My arrival in the courtyard, sword in
hand, carrying a naked bleeding figure caused something of a stir, but
I was already heading for the main corridor leading to the staircase
which in turn led to the underground maze and eventually the pattern
room. How I was going to get to the middle of the pattern without
walking it I had no idea. If was was fresh I could probably do it in 40
minutes but Guides-Traveller-Seeking would be long dead by then. I'd
barely reached the door to the corridor which lead to the kitchens and
staircase when Fiona appeared from the other direction.
"What are you doing Cordelia?"
"Trying to save a friend!"
"By the looks of her she'll be long dead before you even reach the
pattern"
I sagged visibly. Fiona had a method of making the truth so real.
"Is she worth that much to you?"
I looked at her, forgetting what happened last time.
"I see. If I do this then we're even. No more favours."
"Yes"
"You know exactly where you want to go."
I formed the picture.
"Ok. Concentrate."
She pulled a notepad and pen from her pocket and began to draw
furiously. 45 seconds later I had a trump in my hand.
"It's only good for a couple of uses, after that you'll have to make
you own." She broke the conection and strode off.
Guides-Traveller-Seeking's condition had worsend, her breathing more
laboured, her skin beginning to cool as her body started to shutdown. I
concentrated on the sketch, which went cold. Forming the doorway I
stepped through.
By the time I cleared the doorway and
closed the connection, I could clearly hear the sound of alarms ringing
and the staff present had all dived for cover as a ceiling turrent
finished its traverse to lock onto me. I hoped whatever or whoever was
controlling it was sufficiently awake not to fry me. I moved towards
one of the tables.
"Get over here and operate. If she dies then you die."
I put the sword next to her. "Guides-Traveller-Seeking you're not going
to die on me, hear me."
She didn't respond. The doors burst open and two guards in grey Bushman
armour, with Northgun rifles burst in. There was a moment's hesitation
before they lowered their weapons. The doctor and assistants were
moving now, pushing me away from the table. The doctor pushed
several buttons, unclipped several injectors and pushed them into her
body. He then closed his eyes, placed his hand on her abdomen, and
concentrated. A couple of mintes passed. "She'll live but it'll be a
close run thing. The nanobots will buy us enough time to heal the
wound. I'll send word when you can see her. If you wouldn't mind
following the guards, Commanders Beddows and Pyracretes would like a
word."
I picked the sword up from the table and followed the guards out.
The guards escorted me to the Crab's work area, office would be the wrong term. Because of his regular dealings with the rest of the commanders a large table with half a dozen chairs sat along one wall. Sliding off where she'd been perching on the table, Carna Beddows rose to great me as the guards escorted me in. The crab merely shuffled sideways a little. "Princess Cordellia, you seem to have found yet another method of creating havoc. Would you care to enlighten us as to how you achieved what you did. Even accomplished Spatial Mages haven't found a way to gate inside the town. They can gate out but not in. So how did you do it?"
"Fiona sketched me a trump. I activated it
and here I am." I waved the piece of paper at her.
"And you expect us to believe that?"
"You can believe what you want, but it's the truth."
"You appear to be less equipped for travelling than the last time you
arrived. How long are you staying for this time, assuming you're
actually going to use the rooms we provide."
"I honestly can't say. I'm supposed to be at a ball in Amber in a
little over 40 hours, but I'm not leaving until I know the girl I
brought with me is ok. I'm not going to trouble you anymore than
necessary and as soon as I've seen Zreb Xzzyn I'll have access to funds
here."
"I apologize, that's not qiute what I meant. I'm sure the Duke would
welcome you staying as a guest. It's just it'd make our lives a little
easier if we had a better idea of you movements, at least until we get
to know you a little better. In the meantime you look as if you could
do with a change of clothes and a shower. I'm not sure the blood will
come out of that dress. It's from one of the local native tribes isn't
it."
"Not exactly. It comes from a shadow that borders Amber. It's ruled and
peopled by a race that seem to have cultural parallels with the Native
Americans of both this and my own shadow. It was given to me after mine
was" I hesitated, "damaged whilst resolving a diplomatic problem. As to
the rest, yes I could do with a bath, a change of clothes, a coffee. If
you could manage an old fashioned chocolate muffin as well then..."
"We'll see what we can do. I'll walk you over to the Manor house if you
don't mind. Pyracretes, I'm sure will let Zreb know you're here if he
hasn't done so already. Perhaps as we walk we can discuss a less
obtrusive means of arriving."
By the time we'd walked across to the manor house, one of the household staff was sorting my room out. A pot of fresh coffee, some biscuits and a selection of muffins sat on a tray on the dressing table. A clean jumpsuit lay draped over the chair next to them. Carna had left me at the front entrance, indicating that she'd see me at dinner. There was an implied "It'd be polite if you attended this time". We'd also had a somewhat one sided discussion over my means of arrival and departure and I'd indcated that I would locate a more suitable location for use as a transit point, although until I could produce my own trump I'd either have to rely on Fiona's sketch, shadow walking, or the pattern to get here.
I was in the shower when Jezx arrived just over half an hour later. Her uncle was out, so she'd been asked by her grandfather to help me out until he returned and I could gain access to my cred stick. She was more than a little surprised when she found out that all I had with me was a blood stained dress, a deck of cards, and my sword, without its scabard.
We spent the next hour and a half shopping for essentials, underware, dress, jumpsuit, belt, a couple of jackets, a pair of boots and a pair of shoes, and a spare scabbard and sword belt for my sword. I also decided to buy another backpack, some paper, a selection of coloured pencils, and at Jezx's suggestion a pocket communicator - a device with the functionality of an early 21st centuary mobile phone built into a short range digtal encrypting radio. Such things as mobile phone networks and the internet were a thing of the past, so if you wanted to talk to anyone over any distance radio was the only way. To overcome the problems of eaves dropping, the signal was digitally encoded and encrypted, then transmitted on a carrier. Unless you possessed the key you'd need a lot of computing power to break the encryption. In a way the key functioned like a phone number, and Jezx programmed it with her personal code, the Militia General, Cat-1 and Cat-5 public code, the Militia Emergency code, and both her uncle's and grandfather's personal codes. By the time we returned to the Manor there was a message from the doctors saying that Guides-Traveler-Seeking was resting, and that the prognosis was good although she was not yet out of the woods. They were going to keep her sedated until the morning, at which point I'd be able to see her. They'd notify me if her condition deteriorated. As I wasn't going anywhere until the morning, and Jezx declined to stay to dinner I suggested she go home rather than hanging about. Her fidgeting had been distracting me although that was only an excuse to cover my inability to produce any form of decent sketches. I had never been a brilliant artist, probably because I'd never bothered to learn. All the artwork I'd done for Mizzurian I'd done with 3D CAD, Modelling, and Animation software. In the end I gave up and went and soaked in the bath for an hour before changing into the dress for dinner. It wasn't a stlye I'd normally have worn for a dinner date, but the choice of style here was very limited. To my mind, any dress, even if I'd normally worn this style to pull at a nightclub, was better than arriving in a monotone jump suit. The second jacket I'd specifically brought to complement the dress and even wearing the sword, the sword didn't look out of place.
As it turned out I was the only one who'd actually dressed for dinner. It seems that as far as the Duke is concearned, dinner is an opportunity to catch up on any significant developments and genreal gossip for that day. The main talking point was me, or more particularly my method of arrival. Carna was fascinated by the Trump deck and even managed to get the Amber Courtyard card to go cold, but couldn't then activate it. I suspsected with the right training she may be able to use them. None of them could detect the inherent power in the deck or cards though, unless I activated one of them. As tarrot cards they found them fascinating. Until this point I hadn't really looked through the deck to see who was represented. There were a lot of figures depicted I didn't recognise and several place cards, although I was particularly fascinated with by the one with the multihued rainbow over a black canyon.
After a leisurely dinner, several of the
commanders departed, leaving The Duke, Felice Laudry,
I awoke this morning early enough for it to still be dark. In Amber it was still the small hours of the morning far too early to call Random, and I didn't know if Guides-Traveler-Seeking had made it through the night. Dispensing with my normal routine, not that I've had one for the last couple of weeks, actual elapsed time that is, I took a quick shower, dressed and walked across to the hospital. It was quiet. It took me a few minutes to locate a nurse, and get directions to where Guides-Traveler-Seeking had been moved. The ward had 4 beds but only 2 were occupied, and both occupants were still asleep. I let myself out and went in search of the nurse in charge of this ward block. Locating her wasn't difficult, and on finding her she asked if I wanted a coffee. It'd be another two hours before the doctor made his rounds. Guides-Traveler-Seekinghad had a peaceful night and her condition had improved considerably. She was scheduled for another session of healing later that morning, after which she would most likely be discharged, although she would need to take it easy for a few days. Taking my half finished coffee with me I returned to her room, my entrance causing her to wake, as the sedatives she'd been given had worn off during the night. She blinked, trying to comprehend where she was. With difficulty she tried to say "drink" but her mouth and throat were dry from the drugs and extended period of sleep.
I moved to the bed, sat her up and gave
her a small amount of water. She wanted to know where she was and what
happened, her short term memory still repressing the details of what
happened in the final moments in the main hall of the ambassadors
residence. It took me a little while to fill in the details and it was
all she could do to remain awake until the end. I left
instructions with the nurse to call me as soon as she was awake again
and went in search of breakfast.
It was nearly two hours later when the call came and I was in the
middle of arranging to go sight seeing with Jezx, although she insisted
I needed armour and a rifle if we were going outside the cordoned area.
Zreb had arrived with her, and although I had enough credit to cover
the basics I didn't have enough for a rifle and armour, so he was
arranging the loan of Militia equipment. Jezx accompanied me as I
returned to the ward. Guides-Traveler-Seeking was much brighter,
sitting up on her own, a half eaten bowl of porridge on a tray by the
side of the bed. She wasn't quite ready for Jezx however, at least for
a wolfen in hightech body armour, and it took me a few minutes to calm
her down again. When Jezx re-entered the ward a few minutes later,
without the armour, she had no problems in accepting her. Whilst Wolfen
are not common in Dakaotan they are not unknown. Her last healing
session had gone well and the doctors were happy to discharge her later
that afternoon, provided she had somewhere to go where she could rest.
I said that wouldn't be a problem. I told both her and them that I'd
return later, but first I needed to take a tour of the town and do some
shopping.
The tour took a little longer than I'd originally anticipated, and it was late in the afternoon before we returned. With the limitations on clothing styles finding something suitable for Guides-Traveler-Seeking was a little difficult. In the end I settled for a leather skirt, trousers, a short tunic, and a tassle sleeved jacket. Having slightly more credit than I'd initially expected I also decided to splash out on a computer. Surprisingly it wasn't that much more powerful than what I'd been used to, but it was at least hardened and ruggedized and suitable for lugging about the wildetness. Being later than I intended also meant that it was later in the morning in Amber. This meant that my initial intention of getting hold of Random before his hectic day began had been scuppered, or so I thought at the time. I was surprised therefore when he answered almost immediately.
"About bloody time Cordelia. I've been up half the night waiting for your call. I've got Gerard in Dakotan, trying to make sense of the mess you left. The Ambassador's dead, and nobody's saying anything least of all your man or the Dakotan girl who seems to be incharge. And where the bloody hell are you anyway. Fiona's refusing to deal. All I get is some half arsed report of you rushing through yesterday afternoon draging a naked corpse, followed by a statement from Fiona that you trumped out again. I've got Llewella in a snot after I demanded she draw me a proper trump of you, then make sure the rest of the family have one, and Vialle's temporilly not speaking to me due to what she calls my "over reaction to the situation""
It was about all I could do maintain the connection.
"Yes. Ha. Ha. Very funny. Now what the fuck is going on."
"It's a bit of a story but everything's basically sorted. Well it was, unless Gerard's upset things. I had to leave in a hurry. Guides-Traveler-Seeking was critically injured during the final confrontation with the Ambassador and I owed it both to her and all the Unamed to save her. I think she has some crucial part to play in the future stability of Dakotan, can't tell you why, just a feeling. I left Yousheng and Stands-Tall-Against-Storm in charge. The Ambassador was alive, I think, when I left although I don't know how long he was going to live given his injuries. I need to get Guides-Traveler-Seeking back home then I can come back to Amber and give you a full report. You said Gerard was in Dakotan?"
"Never mind that. Bring the girl back here. Then I'll decide what to do. And don't hang about. I'd like this whole mess cleared up before lunch."
"Look I'd rather take her back to Dakotan. She'll be better off with her own people. She's had more than enough shocks in the last few hours. I'm not sure that bringing her back to Amber is best for her welfare."
"I'll decide what's best. Now get your arse back here or I'll send Fiona to get you. I'm sure she knows exactly where you've gone despite what she says."
"I'll be expecting Fiona then." and hung up the connection. I'm sure if he'd been expecting it he wouldn't have allowed me to do it but he was tired and angry and I'd caught him off guard. Now all I had to do was wait. If Fiona turned up she'd do so for her own reasons not because Random had sent her to fetch me. What ever she did she did for her own reasons, I'd manage to work that one out already.
It was about 20 minutes later that I felt the tingle that announced a trump call. I had no idea who it was, so pulled out the deck as I'd seen Llewella do, and slowly fanned through the cards. It was difficult to sense any difference in any of the cards, but for some reason I stopped at Llewella's card on the second pass through the deck. Carefully I opened the connection, her card going cold as I did so. "Is that you Llewella?"
"Yes. I see you're learning. Identifying who's calling is always a good move but its not infallable, and if you're good enough you can mask or alter your signature. In this instance I wanted you to know it was me, which is why I didn't try to force the connection. It does however appear you've upset the apple cart somewhat, although in this instance Fiona and I feel your handling of the situation has been the correct one. I've spoken to Gerrard. Call him when we've finished talking, and he'll pull you through to Dakotan. When you're done there you're to call Fiona. Do not call Random and do not use the courtyard trump. Oh and leave your fellow in Dakotan, we're in need of a new Ambassador and he seems an ideal man for the job if he wants it. We'll talk again later if that's ok."
I was somewhat surprised and a little taken aback. "I sorry. I seem to have missed something somewhere along the line. Exactly what is going on?"
"I haven't time to explain now. Let's just say that Random is not always as well informed of things as he should be. Sometimes it is necessary to keep things from him and occasionally its necessaary to remind he rules by concent of the rest of the family. If it were your father things would be different, but he wasn't interested in being King and now he's gone and vanished on us again. You have a lot of his spirit, doggedness, and sense of justice, unfortunately you've also demonstrated a lot of his pigheadedness, irrelovance, disrespect for authority, capacity to show off, and ponchant to adopt juvanile behaviour in the most inappropriate situations. Now this isn't the time or place for us to perform a psychological analysis of your character. You have a particular talent for solving certain problems, ones that were other members of the family to tackle would result in very different outcomes. In this particular case, you've achieved a result none of us were expecting, and my brother seems to have forgotten exactly why he picked you as his gopher. Now are you going to take the girl home or are you going to spend the rest of the day sulking, or have you forgotten there's a ball tonight. If you're not there, who's going to inspire Flo. She's certainly gained a new lease of life since your arrival."
Mentally I opened my mouth then shut it again. I needed to think.I felt Llewella's presence disappear and the card returned to its usual state.
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