Alexander's Chronicle: Chapter 10

I began what so far has been the worst day of my life in excellent spirits. Having taken care of everything back at home, packed and ready to go, I rode to the to the beach and waited at the top of Faiella-bionen, leading Primrose. Nimue was waiting, with Reia and a servant. As Nimue had told me they would, the servant and Reia turned to go back down the stairs to Rebma. Nimue hugged Reia tightly when she said goodbye, and stood looking after her for a moment as she left. Nimue shivered, then turned to me with a smile. "Ready" she said. She seemed overjoyed to see Primrose again, and had brought her a couple of lumps of sugar.

She was dressed for the trip to Amber in a dark-blue Veronan riding dress. She was wearing less jewellery than she usually does in Rebma, but I wouldn't have expected her to leave without her signet ring and her silver locket. Her hair had been braided carefully back; but she shook it loose impatiently. I could see her sword wrapped among her luggage; she didn't seem to be carrying any weapons on her person. "What happens now?" she asked, after she had finished making a fuss of Primrose.

I offered to help her onto Primrose. "Why isn't Reia coming?" I asked. "Marcel will be heartbroken, you know."

"As I told you," Nimue retorted, "I'm not travelling to Amber as the Crown Princess of Rebma, but as one of your cousins. You know, so that people can talk to me as a person, without worrying about too many titles, or starting a diplomatic incident, things like that. No bodyguard in Rebma would find that easy to deal with. Especially not Reia, or her twin. They've guarded me since I was born. And I shouldn't look much like one of the family with a Rebman guard at my back the whole time, wouldn't you agree? It will feel a little... strange, though."

As we turned the horses away from sea and began riding toward the Forest, Morgan came riding out of the trees. I was not pleased to see him. I'd already explained to him *why* I didn't want him turning up, but he obviously didn't care. Nimue smiled warmly at Morgan, then looked back at me.

I said nothing. I had no interest in getting involved in Morgan's games. Nimue started to look anxious. "Hello, Prince Morgan" she said, a little uncertainly.

Morgan smiled back at her and nodded at me as he rode up to us. "Why I do believe it's Princess Nimue! And lovelier than ever." He leaned over towards her and said, "But of course, I'll wager that you knew that already, didn't you."

Nimue blushed, but began to look even more uncomfortable.

Straightening back up in his saddle, Morgan said, "Please forgive my familiarity." I choked down a curse. Damn him! He hadn't listened to a thing I'd said. "You see," Morgan went on, "Someone had to cover for my brother Marcel in his absence and, unfortunately, I was elected."

Nimue smiled again. "Of course," she said, solemnly. "So Marcel hasn't changed a bit, then?"

"Not noticeably, no," Morgan replied. "Though he has grown his hand back. We won't be subjected to any more bad jokes on that basis anyway." He dismounted, took Nimue's hand, and kissed it.

Nimue protested, good-naturedly, "Please don't be so formal, cousin. As I was telling Alex, I am not visiting you as Crown Princess of Rebma this time. Just as one of the family. Please treat me as one, if you would. I need to get used to it."

Morgan raised an eyebrow. "I didn't even know that we were related. Nobody tells me anything!" he pouted in an odd voice. I found myself caught between horror and rage at his behavior.

"Oh." Nimue looked surprised, but refused to recognize Morgan's insult. "I thought... Forgive me then. My father was your father's brother, Eric. So we are cousins." She smiled, but her eyes were anxious. "Hello again." I wondered why Morgan was mocking her (and me). Did he have any idea how much trouble he was getting himself into?

Morgan started to laugh like a madman... "Not you, too!" he said, laughing hysterically. Nimue's eyes widened unhappily and Morgan started laughing even harder. He gasped, "I'll explain later," and doubled over in hysteria. After a minute or so he calmed down and said, "Welcome to Arden again, cousin!" I considered pulling Morgan off his horse and kicking his head in, but that wouldn't please Nimue greatly, I suspected.

Nimue looked confused then hurt. She bit her lip and looked away from us. "I'm sure your explanation will be fascinating" she said, in a brittle, small voice. "Meanwhile, forgive me if I don't understand what is so amusing." And without looking at either of us, she shook Primrose into a gallop. She headed down the trail towards the castle.

I snapped at Morgan, "Wait here! I'll try and bring her back, or warn you to meet her at the castle." Then I turned Tam in pursuit of Nimue and Primrose and galloped after them, calling for Nimue to slow down, please. Morgan ignored me and charged alongside her. She kept going for a bit, then slowed down. She didn't look at Morgan, but turned to give me an apologetic smile when I pulled alongside her. I gave her a pained look and then looked down, unable to think of anything to say.

After a moment, she looked up, and reached out to touch my arm briefly. She took a deep breath. "Sorry. No one's really laughed at me since Alistair left. I must be out of practice." She smiled ruefully at both Morgan and me.

It made me angry that she felt driven to apologize when she'd been wronged. "Oh, no one did who's entitled to." I glared at Morgan. She was my guest, and I should be doing *something* to defend her.

Nimue looked between us again. "Gentlemen, I believe it is customary to begin the family feuds *after* one reaches Amber," she suggested. "Or are you two just practising? Alex, where *is* Marcel, anyway?"

I looked away from Morgan back to Nimue and told her, "Back at the castle, I think. He knows you're coming, but you can decide if you want to rest when we get back or we can go find him and Josiah right away. It's up to you." Nimue nodded, and gave me a quick smile.

Morgan sneered at her, "As a matter of fact, no one laughed at *you* at all. I found a*situation*, however, very amusing. You responded to this amusement by suggesting that you were sure you would find it amusing also, and then bolting before you could hear the explanation. Is it possible that time passes in the reverse direction in Rebma? It would serve you in good stead to not take everything that happensin the universe as a personal insult, Nimue, because that's the key to long life in Amber. Or anywhere else, for that matter."

"No indeed, Prince Morgan," said Nimue in a level voice. "It's just that in Rebma we often explain a situation *before* laughing, to enable others present to share in the joke. And to avoid misunderstandings." She gave Morgan an icy look as she spoke, "As a matter of fact, I understand that tact and common courtesy can be of considerable assistance as well. But I thank you for your advice."

Morgan glared back at me and started yelling at me, "You have no right to judge me, sir. You have, within the last week, by your persistent pressing into a matter in which you have NO FUCKING BUSINESS, called me a LIAR, been IMPOLITE AND INTRUSIVE into a PRIVATE matter, whined and acted like the injured party all along, and generally been a complete SPOILED BRAT. Remove that glare from your face or I shall most assuredly remove it for you." Morgan began removing the glove from his left hand. His horse, anticipating orders to attack, lay back its ears and bared its teeth at me.

I tensed before I spoke and readied myself to jump off Tam's back onto Morgan should he charge me. "I told you Nimue was coming to visit and asked why your response was so unusually abusive. I have said hardly anything about your rude treatment of my guest; I don't feel entitled to because I think Father would rather handle it. For similar reasons, threatening me and attacking me here is a bad idea. Elsewhere, feel free to try it." I bared my teeth, watching him closely. Just whose territory did he think he was on, anyway?

In mock surprise, Morgan asked me, "And will you add, 'fights dirty' to the list?"

Nimue moved Primrose a little further out of the way, dismayed and looking about. She says coldly to us, "Don't mind me. If this is a personal quarrel, I'll leave you to get on with it. If it isn't, and Morgan has a problem with my coming here, I'd appreciate him taking it up with me and not with Alexander, however."

Morgan appeared to be waiting for a response to his last question, so I seized the opportunity to pull out my Trumps and hand them to Nimue, without taking my eyes off Morgan, while I answered his challenge. "You haven't started...yet. I don't especially feel like riding back to the castle with someone who has just threatened me, especially when I have a guest to protect. Are you going to follow through or back down?"

Without turning around, I said to Nimue, "Get behind me, please. If Morgan attacks, contact Marcel or Father and get to safety. I'm not sure what's the matter with him. For what it's worth, I'm sorry to have brought you into this, Nimue. It's getting to be a habit, I guess." Surprisingly, she moved behind me.

"A guest to protect? Like you did the last time?" Morgan laughed. "You certainly *do* have a sense of humor!"

Now I prayed he'd try to attack me. I was furious. So what if I broke a few of his limbs? He'd have plenty of time to walk the Pattern later, and time to reflect on his own unpleasantness would do him some good. I was sure of it.

But Morgan thought better of it, "I have a better idea, Princess. If one of the Trumps provided by my brother here is one of my father, Julian, would you be so kind as to tell him that from what I've seen in the last week, there is nothing so vital or important about Amber that I would possibly want anything to do with it. I am going to forego this whole Pattern-walking thing, and have nothing further to do with Amber or its people. It's been... interesting. But Amber is not home, and nothing could be worth this." He wheeled his horse and headed down the trail, presumably back towards the Shadow Path leading towards Finndelaine.

I watched Morgan leave. Once he was out of sight, I slumped back into the saddle, shaking with relief. I looked up again, my vision blurred by tears. "Nimue, we've g-got to get back to the castle. I-I have to talk to Father. I'm really sorry about all of this."

There was no answer. I looked around. Nimue was staring fiercely at one of my Trumps; it was Morgan's. I sighed and waited for her to finish. After a moment, I said softly, "Nimue, I think this one is Father's problem at this point, not ours. Morgan seemed rather unstable there." She remained focussed on the Trump. I sighed, but didn't stop her. It was difficult to harm someone through a Trump; she could look away from the card if he tried and break the contact.

Nimue seemed to be in contact with someone, just not speaking aloud. At one point she nodded, but that was all. Suddenly she got off Primrose and reached up to hand me back my other Trumps. "I'll go and talk to him, Alex," she told me. "You should speak to Julian, I think. And I'll see you soon." Before I could even protest, she reached out with her right hand, still holding two of her own Trumps in her left, and stepped through. I looked at her gear on Primrose's back and remembered that she wasn't carrying any apparent weapons. There was only one thing I could do; I took Father's Trump from the handful she'd left with me, and concentrated on it. "Father, there's a problem..."

It took almost a minute to get through, but then I saw Father standing by a large glass window that looks down over a forest, somewhere in Amber. He was scowling and was *not* in a good mood. Well, neither was I. "What is it, Alexander?" he snapped at me.

Alex draws a deep breath, "Morgan's been behaving...strangely. As I was taking Nimue back to the castle, he rode up, started saying...strange things. Nimue got upset, I got mad, and he threatened to attack me. His horse looked ready to charge, so I just sat and waited for him to try it. I handed Nimue my Trumps so that she could contact you and get away if things got any worse. Then Morgan announced that he didn't want to go to Amber, ever, turned around, and rode off. Nimue tried to Trump him to see what was wrong. She made contact, told me to talk to you, gave back all the Trumps but Morgan's and... disappeared. He pulled her through... I guess to Finndelaine. I don't know what else to do but to go after him." That said, I just sat in my saddle and looked at Father.

Father startled me by swearing colorfully at Morgan. He finally said, "... assuming it *is* your brother. If Nimue has gone off with another shapeshifter disguised as him then we could be in real trouble, what with everything else as well. Go to Marcel and Josiah and get them ready for immediate action. But stay with them in the castle until someone Trumps you. Tell them that Martin is dead." He cut the contact abruptly.

I felt like swearing myself, but I pulled out Marcel's Trump. "Marcel, there's... problems."

Marcel asked, "What sort of problems do you mean, Alex? Are you alright? Is there something wrong with Julian, Morgan or Josiah?"

"I'm fine, but Morgan is behaving very strangely and frighteningly. Nimue Trumped him to see what was wrong and went through, and now I'm really worried about her. I just Trumped Father; he's in Amber and there's a huge mess there. He said to tell you that Martin is dead and that we are all to be at the castle, where you are now, until he contacts us." I told him the whole story as quickly as I could. "Morgan really wanted to know when Nimue was going to get here and not nice about asking. When I went to meet her, he popped up and started saying some strange things and upset her. I got mad at him, he kept being nasty to Nimue and threatened me. His horse was acting as if he were readying it to charge. I stood my ground and gave Nimue my Trumps so she could get the hell out if Morgan did attack. Then, he announced that I should tell Father he wanted nothing to do with Amber, and went away. Nimue contacted Morgan with my Trump of him, to ask just what was his problem, then handed the rest of them to me, told me to get ahold of Father and disappeared, off to wherever Morgan is. She has her own Trumps, but not her weapons, and I'm worried that Morgan is really insane. Father's talking about shapeshifter plots again...

"Can you please pull me through to the castle and Trump Morgan and find out if Nimue's all right and tell him to get his butt back here before Father returns to skin him alive?" Though I certainly wouldn't waste any sympathy on Morgan if Father did get ahold of him... I stopped for breath at this point and looked back at Marcel.

Marcel started to look worried. "Take my hand and come through."

Before I did that, I jumped off Tam and slapped him and then Primrose on the butt, yelling "home!" at them. As I went through, they started cantering towards the castle.

After I'd come through, Marcel flipped through his Trumps and pulled out Morgan's. Loosening his sword in his scabbard, he said angrily, "Morgan shall be sorry if he has harmed even one hair on that beautiful woman's head." I thought that Morgan should be in trouble even if Nimue weren't attractive, but didn't bother bringing it up. Marcel began to concentrate on the Trump. I sent one of the servants to the front gate to deal with the horses when they returned.

Over his shoulder, Marcel asked, "There must be something that you can tell me, Alex, about Morgan's behavior, I mean. For example, what was it that he said to Nimue that upset her so?"

"Nimue and I were at the beach packing her stuff onto Primrose and along came Morgan. Nimue greeted him and he returned the greeting and then began what I guess was a very bad joke. He started getting all formal, something I had told him Nimue didn't want to deal with. Nimue told him that she was just visiting as one of the family and he turned around with 'I didn't know we were related, nobody ever tells me anything.' I thought it was very decent of Nimue not to fly off the handle, since I think she's as illegitimate as I am and that's kind of a stigma in the cities. She explained to him just who her father was and he laughed in her face. He said later that he was just laughing at her situation, not at her." I was still pretty mad at Morgan, but I reminded Marcel, "Marcel, you'd better wait to chew his butt after we've gotten Nimue to safety. And then I'll be more than glad to help you." I looked away, "I'd better send for Josiah so we're here and ready when Father tries to get in contact."

Marcel said, "Well, unless Morgan has a very good reason for his actions, I believe that I shall be forced to teach him some manners when we I see him next. But go ahead and call Josiah. I am sure that Julian will want all of us here together in any event." He went back to focussing on the Trump. Morgan had to have one hell of a headache by now. Why didn't he just answer?

I wrote a note as quickly as I could and sent a servant to hunt down Josiah. It said:

Josiah, Would you please join Marcel and me in the dining room. There are a couple of emergencies that we may have to deal with: Father has just called from Amber to tell us that the King's son is dead and we may have to retrieve Morgan from Finndelaine. So pack lightly and fast and bring a sword.

Sorry about the short notice.

Alexander

Josiah charged into the dining room some minutes later. "Suicide, murder, or just bad luck?" he demanded, about Martin, I assumed.

I was pacing back and forth at that point and Marcel *still* hadn't reached Morgan. I answered, "Father didn't say, but I'll guess it was murder and I'll further guess that everyone's going to tell us it was a Courts-of-Chaos-originated assassin in reprisal for my killing Chanicut. I'm kind of more worried about Morgan right now. A friend of mine went to see him to find out what was the matter and we're trying to get her back."

Josiah said, "I'm a little behind on the tale of Chanicut, although from what you've told me one thing is out of whack. Chanicut was the heir to a major house, but he was not on the same scale as the son of a king, no? And you guys did muse that the whole reason for the stink over his death was programming for a war? The arithmetic suggests that the murder of the king's boy is all part of this program-for-war bit."

I replied, "I've also heard mention that Chanicut was heir to the throne of Chaos. Since there's no war so far, perhaps the Chaos faction figured if one prince didn't make the difference, two would. Doesn't matter, Father will brief us soon."

Unfortunately Josiah wasn't going to wait for a briefing when he could speculate: "The arithmetic suggests that the murder of the king's boy is all part of this program-for-war bit. And if I can leap into outright speculation, the only third party we know about in a Chaos-Amber situation are the Moonriders..."

Marcel chipped in, "Unfortunately, I have been thinking about something, brothers. If the one that appeared was not actually Morgan, there may be the possiblity that it was another shapeshifter. The fact that Nimue is also royalty and that she may have a claim on the throne of Amber due to her parentage, may make her an ideal target for anyone trying to disrupt things in Amber."

I protested, "Father suggested the same thing, but she contacted Morgan and left by Trump, the one Aunt Fiona made. And I had a pretty peculiar conversation with him by the same Trump a few days earlier. I think that the real thing has just lost his marbles and I just wonder what's left."

Josiah decided to become completely incoherent at that point: "Step back a bit. Alex's note said Morgan was in Finnedaile. Are you saying the Morgan I met here was a shapeshifter? And if it *is* a shapeshifter, why not the not-necessarily-late Chanicut? From my crash course on the way here, I gather shape shifts are basic training for Chaosites. Come to think of it, could a shape shift be used to make someone fire-proof and yet still look like they're burnt? What did you do with the body again?"

He babbled on, "Nimue is royalty of Chaos, though? If relations are already tense, the sudden arrival of a helpful of handful Amberites is not going to help matters, and if we sneak in, we're going to look damned silly explaining how we're chasing someone else who might be sneaking in. Besides which, that means we'd have to split up, one group (or person) going to retrieve Morgan, the remainder looking after Nimue."

"We're not going to split up or sneak anywhere." I was starting to get mad at Josiah. "Father wants us to wait here, together, until he contacts us. There is no evidence of Chaos or Moonrider involvement. Nimue is probably either in Finndelaine with Morgan, or she's Trumped home to Rebma. Until we talk to Morgan or Nimue, there's no way to find out any differently and there's no point jumping to conclusions from here."

Marcel put Morgan's Trump back into his deck and put that back into his pocket. "Well, I have tried as hard as I can. Perhaps I should try again in a few minutes with help from both of you. In the meantime though, I would like to know what has been going on the last few days since I was gone. Also, I would like to know why both of you think that Nimue is a member of a Royal House of Chaos!

I refused to take the blame for Josiah's idiocy, "I don't think anything of the sort."

Marcel started to get strident, "I think that the three of us must talk seriously about this and other things and let us not have any hiding of facts or the baring of any half-truths! I expect you to be first, Alex, since you were the last person to see Morgan and you were also the one to see Nimue last! "

I stopped pacing and glared at him, "Suppose you tell me what I'm being accused of first or I'll wait to tell what I know when Father sends for us."

Marcel's face softened and he sighed. "I am sorry for snapping at you, Alex. I did not mean to accuse you of anything. I am only worried for Nimue's and Morgan's safety. I merely thought that either of them might have said something that might give us a clue as to their whereabouts and/or their situation. Also, I am sorry for putting words in your mouth. I did not mean to assume that you though Nimue was of Chaos descent, but when you did not reply to Josiah's mention of it, I thought that you might have held the same point of view."

"Hey," says Josiah, "I'm the baby brother. Nobody tells me anything."

Marcel then extends his hand to me and said, "I am sorry, brother. Can you forgive me?"

I felt pretty bad for having taken out my frustration on Marcel. I took his hand. "I'm... sorry. I just took your words the wrong way. I... I shouldn't have assumed that you were accusing me of anything. I-it's just that I just listened to a raft of crazy accusations from Morgan and Father's going to be furious with me for failing to protect Nimue... B-but I couldn't stop her... I didn't realize what she was going to do... then she vanished." And there wasn't a damned thing I could do about it if I stayed here...

"From the top, kid." For once, Josiah seemed a little concerned. "Who is Nimue, what was she going to do, and what happened before she vanished?"

I sighed and took a deep breath, "Nimue... is the daughter of Queen Moire of Rebma and Eric, late King of Amber and Father's brother. I had invited her to visit here on the way to Amber. As you probably noticed, Morgan hadn't returned to Arden to stay before we went, so I had to Trump him to tell him she would be here. He wanted to know exactly when she was coming, and I explained that she had wanted to visit informally and I didn't to lead want a welcoming committee waiting for her on the beach, so we'd come find him back at the castle. That made him mad, so I cut contact, and he turned up at the beach this morning anyway.

Josiah nodded. "Think back on it. Was his attitude usual for him? Usual for those circumstances?"

I told him: "When I Trumped him, he was patronizing and rude, kind of like he was with you and Marcel when we met. He wasn't like that the last two times I've seen him, but those were years ago. I figured he was simply tired and worried about Finndelaine, but I wasn't going to put up with it. He really wanted to know when Nimue was going to get here, but wouldn't tell me why.

"Nimue greeted him and he started saying strange, really rude things..." I paused to draw another deep breath, "She got upset..."

Josiah asked, "Strange, as well as rude? What was strange about them? Can you remember exactly what he said?"

I shut my eyes and concentrated, "He was normal enough at first. He rode up and complimented her, kissed her hand and so forth. He then apologized for his familiarity and explained that he was covering for Marcel, although I'd already explained to him that I wanted to avoid formality and bringing the whole family swarming on her. She told him she was here as family and so would prefer him to behave informally. He said, in this very strange voice, 'I didn't even know that we were related. Nobody tells me anything!'

Josiah inquired, "Strange? How strange? Stressed, angry, frightened? Or some artificial quality, like he was acting? This is important, it may help us identify what was going on."

"He may have been imitating Marcel, but he doesn't act well enough that I could tell." I looked at Josiah, "I don't know what Father's told you about the way social standing works in Amber and Rebma, but bastardy is a pretty serious stigma and Nimue was born out of wedlock. King Eric was courting her mother, Queen Moire, formally some months before her birth, looking to unite the two kingdoms, I guess, and so Father and Nimue for that matter are pretty sure that she's our cousin. Thanks to the fact that she's the only child of a powerful queen, nobody has the gall to question her ancestry. Nobody but Morgan."

Josiah missed the point completely on his way back to his conspiracy theory, "Let me make sure I have this straight. Nimue belongs to an old King of Amber and the current Queen of Rebma, and so has a strong claim on one throne and a fair claim on another. Martin's got the same stigma, and belongs to the current King of Amber and a noblewoman of Rebma. One is missing, no indication if she's alive, and the other is murdered at about the same time. Damn, this is big. Either someone's trying to destabilize the nations...or someone's got a vendetta going."

I tried to make sure he got his facts straight at least. "Nimue is the heir to Rebma, because her mother has made her such. Martin is Moire's grandson, born to her daughter Morganthe, and so is behind her in the succession of Rebma unless Moire has decreed otherwise. Nimue has no claim on the throne of Amber since there's no evidence of her father's identity. That wasn't the point anyway."

I went on with my account, in the hope that Josiah would actually work something out from it. "She had the good grace to simply correct him and kept being pleasant, but he started laughing at her. He said," I remembered his words, "'Not you, too.' and laughed some more and said he'd explain later, then welcomed her to Arden again and kept laughing...

Josiah asked, "Was it his normal laugh? Was it sarcastic, was it hysterical? We're trying to reconstruct this guy's intentions, remember."

"He seemed to think that the whole thing was amusing," I told Josiah. "Nimue was pretty mad then and said she was looking forward to hearing his explanation, but she didn't see what was so funny, then galloped off. Morgan just pursued and started lecturing her about how she should quit being so thin-skinned... I snapped at him, he started yelling at me about what a terrible person I was and started to threaten me... His horse put back its ears and showed its teeth at me, even though I hadn't made sudden moves or raised my voice, so I figured Morgan was going to charge."

"Did Morgan make any sudden moves? Anything that would tell you he was going to charge? Is it possible something else startled the horse?" Josiah frowned, "Maybe he was trying to make it throw you..." He was completely mixed up at this point.

I went back to the story anyway. "My horse was being pretty normal. Morgan pulled off his glove and his horse had turned to me. It was pretty definitely aggressive behavior rather than any sort of skittish or alarmed behavior. Morgan was going to attack me, but it may have occurred to him that I'm bigger than he is, Nimue was getting ready to flee so he couldn't get whatever he wanted out of her in any case, and then there's the fact that Father would shred him if he drew steel against me. It looked to me like he changed his mind, for whatever reason."

I swallowed and went on. "I told Nimue to get behind me and gave her my Trumps. Morgan just sat there and taunted me, so I told him to make good his threat or to leave. He said to tell Father he wanted nothing to do with Amber and left, heading towards the Finndelaine path."

Josiah was speculating, "So if Morgan did not intend to charge, it might have been something else. If someone else was there, either just snooping around or using something magical, would the horse have picked it up when you didn't?"

I ignored the question and finished the story: "Nimue gave back all my Trumps except Morgan's and contacted him, I guess to ask what his problem was. She dismounted at that point and then turned to me and said I should contact Father and tell him what was going on, then reached out her hand and vanished. I realized she didn't have her weapons at that point, just her Trumps of Rebma to get away. I contacted Father, he was in Amber, really upset, and he said to get back here and to wait for him and that Martin's dead. So then I contacted Marcel and he brought me back here and tried to contact Morgan." I was pretty tired and depressed by now, there was nothing left that I could do, except maybe to disobey Father and head for Finndelaine, which probably wouldn't be very helpful at this point.

Josiah asked, "She vanished. Was this the sort of rainbow-fluff vanish that happens when you Trump, or something else? Something you had not seen before?"

"It was a Trump effect," I told him.

Josiah's eyes gleamed, "OK, this is good. Trump's something we know about, Julian told me the essentials. Now she was reaching for you when she vanished? How do you know? Maybe she was reaching for whoever she had contact with. If that's the case, she left voluntarily. Otherwise, somebody who had teriffic control of Trump grabbed her..."

I corrected him, as if it would do any good. "I didn't say that she reached for me, just that she had reached out to someone. I think she went voluntarily, to talk him out of his foul mood. I knew it was more than that, but didn't get a chance to tell her."

Josiah was busy doing what he'd planned from the start: blaming everything on the Great Moonrider Conspiracy. He didn't give a damn what had really happened... "Also, Rebma is some sort of allied nation to Amber, correct? Let's get back to an earlier notion, somebody's programming to foul up Amber-Chaos relations, possibly the Moonriders. If Nimue went missing, after being in the company of two Amberites, how would that affect Amber-Rebma and Amber-Chaos logistics?"

I tried futilely to drag him back to reality. "Forget the Moonriders. Finndelaine is under attack by the Courts themselves: monsters that bleed fire. If Nimue disappeared, there will be trouble between Amber and Rebma. The important question is what Morgan wanted from Nimue."

Josiah was off in his own little world, "That's one of them. Another one would be why did he want it."

I tried to point out how serious Morgan's situation was. "Don't bother with that one until you can answer the first. There is no Chaos connection unless Morgan has actually sold out, and I think he'd be unlikely to do that. Even though Chaos might spare him and Finndelaine (and I doubt that, because these enemies are renegades, without official Courts backing), Father would kill him.

"If Nimue couldn't reason with him, then she could have used her own Trumps to return to Rebma and that's where she is now, unable to contact me. I have to believe that she is there, because if Morgan has harmed her in his madness, I'm going to have to kill him." I felt sick at the thought, but I was utterly serious. "I wish Father would just contact us, and I'll see if I can go to Rebma and make sure she's all right."

Marcel finally spoke, "Therefore, it is possible that Nimue has gone to Finndelaine to see the 'real' Morgan? How long after Morgan's departure did Nimue Trump him? Do you believe that he had enough time to travel back to Finndelaine?"

Now I was up against the shapeshifter-plots faction. "Asterion is fast enough that it wouldn't take him long. I'm fairly sure that the Morgan I met at the beach was the same one I had conversed with by Trump a few days earlier."

Marcel added, "Relax, Alex. You cannot be held responsible for the Princess leaving to go after Morgan. Julian cannot expect you to be her keeper." I was more concerned about Nimue than about Father, but it was some comfort nonetheless.

Marcel looked at Josiah. "You mentioned that Nimue was of Chaos descent just a few moments ago, Josiah. Where did you get such information? Also, you mentioned Nimue's name yet you just spoke about her as though you know nothing about her. Could you explain that to me?"

Josiah admitted, "I was listening to your conversation and probably got confused. I'm new here, after all. I *don't* know anything about her. That's why I ask dumb questions. Of course, I'm known to ask dumb questions even when I do know the answers to them..."

I looked up as a ranger came rushing into the room. Commander Rose is the duty officer and in command of the castle whenever Julian and Alex are away. "Sir!" she said to me, "One of our patrols has located a small unit of unknown troops on the edge of Arden. They number approximately forty and are heading into the forest, attempting to hide their presence. I've sent out units to shadow them and prepare for an assault. The original patrol is unobserved and watching the ememy. Do you have any further orders?"

"Yes, have scouts make sure that there aren't any other units trying to sneak in while this one is being dealt with." Alex tells her. "What do they look like and where exactly are they coming in from?" I hadn't thought the day could get worse, but it was well on its way.

Of course my brothers assumed that the Arden Guard was just another toy and the raid another game. Marcel demanded, "What information do you have about the intruders, Commander? Are they bearing any known insignia or symbol? How are they armed and how many do our troops number?"

Josiah chuckled and joined in. "I feel better for being confused about Nimue. I believe the commander said that they were *unknown*. Let me ask this... did they look normal? That is, Amberite-slash-human? Any distinguishing racial characteristics?"

"Marcel, Josiah, there's no time for this!" I snapped. "Marcel, please try and Trump Father and let him know what's going on. If he can't come back to handle this, I have to. And I know perfectly well how many troops we have and how they're disposed because I'm part of the Arden Guard!" I turned back to the Commander to hear her answers.

Marcel protested behind me, "I did not mean to overstep me bounds, brother, but there is no need to be rude to me. I will do as you say and I will try to contact Julian. If cannot contact him, or if he cannot come to help, you can count on my support and aid. I am sure that the same goes for you, Josiah?"

Josiah took out his sword and waved it about gleefully. "Unlike Marcel," he joked, "I will do what I can to help even if Papa Julie is able to come and help!"

I resisted to the urge to throttle Marcel and just nodded to him, "Sorry to be rude, but you know better than to interrupt a briefing. If you wish to take responsibility for defending Arden, I'm sure that Dad would be more than glad to provide you with one of these," I tugged at my Ranger's uniform, "And all of the troop information you were requesting from Commander Rose. Trumping Father would help and not hinder at all. Thanks." I turned back to Commander Rose, who was sensibly waiting for the nonsense to quiet down.

She told me: "All patrols have been alerted. Most have acknowledged the alert and report no sign of other incursions. We are still awaiting replies from seventeen patrols, but we're only just inside the envelope for those.

"The force is well-equipped but not uniformed. However, Sergeant Hide reports they appear too well disciplined to be a bandit troop and that they seem to be escorting three civilians, possibly nobility. All appear human. The approach they are taking is from the road leading towards Shadows Coursan and Farell."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Marcel hold out his hand and Father appear. "I was unable to contact Morgan," Father said, "And shall travel to Finndelaine to deal with him later. Nimue is safely back in Rebma. What's the situation here? Are you ready to go to Amber?"

Josiah, still thinking that he was funny, announced, "Actually, we were inviting you here to help us with the battle... got any last-minute pointers?"

I was immensely relieved to hear that Nimue was safe and that I could hand this situation over to him. "Ah, yes, sir, but Commander Rose has just reported a unit of forty troops sneaking into Arden. You may wish to deal with that first."

Father turned to Commander Rose and she repeated everything she had said.

"Good work," he said to her, "Keep me updated. I... wait..." He brought a hand up to his sword and tensed, staring into the distance. Then he relaxed. "Ah, Marcel," he says, "Good idea. It is best to play safe at present." Marcel had been checking to see if he were a shapeshifter. But how could he be if Marcel had brought him through a Trump in the first place?

Father turned back to Commander Rose. "I shall join you shortly," he said to her. She saluted crisply and hurried away. He went back to us and handed Marcel a Trump of Gerard (who I'd only seen before on that same Trump). "Go to Gerard now, the three of you, and convey my apologies for not coming back with you. Let him know the situation here. We will sort out any luggage you want in Amber later." Then he waited for us to go.

"Good thing I'm traveling light," commented Josiah.

I sighed and looked back mournfully at Father, wondering why there had to be problems in Arden today. "Yes, sir." I walked over towards Marcel.

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