hall," he said.
"Perhaps it did. Who are we to say that this isn't an entirely different foul mood. There seems to be no shortage of them."
He chuckled and raised his glass.
At that moment, I heard a woman clear her throat. Turning around, I saw that Flora stood in the doorway. The servants ceased bustling about and all eyes focused on my aunt.
Her dress was a pale blue sleeveless v-neck affair that I'm certain was the height of fashion in some Shadow. It brushed the ground behind her sparkling sandals and matching polished blue toenails. On her arm was a beanpole of a man.
He must have been six and a half feet tall and he looked like he didn't weigh more than a hundred and sixty pounds. Dressed in cavalier lace of crimson and black, he was wallowing in the attention magnet Flora had created. On his right forearm he wore a red-lacquered vambrace with a curiously feminine device of a crossed wheat sheaf and a sword done in black. His clean-shaven face glowed with a big smile as he was presented to the gathering.
"Your majesty, your highnesses, Lords of Amber," Flora intoned, "may I present to you Magni."
The large man bowed low, his spiky white hair seeming incongruous with his outfit. As he straightened up, a gap formed in his neckline and I saw the unmistakable glint of metal. Wider than a necklace, he seemed to be wearing an iron band around his neck.
Flora led him around the room to her relatives. Random welcomed him with a hearty handshake and gestured toward the humidor. Magni selected a cigar, clipped it, and had it lit by a servant. The two men puffed appreciably and Flora tried not to wince. Flora had gathered the family for this? It seemed rather inane.
I excused myself from Gabriel and walked over to Corwin. He eyed me blearily, then sat up somewhat to make room for me on the couch.
"Julian was just regaling me with tales of his usefulness in Arden," Corwin waved toward his brother.
"So," I said loud enough for Julian to hear, "what do you think of Flora's latest sex toy?"
Corwin turned his red-rimmed eyes in Magni's direction.
"Average."
"The collar is a bit much, don't you think?"
"Huh. He must be new."
"How can you tell?" I asked.
"He doesn't look broken yet." He squinted. "No, he's not hers; Flora has too much Fey blood to tolerate the cold iron."
With that pronouncement, Corwin belched and scratched his bloated belly. His face contorted in an uncomfortable grimace or three and he shifted his weight.
I smelled a rank fart.
At the fireplace, Julian sneered and found a sudden interest in the furthest item on the mantelpiece.
Corwin settled deep in the cushions and finished off the bottle. As he dropped it to the floor, he focused briefly on my shoe resting on the low table. He sat back and looked at me as if he were surprised at my continued presence. Since I was still there, he told me the story of how he and my mother had stolen Oberon's dress boots when they were children. I had heard it four times already in the six months I had been in Amber. I smiled and kept him talking.
"A skeleton walks into a pub," he said, "and says to the bartender, 'Give me a beer and a mop.'"
I laughed. He told me a few more. Corwin was pretty cool for a drunken slob. At least, he knew all the wild spots within a thousand leagues and most of them beyond that. We ignored the smell of disdain emanating from Julian and just bullshitted. It was the best part of the night up to that point.
Until the new kid arrived.
"Have you seen this man?" Magni asked, holding up Corwin's Trump.
I waited a moment, wondering what sort of game he was playing. Corwin didn't respond.
"He looks familiar," I ventured.
"I have heard that he is a great warrior and I wanted to meet him."
Silence for several beats. Magni's cigar stench filled my nostrils.
"Tell Flora I'll write her a note if she's lonely," Corwin drawled.
"Your name?" Magni asked him.
"Tell Flora—"
"The fat man said he would write her a note. Got it." He put the Trump in his pocket and walked to the bar.
"I think he was trying to provoke you," I told Corwin. He frowned.
"Huh?"
Magni moved to join Gabriel and Gerard's party. It was time for me to move on. I pulled the bottle of good brandy from beneath the cushion and handed it to Corwin. The gesture was wasted on him. He just opened it and started drinking.
I stood and stretched. Julian was leaving. Flora was nowhere to be seen. Gerard had opened the window, and the salt air was removing some of the scent of tobacco from that corner of the room. Fiona had apparently left as well, for Brand was alone at a small table with a bottle of pale yellow wine. He poured a small amount into a glass and held it under his nose. Near him, Random sat and watched with a look of disgust on his face. I strolled over and took a seat in a chair next to him.
"Tell me, your majesty," I said, "is there anything official coming up soon? I am preparing my social calendar for the next month," I explained.
"You'll have to talk to the Seneschal. I just wake up and do what they tell me. Sign this, go here, piss now…."
"Well, then, perhaps now is a good time for a vacation. Come out sailing with me. We could tour the islands, get some sun."
"You could use some vitamin D, lad."
"What about tomorrow?" I asked.
"Nah. I can't. Hmm, if we got colds, or something—"
"You don't need an excuse," I decided. "You're the King!"
He looked at me as if I knew nothing about being King. Well, maybe I didn't, but I knew about living. Sitting behind a desk all day was a prescription for a slow death. People needed to feel the wind on their faces, their hearts pounding in their chests, to really be alive.
"Tell you what," he sat forward and rubbed out the last of his cigar in an ashtray. "The next time Martin's in town, I'll introduce you."
"I've heard he's a fun guy," I said.
"He has some…admirable qualities," his father equivocated. "So I understand that you have had your Trump portrait painted."
"Apparently. I have been contacted via Trump."
"You mean, you didn't sit for an official portrait?"
"No."
"Hunh." Random studied me.
"Is there something I should know?" I asked.
"Well, a Trump portrait is kinda personal. Usually it's a formal affair."
"I thought it was a rite of passage around here."
"No," he said. "Not really." He shook his head and refilled our glasses. "But it is useful at times. You need to weigh the risks."
He wasn't making much sense. I had heard that Gabriel had drawn a Trump of me, and Brand had contacted me once briefly via it. No matter. "A skeleton walks into a pub—" I began.
"Ah," Random cut me off. "the old jokes again. Corwin?"
I nodded.
"Don't sweat it kid. It was new to you."
I glanced around the room. A thought occurred to me. "Where is Martin?" I asked. "Flora seemed to imply that this little gathering was mandatory."
"Fuck if I know," Random said a little too vehemently. "Shadow, Texorami, probably. All your childhood mistakes return, eventually."
At my look of incomprehension, he waved it off. "Someday you'll understand."
"Corwin's mistakes seem to have returned."
"Yes," he said. "He has lost a bit of that washboard look."
"But he can still swing a goblet pretty well."
"More than that I'd wager. He's still Corwin."
"Yeah. Flora's latest bit of fluff was trying to get himself killed earlier," I told him.
"Oh?"
"But Corwin wasn't in a particularly obliging mood."
"Well, good. Wouldn't want any more duels. It upsets the populace, makes the family look bad." He looked over at Gabriel.
"You know," I remarked. "I've been noticing a few things around the castle. You've got Fey."
"Gremlins, imps, creepy little icky things with warts? Yeah, I know. We set traps. Nothing works."
"Do you know where they spawn?" I inquired helpfully.
He snorted.
"Yeah, but that doesn't help."
"Why not?"
"I suppose I could withdraw my permission, but Julian keeps inviting them in. He isn't really helping at all. Does he want Benedict to beg?"
Apparently there was something about all of this I didn't know. I decided to just keep the conversation going.
"If one were to scout out that spawning ground, one might learn something about how to slow them down."
His majesty swirled his drink pensively. "That could be very dangerous," he said.
"Yes, but it might be a lot of fun." I stood. "Think about it. I am his majesty's servant." I bowed and turned as if to leave.
"Aedan. Talk to Gregory. He knows Arden." Random dismissed me.
"Oh for crying out loud, Brand," Random moaned. "Just drink the damn wine."
Julian's son had just arrived. He resembled Julian in many ways. Curly brown hair fell to the middle of his broad back. His nose was a bit too large and often turned up in the air. He was wearing some useless huntsman's garb, not fashionable enough for a formal gathering, and made of fabric inappropriate for actual hunting. He had joined a small cluster of my cousins near the bar. As I approached, Magni smiled expectantly in my direction.
"Drink?" he asked.
"A brandy, I think." Magni searched under the bar before finding another bottle of Glenhaven. He poured, I took the snifter and drank. The warm liquid soothed my throat.
Magni took my arrival as an invitation to interrogate me. He asked about Martin, Merlin, Gerard's son Raj, and the Courts of Chaos. Gabriel answered the last question, indicating that the Courts were, in his opinion, beautiful. The cavalier shifted his gaze and began drilling Gregory about his duties in Arden. Apparently, Gregory no longer had any official duties. I congratulated him, but he didn't seem particularly overjoyed at his newfound freedom.
"But it enables you to enjoy Amber's nightlife," I said. "Gabriel here has been showing me the city after dark."
At this, Gregory's eyes lit up. Magni and Gabriel's conversation stopped. The four of us shared a silent moment of expectation.
"Shall we?" I asked.
We did. The city's residents welcomed us with open taps. Bar after bar, drink after drink, we simply enjoyed ourselves. Magni made a comment about the iron collar he wore. He said he had never found a way to take it off. I cast a spell at it that fizzled and told me I was more drunk than I thought.
I don't remember the conversations or the toasts, but I do know that my cousins and I grew closer to each other. Our aunts and uncles wanted us to inherit their strife and squabbles. That night, we knew that our personal issues were ultimately irrelevant. For once, and for always, we were on the same side.
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