Alaric’s Diary part 14: The Battle of Vine Street

In The Doom that Came to Amber

2^nd Snake 3658:

So. Here I am sitting on my backside on a pew in the Cathedral in Amber. The City’s gone all to Hell: rioting up Vine Street and the Docks are burning. A marked resemblance to Florence after the arrival of the Sforzas. I have acted. I took the cathedral for Mira – it’s important to her and I knew that it’s an unimportant place to the Unicorn; She holds Kolvir sacred, not some hall of stone. In truth, I hardly took it at all, just walked in really.

So here I am in the Cathedral. The windows are missing; Mira took exception to the existing decoration, after all the Unicorn motif is just so last season. I know not what to paint in her place. A family portrait comes to mind. I will need to think further upon the matter. Alaric painted as Amber burned comes to my mind. But the smile doesn’t reach my eyes and certainly not my heart. As long as I can keep the Miran followers quiet in the Cathedral or in their homes. Maybe they can start to prepare the Cathedral walls for some new work. Let’s get some semblance of peace around the Cathedral at least.

Paolo is here with me. Except I know it’s not Paolo. I knew it wasn’t him when he walked into the Cathedral. Paolo is quite mad, Groombridge can do that to anyone and I’d left him unconscious in a safe house. But his greeting to me was the clincher, “We knew you’d come through Boy”. So many of my relatives could greet me this way. Is this the Old Man of Mira’s conversations? Dark? Grandfather, a random Uncle or the poison dwarf himself? I need to find this out before I can act.

So. Here I am in the Cathedral – heart sick and broken... I almost killed Mira. In mid-Mass, during her moment of Triumph I felt my right hand go to my sword. Part of me wants to kill her; most of me doesn’t. I just want to control her – the way Grandfather controlled the Unicorn. Bind her and hold her. Art for art’s sake; not for her sake! I need a sense of balance lest my own fail me further.

This morning I was to have been travelling with Morwaith and Paolo in search of the Sleeping King (or Uncle Benedict, as I prefer to think of him). I would return to Groombridge, collect Paolo and Trump Morwaith. He would receive my call immediately and bring us both through.

The Groombridge Sector was achieved. Mira was closely closeted with Father Paul and had been in tears. I found Paolo in his room upstairs up against the wall in a near catatonic state. His sole grip on reality was that we were supposed to be in Amber, not ‘here’ (in Groombridge) – and where was here?

I Trumped Morwaith and he didn’t respond. He answered after several promptings and there he was – in the breakfast room at Castle Amber! Feeling betrayed, I cut the contact immediately.

I asked my valet to find me plain, brown workman’s clothes and changed before going to speak with Paolo. I distracted him by asking him for his icons of the City of Amber. He had completed six in all. I looked over each of them and then I looked into them. The Guild Hall was busy with people, but with no soldiers; the Cathedral Square was filled with violent mobs engaged in looting, pillaging and burning, obviously having taken the Unicorn and Morwaith to their hearts; the harbour was filled with milling crowds; the view up to Kolvir from Vine Street was quiet but was filled with armed retinues; the Barracks were undeterminable to me; the statue of the Unicorn herself was surrounded by the masses.

I decided to head for the Great Hall and solved my Paolo dilemma by rapping him sharply across his head, leaving him on his bed to sleep.

I arrived and narrowly avoided being grabbed by enthusiastic Unicorn worshippers. I gained a good position higher in the city and across the roofs. Nearer to the Cathedral seemed a little more quiet. Soon, I realised that I could see someone on the far side of the Cathedral, at about my level, dressed in similar costume to my own and that he was aware of me. Family? Maybe? But who? It came to me later – it was Peter Thrice, the newest member of the Family, Vialle’s darling and an elf to boot.

I came down from my roof. The City was dangerous for me. Decapitation by the Family had certain richness to it compared to being sliced in an act of random violence by some guttersnipe. Paolo was right; I needed to be back in Amber.

I unrolled my trump of Groombridge and returned immediately to Paolo’s room. There he was. Paolo stood in the same place staring out of the window – at himself! Out in the darkness Father Paul returned his stare. They stood there not moving. Trapped in my head; things that should not be. A doppelganger, Dürer or Percy would have said – and everyone knows that doppelgangers should never meet.

There was nowhere safe here for Paolo. No haven here for him, for even the attic paintings were dangerous. I had injured him and Mira had discarded him for later use. What a matched pair we are? Paolo has slipped further into lunacy and again I knocked my distressed friend unconscious, but this time I took him through to Amber with me.

It was more difficult this time. There were more active bands of idiots to avoid and I was soon nailed as an artist and had to evade them whilst carrying my friend.

I was down an ally when I was hailed from a basement window. A man. A follower invited me into his home and I was pleased, so pleased to be received. I immediately found somewhere for Paolo to rest. They had been waiting for me, I was told. Since the obvious military failure of Deirdre’s rebellion – my rebellion, I reminded myself – they, the faithful had waited. Well now I was here and I’d be damned if I would allow the Unicorn’s rabid followers destroy my City. I told him to find whom he could and to bring them here.

We marched upon the Unicorn Cathedral. My orders were simple: we would not attack, we would only defend. Wherever I had found violence and disorder, I now filled with the beauty of voices, gathered and united in single purpose.

Tallis came to mind and I lead them in the 2nd of Parker’s Psalter ‘Why fumeth in fight the gentiles flight in fury raging strong’, always beautiful and outstanding when sung in full part harmony.

Surprisingly, that’s just what they did, these ordinary citizens of Amber. Perhaps the City does need beauty. After all, Flora cannot be everywhere. We sang, we marched, we were attacked and my armour appeared about me in protection.

We rebuffed the Unicorn’s minions with minimal casualties on the attackers’ side and none at all on ours. And as we walked our ranks were amassed by hundreds if not thousands attracted by our song, our purpose and mostly, by Mira’s Power. I was not on my own then? But who’s side was I on if not my own? I feell so alone.

3^rd Snake 3658 - dawn:

We reached the Cathedral. It was quiet and locked. We marched to the side and I had the chantry door broken down. We walked into the Cathedral in an orderly fashion. And when we were all within I began the Mass. They came and went, these Miran worshippers, with no obvious ill intent and I sat and I watched them sitting on my backside on a pew in the former Cathedral of the Unicorn. And thus my real dilemma begins. How do I control them all?