The Diaries of Cordelia Chan

Amber Day 10 Afternoon - Amber

It is most disconcerting arriving back somewhere you've left a couple of days before to find the place swarming with soldier, especially when they're all pointing guns at you. It's also not particularly pleasant to almost trip over a chitaneous limb. So it was I arrived back in the Amber Courtyard after a very pleasant and relaxing two weeks art classes in a fine shadow, to find Archie, Sal, and a platoon of Arden Rangers that looked like they'd spent the last week running from the Vietcong. Apparently the limb was where it was because Archie was worried that someone could Trump to the location of the limb, but to my knowledge that is not possible.

It seems they'd gone to investigate the dome and its occupants, and been assaulted, escaping only because Sal did a little probability manipulation and switched magic off in the local area and Archie pulled and activated the Courtyard trump. Estimates of the number of the man-sized insectoid creatures occupying the dome put their number around the 10,000 mark with a fair portion of Mages amongst their number.

I left Archie to go in search of more information on his Insect-men and returned to my apartments. Having changed I went and checked on Madeline, who Random had already given a job to, in addition to her role as my PA/Lady-in-Waiting. Given all that seemed to have happened whilst I'd been away I decided to go see Barbie and see if she could shed any light on opening my mysterious gate in CymneaWays.
Finding the Mage Collage was not particularly difficult, neither was locating the Deans Office. Why is it that officious persons have officious and jobs-worth assistants, who insist you have appointments and then jibber when you march past them and into their bosses offices. Barbie wasn't home. It seems she was off "Finding herself", although the quickest way for her to do that would be to get herself laid. The Secretaries reaction was almost as good as Barbie's would have been to such a suggestion. She did at least manage to suggest that the best person to ask about gaining access to whatever secrets the gate held would be Caine.

I returned to the castle, running into Archie as I did so. It turns out that the Insect Men were Hendrake Drone soldiers and that the best person to ask, regarding intelligence on the Hendrakes was Caine. I said I was about to Trump him on another matter and would raise the subject if he liked. He said yes. It seems he's not very comfortable using Trump. To me its better than a mobile; sound, vision, and instant travel if required.
Caine was in an office somewhere. On the breaking and entering front he suggested I try my bother Wade. On the Hendrake front he said leave it with him and he'd have something for us in a couple of hours. I located Wade and we arranged to meet at 9:00 tomorrow morning at the stables. At dinner I suggested Archie come as well incase the situation turned nasty. Cho brought me upto speed on the situation at the Courts. We'd just about finished dinner when Caine arrived with half a dozen copies of the Hendrake Intelligence report. He flipped one at me then asked who else wanted one. Archie indicated he did. "Read then quickly ad in one go. They'll self destruct when your finished." At first we thought he was joking, but he wasn't. I found a pint class and half filled it with whisky, adding ice and coke. I returned to the table and began to read.
I was about half way through, when the guard captain arrived. " There's someone who claims to be one of your relatives, having just been rescued from certain death in the courtyard. Can you deal with the situation?"
I looked up from the report. Ben, Cho, and Robert weren't doing anything. Robert looked at me and I nodded. He rose and Ben and Cho followed him. I was finishing the last page of the report when they returned, accompanied by a Goth fashion victim (silver hair and all in black).
It seems the fashion victims name is Cano Lupus, and he's a werewolf - what he really means is he's another bloody shapeshifter. It seems that several of the others have also noticed my adoption of my father's attitude towards these hapless souls. Oh well thats life. I welcomed him to Amber. If his life was complicated before it just got worse. I wasn't going to disturb Random, he'd find out soon enough we'd found another one. Cano didn't seem to know who his parents were, or who'd rescued him. I pulled my cards out and spread them across the table. He picked out Gerard as his rescuer. As I collected them back up I summoned the housekeeper and told her to prepare another guest room.
I waited about half an hour and then we took him first to the room where he was told to memorize his bed in relation to the room, and then down to the pattern room. The thing about the pattern is its very good at sorting out imposters from family. If you're still going after half a dozen steps then you're likely to be family.
We watched as Cano made his way to the center, where in true fashion he collapsed. When he didn't disappear, I remined him to think of his bed in the guest room. Still nothing. I waited another couple of minutes and then suggested the same again this time adding he didn't really want me to have to come and get him. He disappeared. As we reached the living quarters I sent one of the servants to check that he was in the guest room. Lucky for him he was. I left orders for him to be woken at lunchtime.

Amber Day 11 - CymneaWays and Amber

We met at the stables as planned and I had the honour of driving the Trump jump again. I shoved Archie and the others through to the way station and then followed. We stopped for about 45 minutes for a coffee, whilst I put my mental faculties back in order for the jump to the Courts.
Cho had definitely been right in his brief. Things had definitely changed at the Courts. The simmerin pressure cooker atmosphere was no longer present, and had lapsed into an atmosphere of stoic resignation.
We checked in with the Garrison commander, grabed some refreshments, and requisitioned half a dozen guardsmen. In addition to the changes wrought by Random's removal of Bleys the Courts had also re-arranged themselves into a more Venetian architectural flavour. This was true even of the deserted CymneaWays which exactly as we had left if. I led the others through to the private quarters.
It seems that Archie hadn't been paying attention to Sal's lecture because I had to explain how to bring the pattern up as a symbol so that you could use it as a lens rather than a defensive shield. After a couple of minutes he was able to use it to see the door as I had done previously.
Wade had done likewise and was examining the door. He guessed it would take him about 20 minutes to determine how long it would take to open. I pulled up a chair and waited.
Having finished his examination, he announced it would take about an hour to crack and was booby trapped. He'd need a chicken, a knife and some incense. I said I'd go and fetch them. When I returned Archie had organized a defensive perimeter so that we would have the more advantageous position when we opened the door.
Wade worked for just over an hour, creating a mess from the chicken, and diverting the booby trap to explode somewhere off in Shadow. The door, leading to a 10 foot wide 20 foot long corridor stood open. Cho led the way into the artists studio that lay beyond.
The room was unremarkable. Against on wall were stacked paintings, a careful examination of which revealed that several had been removed. A fire burned in one wall, over which a kettle sat and frying pan of bacon. The kettle neither boiled nor the bacon burnt. A little way in front of the fire stood a comfy chair ideally positioned for relaxing in whilst painting at the easel which stood in front of it. A desiccated corpse reclined in the chair.
There were no identifying marks on the corpse and no indication as to how they died or how long they'd been here. When Cho removed the kettle from the fire it boiled and he made himself tea. I brought up the pattern and examined the room. The fire exhibited strange properties, but no other entrances of exits revealed themselves. I decided to take a closer look at the paintings.
Amongst the landscapes, scenes, and objects there were a number of the Royal Family, Oberon, The Red Heads, Caine, Random, and several I didn't recognize. There appeared to be none of the Elders younger than Random and those of Eric, Corwin, and Dierdre were either missing or were never in the set. I set two of the guards to packing the paintings up for transport back to Amber. Perhaps the Curator of the Royal Gallery would recognize the style or the 'R' signatory mark. I was also hoping he'd be able to tell me who was depicted in the portraits I didn't recognize.

We were nearing completion of this task when I felt as if some buzzing insect were trying to bite its way out of my skull. I switched to analyzing the sensation. It wasn't an insect but a very weak trump contact. I switched my full attention to it. With a little effort a faint Robert appeared. They'd got themselves in a mess and needed help. I told him to call Random and severed the connection.
The others were looking at me. I told them who it was. They wanted to get back. The guards had finished crating the paintings. Reluctantly I pulled the Waystation card and created the Trump Gate. They filed through and I followed.

By the time we'd got back to the castle courtyard, sent the paintings off to the Curator of the Royal Gallery, and hed Robert pull us through to where he and Ben were, about 15 minutes had elapsed since he first called me. Ben was looking decidedly tired and the Crocodilian was slowly sinking ground wards. Robert explained what had happened.
It seems they'd followed some mystical trail back to the house. They'd then tried to do a little breaking and entering, first by shoulder charging the door, then by magic, and then using lock picks. All had failed in some means or other. They'd then used the truss bar from a cart as a battering ram and managed to get the door open. As they'd gone to enter the building the Crocodilian had ambled towards them, bouncing bullets fired at him by Robert. When one of the Guards had tried to engage it he'd been turned in to diced guard. Ben had then used magic to levitate it into the air, but it was slowly absorbing the magic and sinking ground wards. Random was also apparently on the way.
I suggested it was time to try something else and drew Voidreaver. Ben reversed his spell and slammed the Crocodilian into the railings, which buckled under the impact. The Crocodilian got up and ambled in Ben's direction. I attacked.
To date I've not found anything my sword wouldn't cut to ribbons, but it barely nicked the Crocodilian. Nearly as fast as I could cut it it healed. Ben wanted to try something. So I lured it towards the door of the house. As I reached the steps, I raced inside slamming the door behind me. There was the sound of an explosion as I took stock of my surroundings.
I stood in the hall way of an Edwardian mansion. Short stair cases led to two rooms, and a much larger staircase to an upper gallery. Various other doors led off. One either side of two of the door ways was a plinth, on three of which stood three Crocodilians. I summoned the pattern and examined them. The three which remained radiated some form of power.
I could now hear shouting from outside again. It appears that the blast had done nothing more than blow the Crocodilian across the street, damaging the building opposite. It had now gotten up and was proceeding in Ben's direction again. I moved outside and re-engaged it drawing it uphill towards the castle and the influence of the pattern. As I did so Random and a squad of Royal Guard stared to appear down the street next to Robert and form up. I didn't need that much persuasion to make myself scarce and was glad I'd brought up a pattern defense as bullets began ricocheting about me. Having emptied their clips, Random tried hurling what appeared to be a stream of plasma at it. The street was looking somewhat the worse for wear by this time.
As the scorched Crocodilian began to right itself Random drew a pair of knives and charged in. They had no effect. He backed off and disappeared through a Trump gate. The Crocodilian stood there regenerating. After about 5 minutes Random reappeared carrying a sword. As he swung it, it shimmered and the Crocodilian exploded as it made contact. " Boy I'm glad that worked. I was running out of ideas."
When Robert indicated there were three more inside he gave him the sword, dispose of them then bring it right back, there are only two of these known to exist and Bleys has the other one. A memory clicked. The sword was my fathers sword Greyswandir. Three more explosions sounded from inside the house.