Chapter Six
 
        Felix goes down to dinner and finds Julian and Gerard in an 
argument.  Julian is upset over the fact that Corwin was able to steal 
the Jewel of Judgment from Eric's body while Gerard was watching it.  
Eventually, Ahab interrupts and insults Julian, by telling him in a 
snide tone that with Eric dead, the Jewel of Judgment missing, and 
Benedict looking to kill Corwin, Julian has as good a claim on the 
throne as anyone.  Julian leaves in a huff.
 
        Ahab finds Corwin in the main library.  Corwin and Ahab 
compete to see who can be more obnoxious.  Corwin wins by virtue 
of having more experience.  Ahab leaves before he can do anything 
to piss off yet another relative.
 
        Ariana wakes up bound and gagged.  Brand is bartering with a 
demon to exchange her for some past debt.  When Brand comes over 
to her, she spits on his face.  He picks her up by the scruff of her 
neck, and she bites him.  He yells, kicks her and throws her on the 
table, at which point she kicks him in the ribs.  She asks him why he 
took her and not one of the others, but he'll only say that she 
damaged something of value to him.  She notices that he is still 
wearing the Spikard and sarcastically asks if she can try it on.  He 
replies that he didn't think he had any relatives stupid enough to 
want to do so.  She insults him and he leaves her to the demon, who 
is drooling over her.
 
        Back in Arden, Shard, Julian's son, sees Julian enter his room, 
slamming the door behind him.  Shard tries to sneak off, but Julian 
opens the door and tells him that it's nothing Shard did, he's just had 
a bad day.  Shard peaks outside and finds Morgenstern, all hot and 
sweaty.  Morgenstern blows his nose in Shard's shirt, encouraging 
Shard to dry him off.
 
        In Mirelle's new, Medieval shadow, Heather wakes up to the 
cries of Driscoll's daughter.  Medb is sleeping soundly, so Heather 
gets up and changes the child.  Heather stares at the child for a while, 
until Eris calms down.  She plays with Eris until Medb walks in and 
asks if she missed anything.  Heather berates Medb for sleeping 
through the noise until Medb points out that she's been changing the 
girl all night.  They are preparing for breakfast when Mandor knocks 
at the door.  When they let him in, he tells Heather that he must 
leave for a while in an effort to get Alex out of some trouble.  
Apparently, Alex used his true Chaos form in the attack on the tower, 
so now he's on a death list.  He asks them not to tell Alex about this 
and then leaves.  Heather, Medb and Eris go down to breakfast with 
Mirelle and Alex.  Mirelle notices that Mandor is missing and looks 
unhappy.  Alex asks where Mandor has gone, and Heather tells him 
that Mandor had some errands to take care of.
 
        Ariana struggles with the demon for a while.  He hooks the 
chains on her wrists over a hook on the wall and leaves.  Ariana 
manages to get her self down from the hook, but the demon returns 
before she can escape.  He douses her with cold water and grabs her 
again.  After Ariana gouges and kicks the demon some more, it clubs 
her into unconsciousness.  When she wakes up, she is chained, 
spread-eagled, on a table.  The demon begins to paint some sigils on 
her leg.  Ariana begins to struggle in an effort to hamper his efforts.
 
        Back in Amber, Felix and Gerard talk at dinner.  Felix is 
unhappy about the disarray in the family.  Gerard comforts him.  
Gerard leaves to check on the guards, and Felix goes to pay his 
respects to Eric, who is lying in state.  Felix then goes to bed.
 
        Shard changes his shirt and enters Julian's room.  Julian looks 
tired and complains that things are much too complicated.  He says 
he's belittling himself by feeling insulted by Ahab.  Shard asks who 
Ahab is and learns he's one of his cousins.  Julian talks for a while 
with Shard.  He tells Shard that he feels Eric's death is unfortunate, 
especially in conjunction with Corwin's ill-timed return.  Eventually 
he wishes that Shard's mother was still alive, since she was always 
able to talk him out of these moods.  Shard expresses his concern 
that Corwin has been allowed to get away with looting Eric's body.  
Julian reassures him that it's being taken care of, and the two leave 
to go out and run the hounds.
 
        During breakfast, Heather suggests that Alex find Driscoll so 
that he can take charge of Eris.  Mirelle realizes, somewhat 
unhappily, that this means Heather is staying with her.  Alex says he 
needs a lock of Eris hair, so Heather mindglazes the child to stop her 
from screaming when he cuts the lock off.  With hair in hand, he 
summons the Logrus and uses it to pull himself to the battlements of 
Castle Amber, where he is immediately surrounded by guards telling 
him not to move.  The commotion wakes up Felix and Ahab, shortly 
after they've gone to bed.  They throw on a kilt and robe 
respectively and go up to the battlements.  They ask Alex why he's 
there and he says it was part of the plan.  The guards look at Ahab 
and Felix rather oddly when they hear this.  Ahab asks the guards to 
move off a bit so they can "jog Alex's memory".  The guards comply, 
and Alex tells them that Driscoll's daughter has been rescued.  They 
tell him about Driscoll and Eric's supposed deaths and ask him to 
bring Eris back to Amber.  Alex agrees and leaves, making the guards 
very unhappy.  They ask Ahab and Felix to explain this to Gerard, 
which they agree to do.
 
        They update Gerard, who agrees that it is time to wake the 
dead.  Eric wakes up first.  Ahab tells him what's happened since he 
died.  Eric is most upset to learn that Corwin has the Jewel.  They 
manage to convince him not to rush of and kill Corwin immediately.  
Ahab asks Eric what the Jewel can do, and learns that it controls the 
weather.  Eric asks where Corwin is.  Ahab says he could look for 
him, so Eric tells him to do so.  He goes to Corwin's room and knocks, 
but gets no answer.  He tries to trump him but is blocked.  He goes 
back to the others and they help Ahab force a trump contact.  Corwin 
remarks that he's getting rather tired of these trump contacts of 
Ahab's.  Ahab tries to see where Corwin is, but Corwin moves so that 
he blocks Ahab's view.  Ahab tries to persuade Corwin to come 
through, saying he has news of great importance.  Eventually Corwin 
comes through, and is rather unhappy to see that Eric is still alive.  
Eric asks where the Jewel is, but Corwin will only say that it is in a 
safe place.  Ahab suggests giving the Jewel to a neutral party, like 
Benedict.  Corwin says that he'll fetch it and starts to leave, but 
Gerard stops him from going off alone.  They decide to wait for Alex 
to return with Eris.
 
        Heather talks with Mirelle about how she came to have Eris 
with her.  She want to leave her with Mirelle, but Mirelle is not keen 
about raising Eris herself.  She is rather upset with the way things 
have been going lately.  She asks Heather to tell Brand to leave her 
alone from now on.  Heather says that Brand was under a spell, 
which she, Bleys and Fiona recently removed (along with Brand's 
finger).  With the spell gone, she doesn't think that Brand will be 
bothering Mirelle anymore.
 
        Julian runs his Hellhounds hard.  They scare up a Manticore 
and quickly kill it.  Afterwards, Julian stares for a while towards 
Amber.  Shard asks what he sees and Julian says a passing dream.  
He feels that things would be better if Benedict had not shirked his 
duty and taken the throne.  He tells Shard that if things ever get 
resolved, he thinks that it's time for Shard to walk the Pattern.
 
        The demon trying to put the sigils on Ariana gives up on the 
paint and goes for a tattoo gun instead.  Ariana spits in its face, so it 
covers her face with a pillow.  She tosses it off and spits at it again.
 
        Alex returns to Mirelle's shadow and tells her that Driscoll is 
still alive.  Mirelle asks if Ariana reached Amber safely.  Heather 
mentions that she disappeared shortly after arriving in Amber.  
When Heather is not more forthcoming, Mirelle presses Alex for 
details.  He explains that Ariana disappeared screaming, at which 
point Mirelle trumps Ariana.  Ariana asks for help.  Mirelle explains 
the situation to Heather, who uses Ariana's eyes to view the demon.  
She then begins sketching a trump of it.  Alex tries to cast a power 
word on the shackles, but Ariana does not want him to do so until 
Heather is ready to attack the demon.  Heather eventually completes 
the trump and uses it to mind-flay the demon.  Alex casts a power 
word on each of the bonds, freeing Ariana.  She finds her sword and 
proceeds to slice and dice the demon until it's no longer recognizable.  
When finished, she cleans herself off, dresses, and picks up her 
things.  She asks if Alex wants anything from the room, and Alex 
requests a grimoire in the corner.  She picks it up and comes through.  
The others update Ariana on some of what's happened while she was 
gone (Driscoll's daughter, Eric and Driscoll's possible death, etc.).  
Heather and Alex decide that they really should be getting back to 
Amber and Ariana opts to come along.  Heather trumps Driscoll and 
tells him that they have is daughter.  He pulls them all through.
 
        Ariana is introduced to Eric, Corwin and Gerard.  Ahab offends 
Eric and Corwin by calling both of them princes.  After some talking, 
Ahab, Eric, Corwin and Gerard go off to get the Jewel.  Alex tries to go 
too, but they make him stay behind.  Heather pulls out a trump of 
the Primal Pattern (which she had drawn while recuperating at 
Mandor's) and disappears.  Alex tries to ask Driscoll more about the 
people who were holding his daughter, but Driscoll says he is tired 
and asks to talk about it the morning.  Ariana carries Eris to Driscoll's 
room for him, since he is still pretty weak.  Besides the damage he 
received during Gerard and Felix's "persuasion attempt", he also has 
a quarrel wound in his arm, put there to make his escape attempt 
look more genuine.  Felix goes to arrange rooms and baths for Ariana, 
Medb, Driscoll and Alex.  Afterwards, he goes into the kitchen and 
sees someone leaving through the other door, with red hair and 
dressed in green.  Suspecting that it might be Brand, Felix follows 
him as he goes up the main stairs, trying to stay out of sight.  Part 
way up, Brand stops and listens, causing Felix to duck into a 
doorway.  Terrified, he waits until Brand continues on before going 
back down to the kitchen and trying to forget what he saw.
 
        Heather is examining the Primal Pattern when she hears a 
growl behind her.  She finds Dworkin and has an interesting 
conversation with him.  Among other things, he threatens to kill her 
and tells her that the Pattern is his.  He asks her how she knows of 
him, and Heather replies that she read about him in the Book of the 
Serpent.  Dworkin also mentions that the damage to the Pattern is 
reflected in his mind, with the moods coming and going without 
warning.  One of these moods starts to come over him soon after that, 
and he starts shifting weirdly and advancing on her, at which point 
Heather trumps home.  Just as she is leaving, Dworkin's blow hits 
her, knocking her clear across the room.  Heather lies on the floor 
seeing stars for a while.
 
        Corwin leads the others to his home in shadow, where he 
retrieves the Jewel from a compost heap.  He gives it to Gerard who 
says he will put it someplace safe.  They all start riding back to 
Amber.
 
        Felix knocks on Ariana's door and tells her that he saw Brand.  
She immediately changes (right in front of Felix, much to his chagrin) 
and belts on her sword.  He is even more upset when she insists that 
he take her to the place where he last saw Brand.  Unfortunately, 
since this was the main staircase of the castle, it's not obvious where 
Brand was going.  Ariana decides to check out Brand's room and asks 
Felix to show her where it is.  Felix, obviously terrified of Brand, tries 
to dissuade her.  Ariana asks him why he bothered to tell her that 
Brand was in the Castle if he doesn't want her to confront him.  Felix 
replies that he was warning her so she could hide or something, 
which doesn't please Ariana at all.  She asks him again to show her 
where Brand's room is, and he tells her to look for the one with a 
sword sticking out of the door.  Ariana points out that if Brand is 
back, he's probably removed the sword.  She finally gets Felix to take 
her to the correct hallway and give her directions as to which door is 
Brand's (three doors down on the left).  Felix quickly leaves the area 
after this.
 
        Ariana approaches Brand's door and knocks.  Somewhat to her 
surprise, she hears Brand's voice inviting her in.  Sword at the ready, 
she opens the door.  As she enters, she notices that his left hand (the 
one that he had been wearing the Spikard on) is bandaged.  Brand 
tells her that he went back to try and help her but she was gone.  
When she asks why he bothered, since he was the one who left her 
there in the first place, he says that he was not in control of his 
actions before.  Ariana looks skeptical and asks for a more detailed 
explanation.  Eventually she learns that the Spikard had placed a geis 
on Brand, that controlled his behavior.  The spell was removed when 
Fiona distracted Brand (by choking Heather) and chopped off the ring 
(along with the finger it was being worn on).  As proof of this, Brand 
offers to remove the spell he had cast on Ariana during their 
encounter in Heather's shadow.  Surprised by this (she didn't know 
that she was under a spell), she agrees.  After 20 minutes pass, 
Brand finishes removing the spell.  Ariana decides that she believes 
his story and tells him about how Felix was so afraid of him.  Brand 
seems somewhat amused by this.  Ariana gets up to leave, but Brand 
asks a favor of her first.  He explains that some members of the 
family might not be as understanding as she was, so he'd like to keep 
his presence in Amber quiet.  She asks what he is planning to do in 
Amber, and answers that he is doing research on how to reverse the 
damage to the Pattern.  Ariana agrees to keep silent and leaves.