Amber: generation next
Jessica's tale: The Age of Darkness 2403-2420 d'L
Chapter 12: It Begins
At dinner in the grand hall of the Castle of the Lords of Chaos, we met Mandor, Darius Hunter, Dara, and Merlin, son of Dara of Chaos and Corwin of Amber, along with many other prestigious members of the Courts. Most of those around us were not pleased with Suhuy, and only Dierdre was accepted with open arms. There was another presence lurking in the shadows, always out of sight, and psychically well protected against my Force enhanced probing.
After dinner, we awoke suspended over a bottomless pit. Each of us bound to the wall by chains around our waists, wrists and ankles, even around our necks. The food, obviously had been drugged, only Dierdre avoided this fate.
I began the painful Jedi trick of contorting, dislocating, softening the bones of my ankles, feet, wrists, and hands to escape. Michael cast his flying disk beneath us. Valian shape shifted out of his bonds. Owen began contorting his own body. Julia also hung there with us, and she like Valian shape shifted her way free.
A Chaos demon stopped on the metal grate covering the pit and prepared to urinate down on us. Valian flew up to attack, and I used the Force to push up on the grate. The grate flew up knocking the demon unconscious. Finally, we were all free of our chains and Michael began lifting the disk. Once at the top we stepped off the disk and into a tunnel or corridor . . . hard to tell the difference in the Courts of Chaos.
Damien Omega guarded the storage area that contained our personal things. Aided by a contingent of Chaos soldiers he held us in combat. I used the Force to create a whirlwind of flying objects as a distraction, careful not to intentionally harm anyone. Among the debris was my lightsabre and Trump deck, which I quickly retrieved and stored away.
Having retrieved our personal belongings from a storage area, we raced out of the castle. We soon found ourselves staring over the edge of the Abyss. Using Julia's Chaos Trumps we went back to Amber.
Things in Amber were quiet for a month or two after that, almost too quiet. I was recovering from my depression, in fact except for my unholy desire for Michael, I was almost back to my old self again.
I spent a great deal of time in the library reading Corwin's Chronicles of Amber which had been written by a man named Roger Zelazny. There was even a rumor that Roger had been to Amber, maybe even was tucked away in one of the dungeons.
Corwin's tale told of the Patternfall War, which came about when Oberon disappeared and Eric, Michael's father, had declared himself the rightful heir. Benedict of course was the eldest, but although no one knows just why was not in the running for the throne.
There was even a partial collection of a series based on Merlin's involvement with the family. I also found a book called, Roger Zelazny's Visual Guide to Castle Amber, which is a remarkably accurate and detailed account of a tour led by Florimel.
All of these books had been published on Shadow Earth and were taken for fiction. As someone once said, 'Truth is stranger than fiction.'
Perhaps someday I'll find my journals of Amber published on some Shadow somewhere. Maybe they already have been, after all, everything is possible in Shadow. If they have been, they'll eventually wind up here, all roads lead to Amber.
King Random had been stabbed and left for dead. The Jewel of Judgment was gone. The Kaiburr Crystal was beyond reach. Rebma, the mirror image of Amber in the sea below Kolvir, was under attack.
Titan under the control of Belledonna attacked Amber itself. I freed him from her control through the Force, and she was soon destroyed.
The Elder Amberites, who had gone missing, were defending the Primal Pattern against Brand. The evil, twisted prince of Amber, thought to be dead all these years since the crowning of Random, had returned to finish what he started. He had become a kind of living Trump, and he had Random's Jewel.
Dierdre Trumped us to the Primal Pattern to help.
We stood on a perfectly level area which appeared to be solid, unfractured rock-roughly oval in shape, a couple hundred meters along its major axis. Beyond its rightward jutting there was nothing-that is to say the land fell away in steep decent toward that particular sea.
And, continuing, all three dimensions seemed to reassert themselves once more. The sun was a great orb of gold. The sky was a deeper blue than that of Amber, and there were no clouds in it. That sea was a matching blue, unspecked by sail or island. I saw no birds, and heard no sounds other than our own. An enormous silence lay upon this place, broken only by the sounds of battle between the elders, this day. In the bowl of my suddenly clear vision, the Pattern at last achieved its disposition upon the surface. I thought at first that is was inscribed in the rock, but as I drew nearer I saw that it was contained within it-gold-pink swirls, like veining in an exotic marble, natural-seeming despite the obvious purpose to the design. It looked as if someone had shaved the top off Kolvir at about the dungeon level, where the Pattern lies.
This was the real Amber. The Primal Pattern first drawn by Dworkin, in his own blood.
In the awe of our location and the speed at which the events occurred I can remember all the details . . .
Julia rescued one of the Elders, by flying her motorcycle over the Pattern, which Brand had dropped over it from high above.
I somehow secured the Jewel of Judgement from Brand. Finally he decided to spill his own blood on the Primal Pattern. He set one foot on the Pattern, and Valian yanked him off.
Immediately, the sky began to darken directly overhead. But it was no cloud of water vapor which had begun to coalesce. Rather, it was a perfectly circular formation which had appeared, red at the center, yellow near the edges, turning in a clockwise direction. A sound like a single bell chime followed by the growl of a bull-roarer suddenly came to our ears.
The roaring increased in volume and small lightnings began to play at the heart of the red thing above us. A rattling noise caught my attention at that Moment, and I glanced downward to discover a purple griffin has slithered past and moved to interpose itself between us, all but Brand, and the loud red phenomenon. It crouched like a gargoyle, facing away from us, watching the spectacle.
A funnel descended from the noisy formation-bright, flashing, wailing now, and tremendously fast. It touched Brand, and for a Moment his outline expanded enormously, becoming increasingly tenuous in direct proportion to this effect. And then he was gone. For a brief interval, the funnel remained stationary, like a perfectly balanced top. Then the sound began to diminish.
The trunk raised itself, slowly, to a point but a small distance-perhaps the height of a man-above the Pattern. Then it snapped upward as quickly as it had descended.
The wailing ceased. The roaring began to subside. The miniature lightnings faded within the circle. The entire formation began to pale and slow. A moment later, it was but a bit of darkness; another moment it was gone.
No trace of Brand remained anywhere I could see.
I held the Jewel of Judgment before me. The temptation of walking the Primal Pattern with it was almost too great.
Fiona demanded I hand it to her, refusing, I Trumped to Amber and returned it to the King.
In reflection, it seems strange how seemingly unrelated things circle back upon one another. Brand had learned a long time ago; the Jewel of Judgment and the Kaiburr Crystal were both a part of the Eye of the Serpent. It was he, who sent Lord Darth Vader to find the Crystal all those years ago. He sent Belledonna after it. He was responsible for the Pattern-fall War and the most recent attempt . . . what other aspects of my life were shaped by the elders of Amber?
I am beginning to understand a statement once made by Corwin of my mother, "I trust her like a brother."
By the Force I pray I never bring a child into this family of cutthroats, but even that is in the hands of the Pattern and Amber it seems.
I did return to the Primal Pattern, unknown to the others, and I walked it using my Crystal. I felt as if I had the power to recreate the universe as I did so, perhaps I did, I don't know.
The Pattern was more than a series of lines on the floor which imbued us with power, it was almost alive. Or am I just dreaming again? Did it actually have a will of its own?