Session
23
Amber, year one, day 135 continued
Matters continue to worsen as this day goes on. I fear that if things
continue as they have, Rygat may very well defeat us. I thought Dworkin's
death was the worst that could happen, but I was wrong. Rygat has stolen
the Jewel of Judgment. Which takes away one of our best weapons against
her forces. And, in the process of stealing it, she did quite a bit of
damage to Random's mind, leaving us without a leader, as well. I believe
Random will recover eventually, but it will take time. And time is one
thing we do not have in abundance.
I hope we do not see another renewal of the fight between Eric and
Corwin for the throne. If I understand the rules here correctly, Driscoll
should take his pater's place. But, if Eric disputes the matter, Driscoll
would be hard pressed to stop him. And while Corwin claimed he no longer
wanted the throne, I doubt he will allow Eric to sit on it, either. Why
are we such a divisive family?
Ariadne insisted on leaving before she had fully recovered. I
know she is a shapeshifter, which seems to allow her to heal faster than
even most Amberites, but she did not look at all well. I tried to get her
to stay in bed, but she grew spikes out of her body and began crawling
towards the door. I was determined not to let her pass, but it would have
been difficult to stop her without one of us sustaining injury, and
neither of us was in very good shape to begin with. Fortunately for her
(and probably me), Eric's entrance with Random interrupted our standoff
and gave her the ideal distraction. I believe she escaped through one of
the windows, but I was too busy looking at Random to really notice.
Examining Random gave me a lot more respect for Rygat's power.
She tore through his mind like it was not even there! I hope he is able
to recover on his own, because I would not even know where to begin trying
to repair the damage. The mind is a fragile thing, and much easier to
destroy than to heal.
Given recent events, I think I shall avoid taking Trump calls for
the moment. For once I am thankful that not many people have a Trump of
me. However, the lack of a Trump deck of my own is starting to become
annoying. I shall have to see what I can do about obtaining one.
Heather did something rather strange today. She practically pushed
Alex on Mebd, saying Mebd was feeling abandoned and that it was a good
time for him to capitalize on her emotional state. And then she said
something about a ring. I thought she disliked the attention Alex was
paying to Mebd. Why is she pushing Alex on her now? This makes no sense
at all.
Felix has gone off somewhere with Brand. This is odd, given Felix's
usual fear of Brand. However, I did see them working together earlier to
determine Gérard's location. Perhaps Brand has discovered a means
of rescuing him. If they have not returned by nightfall, I will be more
concerned.
Amber, year one, day 136 (Wednesday, December 8, 2987)
Early morning
We are finally finished. It took us most of the night to deal
with all of Ahab's wounds, but we are done, and he will live. Rygat has
gone too far this time! She apparently lured Ahab away by shapeshifting
to look like Benedict and sending him on some sort of errand. You would
think that having been fooled by her shapeshifting once before, he would
have been on his guard, but Ahab practically worships Benedict, and would
do almost anything he asked without question. How does she know him so
well? And how are we to fight her when we cannot even trust our own
senses to let us know who is friend or foe? There must be a way to tell
when one is facing a shapeshifter. Perhaps Fiona knows.
Ahab is fortunate that I noticed his absence from dinner. Given
the concern the rest of this family seems to display towards missing
relatives, he would have bled to death before anyone else even thought to
look for him. I have learned that Trump contact can rouse a person to
consciousness, if the individual is not drugged, and the caller is
persistent enough. I was not prepared for what I saw when Ahab answered.
I expected to find him riding through Shadow, or eating, or resting, or
anything but the image that formed in front of me. Rygat had driven
spikes through his hands and feet, pinning him high on a stone wall. His
body was covered from head to foot with small, deep scratches, as if tiny
animals had been using his body to sharpen their claws. But no animal I
know of can cut so deep, but leave such a narrow opening. Staked above
him, with his own sword, was the head of his horse, Zero. If Rygat wanted
to infuriate the family, she has succeeded.
Ahab's rescue was surprisingly easy. I insisted on coming along,
even though I am still not recovered from my injury. I could not stand to
sit calmly in Amber and wait while Ahab hung there dying. I do not
understand why Rygat let him live. She obviously was not planning to keep
him prisoner, for there were no guards around him when we arrived. No,
she meant for us to find him, but to what end? Perhaps she hoped to
enrage us so much that we would take some rash action against her.
Certainly Eric seems completely incensed by her actions. But I would like
to think that none of my family is stupid enough to try and face her by
themselves. Well, maybe Ahab, but he is not in any condition to do so.
Maybe she let him live because she did not wish to face his death
curse.
Ironically enough, Fiona helped stitch Ahab's wounds. After Eric
and I had been working for a while, she told Eric that he was doing things
all wrong and took the sutures away from him. Eric did not even protest,
he just stalked out of the room. I am not certain why Fiona chose to say
that to Eric, when I am sure he was doing a better job than I. I will
admit, I was afraid Fiona might use the opportunity to take some sort of
revenge on Ahab, but happily she proved above that sort of thing.
To make the day's events complete, we have learned that Felix has
been captured by Rygat, and is being held with Gérard and Flora.
It seems that Rygat took on Brand's appearance and lured him away from the
Castle. She is whittling our forces down, one person at a time. Soon,
the only people left will be the injured and the dead.
Through all of this, there has been one piece of good news. Fiona
does not think that the body Shard brought in is actually Dworkin's. I
pray that she is right. If that is true, then perhaps even now he is
plotting Rygat's downfall. Even if he truly is dead, Fiona indicated that
she has a plan for dealing with Rygat. I hope I will be able to assist in
it. It seems like all I have done since I was injured is either lie here
in pain, or tend to those worse off than I, which is frustrating to no
end. I want Rygat to suffer as much as Ahab and Random and Julian and
Ariadne and Felix and Gérard and Flora and Corwin and Dworkin have
all suffered due to her plotting. But, if that is not possible, I would
settle for her quick death.
"Outrageous Fortune"
Ariana's Page |
Ariana's Diaries
Other PC Diaries and
Contributions
All text on this page is © 1993-1994 by Kris Fazzari.
Last modified on April 5, 1994 by Kris Fazzari.