I was perhaps 2 miles inland when the 13th Hour struck, not that it caused me any problems. By the time the world returned to normal I had covered another two miles.
By the time I reached the Great East Road another hour and 3 miles had passed, and a further 15 minutes and mile before I came across the coaching inn.
It was dark and shuttered and the gates to the yard were closed. On the opposite site of the road the clearing used by trade caravans stood empty. This was not a good sign.
I toyed with the idea of borrowing a horse but that would only cause me problems later. I pressed on into the night.
By the time the pre light of dawn started to lighten the sky I was into the rising bluff that marked the Eastern edge of the Kolvir range. If I stayed on the road I would be clearly visible from the Eastern stair.
The approach to Amber from the East is not that easy. Between the sea and about five miles inland is a volcanic bluff whose peak rises to about 2000 feet. There is then a small valley which terminates in a rock wall,the remnant of some ancient lava flow, some 200 feet high over which the East stair runs and through which the Eastern tunnel has been cut. On the other side of the valley the ground rises steeply to the main Kolvir peak at about 9000 ft. About three quarters the way up the peak sits Castle Amber.
I turned left off the road and began to cirle the bluff to come in from the seaward side.
By lunchtime I had reached the Eastern edge of the bluff overlooking the East Stair, and had found a position where I could watch without being seen. From the bent heather and blades of grass someone else had been in this exact same spot within the last 48 hours.
Even from this vantage it was difficult to judge what state the city was in. The docks looked to be in bad shape and there appeared to be several sunken vessels in the harbour. The East stair was patrolled regularly a pair of guards passing along the wall approximately every 70 minutes. The pair going up the stair passing the pair coming down about half way up the steep section above the East tunnel. I waited for nightfall and hoped the cloud cover would return.
Whilst last night we were lucky tonight so far I haven't been, although I haven't yet been discovered. By my reckoning it is now the early hours of the morning but I still have no cloud cover. Never the less I'm going to attempt to get into the castle. We shall see what we shall see.
My apartment is pretty much as I left it , although its going to need a new entrance door. Somebody's had a cursory look in here but I guess they decided I wasn't important enough to worry about. I haven't been able to get into the main family area as the area is too heavily patrolled. Similarly the Pattern Room is guarded. I'm going to try to get into Dworkin's tower tonight, there wasn't time to do everything I wanted before dawn broke. I'm hoping I'll be safe here until nightfall, after all who's going to expect a minor family member to sneak back into the castle. The guards have been a litte lax, probably due to whatever celebrations they've been holding. Whilst I haven't been able to confirm it, I think my hunch that Rebma fell the night before last was correct.
It's been a long day.I've heard guards moving along the corridor outside and on one occasion one actually came into the ante room. This closet is now becomming claustrophibic but I shall wait a little longer before moving. If it hadn't been for my ability to meditate I think I would have gone insane, as I found it impossible to sleep. It's actually the first time I've been able to meditate in a while and I'd forgotten how restful it can be. What's more interesting is that I managed to achieve a mental state I've not reached before. If I remember Master Hatsumi correctly there are five levels of mental awareness, the lowest level is normal consciousness , the second level is self awareness, the third level is earth awareness, and the fourth level is air awareness, and the last level is astral awareness. Time will tell if I am correct as reaching a given memtal state makes it easier to reach it. If I have managed to reach earth awareness then I should be able to tap greater levels of ability in combat and healing.
The main entrance to Dworkin's tower was heavily guarded so I had to use the back way in. It appears Brand does not know about this as he would have put guards into the cell block. As it is he is short one jailer. He's obviously been in here though as the place is a mess. I can only assume that he knows about the book and is looking for it.
My own search also didn't reveal much, although I now have a couple on interesting books on Trump, one appears to be in Dworkin's hand but I don't recognise the other, and a small stock of materials, brushes, and paints. My first sweep didn't reveal any exits than the one back into the castle and I didn't fancy taking on the half dozen guards. Then I remembered something from my father's diary, he noted that one of the doorways led to a lavatory. Since I hadn't found such a doorway it must be well hidden. I summoned the pattern an started searching again. It didn't take long. The door from the entry chamber into what appeared to be the foul cave complex was actually an active trump gate - the cave complex wasn't actually in castle Amber. The problem was I couldn't initially see how to manipulate the gate, I was obvisouly missing some kind of key. Then it struck me, there was a mat on the threshold between the study and the ante-chamber. Lifting the mat, I noted the teltale signature of a trump disguised as a flag stone. I dropped the pattern and prized it out of its hiding place. this was going to be dangerous as I knew Brand could sense and control Trump. Concentrating on the stone I noted that whilst it had a Trump signature it was somehow different, carefully I started to assess what it might contain. After a little while it struck me it that it was actually a book of images. I concentrated on the image of a study and the pages turned before me. Unfortunately there were three images in the book that could have been a library.Then I remembered that there was a cave that led to the image of the True pattern, the pages flipped again, to reveal an old fashioned room resembling a study. I turned and looked at the trump gate it still showed the lavatory.
It took me several hours to work out how the gate worked. In the end it was pure frustration - I put the flagstone back from where I had removed it and the gate changed. I grabbed my things and hurried through. As I stepped away from the gate it faded behind me. There were two apparent exits, a heavy iron bond door in the right hand corner furthest from me and a hole in the wall just along to my left. The hole appeared to led to some sort of cave and the carpet closest to the hole was somewhat stained. I scanned the room noting the walls of books, art materials, iron bound trunk that had been emptied, and an old Edwardian writing desk appeared to have been moved in an alcove along to my right. Somebody had been here and turned the room upside down. As I moved to my left towards the hole the smell increased. I changed tack and moved towards the desk. The ridges in the carpet and scrape marks indicated that it had been moved recently to allow access to the rear. Leaning round the back a wooden panel lay on the floor and a hollow about 6 inches by 4 inches and about 2 inches deep had been revealed just left of centre close to the base of the desk. It looked like something had been removed. The question was who had removed it, Brand or somebody else.
I turned my attention to the door. There were no handles or locks on this side and it looked heavy and well made. It was also heavily scratched and dented, as if some wild animal had tried to batter it open. I somehow knew I wouldn't be able to break it. I summoned the pattern again and examined the door. I had expected to be able to see through it but my vision was stopped just below the surface where something resembling the pattern had been drawn. I started scanning the pattern to see if I could find something resembling a lock or handle. After what seemed like several hours I found three hollows in the pattern that appeared to form some sort of lock or handle. The problem was I couldn't see what might fit it, certainly no physical object.I looked closer, feeling the strain as I did so. In some ways hollows appeared to be a sort tumbler socket into which some sort of key needed to be plugged. The problem was the key would have to be flexible and formed in the lock, perhaps it would be possible to use something like one of the pattern strands Fiona had constructed in Carnelian.
The problem is I don't know how to form them. I sort of know what their structure and feel should be once built, and I know they're some form of extrusion built from pattern, but how to form them I just don't know. With nothing else to go on I shall just have to sleep on it and hope something occurs to me or I'll be stuck here until somebody either opens the trump gate or opens the door from the other side.
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| Supporting Cast - Cordelia | The Keep of the Thirteenth Hour |