Amber, year one, day 135 continued

Matters continue to worsen as this day goes on. I fear that if things continue as they have, Rygat may very well defeat us. I thought Dworkin's death was the worst that could happen, but I was wrong. Rygat has stolen the Jewel of Judgment. Which takes away one of our best weapons against her forces. And, in the process of stealing it, she did quite a bit of damage to Random's mind, leaving us without a leader, as well. I believe Random will recover eventually, but it will take time. And time is one thing we do not have in abundance.

I hope we do not see another renewal of the fight between Eric and Corwin for the throne. If I understand the rules here correctly, Driscoll should take his pater's place. But, if Eric disputes the matter, Driscoll would be hard pressed to stop him. And while Corwin claimed he no longer wanted the throne, I doubt he will allow Eric to sit on it, either. Why are we such a divisive family?

Ariadne insisted on leaving before she had fully recovered. I know she is a shapeshifter, which seems to allow her to heal faster than even most Amberites, but she did not look at all well. I tried to get her to stay in bed, but she grew spikes out of her body and began crawling towards the door. I was determined not to let her pass, but it would have been difficult to stop her without one of us sustaining injury, and neither of us was in very good shape to begin with. Fortunately for her (and probably me), Eric's entrance with Random interrupted our standoff and gave her the ideal distraction. I believe she escaped through one of the windows, but I was too busy looking at Random to really notice.

Examining Random gave me a lot more respect for Rygat's power. She tore through his mind like it was not even there! I hope he is able to recover on his own, because I would not even know where to begin trying to repair the damage. The mind is a fragile thing, and much easier to destroy than to heal.

Given recent events, I think I shall avoid taking Trump calls for the moment. For once I am thankful that not many people have a Trump of me. However, the lack of a Trump deck of my own is starting to become annoying. I shall have to see what I can do about obtaining one.

Heather did something rather strange today. She practically pushed Alex on Mebd, saying Mebd was feeling abandoned and that it was a good time for him to capitalize on her emotional state. And then she said something about a ring. I thought she disliked the attention Alex was paying to Mebd. Why is she pushing Alex on her now? This makes no sense at all.

Felix has gone off somewhere with Brand. This is odd, given Felix's usual fear of Brand. However, I did see them working together earlier to determine Gérard's location. Perhaps Brand has discovered a means of rescuing him. If they have not returned by nightfall, I will be more concerned.

Amber, year one, day 136 (Wednesday, December 8, 2987)

Early morning

We are finally finished. It took us most of the night to deal with all of Ahab's wounds, but we are done, and he will live. Rygat has gone too far this time! She apparently lured Ahab away by shapeshifting to look like Benedict and sending him on some sort of errand. You would think that having been fooled by her shapeshifting once before, he would have been on his guard, but Ahab practically worships Benedict, and would do almost anything he asked without question. How does she know him so well? And how are we to fight her when we cannot even trust our own senses to let us know who is friend or foe? There must be a way to tell when one is facing a shapeshifter. Perhaps Fiona knows.

Ahab is fortunate that I noticed his absence from dinner. Given the concern the rest of this family seems to display towards missing relatives, he would have bled to death before anyone else even thought to look for him. I have learned that Trump contact can rouse a person to consciousness, if the individual is not drugged, and the caller is persistent enough. I was not prepared for what I saw when Ahab answered. I expected to find him riding through Shadow, or eating, or resting, or anything but the image that formed in front of me. Rygat had driven spikes through his hands and feet, pinning him high on a stone wall. His body was covered from head to foot with small, deep scratches, as if tiny animals had been using his body to sharpen their claws. But no animal I know of can cut so deep, but leave such a narrow opening. Staked above him, with his own sword, was the head of his horse, Zero. If Rygat wanted to infuriate the family, she has succeeded.

Ahab's rescue was surprisingly easy. I insisted on coming along, even though I am still not recovered from my injury. I could not stand to sit calmly in Amber and wait while Ahab hung there dying. I do not understand why Rygat let him live. She obviously was not planning to keep him prisoner, for there were no guards around him when we arrived. No, she meant for us to find him, but to what end? Perhaps she hoped to enrage us so much that we would take some rash action against her. Certainly Eric seems completely incensed by her actions. But I would like to think that none of my family is stupid enough to try and face her by themselves. Well, maybe Ahab, but he is not in any condition to do so. Maybe she let him live because she did not wish to face his death curse.

Ironically enough, Fiona helped stitch Ahab's wounds. After Eric and I had been working for a while, she told Eric that he was doing things all wrong and took the sutures away from him. Eric did not even protest, he just stalked out of the room. I am not certain why Fiona chose to say that to Eric, when I am sure he was doing a better job than I. I will admit, I was afraid Fiona might use the opportunity to take some sort of revenge on Ahab, but happily she proved above that sort of thing.

To make the day's events complete, we have learned that Felix has been captured by Rygat, and is being held with Gérard and Flora. It seems that Rygat took on Brand's appearance and lured him away from the Castle. She is whittling our forces down, one person at a time. Soon, the only people left will be the injured and the dead.

Through all of this, there has been one piece of good news. Fiona does not think that the body Shard brought in is actually Dworkin's. I pray that she is right. If that is true, then perhaps even now he is plotting Rygat's downfall. Even if he truly is dead, Fiona indicated that she has a plan for dealing with Rygat. I hope I will be able to assist in it. It seems like all I have done since I was injured is either lie here in pain, or tend to those worse off than I, which is frustrating to no end. I want Rygat to suffer as much as Ahab and Random and Julian and Ariadne and Felix and Gérard and Flora and Corwin and Dworkin have all suffered due to her plotting. But, if that is not possible, I would settle for her quick death.

"Outrageous Fortune"
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Last modified on April 5, 1994 by Kris Fazzari.