Patternfall, and all the history before it, occurred much as Corwin percieved in his chronicles-- but Corwin never knew of the cabal of Mirelle, Caine and Oberon, who all three worked together against Brand, Fiona and Bleys. Oberon was mostly a silent partner in the arrangement, as he had the broadest scope for understanding the myriad threats to Amber. Oberon worked directly through his alter ego of Ganelon, to observe Corwin and his children. Mirelle was the most active in tracking Brand down and neutralizing his forces, both before and after the fact.
After Patternfall, nearly 200 years pass, with Random as king. About 100 years after Patternfall, the Church of the Unicorn leaves Amber under the orders of Larik, Priest of Priests. Keir, Velvet, Desiré and Joaquim are born in Amber. Aeris is born in Rebma. Justin, Elaine and Christoph are born in shadow. Harlan is found by Avery and Fiona and brought to Amber, and after a misbegotten romance with a young noblewoman, is sent off on a fool's errand by Random to find Mirelle.
Additionally, the Knights of the Unicorn are founded by Benedict. Keir, the Crown Prince, is made a knight, cementing loyalties between Benedict and the Heir. Joaquim, after a wild childhood and a destructive adolesence, is given over to Benedict's care, to either become a Knight or to die in the process.
In the city, Eve is born to Irenna, a tavern wench; Irenna is unable to pin down the identity of Eve's father. Eve eventually falls in love with Martin (disguised as a simple nobleman). Through the strange circumstances of fate, Martin never finds out that Eve has a daughter by him; both think the other is dead, until one day, Brianna meets an old friend of her father's and decides to walk the Pattern. Eve follows her and discovers she as well has royal heritage.
Chapter One: Jihad
Harlan locates Elaine; he discovers Mirelle had deliberately had a child by the Danjani Emperor in shadow, and then taken the child to live in Glorethien, possibly in the hope that when the child grew up she would unite the two enemy races.
Elsewhere, Christoph is seduced by Claudia; she steals the watch given to him by his mother. His mother had told him that it "belonged to his grandfather." Three symbols were engraved on the watch: a rose, a moon and an unidentifiable sygil.
Elaine eventually consents to go to Amber with Harlan, after several attempts on her life. Christoph is fetched out of shadow by Joaquim and Desiré.
Keir meets with King Random, his father, and with Joaquim, his brother. He tells them about a threat to Amber from the Church of the Unicorn.
Vialle, Keir and Desiré have all been experiencing dreams and visions of blood flowing the Pool of Dreams, or over a precipice in the Tir.
A party is sent from Amber to retrieve Christoph's personal effects; Desiré is kidnapped by a strange man bearing two Pattern artifacts, named Robert. Des is apparently rescued by a Claudia, who attempts to implicate Caine in a conspiracy against Amber. Desiré is returned to Amber. With this information in hand, Benedict sends Des and Joaquim to find Caine, which they do; he was in company with Gerard, playing pirate games. All four return to Amber.
Elaine decides to take the Pattern, alone. She is almost over-run by a mysterious, cloaked figure, but the figure walks right through her and finishes his Pattern walk, and vanishes. Later, Elaine returns to her home shadow, where she is confronted by a Danjani, who says he is the cousin of the dead Danjani emperor and asks about Elaine's mother. Elaine hedges, and the elf says that he thinks he knew her mother, but then falls with an arrow in his throat, as another almost find Elaine. Harlan appears and knocks the would-be assassin from a tree, killing him. All the assassin bears that might be identifying is a Liran coin. Elaine later questions Harlan, and discovers that she is in fact the child of the former Danjani emperor. They also examine the items Jero took from Raj (another would-be assassin), and discover a stone enchanted to find Elaine, a dragon's blood stone, and note written in the high religious script of Chaos-- all of which Jero industriously had identified by Fiona when they were last in Amber.
Desiré begins to have visions about a dark-haired man with memory problems.
Christoph takes Fiona up on her invitation to visit him at the Library at Memnos. He doesn't really find out anything useful, but Brianna did follow him. Avery is assigned to return Brianna to Amber.
Keir trumps Joaquim to explain his plan to kill a 3000 year old dragon, so Joaquim knocks his brother over the head, gives him into Desire's keeping, and coerces Harlan into joining him on Keir's planned mission. Joaquim and Harlan manage to kill the dragon, barely, though both are severely wounded in the attempt. Elaine is called in by Benedict to watch over his wounded squires. Harlan tells Elaine about his childhood and of his certain, destructive power.
After healing, Joaquim retrieves a Pattern sword from the dragon's horde, and gives it to Harlan.
Desiré takes a trip into shadow, towards Corwin's pattern, looking for clues about her mysterious dream-man. She is attacked by demons; but fortunately for her, Keir was following close behind, and also, a monkish person named Mica found her and tended her wounds. Thinking he may be a cousin, they take him back to Amber.
Sometime that evening, Joaquim meets Avery, has a practice duel with her, and puts her up in his suite before going to take Keir's bed. Keir, thusly thrown out of his room, declares his affections for Desiré.
The next morning Joaquim is given the assignment of giving Sorcha, a mercenary captain apparently in the employ of the government of Alanhame, a tour of the castle. He manges to annoy her in the process. That evening the Prince of Colors toys with the Crown Prince of Alanhame before defeating him in a practice bout.
Then, an assassin makes an attempt on Random's life and flees. Various and sundry efforts are made to follow the assassin through shadow, and he leads them on a merry chase to Glorethien, where the assembled court has been brutally murdered-- and so has the assassin. Written in blood on the floor is "Now, my cousins, the game is afoot."
Much chaos ensues. Elaine tries to shore up Glorethien's government, and Keir does the same in Amber. Random is down for the count. Joaquim takes apart Mica's mind in trying to find answers, and leaves him for Desiré to put back together in the morning. However, when Des goes to do this thing, she finds Mica missing; he sailed on the morning tide, and then was trumped away...
Sorcha is given to Christoph's care... to keep her out of trouble. She insists on looking around the parts of the castle that interest her-- including the balcony from which Random's assassin made his shot. Sorcha and Christoph find salt stains, and a number of secret passages. After managing to ditch Christoph, Sorcha forges ahead through the passageway and finds a Pattern-sword, with which she walks the Pattern and plants it in the center, asking it's name. It tells her-- loudly. Christoph also finds a Pattern sword during his journey.
Elaine takes control of Glorethien, her home shadow, since the King and his court were slaughtered. In the rubble of her father's house, Jero finds Elaine's father's sword, which turns out to be Weirwindl, which Mirelle stole from Brand. With it is a note from Mirelle, her mother.
Keir assigns Sir Darcy, Eve, and Avery to Joaquim; their mission is to bring Sifre over to Amber's side in the upcoming conflict with the Church. The Prince and his party, leave for Sifre by sea. In the Capitol City, Joaquim and Avery head off to find a room at an Inn while Darcy and Eve slink off to gather information. While out and about, Darcy and Eve are ambushed; Darcy is left with a lump on his noggin, and Eve is carried off by a strapping barbarian.
Said barbarian is actually Rufus of Glendon, the leader of the Church's military order of the Kirinai. After much back-and-forthing about the reasons for her presence in Sifre, Rufus leaves the city with her. Joaquim and Avery eventually go looking for their lost companions. Some searching turns up Darcy, sold into slavery aboard a ship. They follow in hot pursuit after Eve and Rufus. Eventually, they catch her-- Rufus barely making good his getaway.
Moire dies in Rebma. Keir is to bring two people to the funeral, to make the numbers right; he takes Des and Elaine. They have visions. Desiré center primarily on Corwin's universe and Merlin (the man in her dreams). Elaine sees some of her past, and also sees the scene of the assassin's arrival in Glorethien-- Claudia kills him, and his name is Sevick. Keir takes an extra drink from the Pool of Dreams, in pursuit of a vision that faded. He faints from this, and when he comes around, Desiré and Elaine are very angry with him. When he concedes that Elaine has reason to demand an explanation from him because she is after Joaquim in line for the throne, Des (Keir's new girlfriend) grows angry. Keir and Des have a huge fight, which actually leads to an engagement between the two.
Sorcha and Christoph decide to conduct an affair.
Joaquim decides to question this Rufus' mother, which leads to interesting revelations and conversations. Griselda doesn't particularly believe in the Church's new crusade at all.
Desiré, Christoph, Harlan and Elaine are sent to find Mica. Elaine and Harlan find an intriguing tree symbol on a disc in Mica's shadow. They call in their companions to investigate, and investigation does reveal that these disks are a form of travel. They start looking around, and come to a library/study. Des does some searching and determines that Mirelle is in the shadow. They decide to wait for her. The good lady arrives, and takes Elaine away for private conference, leaving Desiré, Christoph and Harlan alone, til they come back. Mirelle explains the purposes of the linked shadows, and it is further revealed that Mica is around. The trio from above goes to find him; when they return, they find both Mirelle and Elaine gone. Mirelle, in trying to make Elaine understand her business, has sent her to her brother, Raphael. Everyone left returns to Amber (including Mica, who goes to walk the Pattern). Using trump, Des ascertains that Elaine is ok. Elaine and her new-found brother briefly share the misery of having Mirelle as a mother, agree to meet again soon, and part.
Desiré speaks to Eve about the possibility of walking Corwin's pattern and finds out that Christoph is Corwin's son. She asks Keir if she can take Christoph to Corwin's pattern but he wants her to consult with Fiona first. Desire sleeps with her mirror under the pillow and dreams of Merlin, who warns against entering Corwin's universe. She wakes up opening the door to Avery. The mirror then tells her to try the doorway to the past. Avery takes Desiré to Fiona, who is not helpful. On returning, Desiré tells Eve and Christoph not to attempt Corwin's pattern, then goes to the Pool of Dreams with Brianna. She bleeds 9 drops into the pool, passes out, dreams of Merlin, and wakes to see his body, the Jewel, and Greyswandir in the pool. Upon investigation, Merlin's body is present, but his mind and soul are not.
Desiré investigates the possibility of retrieving Merlin's soul. She gets Avery to aid her on a trip to the Library at Memnos. Christoph accompanies them. After getting some basic information on the soul, she finds a note in her own handwriting directing her to the Hall of Mirrors. Meanwhile, Christoph researches his pocketwatch, and actually gets somewhere. Upon her return to Amber, she decides to construct a blood fetish to lure the soul back.
Eve faints in the forest while playing her harp. She goes to the infirmary for tests, where she notes Des' strange activities near Merlin's body. Des succeeds in animating Merlin's body, but really, there's no one home. She erases the hard-drive, so to speak, by having him walk the Pattern.
Joaquim undergoes his ordeals. In the Pool of Dreams, he has three
visions, and then gets visited by the Kraken. The Kraken chats him up,
and follows him on the rest of the ordeals. Along the way, the Kraken
says:
There is a thin veil between what was and what might have been-- between
what will be and what cannot be-- between what is and what is not.
Joaquim investigates the problem of the fallen moon in his ordeal. He goes to Rebma and finds that the Tir has fallen into the ocean. Joaquim takes a boat out to sea, and finds the moon thanks to three small fish that fall out of his mouth into the ocean. The fish retrieve the moon. He climbs the fallen Tir (the Kraken follows) to replace the moon. After he has done so, he begins to fall, which takes several days. He and the Kraken discuss life, the universe and everything, until he splats at the bottom.
Harlan prepares for his Ordeal by trying to drink himself blind. When Elaine discovers that he may die, she gets very upset. They do eventually make up, however, and some quality time is spent in the bar. A mysterious redhead is there, named Gillian. Harlan and Elaine leave so Harlan can sleep it off before he goes to the Pool of Dreams in the morning. Eve and Christoph go drinking, and they too encounter Gillian. Christoph tries, but learns little about Gillian.
Desiré, Eve, Elaine, Christoph and Rufus are asked to take a small force to defend the capital city of Lira and the mountain pass it guards, until the army in Amber can be mobilized. Christoph is effectively in charge of this group, with Eve as second in command. Des will be a morale booster, being both Liran and Amberite. Rufus is the military advisor vis a vis the Church. Elaine provides back-up. All will work together to Trump through a number of Knights of the Unicorn.
Joaquim awakens to discover Amber somewhat mobilized... and that he has two arms... and that Avery isn't mad at him about mouthing off to Fiona. When he recovers, Keir tries to get him to join the army on it's march to liberate Lira, he decides he wants to establish a raiding party instead. Keir gives in.
Rufus takes the Pattern, and effectively declares himself on Amber's side.
Des, Elaine, Eve and Christoph, along with Rufus and the Lirans, begin preparing for war. Uncle Les, the Crown Prince, makes it back to Lindahl just ahead of the Church's army. Christoph blocks the pass so that only one person may go through at a time.
The mysterious Gillian comes through, as she is apprenticed to the sorcerers who train the Knights now. Elaine and Des are suspicious, and after a bit, she is forced to reveal to at least Des that she is the daughter of Brand, raised by Mirelle. She begins to aid their efforts with her full powers.
The army approaches, and a sorcerer's war takes place. Quickly, most of the force magicians burn out. A waiting game ensues. Lava rocks appear in mid-air around the city and puncture the walls. This happens three times, and Elaine and Des are both hit by rocks. Christoph places a force wall over the whole city for a time. Options are discussed.
Eventually, it's decreed that Elaine go raise an army in Glorethien, while Gillian draws Trump gates to bring them through. Elaine has learned more control over the shadow, so it's feasable. Also, Sorcha's army appears on the horizon, and appears to be on the side of Amber. Christoph decides to go parley with her, and for his efforts, is taken prisoner, since Sorcha is double-crossing them.
Christoph is taken before Larik, who gives his Pattern sword to another person (Larik is obviously making his own set of nine angels, and if he has to steal Pattern swords, he will). Christoph is about to be executed by his own sword when Desiré manages to find him and teleport the whole lot to her via correspondance. Keir and Joaquim, Raphael and Rufus, Eve, Elaine, Harlan, Christoph and Des try to decide what to do with Larik, Juno and Sorcha after they are subdued.
Re-programming is decided on. The next morning, Larik gives up the leadership of the Church to Raphael. The Unicorn appears to give Raphael her blessing.
Summary:
Amber meets the threat of an invasion from the Church of the Unicorn, and
eventually puts Raphael as leader of the Church. Joaquim becomes a Knight
of the Unicorn, as does Harlan. An attempt is made on Random's life; he
lies comatose. Keir is Regent. Joaquim, Harlan, Elaine, Eve, Rufus,
Merlin, Christoph and Sorcha find themselves in possession of Pattern
Swords. Keir and Desiré have become engaged.
Chapter Two: Strangers and Sojourners
For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers; our days on earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.
After cleaning up the mess left over from the war in Lira, the Amberite contingent returns home. Christoph learns of his impending parenthood with Sorcha (who is now imprisoned), and Desiré furthers her attempt to return Merlin's soul.
Keir and Joaquim make a deal with the Church forces, on learning from Desiré that they were ambushed by Sorcha's mercenaries. Rufus and Raphael, with the remainder of the Church's army, are given sanctuary in Amber, and begin to restore the Church building in Amber proper for residence.
Avery finds that her mother and Kant have come to Amber, due to the invasion of the Library at Memnos by hostile forces.
Eventually, Desire meets with Griselda, Rufus' mother, who is able to help in the quest to return Merlin's soul. Desire finally succeeds in returning Merlin's soul to his body. Unfortunately, his memory is spotty at best, and walking the Pattern doesn't really repair him.
Joaquim spends his time training the Castle Guard, introducing Avery to Life In Amber, and giving some slight help to Elaine in Glorethien. Elaine spends her time dealing with the Glorthien situation, with help (wanted or not) from Harlan, Jero, and Joaquim, and unintentional hindrance (read: bad stuff) from Christoph.
Joaquim and Keir also manage to arrange for all of the cousins to formally be given rank in Amber's royalty, though not all of them accept.
The family prepares for a large diplomatic visit from the higher-ranking clergy.
Desiré speaks to Avery about learning trump artistry. Avery is willing to teach Desire in exchange for being accepted as a Squire by Benedict. Des agrees. In the meantime, she begins working on a complicated spell to scan shadow for pattern artifacts, screening out other pattern traces.
Christoph discovers that his watch leads to an apple tree-- namely, Ygg. He finds that a bear watches Ygg. The bear gives him a place to sleep for the night. Christoph, curious about the silver roses growing in the bear's cave, plucks a petal. The bear is angered. Christoph agrees to give him a companion in exchange for the rose. Christoph questions the Bear, until he understands that the Bear was once Deirdre's servant, who failed in killing someone who Deirdre wanted dead-- namely, Gwenora, Harlan's mother.
Elaine's life is threatened again. This time she escapes her assassins via secret passages and a mysterious cousinc calling himself Justin. The family attempts to find him, and does so; he explains to Elaine just how many people are out to kill her, and why.
Merlin has shapeshifted the arrow out of Random and his healing him.
Desire completes her spell to locate pattern artifacts in shadow. Justin interrupts her to tell her that her cousin Finn has sent him with a message to say that his (Finn's) mother has disappeared. Des also manages to convince Benedict to let Avery become a squire.
Elaine, after noticing some small personal items from her room are missing, begins to get a compulsion to go south, accompanied by a headache and a buzzing. She asks for Joaquim and Avery's help; they decide to go south with her. They walk through a thinny, and end up in Oz. Keir complains of bad headaches. Des can't find anything wrong in his mind, and knocking him unconscious doesn't seem to help him sleep. He has nightmares. Eventually he says he has a compulsion to go south. Desire trumps Benedict, and he asks that Keir wait for a while to see if Joaquim is able to return from the south.
Merlin asks Christoph and Eve to accompany him to Corwin's Pattern and to Argentum. They both agree-- after the Tir rises, as they'd both like to visit.
Merlin, Christoph and Eve go to the Tir. Eve is disturbed during her visit because it seems everyone there doesn't know her-- Eve has never been born. Christoph, on the other hand, has a more mundane sort of visit, until he looks for the parallel to the spot where he found his Pattern Sword. "Sorcha" is waiting for him there with her sword. Joaquim comes from the shadows as well, sword drawn. The three put their swords together, and Christoph is knocked unconscious.
Elaine, Joaquim and Avery encounter Harlan in Oz, and go on down to
the Emerald City, picking up some ruby slippers on the way. They encounter
a gate with rainbow colored bars. Joaquim breaks the green bar, and
destroys the "shadow" they are in. They escape via ruby slipper. Elaine
ends up with Kant in a facsimile of Glorethien, a Glorethien that had
never encountered Mirelle; Joaquim ends up in Tomb Raider with Lourdes, a
daughter of Benedict. Both groups find the rainbow bars again. Elaine
touches a bar and ends up in a carnival with Justin. They find the gate
again, and end up together in Sherwood Forest. Joaquim ends up deciding to
destroy the gate altogether, which allows Pattern to function again.
Everyone stuck in this place manages to contact one another, and soon its:
Joaquim, Elaine, Harlan, Avery, Fiona, Kant, Lourdes, Justin, Mica, Bleys,
Aeris and Blaine. In Amber, walking the Pattern has cured Keir's suspicious symptoms.
Desiré lives her happy life as fiancé e to the Crown Prince,
until her new sister shows up. Then, percieving Lourdes as a threat to her
position, she gets very pissed.
Eve, Christoph and Merlin successfully navigate Corwin's pattern and
end up in his universe. They meet some siblings, as Merlin remembers why
he told Des to never come here. There's bad stuff happening, most of it
centering on Lanfear and the death of many of his siblings.
Summary:
Amber hosts a summit of the main religious figures of the Church, and
welcomes the Priest of Priests back to the Temple of the Unicorn in City
Amber. Merlin is awakened from his coma by Desiré and Griselda, and
takes Christoph and Eve with him to Argentum, Corwin's Universe. Justin
comes to Amber and saves Elaine's life, and brings with him news of their
enemies in shadow. The Library at Memnos is invaded, and Fiona is driven
back to Amber. A new daughter of Benedict is discovered.
Chapter Three: Ancient Enemy
Desire looks in her mirror and sees Sorcha, in the dungeon, talking to a
shadowy figure. They mention Suhuy. Desire spends some time investigating
Sorcha, who is still in the dungeon, and petitions for Sorcha's execution
exhaustively, to no avail.
Joaquim embarks on a hare-brained scheme to hunt and kill Blaine. He
gathers a crew of Griselda, Mica, Justin, Harlan and Gillian to accompany
him. Before-hand, he decides to ask Julian for a horse. Julian gives him
one of Morganstern's get. As a "thank you" for the favor, Joke tells
Julian that he has a daughter. After a bit, Julian understands he's
talking about Avery. Julian rides Morganstern into the castle, and
confronts Fiona; no one knows what is said, but Julian backhands Fiona
with his mailed fist. Fiona kills Morganstern, either kidnaps or kills
Julian, and burns select portions of Forest Arden. Avery pursues Fiona.
Joaquim and his group leave.
Des asks for Mirelle's help in finding Claudia. Mirelle first solves
the question of the buzzing trap; Elaine's pattern imprint was altered.
In shadow, Joaquim's trap for Blaine does not succeed; however, they
do come across Raj. They are in the process of confronting Raj when
Harlan "goes off," and knocks the party unconscious or dead. Joaquim is
the first to awaken. He is holding Harlan's sword, Harlan's badge of the
Knights, and a note which says "Regrets." Joaquim awakens the party, and
finds that Raj, Mica and Griselda are dead. He tells the party that
Blaine killed them, and Harlan went off in pursuit, giving up his place as
a knight when he wouldn't obey Joaquim's order to return to Amber.
In Argentum, Christoph meets Lanfear, Eve meets Old Merlin, Eve and
Christoph meet Silver and Corwin, etc. Corwin doesn't remember Irenna,
which insults Eve; Corwin pinpoints Christoph's parentage and asks why he
came here from Amber. Eve and Christoph run into Garm, who seems to
recognize Eve, throws a dagger at her and runs way in terror. Later, Eve
and Christoph finds that Current Merlin has gone missing; they ask
Silver's help, and find him imprisoned in a cave. Merlin trumps Silver
and Corwin and determines that they are leaving the universe, NOW, and not
looking back. After everyone makes it onto the Pattern, Garm and Lanfear
show up and begin shooting crossbow bolts. Family Corwin makes it to the
center and goes to Amber, and spend some time in the infirmary, catching
up on recent events.
Shadows; and outposts of the rebel Night,
And muttered whisperings of conspiracy:
Deep in the west a flicker of ominous light,
As if a torch had signaled suddenly;
Involving heaven and earth in anarchy:
Then, high above the world, vast wings in flight
And trumpet-thunder of Night's empery. --
Chaos and Night, -- form upon demon form, --
Riding the exultation of the storm.
-- from "Chaos and Order" by Madison Cawein