Alaric’s Diary part 16: The Return of the King

In The Doom that Came to Amber

4^th Snake 3658

My target was, of course, the Eye of the Serpent. I had doubts, of course, about my ability to sketch it – having seen it only once at close range and then around the neck of my cousin Nathan. Still I persevered – but of course, lacking faith in my ability to perceive it, it couldn’t work. Frustrated, I took some brandy and went upstairs to visit Paolo.

A servant was outside his room, convinced that Paolo was in dire straits – he is of course. He is my only friend. I went in. His temperature was very raised but he was scarcely near death. In his sleep he spoke and I listened entranced as he spoke Dark’s part in a conversation with Mira.

I sat as Paolo slept and worked my way through my Trumps. Mother received me – darkened in her Trump. She was doing the right thing this time and would give me no assistance. Uncle Bleys continued to hide away on board his battleship. Aylwin lay sleeping as did Benedict, deep in his heroic faerie fantasy. Flora dreamt and Corwin remained trapped.

I warned the family – I told them outright of Benedict and Corwin but their hatred blinds them to reason. I miss some of my Uncles. I spoke with Merlin who sat in his splendid rooms – wherever they were, and he spoke not unhappily of the diplomatic incident my arrival in his rooms would cause. Keep looking for your father, Merlin. Do not be diverted!

Then I tried little Asmark. Amber’s student Keeper of the Circle. He too slept. I pushed through his dreams but the whelp has teeth and he bared them, driving me punishingly from his subconscious and, shocked from the wound delivered at the point of the Horned One’s poisoned horn, I swooned in my chair.

Paolo shook me awake with slight concern but driven by part of his psyche to return to Amber. I asked him to recount his dream and he told me of Dark and a woman who looked like my wife. I was to be given a free rein – but would not be their sacrifice. Nayda it was to have been, but she was under the possession of those things from beyond.

I was not to be the sacrifice because by doing so my continuance into the next world would be guaranteed and that was not Dark’s desire. I was never to have been. Even if I find the damn Eye I have no guarantee of anything.

I spoke with Flora and she told me explicitly to piss off. I seemed an embarrassment to her now. I tried then Aylwin. Interestingly my trump to him worked. Thank you Mira! He was in considerable pain from the old injury to his leg. Gerard was to look at it. He made me aware of Julian’s approach and bade me speak with him later.

He might be my brother but dearest Uncle Julian attempted to contact me scant minutes after I’d closed the contact with Aylwin. I blocked the bastard. I can no longer finger the exact reason why I hate the man. His manner? His constant belittling of me, or the fact he slept with my mother? The last gnaws at me the greatest.

I checked Paolo’s trumps of the City. Each scene was enveloped in fog. Where is the Jewel when one needs it? And what is being hidden in the fog?

I drank a little more brandy then started work on a Trump of the Palace Gallery. I bade Paolo to help me so that in collaboration we could move the work along but this he could not do. I was too good a painter.

In anger at the constraints of time I decided to Trump Flora and force her to bring me through. I attacked almost immediately and Paolo soon assisted me. Together we could overwhelm her though it would take time.

We nearly had her when an unknown woman entered the battle and assisted Flora. She had pale skin but a lock of green hair that suggests she is of Rebman origin. Our attempt was pushed back and I closed the contact but not soon enough to save Paolo from a pounding – worse no doubt than the one I’d received earlier.

I put Paolo to rest on his bed and pushed my work on the Trump sketch – and it failed to activate! It damn well failed! Someone in the midst of confusion had meddled with the Gallery. Damn the efficiency of Amber’s servants. Damn everything and everyone!!!

After another glass of brandy I swallowed my vexation and began work on a Trump sketch of Brand’s Room. It was a way into the Palace.

I interrupted work to speak with Brother Aylwin again. He was with someone in the Library and was guarded. I asked him to take Paolo through and care for him and he agreed, in the same breath as he asked for the return of the Asperage tarot deck. That deck which is too close to a reality and powered by Sorcery, not Trump. Is it Dark’s toy, I mused? It is perhaps no longer in my nature to trust – even my brother. I ended the Trump contact unsatisfied and untrusting but not entirely sure why.

I finally spoke with Mira and she greeted me with a barely controlled fury. I was not yet in the Castle and I had proven to myself that she was my only friend. She would not or could not assist me. I returned to my Trump with a renewed vigour. My mind flirted with other plans. The attack on Flora had nearly succeeded. Now I had an even more useful target in mind.