Garrett focuses on his father's image. His hair is shorter now than it was when the card was made, and he looks less imposing in it. Garrett looks into the card and wills it to reality.
The card turns and Random is before a seascape, overlooking an island off the coast in a light rain. Farther out to sea, a storm roils the water. "Who goes there?", says Random.
"It's Garrett, sir," the young prince answers, then pushes on without hesitation, "I'm in Xanadu with Solange. She told me about Cambina and the Queen. I want to help in any way I can. What have you already done and what do you need?"
Random looks at him, letting the pause get more uncomfortable as it elongates. "Not as much as you've already done, bucko. I'm sorta proud and kinda pissed. Are you gonna make a habit of doing exactly what I say not to do?"
Garrett holds his father's gaze for as long as he can, but Random has several more centuries' worth of princely stubbornness at his disposal. The young prince finally looks downward, chewing his lip. His left hand fidgets with the hilt of his sword.
"Once is not a habit," he says levelly after thinking of and wisely discarding several smart-mouth retorts. "I'm sorry I disobeyed you. But I'm not sorry I walked."
Random nods, "Fair enough. I'm sorry I didn't get down there in time to stop you, but I'm not sorry you didn't kill yourself, so I suppose we're even." Random looks less annoyed.
Garrett nods once, content to let the subject drop.
"OK, you wanna help? Come though." He holds out his hand.
Garrett tilts his head as if listening over his shoulder while maintaining eye contact with the trump. Deciding that Solange still sounds busy, he holds out his hand to his father without further comment. Solange will know where he's gone.
Random stands on a rocky beach looking across a narrow channel at an island. "OK, kiddo, thanks for volunteering. Have you ever done any open-ocean swimming? It's probably less then 3 miles."
"Some. Not since I was a lad," Garrett replies. He looks out toward the island, judging the distance. "Still, that shouldn't be too bad. What do you expect to find out there?"
Random squints and begins pulling off his boots.
"Benedict."
The name prompts an astounded look from Garrett. Without another word, he begins yanking off his boots and stripping off his shirt. Reluctantly, he removes his sword and lays it down on top of his discarded shirt. He then secures the leather belt case containing his trumps behind his back rather than its customary place at his hip. As he does so, he asks, "The water won't ruin these, will it?"
"Not if you take care of them and you don't want it to. Maybe not even then. You don't have any that aren't finished do you?"
Garrett shakes his head.
"Ready? OK, two things. First, if a Jaguarfish comes up to you, punch it in the nose, they hate that. Second, race ya!"
Random takes off running for the water.
Garrett is taken aback as his father sprints ahead. Such playfulness seems odd when one's wife is missing, but it's not the first time he has been surprised by the King's actions. After that moment's hesitation, Garrett tears off after Random and dives through the first wave.
It has been many years since Garrett swam in the ocean. In more recent years, most of his swimming took place at a pool in a mountain stream that tumbled down from Kolvir. It was deep, clear and icy cold, but not very wide. Long-distance swimming was not required. It takes Garrett a moment to reacquire the rhythm of long strokes and rotary breathing, but once he does, he begins to make headway. He is nowhere near as graceful in the water as his Rebman-born brother, but his upper-body strength and wiry frame move him along swiftly.
Random takes advantage of his initial lead and Garrett's relative inexperience to build a small but clear lead. While Random doesn't outdistance his son, Garrett finds he cannot bridge the gap between them.
As they approach the rocky coast of the island, Garrett hears his father singing as he swims. It's a popular song in parts of Amber. The parts that like obscene songs.
Random comes ashore first, but just barely. He looks up at the cliff and the castle atop it, and along the narrow beach at the base, which is riddled with caves. There's no obvious way up.
"Any ideas?" he asks Garrett.
Garrett squints upward, studying the face of the cliff. "Well... I can climb pretty good," he ventures, "but... what's at the top anyway? Where are we? Is it anyplace that we can shift to make the handholds better?"
Random grins. "Try to shift." He looks at the cliff face. "Scalable, but only if you don't care if you're seen by the castle and only a small party could make it. No surprises there. It looks almost as if it's this way on purpose."
He turns back to Garrett. "I told you. Benedict is up there. This is, so I am told, the Island of Apples, which strikes me as a completely Benedictine name for a place. You know what he calls that striped horse of his, right?"
Random turns back to the cliff. "Anyway, no time like the present." He starts climbing, his bare feet grabbing rocks and branches.
Garrett does the same, choosing a point for his ascent a bit to his father's right rather than following directly in his path. No sense in both getting knocked off the cliff if one man falls. He tries to ignore the nagging thought that they would be easy targets for someone at the top with a crossbow. Instead, he fills his mind with pictures of a tranquil apple orchard as he scrabbles around for each new handhold.
"I do hope... that you're on good terms... with Uncle Benedict," Garrett says between breaths.
"We're like brothers!", Random says, climbing. "Hey, shortcut!" Random starts moving to the left, where a rock juts out like a massive thumb from the cliffside. That will be a difficult climb.
There's a simpler climb to the right, but it's longer.
"That's what I'm afraid of," Garrett mutters to the rock face at his father's first comment. At Random's declaration of a shortcut, he looks up to evaluate the two courses, then gingerly picks his way to the left, following his father mostly for the sake of curiosity.
Random turns back and grins. It's unclear if he heard what Garrett muttered or not.
The last part of the climb will be the toughest. It's not quite a 180 degree inverted ledge, but nearly so. "Watch this!" says Random.
He climbs out under the ledge, gradually getting further and further up the rock and out over the sea. It would be a long fall. He gets to the roof, and says "like this!" Random crosses his wrists and turns his hands fingers down. He swings himself out and around and lands with an "oof!" on top of the thumb. After a moment, Garrett hears him laughing.
A moment later, a strange male voice says "Fancy meeting you here."
Garrett watches carefully, committing every move and handhold to memory.
There is something strangely familiar in the maneuver. Garrett remembers clinging to the rough-hewn rafters in the lofts of the Amber stables. While his father's moves here have more flash, Garrett used to do something similar to swing up into the sturdy beams. It was a game some of the younger grooms played to pass a few free moments in their otherwise long, busy days. A few of them got pretty good at it too. True, you weren't likely to fall to your death in the hayloft, but you might be beaten for slacking if the horsemaster caught you, and the surest way to be caught was that nasty "thump" on the stable's ceiling when you fell.
Ignoring the voices above for the moment, Garrett pictures himself in the loft as he climbs the rock, following in his father's path and refusing to look down. When he gets to the proper spot, he shifts his hands carefully, takes a deep breath, and swings out and around with all his strength.
Random catches him as he hits his apogee and turns his momentum into a well-placed landing.
With Random on top of the protruding rock are two men. He recognizes: his uncle Benedict and his father's grandfather.
"Hallo!", says Dworkin. "I was just saying to Random that he was outnumbered, but that doesn't seem to be true anymore. What are you doing on my thumb?"
Garrett is slightly pale after his unorthodox entrance. "Your th...," he starts to say, and glances back over his shoulder at the cliffside that remains a little too close for comfort. "I... I reckon we're looking for the queen," he stammers as he turns back toward them, trying to collect himself.
Dworkin nods, as if he expected this answer. "Well put, my boy, well put. And how goes your day of reckoning?" He pulls out a pad of paper and makes a little note on it. Random rolls his eyes, good naturedly.
"It, um, only just started, really," Garrett replies hesitantly, arching his neck slightly to try to get a glimpse of what his eldest relative was writing. "I trumped to Father when I heard about Cambina and that the queen was missing. Then we came here."
Dworkin looks agitated. "What about Cambina? And which Queen? Are they all missing now?"
Random opens his mouth to explain, but Dworkin hushes him with a hand gesture. "You can't talk to me and her at the same time you know, you only have one mouth today." Random looks puzzled and Benedict's face is a cypher.
He turns back to Garrett. "Well?"
Garrett glances over at his father quizzically. "Uh... Cambina is dead, sir," he says to Dworkin tentatively, still wondering which piece of conversation he missed. "It appears she fell from the City in the Sky. Last anyone knew, Queen Vialle was with her, but no one's... um... found her yet." He winces slightly at that last bit.
Benedict looks at Random. "We'll initiate a search at sunset." Random nods and again is about to speak.
"Hush!", orders Dworkin, still looking at Garrett. "How soon will you be stable enough in your form to be worth painting?"
Garrett stares at him blankly. "Stable enough in my form?" he asks, confused. "Uh... I'm not sure what you mean."
Benedict blinks once. "He means 'are you finished growing?' and the answer is 'no' or 'maybe I am because I walked the pattern, but you'd know that better than me, grandfather.'"
Dworkin nods and pulls out some sort of spyglass from a pouch at his waist. "May I?" he inquires of Garrett.
Garrett eyes the glass warily. "I... reckon so," he agrees hesitantly.
Random paces around the thumb for a few moments, eventually stopping mid-stride while staring out to sea. "Hey, Folly. I hope your day's going better than mine." Garrett can see that the King is smiling but it doesn't seem like a happy smile. He's got a flower in his hand, a little white one from one of the crevices on the cliff-face.
Garrett spares the merest glance at his father at the mention of Folly's name, but otherwise watches what Dworkin is doing with intense interest.
"Paige did sketch me a while back. I think she mentioned she wasn't able to make a trump until I had walked the Pattern though," he offers helpfully.
Random shakes his head slightly. "Not at all, we went to look for Vialle and we ran across Dworkin. Oh, and Benedict. Hopefully this means they'll be part of the finding."
Random pauses. "I'm surprised Bleys took your mother. He's normally too fastidious to want sloppy seconds."
Dworkin walks slowly around Garrett staring at him through the small lens mechanism. "Paige? I had no idea she could sketch. Well, well. They grow up so fast, don't they Benedict? I wonder if she learned it from someone she ate?"
He stops in front of Garrett. "I think I shall want to wait a decade or two. Unless I can examine this sketch. Do you have it?"
"I'm sorry, no. Paige kept it," Garrett replies.
Across the outcropping, Random takes a deep breath. "Wellllll, Gerard is in charge in Xanadu, Caine has Amber under the iron grip of his brass knuckles, Solange and Hannah are probably about to drag Corwin to Tir na nOgth to try to see if they can see who pushed Cambina and Llewella has the Rebman war under control or not, plus, I've got Garrett here, so I can't really answer your question the way it deserves to be answered.
"But my immediate thought is 'Get Haven. The more and the sooner we make Xanadu our home the more homelike it will be and the less we have to worry about.' In other words, you've got damn good instincts for this crap, follow them. Ask Julian to show you some probability tricks, they'll make it quicker."
Garrett half-listens to his father's side of the conversation, but can't resist questioning the master. "Gra... Great-Grandfather, sir? If I might ask, what is it you were looking for with that thing?" he asks, indicating the lens. "Does it show when I've finished growing? Or is it looking for some level of... um, pattern stability or something that comes after you've walked the Pattern?"
"This?," asks Dworkin, his tone one of surprise. "No, it's rubbish." He tosses it over the edge and it glints in the sun for a moment before heading down to the sea below.
Random sighs. "Yeah, Martin needs to know, if only so he can come to the funeral. If you can't reach him, I'll try, or I'll send someone closer to the midpoint. If he and Lily went into lower-case-c 'chaos' like they planned, then they'll be hard to reach, even from Texorami."
Dworkin looks at Garrett with his left eye, which seems to open incredibly widely. "Do you think you've finished growing?"
"I don't think so, sir," Garrett replies, trying not to stare. "I might be close physically, but now that I've walked the Pattern, I reckon there are other ways of growing that I truly know nothing about yet."
"No, no, you're not answering the question. Let me try again. Is this the lie you wish to have told for you?" Dworkin seems pleased with his new question.
"Uh... the lie?" Garrett flounders, even more confused.
Random continues to walk along the thumb. He seems to be oblivous to the location of the edge
"We make our own luck, love--and now you know what I meant by that. Last thing--last three things, really. I need twelve pairs of Pro-Mark XLs in White Beech, a case of Einar's Screaming Maibock, and a crate of Coyote Brand Chili, no beans. That's in order of importance, after Haven."
Random pauses, then sighs. He steps closer to the edge of the thumb-shaped rock formation. "We'll have the funeral is a couple or ten days. You all should try to be back for it. We can figure out what happens next then."
Random waits for a moment and then returns to the big circle.
Garrett glances over at him, hoping for clarification. Or maybe rescue.
"Ok, that was Folly, she--"
"Not yet!," says Dworkin, "you have no patience."
"Huh? Oh..." He holds up a hand and is silent. "Another one? That you can't just put in the big box of problems? OK, come through. There's plenty of thumb to go around."
Garrett steps aside to make room for whoever is coming through. He returns his attention to Dworkin. "I'm sorry, sir. Which lie do you mean?"
Hannah and Corwin step through hurriedly. The outcropping of rock, perhaps 100 feet below the cliff-top and perhaps 600 feet above the sea is decidedly small for six. It looks vaguely like an extended thumb.
Dworkin looks at Corwin and says "You're late."
Corwin looks back at him and says "I was, but I'm not anymore."
Random looks at Corwin. "OK, what's the problem?"
"The Queen of Air and Darkness may be loose," Corwin explains, looking significantly at Dworkin and Benedict. "Gerard's daughter may have seen her."
"Holy crap!" Random exclaims. "Who?"
Corwin starts to say something, which from his expression will be very exasperated, and Benedict cuts him off. "The goddess of the Moonriders."
Random shakes his head once. "Well, that can't be good."
Hannah can't help but grin at this reaction, and carefully moves herself over to stand next to Dworkin. "Hello, grandfather," she says politely and nods to Garrett.
"Ya Ta Say, Ohanzee," says Dworkin. "Do you have a new name yet? I know one you could use. Do you like the sound of Cetanagin?"
Hannah leans close to Dworkin to whisper, "Now that's an excellent name, but I don't think I've earned it yet. I chose Enana, since gaining the Mark of Honor means a woman has encompassed the universe on behalf of the people."
Dworkin nods. "Your grandmother will be amused."
Garrett, still bare-chested and looking somewhat bedraggled from his long swim and steep climb, smiles back at Hannah. "Cousin," he nods in greeting.
Her curious eyes rise up to Benedict. "Sir," she says in greeting.
From his days as a lad at his Grandda Hewn's knee, Garrett remembers stories of the battles with the Moonriders. Grandda never fought in any of them, but the old dock worker loved history and could tell the tales, large as they had grown over the years, for hours.
Garrett turns to Benedict. "The Moonriders, sir? Have they returned?" he asks.
"Not to Amber nor to Tir. Not yet. They will try something soon, I expect."
Random opens his mouth to speak and Dworkin just points at him and snaps his fingers. Random just laughs. "Alright, more patience."
Corwin turns to Garrett. "They keep turning up--the funeral, Bleys' run-in with them on the way back to Amber, and now this--and I don't believe in coincidences."
"I really don't see how you have enough evidence from Solange saying she saw a ghost and giving you little else to conclude that means the ghost is Moonrider-related, your Majesty," Hannah points out. "Not that I don't want to know more, or can prove you wrong, but let's call instinctive assumptions what they are."
Corwin's look is flat. "Don't assume that you've got all the answers, because you don't, not about the moonriders. Holding the pass, that was just war. Afterwards, when they were our prisoners, that was as disturbing as anything I've seen. There are legends and what description we got before Solange decided it was more important to do something stupid than something useful matched them. It's not a coincidence. I have ... other sources of information as well. I'm probably the leading living expert on TIr'na nOgth. If I say something is related to Tir, it is."
Hannah can't help but smile. "That is why I fetched you."
Hannah looks to Benedict. "Does the Queen of Air and Darkness normally visit before the Moonriders try something? Something, like a test, or something, like taking advantage of an opportunity, or...something else? I'm Hannah, by the way," she smiles, offering a hand of greeting across Dworkin.
Garrett turns back to Benedict from Hannah and waits with interest for the answer to that question.
Benedict takes her hand, briefly and firmly. "I'm Benedict. You're in my Avalon," he says, looking at Corwin. "The Moonriders have searched for her for centuries, and if she is not bottled up in her place, then they may find her, which would be undesirable."
Random snorts and says, apparently to no one, "this is getting ridiculous. There's no more room on this thumb, really."
Hannah's eyes stay on Benedict, amused and infuriated at the same time, before her mouth quirks and she puts expression away. She sighs and looks around to see how much room she has before she's stepping off an edge.
Garrett glances between his uncles during this explanation, his expression thoughtful. Turning finally to Corwin, he says, "Your Majesty, I'm coming in in the middle here, so I don't know exactly what happened with the Moonriders. But... is it also not coincidental that this is all occurring at the same time that Prince Huon is attacking Rebma? And the Dragon has recently attacked Amber?"
Hannah looks around and sees what could reasonably be described as a stone outcropping that looks remarkably like a giant's thumb protruding from a cliff face. There's no obvious route onto or off the ledge, which is hundreds of feet above the crashing surf and scores below the cliff-tops. It's unclear how anyone got here.
Corwin nods, impatiently. "Yes, it's not coincidental. It's because Dad died and everything he tied up came loose. He didn't really plan for 'apres lui'."
Random sighs. "Paige, too? Alright, we'll make room for four more. We'll just have to breathe in shifts. Come through." He holds out his hand.
Dworkin looks up. "Five!" he says.
Hearing the number of expected new arrivals, Garrett shuffles closer to Benedict and Dworkin to make room for them all. He drops the conversation as he waits for everyone to arrive.
With all the craziness incoming, Hannah takes Dworkin's arm and whispers to him, "So was it you who was Wixer when I was spirit walking, or was it Random thinking he was you being Wixer?"
"Six?" says Random. "OK, start sending 'em through."
"Five!", replies Dworkin. He then turns to Hannah, but doesn't whisper back. "When you were what? I should hope Random doesn't think he's me, that would be very confusing, even for him. I thought he was going to be his father or perhaps his uncle, but he turned out to be himself.
"This thumb is altogether too crowded, or it's about to be. Care to leave?"
"Oh, no, I have to... stay with Corwin. Can't you just gently make this thumb a little bigger?" Hannah grins. "But don't make us a little smaller. I wouldn't like that."
Garrett chuckles at Hannah's comment, but otherwise waits for the party to arrive.
Dworkin laughs and waves, and steps over the edge of the thumb and falls away and out of sight.
"Hey!," yells Random. There's a bright burst of coruscating rainbow light that doesn't go away and Random splutters as he's hit in the face with a geyser of water. He's feeling around in front of him with his hands.
Hannah's look of concern, but not panic, follows Dworkin, and then switches to Random. "When it rains..." she mutters.
Garrett looks alarmed at Dworkin's unorthodox departure, but his attention turns to his father when he hears Random shout. He quickly steps past Hannah to get close enough to make a grab if Random steps too close to the edge.
Random grunts a guttural expletive and PULLS, falling hard on his back and the six of them land in a heap on top of each other and the rocks.
As the wall of Amberite humanity falls through the connection, Garrett brakes hard and sidesteps to avoid being crushed.
Benedict reaches down and stops Caine from rolling off the pile and over the edge.
Corwin jumps out of the way and Hannah also avoid being knocked over in the crash.
From the bottom of the pile, Random says. "Hi, everyone, welcome to Avalon. What have you been up to recently?" His voice is mostly muffled.
Hannah doesn't think this rock is strong enough to support the ten of them for long.
Brita extracts herself from the pile, still swearing a blue streak. She quickly pulls out her cards and finds the Trump of her mother. She immediately focuses on the card and attempts to make contact.
"This rock isn't sound for this many of us - we're going to need to move. Quick," [Hannah] finishes, with the authority of someone who expects to be obeyed.
Signy rolls quickly to her feet before reaching hands down to Ossian and Random. "I wonder what happened to Pinobello," she muses out loud, before looking around at her new surroundings. As she takes note of her new surroundings (and the new faces), she unconsciously straightens up, gazing at them curiously.
Ossian looks around. "Let's ponder that later. I could Trump us out, but not to a very convenient place."
Corwin stands. "I can't stay long, Ben. You know why. I can send those who wish to go there to my son in Paris. My path leads back to Paris. Random, Hannah wishes to know if I have the authority to order Gerard's daughter to answer my questions about the Queen of Air and Darkness, and to forbid her from raising the shade of Cambina to answer questions about how she died."
Caine looks surprised by this. He stands and brushes off his coat. "If my recent experience with the dead is of any moment, the answer is 'nothing good comes from trafficking with the dead'. However, if she does, someone tell her not to trump the ghost."
Random sits up. "OK, so who's coming topside with me who wants to tell me the story of 'Uncle Caine and the Forbarers?'" He rolls to his feet and begins looking for a place to climb.
"I have determined that the rock will hold for the moment," say Benedict, softly. Those with pattern knowledge may wonder how he has, since this place seems, like Xanadu, not amenable to probability manipulation.
"I still need my story. Or a better one. From someone, somewhere," says Random.
Brita responds in her full voice to the card in her hand. "I am Fine, Mother. Uncle Pinabello Burned Silver as he Tried to Pass Through the Trump Sketch. Cousin Paige's Trump Sketch to King Random had been Activated, as I noted earlier, and the Rest of us are now with Kings Random and Corwin, Prince Garret, Uncle Benedict, and Cousin Hannah on a cliff outcropping. We Have, to all Appearances, Escaped the Trump Trap we Were in."
Ossian turns to Random. "I'll come with you. And I can tell the story."
"I'm coming as well," Garrett pipes up. That said, he approaches Signy and smiles. "I don't believe we've met. Prince Garrett. And you are?" The young man before her is short and wiry, his bare chest tanned and muscled. His dark unruly hair partially obscures one of his bright blue eyes. His trousers and boots are streaked with dirt, as if he had climbed up the cliff face below them to get here.
Signy gives a quickly appraising glance, before returning Garrett's smile with an uncertain but genuine smile of her own. Unkempt dark hair frames intelligent dark green eyes that seem almost lit from within . Her nondescript clothes appear rumpled, the cuffs of her shirt and pants still wet and drying, as if having just come from the beach. "I'm Signy. I'm...new." she finishes ruefully. "My brother Marius found me a little while ago, and I'm still kind of new to this."
Random looks up at Avalon's full moon and blows out an exasperated breath. Then he says, "OK, First things first, Corwin. Sure, sounds good. Second, everyone who's with me, start climbing, we're not more than 50 feet from the top. Third, Ossian, why don't you tell the class what Brita meant when she said 'Uncle Pinabello burned silver', because I assume that she didn't mean he melted down some old coinage."
Corwin looks at Benedict, who nods. Benedict begins to climb. Corwin turns to Hannah and gives her an inquiring look.
The others hear Brita say, "I will Stay. You may Come Here, although Rock Climbing may be Involved." With this she begins to slowly make her way towards to the wall where the others are climbing, maintaining the contact until her mother decides on a course of action.
"You're Signy?" Garrett says to the newcomer with surprise. He looks upward, examining the rock face for a good climbing path as he continues, "I met someone who was looking for you. Red Fox Claws. Sir Brennan was going to bring him to Amber, last I heard."
"You coming?" Garrett asks Signy as he starts to climb.
Signy stops dead in her tracks, a look of confusion flashing across her face. "You've seen Red Fox Claws?" she exclaims excitedly. "How is he? And the rest of the Band?" She scrambles after Garrett and starts to climb.
Hannah grins at Corwin and tries to slip around to him. "I'm with you. I can climb if we have to but I've only done it once, with a rope, and not in a skirt. Well, that's a lie, actually. In boarding school I did it in skirts all the time, and walls are harder than rocks, sometimes."
Benedict stops climbing for a second. He says "Bide", and then climbs faster, going over the top quickly.
Paige scrambles onto the rock face and begins climbing. Random follows immediately. "Somebody better start telling me the story pretty soon, or I'll get cranky." He seems to be a natural born climber.
Hannah and Corwin are talking and have not yet moved to climb.
Brita says to the Trump in her hand, "I am Safe, Mother. I will Contact you Soon and will Relay your Message to the King." She puts the card away and turns to the rock wall to begin her climb.
Garrett begins the ascent, purposely climbing near Signy so he can talk while he climbs. "I don't know about the rest of the band," he answers as he selects the next handhold. "He was alone when I saw him. Sounded like he'd been so for quite some time. Tough old coot, that one." Signy can detect the admiration in the young prince's voice. Apparently, Red Fox Claws had made a good first impression.
Signy swiftly catches up to Garrett on the climb, scaling the wall effortlessly. "Old? How.... How much time passed there?" she asks herself. She snaps back to the climb immediately. "Did he say what had happened with the siege of my father's Tower?"
Garrett climbs easily and confidently. If he's slower than the rest, it's because he's taking time to talk to Signy. "Hard to say how much time passed, but I got the feeling it was years. Decades probably. Red Fox Claws was quite old, but still in good shape. He didn't say an awful lot about the siege. Just that you went inside to parley with Weyland and disappeared. And that Weyland abandoned the tower some time after that."
Signy keeps pace with Garrett without difficulty. "Weyland's gone? Where? Why? And which Lord now occupies his Tower?"
A note of happiness creeps into her voice. "First Brother Tomat, and now Red Fox are here with me. This is almost more then I could ever hope for."
Paige and Ossian reach the top. Paige helps Ossian over the edge. Random is right behind them.
To the left of Signy and Garret, Caine is taking a more strenuous but quicker route.
Corwin and Hannah disappear, leaving behind a dazzling rainbow light for a second.
Garrett chuckles at Signy's happiness, then answers her questions. "No one seemed to know much about Weyland. He was just gone. The tower was deserted, as far as I could tell," he says as he nears the top of the cliff.
Signy shakes her head but still keeps pace easily. "That bothers me. For all that I did to try and drive him from the Tower, I had yet to attempt the Tower defenses directly. From the inside, it took that damned Black Road appearing to give me an opening to make my escape."
Putting on a sudden burst, she reaches the top quickly, before reaching down to Garrett to offer a hand over the top. "When do you think Sir Brennan will reach Amber?"
Garrett declines the offered hand good-naturedly and scrambles easily to the top. "Dunno," he answers with a shrug, cutting off any further response as his father speaks.
Signy rolls her eyes with an amused look on her face as Garrett rises to his feet, but declines further comment.
The contact solidifies immediately and Brita can feel her mother's alarm. "Brita! What happened to you? Are you all right?"
Brita responds in her full voice to her mother. "I am Fine, Mother. Uncle Pinabello Burned Silver as he Tried to Pass Through the Trump Sketch. Cousin Paige's Trump Sketch to King Random had been Activated, as I noted earlier, and the Rest of us are now with Kings Random and Corwin, Prince Garret, Uncle Benedict, and Cousin Hannah on a cliff outcropping. We Have, to all Appearances, Escaped the Trump Trap we Were in."
Fiona doesn't seem entirely satisfied with the situation, although that seems less like disappointment with Brita and more like disappointment with the universe. Her mind is ticking away on the questions Brita's report raises as she speaks. "Do you need me to come through? Or do you want to come here?"
"I will Stay. You may Come Here, although," and Brita glances over her shoulder, "Rock Climbing may be Involved."
"I shouldn't leave yet if you are safe." Fiona purses her lips and her dainty brow wrinkles in concern. "Contact me when your report is complete, and tell the King if he needs me to join him, I'll come to him then."
Brita does not roll her eyes. "I am Safe, Mother. I will Contact you Soon and will Relay your Message to the King." With that she breaks the connection and turns to the rock wall to begin her climb.
Last modified: 31 January 2009