A Slow Boat to Argent

A personal prayer to the Unicorn from Constance, daughter of Julian, pt 24

25^th Leviathan (Serpent in the Dworkin Calendar), 3658

We were on the beach near the monument to King Eric’s mother. This monument reflects the colours of the cliffs and sand. Black and silver. Prince Corwin’s colours – or perhaps not but the symbolism is very clear. What did my Father say about Argent – that it was an unknown quantity. We cannot see anything beyond the cliffs – if we could it might have confirmed that we are near Amber – but we are facing West from the direction the Sun takes and Kolvir ought to be to the North. We are definitely not in Amber.

A Rebman party scouted for a way up those cliffs. I watched them briefly and remembered that I was trained to use my skills. I turned to Tajal and Sorashi and reminded them of theirs and suggested they could change their form and fly to the top of the cliffs. If safe, they could bring us up to them through Trump. I wondered that they don’t think of these things for themselves!

I Trumped Prince Gerard whilst they changed and flew. He was fine, didn’t recognise Faiella-Bionin (well, this one) which confirmed that we weren’t where we wanted to be. I received and held the Trump contact whilst the others were taken up to the cliff tops.

Sorashi reported that there was a large town in the distance and we started walking towards it. First we entered a village – to my delight, there was what seemed to be a Unicorn Church at its centre. Locals – farmers I supposed noticed us and came running in from the fields and stared at us intently. We clearly were not from around here. Our clothing – where it was worn was wrong and we were dripping wet.

William and I greeted them carefully in Thari. Most backed away hastily from us. One even made a run for the Church. That person and a priestly-like person came out of the Church and approached us. I noticed that the Priest clutched a Unicorn amulet and I spoke to him in Thari with the ritual greeting that is used in the Unicorn Services that I attend. This calmed matters down considerably.

We asked the name of the village and that of their Lord. The Priest responded in heavily accented Thari that we were in Grasmere. Their Lord de Montmorency paid fealty to their King – the King of Argent. Aha! Prince Corwin or a Shadow of him, I thought. He seemed challenged when we asked for the name of the King and said that the King’s representative was Cardinal Mazarin until the King returned. He knew of the name ‘Amber that is lost’ but it is a myth to him. Just how many years have passed since Prince Corwin dwelt here?

He said that the Forest we have come from is called the Ardennes and I know that Arden, my home, is huge in size and passes through many Shadows, one of which, I remembered, is called the Ardennes. He then said that there is a Warden who guards against the forest. And that makes perfect sense to me, though one guard against the denizens of Arden would make little difference should they choose to attack. There must be something Magical in some way that keeps the Forest to itself. I had no time to investigate that further – it could be a path, albeit a long one, home.

We left Grasmere and Sorashi and Tajal scouted ahead. They landed in a Copse some half way to the Town and Trumped us through to them. Good. Now they were thinking! I hunted for dinner whilst the rest set up a camp – venison for our dinner tonight. Nerine spoke with her Mother and more suitable clothes were found for many of us as well as uniforms for our guards. We discussed tomorrow’s plans. We would test our ability to Shift Shadow and arrive more quickly. We set guards for the night.

26^th Leviathan (Serpent in the Dworkin Calendar), 3658

In the morning we ate and I spoke to my cousins about the dreams I had whilst in Chaos. The City that looked like but wasn’t Amber. My ride through ‘Arden’ that was disrupted by iron spikes dropped from what Darig told me was an airship. How my sense of narrative changed over the three dreams. What seemed to be an assassination attempt on me was countered by the discovery of dead Unseelie Fae. All killed by iron spikes dropped by – at least from the sound – was an airship. It was silver coloured and now I definitely knew that Argent was another name for silver and now we were planning to travel to somewhere called Argent. I remained unsure if I was collateral for someone’s successful attack on Unseelie Fae. Or perhaps the airship had saved me from an UnSeelie Ambush? Was I hunter or hunted?

That dream – the first one of three – had repeated itself that night. The sound of engines, the dappled sunlight on leaves, the shredding of the leaves as the iron spikes dropped and my scream as my horse’s head took a direct hit and collapsed under me. This is all so very important.

I considered names and events. Abaddon was one name but how did it link to the UnSeelie Fae, to Argent? My Order seemed to have believed a connection. In the repetition of the first dream it felt like morning. The Sun was behind me so I must have been to the East of the City of Amber. The Cathedral of Our Blessed Unicorn was to the North and I could see airships moored on the far side of the City.

My intuition was screaming at me!

I spoke with Father first and gave him an account of our progress. I spoke to Prince Bleys. Abaddon was not a part of Hell, it was similar to but an adjacent Shadow. But, Bleys then pointed out, Abaddon could be a place or a person. Years before, Hell had allied with the Fae and attacked Amber. I wondered if Abaddon had been caught up in this and how did the technology of airships fit in? Were they a magically created object or a construct of some sort? Finally, I spoke to Princess Deirdre. She only knew Argent as a colour. She knew that there was a place in Shadow where silver was referred to as Argent but she didn’t say where.

We followed signs for a port town called Haven and there, on landings of the River Oiseine, there were signs for river travel passage to Rune and Argent. The costs were higher for Argent but that really didn’t matter as we had none of the local currency [the leaf] and nor could we use Pattern to find currency. So Nerine Trumped her Mother and I Trumped Prince Bleys, both of us asking for gold or jewels that we could use to barter passage. Llewella parted with a ring and Bleys with a jewelled dagger. They only offered 120 for Bleys’ dagger so that was retained. We sought an exchange shop of some sort, bought our passage on the good ship Kiribis and then went further into town to buy provisions for our journey.

We spoke with Captain Rennie who commanded our River boat. I asked if Airships could be hired in Argent and he replied, ‘of course’, in a tone that suggested everyone knew this. He said that the King of Argent had been away for a while and that Cardinal Mazarin was managing the Kingdom in the King’s absence.

We arrived docked at the Port for Argent. We took an Omnibus – again technology, although horse drawn omnibuses were also available at the docks. As we travelled through the town, I quickly observed that the geography of the town matched my dream – right down to airships being moored on the far side of the town. We checked into a hotel called the Moulin Bleue.