The Diaries of Cordelia Chan

Courts of Chaos - 17 ^th Maivich PF 5

It was another half an hour or so before we were in a position to leave. Sulin looked pale and was visibly shaking. I withdrew the Courts trump and activated it creating the gateway. Palrity stepped through and disappeared from view. After about a minute she re-appeared and made a beckoning gesture. I sent Faith first, followed by Heather and Sulin, then Hope, before stepping though myself.

The arrival point appeared to be a plateau atop a hill about a mile from the Courts. As a means of detering Amberites or others from traveling here or arriving unannounced it was ideal. We would be clearly visible to anyone watching from the Courts. The others were waiting off to one side. I moved down the slope to join them. "So much for arriving unannounced."

"I told you there was no way of doing so. We'll just have to hope they don't send a patrol. Since none of you can fly we're going to have to walk. The quietest gate is the one on the other side of the city from here, but I don't think your friend will make it that far. The two closest gates will both have Logrus Masters on duty, and have some form of true seeing spells on them, so we can't use them, but not doing so will attract attention."

"Heather you said you could get Mandor to come to us. How? I think we need him to come to us here."

"I have a token of his, but to get it I need to assume my true form, but I'm not doing it here, we're too open and exposed."

I scanned the plain around us, looking for a suitable hiding place. About 2 miles in the opposite direction close to the black wall of the Abyss there looked to be a likely place. "What about over there?" I pointed.

Palrity did another of her gold fish impressions. "You don't know do you?"

"Know what? I've never been here before."

"The place is supposedly cursed. It gave me the creeps when we were taken there during history lessons. It's where Brand and Dierdre fell into the Abyss at the end of the war. Not a good place to hide. There is a place but it's further away."

"Lead on then."

"What about your friend?"

"Her name is Sulin, and I'll carry her if I have to. Now lets go."

We set off, heading away from the city. After about a quarter of a mile Sulin began to flag. I told her to get on my back. When she protested I told her she could either ride piggy back or I'd pick her up and carry her over my shoulder, her choice. She continued to protest, forcing me to pick her up bodily, at which point she relented. I carried her for about a mile before i too needed a rest. Heather, then Faith, then Hope took over, and we made another slow mile, before I resumed carrying her. By the time we reached the crevase a mile further on I was fit to drop. There was no way we were going to be able to carry her down to the bottom. We started our slow descent, Sulin descending under her own steam. I asked Palrity where it went, but she didn't know. It snaked across the plain for about a mile she said then closed back up, but the river that appeared after about half a mile continued on. When the water level was low there appeared to be some caves but they'd never followed them for more than fifty yards or so for fear of getting lost or falling and drowning.

We reached the bottom after about quarter of a mile, a slim crack of sky visible some three hundred feet overhead. Paltity suggested we go one until we came to the river. The ground was less rocky there and the water was drinkable. I picked Sulin up and carried her the remaining distance.

Heather insisted we didn't watch whist she changed into her true form, and had Faith and Hope chaperone us to ensure we didn't. What appeared a few minutes later was a humanoid figure about 17 feet in height and proportioned accordingly. It had 4 arms, each of which ended in a taloned hand, and both its feet were similarly taloned. The body was covered in fine scales, almost fish like in appearence, that appeared to ripple with colour. The face was almost human in appearance, and she sported an obvious pair of breasts, but there the human resemblance ended. Both nipples appeared to be mouths, and a toothed maw surrounded by short tentacles also supporting toothed mouths was clearly visible between her legs. Set around her neck appeared to be a talisman.

"Palrity, you have to take the Talisman to Mandor. I can't return to my human form until either you or he returns it to me. You will have to remove it from around my neck as I can't, but you will have to be quick. I can only control myself to a limited degree. And Cordellia make sure you keep Faith and Hope between us."

Palrity hesitated, then shot forward when I shouted at her. Even so Heather raked her with her talons as she plucked the talisman from its resting place. Heather advanced on her and she fled for the river changing form as she went. Once she'd achieved the raptor form she'd used against me she proved to be quick enough to get away. Heather turned her attention back towards me. Faith and Hope stood their ground which forced her to hesitate, then settle down to watch, like a cat watching a mouse it's trapped in a corner but can't reach.

Time ticked by. Faith and Hope backed away from Heather and came and sat by Sulin and myself. She had started shaking, and I was forced to hold her to stop it. Her skin for the most part felt cold yet she complained she was burning up. Palrity was gone for over two hours before suddenly re-appearing, along with another, who I assumed to be Mandor. The only warning that I had of her return, was the sudden rush of power I felt just before they appeared.

Heather felt the wave of power also and was on her feet in a flash. She leapt at the pair but was flug back as if she'd been poleaxed by a kick. It seemed Palrity had been expecting this for she leapt on Heather and pushed the talisman back into position. As she did so Heather appeared to quieten.

The other figure spoke,"You took a massive chance coming here like this. Now we don't have much time. I'm to take you somewhere safe. Mandor will join us there." He turned to me. "Take this. When we are gone wait for 10 seconds, then follow exactly the path I take, but walk anywhere else in shadow and do it with as big a change as you can make. There are those who would benefit from uncovering what is happening here. Travel as far and as fast as you can for 1 hour of time as you measure it, then activate the trump. Mandor will answer any questions when we next meet."

He turned away from me. "Palrity, pick up the girl. The other two of you pick up your sister. You must stay in contact with me at all times."

Palrity moved to pick up Sulin, hoisting her across her shoulder as I had done. Faith and Hope just stood there looking at me. "Do it. We don't have time to argue. I'll see you in an hour."

Heather, now returning to human form struggled to her feet. "Come on we've attracted enough attention". She put one arm about Faith and the other on the figure's shoulder. Palrity had done similarly, grabbing the other shoulder. I felt a power surge and some sort of purple/grey tentacles appeared cleaving a hole in reality.Hope grabbed Faiths arm as the figure set off and they all moved into the void the tentacles had created. I started counting and moved to the spot from which he'd taken the first step. By the time I'd reached five most of the hole had gone, just a barely visible line being left. By eight I could no longer see it and the power flux was beginning to dissipate.

I reached ten and started to bring the pattern to mind. Suddenly I was fighting a force that intensified as I built the pattern. I pushed onwards passing the second veil, time appeared to slow and the crackling of energy rolled about me. Now clearly visible in front of me stood the hole and a tunnel of tentacles, energy lashed backwards and forwards between the tentacles and the pattern. As I pushed onwards, the energy increased and the tentacles started to warp and twist like paper being consumed in a fire. Each step became harder, and alarm bells started ringing in my head. Either I made the third veil or I wouldn't make it out of here. I dug in and pushed on.

With the third veil came a respite, the hole now a fluid thing that warped and twisted in the energy field. Either Mandor was very clever or this had been designed to kill me. I took a step and the world exploded. Several seconds passed as I fought for control, slamming shadow parameters back into holes as they flew about me. Now I felt something else, a presence trying to pull me back, the same sort of force that had been resisting me in the first place. I started rearranging parameters as fast as I could. I no longer cared about control I needed to get away. Several minutes passed before I felt the presence and it's attendant force start to receed, I was getting tired but wasn't out of the woods. I started to try and regain control once more, and felt the presence gain on me again. I wasn't going to be able to keep this up for an hour. I was tiring fast and still disorientated. I reverted to changing parameters at random again. Again the presence fell behind. I continued as long as I dared, then started to assert control over my mad dash. I felt the presence start to gain again. This was going to be a close call. I needed enough control to be able to activate the trump. My progress slowed and I felt it gaining, then it changed from being a presence to being a tentacle. I grabbed the trump and concentrated.

When I came to I was lying my right side on a bed in a warm room. It was just as well it was warm as I was wearing only my knickers and a pair of bandages, one which covered the upper left side of my torso, which now I was aware of it was screaming in agony, and the other my left thigh which was like wise complaining. As I struggled to sit up a voice said. I would rest if I were you. That you are still alive is a mark of your resiliance, and destroying a logrus way and surviving is no mean feat, but I think getting away from Dara is the real feather in your cap. In a few hours you'll feel better as the healing spell completes its work, then we can sort your friend Sulin out."

"I'm fine." I was lying through my back teeth and he knew it.

"You're also pig headed like your father and half-brother. Now do as you're told or you'll be no use to your friend."

"I don't know who you think I am, but I'm nothing like my father and I certainly don't have a half-brother."

"If that's the way you want to play it Cordelia then so be it. I'll just turn you over to Dara as an Amberite spy and we'll let her ascertain who you really are. Of course Random will scream blue murder and threaten all kinds of retribution, but as you say you're not Corwin's daughter nor Merlin's half-sister, there's nothing I can do."

"Wait. Tell me how you know who I am."

"I have my sources of information and can put two and two together, but since you used one of my trumps I was able to read your psychic imprint. I take it Llewella neglected to tell you that little secret. Now get some rest."

There was sufficient threat in that statement for even my addled brain to comprehend. Whatever was going on I had become a pawn and therefore expendable. I would have to bide my time and see what turned up. Until then I needed the rest so I did as I was told.

My body clock said I'd been asleep for 3 hours when I was shaken awake. My leg was still siff, and my side still ached but they felt considerably better than 3 hours previously. "Time to go. There's clothes at the foot of the bed. And don't take all day about it."

I dressed and left the bedroom emerging into a long corridor, of what I guessed were similar rooms. Windows, looking out over a craggy valley, provided illumination. At each end of the corridor there appeared to be openings and the suggestion of staircases. I turned to my right and made my way along and then down. I found myself at the end of similar corridor, this time on the ground floor, with no way to go except left. I followed the corridor emerging into a large hallway. Palrity was waiting for me. "Good. I though I was going to have to come and get you. Mandor doesn't like to be kept waiting."

"Where are we?"

"Mandor's villa for want of a better term, although in the Courts an area of private shadow is called a way, so these are technically in Mandorways, and part of Swaywill ways, that's the house to which Mandor belongs. Technically our houses are not on the best of terms, and normally I wouldn't get past the entrance way, but since I can't use either Trump or Logrus, and I'm not important enough to bother with I get to live as long as you cooperate."

"I take it he told you to tell me all this?"

She was valiently holding herself together."Yes"

I hugged her."Well we better not keep him waiting. Do you know where my sword is?"

"Mandor's got it."

We made our way down another short corridor, and then Palrity stopped by a statue and spoke a single word. There was a brief flow of power and the statue slid aside revealing a spiral staircase leading down. Palrity ushered me in then followed, the statue sliding back into position behind her.

We descended about 200 feet, and emerged into another corridor. We passed though what appeared to be an iron bound oak door, reminiscent of the ones in castle Amber, and through the room beyond, emerging into a large chamber. Mandor was present along with Faith. Sulin was lying on the floor within a pentagram which had braziers lit at each point. He directed me to stand in a second pentagram, which at that time had unlit braziers. I asked about my sword and he said I'd have the opportunity to earn it back later. I asked what he meant, but all he said was that if I wanted to keep my friends alive I'd behave and do as I was told. I considered attempting to defy him but I was severely out gunned and not in a position to argue. I walked across to the pentagram. "Good now we can begin. And don't think about bringing up the pattern or everyone dies."

I could now see that infact there were six pentagrams in all, 5 at the points of a five pointed star and one in the middle formed by joining the points. Not only was Sulin in one but Heather was as well only she was back in her true form, and her talisman was missing. Merlin gestured to Faith, who likewise transformed into a slightly smaller version of Heather. Mandor removed a similar talisman from around her neck, before activating the pentagram she now stood in. He then gestured to Palrity who took up position in the pentagram opposite me and adjacent to Faith. He then lit, using some form of magic the sets of braziers about Palrity and myself.

Now in my original journal account, the next entry is me waking up in bed in my condo, on the morning of October 16^th, unable to remember anything that happened in between or how I'd returned there. However, all that changed when I stepped into the Fount of Worlds and brought the Phoenix back. Not only did I gain power over trump, but my memory of what happened that night returned, enabling me to now recount the story.

What had occurred to me as Mandor had forced Faith into her true form and taken from her the talisman was that Heather had failed to attack Faith in the crag by the river because she had been wearing the same talisman. If this were true then Hope must also have a talisman. If the talismans allowed an Illiarri who had turned to maintian control, and Mandor created the talismans, then there must be a reason for it, he didn't appear to do something for nothing. Then I remembered that Heather had insisted we came to Mandor, and that she'd said only Palrity or Mandor could replace it and even so it had taken some form of spell to enable Palrity to do so. Also Mandor had removed Faith's talisman without her attacking him, therefore the talismans must give him a level of control. So if he creates a talisman for Sulin so she regains control then he'll be able to control her also. If that is the case then Marcie turning was no accident as Heather had claimed but a deliberate ploy, Mandor was recruiting turned Illiarri as his private army.

Whilst I'd been arriving at this conclusion Mandor had been weaving his sorcery and it no longer appeared we were in the chamber but some sort of void. Heather and Faith glowed with an energy that they hadn't appeared to have before and their appearance had become more demonic. They were also linked to Mandor by a thin cord, but Mandor was no longer alone in the central pentagram, six other figures, each linked to him by a similar cord stood there, and each appeared to be in the process of casting some sort of spell.

It then all went dark and slient although I'm not sure that dark or silent are the right words. Perhaps a better description is that I was unable to perceive anything except myself. I'm not sure how much time passed but all of a sudden I perceived a multihued light and a plumed birds head appeared, "Ah good we can speak at last although you won't remember any of this conversation for a long while."

"Sorry I don't understand, and who are you anyway."

"Who I am is not strictly important at this juncture, although undoubtedly you'll find out later. You're not familiar with the precepts of magic then, the construction of wards to keep out unwanted spirits and entities when casting powerful magics inorder to avoid unwanted effects, such as being possessed and the like."

"No"

"Well I won't elucidate then, other than to say that before he pulled down the wards to cut himself of from such enties he would have noticed my appearance, not something I wish for him to do, espeially as I'm going to radically alter the effect of his spell."

"Sorry you've lost me again"

"At this juncture it would prove a little difficult to have you controlled by such a minor player in the events to come, especially as you have a rather more significant role to play. It was for this reason that your trump aura doesn't read true and hence he is unaware of several important pieces of information, which are somewhat critical to the success of his spell."

"However, that is all irrelevant. Your sword is in this chamber, in the chest with the embossed snake sigil. It's currently protected by a spell of his making which prevents anyone but himself from accessing it. When you awake for the second time, you must immediately come back to this room. You will find that the chest is unlocked and you can retrieve both your sword and your trumps. Use your sword to kill the three demons bound to him but be quick he will wake when the first one dies. If you are quick enough you will have enough time to rouse your two friends and escape, otherwise you must escape on your own. Now I must go. Remember, then forget"

I was about to asked what the hell it meant when the head vanished, and I was returned to the void, except now I could hear a voice speaking some an incantation. It spoke in a rythm, and after each repeat, it grew in volume. However in response to this two things happened, a cord which passed out into the void appeared and at the other end I could feel Sulin, but more than this I knew she could also feel me, and from me was drawing strength. In addition, the ring on my right hand began to; well describing it is a little difficult but I suppose emit a power in exact anti-phase with what the rythm of the chant seemed to suggest. Now my own memory of exactly what happend next is unclear, I can remember hearing the chant 5 times and the chord thickening into something resembling a storm sewer pipe, and standing next to Sulin, but then nothing until I awoke in a bed. I was naked and the sheets were soft and somebody was caressing me very expertly.

"You have slept long enough, now you must pay the fee for my help. Pay well and I'll return your sword."

Something inside me clicked and the desire driven by the pattern kicked in. His careful misinstrations went out the window as I threw him on to his back and lept on top of him.