Swell.  So now we've got a traitor in our midst.  There's a
surprise.  What is Bonaparte's damage, anyway?  Duncan figures our army
can defeat his, especially with Gabriel around, but I'm not reassured. 
Bonaparte has to know this.  What's he planning?

	This day just gets better and better.  Rasa is posing as Gabriel,
the Jewel is beginning to drain me, and some asshole took Dad's sword!  It
was probably that fucking shifter.  It's not fair, damn it!  That was all
I had left from Dad.  What I don't get is how the hell I missed that?  It
doesn't make any sense!

	Gabriel has arranged some sort of fight with Bonaparte.  With
luck, that will be the end of it.  Not bloody likely, though.  There's
still the mess Farad made to deal with.  He needs to learn that you don't
just go taking out most of the population of a Golden Circle Shadow.  That
kind of help I can do without.

	That message was not a dinner invitation.  I should have kicked
him out from the start.  But I hoped I could settle this.  No such luck. 
There's no way I'm going to just hand him a Golden Circle kingdom.  Then
every two-bit thug will figure that all he has to do to get one is invade
it.  Not the sort of precedent that I want to set.  And I'm certainly not
going to do it to make up for bruising his honor because we placed him
under house arrest.  Fuck that noise.  Next time, I'll have him locked up
proper, in the dungeon.  See how much he likes it then.

	That's it.  I am officially sick and tired of playing punching
bag.  No more mister nice guy.  I want Bonaparte's head on a stick.  I
don't care who does it, but he dies.  The unmitigated gall of the man!  I
should have thrown the fucker in the dungeons.  Then maybe he'd still be
rotting there, not busy invading Amber.

	It's a damn good thing I gave the Jewel to Colin.  Smart play,
even if it was unintentional.  I think I'm going to see if Colin can make
a fake one.  That way, no one can be sure which one of us has the real
one.  We also need to find a decent hiding place for the thing.  There are
too many people running around right now who are either attuned to the
Jewel or know how to do it.

	Thank God Duncan still has his sense of decency.  I can't believe
he fell for the bathroom excuse.  Of course, he doesn't know I can Pattern
teleport.  No one does, except for Colin.  Damn good thing, too, because I
really don't want to hang around here.  At least Duncan won't be
interrupting me again.  I knew he'd check up on me, but seeing me
apparently taking a crap seems to have embarrassed the hell out of him. 
As well it should.  If he was going to indulge my modesty in the first
place, he had no business checking me out.

	The good news is it worked.  The bad news is I'm on the wrong side
of the battle from Amber, and I don't have any Trump.  Life's just a
bitch, sometimes.  Oh well.  Hope Colin and Gabriel have things well in
hand.