“The way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.”

Giselle wiled away the hours with Merlin in his private Ways in Chaos. They laughed. They cried. They fell down. They smoked cigarettes and stared at the ceiling wistfully. It appears that Giselle might have a semi-permanent, pseudo-official position as “Royal Concubine in Charge of Beer.” That’s progress.

Raj and Gerard spoke with Bleys. He was sequestered in Fiona’s workshop, playing with forces beyond his control that are better left to skeevy PC’s like Gabriel. According to Bleys, he and Martin sealed Osric’s army in a section of their shadow one square mile in area. Hopefully, the horses will get eaten and the Unseelie types will fight amongst themselves and we won’t have to worry about this any more. Gerard made a comment about Bleys’s new, dull gray ring, and left in a hurry because he had never gotten in the last word with Bleys before. We now have irrefutable evidence that the Multiverse is dooooooomed.

Gerard’s son tried to see Martin, but the King’s schedule was a bit busy on his first full day in office. So Raj visited the Dowager Queen Vialle. They sipped tea, pinky fingers extended, and discussed all the latest goings-on in Rebma that won’t matter after we find the giant handle on Cabra, pull it, and flush the City under the Sea away for good.

"The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple."

Aedan didn’t feel so well, even after he healed himself. Magni rounded up a spare outfit for him and let him nap while he enlarged his artwork collection. Magni left word with the King’s secretary that Martin should come to his rooms. Raj showed up and asked about the dead body. So did Martin. Aedan woke up. Corwin stayed dead.

Aedan explained it with his usual aplomb: He and Corwin found Grayswandir, but it was being held by an eight-armed metaphysical chiquita in a place that superficially resembled the Grove of the Unicorn. A steel-gray, cloven-hooved, twenty-hands high Unicorn impaled Aedan and attacked Corwin. The eight-armed woman (known hereafter as the “Tower,” as in Tarot) couldn’t move so she threw her two curly-bladed daggers. One plunged into the Unicorn’s eye. The other plunged into the back of Corwin’s head. He fell. The Unicorn bellowed and ran away.

Martin wasn’t happy and declared the Tower woman an enemy of Amber despite Aedan’s evidence protests to the contrary.1

Raj, Magni and Aedan decided to see the Tower for themselves.

“Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.”

Giselle went to see Merlin’s clothier to get some appropriate court clothing made. He slapped her and lived, butt just barely. Giselle trumped Mandor and learned that he already knew everything. There was the Chaos equivalent of an earthquake, with big chunks of landscape falling into the Abyss. Giselle trumped Flora, escaped Chaos for a moment, then returned via the time-consuming method.

Raj rode off in a hurry. Magni and Aedan caught up with him. They met a young priest of the Unicorn leaving the Grove. He informed them that they had found “inappropriate offerings” there earlier in the day. The Grove itself had been cleaned of any clues and the offerings taken to the Church in the city. Magni and Aedan persuaded Raj not to investigate that yet. They rode onward.

“A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.”

The three fellows eventually started getting close to the site where Aedan and Corwin had seen the Tower. On the way they were confronted by our old friend Eve, the Serpent/Unicorn beastwoman with whom Raj is intimately acquainted. She claimed Raj was “hers,” and told them of the existence of the Sisters. The Sisters seem to be the old avatars of the Powers: Unicorn, Serpent, Lime Popsicle Girl, etc.2 Eve is the not the old Unicorn; she is the new force for unity, sameness, structure, order and office supplies.

Aedan brought Raj and Magni to the spooky place with the eight-armed woman who is called The Tower, sometimes. She was trying to dislodge weapons from the big, bleeding heart that was pinned to the rough rock altar. She opened her third eye and stared deep into Magni’s soul. His testicles lurched up into his body cavity in fear, but Tower said he was okay. Magni removed the staff from the bleeding heart, leaving only Werewindle piercing the pulsing organ. Bleys is still wearing Werewindle also. Hey, these things happen.

The Tower gave Raj a drop of her blood to taste. He did so and experienced some lucid hallucinations that resembled ordinary unconsciousness to Magni and Aedan. They threw his body over his horse and left. Eve stopped them on the way out, trying to help Raj by attacking Magni. Aedan managed to trump Deirdre in time and the three young men escaped sans horses.3 Yes, Magni’s horse was left behind with an angry, violent Eve, and is probably already at least half-assed dead.