Karm Before the Storm
The ongoing tale of
I left my cousins
to go to Brứ-na-Bóinne
to take Rachael home safely. She said she’d had a wonderful time but her companion
didn’t look so sure. Then I headed off to join the others. The party was in full
flow. Wine was passed and we toasted Melvin.
Loeg brought out a closed box and offered it to
Melvin, showing more respect to him than he has before. Melvin opened it and inside
was a cup made from a human looking skull, silvered and bejewelled. It’s the Lord’s
Cup of Brứ-na-Bóinne
– traditionally used by the Lord to toast with. It did not have the look of a shapeshifter skull. We guessed that it was an Amberite but Melvin said it was much older, so therefore Barimen. Melvin seems to have regained his nervousness when
the cup was around and quickly ordered it put away. It’s interesting that the cup
that Barimen used to toast the fallen is the skull of
one of their ancient enemies – likely to be one of their own. It seems that Amber’s
willingness to fight amongst themselves is... historic, even genetic.
I looked around
– we were all slightly more relaxed here, even Darig.
It felt as close to ‘right’ here as anywhere in the Courts.
As usual, at any
family gathering it was only a matter of minutes before everyone had to be somewhere
else – Darig and
While he used whatever
method he uses to spread the word, I waited at the Thelbane
and realised yet again how much I did not know about how demons worked in the Courts.
I have sent DeLambre off on missions since my escape from
Diptera and not thought as to his safety. Given the way
demons are treated here, with their presence banned from so many places, is he safe?
Or is his perceived inconsequentiality his defence? Do other houses use demons as
messengers? And can that network be turned?
I caught myself strategising
about my friend and stopped. Is this how Benedict thinks all the time? And is that
necessarily a bad thing? I paused and put the thought away for a while and concentrated
on watching the Thelbane itself. Think of it like a battlefield
and words and conversations as flights of arrows and engagements between divisions.
Which are feints? Which are full assaults?
From above, I could
see three fluid factions, even though what they are doing is planning the logistics
for a party. There was one who does not seem to be part of the three groups – a
tall hairy figure with horns and leathery wings. It also looked from a strategos’ perspective as if Mandor
and Oggil of Karm were of the
same faction, or at least recently were of the same group.
There was a hint almost of the familiarity of ex-lovers between them. Not
sexual, but knowing.
DeLambre summoned me and we headed to the meeting hall
of the Order of the Lugubrious Vendetta, all new and brash. On the way there he
suggested that I ask one of my Order to be my best man
rather than one of my relatives. “They will be more reliable than your cousins”.
I’m interested in how he thinks, given that this is as close as he has come to lèse majesté even while I say, “I
think this will be a ceremony of political expediency, so you may well be
correct.”
I went inside and left DeLambre
waiting outside, and was greeted by the Twelve. They saluted and asked to begin
the lesson in how to fight by Amber.
“Who fought here
against Amber?” All but two raise their hands. “And why did you lose?”
“Because
you were better than us.”
I sighed, and we
began a discussion of military basics – we talked of tactics and strategy and it
became apparent that their strategy was “attack Amber now” and their tactics were
“attack Amber now”. We discussed how they could have won: they could have delayed
the fight to force Benedict to run out of rations. They could have used that delay
to use sorcery to change the nature of the field on which they fought. They could
have used weather magics to nullify the archers.
But that would have
been sorcery, not warrior combat and it would not have been honourable, and they
would not have felt that it would have been fair.
They looked so woebegone.
“We thought you would teach us to march in order, and to fight together and to wheel
in formation like Benedict’s troops do. You would tell us and we would spar.”
I tried to explain
that if they wanted to beat Amber they had to stop thinking of themselves as warriors
and instead think of themselves as generals, but that was a lesson too much for
most of them. Not Rickard though. While these were difficult lessons for him to
hear, he at least was listening. Our friend from Zigo also. The others, perhaps
would take much longer to come around.
As the others left,
I took Rickard to one side and we talked about the vendetta that Karm were still pursuing. We discussed Mandor,
and how many in Chaos saw him as being too friendly to Amber. He is perhaps too
close to Fiona and doesn’t want to let her go.
I turn the conversation
to Julian and Karm, asking directly how we might free
Julian. Somewhat surprisingly, he missed the implications of what I was asking and
talked of how we might, if inside, meet with the Board and demand Julian’s freedom.
Being inside, the threat of another Diptera would give
us leverage that we would not have outside. Eventually, I have to blatantly ask
will he open the back door for us and, though shocked, he agrees. He will take 3
of us in, and four out, but he asks my word that we will not carry through on
our implicit threat.
I agreed, hoping
he cannot see on my face that I cannot make that promise on behalf of impetuous
I offered that I
will owe him a great favour after this. He suggests we discuss this if we come
out of this alive.
I began the slow
cycle of getting everyone in touch. I realised I could just tell DeLambre to do it and sit somewhere interesting, but I was surprisingly
loathe to just order him so. And so we travelled. I called in briefly at Petrus where Darig was teaching two
children to fight. Not wanting to interrupt I merely asked
him to meet us all in Brứ-na-Bóinne
as we needed to talk. He said that Benedict also says the same thing though I think
that the conversation Benedict wants is different to what I do. On from there to find
We travelled to Stormhaven but
Once we were all
assembled we begin the discussion of an assault on Karm.
Realising the political position we might be putting Melvin in we offered to withdraw
to the Alhambra but he asked us to stay; withdrawing himself so he is not part
of the conversation.
I laid out the bones
of the plan. 3 of us can get in. Obviously
We agreed that the
next step was to take Julian to the
I penned two notes.
One for Grandmother. The other for Rachael.
One more flowery than the other but essentially they both say, “I’m about to do
something stupid. It’s probably worth it. Apologies if I don’t make it out of the
other side”.
I gave DeLambre my notes and asked him to deliver them after it will
be too late for me to be stopped. He looked a little shocked, and said quietly that
no matter how much he would see Karm humbled he would
not have it at the cost of my life.
I patted my friend
clumsily on the shoulder and promised him that I would do everything I can to come
out of there alive, and with a full complement of relatives.
He passed me a note
he received for me from Suhuy. “You can take the Angel
out of Chaos, but not the Chaos out of the Angel”.
As if I would
have it any other way.
We travelled to the
Clock of Doom – a famed artefact near to the Karm demesne.
It loomed asymmetrically above us, its face rimmed with 22 familiar looking cards.
Famously the number of hands on the face shifts day to day, even minute to minute.
That day, as we perceive it there were three.
The major hand pointed
to the Hanged Man. The second hand to the Chariot. And
the smallest hand flickered between the Devil and the Tower.
According to
As we pondered the
way that card readings, even when given by a clock, are almost always useless until
afterwards, Great Grandfather Dworkin appeared and told
The clock tolled
and a hatch opened, revealing a clockwork raven tolling the hours. A skeletal demon
appeared and leads us towards Karm, our own demons
left behind.
We travelled through
a graveyard into a crypt, stepping through a coffin into an Iron Maiden and from
the torture chamber to meet Rickard and his brother Jäger,
who would guide us through the castle while Rickard put in place other
contingencies.
As we travelled through
the castle – decked out in steel, chrome and smoked glass – I talked to Jäger. Unlike Rickard, he has a sense of humour. He called himself
a head hunter, “but not like that. Well. Not always like that.” And laughed. He then took us to see the Board.
We were in the atrium
of a huge tower, glass, mirrors and metal everywhere. There were powerful unliving demons everywhere as guards and strange moving staircases
to move us through levels. As we rose higher, the cold stench of something that
I can only describe as unholy surrounded us. There was an unclean presence here
that set every instinct of mine snarling.
We were ushered into
a large room with a huge table at its centre. Senior members were sat around the
table in what was obviously some kind of studied hierarchy. Power flows to one chair.
That of Oggil – Chairman of the Board.
Jäger introduced us with our full titles and I let
a wide grin spread across my face at “Diptera Bane and
Rimlord Bane”.
We were asked what
we want and I answered, simply, that we want our uncle back.
It seemed the ruling
coalition of Karm were split
and the House fractured.
Until
Herman asked us to kill him.
I demanded the right
as Osric’s nephew – Oggil making
it clear that his vendetta goes back that far.
I cut off his head
with Claideb and
Loose ends are tidied
up – Rickard will be censured, but only lightly, and Karm
will owe us of Amber a great boon for setting in motion a hostile takeover. Julian
was returned to us and though his instinct is to fight for the utter humiliation
of Karm, he somewhat gracelessly agreed to a ‘political’
solution with Karm owing him a boon directly for
their treatment of him.
All seemed under
control so we left the boardroom and into the great atrium. The dark presence there
stirred and moved towards us and Herman’s face fell. This spirit was one that Oggil had summoned and, with his death, it was off its leash.
Herman tried to use his magics to rebind it to no avail
and Claideb was almost as useless – I cut into it, doing
almost no damage to it, and then it engulfed me in soul fire and heart cold,
causing me to fall unconscious.
I woke, flat on my
back in the atrium, Claideb still gripped in my hand.
It appeared that the sword Dyrnwyn is strong against spirits,
proven once with Oggil and once more with his servitor.
Somewhat unsteadily, I stood, refusing help from Herman.
As a group, we left
Karm, my last words to Rickard being an invitation to
my stag party.