From Kris.Fazzari@um.cc.umich.edu Sun Oct 10 23:57:39 1993 Date: Sun, 10 Oct 93 21:27:32 EDT From: Kris.Fazzari@um.cc.umich.edu To: thari@umich.edu Subject: Kris' Campagin Log Chapter 16 Alex summons the Logrus and blows up his room. The explosion trashes the sitting room, the water closet, the small library and most of Mandor's room. It also takes out part of the floor in both Brand's and Heather's rooms. The explosion catches Mandor and Heather in the act. Ahab hears the explosion as he is leaving Deirdre's room and races to the scene. He is very amused by Mandor and Heather's state of undress and trumps Llewella to tell her about it. She won't come through to see for herself, but she thanks Ahab for the information. Mandor shifts to Chaos form, which looks like a giant, bipedal cat, and glares at Ahab. Ahab resolves not to turn his back on Mandor for a while. Heather checks Medb out and finds she is not badly hurt. She summons her protective bodysuit and gets dressed. Felix trumps Gerard and brings him through in his nightshirt. Gerard and Mandor examine Alex (what's left of him, anyway), and Gerard asks for something firm and hard. Felix picks up a door and hands it to Gerard. They set about securing Alex to it. Brand jumps down through the hole in his floor and starts poking around in the rubble. Ariana arrives and examines Medb. She finds that Medb has bruised ribs and a broken arm. Gerard and Mandor finish fastening Alex to the door and carry him out of the room. Shard looks down through the hole in Brand's floor. Jasra comes out of another room and asks what's going on. Shard tells her that there's been an explosion. Jasra looks disgusted and says that's obvious. Shard throws a pillow down at Felix to get his attention. Jasra tells him that it was her best pillow, and suggests he go get it. She pushes him over the edge of the hole to hurry him along. Fortunately for Shard, Felix catches him. Brand sees this and frowns up at Jasra. Jasra turns and heads back into the room she emerged from. Heather blocks the Medb's pain while Ariana sets her arm. When she is done, Ariana smells a faint trace of the Logrus. She asks if anyone knows what Alex was doing before the explosion. No one is certain. She asks if the Logrus could have caused an explosion of that size. When asked why, she explains that she has detected evidence of the Logrus in the room. Felix decides to get a wagon to load the rubble into. Driscoll carries Medb to a bed in Eris' room, with Heather following behind. Ariana says that someone should warn Mandor that the Logrus may be dangerous to use. Mandor walks in and catches the tail end of this, so Ariana tells him of her suspicions. Mandor looks thoughtful and releases one of his spheres, which makes Ahab look rather uneasy. He tells Ariana that he has some errands to run in shadow, and asks her to trump him if he's needed. She asks him if anything of interest happened before she arrived, so he tells her about Mandor and Heather. Mandor gives Ahab an annoyed look and says that gentlemen don't tell. Ariana replies that Ahab isn't a gentleman. Ahab departs. Mandor retrieves his sphere and tells Random that the explosion was caused by a spell. He also says that Brand could have told them as much. He and Brand engage in a private conversation. Shard starts clearing rubble. Felix brings the cart in and starts loading rubble into it. Ariana stands there for a moment and admires his physique. Felix notices this, declares that he doesn't want to get his shirt dirty, and takes it off. Ariana appreciates this even more. Driscoll returns from getting Medb settled and joins in the rubble clearing effort. After admiring the men for a little while longer, Ariana asks if Felix thinks Gerard will need her help. He's not sure and suggests that she check at the infirmary. He also asks that she tell Gerard that he doesn't need to come back for Medb. Ariana walks to the infirmary. She joins Gerard in watching Alex's body ripple and shift. She notices that Alex's body appears to be shifting bones back into place and asks how he is able to do that. Gerard has no idea. Random turns the rubble clearing over to the castle engineers, so Felix goes to the infirmary. He is disturbed by the way Alex's body is shifting. Ariana and Felix talk for a little while, eventually discussing Jasra. Felix guesses that only someone with an even fouler mood than Brand could marry him. Gerard hears this and gives Felix a look that indicates he's not happy with this topic of conversation. Felix looks confused. Gerard suggests that Ariana and Felix go to bed. Just to make Gerard nervous, Ariana gives Felix a significant look and says that would be a good idea. Gerard is not happy at all about the implication. Ariana goes to bed. Shortly after she leaves the infirmary, Shard arrives. He asks Felix how Alex is doing. Felix makes some comment about Alex's body rippling so much, that it's almost like water. He says that one might even be able to sail on it. Shard doesn't quite know what to make of this. He asks Felix how Medb is doing. Felix tells him that she was taken to Eris' room, so Shard heads down there. Heather answers his knock on the door. He asks her how Medb is doing. She says that Medb will be all right, given time. He offers to get something for her, but she declines. Shard goes to bed. Felix goes to his mother's room and tells her what's been going on. Then he showers and goes to bed. Ahab returns to Amber at about 5 a.m. He sleeps in until 7:00. Alex wakes up in the wee hours of the morning. He tries to remember what happened to him. He recalls trying to call the Logrus, and blowing his mind up. He figures he must have set off some kind of spell. He tries to moan, but it comes out as a gurgle. He tries to reform his throat, which hurts immensely. He gurgles again, which causes Gerard to stir. His final gurgle wakes Gerard up. Gerard looks surprised to see that Alex is awake. He wrings out a cloth with warm water and places it on Alex's forehead. He suggests that Alex get some rest. Medb wakes up around 6 in the morning. She asks what happened. Heather explains that Alex's head blew up, but he's recovering. Medb doesn't understand how he could be getting better if he doesn't have a head. Heather says he's growing another one. This makes Medb quite hysterical. Felix hears the commotion and knocks on the door. When he gets no answer, he starts pounding even harder. Heather eventually shouts at him to come in. Heather keeps scaring Medb by saying she saw Alex's head explode. Ariana hears the noise and decides to investigate. She and Felix try to calm Medb down. Medb asks for some claret, which Heather gives her. Felix lectures Heather about frightening Medb and for giving her alcohol. Heather gets annoyed and yells at Felix to shut up. Felix leaves. Ariana hears Medb complain about having double-vision, which indicates that Medb has a concussion. She gives Heather instructions on how to care for Medb, then heads to the infirmary and looks in on Alex. She and Gerard discuss how they are going to feed Alex, since most of his internal organs are probably not functioning properly. Medb's screams wake up Ahab and Shard, but they opt to ignore the noise. Felix goes down to breakfast. When she is done talking with Gerard, Ariana heads down to breakfast as well. Ahab sends a page to request an audience with Flora. The page returns telling him that he can see her on her terrace. Ahab thanks Flora for reuniting him with his mother and gives her some flowers. She asks what has been learned about the explosion last night. He tells her what he knows. He mentions the screaming he heard earlier, but he says he's sure it's been taken care of. Flora serves him some fruit. Ahab mentions that, while riding through shadow, he found a means for getting revenge on Heather, but he wants to delay the implementation, since he feels it would be in poor taste to go after her while her servant is injured. Shard and Ariana both arrange to have breakfast sent up for Heather and Medb. Heather is happy to see the food. Felix asks to have food sent up for Gerard. He wants to have food sent up for Alex, but Ariana tells him that's not a good idea. Martin comes in and joins Ariana and Felix. They fill him in on last night's explosion. Shard comes in and joins them. Ariana tells Martin about Mandor and Heather. Ahab walks in at this point. Ariana asks Martin what happened when he trumped back to Amber. Martin says that after he got back, he was unable to contact the others. Ahab joins the others at the table The conversation takes a more...guttural turn. Most of this goes right over Shard's head. Alex wakes up and tries to speak again. Gerard comes over and asks how he feels. Alex groans. Gerard suggests he get more rest. Alex asks if anyone else was injured. Gerard mentions that Medb was, and Alex grimaces. Ahab mentions that he came across a shadow with large explosions. He has to explain a lot of the terminology he's using to Ariana. Martin takes out a trump and disappears. Ariana and Ahab talk psychically. He tells her about his plan to get revenge on Heather. He found the paperwork to bring a mechanized airborne division into Heather's shadow, and he's planning on using it to scare her. He also tells Ariana about his mother's injury. Ariana expresses her sympathy. Ahab leaves to bring some breakfast up to Deirdre. Shard goes to Driscoll's room to see Heather, but Heather has already asked Martin to help her move Medb to the infirmary. Shard heads in that direction also and asks for her help in getting Battlestar back. She trumps him to Finch manor. As Ahab heads up to Deirdre's room, he spots Dworkin coming out of Deirdre's room. Dworkin sees Ahab as well. Ahab greets him, but Dworkin just grumbles and walks off. Ahab goes up to the door and thinks he hears something. He knocks, but Deirdre tells him that now is not a good time. He says that the coffee will get cold. She is surprised that he's brought her breakfast, and asks him to give her moment. Four or five minutes later, she invites him in. She smiles as he walks in, which throws Ahab off for a minute. He also notices that her eyes are red. He says that she's awfully chipper this morning and asks if she had a good talk with her grandfather. She says that he comes to visit her from time to time. Ahab figures she's hiding something from him, so he tells her that he's arrogant and pigheaded but not stupid. She says that it's nothing that he needs to concern himself with. He tells her that they will need to talk about that someday. She retorts that it will be a short talk, since she determines what he needs to know. He says that it's odd that she is so cheerful this morning when she was so depressed last night. She replies that she is subject to mood swings right now. He asks what was said, but she says it doesn't matter. He answers that her happiness concerns him, which seems to affect her for a moment. He says that they don't need to play games, since they are on the same side. He tries to persuade her to tell him what's going on, since it might affect him. She finally tells him that these things are better explained out in shadow. She also urges him to stay away from Dworkin. He asks if that is good advice or a matter of security. She tells him again to stay away from Dworkin, saying it's not a request, it's an order. Ahab says psychically that that's one of those things that will have to be explained later, but for now, he will listen.