Chapter 8 Not really wanting to explain how Shard has just disappeared with Brand, Ariana defers Battlestar's question to Corwin's greater expertise. Corwin lies through his teeth and tells Battlestar that he saw Shard elsewhere. Much to their relief, Battlestar trots off. Ahab decides that he wants to take a look at the library in Chaos and wanders off. Corwin walks away as well, and Ariana notices him talking with a teenager who bears a striking resemblance to Corwin. Shard looks around and finds himself in hospital-like room with Heather, Mandor, and Brand, who has just been frozen (thanks to a spell from Mandor). Shard decides that he really doesn't want to hang around and says that he will be leaving now. Heather agrees, and hands him her trump sketch of Ariana. Shard doesn't know what to do with it, and starts walking for the door. Heather stops him and tells him to start staring at the trump. He does so, and eventually the image begins to move. After debating whether or not to take the trump call (after all, it could be Heather), Ariana answers and pulls Shard through. Shard fills Ariana in on what he saw after he disappeared. Ariana tells Shard that Battlestar is looking for him. Ariana notices Random, Gerard, Felix, Driscoll, and Martin appear where the elders and some Chaos lords are beginning to congregate. She and Shard ride over to join them. Felix gives Ariana a big bear hug and introduces her to Martin. She learns that Martin is another one of Random's children, which amuses her. As they are being escorted into the Courts, the Unicorn approaches. The male Amberites all fall on their knees. Corwin gives the Jewel to the Unicorn, who stares at the group for around five minutes, gives it to Random, and leaves. Random is shocked by this, to say the least. Felix talks with Martin and Driscoll. Ariana introduces herself to Merlin. Merlin seems to feel slightly out of place, and asks her not to introduce him to the others. Felix walks over and congratulates Random. The elders all pay fealty to Random and head into Courts, except for Corwin, Merlin and Random. Mandor gets a trump contact ordering him to return to the Courts. He tells Heather that he must be going. Heather is not happy to hear this and tells him to be careful. Mandor assures her that he's covered his tracks pretty well and leaves. Corwin, Merlin and Random join the others. Looking rather unhappy, Dara shows up and calls Merlin over to her. They both leave the area. Benedict starts laying out his strategy for the treaty. After three hours pass, the Amberites are taken to the Great Hall of the Courts. Swayvil, Mandor and Gramble are among the Chaos functionaries present. Half-way through the negotiations Dworkin shows up. None of the Chaos lords are happy to see him. He starts making extreme demands of Chaos, threatening them with the power of the Pattern if they do not comply. The Chaos lords are extremely displeased by this. The elder Amberites aren't too happy about this either, but none of them seems willing to oppose Dworkin. Eventually Random begins to speak up, and, much to the surprise of all present, Dworkin defers to him. The treaty is eventually resolved to state that Chaos will be on probation for a couple of decades. If they commit any acts of war during that time, Amber will come back in and finish what they started. Mandor is appointed to be the Chaos ambassador to Amber. Dworkin continues to do things to annoy Swayvil and the other Lords. When the treaty is completed, Swayvil strongly encourages everyone to leave. Bleys and Fiona create a trump gate back to Amber. Those with high psyche notice that Bleys still has his Spikard. Julian, Gerard, Caine, Benedict, Random, Corwin and Dworkin remain in Chaos. Dworkin walks over to Alex, who was shapeshifted to look like an Amber guard, and forces him to shift back. Swayvil is not happy to find someone from Chaos fighting on Amber's side. Mandor suggests that Alex would be another good candidate for ambassador, so Swayvil appoints Alex as well. Ariana is reluctant to leave Chaos without finding Ahab. Dworkin says that he'll take care of it, and orders her to leave. Ariana asks to talk to him at some later point and then goes through. The younger generation heads down to Bloody Jake's. Swayvil instructs Mandor and Alex to find out as much as they can about Amber and its weaknesses while they are acting as ambassadors. Mandor returns to his Ways and tells Heather what happened. He starts working on removing the crossbow bolts from Brand and patching him up. This takes him a good eight hours. With this accomplished, he removes the spell, and Brand begins breathing on his own. Mandor leaves for Amber. Heather trumps Bleys and asks him to care for Brand. Bleys is surprised that Brand is alive, but agrees to help. He tells her that he will trump her as soon as he has made arrangements. Many drinks are consumed at Jake's. Felix, Shard, Martin and Ariana get quite drunk. Driscoll is more restrained. Felix gets especially drunk, since Martin and Ariana keep pushing drinks on him. Felix does a foot stomping dance with Ariana. Ariana gets a little nervous about how close Felix's feet are coming to hers, so she vaults onto his shoulders and sits there for a while. Eventually Felix tires of dancing, so Ariana dances with Martin instead. Martin teaches her how to slam dance, making sure he throws in a lot of spins to get Ariana's skirt to fly up. Heather calls Bleys back. He says that he is ready and offers sanctuary to both Heather and Brand. Heather picks up Brand and comes through. Bleys takes Brand to a room in his Castle and inspects the wound. He seems rather surprised by something he sees, but says nothing about it to Heather. He then shows Heather to a room where she can stay. Alex uses the Logrus to transport himself to Amber. The guards are surprised by his appearance, especially when he says that he's from Chaos. They check with Random, who wants to see Alex. He is taken to see Random in the King's quarters. Alex mentions that he's hungry, so Random has some food brought up. They talk for a while. Random invites Alex to join the family at breakfast the next morning. Alex excuses himself and wanders around the Castle. He runs into Flora, who asks if everything is to his satisfaction. She also tells him where her room is, in case he needs anything. He mentions that he was just walking around, so she takes him on a tour of the gardens. After the tour is completed, he escorts Flora to her room and bids her goodnight. He then continues his own exploration of the Castle. Driscoll decides that it's time to go back to the Castle. Felix is distraught at being left alone with Ariana, Martin and Shard. Driscoll says that he's sure Felix can handle himself just fine and leaves. Felix tells Ariana that Ahab will be upset with her for flirting with Ahab. She asks him why, and he says that Ahab never really liked sharing his playthings. This pisses Ariana off, and after exchanging a few insults with Felix, she leaves. Martin follows her. He takes her down to the shoreline, and they do some naked swimming (and other things). At closing time, Felix and Shard pay the tab and head out of the bar. Felix trumps Driscoll and wakes him up. Driscoll points out that it's 4:00 in the morning, and suggests that the walk back to Amber might help clear their heads. Felix breaks the contact and decides to trump to the Main Hall instead. When he gets there he realizes that he's left Shard behind. He tells the guards that he's left Julian's son in town by mistake. The guards tell him they'll take care of it and urge him to go to bed. Satisfied that things are being taken care of, Felix does so. Since the guards have never heard of Julian having a son, they chalk the story up to Felix's drunkenness and do nothing. Finding himself alone, and not knowing how to get back to the Castle, Shard pulls out his sketch of Ariana and trumps her. Ariana, being somewhat busy with Martin, ignores it. Too drunk to think of anything else, Shard keeps trying. Eventually Ariana takes the contact and tells whoever it is to go away. Shard tells her that he needs directions to the Castle. Ariana tells him that she doesn't know how to get back there either, and breaks the contact. Shard stands there confused for a few minutes until Battlestar comes up, takes his hand, and leads him off. Heather trumps Mandor and tells him where she is staying. As she finishes the contact, Brand comes in and asks her who she was trumping. She asks if it is any of his business. Brand says that he guesses it isn't and leaves. Heather follows him out into the hall and tells him that he should be resting. Brand says he wants to leave soon. Heather doesn't want him to leave, and she says that Bleys doesn't want him to go either. Brand says that she can tell Bleys that she had no choice. She tries to read him, but is unsuccessful. She checks his wounds and is amazed to find that they are almost completely healed. As she is looking at him, his psyche changes so that he seems almost like a living trump, and then changes back. She asks Brand what he is planning to do when he leaves. Brand is uncertain, but he's thinking of throwing himself at Corwin's mercy. Heather tells him that Random is King now, and explains how it happened. Brand decides that this precludes his returning to Amber for a while, since he and Random don't get along. Brand decides to stay in Bleys' castle for the moment. They head down to the kitchen to get something to eat. Shard wakes up on the steps leading up to the main Castle entrance. He's not too sure on how he got there, and Battlestar isn't real helpful in clearing things up. Shard has a really bad hangover. He eventually gets to his feet and goes through the gate. The guards stop him and ask him who he is. Shard gives them his name and asks where Felix is. The guards ask if he's a friend of Felix's, which he says he is. He also asks them about Julian's whereabouts, and is happy to hear that he is in the forest. He asks about breakfast and they point him towards the Banquet Hall. Ariana and Martin wake up on the beach. Martin uses his trump of the Main Hall to bring them back to the Castle. They go to breakfast, where they find Shard looking rather unhappy. Ariana asks Shard how he got back to the Castle. Shard is still not to clear about this. Alex, Benedict, Bleys, Caine, Dierdre, Driscoll, Eris, Eric, Fiona, Flora, Llewella, Gerard, Isabeux, Medb, Random and Vialle eventually show up for breakfast. Felix comes down later, after the meal is underway. Martin asks Felix how much he remembers about the previous night, which turns out to be not much. Shard glares at Felix. Felix doesn't understand why until Ariana tells him that he abandoned Shard at Bloody Jake's. Felix apologizes, but Shard is still kind of annoyed with him. Martin, Ariana and Shard all mess with Felix's mind, by telling him that he got engaged the previous night. Driscoll eventually sets him straight, but not until Felix has gotten rather worried. Ariana and Shard both wish they had a trump deck. Martin says that they should ask their parents, which Shard thinks is a good idea, but Ariana doesn't. She points out that she doesn't know who her parents are, and glares down the table at the elders. Breakfast is proceeding apace when Dworkin suddenly appears. He asks who Shard is, and Shard tells him that he is Julian's son. He asks the same of Ariana, who says that she is ignorant of her parentage. Dworkin glares at the elders and says that it will be looked into. He then announces that he has decided that the family will be spending more time together in the Castle. As everyone wonders what this means, he proceeds to bring Julian, Corwin, Heather and Brand through to the table. All of them are very surprised to suddenly find themselves in Amber. Breakfast continues, with Dworkin eating rather messily, much to annoyance of Felix and Alex, who happen to be sitting next to him. The elders are all amazingly quiet. Once Dworkin finishes eating, he announces that he'll be moving his lab into the third floor of the Castle. As he leaves, he is approached by Corwin, and the two leave together. With Dworkin gone, Heather feels it's safe to leave. Medb follows her. Felix is really uncomfortable with Brand's continued presence. Ariana asks him what's bothering him, but he claims he's just lost his appetite. Brand offers to leave, but Felix says it's unnecessary. Brand says that he will relieve the others of the torment of his company and exits the room. Ariana asks to have a word with him and follows. She asks him about his behavior at Patternfall. Brand says that even without the Spikard, he has some mental problems. Ariana offers her assistance, if he needs it. He thanks her, but says that there is nothing she can do at the moment. Ariana returns to the Banquet Hall. She and Martin decide to look for Ahab. They are head for the stables to get some horses. Before they get there, Ariana recalls that she wanted to walk the Pattern again, in hopes of getting rid of her tattoos. Martin mentions that they could both do so, and then ask the Pattern to transport them to Ahab. Ariana thinks this is a good idea, so they head back into the Castle. Julian asks Shard if he is ready to walk the Pattern. Shard thinks that he is, so Julian takes him down to the Pattern room. Julian hears Martin and Ariana coming down the stairs and speeds up his pace. When Julian and Shard reach the Pattern room, Julian takes the key and locks the door. He gives Shard the appropriate instructions and instructs him have the Pattern transport him back to Julian when he reaches the center. After the usual difficulty, Shard reaches the center, and stands there for a moment, deciding what to do next. Martin and Ariana find the door locked, so Martin trumps them to the Main Hall of Rebma, and they go to the Pattern room there. Martin gives Ariana a trump of himself, to use once she reaches the center. Ariana walks the Pattern, which gets rid of her tattoos. She also notices that the difficulty level is opposite that found on the Amber Pattern. After reaching the center and catching her breath, she trumps Martin and pulls him through to her. He puts his arm around her and she has the Pattern transport them to Ahab. Medb follows Heather to her room and asks to be filled in on what's happened to Heather since she left. Heather apologizes for leaving Medb for so long. It seems that Medb is actually Heather's daughter. Medb says that she understands that it was necessary. She asks Heather if she could be brought back to Heather's shadow, since she has a lover there named Oscar. Otherwise, she claims she'll have to take Martin up on his offer. Heather asks her not to do that. They talk for a while, and then they leave to set Heather up for an interview with Random. Shard transports back to Julian, who looks rather proud of him. He gives him a deck of trump and warns him not to lose them. Then he trumps them both up to the Main Hall and they go get some lunch. Julian makes lunch himself, and answers Shard's questions about shadow. Driscoll, Felix and Alex talk for a while. Felix complains that Martin and Ahab are a bad influence on Ariana, and he doesn't understand why Martin treats Felix the way he does. Driscoll explains that it's a phase that Martin will probably outgrow, in a century or two. They make fun of Martin's mohawk. Alex excuses himself and goes looking for Random. Medb tells Heather that Random is ready to see her. Heather curtsies to Random, who looks uncomfortable and tells her not to bother with the formalities. Heather sits down and explains that she wanted to straighten out her status, since she had some problems with the prior administration. Random says that he was unaware of this and offers to start her off with a clean slate. He also asks if she's seen Ahab. She hasn't, but she doesn't seem unhappy to hear that he's missing. She asks if, given what happened at breakfast, she's free to come and go as she pleases. Random tells her to make herself at home. Heather makes another appointment with Random for the next day, and then returns to her room.