Winds That Will Be — Aedan's Journal
"It's difficult if not impossible to make trump calls from this place."
Aedan's Journal. Session 9-2-00.
© 2000 Todd Worrell
Magni had joined us.
"May we return to this place?" he asked.
"I don't block the only entrance to the portal."
Was Ygg talking about Corwin's Pattern? How could it not block the entrance if it prevented people from finding it?
"What of my father?" Gabriel asked.
"He did not speak with me," the tree said. "I believe he came to discover the source of the disturbance you have asked about." That must be the thing that created the fairy rings.
"Oh great and wise tree," Magni began, so I knew he was going to ask for something. He did. "May I have one of your branches?"
Surprisingly, the tree let him. A branch about eighteen inches long twitched and fell to the ground. Magni picked it up.
"Thank you," he said.
"Do you cast shadows?" Gabriel asked.
"All things may cast shadows," Ygg replied. Whether that meant yes or no, I don't know. Gabriel asked a few questions about the source of the disturbance that verified Ygg was describing the origin of the henges. We all thanked the tree and left. Ygg didn't reply.
Riding on, Gabriel told us that the Shadows were still getting thicker, whatever that meant. There was more shadow, too. I just figured it was his excuse for going even more slowly than he had the day before.
A few hours later, the rings and circles were so commonplace that they looked like they belonged. Either they had been here for centuries, or the shadows had been altered to look that way. The henges looked older, more used up. A sorcerous eye revealed that they were drained of whatever had powered them.
Finally Gabriel told us we were in the place of his desire, meaning we had found the origin of the circles. We stood at the edge of a dark, primeval forest. The ground was strewn with large flat rocks. The air was noticeably colder, with a steady wind that seemed to blow from all directions. There was no sign of habitation, and even the dirt seemed pristine, untouched by human hands.
Gabriel continued to do things with the Pattern. He would stare off into the distance and furrow his brow. He seemed to be struggling, and after a moment he confirmed it. Apparently this Shadow naturally dampened the use of powers: Pattern, sorcery, Trump.
According to him, something powerful had occurred here. The muffling effects of the Shadow had muted it, but it could still be detected. Unfortunately, he believed that there was no way to determine the exact location of the source. Pattern seemed to be limited in its ability to locate things within Shadows.
Well, Caine had taught me a thing or two about sorcery. It's a tool, like any other. Use it wisely or not at all. I knew that whatever had happened here had undoubtedly been caused by an intelligent entity. A working on this scale would require certain physical elements. The forest seemed like a good place to start.
I rode in the direction that seemed like north. Once under the canopy of trees, the ground began to slope up. I climbed for half an hour, then came across a game trail near the crest of a hill. I slipped off Trick and asked him to be quiet. Then I crept up and peeked over the ridge.
I saw an area of new growth. Someone had cut the trees here and replanted within the past fifty years or so. A few miles distant I saw a river. Between here and there was an old trail, probably where the timber had been dragged. Looking around some more, I saw a spot nearly ten miles downriver where the trees were probably unloaded. Overhead, a flock of crows circled. I went back to my horse.
"Hey, Trick. Can you fly?"
He snorted derisively. Well, who knew what the fey creature could do? I didn't think my flight power would suffice to carry the beast, so I worked up a spell.
Gabriel was right; it was tough to work magic here, but not impossible. Soon enough I had established the design of symbols and signs properly. I hesitated and double-checked it, then spoke the words that took my mount and I the ten miles downriver.
It had saved me a couple hours riding time, and I thought that I understood the limitations of sorcery in this Shadow better now. Trick took the teleport in stride. I rubbed his ear and told him he was a good horse.
Following my hunch away from the river, the ground soon became a hard-packed road. The flock of crows seemed to be flying directly above me, although there weren't as many of them as I had first seen. The grasslands became sparse, and abruptly switched to sand at the same time the air became hot and dry. I was in a desert. Looking back, I couldn't see the low, grass-spotted hills I had just ridden through. Interesting.
Oh, and the crows were gone too.
A couple miles at a slow gallop brought me within line of sight of a great walled compound. I was still a few miles away, but it looked to be some sort of town surrounded by a high white wall of stone.
Now was a good time to call in the cavalry. I trumped Gabriel.
No answer. I trumped Magni.
No answer. Hmmm. He always took calls.
As luck would have it, while I was pondering this latest mystery of life, I felt the distinct humming in my head that heralded trump contact. I let it come. It was Magni.
"Did you go through some kind of trump wall a while back?" he asked. Well, I guess I did. The transition from tundra to desert had meant something. I told him so. But how had he known? I mentioned the crows and Magni nodded. So he had been keeping an eye on me.
I told him where I was and asked if he wanted to come through. He did, bringing Gabriel with him. Magni and I stared at the distant walled compound while Gabriel spoke with someone via Trump. A moment later Gregory appeared in a rainbow haze.
"Oh, by the way," I told them. "It's difficult if not impossible to make trump calls from this place."
"What?!?" Gregory demanded angrily. He glared at Gabriel who flushed guiltily.
"I didn't know," Gabriel whined.
"You could have told me that instead of assuring me otherwise." Gregory huffed and paced around. He didn't have a horse. Well, he didn't have one of his own. He demanded and got Gabriel's mount, then rode back toward the river.
Gabriel changed the subject. He told us that Giselle and Flora were being held captive in some mysterious caves near the Courts of Chaos. Gregory had told him that Brand had captured them.
"But I don't know why he would have done that," he said.
"Maybe they deserved it," I offered, half in jest.
"Maybe Brand had a vendetta with Flora and Giselle just got in the way," Magni suggested.
"My father has bitched about Flora in the past," Gabriel admitted. "But he's complained about everyone in the family."
"Even me?" I asked innocently.
Gabriel's face turned red again and he stammered a bit. Magni glanced at me with a look that told me he was upset that I was baiting the kid again. He saved him.
"Wait a second," he said. "I admit that this seems like a suspicious action on Brand's part, but maybe he had evidence of some kind."
"Of Flora's involvement with the Fey?" I guessed.
"Perhaps," Magni shrugged. I shrugged. Gabriel licked his lips. I knew he wanted to believe his father was one of the good guys now. It was a bit uncomfortable to watch him squirming with the evidence.
"Hey," I said. "We don't know enough yet. Don't get upset over rumors."
"You're right," he said.
It was a quiet moment. Maybe the kid really believed his father was on our side. I didn't know. I sat and watched him, knowing that he would never forget this moment in his life.
Then we heard the noise. It sounded like a loud, whispered shriek, if that were possible. I had heard it once before. We all turned toward the noise.
Halfway between our spot and the front gate of the walled compound, a rainbow rent appeared in the air. A blade was sticking through it, followed immediately by a large, dirty-blond man. He was dressed in a military uniform in light blue and gold. He glanced our way, then held his sword point down in the sand.
But it wasn't his sword. Magni tensed up and his horse wheeled in place. It was the Great Sword of Gerard.
"What's that guy doing with my sword?" he said.
"Maybe you should ask him," I advised.
That's when I noticed the squad of soldiers on horseback issuing forth from the gate of the fort. In familiar blue and gold uniforms, they rode past the man with Gerard's sword and directly toward us.
I looked at Magni and loosened my sword as a question. He shook his head slightly, unwilling.
The soldiers rode up and surrounded us. They spoke commands in a strange language. I ignored them. One of them offered a hand to Gabriel. They seemed to want to take us in to the compound, and since Gabriel was the only man on foot, they offered him a ride.
He recoiled from the man's hand and disappeared in a multihued sparkle. Coward, I thought, and allowed the men to escort us into the fort.
We rode past the man with Gerard's sword. He stepped off the road and continued walking. I tried to catch his eye, but he wouldn't look at me. We entered the gate.
A set of thick, wooden double doors surrounded a thick iron portcullis. We passed under it and into a tunnel. The wall must have been fifty feet thick! The shade felt good, but I gripped the hilt of my sword. This would not be an easy place to escape. Good! A challenge. I smiled at that thought. We would have to fight our way past a hundred armed men. I mentally counted the number of arrows in my quiver, then the extras I had packed. They probably wouldn't sit around while I unpacked them. Hmmm. I scanned the tunnel.
There were two doors on the left-hand side, three on the right. Immediately to our left a small courtyard opened. The soldiers took us there. We dismounted and watched our horses be led back into the stables. It was interesting that these men didn't seem fazed by the fact that Trick was blue with black, swirling stripes. They hadn't been unduly alarmed by Gabriel's departure either. So they weren't ignorant Shadow-dwellers. Well, that was to be expected, I supposed, given the nature of the cross shadow power that had been unleashed here. I looked more closely at their uniforms, trying to see if they had some sort of "ring of stones" lapel pin. No such luck. Then I got a trump call from Raj.
"You're in great danger," he said.
"Oh, and where exactly is that?" I asked.
"Osric's realm." Apparently Raj had forgotten to tell us about his unpleasant time here.
"Who is the guy with The Sword?" I emphasized it so he would know which sword I meant.
"His name is Searlas. Now," he extended his hand, "you had better get out of there."
"No thanks," I smiled. "That would be impolite at this time." I cut the contact.
The man with The Sword had entered the tunnel. He was perhaps twenty feet from me.
"Hey, Searlas!" I shouted. The guards around me clutched their pikes nervously. "I would speak with you."
Searlas held up a hand. Now I could see that he was a large man, a couple inches over six feet tall and nearly as broad.
"If it is permitted," he said. His voice sounded vaguely familiar. I pondered it for a moment before I had it. He sounded like Raj. I looked at him again as he opened one of the doors. Yes. Searlas' skin was pale, and his hair was dirty blond, but his jaw thrust out just so. He was definitely Raj's brother.
A wash-basin and towels were provided. I followed Magni's example and didn't kill the servant-woman assigned to help me clean my hands and face. After a few minutes, the captain of the soldiers who brought us in appeared accompanied by a dusky-skinned fellow in light house-clothes. This man was some sort of personal servant, for he led us through a door and up some stairs.
Down a hall.
Up a short staircase.
Around a corner.
Through a door.
Down a circular staircase.
Down a short hall to a long hall.
Which we passed by to get to a door.
Through a curtain.
Up a hall that sloped upwards, I think.
Through a door.
Across a large room.
Up another staircase to a small waiting room.
A number of doors and halls led away from this room. We didn't take any of them. Instead, the man parted a curtain of beads and went through. We were going to follow him, but the captain appeared from one of the doors and motioned to us to wait. After a moment, the servant reappeared and held aside the beads for us to enter. We did.
We were in a study. A large pale wooden desk occupied the far side of the room. Between it and the door was a large silver ewer full of red liquid. Behind the desk sat a square man with silvery-gray hair and beard. I recognized him from the Trump: Osric.
He was wearing a loose robe. On a gold chain around his neck was a medallion with an eagle displayed. He was writing on a sheet of papyrus with a quill. On his right arm was a red lacquered vambrace with a brass design of a wheat sheaf and sword crossed.
It was the partner to Magni's vambrace.
We stood in front of him for a full ten minutes before he looked up from his writing and acknowledged our presence. In that time I had thought of one hundred and eleven ways to kill him. Number one hundred and twelve had only gotten as far as tying him up and stuffing the curtain beads into all of his orifices when he spoke.
"I see before me two men of the Pattern," he drawled with something akin to an older version of Thari. "Gerard spoke very little of home. My name is Osric."
"I am Aedan," I said. When Magni didn't give his own name, I continued. "My companion's name is Magni."
"Those names mean little to me." He waved dismissively. One hundred and thirteen: pluck his beard hairs out and force him to swallow them in a big, smothering mass. "What are you doing here?"
"We are merely on a fact-finding mission," I told him. "We didn't intend to visit you, but the landscape sort of drew us here."
"Oh?"
"We couldn't help but notice the frequency of the stone circles in the neighborhood." I said.
"I'm afraid I don't pay much attention to my neighbors." One hundred and fourteen: ritual disembowelment, then strangulation with his own small intestine, always a favorite. I couldn't believe I had forgotten it until now.
"If my neighbors were building such structures, it would bother me."
"If my neighbors were bothering me," Osric stood up and leaned toward me upon one fist. "I would crush them like a bug. But then, my neighbors aren't very civilized." One hundred and fifteen: put his head in a vise and tighten it a half turn every hour.
"So are you claiming that you are unaware of what has happened in your kingdom, and how it has affected the lands around you?"
"I allowed it to happen in my lands. It has allowed me to enter the negotiations."
"You have used it to your advantage then," I prompted.
"Yes, you could say that. However, there are many players in this game."
Osric's lips formed a brief, humorless smile. I decided right then that whatever his crime, he had been locked up for good reason. The man wasn't overly sane.
"And what do you want in the game?" I asked.
"Let's say I seek… unfettered horizons."
"To what end?"
"Is freedom such an unfamiliar subject to you," he asked. "that I need to justify my wanting it?" One hundred and sixteen: driving red-hot nails into his eyes, his ears, and finally, his forehead.
"You misunderstand me," I said. "I was not questioning the value of freedom, merely asking what you would choose to do with it if you were to have it."
"With whom are you allied in Amber?" he demanded.
"I was not aware that there were any formal alliances."
"You know so little." He laughed at me, an old man's phlegmy bark. "There is no need for formal alliances. What of your quiet friend? Where does he stand?"
"He speaks for himself," I hoped.
"I am in no one's service," Magni answered. "Why are you here?" He jumped in, trying to put Osric off track.
"Some once saw my abilities as liabilities." One hundred and seventeen: strapping him face up in a bathtub and letting it fill, one drop at a time, until he drowned after days of anticipation. I rather liked that one.
"Oberon?" Magni waited, then, "My father?"
"Yes," Osric answered, but to the latter, the former, or both? I couldn't tell.
"They wronged you greatly."
"They got their comeuppance," Osric smiled again. I was beginning to hate that smile. One hundred and eighteen: smashing all of his teeth, mixing them into a paste and using it to seal his nose and mouth shut permanently.
"That the judges have been judged is surely the case," Magni said. "I hope that you don't still intend to pursue a claim of vengeance against men who are long gone."
"I plan a fact-finding mission of my own in the near future." One hundred and nineteen: a simple skull-caving. Sometimes the best plans are the easiest ones.
"How may I assist you with that?" I couldn't believe my ears. Was Magni sincerely offering to help this madman?
"I would prefer an absence of action to any overt cooperation."
"I have sworn no formal oath to Amber, but I mean it no harm." I think Magni said this to pacify me as much as to explain himself to Osric.
"Well, I invite you young men to remain in my realm. I would enjoy speaking with you again."
"I regret that I must continue on my journey," I said. One hundred and twenty: peeling the skin off his body, one small strip at a time, and forcing him to chew and swallow it to stay alive. Oh, that was particularly vile. I would have to remember to tell Caine that one.
"Please, stay here a while," Osric showed me his teeth again.
"I just did," I said. I glanced meaningfully at my sword, and limbered my fingers.
"You are of Corwin's line?" he asked me.
"Yes." Close enough.
"Do you swear to do me no harm? To not take arms against me?"
"No," I answered, fingering the hilt of my sword. One hundred and twenty-one: breaking all of the bones in his body, beginning with the littlest ones, and working up to the ones that would puncture the skin and cause him to slowly bleed to death.
"Stay in my realm for now. We can speak of this again later."
"I would like to speak with Searlas." If he was surprised that I knew the man's name, he didn't show it.
"That won't be possible." One hundred and twenty-two: suspending the Great sword of Gerard by a hair over Osric's neck. I wondered if I would be able to let the hair break on its own time.
I loosened my sword in my scabbard, just the tiniest bit. Magni stepped in front of me.
"The sword you created," he interrupted, "is that why you were sent here?"
"In a large part, yes." Osric rested his elbow on his other hand and cupped his chin. He looked interested.
"You must be a master of Trumps," Magni said.
"It's very kind of you to say so."
"Perhaps you could show me some of your artwork."
"I believe that you and I will have much to talk about. However, if you must leave, you have my permission to do so." One hundred and twenty-what? Did he just say Magni could leave? But I couldn't? One twenty-three: I hit him over and over again until he stops moving permanently.
"Donnay will show you to your rooms," Osric clapped his hands twice, then resumed his writing. A woman in a head-covering and long maroon robe entered and gestured for us to follow her.
Magni thanked him and tugged on my sleeve. I refused to move. Magni tugged again. One hundred and twenty-four: I would pick Magni up by his scrawny ankles and beat Osric with his long, stringy body until he begged to be put out of his misery. So I would kill him by stuffing Magni into Osric's brainpan through his ear-hole.
I allowed Magni to pull me away.
* * *
Six hours later, dressed in the local, ankle-length robe, and fuming from an abundance of dried fruit and a severe shortage of real food, I answered a trump call from Raj. I had him pull me out of there immediately. I was too angry to admit he was right. I only hoped that Magni remembered to get my horse when he left.
Raj had rescued Giselle and Flora. Gregory and Gabriel had helped him. In fact, everyone was around the corner of the hillside, extracting statues from the prison caves. I didn't ask.
I did ask what Raj had found on the other side of the ring of stones. He said that the circles were summoning devices throughout Shadow, calling the Unseelie. They were trapped in a shadow that Giselle had described as the encampment led by Nuirre. There was more.
"Osric's men claimed to have killed Nuirre," Raj said.
"That isn't necessarily a bad thing," I told him.
"Yeah, except that means that Osric is the leader of the war host of the Unseelie."
"How many of them are there?"
"I would guess around five thousand."
I told him I intended to continue my mission to the Courts of Chaos. He agreed to try to contact me by trump at least once per day. Then I found Gabriel.
"Do you still have that trump of Mandor?" I asked.
"Yeah. I made a copy for myself." He gave me back the trump Magni and I had found in Random's chambers.
I held it in front of me and began to try to make contact.
"Hey, hold on!" Gabriel put his hand in front of the card and broke my concentration. According to him, this wasn't a good place to bring to the Courts of Chaos' attention--something to do with Flora and the statues. So Gabriel shifted us a few shadows away and left me alone.
I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and wiped my sweaty palms on my pants. I opened my eyes and stared at the card. A man of indeterminate age smiled mischievously back at me. Dressed all in black silks, his white hair fell straight to his shoulders. In one hand he held a glass of red wine, poised as if about to bring it to his lips.
I calmed myself and resolved to handle this conversation differently than I had handled Osric. I reviewed the hundred-odd things Caine had said about politics. Avoid the abstract, he had said, whatever that meant. I put on my best manners and focused.
"Hello?" His voice was smooth, cultured. He was standing in a room, dressed in some sort of regal gown.
"My name is Aedan, of Amber." I said.
"I am not unfamiliar with that name."
"My lord," I spoke with my stage voice, as formal as I knew. "I have been directed by my Regent to journey to the Courts of Chaos."
"In an official manner?"
"No. This is to be an unofficial visit."
"Unofficial… hmmm…. Could the Regent himself attend?"
"Unfortunately, not at this time."
"A pity." Someone else moved around Mandor, just outside my point of view. It was a woman. I couldn't see what she was doing. "Well, I suppose you'll have to do, then." He extended his hand.
I grasped it, and entered the Courts of Chaos.
I was in a small room, surrounded by eight or nine furry humanoids with tape measures wrapped around their necks all gesturing wildly and talking to each other in hushed tones. In the center of this whirlpool of activity stood Mandor.
"As you can see, things are rather interesting here." He let go of my hand and I took a step back. "In fact, I expect I'll be very, very busy.
"What with the coronation and all…."* * *
<previous Aedan's Journal next>