Asmark’s Diary part 12: Rinaldo – Excommunications – Hall of Mirrors – Rebellion

In The Doom that Came to Amber

Kingsday: 27^th Bull - afternoon

There were four of us: Aylwin, Rinaldo, Khitan and myself, walking slowly back into Amethyst through the damaged and discarded property of the recent flight in panic of the majority of the mourners.

Aylwin had a variety of minor injuries the most significant of which seemed to be his left foot, which he was unable to put much weight on, and he was accordingly being supported by Rinaldo. Khitan also seemed to have a hurt his left foot as he was having difficulty keeping up with Aylwin and Rinaldo on his own; I helped him along. Apart from the foot Khitan seemed uninjured.

There were also a body or two crushed or trampled to death in the panic. At one of the first buildings we encountered a mage kneeling in a doorway facing inwards with his face over his hands. An examination showed that his eyes had been gouged out, and the state of his hands suggested that he had done this himself.

Khitan, while examining the mage, found his own hands creeping towards his own eyes. Aylwin warned him to leave the man alone. It seemed the mage was not only deranged but the insanity was in some way contagious. There seemed little we could do for him, and anything that we might do would be dangerous to ourselves. We regrettably decided that our best course was to send servants back later.

We also saw a sorceress from, if I remember correctly, Ebony who was wandering aimlessly and withdrew frightened when I attempted to approach her. Again there seemed little we could do.

Khitan was aware that some very powerful magics were being prepared in the centre of Amethyst, probably at the palace. We speculated that this was Clarissa trying to repair the damage to the fabric of reality in Amethyst and adjacent shadows. However that is really just speculation.

At this point two of the three retainers that Rinaldo had had with him arrived, a little disconcertingly, with bloody swords drawn. They reported having lost the third. It also seemed that a number of those driven insane had become homicidal and that the retainers had deemed it necessary to kill a number of them. I don’t know whether their actions were truly justified, it is for Rinaldo as an acknowledged lord of Amethyst to discipline his own followers here.

At this point, Rinaldo suggested that we return with him to Kashfa, where it should be possible to speak in private. We all agreed to this and trumped through to the palace in Kashfa. The trump that Rinaldo used for this was not the work of any trump artist whose work I have seen before. Perhaps it was his own? (However I am not sure if I have ever seen any of Brand’s trumps, who is another possible artist?)

On arrival Rinaldo indicated that we should remain silent. Evidently he did not consider our new location entirely secure. After ordering refreshments he led us into an adjoining room which he told us was secure. He claims it is the work of his father. If so, it is likely to be very secure.

Once there I told Rinaldo about the recent invitation of the Fay for the ‘ambassador’s brother’s son’. I apologised for not passing on the invitation. He was unconcerned but, referring to documents on his desk, implied that he had been vaguely aware of the meeting. The meeting was diplomatic rather than secret, nevertheless it would be interesting to know what his intelligence source was, assuming of course he wasn’t bluffing.

Aylwin wanted to make a trump call to Bleys. Rinaldo sent him out of the room as the room shielding prevents trump contact. Aylwin first had a longish trump call with the Regent. Aylwin, intending to go to Bleys, asked if he could borrow a trump of Kashfa to enable him to get back. Rinaldo was, not unreasonably, reluctant to do this. I pointed out that he could equally easily trump myself. Actually this did not really serve my purposes that well as I wished to talk to Bleys myself. However I suggested this and asked Aylwin to tell Bleys that I would appreciate a meeting at his earliest convenience.

Aylwin spent about half an hour attempting to contact Bleys. Then suddenly his trump of Bleys went dead. Initially we were very worried that something untoward might have happened to Bleys. However after some experiments, it seems that the problem is not with Bleys’ trump or indeed with any trump. Rather it is with Aylwin’s ability to use trump at all. It seems just possible, albeit very difficult, to contact him by trump, but he is totally unable to make any trump contact.

At this point we returned to Rinaldo for some discussions. Firstly Rinaldo confessed to having caused Amber serious problems. Specifically he confessed to the murder of Prince Caine. He claimed this as revenge for his father’s death. He nevertheless hopes for some reconciliation with the family. Whereas I do not think that this is impossible, it really depends at least as much on his making his peace with the various elders as on acceptance by the crown. I can really do very little more than act as a go-between. I asked if he was responsible for the death of the Odo Gulman (manager of Overseer’s office that I found murdered last Goat). He denied having anything to do with that.

On the diplomatic front things look rather more promising. If Rinaldo does wish a reconciliation he will have to, at the very least, be seen to work for Amber’s interests in the area. Amber’s interest can really be summarised in one word ‘stability’.

Rinaldo made no reference to the installation of Shadbourne by Benedict, talking as though Jaston had been his predecessor. This is very encouraging as such outside interference is invariably a cause for grievance and often pretext for all manner of diplomatic obstruction. To fail to mention it entirely is a very hopeful sign of a pragmatic approach. If the various problems in and around Eregnor can be solved then it will remove a significant thorn in Amber’s side. (It would also be a major achievement for the Office of the Golden Circle.)

Rinaldo suggests an independent Eregnor rather than one belonging to either Begma or Kashfa. He also has a friend who he is reluctant to name as a potential ruler. The suspicion is that this is the ‘Lion of Eregnor’, probably Dalt or his son. There have to be serious doubts as to whether this would be genuinely independent of Kashfa.

However the crucial point is whether Begma and Sapphire could be persuaded to accept this. Given Sapphire’s past interference in Eregnor, and Begma’s historic inability to maintain order in the province, I have no qualms about pressuring them into any deal that will establish a lasting peace.

Rinaldo wants Golden Circle status for Kashfa. This is no problem in principle. Indeed it would be entirely sensible if the region was properly stabilised. We discussed whether this would require an independent Eregnor to have such status. Rinaldo certainly sees no problem with Kashfa in, but Eregnor out.

As I have to point out to Rinaldo, all of this is fine as a planned end-point, however it cannot all be done immediately. After the period of instability it will take some time to build the necessary confidence. It seems Rinaldo accepts this. All in all it seems to suggest that Rinaldo could well be someone that we can do business with. It is clearly worth maintaining a dialogue and seeing what progress can be made, once the more immediate problems like the problems at Lyon Abbey have been resolved.

Rinaldo also made some comments about more domestic problems of his. He suggested that he is not getting on well with his mother, Jasra, who it seems is ambitious on a scale with Clarissa! Apparently she has some artefact of Brand’s which she is trying to use. She leads a coven. Rinaldo believes he has identified all but two members of this. Three members of it have recently been killed, each in a separate incident, by dog-like creatures. This sounds remarkably like the hounds of Tindalos that caused problems at Lyon Abbey. There was some discussion of the problems at Lyon Abbey. Rinaldo claimed ignorance of this, which could be true. If so it seems that the problems there and some of the problems in Kashfa are related and cooperation with Rinaldo may be useful in solving both.

Once the pressing matters had been discussed we returned to the problems of Aylwin’s injuries and contacting Bleys. As Aylwin seems unable to do so I attempted to contact Bleys for about an hour. As there is no prospect of my forcing contact, I simply tried gently for a long time. When this produced no result, Aylwin, who understands the sort of medicine that Bleys is using far better than I, suggested that Bleys was likely to spend as much as twelve hours continuously working on Fiona, this requiring his undivided attention. Accordingly there may be little point in attempting before morning.

Meanwhile Aylwin had his boot cut off and his injury inspected. It seems that after Aylwin got his foot chewed by a hound of Tindalos, last Goat, the medical repairs included the insertion of some hi-tech artificial bone. Unfortunately this was adversely effected by his hell-run carrying Fiona away from the funeral. After some discussion the decision is to strap it up for the moment and hope to get some proper medical attention in a few days. Aylwin and Khitan intend to investigate Lyon Abbey after a brief trip to visit Bleys.