Darkness on the Edge of Town

A personal prayer to the Unicorn from Constance, daughter of Julian, pt 17

There was a family meeting – which in this case included anyone who had walked the Pattern. The main matter of interest is our visit to the Fool on the Hill and his answers to our questions. Benedict was keen to ascertain the veracity of the answers – but, as in all such endeavours the answers were vague and prone to interpretation. I pointed out that they were as vague as many other sources such as the answers from Margrath’s Order or indeed in my Dreams. My Lord Warden shot me ‘a look’ and I quickly shut up.

Corwin spoke of his travels near Ygg. We listened to the Head, the Slough and the Valley of Death and as much seemed influenced by some Babylonian literature he had read, it might be that it was his influence on the landscape around him through his Drawing of a new Pattern – which was news to me.

There was a long discussion on the nature of Powers, much linked to the fact we needed to move more swiftly towards Ygg or we would starve and/or be reduced to eating our horses and men. It occurred that House Zigo had reached Amber and presumably they had the means to do so magically. After the meeting concluded Aunt Flora and I were despatched with Sorashi to talk to Hector, which seemed odd as I didn’t think Sorashi had met him formally nor danced with him at the Ball. Still, any ankle in a storm.

Flora has a good relationship with Hector and this certainly helped us gain the information and help we needed from him pretty well immediately. He did have the means to get to Ygg impressively quickly via a spell, ‘Parting the Veil’, which would take time to learn and hang, but he seemed happy to do so on our behalf and would do so on the morrow.

I returned to my men. With all of the challenges facing our Scouts, I decided to take a group out and experience it for myself. So many of our scouts had been lost, or delayed, or confused but I did little better than earlier commanders as things being troubling almost the instant we left the yellow road.

All I could add to forward intelligence was the discovery of some very large animal footprints – some 8 foot long with serious claws – and spotted what might be huge creatures moving on the horizon.

Experienced scout and Ranger that I am, I managed to get completely lost. After a short period of consideration I trumped my Lord Warden and he brought both horses and scouts back to camp and he spoke no word of condemnation of my decision. It confirmed a pattern and in any case the information that had been brought back lost currency within minutes due to – Chaos.

On return from my unsuccessful Scouting mission, I learned that Pattern work had been suspended for the day. The psychic baggage of the wielder was influencing the mood and morale of the army. Poor Princess Sand’s depression was such that it spread across the troops. A number had committed suicide or run away and vanished. Princess Llewella’s baggage related to terrors of the sea and troops had been badly frightened by the hallucinations of sea monsters of legend appearing around them. Finally Princess Deirdre basically caused the fall of a supply waggon into the Abyss. As that wagon was carrying the body of Prince Delwin, his body fell within its coffin. Poor Aunt Sand and Margrath.

Dirk took out a group to search for two missing Scout Groups. Whilst his group was out, I received news that one of the most recently missing Scouting groups had been located by the aerial team or and the other had found their way back on their own. I trumped Dirk and brought him and his scout group back in. He insisted that he’d only been out for 10 minutes. In actuality it felt like he’d already been out for several hours. I was happy to bring Dirk and his group back to Camp and relieved that our numbers had improved a little.

That night Benedict sent the order that no more latitudinal Scout groups were to be sent out.

In the morning I joined the Recon Team, led by William with Havelock, Me, Margrath, Hector and DeLambre. After Hector cast his spell we came across a moaning, growling sound and after some testing I was satisfied enough that we were a safe enough distance from the Courts to safely to wield Pattern with a little more freedom and so I shifted the mists that rolled around us.

Once I lifted the mists we saw the massive giant that was before us. Known as Grimm, and once known to Corwin, he was a hungry giant and quite keen to make a dinner of us. I glamoured armour on me under my cloak and observed my cousins’ physical attacks on the giant. It was of stone and of such hardness that even William’s blade struggled to penetrate it and Havelock’s made little impression on it whatsoever. I shot one arrow which bounced off its neck and decided to switch to magic.

Using a combination of Power Words and Glamours, I helped protected my cousins by causing the giant to drop whatever rock it had picked up to dash against their heads. This worked a few times but such magics tire me quickly and it was more useful to switch to Glamours, The giant found a bucket on its head and that was swiftly followed by a chain around its ankles.

The sense of something very unwholesome nearby signified that someone – and it became obvious it was DeLambre – had Summoned the Logrus, which finally persuaded the Giant to shuffle off. DeLambre’s overt use of the Logrus caused a sharp exchange between Hector and William. Hector asked to be introduced to the Chaos Lord. William said could introduce himself and DeLambre did so but as Lord William’s manservant. It’s a pretty special demon that can summon Logrus. DeLambre is so much more than a demon but that is his story and shared only with William, but now observed by both Havelock and I.

I asked William not to report back on my use of Glamour. He winked and said of course, if I would stay quiet about DeLambre. Of course cousin! I won’t mention the soft points on the giant that my cousins had pointedly aimed at either.

I reclaimed my Glamours but was quite wearied by the use, overuse perhaps, of power words to the point that I must have looked sufficiently tired for William to carry me some way on his back. Havelock took over the Pattern work in order for me to rest. My Lord Warden would have insisted that I slept but, as ever the way in the field, sleep was currently impractical. At least I am a very light weight to carry.

We stopped when we saw a red raven circle overhead and land. I slid down from Williams back, bowed politely to the raven and told it my name. In the dusk it returned with other red ravens. And we, named by the ravens, the Lost Tribe of Amber were offered aid to reach Ygg in the morning.

We set up camp for the night. William and Havelock said I should take a later watch. So I, wrapped in my cloak, slid quickly into sleep.