Aylwin’s Diary part 19: The Doom!

In The Doom that Came to Amber

6^th Snake 3658 – dawn

Those of us who have managed to sleep rise early, there are ‘guests’ to be greeted. Well Rinaldo is not so bad, I suppose, but my dear Grandmother, leaning on the arm of the bastard Dalt, is hardly a sight to gladden the heart. Then Wirminbone Dark, or Dworkin Barimen, as he is called within the family, hardly improves the day, we had long suspected that.

We all assemble in the throne room, there are the final dispositions as to who does what. Then we leave the castle and follow Dworkin up the hill, with our various followers we make quite a long column. I ride Bathsheba’s horse, she will not leave him and I cannot walk. I play a lament for all that is lost and we go on to a mournful flute accompaniment.

At first the path is familiar but distances start to be false and then the world changes, the light is dark and the shadows white. The horse is uneasy and my lungs burn. My flute perforce falls silent. All the non-family members seem to be suffering and are staggering and weak before we stagger once more into the sunlight.

It is a strange place, very real, it looks like part of Kolvir but with the mountain removed, leaving the Pattern open to the sky.

Many of the older and weaker followers have suffered, Martha dies soon after we stop. The horses have suffered, even Bathsheba’s formidable steed, though Morgenstern looks all right.

Those of us still able assemble around the Pattern; more start to arrive, someone trumps in Delwin and Sand. At my suggestion all the remaining family trumps are used. Gilgamesh comes through and Alexander (complete with 120 warriors). I introduce them to Bathsheba as Benedict’s right hand. Sybil apparently says that she is protected. Corwin has appeared, having it seems been trapped in an item carried by Jason [the ambassador from the Courts of Chaos].

The Ceremony starts with the proposed sacrifice bundled in a cloth. When the moment comes for the sacrifice and the victim is uncovered, Alaric is horrified. He leaps forwards, pushes the victim off the rock, lies down and cuts his own throat!

Mother seems to be fainting. I hold her and fall to my knees, weeping.

Alaric’s blood has been caught in a chalice and is brought around. We taste it as do most of the followers; Bennett will not, he has never liked or trusted me.

The Pattern, erased with blood all around, dissolves into darkness and they are out there, lurking.