Chapter Ninety-one: "The Pattern has eaten our daughter.  Don't be alarmed."

	Ahab talks to Nicholas, Felix talks to Tamaryn.  What exactly they
talked about is unknown, since this took place over e-mail.

	Usires gets a Trump from Caine in the morning.  Caine checks in
with how things are going, tells Usires to keep him posted, and hands a
Trump of himself through.

	Ahab sends a page out with a message for Felix, notifying him of
an appointment with Ahab, then asks Nimue when she'll feel up to walking
the Pattern.  Now is fine.  Ahab sends a page for Fiona, and asks her to
verify that Nimue's strong enough.  She is.  They head down to the Pattern
room, and are not attacked this time.

	Felix is notified of his appointment with Ahab, and frowns.  When
he returns from breakfast, Bleys knocks at his door, and apologizes for
keeping him waiting.  Felix tells Bleys of his jaunt out into Shadow, and
his theory about Ivan.  Bleys says that either proves that Ivan was
Gerard, or someone wanted Felix to think he was Gerard.  Felix says that
Merlin is drawing a Trump of Ivan, and given that Bleys has deprogrammed
Gerard before, he wants Bleys to determine if Ivan is Gerard.  Sure. 
Merlin should be done this evening or tomorrow.  Felix mentions his
trepidation about the appointment.  Bleys says you can waste much time
second-guessing kings, and the topic could be something else.  Felix isn't
entirely convinced.

	Mebd continues to complain about being hungry, so Alex decides to
take her to Dexter, by way of Foil, since he's never actually been to
Dexter.  There's the little matter of the mantra required to get into
Foil, though.  Singing "100 bottles of beer on the wall" fails to gain him
entrance.  "Roses are red, violets are blue, me and Mebd really want to
get through," also fails.  There is more, but it isn't any better.  Alex
has difficulty finding something that has meaning to him.

	Nimue prepares herself for a bit, and then begins her Pattern
walk.  She seems to be walking at a fairly good pace, and by the time she
reaches the center, the Pattern is glowing so brightly that she can barely
be made out.  She disappears, but Fiona doesn't think she actually left
the room.  At least it doesn't feel like she did.  Ahab wants to Trump
her, but Fiona thinks crossing the powers would be bad.  Kind of like
crossing the streams, I guess.  Ahab tells the Pattern sarcastically that
he'll be grateful when it decides to release his daughter.  A spark hits
him on the nose in response.  He pauses for a moment, then wonders aloud
if that draw blood...

	Ahab leaves Fiona studying the Pattern, and breaks the news to
Kimdyl.  She likes this not at all.  Ahab reassures her that Fiona is
watching the situation.  Besides, if the Pattern won't give Nimue back at
the end, he'll just go and bleed on it.  He was expecting something weird
to happen, given that Nimue is one of the Pattern children.  Kimdyl wants
to know why Laughter's kid couldn't have walked it?  Well, Haris is 30
years younger.  That can be fixed.  Ahab says goodbye.  Kimdyl tells him
not to come back until he has Nimue.

	Ahab heads back down to the Pattern room.  Fiona tells him that
the Pattern seems to be fluctuating.  Ahab wants to walk it.  Fiona thinks
this is a bad idea.  Ahab asks the Pattern if it minds, but it doesn't
respond.  Fiona suggests waiting 24 hours before trying anything.  Ahab
observes the fluctuations, then checks out the Jewel, which seems
unaffected.  He leaves again.

	Ariana is Trumped by Riftvan while she's eating breakfast.  Her
ring pulses faintly, but then stops.  Riftvan makes sure things are fine
at home, then hands her a Trump of himself and breaks the contact.

	Ahab chats with Malcolm about arrangements for the posse, then
informs Lyss that she'll be leaving in two hours.  Bart is less than
thrilled, and passes the time making sure that his spells are ready.  Lyss
meditates and plays with her kids.

	Ahab spends some time working out his frustration about Nimue's
disappearance.

	Felix is Trumped by Caine, who asks how he's holding up.  He's
sore.  Caine thinks that's to be expected.  Felix's pin briefly warns him,
but then stops.  Caine hands Felix a Trump of himself and breaks the
contact.

	Alex lets Reeshau take control.  Reeshau recites a silly rhyme
about Faeries making good spell components, and Foil lets him in.  Mebd
gives him a funny look and asks if he's getting a cold.  She must be
hearing things.  Since her short term memory is shot, she keeps asking
this, of course.  Mebd wants to know if they can have dessert after they
eat.  In a boat, like the last time they had sex.  Reeshau's eyes widen,
and he decides it must be the name of a drink, but he gives himself a cold
shower, just in case.  This prompts Mebd to wonder why he's wet.  They try
to find out where Dexter is by asking a local shepherd.  Reeshau does a
bad job of being inconspicuous, but learns that you need a shifter to get
to Dexter.  You can hire shifters in the nearby village, which turns out
to be London.  The definition of village apparently differs from the norm
in Foil.  Once they reach London, Reeshau asks his way to the local
tavern, since that's where he figures he'll find shifty people.  The
barkeep directs him to the shifters shop.  It's rather empty.  Business
appears to have been slow since the war.  One of the shifters tells him
that the Queen has closed the borders to Dexter, so they can't go there. 
How would they do so if the borders were open?  They'd shift.  It's a
spell.  It could be taught, for a small fee...  Reeshau says he'll be
right back, then sneaks down an alley and summons some gold.  He hears
some noises behind him, and turns to find six or seven thugs.  They ask
what he's doing.  Trying not to go to Dexter.  They'll help.  He dares
them to cross this line.  The thug who does so bursts into flames.  The
others run like hell, and the police quickly show up.  Reeshau claims that
the thugs blew up the dead guy, and were trying to send him to Dexter. 
The police buy this, and ask for descriptions of the thugs.

	Ariana goes to Amber and checks on her patients.  Although
Nicholas doesn't mention it, Ariana notices that her spell has worn off of
him, and asks when it happened.  Around three or four in the morning. 
Ariana renews and strengthens the spell, but leaves enough pain to remind
Nicholas that he's injured, so he doesn't go walking around.  He dislikes
this.  She also makes sure that the nurses know that he's not to get out
of bed yet, and tells them to notify Ahab if he does.  Then she checks on
Meander, who's still sleeping, since the spell hasn't worn off of him. 
She renews the spell, but doesn't disturb him.

	Laughter finds Ariana in the infirmary, and asks to speak to her. 
They go to Laughter's quarters, and Laughter asks what Ariana knows about
Takaran blades.  Ariana explains what she's been able to learn, and
mentions that they are primarily made by House Bances.  They decide that
Laughter will investigate that avenue, while Ariana looks into determining
who is working on Usires' ax, since they obviously must know how to make
Takaran metal as well.

	Ahab brings the Lyss posse to Malcolm's quarters.  Malcolm bows,
then Trumps the two Logrus masters through.  Ahab tells Malcolm that he'd
heard through the grapevine that Riftvan was hunting down Dara, so he
figures Gramble might want to know that he's assigned Caine to hunt down
Dara's Trump artist.  Malcolm will relay this.

	Fiona Trumps Ahab and tells him that the Pattern has calmed down,
but Nimue doesn't seem to be there anymore.  Nimue says "boo" behind Ahab
at this point.  Ahab informs Fiona that he's found his wayward daughter,
so Fiona leaves him to it.  Nimue tells Ahab that it was like a really
wild acid trip.  Ahab wants more details.  She thinks she talked to the
Pattern.  It confirmed that the Pattern children have a really good
understanding of it and what it's capable of.  Her recollection is growing
fuzzier as time passes, though.  She's pretty tired, so Ahab tells her to
go to sleep.  She protests, and threatens to sleep with Jordan.  Fine with
him, so long as she gets something out of it, and Jordan doesn't.  She
should stop in and see Kimdyl first, though.

	Bart realizes that he's the leader of the posse, by virtue of the
fact that the Logrus masters are both Torytians, and therefore ranked
lower than the heir to Jesby.  He is most unhappy about this.  Lyss leads
the way, and seems to be focusing on something.

	Ahab is Trumped by Brand, who tells him that Dara Trumped Ariadne
earlier this morning.  He attempted to monitor it, but she sensed this and
cut the contact.  The contact wasn't open long at all.  Why did it take
Brand so long to report this?  He was hoping Dara would try again.  Ahab
Trumps Deirdre and asks her to report to his office.  Then he uses the
Pattern to locate Ariadne, who is about eight feet behind him.  Deirdre
arrives a few moments later.  Ahab hugs her, positioning her so that she's
between him and Ariadne, then asks Ariadne why Dara Trumped her.  Deirdre
gives him a dirty look.  Ariadne says Dara didn't Trump her.  Who did? 
Ahab.  What did he say?  Well, he opened his mouth, and then cut the
contact.  Ahab tells Ariadne to immediately call back anyone who Trumps
her, to verify that they actually contacted her.  He summons pages and
passes this order along to the royal family, as well.  Then he summons
Bleys to check Ariadne's brain out.  Bleys mentions that Felix asked him
to check Gerard out as well.  He checks Ariadne out, and finds nothing out
of the ordinary.  Has Bleys been Trumped today?  Only by Ahab.  Can Bleys
think of anything else to do to guard against this?  Either take Dara out,
or take the Trump artist out.  Ahab's working on it.

	As the Lyss posse flits through Shadow, Bart's hair ribbon comes
untied, and one of the Logrus masters gives him an odd look.  Bart tells
Lyss to stop, which startles her, and she drops the Pattern.  When she
brings it back up, she says there's a residue.  One of the Logrus masters
has a shield up.  Bart asks them to trace the Logrus residue.  After a
while, one of them looks uncomfortable, and says it's beyond his ability. 
The other one continues for a few more minutes, then says this could take
a while.  He gives Lyss a direction, and tells her to look that way.  They
proceed in that direction.

	Suddenly, Ariel warns Bart that there's a large amount of magical
energy heading at them.  Bart warns the others, and tries to cast Xeno,
but the fire energy is upon them before he can do this.  Someone got a
shield spell off, though, since most of the energy is deflected.  Bart,
Lyss, and one of the Logrus masters fall off their horses, as the horses
react to the spell.  The other Logrus master doesn't move.  Ariel warns
Bart of a second, smaller amount of incoming energy.  Bart gets the Xenos
off for himself and Lyss, this time.  The second energy is electrical, and
seems focused primarily on Lyss.  The second Logrus master's hand moves
again, he speaks a couple of lynchpins, and most of the energy is
deflected.  Unfortunately, it is deflected within the group, so they lose
a few horses and a guard.  Bart uses Grain of Stand to pick out who
doesn't belong in this Shadow, finding the posse (of course), and someone
standing 30 feet away behind a stone wall.  He directs the Hellmaids in
that direction, and they are attacked by bloodhounds.  As they fight, Bart
hears an absolutely hideous noise behind him, like a cross between a
horse's scream and a jet engine.  The second Logrus master points at the
bloodhounds, and this grotesque creature leaps at them.  Bart begins
advancing towards the person behind the wall, who suddenly blips 20 yards
behind Bart's crew.  Bart approaches them again, and they blip to another
Shadow.  Then Bart gets a Trump call.  He denies it, but it begins forcing
its way through.

	Brand Trumps Ahab and tells him that Dara is Trumping Bart.  Ahab
tells him to block the call, and pinpoint Dara.  Brand does this thing.

	The Trump call backs off, and then Lyss disappears.  Bart looks
around in panic, and notices that the stone in his amulet has turned
black.  The second Logrus master says he can send Bart to where Lyss and
Dara are, if Bart drops his Xeno spell.  Bart does, and is flung through
Shadow.  He finds Lyss facing off Dara, and makes Dara's sword go away by
casting Sword-be-gone (Laughter's favorite spell).  Dara throws daggers at
him in response.  Bart ducks, and the second Logrus master saves him with
a force field.  Bart panics and sends Dara to Amber.

	The invasion alarms go off during lunch in Amber.  Ahab, Ariana,
Felix, etc., arrive in the main hall and find several bloodied guards and
pages.  Ahab runs for the room where the Jewel is kept.  Ariana heads up
to the infirmary, to check on the injured.  As she reaches the top of the
stairs, her ring goes nuts, so she throws herself to one side and rolls. 
The back of her head is clawed by something invisible, and she is slammed
against the wall, leaving her a bit stunned and bleeding from the head. 
Felix catches up to her and asks her if she's all right.  She says she is,
stands up and chases after Dara.  Dara is moving faster, however.  She
continues to slash her way through guards and pages on her way to the
infirmary, moving too erratically for Ariana to predict her course
accurately enough to get a shot off at her.  Felix, lacking armor, decides
to stay out of the fray.  He Trumps Benedict, but can't get through.  He
has better luck reaching Deirdre, however, and pulls her through.  She
speeds past Ariana.  Dara spots Deirdre in pursuit and bypasses the
infirmary, heading up another flight of stairs.  Ahab finally reaches the
Jewel and uses it to scoop Dara up in a Shadow pocket full of spikes. 
Deirdre swears as Dara disappears.  Ahab is able to use Pattern lens to
see Dara flying above the spikes in the Shadow pocket.  He increase
gravity.  There is some blood, then she turns liquid.  Ahab brings in some
anti- matter, which eliminates the problem with a nice bang.  Felix begins
tending to the injured, but all of them are mortally wounded.  Ariana
heals her head injury enough to stop the bleeding, then tries to heal the
pages.  She eventually passes out from the effort, but manages to save
five of them.

	Lyss asks Bart what he did.  Sent the problem to someone else. 
Lyss is horrified and goes back to Amber, while Bart rejoins the others
and works on spells.  Lyss appears by Ahab as he's heading for Dara's last
location.  She asks what happened.  He tells her that Dara stopped by and
killed 20 or 30 people.  Oh.  She'll be going, now.  When she returns,
Bart asks her to show him a place full of Pattern, so he can teleport Dara
there in the future.  Lyss has very little to say to him.

	Usires' patrol spies an armada in the distance, flying Ivan's
flag.  The armada spots his fleet as well, and heads towards him.  Usires
Trumps Caine and tells him about the armada.  Caine tells him to run hard
towards port, then Trumps Ahab and relays the information.  Ahab wants to
send reinforcements.  Already seen to.  Ahab Trumps Caine back to confirm
the call was valid.

	Reeshau pays the shifter to teach him the spell.  After an hour,
he knows how to shift between Dexter and Foil, if the gates were not
closed.  Alex takes control and shifts to Faerie form, telling Mebd to do
the same.  She does, and her horn returns.  She also regains much of her
common sense.  They shift to Dexter, and Mebd eats to her heart's content. 
They try to leave with more food, but it turns to dust when they do so. 
Mebd is unhappy about leaving Dexter, since she just feels better there. 
Alex decides to leave her in there and returns to Amber.  He is unhappy to
discover that magic and Logrus have been turned off.

	Felix Trumps Merlin later in the afternoon, and tells him that
Bleys has agreed to help.  Merlin is glad to hear that.  Felix finds
Ariana and the children she managed to save, and has them all brought to
the infirmary.

	Ahab talks to Brand about what he's doing.  Unfortunately, Brand
can't monitor Dara's Trump artist, since he doesn't know what the person
looks like.  Ahab is worried that he/she may have contacted people other
than Ariadne.  Admittedly, they could only affect someone less mentally
powerful than they are, but that includes many.  Ahab wants this checked
into.  Brand points out that to do what he's doing, interruptions are
counterproductive.  Fine, then get to work.

	Ahab talks to Fiona next, mentioning that Brand made him aware
that no magic means no pervasive monitoring of Trump.  So, he's concerned
that damage may have already been done to the weak minded, including him. 
Fiona says she'll scan him.  Can she do this for the others?  Yes, but
it'll be labor intensive.  Who does he want her to scan first?  Those who
will be involved in what they planned last night.  She'll get a hold of
Llewella, Felix and Caine, then.  He'll ask them to meet in his quarters
at five.  In the meantime, she can work on the others.  Ahab also wants
Julian checked out right away, since he guards the perimeter of Amber.

	The enemy armada gains on Usires' fleet with unnatural speed. 
Then the wind stops entirely for Usires' ships, and Usires displays his
ability to curse in two languages.  His men are impressed.  Usires Trumps
Caine and fills him in.  Caine says he'll do what he can to buy Usires
some time, and Trumps Ahab.  He asks Ahab to whip up a wind to blow his
reinforcements out of the harbor.  Ahab's on it.

	Ariana wakes up in the infirmary, and finds Nicholas helping move
people around.  She says he shouldn't be up.  He points out that she
shouldn't be either, but agrees to rest if she does.  He thinks her
pushing herself the way she did is hypocritical, after all the time she's
spent telling him to rest.  She points out that nothing bad will happen if
she expends too much energy, while he can further hurt his leg by walking
on it before it's healed.  He asks what happened, and she tells him about
the invisible creature.  She's not sure what it was.  Felix walks by, so
Ariana asks if he's OK.  He is.  How did he get his sunburn?  He doesn't
want to talk about it.  Ariana realizes that when the creature clawed her
head, it cut off most of her hair on one side.

	The enemy flagship sets a ramming course for Usires' flagship. 
Caine Trumps Usires, comes through, looks around, and remarks that Usires
is going to get hurt before the rest of the fleet arrives.  They are
rammed at this point, and the fighting commences.  As Usires hacks along,
he spots Ivan heading in his direction.  Ivan attacks Usires with his
staff.  Usires blocks this with his sword, and his arm goes numb from the
strength of the blow.  He shifts his defensive tactics from blocking to
avoidance.  He gets a Trump call, which he attempts to ignore, but Fiona
pushes her way through, then sees that he's busy and breaks the contact. 
Usires suffers a glancing blow from Ivan because of the distraction.  Hey,
at least he didn't lose his legs.

	Fiona Trumps Alex, has him come through to her, then shows him
Ahab's writ, which gives her permission to check everyone's psychic
integrity.  This concerns Alex, of course, but he goes along with it. 
Fiona comments that he's a bit crowded in there.  Yep.  Reeshau is quite
afraid of her, and tries a shower spell, to no avail.  Fiona is amused by
the fact that he's supposed to be celibate.  She releases Alex's hand and
asks how this happened.  He has no idea.  Do they ever take control?  Oh,
no.  Fiona doesn't seem to believe either answer.

	Fiona Trumps Ahab to make sure he knows that Usires is under
attack.  Yep.

	Ariana checks on the kids she healed, then falls asleep.  Nicholas
tries to use this opportunity to sneak out.  Ahab is found by one of the
nurses, who explains that Lady Ariana told them that Nicholas shouldn't be
walking around, and they were to tell Ahab if he did.  Ahab Trumps
Nicholas and tells him to go to sleep.  He has bone fragments that need to
heal.  Nicholas complains that Ariana put Ahab up to this.  Not
officially.  Ahab has spies everywhere.  And if he spot checks, and finds
that Nicholas isn't sleeping, he'll beat him until he is.  Said with a
smile, of course.

	Ahab meets with Felix.  He explains that Gramble's loaned him a
talented shapeshifter, and he needs Felix to spend a couple of days not
looking like himself.  Is there a reason for this?  Yes, but Ahab doesn't
want to share all of it, since Felix could be brainraped.  This shouldn't
endanger him at all.  So, who's going to be Felix?  Ahab just smiles. 
He's going to have Fiona check Felix out, since Dara's Trump artist was
unsupervised for a while, through Ahab's carelessness.  Felix should try
not to act like himself while he's being imitated.  Ahab can send him to
sea as an ordinary sailor, if he'd like.  Felix is uneasy about the idea. 
Ahab says he trusts the shapeshifter.  Fiona arrives while Ahab is
reassuring Felix, and asks Ahab if everything is on schedule.  Yep.  Lady
Reyne is announced at this point.  Caine is late, however.  Ahab figures
they can do the first bit without Caine, and tells Fiona to go ahead. 
Felix gives her his hand very reluctantly.  After a moment, Fiona catches
Ahab's eyes and nods slightly.  Felix has the sudden urge to escape, pulls
away, and runs from the room, plowing through the guards.  Ahab brings
Pattern to mind, and orders Felix to stop.  He does.  Fiona says that was
cold.  He begs her pardon.  She does so, then gives him a dirty look. 
Ahab orders Felix to let Fiona finish.  When she is done, Felix realizes
that he was duped, and hands them the Trump he was given, explaining that
"Caine" gave it to him.  Fiona's eyes sparkle.

	Ahab Trumps Caine, who tells him that the reinforcements are just
appearing, so the enemy is beginning to retreat.  Ahab gets the Jewel and
makes the wind blow the armada into Caine's fleet.  Someone attempts to
counter this with sorcery, until Ahab turns off magic.  Then Logrus comes
into play.  Ahab snuffs the Logrus user with Pattern, and they take a
little nap.  Ivan picks up Dara and Trumps out before Ahab can turn off
Trump.

	Felix Trumps Merlin and explains that he's going to be unavailable
for a little while, so Merlin should deal with Bleys directly.  Fiona
raises an eyebrow, so Felix explains his theory that Ivan is Gerard. 
Fiona likes this thought not at all, since Benedict is also incommunicado,
and could have been turned against Amber as well.

	Lady Reyne gives Felix long, flowing black hair, a handlebar
mustache, brown eyes, an olive complexion, and a thinner build.  She also
makes him six inches taller, and removes a few teeth.  He has many
tattoos, and both ears are pierced, as are his nipples.  Felix asks Ahab
to speak with Isabeux and Tamaryn, since he promised not to do anything
stupid.  Fiona conjures him some better fitting clothes.  He's to report
to the docks for duty tomorrow morning.  Lady Reyne hands him four
earrings, causing him to flush a bit.  Ahab offers to have Fiona fix
things so that Felix doesn't accidentally slip up as to who he is. 
They'll need a new name for him, of course.  Ahab suggests Jesus, since
Felix has been reborn.  Fiona fixes it so Felix thinks of Jesus as his
name, and tells him to turn his pin on, to avoid being Trumped. 
Felix/Jesus changes clothes, then Fiona deposits him down on the docks.

	Ahab Trumps Tamaryn and informs her that Felix is on a mission for
him for the next couple of days.  Felix was afraid that she'd think he'd
run off to do something stupid, so this is to reassure her that he hasn't. 
Tamaryn is intrigued, but doesn't ask.  Ahab Trumps Isabeux, and relays
the same news.  Isabeux nods, but is obviously a wreck.  Ahab assures her
Felix isn't in danger, and he's doing his best on the other matter.

	Bart is Trumped.  He resists, but it is insistent.  He asks Lyss
to stash him in a Shadow pocket with no Trump for a while.  When she pulls
him out, Fiona is standing there with her arms crossed.  Bart looks
sheepish, says he didn't mean to do it, and he's much better prepared this
time.  For what?  Oh, nothing.  She gives him Ahab's writ.  Bart hands it
back and says that if Ahab wants a confession out of him, he can't have
it.  A confession for what?  He'll send them somewhere else, next time. 
Who?  Oh.  Ooops.  Fiona asks what he did.  Bart asks why his psychic
integrity is in question.  Well, he may have been Trumped by Dara, and not
know it.  He assures her that he didn't receive the call.  She has to look
anyway.  He is unable to persuade her otherwise, and she goes through his
mind.  When she's done, she asks where the drawing he did of her is.  It
doesn't matter, since the image is forever imprinted in his mind.  Oh, in
that case, he can give her his hand.  Uh, no.

	Fiona contacts Ahab and asks him to join her.  Bart asks Lyss for
the pearl.  She asks why he wants it.  He begins begging her for it when
Ahab arrives.  Ahab tells Lyss not to give it to him.  Bart arghs, and
then disappears.  Ahab asks what's going on.  Fiona will only say that she
needs to erase something from Bart's mind.  Ahab wants to know what. 
Fiona offers to exchange favors.  Like the removal of his monogram.  Lyss
looks unhappy, so Ahab asks what's going on.  She doesn't want to say. 
Fiona says that what Bart knows is personal.  Ahab gives Fiona a hug, and
asks what she needs him for.  To make him force Bart to let her into his
mind.  Ah.  If Bart is in the Disc, neither of them can reach him there,
but he has to come out sometime.  Ahab asks Lyss if Fiona's personal thing
is what she was thinking of.  No.  Ahab warns Fiona that he will find out
as a result of assisting her.  She lets slip that it's an image, but
that's all she'll say.  Ahab asks Lyss how things are going.  Well, she
thinks they've managed to get rid of one of them.  Any major problems? 
There were a few glitches.  Does she need anything more?  Someone besides
the Hellmaids, who knows what they're doing.  They need a leader.  Ahab
will try to think of something.

	Bart reappears, and Fiona bristles.  Bart says he's ready to make
his report, despite Lyss' urging him not to.  Lyss begins concentrating. 
Ahab tells her to stop.  She says she has, but she hasn't.  Ahab walks up
to her and orders her to stop.  She says no, in a very small voice.  Ahab
gets her to promise that she won't stop Bart or him, then tells Bart to
continue.  Bart explains how he botched things up.  Ahab's face goes flat
when he learns Bart was the one who sent Dara to Amber, and he tells Bart
to get out of his sight.  Lyss makes him vanish.  Ahab tells Fiona that
she'll have to handle Bart on her own, since if he sees Bart again, he'll
kill him.  Fiona nods, and sends him back to Amber.

	Ahab instructs his guards that Bart is not permitted in the
castle.  Then he meets with Caine, and explains that Felix has been
handled.  Caine is brought to Lady Reyne, who makes him look like Felix. 
Fiona is summoned to check Caine out.  He's fine.  Fiona takes her leave,
since she has a Shadow pocket to open.  Caine checks out his new form.  He
and Ahab plan to have a big, public fight over Felix going after Gerard. 
Caine wants it to come to blows.  Ahab agrees to let him land one punch,
but Caine will owe him a favor afterwards.  Since the Chaosites think
Caine is tracking Dara's Trump artist, "Felix" should get nibbled on right
quick.  He'll have Fiona's backing, of course, along with Ahab's.

	Alex inspects the carnage from Dara's attack, and does nothing
else in particular until dinner.

	Ahab goes out into Shadow, and begins creating some personal hells
in Shadow pockets.

	Bart is in a nice, warm, fuzzy Shadow pocket, when Fiona shows up. 
He screams.  She asks how they'll resolve this impasse.  He promises not
to tell anyone.  This won't stop anyone like her from rifling through his
mind.  He says there's no one like her.  She tells him to cut the crap,
and offers to wall off the image, so that no one else will be able to come
across it.  He looks skeptical.  She threatens to dangle him in front of
Ahab.  Bart doesn't think it was his fault that Ahab gave him a job he was
unqualified for.  Fiona points out there were 15 deaths, three of them
children.  Bart looks disturbed by that, and sits down.  Fiona suggests
rigging that spell to teleport Dara on the Pattern, next time.  Bart's
taken care of that.  Fiona tells him not to feel too bad.  The first time
she messed up, 200 people died.  Of course, they weren't real.  Bart
argues that he shouldn't have been ordered on this mission, since he
doesn't have much power.  Fiona tells him that the amulet is pretty
powerful, and suggests he spend some time investigating it, or give it to
her.  Did he try touching it or playing with it when it changed?  He
smiles.  She slaps him and tells him to stop that.  Bart says they walked
right into Dara's trap.  Fiona points out they were send out as a
distraction, after all.  Bart reveals that Pari gave the amulet to him,
and tells Fiona what he said.  Fiona thinks he should be careful when he
investigates the amulet, since Pari is a rather large question mark.  Bart
agrees to let Fiona set up her barrier, which she does.  He also tells her
where the drawing is.  She lets him keep it, on the grounds that if Suhuy
finds out about it, the consequences are on Bart's head.  Bart decides to
destroy it.  Fiona calls him a complete and utter slut.  Well, he is a
half-Jesby/half-Rebman...  Fiona decides she isn't going to help him get
out of the Shadow pocket.

	Fiona Trumps Ahab and comes through.  She explains that Bart has
an artifact that he received from Pari.  It's very powerful, and Bart has
no idea how to use it.  Pari is a bit of a mystery.  Ahab agrees.  Fiona
thinks that, if a couple of her theories on Pari are true, that artifact
may be all they need to wrap things up.  Oh?  She asks what Ahab's
theories on Pari are.  Ahab noted that Oberon seemed to be unsure as to
whether he was more powerful than Pari, so he's either a sibling, a peer,
Dworkin, or the Unicorn.  Fiona leans towards that last one.  Ahab would
rather solve the Dara problem some other way, if possible.  Why go begging
to the Unicorn for assistance?  Fiona points out that they already have
the assistance.  True.  A discussion ensues as to why Ahab is annoyed at
the Unicorn.  He blames it for the problems between Deirdre and Dworkin. 
Fiona argues that it was helping Deirdre.  Well, if it wants to apologize,
fine, otherwise, fuck it.  Fiona can look into it, if she wants to.  She
does.  She compliments him on his private hells.  He puts a few finishing
touches on them, then returns to the castle.

	Bart begins to investigate the pendant, which is no longer black. 
He finds energies coming from it that he's never seen before.  It's an odd
combination of Pattern and Logrus.

	Ariana wakes up, Trumps Mirelle, and makes sure her own kids are
all right.  She finishes healing the pages and herself, then notices that
Nicholas is sleeping, while Meander is awake and eating soup.  She
explains what happened to Meander.  Meander will try healing himself in a
day or two.  Ariana's curious to see if that works, since her own healing
ability can't affect the injury.  She washes the blood out of her hair and
clothes, and uses her healing ability to regrow her missing hair, before
returning to Vetchways to spend some time with her kids.  She returns to
Amber for dinner, hoping to find Usires there.

	Felix glowers at Ahab through much of dinner.  Ariana asks Felix
if he knows what it was that they fought earlier.  Nope.  Ahab explains
that it was Dara.  Felix inquires as to Ahab's future plans.  Ahab plans
to sit tight, except for the Dara posses.  What about Gerard and Benedict? 
Can't spare the manpower, right now.  Felix stands, as does Ahab.  Ariana
asks Foster psychically if he can stop Felix.  Is she crazy?  Felix
insists that he's going, and it doesn't break his oath.  Ahab brings up
the exploding gunpowder barrel incident.  Felix is upset, and makes to
leave.  Ahab grabs him by the ear.  Felix spins and slugs Ahab across the
chin, then storms out.  Ahab tells his guards to stand down, and says that
he can't spare anyone to go after Felix.  Brand announces that Felix just
Trumped out.  Ahab says that anyone going out in Shadow needs a Logrus
user, a sorcerer, and a Pattern user to be safe from Dara.  Foster says he
has two out of three.  Ariana offers him her assistance as well, but
Foster doesn't like this idea.  Ahab reminds Foster that he needs his
knowledge of assassination, so he knows how to defend against Dara's
assassins.  Foster looks like this will make him delay a bit.  Tamaryn is
chewing her lower lip, though, and Ariana doesn't look happy, either. 
Ariana Trumps Felix, but can't get through.

	After dinner, Ariana uses the Trump she was given by "Riftvan,"
and passes along what Ahab said his plans were at dinner, including the
fact that he isn't going to go after Gerard, Benedict or Felix.  Then she
seeks out Tamaryn, and they discuss possible ways of finding Felix. 
Tamaryn says Felix's pin prevents her from locating him with sorcery. 
They decide to ask the Trump artists if they can trace where Felix went. 
Brand says he doesn't know, and is too busy to help.  Fiona doesn't answer
her Trump.  Bleys says he can help, and brings them through, then shows
Ariana Ahab's writ.  Ariana allows him to scan her, once he assures her
that he won't be going through her memories.  While he is doing so, Ariana
notices that Tamaryn has moved, although Ariana has no memory of her doing
so.  Bleys assures her that it's just a side effect of what he was doing,
and that she's fine.  Ariana remains unconvinced.

	Ahab sends a note out to those who talked of going after Felix,
telling them that he doesn't want people going off alone in Shadow, where
Dara can pick them off.  Everyone will need to work together to defeat
Dara, and he needs them all close by right now.  He has a plan, though,
and he promises he won't leave Felix and the others out there any longer
than necessary.

	Ariana receive Ahab's note, frowns, and shows it to Tamaryn, who
frowns as well.  Ariana asks Bleys where Felix went when he Trumped out.
Bleys asks if she's still planning to go after him.  Maybe.  She primarily
wants to know because if he went someplace safe, it would ease her mind.
Bleys says determining Felix's arrival point is beyond his ability, and
suggests that she ask Brand or Fiona.

	Jesus goes and gets plastered on tequila.  He wakes up in bed in
the wee hours with three happy women, so naturally he wanders back to the
docks to sign up on a ship.  He spots Usires' fleet arriving back in
Amber, along with some extra ships from Ivan's fleet.

	Usires finds a private spot and uses the Trump "Caine" gave him to
inform Dara's Trump artist of the state of the fleet.  They are pleased
with his information.


Quotables:

"Not that I don't trust Nimue, you understand, but I don't trust her." --
Ahab to Fiona

"(Alex) is talking, of course he doesn't mean it." -- Matt to the group at
large

"If you kill yourself now, I can't play with you later." -- Fiona to Ahab

"The Pattern has eaten our daughter.  Don't be alarmed." -- Ahab to Kimdyl

"How do (the inhabitants of Foil) have time to develop good cooking, if
they kill everyone off?" -- Mebd
"Foreign chefs." -- Reeshau

"It's not my fault that I screwed up a job I was totally unqualified for."
-- Bart
"I would advise against taking that tack with Ahab." -- Fiona

"You block (Ivan's) blow, and your arm goes numb." -- GM
"OK, I switch hands." -- Usires

"It's the only thing I've ever figured out." -- Felix to Fiona

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