Chapter Fifty: "The Party's Over" Felix gets pretty drunk at the wedding reception. Instructions are given not to serve the younger Amberites alcohol, but Rinaldo easily circumvents this. He and Foster get somewhat inebriated themselves, and Rinaldo sets up a little prank. Ahab goes to a fast-time, high-tech shadow for his honeymoon. At one point, Ahab tries using a Pattern lens to see through Kimdyl's clothes. It doesn't work, and Kimdyl is miffed at him for trying. That's all you're going to hear about what happens there. Ariana wakes up in the late morning. There is no sign of Riftvan or Kira. After tending to the twins for a few hours, she decides she's feeling well enough to walk around. She sends one of her guards to get a baby carrier from her room and goes down to lunch. Lunch is rather well attended, considering most of the wedding guests are still in Amber. At one point, someone says pork chop and Felix begins clucking like a chicken. Random asks him to repeat himself. Felix looks confused and says he doesn't know what Random is talking about. Random suggests that whoever was responsible remove it by the end of the day. Felix asks what he was doing. Random explains and tells him to talk to Rinaldo. Rinaldo looks innocent. Felix grabs him and orders him to remove it. Rinaldo feigns ignorance. Felix asks Heather if Brand would be upset if Rinaldo was damaged. Heather asks how much damage he's talking about. Rinaldo says he'll remove the suggestion but he needs to make psychic contact to do so. Felix says he doesn't trust him. Rinaldo says "Pork chop" and sets Felix off again. This process is repeated a couple of times, until Ariana offers to psychically observe and make sure Rinaldo doesn't pull a fast one. Once the suggestion is removed, Felix leaves. Foster follows close behind him. Foster catches up with Felix in the hallway. He admits that he knew about Rinaldo's joke, but says he was drunk so it seemed terribly amusing at the time. Felix disagrees. Foster asks if it would have been funny if someone else, like Ariana, was the victim. Felix admits it would have been, but insists that's different. Ariana shows off the twins to her relatives. Mirelle is less than thrilled at first, although she does eventually hold them. Eris likes them and offers to help Ariana with them. Ariana thanks her and remarks at how much she and Emer resemble each other. They both smile. Driscoll looks uncomfortable and leaves shortly afterwards. Ariana asks Random if it's possible to have the windows on her quarters bricked in, just in case. Random says he'll arrange it. Shortly afterwards, a large page approaches and asks Ariana what "he" did to her. Ariana realizes that Riftvan never changed Kira back before he left. She and "Kira" go back to her quarters. She tries to Trump Riftvan, but gets no answer. She tries Resume True Form on Kira, but nothing happens. Ariana figures Riftvan must have shapeshifted Kira to the extent that this is her true form. Unfortunately, this means there's nothing she can do until Riftvan returns. Kira is not happy about this. Heather spends the afternoon shopping with Flora for sexy lingerie. Felix spends the afternoon pouting and checking his diary to see if Rinaldo messed anything else up in his mind. Dinner goes uneventfully. It's less crowded than lunch, as the wedding guests seem to be dispersing. Felix spends the evening playing his harp. Ariana reads and tends to the twins. Heather tries out her new purchases on Mandor. He is most appreciative. The following morning, Felix looks up Irene. She's with the other young ladies of the court. They all titter briefly when he walks in. Felix realizes that the story about his lunchtime behavior of the previous day has spread. He raises a finger and leaves. The tittering resumes. He goes upstairs and pounds on something until lunch. Afterwards, he looks in on Foster, who is learning to fence. Heather finds Driscoll in his quarters. He lets her in and puts on his protective sunglasses. She asks about Bedlam and learns it's up and running again. She is relieved to hear only three months have passed there. Driscoll comments that Emer certainly has grown in the past six months. He's at a loss for anything else to say. Heather tells him she's ready to release the album she recorded in Bedlam long ago. He asks when she wants it released. He also tells her that it's customary for the artist to tour. She reminds him that he did a duet with her, and she'll expect him to make the occasional appearance. He says he's willing, although he hasn't toured in a while. She says he needs to get out more. He asks if she's been talking to Eris. Heather explains to Mandor that she has some things to do, but she doesn't want to endanger any of their shadows. Therefore, she's using the album as an excuse to set up a base of operations in Driscoll's shadow. Mandor has no objections to this. At his music lesson, Felix asks Lord Rein for help in creating a song making fun of Rinaldo. Rein says doing so would be sticking his neck out, given who Rinaldo's father is. After the lesson, Felix looks up Irene again. The ladies still titter briefly when he enters, although Irene restrains herself this time. He asks how they all liked the wedding and spends the evening making small talk with them. Kira is pretty annoyed that she's still male. Apparently a female of the court was hitting on her. Ariana assures her she's trying her best. Unfortunately, she still can't get a hold of Riftvan. She suggests Kira stay in her quarters if she wants to avoid further incidents of that sort. Ahab and Kimdyl return from their honeymoon early the next morning and reclaim Nicholas from Deirdre. They all go down to breakfast. Foster and Rinaldo are still chuckling over what Rinaldo did to Felix. Ahab picks up on their amusement, but mistakenly figures Foster was responsible. Ariana corrects him. She also mentions that the pork chops from the other day were remarkably good. Mirelle bursts out laughing. Heather says they lacked subtlety. Deirdre clues Ahab in as to what everyone's referring to. He starts snickering. Felix announces that he won't be eating with the family until everyone stops bringing the matter up. He stalks out of the room. Foster hurries after him. Foster tries to get Felix to calm down. He points out again that Felix would have laughed just as hard as the others if it had happened to someone else. Felix reluctantly admits this is true, but he still wishes it had happened to someone else. Foster returns to the dining hall. Ariana asks Foster where Felix is. He tells her Felix is in his quarters, so she goes there and knocks. Felix won't answer. She tells him she'll apologize through the door if necessary, but she'd rather not. He lets her in. She says she didn't realize the whole thing was upsetting him so, and she's sorry she brought it up. Felix thinks Rinaldo chose him because he had the weakest mind. Ariana argues it was probably more because Rinaldo figured Felix wouldn't try to kill him for it, which is more than could be said for most of his other relatives. Felix admits he probably overreacted in the dining hall. Ariana tries to persuade him to come back down to breakfast, but he doesn't want to. She does manage to convince him that no one is likely to say any more on the subject at future meals. Alex begins teaching Mebd about etiquette. She succeeds in distracting him by exposing herself briefly to him. Alex decides that bedroom etiquette is definitely the place to begin. Ariana has her remaining stitches removed and starts working on getting back into shape. Felix goes into town and buys a red Jester's cap and a fake chicken head. He puts these items on a staff and challenges Rinaldo to a duel at the boys' fencing class. Rinaldo looks amused. Felix proceeds to make Rinaldo look stupid by tripping him up and such. The entire class is entertained. Rinaldo takes the whole thing in good grace and concedes the match. Felix warns him to be careful in the future, lest he cry fowl. Rinaldo laughs. Foster looks very pleased with his father. Felix's crowning touch is to have Rinaldo served chicken at dinner. When the plate cover is lifted, Rinaldo asks if the meal shouldn't be crow instead. Ariana wakes up in the middle of the night to a scream and a spray of blood. She realizes one of her babies is missing and there is a shadowy form in the room. Sparks of light seem to flash inside it. Riftvan dives through the thing, and appears on the other side holding a bundle. Ariana grabs the remaining baby and rolls for her sword. Riftvan vanishes. Ariana tries striking the thing with her sword, but the blade passes right through it. She uses Magic Negation on it, which weakens it but doesn't destroy it. She decides to get the baby out of the room and runs into the guards coming to investigate the commotion. The thing vanishes. Ariana realizes the missing baby is Morgan. She notices there is a large bloodstain on the wall over her bed and the baby carrier is missing. Ariana stares numbly at the bloodstain for several moments. Ahab and Alex arrive, having been woken up by the noise. Shortly after they enter the room, Riftvan reappears and collapses. He is holding a bloody baby blanket. Ariana hands Jalana to Ahab and starts examining Riftvan. He's sliced up pretty badly and has lost a lot of blood. He's also not shapeshifting to repair the damage. He wakes up briefly, tells Ariana he's sorry, and falls unconscious again. Alex raises the Logrus and looks at Riftvan with it. Ahab does the same with the Pattern. Ahab sees the Logrus as a black, tentacled thing. Alex is able to determine that Riftvan has been poisoned. The poison is pretty popular in the Courts, since it negates the ability to shapeshift and there is no antidote. The poison lasts until it's been worked out of the system, assuming the victim doesn't die first. Felix enters the room at this point. Ariana asks him to get some medical supplies from the infirmary, then asks for his assistance in working on Riftvan. She asks everyone else to leave. Alex returns to his quarters and uses the Logrus to get blood samples off of the wall, the other surfaces, and the baby blanket. Ariana notices the presence of the Logrus, but is too busy to do anything about it. Alex tests the samples and finds most of the blood is Riftvan's, except for the blood from the baby blanket. Ahab finally manages to calm down Jalana and takes her to his quarters. He gives the baby to Kimdyl and explains what's happened. Kimdyl opts to spend the rest of the night sleeping curled around both Jalana and Nicholas. Ariana and Felix finally manage to get Riftvan patched up, but he's still suffering from massive blood loss. Unfortunately, his blood is not a type anyone in the castle would have, due to its Faerie nature. Alex returns and offers to move Riftvan to the infirmary with the Logrus. Once this is safely accomplished, Ariana asks Alex why Riftvan isn't shapeshifting. Alex tells her about the poison and leaves. Felix also leaves and goes back to bed. Ariana tries strengthening Riftvan psychically, which seems to help. Random questions the guards about what happened, but no one except Ariana seems to know. Random finds her in the infirmary and asks if this is a bad time. She manages to describe the thing she saw. Random tracks down Alex and asks if he recognizes the thing Ariana described. Alex says it might be a pit demon, but he's not sure. He offers the blood sample from the baby blanket to Random and suggests having it analyzed to see if it might be Morgan's. Heather is woken up when Random comes to their quarters. He and Mandor go into another room and discuss the pit demon. Ariana, Random and Mandor are missing from breakfast. Ahab finds out about the pit demon from Alex. He questions Kimdyl, but she doesn't know much about them. Alex asks if Mebd or Heather do. Mebd asks why he thinks she would. He figures that being a demon herself and all... She glares at him. Riftvan regains consciousness at about ten in the morning. Ariana asks what happened. He tells her he was a little too slow. She asks what that thing was. He tells her it was a pit demon, one of the few things that can survive in the Abyss. She asks how they can be killed. He says magic will work, or a sword like Greyswandir. He asks if she honestly thought Morgan would live for very long. She almost leaves, but senses he's holding something back from her. She asks if Morgan is dead. He moves suddenly and passes out from the pain. Ariana starts to cry. Ahab walks in with Jalana some time later. He places some flowers and a get-well card on Riftvan's body. Ariana asks for Jalana back and tells him to get out. As she watches him leave, Riftvan makes psychic contact with her. He tells her that Morgan is alive, but he's going to have to erase that information from her mind. She asks how long that will be necessary. He says it will be until he deems it safe, and proceeds to remove the information. Ahab returns to his quarters. Fiona knocks and comments that she missed the excitement. She gives Ahab a band of iron and the key for it and leaves. Ahab shows it to Kimdyl. She points out that if he intends to use it, now's the perfect opportunity, since the band will block Vetch from using the magic of his Faerie form, and he can't shapeshift to another one. Once he recovers his shapeshifting ability, he'll just shift to a form the band doesn't affect. Ahab thinks now is a poor time, since he wants to make Vetch an object lesson, and already injured people don't serve that purpose very well. Kimdyl thinks Vetch might be more inclined to listen to Ahab in his current condition. Ahab asks Lyss if she's contacted her mother yet. She says she hasn't been able to. Ahab is surprised, since he thought it was easy for close relatives to Trump one another. Lyss reveals that she doesn't have a Trump of Ariadne. She's been using a Pattern method that she hasn't taught him yet. Ahab fills her in on the night's events. Mebd is mad at Alex for blabbing that she's a demon, since most people don't know. He admits that was probably a mistake. He tells her they'll continue the etiquette lessons as soon as he's done talking to Random. Alex goes to Random's quarters and is begrudgingly admitted by the guards. Random, on the other hand, is glad to see him. Random and Mandor have been discussing ways of preventing a repeat of the previous night's events, and Alex is asked to join them. Alex asks if the blood sample turned up anything. Random says Fiona told him the blood sample had potential for both Pattern and Logrus. Ariana instructs her guards to prevent Ahab from entering the infirmary again. If he tries to fight his way past them, they are to give her some warning before letting him through. She's worried about Riftvan's safety in Amber, but he figures it's the safest place for him to be, providing she can keep Ahab under control. Riftvan develops a fever. It's a reaction to the poison, and he tells Ariana it has to run its course. He does ask for some whiskey for the pain. He mentions that this is the second son he's lost. The first one was killed at the beginning of the vendetta. Ariana asks what he did to the Hendrakes to cause all of this. It turns out Riftvan and the wife of the Head of House Hendrake were sleeping together. She got pregnant, and Lord Hendrake killed the boy when it was born because he didn't want Riftvan's child inheriting his house. Riftvan tells Ariana that at least she still has one child. Ariana glares at him starts to walk out of the room. Riftvan calls her back and admits he was being thoughtless. Ariana tells him he may have had enough children that losing one doesn't bother him, but she hasn't. Riftvan says he tends to cope with upsetting things by using humor, which not everyone appreciates. Ariana wants to know if it's possible to find out who was behind the attack. He says he could, but not for a while. Ariana wants to kill the responsible parties. Riftvan advises her to think of Jalana first. Ariana asks if there's any way to end the vendetta. Unfortunately, the vendetta can only end when its goal has been achieved, meaning Riftvan is killed, or all of House Hendrake is destroyed. The latter is pretty unlikely, given the size of House Hendrake. Ariana asks why they have to kill babies. Riftvan says that Morgan is his son, and that's enough reason for them. Felix takes Foster into town for the day. Driscoll tells Heather that he's going back to Bedlam, and points out that she can get there faster than he can. Heather says she'll have to remedy that. They plan to leave after dinner. Ahab Trumps Ghostwheel, and asks where Merlin is. Ghostwheel offers to take him there. Merlin is quite startled when Ahab appears. Ahab asks if Merlin is sure Ghostwheel has no hard feelings about the Trump he gave Ahab. Merlin says Ghostwheel will get over it. Ahab explains that he has some questions about vendetta custom. He mentions that he's thinking of something that would steal a target from the Hendrakes. Merlin thinks that's a bad idea. If someone is marked, you're supposed to leave them alone. Ahab asks if there's any tradition for merging vendettas. Merlin doesn't know of any. He asks if Ahab is referring to the Hendrake vendetta against Vetch. When Ahab admits he is, Merlin tells him that the Hendrakes destroyed Vetch's house in Chaos recently. Apparently there weren't enough people in it to stop the Hendrakes from burning it down. Ahab is amused by this news. Merlin thinks Ahab might be able to get involved in the vendetta if he groveled enough for the Hendrakes. Ahab asks if he'd have to deal with the Head of House. Merlin figures he would, since this vendetta has been going on for so long. Apparently it's the vendetta that set the rules for all other vendettas. He tells Ahab that the current Head of House Hendrake is Lord Grimolde, although Hendrake Heads don't necessarily last very long. Ahab asks if Ariadne is still part of Hendrake. Merlin tells him that she isn't an active member, but Ahab might live longer if he showed up with her.